Second Life as a Soldier

Even after the meeting was over, I stayed behind, drawing and explaining the process to the Captain and Lieutenant Crispus.

A little later, a foreman and a cook were brought in, and I had to explain the whole process again, this time focusing more on the actual construction and preparation.

After answering their questions and improving the design a little, I was finally able to leave.

By this time, even Leif and Lela had left. Leif had been assigned to a different lieutenant, while Lela had gone out to bring Lady Flavia.

Once I made my way out of the meeting hall, I saw Senior Lieutenant Caeso standing dangerously close to House Petrae’s beast, right beside its maw. He was standing on a column made of earth and casually patting its head.

I looked at them in surprise, which probably irritated the beast.

Its eyes shifted toward me, and it began gathering mana.

Thankfully, Lieutenant Caeso shoved the beast’s head a little.

“He is a friend,” the lieutenant said.

The beast averted its eyes from me and pushed its head slightly away from the lieutenant, almost as if it were pouting.

Lieutenant Caeso chuckled and made his way down using stairs formed from the earthen column, his limp still visible as he descended.

Once he reached the ground, he joined me near the hall entrance.

“What, admiring Onyx?”

“U-umm, no. I was waiting for Lady Flavia,” I replied.

Then, looking at the beast, I asked, “Is Onyx its name?”

“Yeah. I gave him that name on the day Tellus became Tier-4 and bonded with him. How is it?”

I smiled. “It is good.”

Then I looked back at the beast.

“Are you healing him? How will he recover? I believe we hardly have any meat for him, and I cannot even fathom how much meat he would require.”

“No, my element and his element are not a match,” Caeso replied, shaking his head. “That is why we half-buried Onyx. It increases the supply of earth mana around him. It is the only way to properly heal him.”

Then he smirked.

“As for food, he does not eat meat. The only things this glutton likes are earth-element beast cores and earth-element mana crystals. So even without the siege, the town would not be able to provide him with food. Tellus carries at least six months of his provisions whenever we are on a mission.”

“Do you know what his species is called?” I asked.

A mischievous smile appeared on the lieutenant’s face.

“You will be surprised to hear it. His species is called Tyrant of Stone, Tyrannus Petrae.”

My eyes widened.

“Is the species named after House Petrae?”

The lieutenant shook his head.

“Nope. It is the other way around. The Tyrannus were the guardian beasts of House Petrae before they even became House Petrae. The first person to bond with a Tyrannus was some great-great-great-grandfather of the current count.”

He thought for a moment before continuing.

“From what I know, there are four or five generations between the first head and the current count. If I am not wrong, the Count’s grandfather and his bond both lost their lives in the war that led to the formation of Avalon.”

I nodded along, completely engrossed in the impromptu history lesson on House Petrae.

Lieutenant Caeso placed a hand on my shoulder and continued, “Not many commoners know this, but the rivalry between House Petrae and Clan Fjallvengr is older than Avalon.”

“Clan Fjallvengr?” I interrupted.

“In Frosthallow, they have clans. Major clans have multiple minor clans loyal to them. The south of Frosthallow is under the territory of Major Clan Fjallvengr. Consider them equivalent to a duchy in Avalon.”

He glanced toward Onyx.

“While House Petrae has the Tyrannus Petrae, extremely durable walking fortresses with the ability to manipulate earth, Clan Fjallvengr has mountain dragons, which they call Fjalldreki. They are flying fortresses. They also possess earth mana, but they cannot manipulate earth the way Tyrannus Petrae can.”

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Then he smirked.

“Count Petrae and Dragon’s Chosen Jorund Fjallvengr, the head of Clan Fjallvengr, have fought multiple times. Even they have a rivalry going between them. Well, it is less rivalry and more enmity, but it counts in my book.”

As Lieutenant Caeso saw the question forming on my face, he answered before I could ask.

“In Frosthallow, Tier-6s are called Dragon’s Chosen.”

Before our conversation could continue any further, Lady Flavia arrived with her guards.

Seeing her, the lieutenant patted my back.

“I should leave. By the way, good job with the grain,” he said as he walked forward.

Then, dipping his head to Lady Flavia, he said, “Lady Shortstuff.”

He walked right past them as Lady Flavia rolled her eyes.

“Lady Flavia,” I said, bowing my head slightly.

“Sergeant Edward,” she acknowledged.

Then she went straight to the issue.

“Can you tell me what arrays you know?”

“Yes. At Fort Darrow, there were three arrays I worked on: the Impact Dissipation Grid, the Earth-Stability Array, and the Aegis Array. But I worked on them as a Tier-1 Rune Apprentice. Later, once I became a Tier-2 Rune Adept, I learned almost all the theory behind them. I have also created a silent step rune using principles from the Aegis Array.”

