David S.R

Chapter 93 (Thank you for your support, Dylan Gilmour!)

Ludger drew a long, steady breath, letting his eyes stay closed as he extended one hand toward the packed dirt in front of him. Doesn’t have to be a wall. Just a dent. A shift. Anything.

He let his mana seep outward, not pushing but feeling for the pulse of the ground the way Gaius had described. The soil under his palm felt cool, heavy, full of its own sluggish energy.

Anchor first. Feel the weight. Then bend.

He tried channeling his mana straight into i...

Chapter 92 (Thank you for your support, Matt Roy!)

Ludger’s eyes sharpened as he stepped a little closer. “Then tell me this—how exactly do you manipulate the mana in the earth? Not just feel it, but move it. And if someone has a Spiritual Core…” he tapped his chest lightly, “…does that make it easier?”

For the first time, Gaius didn’t answer right away. His bloodshot gaze swept over Ludger, lingering just a little too long—on his stance, on the faint glimmer of control in his eyes. Then he grunted, turning ...

Chapter 91

The next bolt snapped from Ludger’s palm, faster this time. Viola yelped, jerking sideways at the last moment. The mana sphere whizzed past her ear, close enough that she felt the heat.

Another came a heartbeat later, then another.

She swung once, splintering one apart, then stumbled backward to dodge the next. Her breath came sharp, her body tensing as panic flickered in her eyes. If I miss one, I’m done—!

She risked a glance over her shoulder. Her heart stop...

Chapter 90 (Thank you for your support, Joseph M Hill!)

They walked the length of the market street, Ludger slowing their pace just enough to point things out.

“See that?” He nodded toward a vendor piling golden apples high on a cloth-covered crate. “The brightest fruit on top, the bruised ones underneath. Don’t pay until you check the bottom.”

Viola leaned in, squinting. “Oh… sneaky.”

“Common,” Ludger corrected. A little further down, he motioned at a spice seller waving his arms dramatically. “And that one...

Chapter 89 (Thank you for your support, Theyna!)

Viola slammed her palms on the table, glaring. “Grandfather wouldn’t send us here for nothing. Why would he pick someone like you?!”

That finally made the man pause. He lifted his head, bloodshot eyes squinting at her, and for the first time there was something sharper under the haze.

“Someone like me, huh?” His laugh was bitter, half a rasp. “Your old man knows exactly why he sent you here. Because I’m what happens when a guild burns down and the people in ...

Chapter 88 (Thank you for your support, DenverDrew!)

The guildhall’s doors groaned as Ludger pushed them open. Dust motes swirled in the stale air, disturbed for the first time in days. The place was cavernous but empty—rows of tables overturned or left to rot, a long counter lined with cracked mugs and dried stains of ale. Cobwebs stretched lazily across the beams above, and the smell of mildew mixed with the sour tang of old liquor.

It wasn’t surprising. A guild that had lost its name lost its people too.

They crossed the cr...

Chapter 87

By the second day, the road curved over a low ridge, and the city finally came into view.

The walls rose from the valley like a squat fortress of stone, thick and wide, not tall or elegant like the noble estates close to the capital. The towers were stumpy, built more for function than grandeur. Beyond them, chimneys poked from the clustered buildings, spilling thin plumes of smoke into the twilight. The whole place smelled faintly of dust and iron even from a distance.

The ground...

Chapter 86 (Thank you for your support, Joshua Border!)

Her voice came small, hesitant. “…If I stay, does that mean I’m running from home?”

Arslan crouched a little, meeting her eyes with a grin that was gentler now. “No. It means you’re choosing where you’ll grow the most. Your home isn’t going anywhere. Your grandfather isn’t going anywhere.” His grin widened again, wolfish. “He’s too damn stubborn to die, no matter how many times I’ve tried to drink him under the table.”

Viola let out a shaky laugh, thoug...

Chapter 85 (Thank you for your support, S!)

The arrangement hadn’t even cooled before a shadow fell across the yard.

“Ludger.”

Elaine’s voice cut sharper than any blade. She stood at the entrance, arms folded, eyes glowing faintly with that aura that made even seasoned mercenaries sweat. Star Widow’s Wrath coiled invisible around her shoulders. Viola groaned under her breath, already preparing for a storm.

