Bond Master

Gathering Tide

The clever strategy that Ren and the dark-haired mage had used quickly caught the attention of the other students scattered across the gravel embankment. In a live testing environment like the outer training reserves, nobody wanted to be left behind to face the shifting hazards alone. Seeing how easily Ren had deflected the stone projectiles while providing a moving screen for the magic user, the remaining initiates began to scramble into clusters, frantically trying to assemble their own makeshift squads based on whatever skills they had discovered during the transport ride.

From what Ren could see as he maintained his steady pace, almost all the newly empowered commoner students had awakened into various martial or magical warrior classes. They clutched a wide variety of weapon types pulled from their cabin storage lockers—heavy iron broadswords, short spears, double-bitted woodsman axes, and long daggers. Interestingly, very few of them had selected defensive shields from the available armaments.

The few who did possess shields quickly found themselves pushed to the absolute front of their respective groups, acting as human barricades to absorb the incoming gravel barrages, while the students with ranged abilities or minor spell-casting affinities fell in directly behind them, creating a protective circle around the fragile mages and those who had received absolutely no physical attribute enhancements from the Divine Serum.

As Ren and the dark-haired mage continued forward, two more classmates from the rear compartments hurriedly caught up, slipping into formation directly behind the mage. Having witnessed the success of her draped coat tactic, they quickly followed her example, unbuckling their own dark uniform jackets and pulling the thick fabric over their heads to mask their silhouettes.

The resulting sight was utterly bizarre, and it had a profound effect on the primitive, easily frightened minds of the Verdant Earth Mice. To the small rodents peeking out of their burrows, the approaching squad looked like a singular, terrifying vanguard fighter with heavy spiked iron gauntlets leading three headless, shifting humanoid monsters through the high grass. Terrified by the strange, unnatural forms, the colonies of Earth mice began to chatter frantically and flee deep into their underground tunnels rather than risking an ambush in Ren's path.

This unexpected psychological advantage allowed Ren to set a brisk, unhindered pace across the open field, putting the densest clusters of stone-throwing rodents completely behind them. Within a few more minutes of steady walking, the small squad reached the first major landmark of the plain—a massive, neatly maintained hedgerow of thick brier bushes that cut across the grasslands. Seizing the opportunity for a safe perimeter, the group huddled against the dense foliage to take a short breather and let everyone recover their breathing and stamina.

"Man, magic uses far too much energy," one of the new boys who had fallen in behind them complained, leaning heavily against his large, iron-headed woodsman's axe. He wiped a thick layer of sweat from his forehead, his face flushed from the exertion of the run. "How long does it actually take you guys to recover after you activate your skills?"

Ren leaned his back against a sturdy section of the hedgerow, crossing his arms and feeling the steady, rhythmic pulse of the chain mark on his forearm. Inside his mind, the little Shackle-Hound pup was curling up on its stone dais, its stomach happily full after devouring the essence of the Earth—mice he had sent into the vault.

"I can use my combat skill about three or four times in a row, as long as I don't go completely all out with a single strike," Ren replied, considering the deep, muscular ache that still lingered in his shoulders from his linear bone-plate attacks. "But after that, the physical fatigue hits hard. I feel completely drained, and I need to eat a massive meal or lie down for a solid rest. I haven't actually tried to time the recovery speed yet."

The dark-haired mage let out a soft sigh, lowering the fabric of her coat to let the cool country breeze hit her face. "I'm in the exact same boat. If I cast two full lightning spells back-to-back, I hit my absolute limit. My vision gets blurry, my head pounds, and I need a serious breather before I can even think straight. But if I sit down and rest quietly for about fifteen minutes or so, my energy channels stabilize enough to cast another single arc. I intentionally saved my magic during that run through the grass, so right now I can use at least one spell if we get jumped, or I can throw both in an absolute emergency—but if I do that, I'll completely slow the team down afterward."

The boy with the large axe frowned, running a hand over the rough wooden handle of his weapon. "That sounds nice compared to me. I can only activate my special combat skill once, and then my arms turn to absolute jelly. But my dad is a woodcutter back in the outer logging sector, and I've spent my whole life splitting timber. I can swing this normal axe for hours on end if I just rely on my own muscles and don't touch the magical skill."

"That's more than good enough for what we need," Ren suggested, turning his eyes toward the expansive fields stretching out past the barriers. "So far, it's just been a sea of common Earth mice, and only an i***t would waste their stamina chasing a ten-centimeter rodent with a massive two-handed axe.

But if we run into something bigger and slower up ahead, you can step up and fight it using your natural strength without touching your skill until it’s a life-or-death situation. Did the injection make you physically stronger? It was one of the primary questions on that evaluation sheet, so it has to be a common side effect."

"Yeah, a lot stronger," the woodcutter's son agreed, flexing his broad shoulder. "I can lift twice what I used to back at the logging camp."

The second boy who had joined their group smiled sheepishly, resting a massive two-handed great sword against his knee. "I didn't get a huge strength boost, but my body feels a lot tougher than it was when I went to sleep on the train. Unfortunately, my first skill is entirely defensive. See the shield pattern in my class marking? The silly thing is, I have absolutely zero aptitude with an actual shield.

When I opened the practice lockers in my compartment, I tried holding every shield type they had—round shields, bucklers, heavy tower shields—but nothing felt right, and the magic wouldn't activate at all. But the moment I picked up this two-handed sword instead, I could trigger the defensive skill with no problem. I can keep a protective aura active around my body almost all the time. The only issue is that I can't swing this massive blade fast enough to block incoming rocks the way you do with those gauntlets."