David S.R

Chapter 153 (Thank you for your support, Steven!)

Later that day, the cold wind had quieted, leaving the area buried in pale light. Most of the northerners were tending the cattle or eating near the fires — but Ludger stayed behind, stripped to his undershirt, breath fogging in steady bursts as he squared up against the windt.

He raised his fists. The faint red glow returned.

His pulse spiked instantly. The air thickened. The world narrowed to motion.

He struck.

A clean jab — snow puffed away in a ripple.
A ho...

Chapter 152 (Thank you for your support, Christopher Spake!)

Snow burst beneath their boots as the two clashed again.

Ludger stepped in, armguards gleaming, throwing a straight jab that cut through the air like a blade. Kharnek caught it with his forearm and countered instantly — his fist came down like a hammer. Ludger shifted aside, the blow missing his head by inches and punching a crater into the frozen ground.

The shockwave sprayed frost up his coat. He answered with a low kick to the chieftain’s side, but Kharnek twisted, catching...

Chapter 151

The sound of axes echoed through the cold morning air — rhythmic, steady, almost musical in the silence of the plains. Northerners moved between the tree line and the open fields, hacking down the dark pines that bordered the growing settlement. Their laughter mixed with the creak of timber and the snort of cattle from the pens nearby.

Ludger stood a short distance away, gloves off, palm resting against the dirt. The faint glow of earth-aspected mana rippled through the soil as he foc...

Chapter 150 (Thank you for your own support, Sean Moss!)

Kharnek, red-eyed and grinning, raised Harold’s mug in victory before downing what was left.

Across the fire, Ludger dragged a hand down his face. “Unbelievable.”

He tried to stand—maybe to go make sure Harold wasn’t dead—but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“Sit,” Elaine said gently.

And before he could protest, she’d already pulled him down, guiding his head into her lap.

“Mom, I have a reputation of a badass to keep and—”

...

Chapter 149 (Thank you for your support, Slothy!)

Two weeks later, the fields were alive.

Not in the poetic sense — Ludger had spent fourteen days wading through mud, frost, and back-breaking work, pushing mana into frozen soil. The grass had spread a few miles out now, and livestock pens were half-built, though still empty. He was elbow-deep in a muddy irrigation trench when the horns blew.

“Visitors from the south!” one of the sentries shouted.

Ludger straightened, wiping grit from his hands. On the horizon, a line ...

Chapter 148 (Thank you for your support, Michael Weis!)

The next morning, Ludger left before most of the northerners had even stirred from their blankets. The air bit at his cheeks, crisp and sharp, the kind of cold that woke the body faster than any coffee ever could.

Snow stretched across the horizon like a white shroud, broken only by patches of black rock and the skeletal remains of frostbitten trees. As he walked, the crunch of snow under his boots echoed faintly in the empty plains, each step leaving deep imprints that the wind quickly...

Chapter 147

Kharnek’s grin faded slowly as Ludger’s words hung in the frozen air. The wind whistled low between the new buildings, carrying the distant crackle of fire and the muffled chatter of his people settling in for the night.

The northern commander crossed his arms, his heavy brows drawing together in thought. “You talk like a man who’s already looking beyond this place,” he rumbled. “Building the city, reaching the border, expanding south. Ambitious… maybe too much.”

L...

Chapter 146 (Thank you for your support, chris counts!)

Even before the sun could crawl over the edge of the frozen plains, Ludger was already knee-deep in snow.

His breath misted in short, steady bursts as he crouched beside the foundation of a new structure, his gloved hands pressed into the frost-bitten soil. The air around him shimmered faintly with mana, vibrating like the hum of a buried forge. Slowly, sections of the frozen ground broke apart, softened, and reshaped under his will — slabs of compacted stone rising from beneath the i...

Chapter 145 (Thank you for your support, Aaron!)

Ludger pressed his palms together one more time, sealing the final joints with a pulse of magic. The rumbling beneath his feet faded. The newly built lodge stood there—broad, low, and sturdy, the faint steam rising from its surface as the last remnants of magic dispersed into the air.

Then, as the mana drained from his veins all at once, dizziness hit him like a hammer.

“Shit…” he muttered under his breath, staggering a step back and catching himself on the nearest wall. H...

Chapter 144 (Thank you for your support, Ken Fitzmaurice!)

Ludger was sitting on the edge of the wagon again after fixing the roads for a while, half-bored and half-focused, absently molding a few stones into perfect spheres between his fingers when the world decided to stop making sense.

One second, the air was crisp and cool, carrying the smell of fallen leaves. The ground beneath them was firm, the grass faded gold beneath the orange light of early autumn.

Then he blinked—just once—and the scenery ahead had changed completely.

