Even though I was drained and exhausted from the hunting trip, getting to sleep that night was nearly impossible as I thought about everything that could happen the next day. The fact that something like this was even happening was incredibly exciting, this was one of the exciting life-setting events in a young protagonist's life that would help to mold their future.
If my second life was really going to be a generic entertainment for that crazy-eyed god, then this raiding of towns and villages was probably set up just for me to experience. I probably would not be able to do much more than watch even if I was brought along or sneaked out, but just getting to watch such a large scale battle would be well worth it.
I was honestly beginning to understand how the crazy-eyed god felt while being an outside spectator because of my own outside-looking-in perspective.
The urge to sneak out now and do some scouting of my own was strong, if I used all of my mana and the mana potions I had access to, I could get to Iramill in just a couple of hours. While it was still night, I could even get at least a third of the way to Arguston before morning. That was plenty of time to get a look at the raiding forces and then run like hell back home.
If I had the time to put together a few surprises to add to the traps already set in Iramill, I would already be on my way, but Mom had me on a lockdown and there simply was not enough time.
Considering my parents were some of the strongest people in town, I did not doubt they would be involved in whatever conflict took place. However, I doubted I would have enough warning ahead of time to sneak off. It was honestly upsetting, feeling like all of this was taking place just for me but knowing deep down I would not get to have any part of it.
After a couple of hours of pouting, I finally fell asleep without noticing and then was abruptly awoken what felt like as soon as I closed my eyes. Gryn was standing by my bed and lightly shaking my shoulder until I finally sat up and looked around.
Before I could even ask he was leading me out of bed, saying, "Mom and Dad just got back from the Guild chapter, the town's decided that we're placing all bets on defense and fortifying the town. We're going to go get my friends and work clearing the forestry for money. With our magic, easy money."
Even though the news had just come out that they were going to LET the town be attacked, my brother seemed relatively cheerful and excited. The prospect of money was something that excited not only him but his friends, giving them somewhat predictable personalities.
However, as I was probably going to be facing certain restrictions in my studies after this hunting trip and money to fund myself sounded like music to my ears.
I quickly dressed in a simple pair of cloth pants and a belted tunic before following my brother out of the house. The first place we were heading to was, once again, the east gates. Now, though, I learned that the reason behind this was that the inn their friends' parents own was in that area.
There we found Eman and Layla already joined by Carth and Hilda. It did not seem like anyone knew about the results of the recent meeting of town/city officials. I still was not clear on what kind of settlement this was, but I knew it was large enough to have multiple markets.
Gryn's friends were gathered together not only discussing the material gains from our trip at a large table but also complaining about waiting on Gryn to show up. This was mostly done by Hilda in a teasing manner, but just as we were walking off Carth let off a quip about Gryn already being loaded. It was not that bad in my ears, but Gryn's response was to smile wryly while clapping a hand down on his older friend's shoulders.
"I'm sorry I was late, old Carth, but dragging my little brother out of his silk sheets was even harder than getting out of my own," he says after scaring the life out of his friend who almost bolted upright if Gryn was not holding him in place. "Now, about those metafly carapaces, there's enough whole bodies, filaments legs, gossamer for each of us. We'll trade in our stock of arnid plates to Master Roth with our stardust collection, with that and our savings, we can use those filaments to make proper weapons and the metaflies for proper armor plating for augmenting proper leather armor.
"It's time we finally made ourselves legitimate and started Guild training," he finished with a broad smile. Then he straightened up and grew serious before saying, "But before that, we have more work to do. They're putting everything on defending and there's land clearing work around town that we can get into for more money. Chuck's gonna be with us, too."
It seemed like only then did everybody notice me standing off to the side of and behind where Gryn had sat at the table. I simply nodded in greeting before augmenting my vision with mana to pick up magical traces. Originally, their small grasp of magical ability just in starting fires gave these kids much stronger life signatures than the average person.
With their resent cleansing and the light resistance training of feeding their wisps, theirs had begun to develop pale clear auras of a rich magical energy. Within their bodies around which the aura permeated flowed a dark variety of shadowy colors along with glowing hot spots in their hearts. If I looked at myself with this vision I only saw a storm of energy like pure mana because of the ALL affinity, but other people sometimes had colored auras or bodies depending on their magic type.
The cleansing with their wisps basically enforced their development into body magic.
From their initial looks I could tell none of them expected to see me here and were suddenly at a loss for how to address or even look at me. It seemed like my childhood reputation coupled with everything they had witnessed during our trip made them… intimidated. Since it was obvious what line of work these kids wanted to grow into, while we were working was probably as good a time as any for me to talk to them about trading services.
