With our decision done, we went back to William to tell him about our position. Although we won't tell him that we are going there mostly to learn more about the Dark Race Alliance, we will tell him that we want to go with her.

  William: I understand. Don't worry, if you ever want to return, you can come back here. I will always welcome you back here.

  He gave out a light ugh before staring us eye to eye.

  William: I still want to say this. Although I don't know what you are trying to do, you should be careful. The Dark Race Alliance territory is very different from our territory her among humans. The only agreed upon rule there is the rule of the jungle. Strength is absolutely paramount if you want to stay there for an extended amount of time. Just remember you have a pce here to go back to if you find this change too much for you hahaha.

  He then looked out the window. From my perspective, he seemed contemptive yet nostalgic. Perhaps he had went to the Dark Race Alliance territory before?

  Soon he broke out of his contemptive mood and turned to us. He then told us to inform the Church personnel of our decision before shooing us away.

  After a little asking around, we found where the Church personnel. After telling the knights there to inform Marianne of our decision, we soon heard a yell of excitement as we saw Marianne rushing towards us. Before coming in contact with us, she abruptly stopped and yelled about excitedly.

  Marianne: I knew I could count on you! Thanks for accepting my invitation. I hope we can forever stay together!

  Farrell soon followed afterwards with words of congratutions and invitations. We agreed and went to the room that Marianne was currently staying in in order to understand more about our mission to come.

  When we all arrived, Farrell took the opportunity to expin to us the actions on this trip in rough detail.

  Farrell: We will first be heading towards another town between here and the border that is about three days journey on horseback. After staying there for a few days we will be heading straight to the border which will be another three day journey if there are no interruptions. The time requirement for arrival to the border is around 10 days from now so if we start by tomorrow we should get there by the 8th day or so.

  With a rough estimate on our next journey we went back to begin prepping for this journey. We had to go back and get our things to prepare for the journey. Of course, for materials like food and water will be taken care of by the knights in the Church. What we have to pack up are personal belongings and of course extra supplies of our own in case something happens.

  Now that we were preparing to head off to the border between the Church and Dark Race Alliance, it was time to check up on the others.

  Over at the base, two figures who had not been seen for a while entered the base. After entering and being scanned, the guards of the base allowed passage. These two were Celine and Lu.

  I quickly went over to my office in the base in order to prepare a medal to allow Ravi entry. Because she is a newcomer to the base, I need to give her a medal to allow her entry before I can tweak the system here to allow her entry without it. Currently she is staying at one of the houses we purchased as an exit point from the sewers. Although we built it to ensure the safety and confidentiality of our base, now that I have reached the Silver level it is no longer of so much importance to remain hidden. Nowadays we are only remaining low-key due to how all the orphans were taught as well as out of habit.

  After quickly locating the drawer with the temporary pass medals, I went over to the house to give Ravi the medal before quickly rushing her over to the entrance.

  With the medal now in tow, Ravi was easily allowed entry and I quickly led her over to my office. Along the way the kids at base looked curiously at Ravi and I. This new batch of kids were taken in by the various Light Branch members who have been secretly recruiting from all over so it made sense they did not recognize me. After some expnation from the kids who have stayed here to teach, they began bowing to me when I pass by.

  They were also curious about Ravi, especially since her appearance and animal ears were rather unusual and were not normally seen around human popuces. After a few quick gnces they then hurried to where they need to be at. Soon we had arrived in my office and Ravi was finally able to calm her tense nerves from all the frequent attention.

  Now that she was here with us in the base and has agreed to help me, now I can start to train Ravi in advance so that she would be more prepared once we return to our pne. Of course, my parents did put all the resources that Lu and I would need in our storage bags, but most of the rest is more general purpose extraordinary knowledge. This knowledge could allow me to build up a force up to bronze level but no further.

  Most of it is more general purpose so there is no information on a taming like profession. And I believe that waiting to learn under my family's tutege would be more beneficial than to learn haphazardly from my limited knowledge on the subject. Because of this, I should instead train her on the fundamentals.