Lady Flavia’s eyes lit up.

“That is good. We have almost the same Earth-Stability Array and Aegis Array here. We might be able to repair them. The control core and some of the major nodes were destroyed in the attack.”

“Umm... Lady Flavia, I can certainly look at the damage, but I do not know how to create cores. Actually, I was going to ask you or the other rune masters if you could teach me how.”

“Oh, you do not know how to create cores?” Lady Flavia asked. “I thought Lieutenant Cicero would have taught you.”

I frowned slightly at her words. Lieutenant Cicero was a healer through and through. He had even admitted that I had already surpassed him when it came to rune work.

His house might once have possessed extensive knowledge of core formation, but that was not a subject either of us had been comfortable discussing. After his reaction to my research and everything I had learned about his family, asking him to teach me from House Cicero’s knowledge had never even crossed my mind.

It seemed Lady Flavia knew more about House Cicero’s history than she did about the lieutenant himself.

Then, waving her hand dismissively, she continued, “No matter. From your file, I know that you can use non-elemental mana spells. You should be able to create small cores easily.”

Lady Flavia stepped forward, her guards following behind her.

“Come. I have a small lab set up. I can show you how to create an artificial core.”

I followed Lady Flavia without another word to the east wing.

The room where the Captain had held his meeting with me had been turned into the lab Lady Flavia was using. Most of the east wing had been destroyed, with only a few structures still standing. Each remaining structure was being used for official purposes, with lieutenants and soldiers constantly walking in and out.

Inside the room, there were stacks of notes and several shelves filled with different metal and stone blocks.

“I was trying to understand the protection array,” Lady Flavia said, pointing toward the notes. “But with you here, the work should move faster.”

She took a piece of metal from a small shelf.

“Sergeant, you see this? This is ordinary metal with some rune lines I was experimenting with earlier.”

She placed it in front of me.

“Forming an artificial core is almost the same as forming a natural core inside the body. The only major difference is that, outside the body, you need to establish mana anchors to fix the artificial core in place. Inside the body, the core attaches naturally, but here, we need to use rune lines for that.”

I nodded, committing every word to memory.

“I am sure you know what mana nodes are,” Lady Flavia said. “In simple terms, they are concentrations of mana that we usually create using mana liquid and mana crystals, whereas a mana core is pure mana with no other material involved. This mana can come from a high-purity mana crystal or a person with high elemental affinity.”

She glanced at me.

“Regrettably, you do not have high enough elemental affinity, so you will have to rely on high-purity mana crystals.”

She then pulled out a high-quality wind mana crystal.

“The type of elemental mana does matter for this experiment, but the Aegis Array uses a wind core, so this is the best place to start.”

She placed the crystal in front of me.

“Now, create a mana funnel that will pull wind mana out of the crystal. Since this is a high-quality mana crystal, you should see a very light greenish hue. That is what you need to concentrate on.”

I did as instructed, connecting my mana funnel to the elemental crystal. Slowly, a faint green hue began to seep out of it.

“Good. High-quality elemental mana can be drawn out of a mana crystal, but it will not easily react with other types of mana. So pull as much mana as you can, keep sending the wind mana forward, and gradually reduce the size of the funnel to concentrate it.”

She leaned closer.

“Now comes the tricky part.”

I focused harder.

“You will have to compress the mana so much that it almost starts looking like liquid, while still maintaining a thread-like shape. It should look almost like a strand of hair.”

As I followed her instructions, my concentration broke.

I looked at Lady Flavia, afraid of judgment, but she only nodded.

“That is good for a first try. Let’s try one more time.”

I nodded, took a deep breath, and concentrated once more.

And failed once more.

We kept trying a few more times. After seven attempts, I was finally able to form a light green liquid thread of mana.

“Great!” Lady Flavia said so loudly that I almost broke my concentration.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, then continued explaining. “This is the final step. While maintaining the same compression, you need to connect that liquid thread to the rune lines. As you do, the liquid mana will start solidifying slightly by drawing wind mana from the surroundings.”

She pointed toward the center of the metal piece, then placed another wind mana crystal beside a new metal plate.

“Start from the center, then connect the other rune lines as needed. This is the step where we increase the concentration of wind mana and allow the core to take shape.”

She paused for a moment before continuing.

“And while it might sound crude, once the liquid thread is connected and most of the wind mana has been extracted, a gel-like core will form in the center. To finish it, all you need to do is create a spin inside it and push it with your mana, forcing it to solidify.”

I tried following her instructions, but before I could connect the mana thread to all the rune lines, my concentration broke again.

Lady Flavia looked at me and smiled.

“We made great progress today. Let’s continue practicing tomorrow.”