Chapter 118 Brief Rest

The delivered robe fit perfectly. After dismissing the soldier, Mage Roland also retired for the night, as he hadn't recovered from the day's battle yet!

The letter was written by Mage Yija. Shaoke was quite surprised upon reading it. Ever since he had sent a letter to Mage Yija upon arriving at the battlefield, the other party had never replied. Although he felt a bit disappointed, he hadn't taken it to heart. Unexpectedly, after such a long time, Mage Yija suddenly sent him a letter.

The high-quality, snow-white paper was densely covered with delicate handwriting, making it seem as if it were written by a woman. After carefully reading through it, Shaoke put down the letter, leaned back in his chair, and quietly mulled over the suggestion mentioned by Mage Yija.

It turned out that Mage Yija mentioned in the letter that he had already been promoted to a Second Tier Mage and briefly described the state of affairs in the capital. Although the capital remained calm on the surface, the large-scale forced conscription of mages from the Military Mage Corps had caused considerable dissatisfaction among many minor nobles and wealthy merchants. Unfortunately, this discontent was forcefully suppressed by the royal family and the military in the name of the Empire's greater good.

Mage Yija also hinted that the Mage Guild might send mages to the battlefield this time, but negotiations with the military were not going smoothly and had been unanimously rejected. He worried that there might be some underlying issues.

Of course, Mage Yija finally briefly mentioned Shaoke's thoughts on returning to the capital, as the battlefield was too dangerous, with the constant risk of losing one's life or being injured and permanently losing the chance for promotion.

In his reply to Mage Yija, Shaoke did not mention returning to the capital. Instead, he thanked him for his concern, wrote about daily life on the battlefield, and once again expressed his gratitude for the goodwill.

After dinner, Shaoke sought out Mage Roland, hoping he could accompany him to the tavern for a while. However, Mage Roland declined, as days of battle had left him with no energy to go there and flirt with the serving girls. Moreover, he still needed to go to the city wall to blast the enemy at night.

Understanding this, Shaoke bid farewell to Mage Roland and, under the other's envious gaze, left the small courtyard and headed toward the tavern.

Although battles were still ongoing at night, the number of mages in the city had increased sharply, so there were still many mages in the tavern who were temporarily not needed on the battlefield. However, the atmosphere was slightly subdued.

Mage Roman was still sitting in her usual spot, silently savoring fine wine. When Shaoke sat down opposite the female mage, he noticed that her eyes were half-closed as she poured wine into her mouth one sip after another. The bright red liquid flowed down her snow-white neck and disappeared into her slightly open collar.

"Why are you so late?" Mage Roman's choked voice reached Shaoke's ears. "Were you even planning on coming?"

"No," Shaoke shook his head. "I just went to see a mage I knew before. He came here with me." Seeing the female mage's unsteady state, Shaoke suddenly felt a bit uneasy. "But he didn't choose single-target attack spells, so he's still fighting in the fortress."

"Did you have a pleasant conversation?" Mage Roman slowly stood up, looked around, and finally slumped back into her chair, curled up in it silently.

"It was okay," Shaoke thought about his interactions with Mage Roland and gave a somewhat vague answer.

"It's nothing, I'm just in a bad mood." Mage Roman said, ordering two more glasses of wine from the maid. "Only three of the friends I knew before have made it back. The others still have no news. I don't know how they are now."

"They should be fine. With so many mages joining the battle now, as long as they get close to the fortress, they'll definitely return safely." Shaoke thought for a while before coming up with this clumsy way to comfort her. "Mage Roman, they will definitely come back. You should believe in their strength."

"Heh. Let's hope so." After saying this, Mage Roman fell silent.

Shaoke endured his headache and stayed with Mage Roman in the tavern until midnight. When he saw that Mage Roman was already drunk, he paid the tavern bill and helped her slowly walk toward the camp where the female mages lived.

After delivering Mage Roman to the camp entrance, Shaoke had to stop due to the strict rule there, as male mages were not allowed to enter the camp.

Embarrassed, Shaoke supported Mage Roman at the camp entrance, unable to find anyone who knew her to take her back to her room. Fortunately, a few female mages passed by. After teasing Shaoke good-naturedly, they found a guard mage at the entrance to help him.

