Outside the Baron's Castle

On the evening of June 6, a great crowd arrived at the docks outside Baron Gallop's castle: Wendy and the other girls, Kaiyi, Neil, and the other knights, Wolf, Tiger, the sheep-headed magic beast—Blaze had been ridden over by Landen—as well as Daqila Flying Dragon, Wufi, Patch, and the other Knight Apprentices, along with a group of fairly promising Mana-Less youths and almost all the Beastmen Priest Apprentices of life.

Though many people had come, their purposes were not quite the same. Neil, as an Intermediate Knight, led the team; Centaur Girl Kaiyi, Fang, Mirley, Daniko, and Tuomokeli Lanyuan made five Junior Knights—or Centaur Hunters—in all. The juniors sought breakthroughs, while Neil sought to have his mount, Whirlwind, break through into a junior magic beast.

There was much thought behind the four Junior Knights chosen this time. Daniko was Landen's first knight, someone Landen had rescued just after entering the plains; Fang had once been a knight of the old Gallop house, and had only sworn loyalty to Landen in the new year; Knight Mirley came from the Salt Mine; Tuomokeli Lanyuan came from the Iron Mine, and his father was Petreus Lanyuan. Though on many occasions Landen would deliberately avoid the sensitive topic of his subordinates' origins, when it truly came time to promote people and scatter resources, Landen inevitably became a master at keeping bowls of water level.

As a challenging journey of advancement and breakthrough, they needed to go deep into the Great Forest, seek out intermediate magic beasts to hunt, and strengthen their bodies as much as possible through intermediate Magic Beast Meat, opening the door to leveling up.

Another group of apprentices and Mana-Wielders included Daqila Flying Dragon, Wufi, Patch, Little Hilt, Qiu Cao, Wellis, as well as many noble children from the Imperial Capital