As it turned out, Fort Waller already knew about the invasion. Which was why Casimir got an immediate audience with General Ironspine when he ran at full speed to the citadel, braking over a single half mile leap by converting his speed into force mana which was shoved within his mana heart. It wasn’t a fast, effective, or easy method of slowing down, but it did allow him the peace of mind that you get when you have the energy to run away if things go south.

“You’re asking a lot of me, with such a fantastical report.” The general said after Casimir’s explanation.

“Believe me or not.” Casimir said. It wasn’t his country. “The facts remain: There’s a big tunnel through that mountain range, and there are kobolds there.” Casimir tapped the map in front of them. “You have a few thousand refugees traveling here to hide from the Jurta Federation’s army. That army has seized a sizable chunk of your food supply, and they have fortified that tunnel.”

“Armies have been trying to use monsters as allies for centuries.” The well-dressed dwarf explained. “You expect me to believe that Jurta’s pulled it off?”

Casimir waved his hand noncommittally. “Eh, it might be more that there’s an intelligent monster manipulating Jurta.”

“Like that’s any better.” General Ironspine groused.

“Well I’ve already gone above and beyond my actual job.” Casimir said, turning to leave. “Good luck with the invasion.”

“You’re not going to try and upsell me?” The general asked, not nearly as amused as he tried to make himself sound. “Will wonders never cease.”

“I kill monsters, not people.” Casimir replied, lingering at the door. Most of the time, anyway. It’s not an ironclad rule. “Besides that, I’m busy. If you’re interested in hiring mercenary adventurers, I’ll wait for you to draft a request and drop it off at an Adventurer’s guild.”

The general’s eyes narrowed at the deflection. “What did you say your quest was, again?”

“I didn’t.” Casimir retorted. At the general’s hardening gaze, he elaborated. “If you must know, I’m tracking down revenants. It’s nothing y’all have time to deal with.”

“Revenants…” Muttered General Ironsides as he went through the papers on his desk. Plucking a particular document, he turned it over to face Casimir. “These?” Indeed, sketches of Magnus’ stone face and Luci’s wrapped visage were depicted in a standard Adventurer’s guild bounty notice.

Casimir’s eyes widened in surprise. Those were already out? “You’re well-informed.” Casimir complimented. “Yeah, those revenants.”

The general looked once more at the document. “This is important: Are they in this region? What are you following?”

Casimir shrugged. “They died at the Wounded Wastes, I was going to scope it out.”

“That’s a dangerous place.” The general noted. He stood up and went to a filing cabinet, disarming a security measure before opening it and plucking a folder out of it. “According to my sources, the mana-draining properties of the wastes have been diminishing over the last year.” Casimir nodded. They had destroyed the massive ritual the Soul-Devouring Dragon had going to cause that, after all. “However, “ Crap. “-it has since returned to full strength, starting about two months ago.” Magnus could easily restore the waste’s properties if he was so inclined. Looks like he was there.

Casimir held his hand out, requesting the document. The general considered it, and must have decided there wasn’t anything sensitive in the folder as he handed it over after a beat. The folder had a few technical details about how the effect was measured and exact figures, and it contained a more detailed map than Casimir had, but otherwise it pretty much just said what the general said it did. Spending a moment to magically memorize the map, he passed the folder back. “Thanks for the warning.” Hopefully David still has the insulated suit…

“It doesn’t sit right with me to not reward you for the information you’ve provided, little as it was.” The general replied. “Is there anything else you’ve left out that could be relevant?”

Ah, that was his angle. It wasn’t exactly a secret, so… “Only that the last time they were seen, they were directing kobolds in cooperation with some human patsies assisting with whatever they were doing.” Understanding dawned in the general’s expression. “Odds are low that they’re helping Jurta directly, but ‘low’ is not ‘zero’.” Actually… “Their confederates had encrypted orders. Here’s one of the coded messages, if you find something similar, send me a copy through the guild and I’ll decrypt it for you. I only have one code wheel.” He may not be as good at ciphers as Master Southwind, but he knew how this one worked now.

After accepting the sample, the general stroked his full beard as he considered this new information. “Strange times are upon us, Adventurer Toomes.”

“You said it.” Casimir replied before leaving.

----------------

The column of refugees had made… less progress than Casimir expected, but it wasn’t any of his business how fast they were moving.

His students all rushed towards the front of the column as he approached, and Casimir could hear the tones of mind magic Illivere was using to keep a sensory network active. Good initiative, enlisting the ones that were already scouting for the column.

“Any trouble?” He asked.

