“Get moving!” Soldier shouted. Orders such as these were filling up entire Dashire.

Everyone, including Kaden, had been ordered to gather up foodstuff and anything relevant. Kaden had been quickly inspected by a higher ranked soldier and was deemed able to lift a sword. That was basically the only requirement.

“Sir, me and my son are smiths in Dashire and my wife crafts leather armor”, Aden said as they were being inspected. “We would likely be better in maintaining your weapons and armor than anything else.”

“Hmmm, not even Channel Opening stage?” Replied the man in displeasure. “You can’t even craft or maintain mana formations? You are better off swinging sword at enemies. Get going or I’ll have you punished for insubordination!”

Useless.

The imperial soldiers didn’t care the slightest what skills people of Dashire might have had.

While Kaden went with his parents to collect all the things from their home, they passed by Peil who was talking to the monk.

“I was sent to this village years ago to bring blessings of the gods here”, Peil said slowly as if he was making sure he didn’t say wrong words or perhaps that each of his words were heard correctly. “What am I to do now? Do the holy orders include me too? As far as I’m aware, church works with the emperor, but does not take orders. Is it my duty to go with the military?”

“Of course not, brother Peil”, replied the monk with smile. “Seek the truth from your heart! Know the gods desire! Depending on the answer, you may return back to the temple at Celadon and be reassigned elsewhere or if you feel truest path is to follow these people you may do so too.”

Peil stood there a moment in silence. “In that case, I will try to bring those that aren’t considered fit to fight to Celadon. This place will be overrun with beasts once hunters are gone.”

The imperial soldiers would take almost everyone. Old and weak, disabled and children too young to be even able to use mana would be left behind. With no protection they would only end up feeding beasts from the surrounding areas.

As for Peil’s choice. It wasn’t much better. Even if he was priest at Channel Opening stage, he would somehow have to be able to take the long trip to Celadon while protecting children and elderly. Even experienced hunters would go in groups of at least three or four. Perhaps there was only small chance of survival. The other option was, yet again, certain death.

Kaden heard all this. He wasn’t sure which was worse fate, to abandon Dashire and be forced to march into battle or be torn apart by beasts while holding small hope to reach safety.

Kaden gritted his teeth. “Dad, mom, what are we going to do?” He asked.

“We do what we must”, Aden replied with grim face. “We must concentrate on survival. Do anything that increases your chances. We do what they ask us to do, because doing otherwise means death. We must wait for a chance! One must come!”

“I hope we will still be alive at that point”, Ann said quietly.

“If not, we will meet in the next world”, Aden replied. “We have been devout followers of Fualu and we are good people. Gods will not reject our souls!”

Soon they arrived at their home. Their plan had been to collect things from their home first and pick up things they could use. Unfortunately, soldiers had sacked their home already and also the smithy. Doors were left open. Things that were considered unusable had been thrown out like trash. Metals had been taken. Leathers had been taken. Everything.

At this time another group of soldiers noticed them.

“Come with us. Get moving.” They just barked orders and they were not going to listen to any complaints. Kaden and his family did as ordered.

They were taken to Dashire’s special stores. It was the place were all better materials were stored. All those resources Kaden had hoped to get his hands on. Indeed, he did get his hands on them, but they were not his to use. It became clear that the said resources were to be given to the soldiers. None of the resources were considered even worth the time for anyone else.

Kaden noticed this. “This is weakness again!” He thought as he realized the sad truth. “Weak! I wanted to get strong, but even if I was strongest person in entire Dashire, I would still be weakling that no one would care about.”

There was nothing he could do about that and probably wouldn’t live long enough to even get the chance to.

Everything happened relatively quickly. It surprising how quickly a village like Dashire could be plundered empty of everything that is worth something. Despite the fact that villagers were not acting efficiently, the soldiers did. Very much so. They were experienced. Dashire was clearly not the only village to suffer this fate.

Why exactly bother with all of this? Dashire and other villages would have some hunters, but just how much would it be worth in a battle? Kaden wondered the purpose. Could the situation in war be so terrible that they would have everyone, even almost untrained civilians, pick up weapons and fight?

None of the options Kaden could think of were good.

Soon resources, cultivation materials, metals, food were sorted and packed. Villagers of Dashire were made to carry all of the plundered things. They would carry away their hard work out themselves, leaving Dashire barren.

Juren came out from one of the houses he had been in. He had this smile on his face, as if he had accomplished something and feeling joy from it. He walked around checking everything.

“Haha, get in line everyone, we will now move out and rejoin rest of the army north”, Juren shouted. “There is no time to waste.”

Soldiers and the conscripted villagers of Dashire started moving. As everyone moved out of the village, Kaden looked back. Was this the last time he would see his home? Dashire eventually disapeared in the distance. He could only walk forward and leave his home behind.

Kaden looked around as he took step after step. He noticed all the people from Dashire were in middle. Behind them there were solidiers and also in front there were soldiers. Was this to ensure no one would run?

It seemed lowest soldiers were on higher layer stages and any higher rank than ordinary were at least Channel Opening. It was clear that most of the soldiers were on higher stages of mana cultivation than people of Dashire.