  Specifically, I should train her in energy control and physical coordination. As a magic based profession, Tamers would definitely require some level of magic control. Whether it is for buffing their tamed beasts or protecting themselves, such means are absolutely necessary. Physical coordination, on the other hand, doesn't seem like the kind of thing that magic based professions would need, but the body is the foundation and a stronger and more coordinated body can help promote the movement of energy in the body.

  Because of this, I have split Ravi's daily training into two parts. From the morning to Afternoon she will be required to undergo basic physical exercise. After eating and taking a small break, she would then train on meditation and energy control till the evening in order to develop her magic based abilities. After that would be free time for any personal business or hobbies.

  I went to Lu so that she could check if I was missing anything and she only suggested the training time to lessen. After asking her why she sighed and expined that not everyone is as enthusiastic as me for training and fighting so a schedule like this would quickly exhaust most peoples enthusiasm and energy.

  After thinking about it, I still found that I couldn't understand the feeling that much. If I knew that there was a way to get stronger through training I would go through with it right away with maximum enthusiasm. Since I could not understand it, I had Lu change the schedule for me.

  When I got the schedule back, I saw the massive difference in both detail and precision. There were more details as well as dietary requirements and more allotted resting times sprinkled all throughout. Although I did not understand it much, since Lu said that this would be better then I guess it should be. I know I am not good at these more meticulous things so handing these over to Lu should be a given.

  Now that I think about it, I have been giving so many missions and ideas for Lu to finish. Has she had the time to get stronger? Since my parents had bought her for me, I can't just waste her potential like this.

  Thinking this, I headed back into the A.I. like formation to inquire if there were any management talents who could repce Lu's job so she can focus more on herself. When I entered the formation, I saw that it was still working quite well. I mean, the formation is meant to st perpetually so of course it should still be recording after less than a year of work. Although I say this, it seems that there are some kinks in my original formation.

  Since I made the formation when I only knew how to copy the formation exactly as it was shown in the formation, there are definitely some kinks that I couldn't see back when I first made it. Now that I have reached the Silver level, my senses have definitely been enhanced to a certain extent in addition to my increased understanding of magic after all my studying means that I can now better fit the formation to it's current scenario.

  With my new understanding of magic, I decided to quickly fix some of the less fitting parts of the formation before looking through all of the information. Before I could get started, I heard Lu's voice a distance away. After some careful listening, I went and hurried back and saw Lu calling me.

  Lu: Celine! Where are you?

  Celine: Here I am!

  After quickly finding where I was, she gave a sigh of relief before calling me to eat.

  Lu: Hurry on over, Ravi is already sitting and waiting. Of course, wash your hands first.

  I immediately tensed up and quickly rushed to the bathroom to wash my hands quickly yet thoroughly before rushing to the table.

  Probably to cater to Ravi, Lu made a bunch of different dishes for Ravi to choose from today. In order to care for her, Lu kept an eye on Ravi and her reaction while also partaking in a few herself. Although I noticed that she was watching Ravi, I went and dug in on my own.

  After finishing I went and quickly headed back to finish tinkering with the formation. Since I was here, I might as well clean up the information collected by the various golems as well. The golems I had made to teach the kids were also multipurpose kid rosters and had separate files for every kid they taught.

  Now that I want to have someone take over the management role that Lu would normally undertake, I needed to find the most trustworthy and skillful of the bunch to take over. Before, I did not reveal my face to the world because I had nded in a human-centric area and I was afraid the Church would immediately encircle me and would waste the items that my parents had left for me to protect myself.

  That has changed ever since I grew to the Silver level. Now, unless I was completely ambushed or grouped up on, I could likely escape through most traps. So the only reason that I have not fully shown my face is that the kids would likely be surprised and scared since I am a vampire which they had learned to be bad since childhood.

  If they are going to be helping to manage the main base and organization, they should be deserving to get to know me for who I really am. Speaking of?

  Should I tell the kids going out of who I am? I turned to open my communicator just to see it ring with a notification. I checked that the message was about what they were going to be doing next. Seeing that they were going to enter and meet with the Dark Race Alliance, I knew of just the pn to both have fun with and help reveal my identity without it being too abrupt. I gave a cunning grin that would surprise any of the kids if they saw it.

