Mining ground
A few days passed.
And just like Alaric planned, the soldiers in the Montclair barony had begun to grow in strength with every training they received from Ava.
Investing a total of 32,000 Cps, he upgraded the soldiers in groups.
Raising their ranks from Bronze rank to Gold.
But that only applied to them in numbers.
Individually, they each grew at their own pace, some stronger than the other, some faster, and others having combat abilities.
Once a person crosses to gold ranks, they unlock special or unique abilities, making them even stronger than they initially were.
From a number of 38 soldiers in the barony, 31 were silver ranked, 4 were gold ranks, and only 3 got to gold rank and awakened special abilities.
In essence, the barony soldiers were 20x stronger than they were before.
And even better....
"Hail the Red ripper!"
"Hail the Red ripper!!!"
The soldiers chanted, raising their balde to the sky as they stood in front of Ava, who was standing on a small rock.
Alaric was beside her, barely able to hide the evil smile on his face.
'Look at them, mindless idiots. Don't stop though, keep worshiping her and grow stronger while you're at it. Just like that I have rekindled their loyalty to the barony. Now I know how my sergeant feels every time he manipulates us into doing this shady work.'
"Lord Alaric."
Ava called out, snapping her lord from his wicked thoughts.
"Yes, something wrong?" He looked at her.
"I don't think these soldiers are okay...." She whispered to him, a worried look on her face.
"Uhn?"
Alaric also looked at them, watching as they were slobbering and chanting, some even almost fainting as their faces turned blue.
"They look fine to me...."
"..."
"Relax, they are just happy to have finally climbed the ranks and gotten stronger. Some of them have never had the opportunity to even go past bronze, this is a good thing for them." Alaric replied.
Ava couldn't help but sigh.
The thought of whether her master was even a good person began to sprout in her mind.
"In any case, I'm glad we've gotten clear of our military strength, now... Let's focus on the mining ground."
Alaric turned around, remembering he only had less than a month to show the mining ground was in good process.
About to walk away, he suddenly stopped and veered back-
"Ava..."
"Yes my lord, I will take you there."
She understood him more than anyone.
"Thanks sweetie."
He smiled as he walked away.
....
"W..ait, give me a sec to... Ah..."
Alaric sat on a rock, panting, his face pale as he felt like all life was being sucked from his body.
"How can you be tired? We haven't walked that far yet." Ava spoke, staring down at him with disappointment.
"I've spoken and done too many things in the past four days, my social battery is very low right now."
Alaric responded.
Even when he was in military school, he would always time himself before interacting with anyone.
Once it was getting passed 20 mins of interaction, Henry would pull away, or fall ill.
It was a self defence mechanism to battle his introvertedness.
"..." Ava stared for a while, "You're exhausted from speaking to people?"
"Yes..."
Alaric gave a thumb's up.
"I understand if you don't want to work on the mining ground any more, but I didn't expect you to come up with such a ridiculous lie my lord. It's alright... We can head back to the mansion if you're...."
"Hey! Don't disrespect my hustle like that!!! I may be exhausted, but that doesn't make me weak." Alaric raised his head to look at her, his pale face battling with his determination, "When I make a decision, I follow through, no if's and buts!"
He managed to stand to his feet, his hand on Ava's shoulder for support, "If I ever go back on my word, you have my permission to slap on the cheek, Okay? Now Come, let's go."
Alaric let go, staggering as he walked away.
All Ava could do in that moment, was watch her lord, resting on trees to balance himself, before walking again.
'I can't tell if he really has changed or this is how he has always been. Lord Alaric is really something else. Not that it matters, as long as it's for the barony.'
Ava moved forward, catching up to Alaric and grabbing one of his arm and placing it around her shoulder.
"You'll fall down at this pace, let me help you." Said Ava, her gaze focused in front of her.
Alaric allowed her, taking steps forward while Ava tried to match his pace.
"You know, now that I think about it, you really do love me don't you?"
"...."
"Ah! You just thought, 'Why would I love someone as useless as you?!' just now, didn't you?"
"I didn't know you could read minds now."
"At this point, just go serve another lord."
"I could never abandon you."
"..."
"It's not like you are useless on your own." Ava completed.
"Shut up!"
...
After a couple of minutes, Alaric arrived at the mining ground, just a few distance away from the Barony's water supply.
The mining ground was vast in space, which was surprising considering it was almost spread passed the Baron's land.
At the centre was the underground mining spot, this was where most of the minerals were.
Looking at the entrance, it doesn't take a genius to tell it was old and crumbling.
Rocks that has chipped off from the inner walls had fallen to the ground, blocking some part of the entrance, making it hard for more than one person to walk through.
"From the looks of things, we might need to gather a large number of people to get this mining ground working again." Alaric said out loud, his gaze fixed in the entrance.
"Sorry My lord, but I doubt there's anyone who is knowledgeable about this mining ground. It's one of the reasons it was abandoned to begin with." Ava informed him.
"Yeah, that much is pretty obvious, the barony is filled with useless people..."
He said as he moved closer to the tunnel, his finger rubbing against the inner wall to feel the texture.
"It's a good material, no wonder it hasn't collapsed yet... I'll be damned if I let this place go to waste."
Alaric looked at Ava, "Come, let's get recruiting."
.....
[A\N: Please let me hear your thoughts on the chapters so far, so I can know if I'm headed on the right track.]