26 Days

Chapter 28: 26. A Day

Since crossing over, unless he was attacking a barbarian tribe at night, Landen would wake up before dawn every day to carry out basic training. In Landen's memory, this was the daily morning routine of the original owner.

Every reserve knight in the territory would conduct morning exercises before the two suns reached their zenith. In the past, Landen's training included running for warm-ups, strength training, and sword and archery practice. In other parts of the human empire, training also included the circulation of battle qi.

However, the Magic Turbulence on the Gallop Plains was intense; gathering battle qi was likely to be dispersed by the turbulence. Therefore, the junior and reserve knights of Gallop Territory and Rothe Territory did not practice battle qi.

Landen's recent training had been conducted separately with Raul, away from the other knights, because Landen had to practice battle qi every day.

After running and completing five rounds of sword practice, Landen consumed a magic crystal. Absorbing the magic power within, he began to gather battle qi. He first performed two charges, then coated his blade with battle qi to execute a round of hacking, chopping, and parrying, before mounting his horse for a few minutes of equestrian training. A magic crystal was consumed in this way, and Landen's battle qi training ended punctually after ten minutes.

This battle qi training regimen was decided upon after discussions between Raul, Albert, and Landen. Now, every afternoon, Landen would take Neil, Fang, and others out hunting. The junior Magic Beasts captured in the water yielded one or two magic crystals every day. Added to the several camps recently taken, Landen's current reserve of magic crystals was nearly 50.

Thus, Landen now acquired one or two new magic crystals daily while consuming one old one for battle qi training.

According to the common view of imperial knights, a knight's level corresponds to their level of battle qi usage. For instance, the standard for a junior knight is the ability to use battle qi techniques, while the standard for an intermediate knight is the proficient use of them—or rather, an intermediate knight can release battle qi techniques more than five times in succession. This standard is correlative; that is, as long as a knight can release battle qi techniques five times in a row, they are an intermediate knight.

For a junior knight, even if they could suddenly obtain a large amount of battle qi, they would be unable to release techniques five times in succession without a certain level of skill and proficiency.

In terms of the correspondence between rank and battle qi usage, Landen could already be called an intermediate knight. What he lacked now was a stronger physique, more battle qi, and recognition from nobles above the rank of count. The former two could be supplemented by Magic Beast meat, while the latter would have to wait until he returned to the territory of the Dragon Kingdom to request investiture from Count Bristle-Wolf.

According to the regulations of the Sacred Supreme Council of the human empire, junior and intermediate knights can be recognized and invested by nobles of the rank of count or higher. Senior knights, Sky Knights, and Grand Knights can only be invested by duchies or kingdoms. Silver, Sky, and Gold Knights are certified by the Imperial Bureau of Appointments, and those above the rank of legend are certified by the Sacred Supreme Council.

Having finished his crystal-fueled training, Landen met Albert, who had not rested well all night. After talking with Landen last night, Albert had returned to his camp and spent the entire night checking books.

It was the Record of Legends, which contained the names, divine offices, and brief introductions of all the deities, demigods, and legends that humans had encountered since the establishment of the two human empires. Of course, the vast majority were either benevolent gods or neutral gods of the ancient beast-god type—gods whom the orcs worshipped but who held no particular malice toward humans.

This book was issued by the church to lords of the rank of marquis or higher, so that human nobles could identify cultist faiths with malicious intent toward humanity and prevent their territories from being targeted by evil gods.

However, Albert had scoured the Record of Legends and found no existence with views similar to Landen's. Albert could be certain that Landen's views were not those of an evil god or a demon, but they were not the views of any recorded legend either.

If one had to make a comparison, the closest were the views of several legends from the early commoner class of the Tower of Purity school, but those individuals' views were far more radical and confrontational than Landen's.

"Uncle Albert, you didn't rest well?" Landen was very concerned about the elders in the territory like Albert and Raul. "You didn't spend the whole night counting long-haired sheep, did you?"

People in this world did not have the habit of counting sheep when sleeping, so Albert did not understand Landen's lame joke. "Those long-haired sheep don't need me to count them. Landen, in my opinion, you have already reached the level of an intermediate knight; you should save more magic crystals."

"Don't worry, we have 50 magic crystals now, enough for me to use. When Neil comes back in a while, we will formulate the next step of the plan."

