Chapter 28: 26. A Day
Ever since crossing into this world, Lanten had woken before dawn every day, except when they launched night raids on Barbarian tribes. He would then do some basic exercises. In his memories, this had been the original owner's daily morning routine.
Every Reserve Knight in the territory did morning exercises before the Two Suns reached their zenith. Lanten's training had once included a warm-up run, strength training, swordsmanship, and archery. In other parts of the Human Empire, training also included practicing Battle Qi.
But Magic Turbulence was strong on the Gallop Plains, and any gathered Battle Qi could easily be scattered by it. So the Junior Knights and Reserve Knights of Gallop Territory and Rothe Territory didn't practice Battle Qi.
Recently, Lanten had trained alone with Raul, separate from the other knights, because he had to practice Battle Qi every day.
After his run and five rounds of sword practice, Lanten used up a Magic Crystal and absorbed its mana. He began gathering Battle Qi, performed two charges, then channeled Battle Qi into his blade for a round of slashes, chops, and blocks. He then mounted up for a few minutes of riding practice. By then, one Magic Crystal had been used up, and after ten minutes, Lanten's Battle Qi training ended right on schedule.
Raul, Albert, and Lanten had settled on this training routine together. Every afternoon, Lanten now took Neil, Fang, and the others out hunting. The Junior Devil Beasts they caught in the water yielded one or two Magic Crystals a day. Combined with the several camps they'd recently taken, Lanten now had nearly fifty Magic Crystals in reserve.
So Lanten acquired one or two new Magic Crystals each day and used up one old one to train his Battle Qi.
By the usual standards of the Empire's knights, a knight's rank corresponded to their mastery of Battle Qi. For instance, the standard for a Junior Knight was being able to use Battle Qi techniques, while an Intermediate Knight had to use them skillfully—or, in other words, be able to release more than five Battle Qi techniques in succession. The standards aligned: once a knight could release five Battle Qi techniques in a row, he was an Intermediate Knight.
Even if a Junior Knight suddenly acquired a large amount of Battle Qi, he still couldn't release five techniques in succession without a certain level of skill and practice.
Judging by the correspondence between rank and Battle Qi use, Lanten could already be called an Intermediate Knight. What he lacked now was a stronger body, more Battle Qi, and recognition from a noble of Count rank or higher. He could make up for the first two with Magic Beast Meat. For the last, he'd have to wait until they returned to the Dragon Kingdom and ask Count Bristle-Wolf to knight him.
According to the regulations of the Human Empire's Supreme Council of the Divine, Junior and Intermediate Knights could be recognized and knighted by nobles of Count rank or higher. Senior Knights, Sky Knights, and Great Knights could only be knighted by a duchy or kingdom. Silver, Sky, and Golden Knights were certified by the Imperial Personnel Department, while anyone above Legend rank was certified by the Supreme Council of the Divine.
After finishing his Krypton Crystal training, Lanten found Albert, who hadn't slept well all night. After talking with Lanten the night before, Albert had returned to his camp and spent the whole night poring over books.
The book was called Legends. It recorded the names, divine domains, and brief descriptions of all the gods, Demigods, and Legends that humans had encountered since the founding of the Human Empire. Most were benevolent gods or neutral gods like the ancient Beast Gods. Though the Beastmen worshipped them, they held no particular malice toward humans.
The Church issued this book to lords of Marquis rank and higher so that human nobles could identify cults hostile to humanity and keep their territories from attracting the attention of evil gods.
But even after searching all of Legends, Albert hadn't found anyone who shared Lanten's views. He was certain Lanten's ideas didn't come from an evil god or demon, but they didn't match the views of any recorded Legend, either.
The closest parallel came from a few Legends who'd risen from commoner backgrounds in the Tower of Purity school of thought. But their views were far more radical and confrontational than Lanten's.
"Uncle Albert, you didn't get much sleep?" Lanten cared about the old hands in his territory, like Albert and Raul. "Don't tell me you spent all night counting Long-Haired Sheep?"
People in this world didn't count sheep to fall asleep, so Albert didn't understand Lanten's terrible joke. "I don't need to count those few Long-Haired Sheep. Lanten, I'd say you've already reached the level of an Intermediate Knight. You should save up more Magic Crystals."
"Don't worry. We've got fifty Magic Crystals now, enough for me. Once Neil gets back, we'll make our next plan."
