Asher turned his left. When he saw the beautiful marksman clad in a silver long-sleeved gown that went just below her knees, he was taken back. Above the dress made solely for a warrior was a silver laminar chest plate with no metal protection for the back.
Her boots and her knee guard were made from pure steel, and by her hip was a quiver filled with arrows. In her right hand was the White Furry bow!
In addition to her new armor, Eritrea's looks and shape were also upgraded, just like Alec and Alex. She became more beautiful and endowed. To Asher, it felt like his system not only increased their strength but also brought them closer and closer to the peak of their designed look.
Unlike Alec, she had no helmet.
After absorbing the information and feeling the changes in her body, Eritrea's eyes twinkled, and she went on one knee, her head respectfully lowered.
"I willingly and wholeheartedly accept to be your servant on this day."
Asher smiled a bit.
Neigh!
The sounds of horses neighing made Asher and his upgraded commanders rush out of the tent, and Asher held his breath. He had forgotten that the entire army was included in the upgrade.
His 50 horse riders had all upgraded to become 50 silver-ranked heavy cavalrymen. They were clad in mail armor, lances, swords, and a different kind of helmet that had a crest, from which red plume fell down to their waists!
Their dark gray armor and fluttering red capes gave them a frightening appearance. Not only the warriors but their horses became muscular and bigger. They were also clad in mail armor and had horseshoes.
These 50 were like 500 because of their imposing appearance and daunting aura.
[Bladebreaker Calvary: A special heavy cavalry troop, trained to be nightmares to infantries, light and heavy alike. They are the bladebreakers and the terror of all land forces.]
Asher turned to the middle and saw 300 axemen clad in imposing leather armor with round shields and silver axes neatly arranged on their backs. They had all upgraded to become bronze-ranked axemen and a powerful infantry.
After them were another special troop. All 200 of them were women dressed like Eritrea and holding White Furry bows!
They were as beautiful as they were imposing. Unlike Eritrea, these ones have hoods that hide their faces, and their lines were as neat as the Bladebreaker Calvary.
[BoneStrike Rangers: A special troop of sharpshooters with unique bows that can hit a target 350 meters away with accuracy. Although they specialize in long-range combat, they can adapt to close-range combat due to the dual use of their weapon and training style.]
Asher had admiration for the system as he gazed at this special troop. None of them removed their hood or gasped at their new looks because the system had given them enough experience for them to feel like they'd been like this for decades.
Instantaneously, Asher had a troop of 550 elites!
"Your father's efforts weren't in vain."
Asher turned and said to Eritrea, whose eyes had puffed up. The young woman just saw her mother's dream come true and even beyond what her mother would expect, and she, her mother's only child, was their leader.
Ttring…
[Eritrea's loyalty has risen to 100].
Asher smiled inwardly.
"Tonight, we end the reign of those cannibals!"
"Hoo!"
.....
Several men stood and sat around a large bonfire in the middle of a small tribe. The Raging Bear tribe was not massive. They had a total population of 6,000 with an army of almost all the capable males. Almost all of their warriors had gone to war to gather the females of the wolf tribe. Their chief had once battled the chief of the wolf tribe for an elf lady but failed.
When the Wolf tribe became weak, they prevailed, and now he had eyes on his nemesis daughter. Perhaps the child of a woman with Elvin blood could be a mage. This was Lugard's dream.
With a mage, he would subdue all the tribes in the mountains and become king.
Right now, he sat in the head seat with powerful guards around him.
"I've grown tired of drinking from the skull of that girl's father. Where is she?!" Lugard suddenly yelled, interrupting the festival. The dancers stopped, and silence reigned.
Whispers fell into Lugard's ears, causing his eyes to turn red.
"Shut up!"
"I want fifty men to go to that tribe and see what is going on."
His eyes danced about, scanning the dancing women where the surviving captives of the tribes they destroyed were. Most of the women were dead after being put under hard labor and ruthless beating.
The Raging Bear tribe was a warrior tribe that did not believe in marriages. To them, women were slaves to satisfy their every need, which was why once they'd exhausted the ones they captured, they would go hunting for another.
Only the male children grew well.
Suddenly, the sands began to jump, and not long after that, they felt the earth beneath their feet tremble.
"What's going on?"
As the trembling grew louder, Lugard felt something was wrong. "Fetch your weapons!" He yelled and dashed toward his tent.
The women scrambled. Now they were not in chains, they fled for their lives.
When Lugard emerged with a formidable mace, he saw an imposing army of metal men on horseback with a huge white wolf, which had a rider.
The sight wasn't what he expected.
"Who are these ones that have come to interrupt my great clan?!" He bellowed.
Due to a record of continuous victories, Lugard had lost the sense of apprehension and fear. "Kill these intruders!"
His men roared and rushed toward the calvarymen, and then the biggest horror in Lugard's life displayed before his eyes. His elite men were torn apart with a mere swing from Sirius.
In mere minutes, Sirius killed 50 axemen and left the rest to be slaughtered by the Bladebreaker Calvary. The sound of their powerful horses neighing and their lances piercing through men fell into Asher's ears as he led his wolf toward Lugard.
Before Lugard would display an unpredictable talent, Asher gave Sirius an order.
His wolf slammed the ground, and ice encased Lugard, sealing him in an ice that would take decades to melt.
Boom!
The ice shattered.
Boom!