Elaine’s gaze flicked from Yvar’s ink-stained robes to the gleam of gold Ludger was slipping back i...

Chapter 84 (Thank you for your support, Travis Spilkert-Fulton!)

Viola planted her wooden sword into the dirt and crossed her arms, still giving him that sharp, suspicious glare.

“You’re so weird,” she muttered. “Who suddenly decides they want to learn how to teach? Normal people just… learn and fight. Not…” She waved vaguely at him. “…whatever this is.”

Ludger smirked, unbothered. “So, is that a no?”

Viola huffed through her nose, tapping her foot against the ground. After a moment, she sighed and rolled ...

Chapter 83

The next morning, after breakfast, Ludger asked his mother to step out into the backyard with him. Elaine followed, wiping her hands on a cloth, her curious gaze narrowing as they crossed the threshold.

“What is it you want to show me?” she asked, her voice half-serious, half-playful. Then her lips curved into a sly smile. “Don’t tell me… your first girlfriend? If so, I’ll need to educate you a bit. It’s far too soon for that, and I won’t have you turning into your fathe...

Chapter 82 (Thank you for your support, Maxwell Guy!)

They reached home the next day, the walls rising steady and familiar after days of smoke and ruin. Viola, still stiff from their spar and with bruises she didn’t want her grandfather to see, chose to return with Ludger instead of heading straight for her own home. Pride could wait—comfort couldn’t.

The moment they stepped through the doors, Elaine was there. Her eyes locked on Ludger, and before he could take a single step, she swept him into her arms.

“Ludger!”

He...

Chapter 81 (Thank you for your support, Col Adamson!)

When Ludger stepped out of the tent, the morning light struck his eyes. Just a few paces away, Viola stood with her arms folded, waiting.

Her face fell the moment she saw him. “So… you didn’t change his mind.”

She tried to sound indifferent, but the disappointment was written plain across her features. She had expected him to argue, to pull some clever trick, maybe even to force their grandfather to relent.

Ludger only shrugged. “Didn’t feel like it.”

Her...

Chapter 80 (Thank you for your support, Nick Richie!)

The next morning, Ludger woke to the clang of hammers and the rasp of saws. For a moment, he thought it was another battle—the rhythm of impact, the groaning of wood—but when he pushed himself up and peered outside the tent, the truth became clear.

Soldiers were working. Not training, not drilling, not patrolling—but repairing.

Men who still bore bandages on their arms and burns across their faces had scavenged beams from half-toppled houses, dragging them into the square. O...

Chapter 79

The work never stopped.

Through the rest of the day, Ludger’s world narrowed to blood, sweat, and glowing hands. The wounded never ceased—soldiers dragging comrades with broken ribs, others coughing up soot, others half-dead but refusing to let go of their weapons. Ludger moved with Aronia from one to the next, healing until his core burned raw, resting just long enough to breathe before diving back in.

When night fell, nothing changed. The cries of the dying replaced the chan...

Chapter 78 (Thank you for your support, Jason H.!)

The shamans lifted their staves again, their voices rising into a chant even more dreadful than before. Mana thickened, flames coiling overhead like serpents ready to strike. Soldiers braced, their bodies trembling, knowing the next wave might end them.

Then it happened.

One shaman lurched suddenly, choking on his own words. His staff clattered against the wall as his body stiffened, then collapsed. Another stumbled, clutching his throat, blood spraying as he fell over the parapet...

Chapter 77 (Thank you for your support, Adam Danielson!)

The clash at the barricades turned savage in seconds.

The barbarians fought like rabid beasts, hurling themselves against the wedge with no fear of death. One man’s arm hung useless at his side, bone jutting through the flesh—yet he kept swinging his rusted axe with the other, teeth bared in a spray of blood. Another had half his ribs exposed, shield cracked in two, but he lunged forward anyway, trying to drag a Torvares soldier down with him.

And still they came. Arslan met t...

Chapter 76

The closer they came, the heavier the air grew.

At first, it was just the steady grind of boots and hooves, the rattle of shields, the wheeze of leather straps straining under the weight of armor. But as the taken town rose higher in their view, the atmosphere shifted. Soldiers stopped whispering. They stopped laughing. The only sound was the rhythm of marching, like a drumbeat that pulled them toward the edge of a cliff.

