Tamas was carefully etching in the metal lines with her Heat marker. Although the flourishes and precision came easy to her by now, she still needed to focus. One mistake and she would have to start all over. The day before they had suddenly received a commission from the Lumen Forces for a total of 20 Light Bombs. They were making some pretty decent progress with this latest batch. It was not really what they would normally work on, but the pay certainly was good.

‘War certainly is good for business. At least when it does not raze your workshop to the ground’ she thought wryly

It would have been a monumental task if they had to make the Light Bombs from scratch, but they were handed the shells of some Light Bombs that had already been used, which made the task much simpler. Now all they had to do was repair the damage, although she had to redraw all the lines again. Her grandfather and Menos worked on fixing the cracks and structural damage, while she did the work that required fine control with Soul Force. Her grandfather was somewhat capable with Soul Force himself, but she had long surpassed him in this area.

Fixing the Light bombs was not much of a problem, she worked quickly. It was simply a task of first infusing Soul Heat into the Heat Marker, after which she would redraw the metal lines into the double-layered wooden balls, and finally, she would infuse the lines with a stable dose of Soul Light. It was well within her capabilities. Once the constructs were done, the warriors could throw the ball on the ground in a pinch. By cracking the lines, all the infused Soul Light would be released in one intense burst, temporarily blinding any creature with their eyes open.

Making these constructs was not her only contribution, she had also enlisted into the Lumen Forces. The Lumen Defense was always in need of skilled Soul Mages, and she was able to work with all the basic effects with some skill. She should mostly be safe in the Wall fortifications, her only task infusing Soul Devices and traps when they were needed. They certainly did not expect her to fight, she would not have had the ability anyway. She took the five commandments of the Adenium church seriously and felt a certain obligation in using the abilities that she had honed. She so hated the blood and death though, hopefully any attack would be expertly handled without any bloodshed anywhere near her. No, the real danger would be to the people directly clashing with the creatures of the Blight like Christopher, and if they somehow lost control of the defenses then they would all be doomed regardless.

She had started to feel much better in the last few days. She had admittedly been a little shell-shocked after the events of the last two weeks, but who could really blame her after barely escaping death multiple times. She still did not quite understand how the events had come to pass that had saved her that last time. Saved by an idiot was all she could think at the start. But lately, that idiot was paired with a lot of mystery.

She could not believe that Christoper had somehow managed to exceed her in her Soul Heat ability. Admittedly it was far from her best Soul Effect, but she had still spent many hours over the last few years reading and practicing the effect. No way could all that effort be surpassed in just a single afternoon.

She just knew something strange was going on, but she was unable to get it out of him, it seemed clear that there was something he was not telling her. Still, everyone had a right to keeping certain secrets, she very much doubted that these were anything malicious. He had also pretty much saved her after all, and all her interactions with him made her doubt any nefarious reasons behind anything he hid. Still, she had long stopped believing in his feigning of total memory loss, there were too many hints in their conversations that something else was going on. But dear Avalla, that guy was so oblivious to pretty much every common-sense thing. Just thinking about him kind of annoyed her. She wondered what he was doing now.

***

There was a nervous energy among Christopher and the other trainees during their training session. After this training they would be meeting up with their platoons for the first time. He could hardly believe that he was being drafted into the military. In his previous life, he had never shown any interest in joining anything of the sort. He wondered if he had the right temperament to be a good soldier.

He had received quite a shock when he learned that Tamas would be joining the defense force as well. With her distaste for the Arena and fighting in general he had assumed she would stay far away from the front lines. It seemed that it was mostly her firm belief in the Adenium Church that had caused her to sign up. She was a skilled Soul Mage, and the Lumen Forces had a burning need for people like her to power the traps and constructs. She would be placed far from his own station between the northern and eastern gate. Christopher had been quite upset when he had learned that Tamas would be joining the Lumen Forces, she did not even know how to fight after all, but he knew that criticizing her choices would be hypocritical.

Christopher was just winding down his training with the bow when he and the others were called to gather by Sin, which was somewhat irregular.

“Later today you will meet with your Platoons for the first time. I want you all to keep close attention to the strategies and ranking of the different individuals. You have little time to acclimate to how things function inside the Lumen Forces, so try to learn as much as you can. Normally, I would have presented this at the end of your program here, but these are exceptional circumstances. It is very possible that you might need this before our classes together reach their conclusion. You all have given it your best over these last four weeks, and therefore all of you are deserving.”