"Old Horse Leg, let me say this again: we are the patrol of the Gallop Tribe. We have 12 cavalrymen in total, and our tribe has another 50." At this moment, Neil was talking to the leader of a medium-sized tribe.

"Our leader said he is willing to trade long-haired sheep or pack animals for the imperial magic-users you have as slaves."

"If you trade, we are friends. If you need blacksmithing, salt, or grain in the future, you can come to us."

"If you don't trade, we are enemies. The dozen or so cavalrymen you have in your tribe right now cannot withstand a single attack from us!"

Neil now took his patrol out every morning to scout the surrounding rivers, seeing which rivers might have Magic Beasts and which riverbanks had new barbarian tribes.

The tribe before him was one Neil had discovered today. Judging by its scale, it was a medium-sized tribe with fewer than 20 cavalrymen. As the contact deepened, Neil recognized the tribe's leader, Old Horse Leg, an acquaintance from their past alliance meetings.

Old Horse Leg looked at Neil with a nervous expression. He knew what Neil said was true; he had seen several of the cavalrymen in Neil's patrol at the alliance meetings, and they came from different tribes.

The fact that these people could patrol together now meant that a massive tribe, with a size equivalent to the Grey Goose, had swallowed up these small and medium-sized tribes.

Old Horse Leg did not know if the Grey Goose Tribe could contend with the Gallop Tribe that Neil spoke of, but he was certain that he could not.

"Neil, the magic-user slaves in our tribe were all traded for Black-Scaled Horses back then. Are you giving too little by offering long-haired sheep or pack animals?"

"It's negotiable." Neil breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself that as long as they could haggle, he could directly trade for these few magic-users. More importantly, many of the cavalrymen before him were acquaintances from the alliance meetings, and Neil did not want to draw his blade against them.

"We can discuss how to trade, but we all know it's already winter. Even if I trade you foals, you won't be able to raise them."

"Whether we can raise them or not is not for you to worry about, Neil. Just tell me, will you trade or not? Five human slaves for five foals."

"This..." Neil didn't dare to answer. Black-Scaled Horses were the tribe's most important wealth, and he couldn't make that decision.

"Trade! Trade with them!" Landen saw Neil, who had returned from his patrol, at lunch. "Five foals for five magic-users, why wouldn't we trade? These five foals can't be ridden this year anyway, but trading for five people means they can mount horses and fight tomorrow. Such a cost-effective business, why wouldn't we do it!"

"Shouldn't we just attack them directly?" Raul asked.

"Exactly, if we attack, we don't have to give a single foal, and theirs will all be ours!"

"Our Gallop Tribe is the master of the entire plains. As long as he agrees to trade magic-user slaves with me, he is my friend. This is what we decided before; I cannot just go and rob people because the price isn't right."

Landen said very calmly, "You must remember, we are going to bring order and peace to the entire Gallop Plains in the future. What is order? It means everyone must follow the rules. I cannot break the rules I have set myself."

"Yes!" Everyone had not expected that Landen really wanted to master the entire plains. Now that Landen had brought it up, the others could only execute it.

Of course, what Landen spoke of was the moral justification. The real reason was that the gathering of a large number of herbivores would rapidly consume the pastures, and Landen's tribe now had to move their encampment frequently.

For Landen, what he hoped for most now was an increase in the number of magic-users in the left or right camps.

Attacking a medium-sized tribe only yielded a few human magic-users. Unless barbarian magic-users surrendered themselves, they were either killed or fled. Landen could only receive a large number of non-magic-users and livestock. These were certainly valuable, but for the current camp, they were just burdens that required splitting troops to protect.

Landen did not want to state it explicitly. Although for barbarian tribes, non-magic-users who were not needed were just burdens, Landen felt that he was a decent person from a highly civilized region and needed to have a higher bottom line.

Currently, Landen's entire territory had over 700 non-magic-users. Landen had high requirements for territory management and many ideas, so every three days he would call the territory's knight commander, Albert, all the stewards, representatives of the first and second groups of craftsmen, and teachers to hold a meeting. Landen called the meeting the Territorial Joint Conference. In the meeting, everyone reported on the things they were responsible for, then Landen brought up his own ideas, and Neil said where they could establish a new encampment.

If a steward or craftsman executing orders encountered problems, they could bring them up during the meeting, and Landen would provide solutions or ideas.

The joint conference would not last long, and Landen was always in a hurry to eat lunch after the meeting.