Faron stepped forward to report. “A few monsters, nothing we couldn’t handle.” He gestured to the spirit nestled in Hanna’s collar that smelled of life, nearly indistinguishable from Hanna’s underlying mana affinity. It was tiny, as spirits go, despite the potent mana strength Casimir could smell from it. It was probably compressing its size, which was odd behavior, but not unheard of. “This is WIllow Knot, a spirit that Hanna found and befriended.”

Casimir nodded along to the explanation. “Spoils?” He asked.

“We’re still traveling light, so we only took cores.” Faron explained.

“Makes sense. There were a few monsters along the trail I took care of, so it should be safe-ish for us to move on.” Casimir said. Moving to Mr. Alderman, Casimir handed off the reply to their missive. “Short version: They’re ready to shelter you, and they’re sending two hundred soldiers back down the road to escort you.” Casimir shrugged. “That’s the best I can afford to do.”’

“Nevertheless, thank you.” replied Mr. Alderman. “Your students were a huge help. You don’t see monsters as fearsome as garnoars often around these parts, so with that dispatched, I believe we can handle ourselves from here on out.” Wait, they killed a garnoar?

Casimir looked towards his students, focusing his senses on them. It was a bit difficult to discern exhaustion after using life mana to remove it and injuries… but he could see that Illivere had a rather significant life mana buildup, now that he was looking closely. “Hm. I’ll be on my way then.”

Fortunately, his students had already started binding more mana, anticipating his next instructions. They’re well-trained. He took a position alongside them and started binding more of his own. Thrust. Throw. Throttle. Sway. Swing. Twist.

The process takes about thirty minutes of mindless repetition, wastefully moving with strength that could crush stone, and speed that would normally create cracks of air as his limb passes. But instead, that force is compressed within his mana heart, and the motions impact the environment as if he was dancing to the slowest of songs.

After the comforting strain of a mana heart fit to bursting emerged in his chest, he turned to his students. “Are you ready to leave?” At their confirmation, he turned away from the refugee column, having passed them by completely recently enough to still be visible. “We’ve got not much further to go until we reach Krallent, we should get there by lunch tomorrow. Follow me!”

With that, he burst into motion, going at a rather sedate pace in comparison to his travels to the citadel, but his students ran after him in a dead sprint, struggling to keep up with the pace he set. They should, he was going faster than before… but so were they.

One of the many unsubstantiated theories, or rather, one of the claims of certain cults, was that killing monsters automatically granted a portion of their strength to their killers. This was… difficult to verify. The thing that distinguishes mana cultivation from augmentation curses was that the mana in question integrates so thoroughly within the body that it cannot be distinguished from the body’s natural mana. Meaning, it has the same ratios of mana that it would normally have, the absolute quantity of mana has just increased. Sorcerers are an exception, as an experienced one can scarcely be distinguished from a spirit, their mana is so heavily purified into their chosen aspect. This provides similar increases in durability, strength, flexibility, reflexes, etcetera that normal mana cultivation provides, but it’s much more detectable.

There were anecdotal accounts aplenty for this phenomenon… but there were other methods that were proven to create mana cultivation, and all of those anecdotes included those methods, too. Channeling mana, allowing one’s mana heart to dissipate, subsisting on a high mana diet, sleeping in high-mana areas, recovering from wounds with healing magic… All of these things are proven to increase mana cultivation. It was another reason why his students were as strong as they were, growing up in Anima gave them a head start. Training there was several times as effective as similar effort done here, as well.

But even with all of that, you always heard stories about experiencing new strength after defeating a monster much stronger than they were. Most of those stories were easily attributable to themselves merely gaining confidence from overcoming such a great trial, or not bothering to measure their progress for months until after the event, or the healing treatments also restoring old wounds to fighting shape. Others… were the kinds of tales that kept the claim going. His students gaining a notable improvement to their speed right after defeating a monster like a garnoar… another anecdote for the pile?

It might just be his imagination. It wasn’t that much faster, and they could just have improved their efficiency with the force magic they’re using to increase their speed. But it does make him wonder what would happen if he brought them to battle Magnus or Luci… or their master. In all likelihood, they’d just die.

Which was the dangerous part of the tales. Facing creatures beyond you is something that should be avoided as much as possible, and risking one’s life for some unproven idea that it would provide strength is not behavior that should be encouraged.

Still, the idea of increasing the strength of his students to the point that they could join him into being a proper team… It held an appeal he could not deny. In fact… if he spent some time slumming quests as a negative mage with them, learning alongside… he could qualify for Archmage.

But such thoughts were for after this matter was resolved. After all, he still wasn’t sure he was going to survive this.

