Time really flies when you’re not fighting a Champion mana-beast to the death. Luckily, almost 3 years passed without any other life-threatening happening to me as I completed my first tour of duty in the Legion.

Despite being in a different Cohort, Roshan and I kept in touch. He was clearly being bullied by the Yellow Shirt asshats (who also had the connections to avoid serving in the Ranger Cohort). But he insisted that things were fine and that life is peachy for him. Well, I couldn’t help him beyond teaching him how to at least land a right cross. I may not consider myself to be this guy’s BFF, but he did help me fill in massive knowledge gaps about this world (and basic reading comprehension). So the least I could do was to repay favor with favor. After all, I am NOT those people. I am Rummy of Carnwennan. I would NEVER be an ungrateful parasite who took things for granted.

Well, I hoped things would get better for him in the future...

Anyways, that epic fight (it wasn’t epic at the time when I was almost killed by an overgrown bear. But as a survivor looking back, it was fucking epic~) netted me some sweet loot that I actually got to keep! For my troubles, I got an awesome bear-leather armor set, a pair of bear fur boots, and a recurve bow made of bear sinew (my effective range increased to 200 meters with <<Air Blast>>!), an adept-grade fire, an adept-grade earth mana crystal, and 1st Squad’s promise to keep me out of the limelight by taking full credit for the kill. I probably could’ve gotten an upgraded helmet if I wanted, but I didn’t want to attract unwanted attention. The stuff I have now can be covered in a standard-issue ranger cloak, but that’s not true for helmets. All-and-all, my “stay under the radar” plan was still holding steady despite some hiccups.

The bear also had a life elemental mana crystal which allowed it to heal during the battle. And for obvious reasons I wouldn’t get to keep that. No complaints from me about that. Even if they gave it to me, I doubted I had the power to keep it. I’d rather not get stabbed over a piece of crystal, than you very much~

The loot I did receive was crucial in my harem plan- now I don’t have to devote resources in getting better gear based on my shitty Probationary Legionnaire salary. After all, this was the sort of thing you shouldn’t skimp on. With sufficiently decent gear, I could head out and hunt mana-beasts for extra food (legion rations barely qualified as “food”) and money (which I’ll need to begin my investment in my firearms project). With some luck, I could forge myself a flintlock rifle in a year or two!

As I suspected, the evac squad took heavy casualties. Under the “leadership” of Mitt, the squad broke and ran when a pack of wolves rushed at it. In his rush to abandon the trainees, he ran in the wrong direction and ended up as a snack to the flanking force (These mana-beasts were more tactical than I expected!) The other 2 deadweights got bit in the ass as they ran, but they survived. The poor trainees had it the worst. 4 of them died, and 3 of them got severely wounded.

Ironically, the settlers took no casualties thanks to stout leadership and experienced frontline fighters (Most of these settlers were former Rangers, after all). As one could imagine, Vinnick and Keith were really pissed that their Squad got embarrassed like that. Bezz and Mancho got “honorably” discharged on the spot. It was their connections that saved them from what they truly deserved- a few dozen lashes at the whipping post.

The 1st Squad was reconstituted with Vinnick as the Decanus and me as his second. No deadweights this time around, and the patrols went along swimmingly for almost 3 years. Under the steady mentorship of my Decanus, I became a much better shot and outdoorsman. With the help of <<Perfect Recall>>, I knew the Western Wilderness like the back of my hand. While the mana crystals I’d harvested during patrols were considered Legion property, the ones I’d harvested on my off time were my own. And I’ve taken advantage of that rule to gather quite a handful of mana crystals. Thanks to Legion commanders underestimating the ambition and capability of the typical peasant, I was able to amass a sizable fortune from these harvests.

Of course, I’ve endured a constant barrage of “advice” from Keith to stay on as a Ranger (I suspected the unusually generous reward I received was because of that), but my experiences with the bear and the deadweights gave me pretty good reasons to decline. If I was unlucky enough to get promoted to Decanus, I’d bet my left nut that I’d be saddled with well-connected deadweights who’d look down on my command (not to mention they’d try to sabotage me to advance their own careers). Fuck that shit.

