Three years later. City of Tarrister.
Sellinger at 48, became the officially recognized lord of the city and received the official title of Earl of the kingdom of Erins. In addition to this, he was given the territories of the High Forest.
Carter and Mackenzie, who were able to become True Knights, were given the titles of barons and were given the territory between the nearest city of Rafast and the city of Tarrister. Of course, these territories were essentially deserted, so for the time being they remained in the city of Tarrister to help its development. However, in the future, they could create their own settlements between the two cities.
All other Knight Apprentices were awarded their respective titles, all titles being hereditary. Considering that most of them had families of their own, this could not but please the fighters.
All this and more happened after their Lord Sam Tarrister said goodbye to them and left the settlement. Since Tarrister informed all his people that they could go their own way and rewarded them with gold, about half of the already small population left the city. Only most of the Knights who have followed the lord since childhood decided to stay.
However, soon King Richard himself came to visit the city with several high-ranking officials and nobles. With them were many Knights, acolytes, merchants of various kinds, slaves, materials, and much more. Entire caravans began to come to the settlement.
At first, Sellinger and the rest were perplexed about what was happening and thought that the very hour of reckoning that Sam mentioned had come, but everything turned out completely differently. They were literally overwhelmed with gifts of all stripes and offered comprehensive support in the development and construction of a full-fledged city.
Even Sellinger's wife returned home. Moreover, she began to pray to him that he would accept her as a servant and behaved extremely meekly. After learning the details of how she contacted the gang and tried to set them on the city, Sellinger had her executed. Such a greedy and vengeful bitch would only poison his son's mind.
It soon became clear that in this way the kingdom of Erins and in particular the Leicester family were trying to establish good relations with their Lord Tarrister. Naturally, all the inhabitants of Outland rejoiced. Although they did not live badly before, nevertheless they lived more like hard workers. Now they have a bright future ahead of them.
Usually Sellinger did not dare to stand out too much and make unnecessary noise, trying not to draw attention to the settlement. Because of this, it developed rather slowly, remaining in isolation. But now everything has changed. All the nobles volunteered a sea of resources and manpower, it seemed they competed to give more. Sellinger did not refuse, and the construction of the city began to advance by leaps and bounds. He tried to create a city similar in design to the one in Outland, the real city of Tarrister.
Sellinger even decided to clarify about the possibility of obtaining a meditation technique for children. Although this issue remained difficult and it is unlikely that much will be obtained, the king promised that he would try to come up with something.
Soon the Garrow Academy sent its representative and he invited all interested children to take a test for magical talent in the future. Of course, provided that there are at least a few dozen children, otherwise this is throwing magic crystals into the wind.
Such news delighted many Knights of Outland. Although most of them risked going here following the lord, but deep down, many hoped, if not to become Mages, then at least to give such a chance to their own descendants. In this world, strength was the basis for anyone who wanted to control their own destiny.
Although so far all this was only promises, but in the near future the first batch of children will be recruited to test talent.
Of course, he did not forget about pawnshops for collecting garbage. All of the Arun realm was well aware of Tarrister's predilection for such things. A large and beautifully decorated building was created in the center of the city. Sellinger called it the "Holy Garbage Temple". In addition to huge warehouses, it had a special department for the inhabitants of the city who brought various gifts to the temple, praying for the well-being of their lord.
Naturally, Sellinger promoted pawnshops for the poor little by little in the realm itself, hoping that this would please their lord upon his return. Although Sam told them that he might not return, however, given the circumstances, everyone was sure that he was all right.
Why else would they get so much attention?
The locals called this continent Orion, after the coalition of Mages who looked after it. On the one hand, mortals were afraid of the Mages and were forced to obey, but on the other hand, if it were not for the Mages, then it would have been much more difficult to survive on Orion.
At any moment, an attack by monsters from one of the anomalous zones could occur, if it were not for the Mages, it would be almost impossible to stop such attacks. Although the Mages themselves sometimes visited the anomalous zones in search of the remains of the ancients, it was not possible to completely clear these zones. The monsters could leave their habitual habitat at any moment and cause havoc in human cities.