There were some surprised and excited whispers among the others, all curious what they could possibly receive. Sin reached for a second sack that she had been guarding during the entire training session. She put in her hand and out of the large sack she pulled a dagger scabbard. The scabbard was made from a simple black leather, and sticking out from the scabbard was a sleek handle. When she drew the Dagger out of the scabbard it looked quite stunning. A somewhat blue-tinted metal blade protruded from a sleek oiled wooden hilt.

“These daggers have been crafted by one of the Adeniums Church’s top Blacksmiths. Now that you have been placed in your own units you will all need a weapon to defend yourselves with if the Blight makes it into our city and the walls are overrun. By infusing a little bit of your Soul Force into the metal of this blade, it will become especially adept at cutting through the Blight. The weapons of the Lumen Forces are fine, but these daggers might just make the difference between dying and surviving an encounter. I trust that you will all use your weapons responsibly and keep your daggers in perfect order. Please form a line so that I can hand you your dagger.”

The entire group of trainees kept remarkably silent after this declaration, all in awe at this expensive and beautiful gift. Sine bade them to respectfully come forward one by one, after which she very casually handed them one of the beautiful daggers out of the large sack. Christopher was one of the last, and he carefully drew the dagger, admiring the blue-tinted metal. Arlo was almost reverently holding the dagger within both his hands, looking as if he had received a divine artifact. Admittedly, he very much felt the same.

“When I started training all of you, I would have never expected you to face creatures of the Blight so soon in your training. Please remember your own limitations, and don’t rush an enemy that you know you can’t beat. This is not a story, and knowing your own limits is the only way to stay alive. Try to support and protect your fellow squad members, and stay safe. That is all.” She had kept her usual business-like tone during the whole proceeding.

They were all still holding and admiring the beautiful blades after Sin had departed from the clearing. Christopher was also carrying the hunter's knife and realized that it could not begin to match the craftsmanship of his new dagger when comparing the two. The blade was longer and sleeker and had a small curve to it. He poured in a little of his Soul Force and it really did seem to cling to metal somewhat. With the Blight being totally devoid of Soul Force, he was not surprised that such a weapon might prove especially effective. He suddenly wished it was Soul Bound because he really did not want to lose it across a potential restart.

Christopher was by now very much aware of the available skills in the Interface store, and one of the more interesting ones suddenly looked a lot more important to him. He had already been very interested in this skill, but now that he had the new dagger, he could not help but take a look at it again.

It was a general skill, but it was certainly very useful. The skill cost a total of 900 Soul Points, far from what he would be able to afford at the moment. But it would solve a lot of his problems. If he was now forced to use [Bookmark], he would have no clothing and no weapons. This skill would solve all of those problems and also allow him to bring this beautiful dagger. Being able to summon and dismiss weapons was also a great boon during a fight. Still, he could not afford it right now, having only 360 Soul Points available. He would need to earn Soul Points during the looming attack if he wanted to buy this skill.

His musings were interrupted by Hito, who sported a big grin. “I just can’t believe it. These are genuine Adeline daggers. These should have cost a fortune to produce and can only be crafted by a top blacksmith.”

“Is it normal for trainees to receive such a weapon at the completion of a training class?”

“Not at all, I’m not saying that it never happened, but I never really heard of a group receiving such high-quality weapons. And certainly not beginners like us.”

‘Then who the hell paid for those weapons?’ Could the Adenium Church have commissioned these weapons for all their trainees? It should be easy to find out if other groups had received similar gifts. Certainly, they would not be the first targets of such precious weapons with their low skills. Maybe the Earl had commissioned these weapons for the trainees due to the circumstances in Lumen, but then again, there should be more worthy targets. He also figured that Sin would have mentioned it if the gift came from the Earl or the Adenium Church. Could it have been Sin herself that had financed the daggers? She was placed high in the Lumen Ladder so she might have the coin for it. It was a mystery for now, but it would be quite the extravagant gift for people that you hardly knew.

Christopher now had two daggers, which was also what they had trained with during all their sessions. He attached the new scabbard to his belt. This Adeline metal blade was quite the boon.