"What's her name?" Soon, the female mages who had gone to find the guard brought back a mage. She was also female, but a Fourth Tier Mage. "Perhaps taking her to your place was the result she wanted most." The Fourth Tier Mage examined Mage Roman and sighed, "So many mages are drinking excessively at night these days. This isn't normal."

Shaoke carefully handed Mage Roman over to the Fourth Tier Mage and said, "Honorable Mage, she is Mage Roman. She just returned from a mission in the canyon, and her former companions still have no news, which is why she's in such a state." After saying this, he watched as the female mage took hold of Mage Roman and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The Fourth Tier female mage nodded. "You should leave now, or the mages here won't dare to come in." As she spoke, she pointed behind Shaoke, kindly reminding him.

Shaoke turned around and saw more than a dozen female mages scattered behind him, gawking at him intently. One Second Tier Mage even rushed up to Shaoke and said, "You really shouldn't have brought her back. It's the first time I've seen a male mage like you." She couldn't help but laugh.

Shaoke hurriedly stepped aside to let the female mages pass without obstruction. Ignoring their teasing looks, he waited until he received confirmation from the Fourth Tier Mage before leaving the female mages' camp and returning home.

After continuing his meditation throughout the night, Shaoke noticed that the silver light on the diamond array floating in his space had finally stopped crackling, and the space had returned to normal.

The expanded meditation space seemed somewhat empty without sufficient replenishment of magic power and mental energy. The floating points of mental and magical energy appeared quite sparse, giving the impression of a decline in strength.

Upon discovering this situation, Shaoke decided that for the next period, he would focus on increasing his magic power and mental energy. As for refinement and purification, he would leave it to the diamond array, which operated day and night, and some medicinal aids. He now needed to quickly maximize the mental and magical energy in his meditation space to advance to Third Tier Mage as soon as possible.

It wasn't until early morning, when Shaoke planned to eat something, that Mage Roland returned to the small courtyard, dragging his exhausted body. After a brief greeting, Mage Roland intended to go back and rest, but Shaoke stopped him. "Mage Roland, do you still need to go to the battlefield tonight? You look very tired. Shouldn't you rest for a while?"

Mage Roland shook his head, leaned close to Shaoke's ear, and whispered hoarsely, "For some reason, the battle on the city wall has ended. But I heard the fighting has moved to the canyon below. Yes, the same canyon where you carried out your mission." Mage Roland licked his dry lips and continued, "Today, the military dispatched heavy cavalry and pushed back the enemy soldiers blocking the outside by several miles. The military ordered our group of mages to rest for a few days and then go outside to join the battle."

"This foolish order from the military is sending us to our deaths." As he spoke, Mage Roland tightly gripped his staff and waved it with some effort, as if this could vent his anger.

"Following the army to fight the enemy outside?" Shaoke frowned as he looked at Mage Roland. After hearing the news, Shaoke was also quite shocked. Large-scale field battles were different from battles on the city wall. If the soldiers at the front were defeated, the spellcasters and other long-range attackers at the rear could easily be wiped out by the enemy.

"Are you sure the military issued such an order?" Shaoke asked uncertainly. He couldn't believe the military would issue such an order, as he had never heard of low-rank mages being sent to participate in large-scale field battles before, unless they were defending temporary positions.

Mage Roland straightened up, rubbed his forehead slightly, and said somewhat uncertainly, "I heard other mages say so. It should be true, right?"

"Mage Roland, you're not in a good state right now. I think you might have misheard." Sensing Mage Roland's uncertainty, Shaoke temporarily set aside his worries about the future. "Even if mages are sent to participate in such battles, they wouldn't send low-rank mages like us. In that kind of battle, we might not even be as useful as a group of archers."

Shaoke then explained in detail, even mentioning Mage Roman's words to calm Mage Roland's anger. After chatting a bit more, Shaoke returned to his room and fetched some third-tier auxiliary drugs for Mage Roland. "I hope these drugs can help you."

Mage Roland gratefully thanked Shaoke. Although he had signed a contract with the better-treated Blue Feather Legion, the legion would not provide large amounts of free drugs to mages who had not yet advanced to the third tier. Therefore, Mage Roland was deeply moved when he accepted the third-tier intermediate drugs Shaoke gave him. The need for high-tier drugs would be significant in the upcoming battles outside the protection of the city walls, and these drugs might even save his life.

After thanking Shaoke once more, Mage Roland bid him farewell and returned to his room to rest.