  If I am already going to the Dark Race Alliance to take Ravi's full authority and free her, then she wouldn't mind if we stayed for a few days to prepare a fun set of tricks for these fledgeling Ptinum Stars would it?

  After confirming the idea, I rushed to Lu and Ravi to say my thoughts. Looking at Ravi's confused expression and Lu look of exasperation, I saw that both sides were not completely against it. So I looked at the communicator to see if their path would intersect with the noble who still owns Ravi. Indeed they did intersect.

  I hurriedly asked Lu to prepare everything as I got all the preparations we would need when we get there. It would take the Church delegation 8 days on carriage, but the power of technology sure is incredible. If I truly wanted to rush it, I could make it in a day at most.

  One whole week to make preparations. Let's do this!

  Over on the kids side, they had not even gotten on the trip yet. Suddenly a chill ran up their spine. They all quickly rang on alert before calming down when nothing happened.

  Sean: Did you guys feel that?

  Mist: Yeah, I felt a chill up my spine like if I felt a cold hand rub it. Felt weird.

  Millie: Sam here, minus the hand.

  Kris and Lily both used their magic based senses to no avail. Soon after they calmed down and went pack to packing. Soon we had finished packing and had everything except certain toiletries that we had not used today to finish packing ter. To save time, we all decided to wash up and rest early so that we can pack up everything and have it already on the carriage before we headed off.

  When we were finished washing up, we quickly cleaned everything and sent them to the knights who graciously helped us to pack it onto the carriage. Although we were strong as Bck Iron level extraordinary people, we are still kids so our height is still a problem in cases like this.

  After they finished helping us, we said our thanks and headed off to bed. Once we were fully rested, we would be preparing to head off onto our next stop.

  When I got up, I found that Lily was already up and was preparing food for us. Back when we were adventuring, Lily was the one responsible for food and taking care of supplies. Although I was decred the captain when we first built the team, I was more of the team's representative and the glue that held the team together.

  Lily in contrast, was the team mother who cared for and watched over us.

  Sean: Hey Lily, it's been a while since I have seen you up and cooking.

  Lily: Oh Sean, good morning. Since we will be traveling for the first time in forever, I thought that I should get back into my stride. Since I will likely take over this role soon on our trip, I wanted to get the rust off of my skills. So, how does it look?

  She showed me a pte with sandwiches cut on diagonals along with a pile of scrambled eggs. I went and snuck a small piece and found that it was still quite good and gave her a thumbs up and compliments.

  Sean: It tastes really good! It seems your skills haven't declined with this small time.

  Lily merely ughed and the went back into the kitchen to prepare the other portions. I went and put my portion on my side of the table. Soon the others began waking up one by one along with the scent wafting in from the kitchen. After everyone else finished washing up, Lily and I had already pced everyone's ptes in their spots.

  After giving our thanks to the chef, we all dug in and quickly demolished our meal before heading out in all of our gear. Since we were going out on an adventure, we should always be prepared for accidents on the way. When we headed out, I saw that Marianne and most of the Church knights were all getting things ready and staying on standby.

  With our arrival, Marianne rushed over to greet us and bring us to our own carriage.

  Marianne: Hey guys, come here! Mr. William has given you guys a carriage that we have moved your stuff over to.

  The carriage given to us by William was not as fancy as the one Marianne had rode in. It was lined with a fur like material on its edges and the wood was still rugged and rough on the outside. On the inside, it was still quite uniform and clean. On the side of the carriage was the symbol of a blue bear with bull horns surrounded by lilies. This symbol is actually the current symbol of Lily Breath Town. It is not seen that often because of William only doing his own thing and not clearly and attentively managing the town.

  If he was attentive in managing it, he may have noticed our base by now, but he has not. The only time he waves the fg around is when there are any celebrations that are reted to the town itself. Other than that, only other dignitaries need to know of the symbol that represents the Lily Breath.

  We wanted to go in to thank William in person, but he only left a servant to talk to us and prevent our access to his office.

  Servant: William has told me to inform you that if you still think of him as your teacher, you will just take the carriage as a gift and investment towards you and to forget about thanking him in person.