All of the soldiers were at least on higher stages than Kaden. At that time, Kaden did not realize that there were very few soldiers in general that had such low cultivation. Weak soldiers did not last long. They wouldn’t last long in a fight, they would get tired sooner and they were able to accomplish least. Majority of conscripted people from Dashire were comparable to them.

It did not help that marching speed was set for the level to what ordinary soldiers could barely handle.

This was visible clearly be the evening when everyone were ordered to set up camp for the night. Many people simply put collapsed. Kaden himself was completely out of breath. He spent all his mana to just be able to move. Once he stopped, his legs gave away immediately.

In fact, Kaden had not even noticed until now that many of the people at first layer had disapeared somewhere. He could only see those adults that simply had very low talent and had never really progressed in their magic cultivation. They were similarly out of breath like Kaden. Where were all the younger ones, the ones about Kaden’s age?

“I think people are missing”, Kaden said quietly to his parents. “I can’t see any of the children.”

Aden and Ann didn’t say anything as the looked around too. Their faces eventually darkened a bit.

“This is bad”, Ann said.

“We are going too fast while carrying load”, Aden said and stopped looking around. Then he looked back at Kaden with a serious look. “Better not mention any of this to anyone. We might get punished for it. Kaden, if you can’t keep up, hand some load to us. Do not stop. Whatever you do, do not stop.”

At this point Kaden realized, the ones who could not keep up were probably dead. The soldiers would not stop or slow down for weaklings. Adults had stronger bodies so they would last a bit longer than children. That was the only reason they had not been left behind.

Kaden felt sudden urge to cycle his mana system. He needed to get stronger or at least fully restore his mana by the time march continued.

Kaden spent most of his time furiously cycling his mana system. He barely managed to fill his mana storage full and rest a bit before command to start the march again was heard. This was just some hours of time.

“Will we be marchin entire day this time?” Kaden thought to himself. He had with extreme difficulty managed to last most of previous day. Now sun was just coming up. If there was a rest only by the time sun goes down, it would mean many hours longer march. “How will I last until then? I must use mana sparingly or otherwise I will run out before next rest!”

It was on the first day that too weak children were left behind. As the second day march progressed adults at first layer were slowing down. People started to notice that none of them came back and people were disapearing. Terrified atmosphere descended upon everyone.

Kaden was starting to struggle eventually too. People at second layer were not that much stronger than the ones at first layer.

“This can’t keep up or I’ll be unable to continue!” Kaden thought to himself in distress. “I need to save more mana! Control! I learned some control while hammering metal in our smithy.”

Kaden attempted to take better control of his mana reserves. Marching was different from swinging hammer. Kaden remembered how his father had taught him to use mana. Aden had first showed him important muscles, correct stance, breathing right and other such efficiency increasing methods.

At first Kaden attempted to use mana only for his legs. That didn’t work. With trial and error and taking ideas from his previous knowledge, he concentrated mana in his organs too. Such as lungs, heart. Eventually he noticed even that wasn’t enough. Just how many muscles he needed to use to stay upright? Kaden realized he couldn’t just exclude some parts of his body. Generally speaking he needed most of it to keep going forward. Some parts less than others, though.

Kaden’s mana was dwindling.

“I need to concentrate! I need to use less mana and make do with it!”

This was only path for Kaden. He began concentrating on his mana storage and how he was draining mana from it for his use. He basically shut out most of the world outside and concentrated on his internal body. He just followed everyone, but didn’t do much else externally.

His concentration was only on how much mana he kept releasing. He eventually he found balance. His body screamed in exhaustion, but the small amount of mana Kaden gave out was just enough to keep it functioning. It wasn’t pleasant, but this way allowed Kaden to preserve significantly more mana!

It was working!

At least for a while.

Suddenly a crashing noise came from the side! Kaden was still in deep concentration so he had couldn’t react quickly.

Enormous beast crashed out from woods surrounding the road. It was extremely fast and Kaden couldn’t see it before it closed its jaw on the person just behind Kaden. While this the beast also crushed a few people as it grabbed for seemingly plumper prey.

Luckily Kaden only fell down and didn’t suffer more than a few bruises. On the other hand, the unlucky person was grabbed by an enormous beast which, now that Kaden saw it better, was some kind of bear with almost metallic looking fur. After catching its prey it quickly retreated back into the woods. It was sudden and quick ambush. That strong beast had to be at least dire beast… perhaps even high beast. It wouldn’t be dumb enough to start fighting large number of soldiers and the soldiers were unlikely to follow it.

Kaden was breathing heavily on the ground as soldiers were shouting around orders. He barely noticed as his parents came to help him stand up again.

“I can’t shut out everything!” Kaden thought. He had almost died and despite the sudden attack, he should have acted quicker. Had he been the beasts target, he wouldn’t have had time to do anything whether he was in deep concentration or not, but that he had not even really noticed the attack until he already fell on the ground.

In fact, he was in slight shock due to the sudden event. It was the third time he had seen someone die brutally. The killer had also been a huge beast. Hunters hunted that sort of creatures? How did they do it? Kaden felt terror.

Whether it was luck or misfortune, it seemed Kaden was learning some life lessons.

As for the learning of mana efficiency, while it was it seemingly progressing quickly enough, there was now a bigger problem than getting tired. Beasts of the forest had noticed suitable prey.