After the most unexpected and surprising event I witnessed during a mission Ana and I had nothing to do but wait. During last week when we were scouring the forest and swamp my previous team was disbanded after the death of Fim and the indefinite unavailability of two other team members.
From the paperwork Ana was reading now that we weren't exploring a poisonous swamp, I found that Tania was sent to the training ground for battle mages specializing in fixed processions, it's the safest place for mages who don't have great close combat power or mobility. For the next few months, she will train in magical formations to be able to fight in harmony with various other mages in both defensive operations and full-scale battle.
Quinn was transferred to a unit that has the function of building forts, physical barriers and any other type of construction intended for defense or logistics. Even before the war breaks out, she will be very busy, there are many preparations that must be made before the war starts and as when it does start numerous black and gray core soldiers will be the main force during the initial stage of the war, the Kingdom building doesn't have much work to do.
But that makes Quinn probably the person with the least amount of chance of dying during the war that empties part of our group. The number of mages who actually specialize in buildings is small, even though most untalented earth mages are used as assistants during the construction or fortification of a location it takes a skilled mage to unify and integrate a building's defense, without it any fort or wall will be destroyed like a house of cards that has lost one of its cards.
The fate of the other team members was more common apart from Carmilla who was sent to another elite unit like ours, it looks like she won't be joining either of the armies or large-scale units for now. I wasn't too surprised by this since as a duelist she's better for an elite unit like ours than being more of a warrior in a stable, standard formation.
Nolan was transferred to a mounted unit called wind spear, from the name of the unit I believe they have the function to pierce army formation using a spear formation that his aura and wind element to accelerate to have more power during the charge.
This type of unit is a very risky place to be because no matter how many companions you have along with you to increase the power of your charge, there will always be those who are injured or even killed during a confrontation, this type of unit and many more times targets of enemy army mages.
A rain of fire or a massive wave of earth are great large-scale spells to use against cavalry during a charge, it's not like they can stop at my charge during combat to dodge these spells.
Abel and Luke were sent straight to one of the frontier forts, I hope not one of them will be put to fight on the front lines when the war starts, this place is a bloodbath no matter how strong you are compared to your enemy this will not improve your chances of surviving.
At the center of the conflict is an extremely chaotic place where luck decides whether you will survive the battle or die being crushed by your allies or impaled and slashed by the weapons of your enemies. Even though magic is not used much directly in the center of battle, archers can still fire their arrows which are not as affected by the mana vortex that will be created there.
But even after Ana finished checking the reports and correspondence that had accumulated over the past two weeks, there wasn't even an order as to what would happen to her or me. This didn't surprise me that much since we were on an extremely important mission that ended up being extended as long as it took to finish it.
"Do you think we're going to get any orders today or will it take longer, as the officers who receive Raven will be focused on finding out Dean's whereabouts or finding out if the secret base has already been looted?"
"I don't know, Ulric. We are in a very difficult situation and it doesn't matter if the motherfucker sold our mission to another faction of the royal army or the enemy kingdom."
"But if it went to an enemy kingdom, it would be worse. Is not?"
"Yes, when you use a generalized perspective, but for us know it doesn't matter so much. The three of us will be responsible for this failure, even if the officers are sympathetic to our situation, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the three of us are penalized in various ways for letting Dean get away. You will probably be the least affected since you are so young and the weakest, even if you had discovered Dean when he was on the run you would probably die before you could do anything to him."
"Is that supposed to reassure me? Or should it be a reminder that I am too weak to even be able to be a decent target for the wrath of superiors?"
"You shouldn't be sad about something like that, it's not like you're going to pursue a career in the kingdom's army. Your objective should be to survive this war and not to stand out so much with military merits, if you become very famous leaving the army will become a challenge for you."
"What will you do? I had plans to join Raven's team, and that will continue if she doesn't lose the right to lead a team in the next few days."
"Why are you joining her team? I understand you choosing a strong team and she is a very strong fighter even though I didn't see her fighting during the mission, but don't you think you will take too much risk on her team? People like her must be forced to take on dangerous missions, you always gave me the impression of being someone who prefers to avoid unnecessary risks like facing enemies much stronger than you are."