  After hearing this, I knew that it was just the fact that he did not want to say farewell face to face so I informed the servant to tell him that we will definitely be back someday and to always listen to hear of our future adventures as they get to him in the future.

  I then left with my crew and headed over to our carriage. Soon all of the Church's personnel were all ready on horseback. I was on the reigns of the carriage. Thankfully, the base taught simple methods to get closer to various animals and that William also taught us how to use a carriage so I wasn't completely unfamiliar with the process.

  At the head of the carriage were four horse like monsters that are intelligent enough to hear and understand commands. Because of this, I was able to use the carriage quite smoothly with their cooperation. We were soon heading off on the road to our next destination.

  In one of the rooms overlooking the entrance of the town, William was there watching them slowly retreat into the shadows. Soon a shadowy figure quietly slipped into the room and kneeled on leg to him.

  Shadow: Master, what do you need for me to do?

  William: Keep the adventurer group and the house they lived in some secret protection. I don't want to hear of any problems with these pces while I am still mayor.

  The shadow nodded and slipped out of the room as quietly as he had entered it. It turns out that William had already discovered their little secret a while ago and just kept silent in order to take care of the kids feelings. Since the Church was heading here, how could he not investigate the happenings around the town more diligently than usual.

  Although Celine and Lu might be able to evade his perception, that does not mean the others were so stealthy all the time. Even if it was only briefly, he had spotted some unknowns entering and exiting a house that the Ptinum Stars always rested at. So he can only assume that they are all together in some group.

  This, along with the destruction of the human trafficking operation a while back gave him a vague understanding of what was going on and he tacitly agreed with the groups inception. With his indulgence, he allowed them to grow and not be targeted at all when in town and under his management.

  Because he found something suspicious going on, he went and took the most outstanding bunch and decided to see for himself what they were like and what he found had shocked him. These five kids who have been training for less than a year were already able to fight nearly on par with himself who had decades of experience. Soon he was attracted to the differing personalities and liveliness of the group and let down his guard against the organization in his heart.

  His instinct was telling him that they were genuine. Only good teachings can churn out such positive characters like this when they were only recently at their lowest point. So he allowed their existence and even secretly protected them as a te apology for what they went through. Of course, he would never say it in person.

  Soon, the carriages had left the town and eventually went past the horizon and out of view. He then went and sat on his desk to finish the paperwork that has been left unfitted the whole day.

  While we were on the way to the next town, we looked back at the town we have stayed at our whole lives. Now we have the knowledge brought by the organization as well as the church with us, we knew we were entering the next phase of our life.

  Now that we have left the town, we put our focus on the road and our surroundings. Although we had the Church Knights on vigince, it never a bad thing to pay attention to our surroundings. The carriage passed by at a steady pace and we slowly passed by a nice and open pin. We had a carriage of our own so we were all together and chatting with each other.

  While we did adventure together before, we only went on one adventure that required a carriage to arrive at. It was also that adventure that gave us our reputation as the Ptinum Stars. Now, we had our own carriage and were walking such a long distance away that our previous venture would pale in comparison.

  At that time, we were only going to one of the vilges that was under the jurisdiction of the town. While we were chatting amongst each other, the sun soon was setting and the other carriage which Marianne was riding had stopped so we did too. The knights quickly set up tents for all of them to stay in. Although they had offered a tent for us, we found it better to use our own tent from the base because we found it not only more comfortable, but more resistant to environmental effects.

  It truly amazes me the creations from the base that we are all easily provided with. When we were first taught survival and everything, knowing how to camp in various settings was one of the earliest things we were taught. The supplies and materials we used from the base were all of super quality and would be unheard of outside the base.

  The first time we went out shopping for supplies was the first time we noticed this disparity. In comparison to how prepared we all were, normal adventurers had significantly less optimal supplies whether in quantity or quality. Because of all of this, most of us from the base are even more grateful for the opportunity to gain everything from the base.

  Most of us knew that knowledge from the base was an opportunity that was hard to obtain. Especially for people like us.

  I remember when the leader saved us. Back then we were all stuck in the orphanage. For most of us, our parents were either of adventurers or soldiers who had fallen and led to us becoming orphans. For most of us, we were too young to really remember, much of them. All I remember was a gentle hum of a lulby and gentle rocking before a sudden thud and going unconscious. Apparently my parents were attacked from inside the carriage by a dragon beast.

