And just like that, three weeks passed.
These three weeks for the whole youths in the camp had been completely routine, with a few deviations for some.
Each of the unit leaders followed Atticus' instructions to the last word, always waking up and gathering their respective unit members and starting their training routine.
And as expected, each of the youths struggled to keep up with the demanding training.
Many of them, in their entire lives, had never trained that hard before. Although some had trained and strived to get stronger despite their lack of talent, this training was truly hellish.
Just like the 10 year old Ravenstein youths when they first entered the Raven camp, it was the first time they had each experienced the mana block feature. None of them had ever felt so weak before.
And given the fact that they had to run multiple times around the 5km expanse, it was truly not a good first experience for each of them.
But there were two things that kept each of them going despite the enormous strain the training was having on them.
The first had been Atticus' words.
His words had resonated within each of them deeply, and none of them wanted to be the one to give up.
It wasn't even about the fear each of them had of him; it was the determination not to stay weak.
No one loved being weak.
The second reason was because, for each unit, their leaders, the Ravenstein youths, had all been in the forefront of the group every single time they were running around the expanse.
The most baffling thing to them was that they were also using the mana block feature, and not even once did any of them show any signs of exhaustion.
It was another wake up call for many of them. They had initially thought that it was because of the tiered family resources and their talents that they had all been this strong.
But watching each of them now, it was clear that they had worked hard, really hard to get where they were now.
After running around the expanse, after a few hours' break, they all moved to the training grounds and started the second phase of the training.
As expected, for the heavy armored, they had all struggled to even move a few meters when donned in their gear.
It was far too heavy!
But the reason why they had chosen to do this training inside the training grounds started showing itself after a while. Because of the ambient mana in the air, they all improved and got used to the training faster.
For the dealers, they had all donned lighter gear and started learning how to properly wield weapons.
Each of the unit leaders, of course, had their way of teaching, but they were all still able to accurately teach their members.
Most, if not practically all of them, chose to learn how to wield the spear.
Although many of them were already proficient in wielding other weapons, they had all still decided to use the spear as their main weapon. It was simply the obvious choice.
Given the fact that they would all fight as a group, and they would basically have a tank protecting them against attacks at the front, the spear was just the most effective weapon in that situation.
With it, they would be able to attack from behind the armored with the longer reach of their spears.
Meanwhile, the group under Eric and Aria had all received different training.
Aria had trained each of them on how to improve their archery skills while Eric had trained his small group on how to be better scouts by making use of the forest.
But despite all this events, they had never once let their guards down.
They were all still keeping watch over the forest, and during this three weeks, the horde of beasts never once showed their ugly faces again.
The only time there was a slight deviation to their routine was after two weeks, when the Ravenstein youths had each felt that the youths had at least gotten a little stronger. They decided to start hunting beasts in the forest.
The Ravenstein youths had of course asked for permission from Atticus, who had been initially skeptical about the idea.
But after a lot of thinking, he eventually agreed for them to go. It wasn't without being completely cautious though.
They were all going to hunt periodically, with at least three Ravenstein youths accompanying each unit anytime they were going to hunt.
Like this, each units were all able to gain experience and finalize their battle style.
The three non combatant groups that Atticus had formed were also making significant progress, especially the blacksmith and medical group.
It turned out that Zara's family was a family of blacksmiths, which would explain the firm muscles Atticus had seen earlier.
She was already well versed in blacksmithing and hadn't had any issues extracting and utilizing the information she got from the book from the book.
Although Zara had helped her father in his work shop, she hadn't learned the trade officially, so she was still lacking a lot of information, information she was able to extract and understand from the book Atticus had purchased and given to them.
After a few days, Lucas had asked Nate to make an earthen forge in the camp. It was easy as there was a detailed outline on how to make one in the book.
Plus, with the equipment Atticus had bought, this was where every repair and even modification were made.
The medical group also made significant progress with their work. Theirs was a little more easy and straightforward.
During the past three weeks, this was the life of everyone in camp except Atticus, who had been constantly engraving runes upon runes within the confines of his room.
And today, Atticus could feel it; he was finally going to have a breakthrough!
