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Unfortunately, due to the fall of the Viking Empire, this normal path of learning was no longer available, and even his teacher had gone south. So, he could only return home with a few magic books left by his teacher and began a life of self-study.

The disruption to his life occurred a few months ago when a Lion Tribe general arrived at Enrico's village with a group of subordinates, triggering a chaotic conflict. Since most of the participants had already died, even Enrico, who arrived later, didn't know the exact cause, but it no longer mattered because the first thing Enrico saw was the scene of beastmen slaughtering human villagers.

The subsequent events differed significantly from the versions circulating outside. Most outsiders believed that he had used traps and strategies to kill the Lion Tribe general, but only he, the protagonist, knew it was purely luck. Naturally, a novice magic apprentice, who had just mastered his second dark spell and had never participated in combat, would be completely overwhelmed when facing a Lion Tribe Sword Hero. However, just as the beastman's heavy sword was about to decapitate Enrico, an accident occurred. The extremely unlucky Lion Tribe member stepped into a natural pit, and in that shallow half-meter-deep pit resided a level four venomous insect-type magical beast—the "Red Needle Rune Scorpion." As a result, while the poor beast was crushed to death, it also injected its only weapon, a highly paralyzing venomous needle, into the beastman intruder's ankle. The rest is history; the incapacitated beastman general was then overwhelmed by a magic apprentice’s low-level spells, dying in utter humiliation.

Although Enrico tried to explain, even his companions firmly believed that the pit was a trap Enrico had set up beforehand. Later, the stories circulating everywhere described Enrico's first battle as a classic strategic confrontation between a mage and a warrior. When Enrico later studied the descriptions of "his own" battle, he found them... incredibly profound, and he couldn't understand them at all.

Although in practical combat, a certain mage was far from the legend, his other ability indeed surpassed the rumors—that is, the ability to cause chaos.

Yes, chaos.

Chaos has always been a child's forte, finding flaws in a strict system and turning everything into a mess. Although the level of skill varies, Enrico's work now is essentially just that. He always tries to find the defensive loopholes in the areas occupied by the beastmen, infiltrates, throws the situation into chaos, and then calmly escapes. As for the aftermath? That's the job of his companions and the supporters behind him. Even if he wanted to intervene, he didn't have the ability or the influence.

Although as a Viking, Enrico had thought about gathering forces openly and engaging in a battle to restore the country, he, who deeply understood the strength of the beastmen, knew the consequences of doing so. Although the number of beastmen's armies was not as large as humans', their individual strength surpassed humans by several times. Although this advantage could be offset by the numerical disadvantage, once a large-scale frontal decisive battle was initiated, even with a million-strong human army, it would be impossible to deploy them all, and instead, the beastmen would gain a local advantage. Moreover, such large armies are slow to command and have cumbersome logistics, far less efficient and battle-hardened than the beastmen's armies. The Viking regular army, despite having the Black Knights, Berserkers, and Summoners, was still rapidly defeated by the beastmen in consecutive battles, and this was the reason. If he chose to confront the beastmen head-on, he would likely lose even faster than before.

Therefore, only guerrilla warfare, only sowing chaos, could continuously delay the beastmen's military forces in various places, and then, with the help of various forces, make the beastmen bleed continuously, losing their combat power. Only when the balance of power reversed would humans have a real chance to counterattack.

Although many people know this principle, few can implement it, and there are still many human forces that, for their own positions and interests, repeatedly launch uprisings despite knowing the dangers, trying to re-establish human strongholds in the beastmen-occupied areas.

Tonight's three-city uprising was one of them.

This uprising, planned by the Holy Light Temple, was quite grand. The members infiltrated by the Temple, along with the light believers originally living in the three cities, totaled more than 30,000 people, even temporarily driving the beastmen's garrison out of the cities. However, the beastmen's counterattack was equally fierce. Just a few hours later, the first batch of Eagle Tribe air forces attacked the uprising army, and the Lion Tribe and yak tribe warriors who arrived later easily broke through the chaotic city gates. After a night of fierce fighting, the uprising army lost more than half its forces and had to abandon the city and flee.

Although due to the opposition between light and darkness, the Temple's uprising plan was not communicated to Enrico in advance, with the intelligence network Enrico had at this time, he had already known some details of this plan. Of course, he didn't kindly go over to help; such a result would only bring suspicion and exclusion from those fanatical believers. So, his only choice was to secretly evacuate the city's residents while the beastmen's reinforcements were chasing the uprising army.

Although the idea was Enrico's, the task of mobilizing 100,000 residents to migrate was not something he could handle. Fortunately, the uprising was originally led by the nobles living in the city, who had already mobilized the people. However, the uprising army failed too quickly and didn't have time to arm the residents. So, after a brief negotiation, Enrico gained the support of the resident leaders in the city, and in just half a day, all the residents worried about the beastmen's retaliatory massacre were evacuated.

The beastmen's main force was now far away, a hundred kilometers away, and naturally couldn't turn back to chase these residents, so the escape was very smooth. The only thing beyond Enrico's expectation was the sudden appearance of a hundred-strong Eagle Tribe beastmen. This late-arriving beastmen reinforcement, upon discovering Enrico's retreat plan, immediately launched a pursuit. Although they were few in number, for a human team without anti-air capabilities, they were a deadly threat. Helplessly, Enrico could only make his presence known, which indeed immediately attracted the beastmen's attention to his side, thus resolving the residents' crisis. The remaining task was just how to escape from the beastmen in the sky.