Ludger felt it crawl across his skin, prickling like static...

Chapter 75 (Thank you for your support, Austin Krautkramer!)

The tent went quiet after Torvares’s decree. Captains grumbled, Arslan scowled, Viola smirked, but Ludger stood still, staring at the map. The arrowhead formation. Him in the center. He’d thought he was dragged here as a token, a child shoved into grown men’s games. But no—this wasn’t a council. This was a lesson. Lord Torvares wanted to teach him a bit.

The System agreed.

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Chapter 74 (Thank you for your support, dmadden!)

Ludger watched him. Under the bravado and the infinite, dangerous arrogance was something a child could touch: the absolute, naked fear of legacy. Arslan wasn’t afraid of his own end. He was terrified of leaving Ludger and Viola with nothing but hard lessons and sharper knives.

“Promise me one thing,” Arslan said then, the sound a half-command, half-prayer. “If I fall—if I do—don’t spend the rest of your life sharpening a blade to avenge me. Build something your mother and...

Chapter 73

The clash of blade and footwork drew louder whispers, more boots crunching into a loose circle around the spar. Even exhausted men who had been too tired to lift their heads now stood straighter, eyes sharp with something close to hope.

The tent flap snapped open.

Lord Torvares stormed out, cloak dragging through the dust, his scowl already set in stone. His voice thundered like rolling drums:

“What in the hells is this circus—”

But the words froze in his throat....

Chapter 72 (Thank you for your support, Max Watson!)

Ludger’s eyes lingered on the wounded for a moment longer before he finally asked, voice low but steady,

“Where are they? The barbarians.”

Arslan followed his son’s gaze to the horizon. He lifted a hand and pointed westward, past the haze of smoke and broken ground, to where jagged walls rose in the distance.

“There,” he said. “That town was ours once. A border post, nothing grand, but strong enough to matter. We lost it months ago.”

Ludger narrowed his...

Chapter 71 (Thank you for your support, David Monaghan!)

Lord Torvares’s eyes blazed, but when Viola squared her shoulders and opened her mouth to fire back, he cut her off with a growl.

“Not here.”

His cloak whipped as he turned, gesturing sharply toward his tent. Viola followed without hesitation, fire meeting fire. Everyone in earshot knew if they argued in the open, their voices would carry across the entire camp—straight into enemy scouts’ ears if the wind was cruel. Better to let their clash rattle canvas than the battle...

Chapter 70

They let the grove hold them a while longer, catching their breaths and letting the morning burn into midday. By the time the sun had begun its slow arc west, they were moving again.

The heat pressed down heavier than the night air had, sweat clinging to their backs as the fields stretched wide and endless around them. They carried little, and that was both blessing and curse—light enough to run without dragging, but no comforts, no excess. Just bodies and will.

“The border’...

Chapter 69 (Thank you for your support, Yannik Hesse!)

Ludger kept the thoughts locked behind his teeth. No point voicing them—not to Viola, who would only double down on her recklessness, and not to Luna, who already carried enough weight in silence.

So he ran.

The three of them cut across the plains, shadows gliding over the grass, the night air cold in their lungs. Viola’s breathing grew rougher, but her eyes stayed sharp, fire pushing her legs forward. Luna’s silhouette never faltered—steady, silent, unshaken, as if nothin...

Chapter 68 (Thank you for your support, Kirisuk3!)

Ludger let the silence hang for a moment longer, then exhaled through his nose. His smirk didn’t come this time—only a steady, level gaze as he answered.

“Fine. If she runs off to do something stupid, I’ll be there to drag her back in one piece. You have my word.”

Elaine’s shoulders sagged, the tension easing just slightly in her chest. She closed her eyes, relief trembling faintly across her lips. But before she could speak, Ludger went on.

“But you’re not g...

Chapter 67

As he jogged back through the fields toward the city, Ludger wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his armguard. The stench of goblin blood clung stubbornly, seeping into the leather, soaking into his shirt.

Too obvious. If Luna caught it again, sooner or later Elaine will too.

He slowed, exhaled through his nose, and raised his palm. A faint shimmer of mana coiled at his fingertips, condensing into a sphere of clear water.

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