The ice exploded outward, hurtling ice shards everywhere. Asher's eyes narrowed as he watched a steaming man walk out with a ferocious glint in his eyes.
"Boy, I'll roast both you and your beast!"
He roared.
Asher saw him inhale, causing his chest to inflate, and all of a sudden, a fiery light shone from the middle of his chest to his inflated cheeks.
In the next moment, a torrent of flames poured out of the man's mouth. His mouth was like a flame thrower, and the flames seemed to increase as it got closer to him.
Sirius intercepted the flames with its ice mist breath. Both elements collided, causing an explosion and a thick cloud of mist that hampered Lugard's vision.
When he almost came to the conclusion that Asher was dead, he saw a shadow emerging from the thick white fog with a weapon resembling a sword in his right hand.
Lugard brandished his mace and watched as the man ran toward him with an excited smirk. He could visualize himself smashing Asher to pieces.
When the gap between them closed, Asher went on his knees and slid under his horizontal strike. Grunting, Lugard turned, and at that moment, a wolf emerged from the fog and bit down. Its massive teeth and claws tore Lugard apart.
Without gold-ranked armor, he was defenseless against Sirius' weapons, which were his teeth and claws.
"Good boy."
Asher got to his feet. He hung his sword on his shoulder and watched his men cut down the cannibalistic barbarians. He noticed a bladebreaker soldier was giving others to others, making them work as a strong unit.
This made Asher squint.
[Name: Lambert
Age: 41
Rank: Silver
Talent: Physique Enhancement (B)
Job: Bladebreaker soldier
Loyalty: 100]
[Talent description: Physique Enhancement is an active skill that increases the individual's overall capability by two folds in a duration of 10 minutes.]
'A B-grade talent has been with me all this while!'
He gasped. A B-grade talent, though not as noteworthy as an A-grade talent, was still crucial to the growth of his elite army. B-grade talent could grow to become a commander of a thousand strong men of war, while an A-grade talent would eventually lead ten thousand strong if his army ever grew to that size.
All these were still far away from him, but Asher was excited to find Lambert, a hidden talent!
He quickly checked the panels of others, but none of them even had a C-grade talent.
...…
After some time, Lambert rode toward him with two other Bladebreakers, and they dismounted and kneeled.
"Lord Asher, we've conquered the tribe and have taken no male prisoners."
"Arise. What is the total number of women and children?"
Lambert stood up when Asher gestured for him to rise.
"There are 200 women and 130 children; most of them are below ten."
"Just that?"
"We discovered they sacrificed most of their children for feasts. Their bones are piled up in the valley down there." Lambert pointed behind him.
In the depths of his tone lurked rage and scorching fury toward the Raging Bear tribe.
"Keep some men to lead them back. The rest of us will return to the wolf tribe."
"Understood, My Lord."
After that, Asher and 20 Bladebreakers rode back to the wolf tribe, where Asher ordered Sirius to stop anyone from entering his tent and went to sleep. He was exhausted after a day of riding and fighting, yet there were matters that needed his attention, but he wasn't in the right state to deal with them.
He had to fight, mediate, order, listen, advice...
His work was seemingly endless, and his territory was still in the infant stage. Before he slept, a face came into his mind. It was Kelvin's face.
'I just hope he's able to handle all the cases in the fortress.'
...….
The next morning, Asher faced Alec and Eritrea, who were both looking refreshed after the upgrade, but he had bags under his eyes. He did not have the privilege of an upgrade that would wash away exhaustion.
"My Lord, the total report of the battle is out." Eritrea paused and looked at his face, waiting for his go-ahead signal.
"Go on."
"We took 300 captives who surrendered, and we recorded our losses to be 500, reducing our forces from 1800 to 1300."
"I see. How much did I upgrade then?"
"500, My Lord."
"Remove the rest from the army. Those that are not eligible should be taken to the working sector."
Asher turned to Alec.
"Inform Kelvin to handle them."
Alec nodded.
"Is there anything else?"
"Ehm!"
Alec cleared his throat.
"There's nothing else."
"Then you can leave."
They turned and left.
On their way through the tents, Eritrea turned her head to Alec.
"Lord Asher should be in his twenties, but he had no wife or concubine."
"He had a bad past with a woman. Apparently they called off a betrothal after he was deemed useless."
Eritrea's eyes twinkled.
"That was a good thing, in my opinion. They would have chained our Lord, killing his talent to become a great lord before it even showcased itself."
Alec glanced at the female marksman and shrugged.
"The woman in question is an elf. Men clamor for elves."
"An elf!" Eritrea was shocked.
"Elves still exist?! My father said, "Though many thought my mother was an elf, she was just a half-elf, but with a purer heritage than me."
"Will, they still do, but they are rare. I heard Count Williams find her in the wilderness, living a peaceful life."
"You're busy talking about elves when we're all discussing Lord Asher's dreadful state. Did you see those white eyes? It was as if your soul was laid bare before him."
Alec and Eritrea turned and saw a bonestrike ranger. It was Eritrea's close friend and the same woman who was eager to know more about Asher.
Eritrea turned to Alec.
"That should be his talent."
"But he mysteriously increased our strength and size and made us much more powerful in an instant. Isn't that his talent?" The ranger asked with an innocent blink.
"Perhaps-"
Alec's words were stuck in his throat as he touched the white flake on the ranger's head and looked up. Snowflakes were falling from the skies.
Winter had arrived!
************
End of Volume One.
***********
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