The Goblin Nation

They trained the goblins to used the shield to form a defensive phalanx formation. The goblins would stand side by side as close as possible in a rectangular form so that their shield can protect the goblin to their left. And the goblins behind will raise their shield over their heads, protecting them from any attacks coming from above. Sun taught them this battle formation because he believed they could use this to protect them during an expected cave-in while keeping in mind the limited s.p.a.ce in the tunnel. Once they determined the oncoming route to be safe, they can break formation but still have the large shield to protect them.

Stick made sure the shields were light enough to carry. And thanks to the curved design of the shield, Stick made a bag that could be carried in tandem with the shield. He plans to fill the bags with ointments, linens, a bottle of water, and a bottle of alcohol. In case the newly made shields were not enough to protect them, Stick taught them how to use the items in the bag to mend their wounds. The shield could also be used to carry an injured goblin away from harm.

Smoke also had their followers divided into three groups. Each group was in charge of protecting thirty goblins grouped based on their age, social status, and ability. They will march through the tunnel with five goblins walking together on each side. The first group of legions will march with a group of young and single goblins behind them. The second group will be protecting the elderly, orphans, and widows with children following. To help take care of them, Flute and her followers will be part of the group. The final Legion will walk with the group made up of families.

Each Legion will have two commanders. The front will be led by Sun and Shuja, the legions in the middle will have Rock and Flute, and the ones on the tail will have Stick and Smoke as their commanders.

The goblins practiced their formation until noon. "Alright, our training is over!" Smoke yelled, "Head to the tent and place your shields and clubs on the racks. And hurry up, the food will get cold." The goblins ran like a mob to put away their tent, eager to get their meal.

"Finally, time to practice using mana." Stick stretched his arms, "You think we"re ever going to catch up with those two?"

"We will. We just have to keep practicing. At the very least, we managed to grasp the concept. Maybe once Ms. Mari tells us how she used magic for the first time, we"ll get a hand of it."

"I hope so. Also, when did you start calling Sun"s mom Ms. Mari."

"I heard him call my mom Ms. Sam once, so I started doing the same thing."

The two jumped off their wooden platform and left the training grounds. They walked across the meadow to meet up with Sun and Rock, who were practicing their use of mana. When they arrived, they saw Flute berating them for destroying the forest. Stick and Smoke could not help but laugh.

Flute and the caretakers left to another part of the forest to look for h.o.r.n.y toads. Smoke saw one of the caretakers lagging behind while looking at Sun. When Sun waved at her, her cheeks turned red, and she placed her hand over her smile. "May hurry!" Flute yelled.

"Well, that"s just great. First Shuja, now that girl May." Smoke said sarcastically.

"What are you talking about?" Sun asked.

"Don"t worry about it. If anything, you two got some explaining to do." Smoke pointed at the myriads of broken trees around them. "What the h.e.l.l happened here?"

"Ah, Rock and I were practicing by using the trees as our punching bag. You know, what we always do back then. It just that we started using mana in our attacks and um. Well, you can see the results."

"Excuse me, boys, sorry I was late." Mari appeared behind the brothers. "You guys don"t mind if Cyrus join?"

"Oh, hey mom." Smoke said. Cyrus walked next to Mari, but when she saw Sun and Rock, her cat ears and tail shot straight up. She quickly hid behind Mari. "What"s wrong?"

"Um, maybe I should just go back and stay with Sam," Cyrus said while hiding her eyes from the brothers.

"Well, alright. Just be careful on the way back, ok."

"Ok. I"ll see you later." Cyrus turned around but stopped walking, "Bye, Smoke. Be careful." She said before running back to their tent.

Smoke waited until his mom was no longer in earshot distance from them before yelling at Rock, "Bro, what the h.e.l.l?"

"What?" Rock responded.

"Why do you have to be as ugly as Tama? You scared my mom away?"

"What? I"m not that ugly." Rock placed his hands on his cheek, "I"m not right?" The brothers laughed while Rock continued to caress his face nervously. However, it"s no time for merry-making. Mari clapped her hands to get the brothers" attention. The brothers quickly sat down.

Mari took out her book filled with healing spells and herbal medicines. She already taught the brothers the properties of mana and how to manipulate the mana collected by their bodies to heal. Now she was teaching the general formula of creating light with mana. Mana starts cold, but once they leave the dormant state, mana will absorb the heat resonating from the body and soul.

Most spells that emit intense light use mana that absorbed enough heat to glow. Wizards would use their soul"s fire to lit their mana, while warriors will use their bodies" temperature as their spark. And the required amount of body temperature is surprisingly not a lot. The brothers" hoped to use the latter method since its the easiest for the already battle-hardened brothers.

However, the mana inside the body is accustomed to one"s average body heat so the user must find ways to increase their temperature by at least eight degrees. The warriors that used light spells had to go through harsh training in order to change their body temperature at whim. Unfortunately, the brother will not be able to go through such training because Mari does not know of it, but there is another method. Some warriors would consume spicy food, alcohol, or magical drugs to increase their body temperature artificially. This was the most realistic option for them. By drinking the spirits they have in storage, they could increase their temperature.

But alcohol doesn"t create heat. In fact, it will decrease the brothers" body heat, while tricking the mind into thinking their body is experiencing a fever. Mari"s notion that the mana could be tricked into igniting the same way their mind gets tricked. This sounded absurd at first, but Mari explained that mana is not physical but spiritual and conceptual in nature, unless your desire and willpower is strong enough to bring it to the physical realm.

That is the same reason why mana increases or grows stronger during desperation, intense shock, or intense training. If one could overcome these challenges through sheer willpower alone, their mana may awaken, such as the case for Rock. To test out her theory, the brothers started drinking the spirit and then used mana on their hands. Sure enough, the blue light turned transformed into a brighter white light.

"How the h.e.l.l does this make sense?" Sun wondered, "I doubt our body temperature is enough." Sun touched his glowing palm and it felt as cold as the snow they were sitting on. "It"s not even hot."

"Honestly, I don"t know much about it as well," Mari confessed while letting out a heavy sigh, "Mana is energy foreign from our world. Our souls or spirit are just stealing it from somewhere else and what"s growing is not our mana but the amount we could steal and store. The trick is to release it into the world. And so far, that"s the only thing I know. If you want it to be on fire and as hot as fire, then you"ll have to increase the heat in your body but I don"t think your body could be hot enough for that. But now that I think about, how can those warriors use fire spells?"

"Um, Ms. Mari." Rock raised his hand, "We can be sober when maintaining the light, right? Because I don"t want to keep drinking spirit. It tastes nasty."

"No, you only need it to start the light spell. You can maintain it by just feeding your palm with mana."

The bright light could barely be seen during the day, but at night the brothers found the light to be effective enough to guide them back to their tent. After three days of training, the brothers gathered the tribe and organized them. Then they marched south, following the deer path until they reached the opening of the cave. It took them half a day to reach it, and once they arrived, they were met by men shorter slightly shorter than red goblins.

"Dwarves! What are they doing here?" Mari wondered. The dwarves had tents set up in front of the cave"s entrance and a guard tower overlooked the path the goblins came from. Sun reached for his sword when a row of dwarves walked forwards while pointing their spears.

"Drop your weapons! Who are you?" One of the dwarves yelled. "What"s an orc doing so far from here? And why do you have feathers on your head?"

"Orc? Are you calling me an orc?" Sun asked.

"Answer the question!" Dwarves readied their spear. Rock, Stick, Smoke, Shuja ran to the front line carrying their clubs and a row of legions followed with their shield pointing at the dwarves.