Adrian had made it completely clear that she was not coming with him to the war.

She was staying in Oresfall. She had to focus on her mana engineering studies, practice her basic physical exercises, and stay safe inside the territory walls.

Aria knew this was the logical choice. A warzone was no place for a five year old kid, but she still hated it. She just wanted to stay near him.

’If I can’t go with him now, I’ll have to take steps that’ll force him to take me next time.’ she thought as she made up her mind.

"Papa." Aria looked up. "Can I have some mana crystals? I want to do some testing while you are gone."

"Sure, whatever you need." Adrian smiled as he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small bag of mana crystals from the dungeon, and handed them to her.

He looked up and made eye contact with Caelum.

The runesmith stood a few feet away, whom Adrian had officially appointed as Aria’s magic tutor.

"Take care of her." Adrian told Caelum. "Make sure she does not hurt herself while she experiments. Keep her safe."

"You have my word, my lord." Caelum bowed deeply.

Adrian turned around to face his army.

He was not taking his entire military force. He had selected exactly sixty people to march with him. Claire stood at the front of the formation and the five elite kids from the slave market stood off to the side.

The sixty men did not look like regular soldiers. Every single one of them was covered head to toe in thick, shining steel plate armor. It was absurdly heavy equipment that a normal commoner could never march in.

But these men were not normal commoners or regular soldiers anymore.

Adrian smiled proudly. "So. You guys finally made it to the knight ranks."

The sixty men stood tall and they were all F rank knights now. The brutal training under Claire and the constant dungeon runs had paid off.

"We are going to war." Adrian said loudly. "This war is going to be tough, but I want to make one thing completely clear. Even though you are knights now, I do not want you taking stupid risks. Every single one of your lives matters to me and I do not want to see even a single death in my ranks. Understand?"

"Yes, my lord!" The sixty men shouted in unison.

"Your goal is to prioritize your own safety." Adrian ordered. "If some idiot commander from another army tries to send you on a suicide mission, you refuse. You answer only to me and Claire."

He looked at their weapons. Instead of the standard single longsword that most knights favored, every single man in this unit held a steel arming sword in one hand and a heavy steel kite shield in the other. It was a pure defensive formation.

Adrian looked past them to the rest of his troops.

Hundreds of soldiers stood at attention in the training field. They wore chainmail and carried wooden practice swords. They were not knights yet.

"You all stay here." Adrian told the massive crowd. "Your job is to defend Oresfall. If anyone attacks this territory while I am gone, you kill them without hesitation."

He locked eyes with Burke. The bald adventurer stood at the front of the defense force and he had also broken through to the F rank last week.

"Burke, you are in command." Adrian said. "Do not let me down."

"I will protect this land with my life, Lord Adrian." Burke saluted.

Adrian finally turned his attention to the forty three kids.

They did not wear the heavy steel plate armor. Instead, they wore custom fitted leather and chainmail designed for high mobility.

And they held different weapons compared to the rest of the soldiers.

Adrian had spent his free time in the last two months perfecting his designs. He moved past the single shot prototype rifle. Each of the kids held a sleek, bolt action rifle. They also had 10 round box magazines extending from the bottom of the receiver.

At a single glance, a knowledgeable fire arms enthusiast would be able to confidently say that it resembled the great De Lisle Commando Carbine that was used in the world war 2.

The kids knew exactly how to use them thanks to all the practice they had gotten due to Adrian drilling them mercilessly in the dungeon firing range. They were skilled shooters now.

"Let’s go." Adrian said.

He started walking. The sixty steel clad knights marched in perfect synchronization behind him. Claire and the five kids walked right beside him.

Adrian looked around as they marched toward the territory exit.

The defensive walls of Oresfall were still under construction. Massive blocks of chiseled stone and thick layers of cement were slowly forming a towering wall around the town. Adrian had set up a separate team just to produce this new cement.

He wished he could have finished the walls before he left, but the war summons did not care about his schedule.

As he walked, he couldn’t help but think.

’Caelum has access to the hidden rooms inside the dungeon, so he can bring out all the wood that’s needed to build the houses. The walls can be built using the natural materials around the barony so that wouldn’t be a problem either. Food will be taken care by Damian and Aria is in good hands. If someone attacks, then the rifle squad can fuck them up so there’s nothing more for me to worry about.’

Claire and the soldiers looked around as they walked.

The town was booming and construction crews worked around the clock.

Seeing this, Claire couldn’t help but look at Adrian in awe. When she joined him, he didn’t even have a single soldier, but now? Oresfall’s army had grown to over two thousand men. A normal Barony had maybe five hundred troops so but Oresfall had the military size of a wealthy Count.

They left the territory and hit the main dirt road.