Chapter 85 - Ending The Necessary Preparations For Having Pets
After some time, more and more villagers started to fail the test. The constant pattern noticed here by Arthur was the high age of those failing, as the more to exceed twenty years, the more failures there were.
However he wasn't depressed by this, as any villager who could be a mage would be an addition to his growing force. In addition to that, he intended to invade other clans soon, so many other villagers would be tested, and much more mages would be added.
Those who failed the test were handled by Ron, who started to transform a big part of the garden, and the area adjacent to it into cooking pits. He used the seasonings Arthur gave him, selected from the garden he had now in possession, and that made the meat cooked here had more value than before.
Soon everything started to take a strange familiar turn to when they were in the forest, and by nightfall, the number of villagers coming here reached the climax, with the return of everyone, headed by Madly.
Amelia and Randy had come a long time ago, and she took charge of handling the test with Arthur, while Randy helped in taking some of the mages remaining here, and patrol the perimeter of the town, outside the fog, keeping any outsiders out.
As for Ron he took the mission of teaching the failed villagers how to cook. When they saw Ron dealing with this task so seriously, they started to feel more better than before, as it seemed the failure wasn't the end of it.
While things kept going on smoothly like this, Arthur finished dealing with the villagers at dawn, when no new villagers came here, meaning that anyone that could be tested had come already, or decided not to.
Just in the early hours of the new morning, some villagers started to wake up. When the number reached one hundred, Arthur gathered them up as he said:
"I will now start part two of your training, which is to supply your bodies with nutrition through meat. Each of you will continuously eat meat from here, as he or she will continue the other tests," he said, as he pointed to the huge pile of meat accumulating on one side from the cooking team.
There were still a lot of monsters to cook, and that meant more meat to supply the new mages. Arthur then took out his own tools, and started to draw on the ground many circles. To do so, he went to another empty area, just next to the garden, as he intended to transform this area for pet contracting.
For pets he had his own plans already, as he started to gain some insights into the laws of this world, and how mages can be arranged according to strength. Mages who had coupled with one monster could have two pets, those who coupled with two monsters could have four pets.
For the choice of the pet, he would go for the strongest he had in his ring, the three and four horned monsters. He intended to start with three horned ones, and for those who passed to the last stage, completed the coupling process, would be granted a four horned monster as their second pet.
As he finished his preparations, Amelia came with Randy, who left other mages to patrol the perimeter. Once they reached him, Amelia started the topic they wanted to talk about by saying:
"Randy wants to take these green leaves and train them in the forest."
Arthur looked at him as he said:
"I know we should leave to lead one army in two days time, but I think we can delay one more day, take the boys to hunt some monsters, collect more ore, and return. These kids need to taste what it feels like on a real battlefield."
He had a point here, and Arthur knew this, but his schedule was already tight. He wanted to start invading other clans, and head towards the academy hidden deep beyond these clans. He couldn't afford to lose much time.
When Randy noticed his hesitation, he added:
"We can have some of them to obtain flying pets, this way we can shorten a lot of time without any risk."
"But the number of flying monsters is so small, not exceeding twenty," Arthur annoyingly said, as he now regretted not having many flying monsters.
"These are enough already, three armies, with each having seven flying pets. We can move hundreds of mages on their backs, and we even can divert our armies into smaller ones," Amelia said, trying to support Randy.
Arthur sighed, as he knew what the two were thinking of was the right decision to make.
"Ok, you will move tomorrow then, and be back within two days top," he said, before adding, "and you two will be on the head of them, I don't want any risks inside. After all the clans we are invading don't have mages as far as I know."
"Don't worry, we won't take them too deep," Randy said, as his eyes flashed with some ambition.
These kids were the new cornerstone of Arthur's empire, gaining their trust would benefit him in the future. Arthur himself could read his mind, understanding all this, but he didn't say anything to him.
After all, inside any strong sect, many would seek their advantages as well. As long as they helped the sect to grow, and never compromised the safety of the sect, they wouldn't be suppressed by the leaders of the sect.
Arthur knew this, and so he didn't object to Randy's little ambition here.
Giving them his blessing meant he had only one day to finish everything. He had to finish the pet step first, then start at once the coupling step.
So, he went to another area, bigger than the previous one, located on the back of his mansion, and started to draw on earth the circles needed for the coupling process. He also took out many ores, and started writing on them as well.
"Randy, you will be responsible for the pet contract process, just supervise the process as a whole. Amelia, your turn is to supervise the coupling process," he said, as he was busy taking out the monsters for the two processes, replenishing the drawings on the ground, and the runes he had to replace each time.
The two nodded, as they all witnessed him do this process over and over again. They knew the key words to activate the two steps, but they didn't know the details of each step, especially these rocks which Arthur was very careful towards.
They noticed how much attention he had when he put the ores of the ground.. The ores were the key to his whole processes, and without deciphering them, none could replicate his doing, none.