The kingdom of Erinz was located on the western part of Orion. Further west was Garrow Academy. Also on this part of the continent was the Melrose Tower, Convict and the Harding Mage family.
The Hardings ruled the Tharos empire. It included several former kingdoms united into the current empire. There were ten True Magicians in their family, it was the largest family of True Magicians in this part of Orion.
They controlled most of the inhabited territories of the western part of Orion. The kingdom of Erinz was adjacent to this empire, occupying a smaller southern part. The Tharos Empire was accordingly located on the northern part of western Orion.
Even further north, not too far from the empire, there were several anomalous zones, one of them was called the Reserve. This zone was named so because, unlike most other anomalous zones that were the consequences of a particular catastrophe, this zone, on the contrary, seemed to be overflowing with life.
Magic crystals formed naturally throughout the Southern Continent. The only exception was Outland, where for some reason it was almost impossible to find them, no matter how many territories they had to dig.
Although there were mines with magic crystals on Orion and a large part of mortals were engaged in mining, the efficiency of their mining left much to be desired. Sometimes, in order to find one pebble, it was necessary to dig tens of meters of earth in one or another mine. For this reason, full-fledged mines were most often created in places with other minerals such as black stone, magical iron, gold, ordinary iron, and so on.
There were at least a few places in the Sanctuary where magic stones were found much more often than the norm. This anomalous zone was a tidbit for the Harding family and they sent entire armies there, accompanied by True Magicians, hoping to capture part of the anomalous zone for themselves. Of course, all their attempts ended in failure.
The Grape of Life was also found there for the first time. If you use grapes or wine based on it for a long enough time, you can increase the life expectancy of a person by 5-10 years. Although such vineyards had only been discovered a couple of times over the years, even second-rank Magicians sometimes took risks in trying to find it, hoping to buy themselves a little more time.
But this anomalous zone was practically a paradise for magical creatures of all stripes. Huge underground snakes lived there, which could suddenly jump out of the ground and immediately swallow a dozen people. Elephant-sized spider demons, their webs were so strong that they could easily cut the human body into many pieces. Vicious wyverns tens of meters in length, which possessed an incredible physique capable of withstanding even the attacks of True Mages. In addition to them, there were many different dangerous magical creatures that lived in whole flocks and made up a kind of ecosystem of the Reserve.
For this reason, all invasion attempts were doomed to failure. More often, Mages used one or another method of concealment and explored this area at their own peril and risk, trying to remain unnoticed.
On the other hand, magical beasts from the Reserve sometimes came out. Usually they were loners, but there were cases when whole crowds of animals tried to move because of internal competition. Others, having tasted the human beings, wanted more and voluntarily settled around the Taros empire.
Although the Hardings tried to control the situation, they had no way to fence off such a huge anomalous zone. They had to react only if one of the border cities was attacked by especially dangerous individuals.
As a last resort, they submitted a request for support to the Orion Mages coalition. Although they already paid Orion a certain part of the proceeds from all mines and other sources of income, but if they ask for help, then naturally they will have to pay a lot for this very help in a separate order.
Although the coalition was formed to protect the continent from encroachment as a whole, but in reality, few people except the Hardings cared about the soulless, and without good reason there are not many volunteers to intercede for them.
This ambitious family volunteered to be the first barrier to protect the Soulless, all for the potential resources that millions of Soulless could extract from the surrounding lands.
The main fighting unit became countless Knights, and the acolytes of which the Hardings had thousands under their command. Branches of the Mages and Knights Guilds of Hardings were in every city. The Acolytes carried out various missions in the field, and the Knights often acted as support. Researching anomalous zones, controlling mines, protecting the city, tracking down magical beasts that have left the anomalous zone, and so on.
All criminals and apostates among the acolytes and Knights were sent to Convict, where they often died, although they still had a chance to survive. The Mages Guild in every city was the law in the absence of a True Mage.
