The news of the inevitable war spread around like wildfire. Nobles, merchants, guilds and clans had already begun preparations.
Those at the bottom had begun to panic, fear slowly creeping into the hearts of commoners and weak adventurers, but they also began preparations by packing their luggage. In the event that they were attacked, they would abandon their shelter in a heartbeat.
While war meant disaster for the weak, the powerful knew it as something else, an opportunity.
With enough merits, becoming a noble, owning personal land, getting the rights to an exclusive resource stop or to exclusively own a monster region would not be a mere dream anymore.
So they were preparing arms, securing alliances and increasing their armies.
It was also at times of war that weapons and potions were forged the most.
Meaning, money was also coming in for both Blacksmiths and Alchemists.
*Swish*Swish*
Like any other day, Ezra was swinging his sword in the abandoned training ground while wearing heavy armor under the sun.
He didn't get to see Bard yesterday because Bard had gone to a meeting.
Ezra could easily guess that it was because of the news about war on the horizon.
In his past life, the mountain of mana crystals was only discovered when the snake decided to break out.
The outpost was destroyed and most of the inhabitants died.
It didn't stop there though, it also destroyed Whittown and massacred multiple villages.
Moreover, it caused the war that had already begun between Niton and Itrevezar at the time to take a drastic turn.
Ezra never really saw the snake, but those who did still boasted about it within the army even several years after the occurrence, telling tales of how it looked, how big it was and so on.
It was said to have killed two Avillian Masters who had been sent to claim its head.
The Empire then sent an elite party of its own, which eventually killed it, but not before it wiped out more than half the party that is.
But in their moment of glory, the Avillian king had killed them all, before proceeding to plunder the mountain. Well, at least that was what the rumors said.
The Empire had promptly brought their Grandmasters forward to lay waste to Avilla.
But then, the existence of mana stones was discovered.
And with its discovery, Solace, Quartez, Iris, and Rusel kingdoms promptly joined the war.
And if that wasn't enough, the discovery of a Mithril mine several years later prompted a house of great nobles to form an alliance with many others in secret, and then they declared a significant part of the eastern territory of Niton as the new Roosevelt Kingdom.
This in turn fractured Niton - which was already under tremendous pressure - from within.
And because of the ongoing war, Niton didn't have manpower to spare.
With such an example in place, others didn't hesitate to follow, and as a result, a significant part of the western territory did the same and declared themselves the Kingdom of Ribera.
This caused the army fighting at the border to unanimously retreat, allowing the external powers to encroach upon the territories close to it.
Such consecutive blows broke the Niton Empire into a husk of its former self, and Ezra was sure that the Empire would've ceased to exist if not for the accidental intervention of beings from another world. Beings very well known in Orion, but which shouldn't have arrived at the time they did. Beings that were a threat to all humans.
And because of the ongoing war, those beings brought about enormous damage to every power, especially Niton, which had already lost too many promising combatants at the time.
Ezra's grip clenched harder on the hilt of his sword.
Truly, he had been born into a very bloody and tragic era.
But no matter, he would see things through.
No matter what…
'I will have my revenge'
-Elsewhere-
With news spreading fast, the royal advisor sent the Emperor's order to the Evercroft and Varent guilds, two of the three S-rank guilds in Niton.
As S-rank guilds, it meant that the guild masters were at Grandmaster level, so they definitely had subordinates at Master-rank.
Which was why…
'Windless Peaks? Could this be the reason behind the upcoming war?'
Grenald's mind was whirring, while his horse never stopped moving.
Grenald had a short buff build, round head, no hair, and a long coiled orange beard. He was wearing purple armor covered with a black cloak and had a large ax strapped to his back.
As a bona fide Master-rank and an elder of the Varent guild, he had been tasked with this mission by the guild master himself, mainly because he was the one nearest to the location.
He was determined to do his best for his guild, especially since the guild master had mentioned a lot of alluring rewards.
'I can't fail! With those rewards, I can reach the peak of my current rank'
After reaching Master-rank, Grenald's growth had been stagnant for some time now.
Being ambitious as he was, he couldn't accept himself stagnating till he died.
Now, the opportunity to achieve more growth and increase his power has presented itself.
He was certainly not going to let it go.
At his horse's current speed, he would get there in six hours.
Only, he would soon find that things weren't as simple as they seemed, because he wasn't the only one.
With the elder of the Avillian Kingdom, Winston and his men from Whittown, Sir Cavarl, the Master-rank dispatched by Evercroft, the members of Nightshade and the few others tagging along, all heading in the same direction…
The outcome was bound to be epic.
Elsewhere, a man in ragged clothing moved through a village with a stick in hand.
His face was filthy and full of dirt, his teeth red with blood.
One of his hands was missing and he was limping, his movement couldn't be more awkward.
'Damn it!'
This was Ilyon.
Ilyon kept cursing within himself as he limped ever so slowly across a village.
While he didn't die, Motavu's punch did considerable damage to his body.
To start with, his internal organs were a mess, but after drinking health potions, it had started recovering.
But now, everything had gone to sh#t!
Healing potions worked by multiplying one's healing factor, the degree of multiplication depending on their purity.
But it consumed stamina and mana to work.
This, coupled with the fact that he was exhausted from dealing with the snake horde and then fighting Motavu, caused Ilyon to faint on the outskirts of the forest.
He could've been devoured by the beasts, but as fate would have it, a group of adventurers passed by and decided to take him along.
Only, it wasn't out of goodwill.
He had been robbed of everything he had, his armor, sword, and most importantly, Rowan's space ring.
The adventurer's didn't stop there though.
Hell no.
They knew he would bear a grudge, an enormous one.
So, to make sure that he would never have thoughts of revenge, they destroyed his body - which was just recovering – by breaking his legs, damaging his internals, and to finish the job, atrophying his meridians.
Now, he was wandering around like a man from the slums.
His meridians had been rendered useless for the most part, so his future as a Knight was also gone.
'DAMN IT!'
All his so-called plans had turned into smoke, and as the notion of it hit him, his frustration grew in leaps and bounds.
But that was it, he couldn't do anything but get frustrated.
Except for his swordsmanship, all else had been taken. He couldn't go back to his guild, as they would never accept him in current state. He was nothing more than baggage, an unneeded burden which the guild would never be willing to bear.
When even the swordsmanship he had couldn't be used with the same mastery as before, because of the damage done to his legs, it was clear as day that his life as an adventurer was done for.
His whole world had come crashing down, and there was nothing he could do to change that.
