Time passes like the wind. In the blink of an eye, two years went by.

For the first six months, with Ray’s help, Drake steadily progressed and achieved the tempered body, and was halfway to becoming a True mage again.

After another six months, Drake finally became a True mage, and was infinitely close to becoming a middle stage tempered body.

At this point, Ray began lightly sparring with Drake to give him some battle experience. Ray started becoming more and more serious in their fights as time went on, always keeping Drake on his edge.

He could control many artifacts simultaneously during his battles, and as a tempered body martial artist, he was strong and quick in close combat too. He summoned thin iron needles and shurikens to attack on long-range, javelins and hammers to attack at mid-range, and used his own body to attack in close combat.

Ray was a steel body martial artist and a warrior mage, and he had to admit that Drake was much stronger than ordinary people at his realm. Still, he was able to easily manoeuvre through Drake’s projectiles and once he got close to him, he could easily defeat him in close combat.

Drake learnt a lot during all their fights, constantly improving his battle experience.

Over the next year, Drake got into a routine. Sparring in the morning, mana cultivation in the afternoon, and martial arts cultivation in the evening. Although mana cultivation was slow, the more condensed mana meant he could temper his body more effectively, making his martial arts cultivation faster. He soon reached the middle-stage tempered body, and by the end of the second year, was extremely close to the late-stage.

A large crowd gathered in the Jain village.

“Move, move! Let me see!” a young boy screamed as he made his way through. The public were welcoming the warriors who went out to subdue another demon group.

“Look that’s him!” someone pointed while shouting.

“Young master Elwin, we love you!” a woman screamed from the crowd and was joined by others.

The public had long since become aware of Elwin’s bravery in the expedition. Tales were told of how he bravely took the front lines time and time again. Some talked about how he fought against a commander class demon and escaped against all odds while protecting his sister.

Some talked about how he even fought and injured the commander class demon!

Obviously, these rumours were exaggerated but there was no doubt that that incident earned him a deep place in everyone’s hearts.

Over these two years, Elwin’s cultivation had also grown. He was at the middle stage steel body, and was very close to the late stage.

Additionally, over the last six months, demons had started slowly attacking again.

The waves were small and infrequent at first, but they quickly started becoming stronger, more numerous and frequent.

Elwin gladly took the front lines and demonstrated his might regularly during the demon invasions. Hence, he was rising to fame.

“Young master you are the best!”

“Young master will save us all!”

“As long as young master is here, we will be safe!”

In this way, many people were watching the parade while commenting and praising leisurely. These days, the hot topic of the town was none other than Elwin who had always been regarded as a rising star.

The person in question, Elwin was inwardly contemplating the situation. It was quickly becoming more and more dire. The front lines were being pushed back as the assault of the demons strengthened with time.

It wasn’t just their village of course, both Leon and the elves were also under attack. In fact, even Ray was summoned at times to help the elves, if necessary, though he still mostly stayed to guide Drake in his cultivation, which was his primary duty.

The three villages tried their best to hold on by themselves but were unable to do so.

Therefore, they decided to work together.

Elves had high quality ranged troops and magicians. They sent troops to the other two villages to help maintain their front lines. Leon and Jain both had expert swordsmen that were great at melee combat. These troops were exchanged to maintain a balance of the different types of fighting groups. This helped stabilised the situation somewhat.

But the demon attacks were unpredictable and overwhelming.

At this point, Hazezel came up with an idea. He decided that the villages should put together several small groups composed of elite individuals called response units that could quickly travel between villages. Whenever one village was under an unexpected attack and struggled to hold on, they would rush to reinforce them, and hold the demons at bay until larger reinforcements arrived. In this way, they could deal with unexpected ambushes, and use them to quickly reinforce the frontlines when necessary. Before some villages would be under a lot of pressure whilst others were more relaxed, but this imbalance was corrected through this cooperation, allowing the best use of all the troops.

Despite these efforts however, the villages were in a passive position. The demons didn’t have a base like the humans that they could attack and destroy. Or rather, they did have a base, but that was the entire Beast Woods.

How could they destroy the entire woods? They were extremely helpless.

And during this entire time, those dark grand mages and that commander class demon did not show up at all. This was both good news and bad news. Good because the longer they took to show up, the longer they could survive. But bad news because they were definitely not waiting out of good intentions. They had something else in mind and it could only be worse.

Thinking about all this, Elwin didn’t know what to do. He sighed helplessly as he returned to his manor. There he saw an unusual sight.