"You're right that I don't like to take chances, but you're wrong that I'll be safe on another team or role in the army. I'm a tracker and I doubt I'll be able to get into logistics like a rune crafter."
"When the war starts, I can die anywhere from having the misfortune of meeting a powerful warrior from the enemy realm or getting caught in the crossfire of mages. In Raven's team I will be the weakest member and I may even be considered a target for the enemies, but I will still have a level of protection from the rest of the team that I wouldn't have if I had it in another unit."
"Trackers are very important in war, but that doesn't mean I won't have a dangerous occupation. Especially when it combines the fact that I have the wind element and am good at being stealthy, being a messenger on the battlefield or being a scout is something I don't want to do during a war."
"You're right about that, but do you know what kind of unit she's going to lead?"
"Yes, but I don't think I should tell you. I hope you're not offended by this, but from what I've learned since joining the army, I shouldn't talk about that sort of thing."
"Now you're being too paranoid. That kind of information isn't that valuable and I already know Raven's face, which is much more valuable information to sell."
"Since you know what I'm going to do, I'd like to know what you're going to do now?"
"I'm supposed to lead a real unit, but for the last two weeks I don't know if I'll be able to do that. I just needed one more month without a problem before I could disband the team and apply for a leadership role on a real elite team."
"A team led and all members are green core warriors and mages, with a team of that level I would be able to do really difficult missions during the war and get enough merit to earn a title of nobility for me and my descendants."
"But now I'm not sure anymore, after Fim's death, and just for the record I don't blame you for hand having noticed that the magical beast was too strong to be our prisoner, no one could have realized how dangerous it was. And now with the shit we're going to go through because of that blonde idiot, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to lead a team anymore."
"Maybe I'm lucky and get put on a good team, I'm not that far from being able to advance to the orange core so maybe I should take a lost leave and try to advance over the next few months. I would prefer to wait another half year, but I feel my chances shouldn't be too bad for a breakthrough."
"Are you that close to advancing?"
"Yes, I have been at the end of the final stage of the green core for over a year now building up strength and improving my control to move forward. Normally only green core warriors know this, but as I have faith that you will be able to advance to the green core, I will tell you this secret in no time."
"Warriors like us who are focused on elemental energy may have a better chance than other warriors to advance to the orange core. The change in a warrior's elemental seed is huge when its core goes through this evolution, the stronger your understanding of its elements the stronger the energy created by the elemental seed evolution and this helps a lot during the advancement."
"Many warriors and mages die or have their cores destroyed because during the process of evolution their core doesn't have enough energy for the transformation. Even using outside help to fuel your core self-transformation, your elemental seed energy is still your best option to fuel change during your core evolution."
"Many warriors who do not focus on their elemental energy tend to try to absorb external elemental seeds before trying to advance, this is because after directly absorbing an elemental seed their core will be saturated with energy from the elemental seed that was not completely absorbed."
This is really very interesting.
"Thanks for the information, I had heard that switching from the green core to the orange one was more complicated than previous advances, but I didn't know it was so risky. But doesn't absorbing a natural elemental seed make your energy unstable for a while, especially for a warrior who no longer has as much control over his elemental energy? Does all this energy be in the way get in the way?"
"Of course, it gets in the way, but the chances of dying from lack of energy are still higher than losing control of your elemental energy while advancing and having your core injured or blown up. A lot of people die trying to make this advance, if it was easy the green core warriors wouldn't be the main fighting force during the latter part of the war, most kingdoms don't want to lose the orange core mages and warriors who don't have even one problem at its core."
"Even if the orange core fighter or mage was very lucky to have advanced without having even a kind of wound to his core, don't be a very talented person or the field he specializes in isn't that useful, the realms will protect they. With time and resources, they all have a huge chance to advance to the red core and be true elites of the kingdom, if they are from a wealthy family then advancement to the blue core is not that hard to achieve."
"After moving to orange core evolve your core to blue level and a matter of constant accumulation through absorbing natural resources and meditating in mana rich locations."
I really wanted to know more about how high-level warriors farm, but the door to the room was opened by a soldier carrying a black envelope.
"Captain Ana, I have an urgent message for you. Ala came from the capital."
It seems that the free time we have is over. Our break didn't even last a full day, I think it was six hours of rest.