  Before I could even think, I was brought into the orphanage where I met most of the guys. Although I knew of Kris Lily Mist and Millie, we were all in different groups and barely interacted before.

  After a few years, many of us noticed that something off was going on here. Even though there were a few adoptions every year, the amount of missing kids was not adding up. Soon, through rumors and secretly listening in on some of our captors, we learned that the people taking care of us were human traffickers and were secretly selling us off to the highest bidder.

  Even if we tried to ask for help, they had all of the papers and w enforcement on their side so we were caught in a horrid situation. One day some of us had a pn to sneak out and ask the nobles for help. Although it likely would not work, it was better than just waiting here to be sold off.

  Just when we were pnning our escape, A sudden wave of skeletons suddenly appeared and guarded us. Before we could react, there was the sounds of screaming and panic as the skeletons all circled around us and took out all of the bad adults. Soon we were able to meet our savior, the leader who was wearing a cloak like she always.

  It was as if an angel had come down for our salvation and we all were surprised and joyous at the occasion. Some of us were skeptical, especially when she led us into and through the sewers to the base. But, when we truly entered the base and saw wonders beyond belief, even the most pessimistic ones among us knew that she was different than the traffickers who had us before.

  At that moment, many of us made a promise in our own hearts to repay her for saving us and especially for giving us an opportunity to live our own lives.

  Now, although we were currently working with the church, we still had our hearts at the base and were ready to deal with whatever trouble comes our way next.

  On our way to our next stop, we haven't had an interruption today so we can comfortably rex. Especially since there are so many people here to take turns on watch to keep us all protected. Before in our adventure, it was usually Kris and Lily who built warning magic arrays so we could only have one of us taking shifts at a time.

  The magic and skills we have learned are all quite efficient from what I have noticed. Using myself as an example, I can boost our attacks by about 20% with Damage Aura that can constantly affect the whole party. I don't use it against William since we all agreed to use our experience and only basic abilities to compete with him.

  Because of our very standardized and efficient training, our basic skills can be comparable to even the specialized skills owned by the other extraordinary people and creatures we have met. So we choose to face him with basic skills because of this difference.

  If I were to compare my Damage Aura to a simir ability that the knights have it would be their legion strike technique. During our time packing, we once saw the church knights practicing and once when we chatted with Marianne she smugly mentioned that this technique can increase an entire army's strength by 10%. We ughed it off at the time, but judging from her reaction it seems the techniques we have been taught are a significant step up from everyone else.

  According to Marianne, this technique is a patented ability of the Church and that even the Dark Race Alliance took hundreds of years to make a simir, but even weaker technique. From what we have heard, although the Church has the advantage in legion style combat they are behind the Dark Race Alliance in single or team combat.

  Because of this, although the Church can take rge swaths of nd, the Alliance can easily slip into the cracks and fight the Church through guerril warfare.

  Anyways, the difference between the skills we have been taught in comparison to the others is quite stark.

  Now we were all in our own individual tent with Kris and Lily building a secret warning array. It is not because the Church is untrustworthy, it is more of a cautionary practice and to get used to survival if we were separated from the convoy for some reason.

  Like that would happen, right?

  Marianne came to see us and chatted with us a little before going back to the carriage to rest. Her own carriage has her servants who are here to care for her as the saint so she needs to be by their side as well as in the protective radius of the knights so she didn't stay with us.

  We all rested for the day with the knights taking turns to be on the night watch. At least three knights were always on guard so with 20 knights in total they were able to divide the watch into four batches of 3 hour guard duty among twelve of them. Since they still need knights ready when we are on the go, eight of the knights still need to be on standby to watch while on route.

  Although we offered to help, they turned down our offer on the grounds that since we were of the Bck Iron level, we should be on guard during the time we are traveling since we are more likely to be attacked during the day. There was also the fact that this night watch was also to help train the knights for various different missions that we ultimately decided to mostly comply while still unfolding our detection array.

  The day passes on as such and we wake up another day preparing to continue our trip.