Drake was arguing with Holt.

“But Father please, I am not too young!” Drake retorted. However, Holt disagreed before glancing at Elwin.

“Ah Elwin, you came at a perfect time. Will you please tell this nine-year-old boy how stupid it is to want to go to the front lines?”

“What?” Elwin was stunned.

What was his brother thinking? He wanted to retort but he didn’t immediately do so.

More than the age, what mattered the most in this world was strength.

Drake was very intelligent despite his age so if he asked for this, he certainly couldn’t be doing it out of youthful hot-bloodedness. He must be confident in his abilities. But Elwin didn’t know what abilities he had.

It was possible that Drake misjudged his own abilities or underestimated the threat of the demons.

"Very well Drake. Let’s have a spar. If you can convince me of your skill, I will support you,” he said.

“Elwin you!” Holt was going to argue but Elwin’s gaze silenced him immediately.

Elwin had grown a lot recently, so he decided to trust his judgement. He would also watch this fight to see what gave Drake the confidence to want to go to the frontlines.

Drake was excited. He had grown a lot over these past two years and wanted to show everyone the results.

The two brothers faced each other in the back garden.

On the side stood Holt and Ray. From a window, Hazezel was also watching this interesting situation.

Fighting Elwin was no joke. He had reached the late-stage steel body over the past two years and was already one of the most well-known experts in the village, surpassing most adults.

But… Hazezel knew that if Drake was challenging him, he must have his reasons. He wanted to know what that was.

The two wielded real swords.

Elwin was primarily using the sword artifact that Drake had summoned for him. He was extremely happy with it.

As for Drake, he was wielding a sword that he personally summoned again. He tightly gripped the sword with both hands while vigilantly watching his brother. He could not underestimate him.

Holt picked up a piece of leaf and dropped it. The moment it hit the ground would mark the start of the fight.

Drake tensed up as he faced his brother, getting ready to meet his strike.

The leaf landed.

Elwin reacted instantly.

In the blink of an eye Elwin already closed the distance between them and was about to strike. He went straight for Drake’s neck, ruthlessly trying to teach Drake a lesson. Unexpectedly, Drake blocked the attack.

Cling! The sound echoed across the garden. Elwin was surprised but he reacted immediately, attacking once again. But Drake dodged this time, trying to open some space.

But how could Elwin allow him to do that? He chased relentlessly. Drake blocked and dodged.

“Is this all you have Drake?” Elwin taunted.

Drake didn’t respond, simply dodging and blocking passively. Holt frowned.

‘An opening!’ Elwin thought and immediately seized it, stabbing forwards towards his stomach. Drake smiled.

He didn’t block or dodge but deflected the blow, pushing Elwin sideways.

‘Not good!’ Elwin’s battle instincts were sharp, and a bad feeling rose in his heart, and he instantly retreated.

However, a blinding white light appeared out of nowhere.

Elwin screamed as he closed his eyes in pain. Just before that he saw a hammer appear out of nowhere and bang against his chest. He had no time to react and was thrown away.

Everyone gasped in surprise. They did not expect Drake to actually get a hit in.

Elwin quickly recovered and stood up, but he was shocked once more. His brother had a shield floating around him, two hammers a bit further away on either side, and a dozen star shaped metallic objects floating all around.

What the hell was this? He had never encountered such a fighting style.

Could all mages summon and control so many artifacts?

Ray laughed in his heart. Meet your freakish brother!

“Not bad brother, but I want to see if you can control so many artifacts!”

Elwin was quick. So long as he was faster than Drake, it didn’t matter how many artifacts he summoned, he could just dodge them all.

So, he rushed towards Drake, however he was immediately assaulted in all directions by the shurikens. He had to twist and turn, and often used his sword to deflect. But if he paused for even a moment too long, one of the hammers would come crushing down on him.

Elwin was on edge, constantly dodging attacks by over a dozen artifacts. But he was fast, so he quickly made progress and arrived close to Drake.

Elwin saw an opening in his defence and rushed through in a second, bringing his sword sideways across Drake’s neck.

Cling! The shield reacted and blocked Elwin’s attack. Drake took the opportunity to slash at Elwin. Elwin jumped back but realised his mistake too late. The two hammers came crashing down on his chest once more and he was sent flying back.

Everyone gasped as they saw Elwin get pushed back again.

When did Drake become so strong?