Besides, my 2 reasons for joining the Rangers were to scout the Wilds and to gather the necessary resources for forging firearms. And if I had to fork over the mana crystals I’d harvested while I was on the clock, maybe I should stay off the clock permanently~

In fact, the entire Legion reward system was a fucking scam to begin with. 15 years of service in a godsforsaken death jungle for a piece of land in the very same death jungle? Don’t make me laugh! And besides, I’ve seen some of those settlements, and they were real sausage-fests. After all, very few women would voluntarily leave the city for the Wild since Artorian culture greatly frowns upon women learning combat and settlements didn’t have 5-8 meter stone walls, a freaking castle, and a line of watchtowers protecting it.

Sadly, this was also a problem that I would have to contend with if I were to claim my domain within the Wild and start my harem there. I hadn’t lived in the city myself, but this kid’s memories of the city were not very flattering- abusive nobles doing whatever they wanted, general lack of economic opportunities, and cruel winters that could break a man’s spirit. With that in mind, the best idea I could think of for now was to illegally settle in the Wilds with a few women by my side.

Sure, I’ve hunted down illegal settlers myself before, but those idiots made the mistake of living within the Rangers’ patrol zones, thinking they could still rely on the legal settlements for trade and the Rangers for protection against the Wild. No, if I’m going rogue, I’d have to settle at least 5-10 klicks (km) away from the edge of the patrol zones.

Trouble was, I’d have to find women who were ambitious and crazy enough to go with me out there. And they’d had to be loyal so they wouldn’t see my future firearms as a treasure to backstab over. Yeah, that was gonna be hard...

Anywho, back to the Legion scam. Granted, for a peasant with no status, this was one of the few ways to socially advance and actually own land. But I was not participating in a shitty rat race, not again.

If I were to start my firearms project in earnest, I would need technical knowledge and experience in metal-working. This would mean pivoting my career to forge-smithing. Besides, I still have major gaps in knowledge regarding mana crystals and how they work to enhance the Knights. It is never a foolish endeavor to study the weapons and armor of your future enemies.

Over the last year of my Ranger tour, I’ve been accumulating a different kind of resource: connections to the forge-smiths (thank you, Roshan, for the introduction~). I’ve been harvesting mana crystals from hunted beasts and selling them at a friendly discount to the Legion forge-smiths. And thanks for all that subtle bribery, they’ve recommended me to the Auxiliary Cohort as a forge-smith for my next tour.

There was one particular forge-smith that I’ve even bothered to learn the name of- Arminius. He was an outgoing old man with a sunny disposition with a long resume of students who eventually achieved Expert-level forge-smithing. Arminius, Roshan, and I have become drinking buddies of sorts this past year. I’ve gained a lot of nuggets of wisdom from him, and it has been nice to knock back a few after all that hardcore grinding in the Wilds.

Poor Arminius had been trying to retire, but since Social Security wasn’t a thing in this world, you could retire only if you had a dependable son to support you. Sadly, he didn’t have such a luxury. His 2 daughters were married off (daughters were considered to be out of the family after marriage) and his son had been stuck as an Adept-level forge-smith despite 17 years in the business.

But that’s where I come in. On my-off days (one of the many reasons why the Aux was so popular was because they actually give you 1 day a week off), I took mana crystal requests from artisans like him who were trying to get mana crystals on the cheap so they could profit more from their commissioned work. After all, Arminius had to build his own retirement nest egg, and the profit margins on typical commissioned work simply wasn’t a lot after factoring in the cost of materials.

In turn, I used the profits to upgrade my supporting gear to be a bit better than Ranger standard-issue. In addition, I’d bolstered my inventory with ropes, grappling hooks, and utility belts. I’ve also begun to map out the Wilds on a waterproof boarskin (that was pretty costly) with additional details the 626th Legion maps didn’t have.

It’s been a year since I transferred over to the Auxiliary Cohort in the forge-smithy “Squad” (That was how we were organized even though we weren't considered a frontline unit). And that’d been the routine- work in the forge in the daytime, and hunt at nighttimes and off-days. Sleep was for the weak.

I was on one such “supply run” on my off-day when I ran into them.

Witches.