Once Eman and Layla put away the goods from our hunting trip in a back closet somewhere, the others were all ready to head out. News was already starting to spread from a gathering of guards at the east gate that laborers were being signed on for different projects. Most of this was land clearing and sorry ur prolludigging, but a few groups of people with different experience or skill sets were given scouting and hunting tasks.
Even though Gryn and Carth tried to play us up as scouts and hunters with the guards we were applying to, but we were still given land clearing duty. The task was to not only cut down the young trees surrounding town but to also load their trunks and limbs into a cart to be used in various constructions. From the plans being discussed, the land would be cleared and a giant trench dug to be backed by a bulwark.
The cart we were given required both Gryn and Carth to pull and was large enough for the rest of us to sit in. Since we were young we were given a work zone close to the highway and gate to clear. Because we were working close to the highway and the town itself, all of the trees and other growth in our area was young saplings better used for making disposable spears than for fortifications.
Even though our work crew would be getting paid by the cart as well as the supplies inside, we were probably given a shit section since we're kids and our overall pay would suffer.
Hoping to make up for this, I took the little bit of extra time and energy necessary to cheaply imbue the wooden shafts and poles with what little holy and light elemental magic they could maintain. To help in their training and development, I also had Gryn, Carth, and Hilda use their the affinities from their wisps to imbue the wood we cut.
Even though it would be a long time before the brother and sister would have the overall mana pool necessary for enchanting, this imbuing was the perfect way to help them flex their magic muscle as well as work on their control of mana.
Since we were taking the extra time, though, our brush removal counterparts eventually caught up to us with several carts laden with cleared shrubbery and small tree limbs. Like us, most of them were younger kids but I could tell from the looks of their faces and clothes that some of them came from the neighboring settlements. There were two older kids who were tired and worn and even a little bruised in the face or arms.
They must have escaped from Arguston.
We were already mostly down with our section by this point, only another third of an acre or so, so I had Gryn inform the other group that they should rest. On my own I could fell and uproot trees within about twenty yards of me in about a minute using kinetic wind blades cast by though and exerting my will on the earth element. However, trimming and clearing and imbuing took a little longer while the rest of my group chopped and swept aside the underbrush and shrubbery.
Since there were now people waiting on us, I decides to do the rest of the acreage in steps. This was simply walking in a straight line felling young trees at ground level and then walking back and uprooting them. With a third pass, all of the down trees were gathered at our cart where I could take my time with the last few steps.
At this point the brush crew got back to work by cleaning up the area around the cart while my crew moved on down the line preceding them.
For the sake of time, I was the only one doing the magic work on this pile of young wood while Carth and Hilda and Gryn cleared the ground. Before long, the others returned to our cart and got ready to head back to the highway and then back to the east gate. There, as expected, our imbued wood drew some attention.
At first, the guard supervising work crews that we turned our cart in to did not even notice the magic in the wood, but another supervisor nearby quickly picked up on the mass of small mana signatures clumped together. This led to a brief questioning about why and how before they and a few others started debating how to price and use this material. As it turned out, most of the stuff crews like ours were gathering was wood to be used as stakes and flammable material for the trench being dug around the town.
However, we were the only people in our area using magic on our wood. Where this would normally have raised the value, it caused us problems because there simply was not enough magic wood to go around the entire town. We had enough poles and spears for a few hundred yards if spaced out well enough, but that was nothing compared to a circumference of several miles.
Of course, I put out the fact that with just a few mana potions apiece that my group could imbue enough of the gathered material to make a light ward around the town. An attack like what I used on the echo abomination was simply a direct use of offensive holy and light magic, but the elements themselves had several affects that made them so dangerous to undead.
Holy element itself was the bane of their existence, it could exorcise the dark energy making up or binding their spirits and thus undead 'feared' it. Light element was the opposite of their dark energy and could simply erase them from existence, which also instilled the undead version of fear in them. Because both elements had strong healing properties as well, they could be combined into a pseudo life energy which will give the undead a semblance of actual consciousness.
Making them capable of feeling actual pain and fear from being in the presence of either element. Combined and used with that intent, the presence of these elements acts like a ward to block or trap undead. Even if a single string of magic stakes were used to encircle the town, simply skeletons and zombies would be incapable of crossing. Only undead of a certain intelligence would be able to discern the actual stakes and thus reduce their fear and avoid damage from them.
The guards we skeptical that four kids with magic could handle such a work load, even with my ambient storm of energy I struggled to reduce to only a few yards around me. However, these guards were of rank and were always looking for the next stepping stone on their career paths. A few mana potions and a few extra coins were a pitiful price for the responsibility of a possible positive impact on the defense strategy with almost no chances of negative impact.
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