This was why mages who could summon many artifacts were dangerous. They could use so many different fighting styles at once, defence, offence, short range, long range, piercing attacks, slashing, bludgeoning attacks – there would be no end, no weaknesses.

Even if a mage could summon many artifacts, it would be difficult as it would require a lot of mana. Naturally, Drake’s True mage cultivation and mana strengthening technique helped him with this issue. Moreover, with his practice and perfect understanding of his summons, he could make the summoning extremely efficient and use much less mana too.

Hence the reason why Ray recommended the mana strengthening technique to Drake. Even if another mage increased their mana capacity, they would only be able to summon a few more artifacts or spirits and maintain them longer. However, Drake could make full use of his mana in a way that most mages couldn’t.

Elwin got up slowly. Drake smiled while Elwin frowned. It seems he has developed some ability.

“Good, brother! I will take this fight a little more seriously now,” he said.

The next instant Elwin disappeared on the spot, reappearing right next to him.

‘Careful!’ Ray thought in his head.

He did not expect Elwin to be so quick. But Elwin had moved very fast and this time, he didn’t physically attack his brother again but instead slashed at his arm. If the strike landed, his arm would be cleaved right off.

Unexpectedly, Elwin suddenly changed his trajectory and instead blocked an attack coming from his left. A dagger had appeared out of thin air and was headed for his throat. If Elwin had been careless, he would have been killed before he could attack Drake.

Of course, Drake would stop his attack just before the kill, but it would still be his loss.

But just as Elwin blocked that attack Drake smiled as he punched Elwin’s stomach viciously. This was not the punch of a nine-year-old. He felt like he had just been hit by the hammer again as Elwin was sent flying back.

Drake cultivated martial arts too, so his strength was no joke. It also increased his reflexes, allowing him to barely observe his brother’s insanely fast movements. Even if Drake couldn’t move his whole body in time, summoning a small dagger was no issue.

As Elwin was sent flying, Drake didn’t want to miss this chance. He unleashed the full capacity of his body and charged forward like a bull, wanting to seal victory.

However, Elwin’s expression changed at this moment.

‘So you have already grown this much brother’, he thought to himself.

He sighed but at the next moment, he disappeared again.

‘Not good!’ Drake thought. Elwin was even faster now and before he could react, he appeared behind him and a sword was pointed to his neck.

“You lose brother,” Elwin declared.

Elwin’s martial arts technique specialised in speed. Although he was physically weaker than others at his cultivation realm, his true speed would be much greater.

Drake’s heart hit rock bottom. He knew that he wouldn’t actually be able to beat Elwin but how could there be such a big difference between them? The moment Elwin used his true strength, Drake was already defeated.

“However,” Elwin spoke. “You have enough skill to survive in the front lines.”

Saying this he turned to Holt. Holt had witnessed the battle speechlessly. Drake displayed a keen battle sense, excellent battle tactics, and great strength. He couldn’t help but be impressed at his growth.

“Indeed,” he replied. “However, for the time being you must stick with Elwin. You are still inexperienced and must listen to all of your brother’s commands and stick by his side so that he can protect you.”

“Of course!” Drake exclaimed. He was very excited that he could finally join the battle and make some contributions.

Holt turned to Ray and cupped his fists toward him, “Master Ray, I am incredibly grateful to you for instructing my boy. He has only grown this much thanks to you. I will never forget it for as long as I have breath left in my body.”

Ray blushed at suddenly being put on the spotlight, but he waved nonchalantly, “It is the mission I have been assigned. I am his master, so it is only natural that I instruct him, there is no need for thanks.”

Saying this he started walking away, losing all interest.

Hazezel was watching from the window, but his expression was complex.

‘Brother… you are really growing too fast.’

Thinking this, he turned back to deal with the matters of the village. With Elwin often taking the front lines, he was left to deal with the administrative and political issues. This was his strength anyway. He had very little battle strength, even less than Drake now.

He also wanted to cultivate, but he hadn’t formed a mana core and didn’t find any suitable martial arts cultivation technique. He had tried many cultivation techniques before but he suffered horrible backlashes every time.

This was natural. Not all techniques were suitable for everyone, it wasn’t easy to find a suitable technique.

Due to Ray’s experience, he picked out suitable mana cultivation technique for Drake that would minimise his backlash and maximise his growth. Holt also picked the most suitable martial cultivation art for Drake. However, despite Hazezel trying every single martial arts technique in store, he failed miserably each time. He could only curse his bad luck.