Well, not the stereotypical witches with big hats and evil cackles. In this world, Witches weren’t mischievous agents of chaos out to fuck with you just for shits and giggles. Here, Witches were spec-ops legionnaires specializing in wetwork (spying, assassination, kidnapping, etc) that no self-respecting Archmage, Mage, Paladin, or Knight would ever do. They reported directly to the Emperor and were rumored to be his personal concubines as well. That didn’t make me jealous at all. No siree.

With top of the line gear and training, a flexible operational doctrine, and a merciless reputation, they had struck fear into the hearts of men in a society that generally sees women as an inferior species. The first time I met them was a couple of months ago during a patrol. That’s when Vinnick exposited most of what I know about them. They were certainly a rare sight in the Wild; their targets usually lived in cities.

Anyways, I saw a group of 5 women in cloaks running by me while I was digging at the heart of a bear mana-beast for its crystal. Since I was about a day away from the city with nobody near me, I was afraid they might kill me to cover their tracks. But in an anti-climatic manner, they ignored me and rushed ahead, seemingly in a hurry. Their cloaks covered most of their gear, but I did steal a glance at their famed ebony dragon leather armor set as they ran. Yeah, I doubt even an overcharged shot could punch through that.

It suddenly dawned on me that if they’re in a hurry, they probably won’t harvest the crystals of the unlucky mana-beasts that happen to get in their way. I could follow them and make bank from vulturing their kills! Sure, they might get pissed at me and try to kill me, but the greedy side of me won the argument (after all, researching and developing an era-ending weapon wasn’t cheap). With my stealth training and noise-reducing boots, I was confident in my ability to remain undetected as long as I keep a healthy distance. The risk-reward ratio was simply too juicy for me to pass up.

I began to pick up the pace of the extraction. The steel knife that Arminius made for me really expedited the process compared to the Ranger standard-issue iron one I had. As I finished extracting the earth mana crystal from the corpse, I saw a pack of wolves coming my way. The reason why most (99%) people didn’t venture into the Wild alone was because of these wolves. They excelled at attacking from the flanks or the back, and understood the value of tactics. No matter how gifted in combat one soldier can be, against the tactical might of the pack, he was nothing but food.

Of course, I came into this forsaken death jungle fully prepared for this possibility. I grabbed the Adept-level air mana crystal from my utility belt, and whispered the Adept-level spell, <<Updraft>>. A torrent of air suddenly lifted me up 3 meters up. I swung my grappling hook at the closest sequoia-like tree branch and climbed my way up. I found myself sitting on a thick branch roughly 4 meters off the ground. Good luck flanking me now, bitches!

***

Fuck those wolves! I almost lost track of the Witches because I had to snipe the whole pack and clean up the site (arrow recovery and mana crystal extraction). Fortunately, they were not in the mood to conceal their tracks. I followed their tracks in a hurried pace. After an hour of running, I saw a small demonstration of the might of the Witches. A pack of 2 dozen wolves led by a Champion wolf was utterly annihilated. The Champion wolf, which was the size of a wooly mammoth, would’ve looked truly intimidating had it not been decapitated. Most of the other wolves had a hole the size of a thumb near their foreheads. Wow! I was impressed by their precise killing strokes that wastes no unnecessary effort. This was as much of a massacre as it was a surgery.

I quickly extracted the mana crystals and left the scene. Then I rushed after the Witches, scavenging dozens of mana crystals in the process. As night falls, I spotted a campfire about half a klick away. OK, I guess they were done for the day too.

Note to self: think about building a binocular in the future. The tactical advantage of being able to see that far out is immense.

I <<Updraft>> myself to a tall tree and secured myself on the branch and trunk of the tree with my trusty rope. As I admired the beautiful night sky, adorned by a crescent moon, I reflected on why I chose to continue pursuit when I could’ve already gone back with a bountiful harvest of mana crystals. And then I realized that it wasn’t logic that drove me further west than I’ve ever gone. It was simple curiosity. I wanted to see what’s out there, and more importantly, I wanted to see what’s so important here in this unholy hellhole that the Emperor himself had to send his Witches to retrieve/kill.

Well, I suppose my curiosity shall be satisfied soon enough. Time to catch a quick snooze…