Chapter 143

When Ludger finally returned to the border town, the familiar sight of stone walls and newly reinforced gates came into view. The air smelled faintly of dust and smoke—signs of construction, not war. A good change.

Off in the distance, near the outer fields, he spotted tents clustered together in uneven rows. Northerners. Their campfires burned like small stars against the gray sky, warriors lounging or sharpening weapons as they waited. Probably holding position until Kharnek gave ...

Chapter 142 (Thank you for your support, Msakr!)

Once Ludger finished saying goodbye to his parents—his mother’s final hug nearly breaking a rib, as usual, and his father’s parting grin promising another spar the moment he returned—he adjusted his heavy pack and set out toward the north.

The air outside the town carried the crisp bite of early autumn. Perfect weather for travel, if you ignored the weight digging into his shoulders and the faint regret of agreeing to carry half the house with him.

As his boots crunched ov...

Chapter 141 (Thank you for your support, Landofx!)

Ludger’s plan had been simple — ruthlessly simple.
Finish the guild hall in one day, make sure it didn’t collapse, and then finally get a full week of sleep at home.

That was before they got involved.

By sunrise, he’d already mapped out the structure — a clean, functional design with a wide central hall, a second-floor meeting room, and living quarters tucked neatly in the back. Nothing fancy. Nothing unnecessary. Just solid, practical stonework that...

Chapter 140 (Thank you for your support, Archmage!)

Silence pooled in the little room until Kharnek broke it. He stared at the table as if reading names in the grain, then looked up with that same flat, weathered voice.

“We got the potions,” he said. No flourish. No accusation. Just a fact that tasted like ash. “From men who wear the south’s colors. Not their names—words on scraps, sealed by hands that didn’t sign them. Promises: take back what’s yours, we’ll back you. You’ll have lands again.”

The words landed ...

Chapter 139

When the horn sounded from the northern watchtower, the entire wall crew paused. Ludger stood up straight and squinted toward the hills.

A dark line had formed along the horizon—movement.

Five hundred barbarians marched in formation, their furs and leathers shifting like a rolling wave of gray and brown under the sunlight. Yet none of them advanced past the open plains. They stopped far enough from the town to show they weren’t here for a fight.

One man kept walking. Kha...

Chapter 138 (Thank you for your support, John Smith!)

Ludger let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. It wasn’t reconciliation—none of them pretended it was—but it was a start. 

The warlord’s face didn’t soften in a way the Torvares folk would call trust. It didn’t have to. It merely shifted from pure rage toward something tactical and coldly practical.

Around them, soldiers began the slow, awkward work of standing down—pulling spears from grooved mud, helping wounded upright, carrying away the de...

Chapter 137 (Thank you for your support, IdolTrust!)

Ludger watched through the haze of heat and sand, eyes narrowing as the two figures blurred and reappeared in flashes of steel and flame.

Each time Kharnek’s club came down, Arslan met it dead-on—timed, deliberate, confident. The swordsmanship was raw, but efficient, refined in real fights instead of drills. He wasn’t the same man Ludger had sparred with half a year ago.

He’s faster. Reads the flow better. Even when he’s bleeding, he keeps his center.

Ludg...

Chapter 136 (Thank you for your support, Eric ty!)

Viola stepped out from the line of soldiers, her heavy stone sword slung over her shoulder. Her posture was relaxed, but her eyes burned bright with challenge. “As heir to Lord Torvares,” she said, loud enough for both armies to hear, “I give my word. If he loses, we withdraw. That’s my oath — and my family’s seal.”

The battlefield went silent again. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

Kharnek’s expression shifted, the smirk fading from his face as he studied ...

Chapter 135

The shamans came into view at last—dozens of them, standing on a ridge half-buried in smoke and firelight. Their skin was painted in streaks of ash and blood, their eyes wide and feverish from mana strain. Each one raised a staff carved from blackened bone, chanting in a rhythm that made the ground tremble.

Flames gathered above them—slow at first, then growing, twisting, fusing together into orbs the size of wagons. The heat washed over the field like a wave, making armor hiss and ...

Chapter 134 (Thank you for your support, John schaeffer!)

The soldiers manning the walls turned in confusion as the western gate opened, and a formation emerged from the inner courtyard—armor gleaming, banners bearing the Torvares crest snapping in the wind.

At the head of the group strode Arslan, sword drawn, face grim but alive with focus. Behind him came his party. And just beside them—Viola, Luna, and Aronia, each carrying their own kind of calm fury. Aronia looked more pissed than anything for being dragged out to that mess instead of...

Chapter 133 (Thank you for your support, Dead Mercy!)

A dozen were already gone before the rear lines realized something was wrong.