----------------

Krallent was a large but mana-poor mining town, the smokestacks of smelters creating a better marking of it on the map than any grand structure or useful sign would. Rich, with a large demand for enchanted goods. Casimir spent a month escorting a merchant who had brought over one thousand air purifier masks last year and they sold out within hours. In fact… several people were still wearing them, even if most of them had probably gotten broken by now. Was there an enchanter here now that maintained them? Or did the merchant just make another trip?

One of the quirks of being in such a mana poor area was that the local monsters were all pretty weak. But as a place that’s fairly distant from their neighbors, there were a lot of them. It was a vital resource of the Kerrite Queendom, so it had a substantial military garrison, but it also had a very large and active Adventurer’s guild. Such details were something he noticed last time he was here, so it was the perfect place to deposit his students while he went gallivanting off to the Wounded Wastes.

The Adventurer’s guild in this city was a large stone structure that was well-decorated with metal patina-covered flourishes, the green color of the rust creating a distinctive style that the town used as a common motif. As they approached, Casimir’s keen hearing picked out a note of excitement that a big shot adventurer had come to town.

“Did you hear? He fought half the adventurers here and beat them all at once!” Whispered an impressed teenager to his friends.

“We couldn’t fit any more men on that table, but he lifted the whole thing with one hand!” Recounted a flabbergasted warrior to the other folk who were loitering outside.

“Don’t you go thinking you can tie a man like that down, Eulice.” Warned a middle-aged woman to a younger one. “That’s the kind of man who has a girl in every town, and you don’t want to be in that spot. Trust me, I know.”

Ah, David had beat him there. Well, he knew that was a risk when he stopped to help those refugees.

Unlike the standard for large guilds, the entrance of a foreign adventurer immediately drew attention. It was mid-afternoon, so the crowd wasn’t big, but odds were good that David mentioned that he was meeting someone at some point, so the crowd was primed. One of the main reasons elites and heroes got epithets was so that they could have instant reputation even when they’ve never been somewhere, a way for far-flung locales to hear about the strong and trust that they can handle whatever weird quest drew the adventurer to the location.

Casimir was not the biggest fan of the system, so he almost never introduced himself with it. Still, he had dressed to impress, wearing full combat gear, and stubdurium was not a type of metal they could mine around here. In a mining town, exotic metals drew attention.

Casimir walked confidently to the front desk, with the small line stepping aside to allow him passage. He handed over paperwork to the older human at the front desk, his bald head gleaming with sweat due to the warm weather. “I’ve got a few things to handle here. First, is there any news on that bounty?” He asked, gesturing to the bounty notice he had included in the stack.

“Yes, we’ve been expecting you, Mr. Toomes.” The old man said, reaching under the counter and fetching a leather folder. “This came in yesterday from the central office. The reward has been expanded a bit, and an additional team has indicated that they will be pursuing this.”

Casimir looked through the contents of the folder, all transcriptions from long-range communication spells. Oh wow, that’s twice as much as it was when he left… “The Scourgebreakers?” Casimir said. “Yeah, that’s a good team.”

“They did decide to pursue it independently, but they’re thousands of miles away, so they’ll be pursuing what leads they can over there.” The old man said.

“On to the next matter.” Casimir said. “David’s here, right? David Smith?”

“He arrived last evening, yes.” The old man confirmed. “I don’t know where he is right now, but I’m sure he’ll be back at some point.”

“Right.” Casimir replied, nodding. “I’ll stick around here until he gets back then. On to the last matter.” He gestured to his students. “This team is made of freshly-promoted standard ranks, and I’ll be leaving them here with your hospitality to help out with the local quests for a while. Two weeks at least.” He pointed to the part of the paperwork where their current rank was listed. “Just give them whatever, their skills are all here on the assessment.”

He looked over the paperwork. “That shouldn’t be an issue, we have quite the backlog to go through. We’ll keep them plenty busy.”

“Good.” Casimir said with a grin. “They are my students, so treat them well.” Unspoken but understood in that kind of thing is that if the kids end up getting in serious trouble, Casimir’s willing to let the guild send him the bill if they can’t cover it. “Okay students, the first thing I want you to do is to come up with a new name. Toome’s team worked well enough in Anima, but in the wider world, you’re going to want to start getting reputation. I can get away with being mostly anonymous because even if people don’t know me on sight, they’ve all heard of my exploits, but if you want the big money, you need to get recognition from rich clients.”

His students immediately went into a huddle. Turning back to the old man, he waved and walked away from the counter.

“If he’s not in the building… I have some time to pick up some street food.” Casimir concluded. He left the building.

“You!” Shouted an angry but familiar voice.

Casimir turned towards the voice, only to see a stubdurium-capped staff flying straight towards his face.

Ah. He’s here.