There was no joint conference today. Neil had encountered a new tribe during his morning patrol and returned late, so Landen chatted with Neil, Albert, and the others while they ate.

"Tomorrow morning, take five foals, call up 30 cavalrymen and 10 knights, and go ask him if he can trade immediately."

"Forty people going together? Won't that scare them to death?" Neil laughed.

"Exactly," the others chimed in, jeering.

"Taking people is to let them know that on these plains, the Gray Goose are no longer the strongest. But if we can trade, we should still trade. Avoid direct conflict if possible; they have over a dozen people, after all, and there's no need for us to suffer any casualties."

In the afternoon, Landen took Neil, Fang, and several knight apprentices out to hunt.

Landen was now consciously cultivating the new generation of magic-wielders like Fang and Neil, taking them hunting, sharing portions of Magic Beast meat with them, practicing combat techniques together, having Raul provide them with individual swordsmanship training, and finding experienced barbarians to teach them horsemanship.

While the older knights would reminisce about their former families, the young magic-wielders valued their current experiences more.

Neil led the group to a river five kilometers from the camp, where Mud-Flow Crocodiles inhabited the banks. These low-level lizard-type Magic Beasts were even more dangerous than the Water Arrow Fish in the river.

Mud-Flow Crocodiles lurked along the riverbank. These earth and water-type Magic Beasts could manipulate the surrounding silt to cover themselves, burying their bodies. Once a large creature passed nearby, the surrounding earth would wrap around the prey and deliver it into the crocodile's massive jaws.

Mud-Flow Crocodiles were one of the few stable sources of magic crystals on the Gallop Plains; Mud-Flow Crocodiles over four meters long almost always possessed a magic core containing a magic crystal.

Landen now had a very mature method for hunting Mud-Flow Crocodiles. Whether in the water or on the beach, they were difficult to deal with while near the riverbank.

However, once a Mud-Flow Crocodile moved more than 20 meters away from the bank, its range for controlling the surrounding soil would shrink significantly, only able to affect the soil within a one-meter radius.

Landen would first use reed baskets to catch Water Arrow Fish in the water. He had the non-magic-wielders weave many two-meter-long, narrow baskets out of reeds. The openings were less than half a meter in diameter, tapering toward the bottom, which featured inward-pointing barbs. He would place a few pieces of Magic Beast meat at the very bottom, then fix the baskets into the riverbed.

Water Arrow Fish that had become Magic Beasts were at least one meter long and found the scent of blood from Magic Beast meat irresistible. Once a Water Arrow Fish entered the depths of the basket, it could no longer turn around, and the barbs at the bottom would snag its body.

Of course, as low-level Magic Beasts, even the weakest Water Arrow Fish were not ordinary animals. Once a fish was spotted in the basket, it had to be pulled onto the shore as quickly as possible.

Water Arrow Fish rarely produced magic cores, let alone magic crystals. Fishing was done to provide bait for the Mud-Flow Crocodiles.

Of course, if they caught more than three, it would also provide a meal of fish soup for the knights in the camp.

They would tie two Water Arrow Fish to a spear and find a spot near a Mud-Flow Crocodile, pouring the bloody water left over from processing the fish onto the land about 15 meters away from the beast. The hungry Mud-Flow Crocodile would follow the scent of blood onto the shore.

Upon seeing the two tied-together Water Arrow Fish, the crocodile—which consumed energy faster on land and felt increased anxiety—would not hesitate to manipulate the surrounding soil to suck the fish and the spear directly into its massive maw, intending to return to the river after eating.

Two spears naturally could not kill a four-meter crocodile, but Landen would seize the moment the crocodile exerted its magic to unleash a Charge. Thanks to his crystal-fueled training, Landen could now easily execute one Charge.

Rushing to the crocodile's side, Landen would use a special spear—the tip was a rune dagger captured previously, capable of conducting Landen's battle aura—and thrust it directly into the back of the crocodile's brain.

The crocodile would instinctively roll upon being attacked, so Landen would snap the spearhead off, leave the dagger embedded in the crocodile's brain, and roll away.

A Mud-Flow Crocodile with its brain pierced would die before long. The crocodile's hide, meat, and bones were all extremely valuable, not to mention the magic crystal. Without magic crystals to replenish his energy, Landen's charges and thrusts were very taxing, and he greatly needed the crocodile meat as an afternoon supplement.