"Old Horse-Leg, I'll say it again. We're the Gallop Tribe's Patrol Squad. We have twelve cavalrymen, and our tribe has fifty more," Neil was saying to the leader of a medium-sized tribe.
"Our chief said he's willing to trade Long-Haired Sheep or pack animals for the Empire's Mana-Wielder slaves you have.
"If you trade, we're friends. If you ever need ironwork, salt, or grain, you can come to us.
"If you don't, we're enemies. The ten or so cavalrymen in your tribe can't withstand a single attack from us!"
Neil now took his patrol squad out every morning. They scouted the surrounding rivers to see which might have Devil Beasts and which riverbanks had recently gained Barbarian tribes.
The tribe in front of him was the one Neil had discovered that day. Judging by its size, it was a medium-sized tribe with fewer than twenty cavalrymen. As he'd gotten closer, Neil had recognized its leader, Old Horse-Leg, an acquaintance from their old alliance.
Old Horse-Leg watched Neil anxiously. He knew Neil was telling the truth. He'd seen some of the cavalrymen in Neil's patrol squad at the alliance gathering, and they came from different tribes.
Now they were patrolling together, which meant a massive tribe, comparable in size to the Grey Goose Tribe, had swallowed up all those small and medium-sized tribes.
Old Horse-Leg didn't know whether the Grey Goose Tribe could stand against the Gallop Tribe Neil had mentioned, but he knew his own tribe couldn't.
"Neil, the Mana-Wielder slaves in our tribe were traded for Black-Scaled Horses back then. Aren't you offering too little with Long-Haired Sheep or pack animals?"
"We can negotiate." Neil breathed a sigh of relief. As long as we can bargain, we can trade for these Mana-Wielders outright. More importantly, many of the cavalrymen here were familiar faces from the alliance gathering. Neil didn't want to draw his sword against them, either.
"We can discuss what to trade, but we both know it's winter now. Even if I traded you foals, you couldn't keep them alive."
"Whether we can keep them alive is none of your concern, Neil. Just tell me if you'll trade. Five Human slaves for five foals."
"Uh..." Neil didn't dare answer. Black-Scaled Horses were the tribe's most important asset, and he couldn't make that decision himself.
"Trade! Make the deal!" Lanten said when Neil returned from patrol at lunchtime. "Five foals for five Mana-Wielders. Why wouldn't we trade? Those five foals can't be ridden this year, but we could have five people ready to fight on horseback tomorrow. Why pass up such a good deal?"
"Why don't we just attack them?" Raul asked.
"Exactly! We could attack and take everything, without giving them a single foal!"
"We're the masters of the entire Gallop Plains. As long as he agrees to trade Mana-Wielder slaves with me, we're friends. We've already decided that. I can't just rob them because I don't like the price."
Lanten spoke calmly. "Remember, in the future, we're going to bring order and peace to the whole Gallop Plains. What's order? It means everyone has to follow the rules. I made those rules, so I can't break them myself."
"Yes!" No one had expected Lanten to truly want to rule the entire plains. Now that he'd said it, the others could only carry out his wishes.
Of course, Lanten's words were the noble justification. The real reason was that a large gathering of herbivores quickly consumed the grassland, forcing his tribe to move camp frequently.
More than anything, Lanten wanted to increase the number of Mana-Wielders in the Left Camp or Right Camp.
Attacking a medium-sized tribe would only get them a few Human Mana-Wielders. Unless Barbarian Mana-Wielders surrendered, they either had to be killed or would escape. Lanten could only take in large numbers of Mana-Less people and livestock. Those were valuable, of course, but for the camps as they were now, they were a burden that required troops to guard them.
Lanten didn't want to say it outright. Though Mana-Less people who were of no use to a Barbarian tribe were just a burden, Lanten considered himself a decent man from a more civilized region and felt he needed to hold himself to a higher standard.
There were now more than seven hundred Mana-Less people across Lanten's territory. He had high standards for its management and plenty of ideas, so every three days he called a meeting with the territory's Knight Captain, Albert, all the Butlers, representatives from the first and second groups of craftsmen, and the teachers. Lanten called it the Territory Joint Conference. Everyone reported on the matters they were responsible for, then Lanten shared his ideas, and Neil said where they could set up a new camp.
If a Butler or craftsman ran into a problem while carrying out an order, they could raise it at the meeting. Lanten would then offer a solution or suggest a way forward.
