The journey from Lingdon to Thesali would take a week and that was despite the fact that they were passing through the Grimhallow Forest. While Mana Beasts didn’t pose the same level of threat as dungeon beasts or the rare but cataclysmic dungeon break, that was only a relative comparison. The mana flowing through their veins wasn’t the tainted black mana, but the natural mana of the world itself, be that regular or attuned mana and it was believed that mana beasts predated human civilization itself.

  The ranks of mana beasts’ strength were divided by select titles of nobility itself. It wasn’t certain who had come up with the idea and Lucan didn’t know if it was just another one of countless ways to remind the working class of who their rulers were or if the significance of the threat and consequently, power they were facing was depicted in a manner that even people furthest removed from the world of magic and aura, the commoners born without mana cores or as mages liked to address them, the official term latents and the much more impolite term, nulls, would be able to understand the grave nature of the threat they faced.

  Pawn, Knight, Baron, Count and Duke Class were the five ranks that distinguished and represented the strength, mana density and the level of danger posed by Mana Beasts, while regular animals born without a beast core resided in the open forests of the north or within the city walls itself, as animals were domesticated, being the most regular supply of meat, milk and a hundred other byproducts. It was said that a Duke-Class Mana Beast was the equal of a Fifth-Circle Master Mage, which meant that within the Grimhallow Forest there resided mana beasts that could wipe out Lucan’s party with little to no difficulty.

  However, if Duke-Class Mana Beasts were the only threat, then the Royal Family would have long since sent a few Grand-Master Mages to eviscerate the Grimhallow forest. Not because they were concerned about how the Grimhallow forest limited the North’s trade potential, but ironically enough, because the Grimhallow forest served as a natural barrier for the North in case of a potential civil war and also limited the influence the center could exert on northerners.

  It should have been the North that was last to fall and not Cravess, in the previous timeline, but the King himself had ordered one half of the North’s forces to march to defend the capital and the Duke Velmoria had chosen to comply. For if the centre was lost then the kingdom ceased to exist and if he defied a direct order from the king, it was a declaration of civil war against the kingdom when it was fighting for its very existence.

  Even then though, Lucan couldn’t understand his father’s actions in the previous timeline, for surely a Master Mage was clever enough to realize that aiding the crown would be no different from surrendering his own territory.

  Of course, the Seven Sect Alliance, which had been testing the North’s defenses for centuries had chosen that moment to issue a religious edict by the grace of their All-Seer, which united the otherwise tumultuous alliance leaders and resulted in the full force of their amassed reserves and planning coming crashing down on the Northern Wall.

  It was always a long shot for the Cyndrian Empire to try and conquer the north, so they had let the weakness of the aristocratic model do it for them. Undoubtedly, they had send messages to the Seven Sect Alliance, but had it not been for the King’s selfish demands, the Northern Wall would not have fallen.

  The Seven Sect Alliance had been quick to divide the north amongst themselves and unlike the empire’s mages, they had respected the ethics of war and kept civilian casualties as low as they reasonably could. But they hadn’t pressed deeper into the chaos of what the world had begun to call Black Mages, Nostura’s forces and the mess that was Grimhallow Forest.

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  For within the largest forest in the Kingdom, slumbered Ancient Ones that had been around since the first dawn. History had spoken in whispers about the conquest of these Ancient Mana Beasts, but the list of Grand-Mages that had died in combat trying to slay them was far longer and each time, the reward gained for such a momentous accomplishment had been piddling, because the Ancient Ones were either mutated beyond recognition or were unique in their species and upon their death, the mana in their beast cores returned to the world.

  So who knew how many ancient ones were slumbering in the Grimhallow Forest and who was crazy enough to slaughter them? In the modern era, the answer for the latter atleast, was no one.

  Lucan, who was pretending to be asleep and secretly meditating instead, had satisfied his curiousity about the Grimhallow Forest for now and he was, in fact, excited for a change.

  Trade needed to take place within the North and the Centre and the ancient ones did not react until a certain threshold was crossed. So a few hundred years ago, due to the efforts of dozens of specialist mages and a handful of masters, a path was carved through the Grimhallow Forest, largely snaking around with a periphery and protected by a Fifth-Circle Formation Spell that had been continously updated with improved knowledge for the last five or so centuries.

  The end result was one of the most impressive formation spells in the Kingdom’s existence, the full knowledge of which only the crown possessed.

  The Golden Road connected the North to the Center, wide enough to support two dozen carriages marching down the road at once yet nearly not anywhere near expansive enough to support an army’s march, let alone having enough space to camp. Any mana beasts that were to intrude upon the golden road’s territory would be automatically targeted by the Golden Road Formation and every time they used Mana to attack, the intensity of their attack would be reduced by one whole class.

  So a fearsome Baron-Class Mana Beast would have its attacks reduced to a much more manageable Knight-Class, while a still fairly threatening Knight-Class Mana Beast would have the strengths of its attacks to at or below the level of an Apprentice Mage, making them no threat at all. Even Count-Class Mana Beasts were no exception to this rule, but even the Golden Road could not guarantee weakening a Duke-Class Mana Beast.

  If the intruding Mana Beast was not dispatched within five minutes of their encroachment, then the Golden Road Formation’s failsafe would kick in and it would begin assisting with the elimination of the target. The formation was capable of eliminating Count-Class Mana Beasts without much difficulty, however it was also incredibly judicious with its use of Mana in its attacks to avoid being overwhelmed by wave tactics.

  And even if the second layer of defense failed, then the handful of specialist mages that were part of the golden road’s combat team would be alerted by the formation and deployed accordingly.

  It was far from an impervious defense, but that wasn’t surprising considering that the only real way to secure the Golden Road completely was to either eliminate the Grimhallow Forest itself or deploy dozens of specialist mages and a few master mages periodically across checkpoints throughout the length of the road, which was a ridiculous proposition.

  As it was, the specialist mages on the Golden Road’s combat team was paid in ludicrous sums, because few who had reached that stage wished to spend their time guarding a road that was largely uneventful. Not to mention, that even if the funding issue could be solved, the mobilization of such powerful mages en masse would mean attracting the attention of the ancient ones, which defeated the purpose of the formation itself.

  Duke-Class Mana Beasts hadn’t intruded on the golden road in decades and a count-class beast willing to weaken itself to maul a few humans was a rarity as well, so it was mostly younger, weaker and more foolish beasts that were wild enough to barge into enemy territory. Otherwise, the Golden Road was just regarded as human territory and considering how small of a portion it was of the grimhallow forest, no powerful mana beast contested them over the territory.

  So when Lucan’s carriage came to an abrupt halt and Daven Caravine bellowed out, “Seven Knight-Class Ironhide Boars! Incoming!” Lucan was more intrigued than afraid.

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