One of the border towns of Versailles.
Grand Knight Lenri spent time at home with his family. Suddenly, the pupil-shaped tattoo on his arm gave him a nasty itch. Without hesitation, he rushed for his armor.
- What happened? - the wife asked.
- I don't know yet, they just called me to the service. Everything will be alright, don't worry. - Lenry smiled.
Having equipped and kissed his wife goodbye, he saddled his horse and moved towards the Knights Guild. About a hundred Knights had already gathered here, ten of which, including Lenri, were Great Knights.
The local head of the Knights Guild waited a little longer and declared.
- There was an attack of magical beasts. Our main task is to ensure the escort and safety of acolytes. The city will be recaptured by mortals, but the beasts can interfere with the work of two mines on the outskirts. Your squad will split into two parts and go to the mines.
After his words, all the Knights led by him moved towards the Mages Guild. There they met with the acolytes and, breaking into detachments, went to the exit from the city.
There were five Great Knights and three acolytes in Lenri's troop, the rest were True Knights. They were on the road for several days with almost no breaks. Passing by several settlements, Lenri observed destroyed houses, a lot of blood and corpses. In some villages, the beasts continued to kill mortals in front of their eyes. However, no one was distracted by trying to help. For them, the main thing was the fulfillment of the task.
- Underground worm! Spread out! - yelled one of the acolytes suddenly.
All the riders, including Lenri, immediately followed the command, dispersing in different directions.
The ground fell inward within a radius of five meters and the three unlucky True Knights, along with the horses, became food for the worm, which in the next moment crawled out of the ground literally swallowing them. The ugly face of the worm was born, its teeth covered in blood from chewing on the delicious treat.
Luckily, the worm was rather small compared to what similar individuals could reach.
The three acolytes dispersed in advance in three different directions, as soon as the worm jumped out they began to act.
Everyone threw a disc of limitation on the ground in front of the monster, activating it with their mental energy. Three disks lit up brightly and the ground around them quickly began to turn into a block of ice. The worm felt pain and tried to burrow back into the ground, but failed. Part of his body at the base was frozen, as was the ground around it. Because of the pain, he began to squirm, which only increased his suffering, the body literally cracked and bled. The worm continued to kick, uttering piercing squeals.
The Acolytes and Knights began attacking the worm's head with their spells and secret techniques, soon the helpless little worm was completely disfigured and finally sank to the ground bleeding.
Lenri's blood ran cold at the sight of that hideous creature. The Knights were supposed to protect the acolytes, but not a single beast dared to approach the worm, the worm itself was not able to provide worthy resistance being stuck. Luck was on his side this time, and the other Knights fell victim to luring the worm out.
Worms rarely crawled out of the Reserve, usually mortals were used to lure them out, but apparently there were no reports of a worm this time. It was good that the acolytes in his squad were qualified enough, Lenri breathed a sigh of relief.
Haha, good catch. - said one of the acolytes.
Chitin, teeth and internal organs of the underground worm were of a certain value, so the acolytes were satisfied with the catch. Of course now their main mission is to get to the mine, but they took a couple of hours to process the corpse, extracting the most valuable.
Lenri climbed inside the worm and tried to cut his way through its heart.
- Be careful out there, that thing's heart is worth more than your life. - commented the acolyte.
Although the Great Knight in a direct confrontation was no weaker than many acolytes, but the subordination was such that the Knights acted more as servants for the Mages. In this case, Lenry had nothing to complain about, at least he didn't have to risk his life killing the thing, he had much worse experience.
Suddenly, two soulless ones appeared on the road, mother and daughter rode on a horse approaching the place of the fight with the worm. Apparently they fled from one of the settlements attacked by monsters.
- Help! We've been attacked by monsters! Almost everyone died! the woman cried in tears.
One of the acolytes said.
- Just kill them, there can't be another worm in the nearby territories.
Lenri turned and saw one of the Knights move as the woman ran too close. One stroke of the sword and both soulless were divided in half. Sighing, he continued his work.