From the wall, the soldiers cheered, but Ludger’s expression didn’t change. His eyes tracked the rhythm, reading the tremors through the soles of his boots. He could feel every struggling body, every impact, every desperate movement beneath the surface.

“Not deep enough,” he muttered, raising his other hand.
Mana surged from his core. The quicksand expanded.

The pits widened in...

Chapter 132 (Thank you for your support, Joe!)

The sky outside was still black when the flap of Ludger’s tent rustled open. A cold draft swept in with Captain Darnell’s voice — rough, low, and clear.

“Ludger,” he said, tone flat as a drawn blade. “Time to move.”

Ludger groaned from his cot, half-buried under his blanket. “Just more five hours,” he muttered, half asleep.

Darnell stared at him, unamused. “Five?” he repeated, his frown deepening. “You’ve been running on fumes for a week. You’d th...

Chapter 131

The first reports came in at dawn, brought by a dust-covered scout who smelled of sweat and pine sap. By the time the third runner arrived before noon, Ludger already knew what it meant.

He stood at the edge of his worksite, palm pressed to the cool stone of the newest wall segment, as the captain read the latest message out loud. “…barbarian banners sighted to the north-west. Light infantry and shamans moving behind them. Estimated arrival of ten thousand within days.”

Ludg...

Chapter 130 (Thank you for your support, Humberto Meza!)

The commander of the barbarians in the area sat on a low, blackened stump in the middle of the war-camp, a tattered map spread across a slab of stone. Smoke from the firepits curled into the night, bringing with it the smell of horse sweat and boiled meat. Beyond the flickering circle of light, his warriors sharpened blades and whispered around cookfires.

He wasn’t at the labyrinth edge or even at the forward raiding posts. He had pulled back, far enough from the border that no scout�...

Chapter 129 (Thank you for your support, Steffen Liebenow!)

Another week bled by in a haze of stone dust and mana pulses. Day after day Ludger pressed his hands to the earth, shaping pillar after pillar, seam after seam, until the northern wall no longer looked like a patchwork of repairs but a single, seamless bulwark.

On the eighth morning he stepped back from the last section, wiped the grit off his palms, and let out a long, slow sigh. The northern wall now rose thick and high, towers interlocked, foundations sunk deep enough to laugh at a b...

Chapter 128 (Thank you for your support, Tamashii!)

Ludger let out a slow breath and rested his elbows on his knees. “The wall work? That’s just the surface. Torvares didn’t drag me out here only to patch stones. He knows I don’t do charity.”

Elaine tilted her head but stayed silent, letting him speak. Arslan leaned back, arms crossed, eyes narrowing with interest.

“I owe him and he owes me,” Ludger went on. “He gave me room to train under Gaius, and he’s been slipping me potions and supplies without charging mark...

Chapter 127

The carriage hadn’t even fully stopped before Elaine was already striding across the packed dirt, skirts snapping around her ankles, two house guards trying and failing to keep pace. Her eyes cut through the morning haze like blades. Soldiers and laborers alike stepped aside without a word.

Ludger was at the wall, sleeves rolled up, mana still humming under his skin. He straightened as she approached, half in surprise, half in resignation.

“Mother,” he said.

Elaine sto...

Chapter 126 (Thank you for your support, OlivierA!)

The morning dragged on with nothing but the steady grind of work. Pillar after pillar rose, cracks sealed, rubble compacted. His detection net hummed under the ground like a spider’s web in the wind…but no plucked strings, no odd heartbeats, no slow stalk where there should’ve been walking. Just the constant shuffle of guards and workers.

Ludger’s eyes narrowed a fraction. Nothing. Not a ripple.

He kept his hands moving, smoothing another seam, but his mind ticked...

Chapter 125 (Thank you for your support, Aureus!)

A few hours of forced rest, shade, and plain water worked better than any potion. By late afternoon the hammering behind Ludger’s eyes had faded to a dull echo, his hands had steadied, and the taste of iron in his mouth was gone. He rolled his shoulders, stretched his fingers, and let mana trickle through his veins. No spikes of pain, no tremor.

He crouched at the edge of the tent and pressed a palm to the packed earth. A thin ripple spread out as he nudged a pebble up into a neat spi...

Chapter 124 (Thank you for your support, Dierseus!)

Ludger fell in step beside him, boots crunching on loose gravel, a cluster of soldiers trailing behind like a moving shadow. He didn’t miss the way they were looking at him—measuring him, whispering to each other, trying to decide whether their captain’s orders meant Lord Torvares had gone senile or whether this boy was really as good as his orders.

He wants to see me in action, Ludger thought, eyes narrowing. To find out if his boss has lost his mind sending a kid to...