The joint conference never lasted long. After it ended, Lanten hurried off to lunch.
There was no meeting that day. Neil had encountered a new tribe during his morning patrol and returned late, so Lanten chatted with him, Albert, and the others over lunch.
"Tomorrow morning, take five foals and bring thirty cavalrymen and ten knights. Ask whether he'll trade right away."
"Forty people? That'll scare them to death," Neil said with a laugh.
"Exactly!" The others chimed in.
"I'm bringing them so he knows the Grey Goose Tribe isn't the strongest on the plains anymore. But if we can make the trade, we should. Avoid violence if possible. They've got a dozen or so people, after all. There's no need for us to take casualties."
That afternoon, Lanten took Neil, Fang, and several Knight Apprentices out hunting again.
Lanten was now deliberately grooming the next generation of Mana-Wielders, including Fang and Neil. He took them hunting, shared some of the Magic Beast Meat with them, and practiced combat techniques with them. He had Raul give them individual swordsmanship training and found experienced Barbarians to teach them how to ride.
Older knights might miss the families they'd left behind, while young Mana-Wielders cared more about what they were experiencing now.
Neil led them to a river about five kilometers from camp. Mud-Flow Crocodiles were on the banks. These low-level lizard-like Devil Beasts were more dangerous than the Water Arrow Fish in the river.
Mud-Flow Crocodiles lurked at the water's edge. These Earth School and Water School Devil Beasts could control the nearby mud to cover themselves and bury themselves in it. If a large creature passed nearby, the surrounding earth could carry the prey straight into their enormous jaws.
Mud-Flow Crocodiles were one of the few reliable sources of Magic Crystals on the Gallop Plains. Crocodiles over four meters long almost always had a Magic Crystal in their Magic Core.
By now, Lanten had developed a reliable method for hunting Mud-Flow Crocodiles. They always stayed near the riverbank, where they were difficult to deal with, whether in the water or on shore.
But once a Mud-Flow Crocodile moved more than twenty meters from the bank, the area of soil it could control shrank dramatically. It could only affect the soil within a meter of itself.
Lanten first used reed baskets to catch Water Arrow Fish. He had the Mana-Less people weave many narrow baskets, each two meters long, with openings less than half a meter across. They narrowed toward the bottom, where barbs were set. They put a few pieces of Magic Beast Meat at the bottom, then lowered each basket into the river and secured it to the riverbed.
Water Arrow Fish that had become Devil Beasts were never less than a meter long, and they couldn't resist the bloody smell of Magic Beast Meat. Once a fish swam deep into a basket, it could hardly turn around, and the barbs at the bottom would snag its body.
Of course, even though Water Arrow Fish were the weakest Devil Beasts, they were still no ordinary animals. Once one was caught in a basket, they had to pull it ashore as quickly as possible.
Water Arrow Fish rarely yielded Magic Cores, let alone Magic Crystals. They caught them to use as bait for Mud-Flow Crocodiles.
Of course, if they caught more than three, the knights in camp would get fish soup for dinner, too.
They tied two Water Arrow Fish to a spear and approached a Mud-Flow Crocodile. Then they poured the bloody water left over from cleaning the fish onto the land about fifteen meters from the crocodile. The hungry Mud-Flow Crocodile would follow the scent of blood onto shore.
When it spotted the two fish tied together, the crocodile—whose stamina drained faster on land and whose unease grew stronger—would immediately control the surrounding earth and suck the fish and spear into its mouth, intending to eat them and then return to the river.
Two spears couldn't kill a four-meter crocodile, of course. But as the crocodile released all its mana, Lanten would seize the opportunity to use Charge. Thanks to his Krypton Crystal training, he could now release Charge with ease.
When Lanten reached the crocodile, he used a specially made spear. Its tip was a Rune dagger they'd seized earlier, which could conduct Lanten's Battle Qi. He thrust the spear directly into the back of the crocodile's head.
The crocodile instinctively rolled when attacked. Lanten broke the spear shaft, leaving the dagger lodged in the back of its head, then leaped away.
A Mud-Flow Crocodile with its brain pierced wouldn't take long to die. Its hide, meat, and bones were all extremely valuable, not to mention the Magic Crystal. Without a Magic Crystal to replenish his strength, Charge and the thrust took a lot out of Lanten, so he badly needed the crocodile meat as an afternoon snack.