“Wow!” I hear the impressed voices of the children and teenagers at my side. All of them are amazed to see Glia “come out” of my body.
“I told you. She’s huge and very strong.” Cipe looks proud as he puffs out his chest toward the other children. This light brown-haired boy has been bragging about seeing Glia, he was amazed by how strong she is.
“You were right, she’s beautiful.” A girl with shoulder-length black hair and huge eyes replies beside him.
It seems these two are the new generation of older siblings. The previous ones have already moved far away from the village searching for opportunities for their “younger siblings” or are simply working too much to spend time with them.
The girl named Kly timidly approaches Glia while the rest of the children only observe her, they are a little doubtful, which seems normal if this is their first time seeing a grade 4 monster.
“Her fur is so soft…” Kly comments as she pets Glia. She gathered courage in the final step, deciding to look directly into her eyes and touch her fur.
The other children, realizing nothing happened to their older sister, decide to join her, all of them begin petting Glia, and she seems to enjoy it for now. I can’t say anything about it, sometimes I also pet her fur until she gets tired of it, it’s too soft, I’m always surprised by how during combat it becomes as hard as steel.
“That’s enough playing around, let’s focus on why we came here.” Two minutes later, I raise my voice slightly. All the children look at each other, nod quickly, and line up perfectly as we planned.
“Let’s try to divide roles, it’s the most efficient way with this many people. If you develop good chemistry between all of you, you could even face monsters or people one rank above. A balanced team with trust is terrifying for anyone.” I look at all of them seriously.
I begin explaining the roles in more detail, the elders sometimes give them brief lessons about fighting as a team, but their explanations are vague because they are always busy with something.
After explaining what each role requires, how they should act, and helping them choose a good role for themselves, the interesting part begins. Glia went to bring some grade 1 monsters for testing.
The team will revolve around Cipe and Kly, the two already have experience fighting monsters. The elders always bring them to train, they will be the pillars of the formation, later I plan to create two teams centered around them.
It was torture making them understand that some people are not suited for every position. Not everyone has the privilege of being good at everything like I am, it’s better to focus on strengthening your strong points and covering your weak ones, they must take advantage of the number of siblings they have to complement each other.
I had to personally test each one of them to roughly figure out which position suited them best. I made it clear that I’m not completely sure yet, there will probably be changes after seeing them fight.
Testing their Imra, spells, constructions, and combat skills took longer than expected, but in the end I’m happy with assigning each of them a role where they will do well, or so I hope.
“Don’t be afraid while I’m here, it’s better to make mistakes now when I can help you rather than later when there’s no one near you.” I shout at one of the team’s tanks.
All of them are wearing armor depending on their role, heavy and light armor, and they have also obtained the weapon they liked most. Yesterday I spent a good amount of silver getting everything.
The boy looks at me for a second, I can see him focusing on the goblin in front of him before charging with more boldness than before. I’m glad to see he isn’t stupid and didn’t rush forward recklessly, he’s simply taking more risks to understand his limits.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
These goblins are slightly different, they have heads a bit larger than normal and small light blue horns, from what I understand it is part of their adaptation to this region.
Something even more surprising is the children’s performance, most of them are fulfilling their roles as efficiently as possible. Only one of them was fearful at the beginning, the rest faced the situation without retreating. People become tougher in harsher conditions.
They also have a decent understanding of how to use weapons or fight, the quick lessons from the elders and the help from Cipe and Kly are clearly showing results. I know they secretly practice in the backyards when no one is watching.
The most talented person among them is a girl with brown hair reaching her waist, tied in a ponytail while her bangs sway from side to side, those green eyes are completely focused on everything around her.
This girl must have an extremely high affinity for wind. She is using mana very precisely, like any noble child who received personalized training, the difference is that Maele does it purely by intuition.
Maele dodges an attack at the last moment thanks to a small burst of wind, she used too much mana and didn’t end up in a perfect position. She doesn’t care about the mistake, she swings her sword enhanced with wind mana to increase its speed, becoming strong enough to cut off the goblin’s arm.
The girl doesn’t relax, she takes advantage of the moment to attack from the side where the goblin lost its arm. The goblin fights desperately to survive, but its efforts are useless, less than a minute later she kills it by stabbing the sword into its throat.
She quickly scans the battlefield while trying to recover as much stamina as possible after fighting the goblin. She decides to help a girl with the tank role, the girl is doing decently, but there is no progress, they are at a stalemate.
I mentally applaud her good decision, her help changes the confrontation instantly and they end up victorious without suffering as many injuries as in the first two rounds.
“Take a break.” When they hear my words, all of them approach a tree and collapse inside the small tent I set up. Everyone drinks water until satisfied, I can see how exhausted they are after finishing the third round.
Like in the previous rounds, I decide to lecture them about their mistakes, successes, what they need to correct, and what they should not do again. They all listen as if their lives depended on it, which technically they do, the more they learn, the better their chances of survival.
“It’s about time to head back.” When I finish explaining, I notice the sun is already beginning to set. Some of the children look happy, others sad to return.
Wedy’s point of view:
“They’re back, two of those bastards are outside demanding money or its equivalent value in children.” My voice trembles with pure rage as I approach the other elders.
Everyone’s reaction is different, but at least we all agree these people are despicable and deserve to die in the worst possible way.
“Emago donated money to the asylum, we have enough to cover this payment and probably the next one too, but it will delay our plans.” Marcelina speaks, doing everything possible to think calmly.
“At least Emago is outside with the children. I don’t want to imagine what would happen if he were here.” Portad comments.
My friend is right, that child is very generous, he would probably try to fight them regardless of the consequences. We all agree that if possible, we shouldn’t involve him, these people are very strong and Emago doesn’t seem that strong, although maybe he would have a chance fighting together with Glia.
I can see everyone relax a little knowing there is enough money to pay. We can’t do anything for now, the two men are ruby rank, they could easily kill us and all the children if they wanted. After talking for a while, we all head downstairs together carrying the money.
“Damned old people, who do you think you are? Do you think you can make us wait this long? I want to kill you right now.” One of those two bastards starts shouting as soon as he sees us coming down, none of us says anything, we simply keep walking toward them.
“I like that, obedient and quiet.” His companion laughs loudly while counting the agreed money.
“How did you get this? Where did you steal it from? Well, I don’t care, as long as you have the money, nothing will happen.” The second bastard examines us with a mocking look and laugh.
“What a shame! I thought you wouldn’t be able to pay. That way I could beat you up and take a few children, I’ve been bored lately and maybe some young girl could relieve my stress.” The bald companion also speaks. I almost feel a vein burst in my head when I hear him.
“What did you just say?” We all turn to the side when we hear a voice. When we look, we see Emago with a gaze full of pure hatred.
Shit! Why did he have to return now? Of all moments, it had to be this one. Only a few minutes more and those bastards would have left, my mind only thought one thing: It’s time to fight.
“Who the fuck are you?...” The bald man is about to keep shouting when something stops him, not only him, both are completely frozen, unable to move even a centimeter.
I am trembling with fear, no, all the elders can feel that overwhelming and unleashed presence, even though that killing intent and Imra are not directed at us, we are frozen or trembling.
Who is this person? That is the only thing I can think while watching him slowly walk toward those two damned bastards beside us.