Acquiring an Elite Army

Marcius looked over the training yard from his elevated stage at the center of the yard.

Below him were 500 soldiers, training for the expedition into the Falvic forest. Marcius didn't want to take a longer time than necessary. He was already pushing the deadline as it was.

The main goal of the Flavic forest expedition was to solve his cultivation problem. The recruitment and training alone would take more than one month according to Marcius's calculations.

And the expedition itself would take longer.

Titus had given Marcius one month to solve his cultivation problem. And, now that Marcius was sure it was going to take more than one month, he had to ask his grandfather to extend the agreed-upon deadline.

And when he asked for the deadline to be postponed, he had to reveal that the expedition was associated with his solution to the cultivation problem.

After an intense discussion, instead of one month, the deadline had been moved towards the day he would come back from the expedition.

That gave Marcius some breathing room as he could now worry about other matters, instead of the looming deadline.

And now, he was heavily drilling his expeditionary troops.

Out of the 500 soldiers, the 200 guards of Aemilia clan were all veteran. All of them are also blank spirits, and had reached their limit, spirit elite realm.

And out of the 300 soldiers Marcius had to recruit from the city's population, 277 of them were blank spirits. Only 23 out of the 300 were born with spirit beasts.

Among the 277 blank spirits, only around a hundred reached spirit elite realm. And the rest were just starting from spirit soldier realm.

For the 23 people born with spirit beasts, they varied. Most of them were spirit elite realm with only two from spirit soldier realm.

Overall, Marcius had, under his command, around 300 spirit elite realms and 200 spirit soldier realms.

But that did not worry Marcius. What slightly worried him was the alarmingly few numbers of people with spirit beasts who signed up for the expedition.

'Only 23 people with spirit beasts, huh. I knew the population of spirit beast cultivators is few in ratio. But I didn't think it would be this bad.'

According to Marcius's training plan, Leon would train the 477 people with blank spirits. And, Ser Janus would personally train the 23 with spirit beasts so that they received better foundation for the future.

Because, this was not just an expeditionary army for one time use. Marcius planned to train this army as a permanent regiment under his command.

Marcius's ambitions for the future required an army.

This army would be small with only 500 units. But Marcius already had plans to transform them into elites.

'But one good thing about forming an army of cultivators is that, everyone already knew how to fight. I just need to train them in teamwork, discipline, battle tactics and formations.'

Small armies could be effective if they were well-trained. There were many examples from Joseph's memories of his home realm, earth. Like the Prussian army during the 18th centuries and the Swedish army under King Gustavus Adolphus.

"Defensive formation!"

Leon's voice echoed throughout the drilling soldiers and they rushed to obey.

Two lines of infantry surrounded the perimeter of the army as they faced outward with shields at the ready. Their auras sored as the shields were reinforced with spirit energy.

In the middle of the army were archers and cavalry. Archers were pointing their arrow heads over the heads of the shielded infantry, ready to fire at the order. The cavalry was also well-prepared, to swiftly response to any maneuver the enemy would use.

The formation was an ideal response to ambushes in difficult terrains. And since the expedition was into the forest, ambushes were the most commonly expected form of attack from the wildlife of the Falvic forest.

"Offensive formation, charge!"

The formation of the small army changed, as most of the infantry broke away from the shield-wall and charged. A small number of shielded soldiers remained to protect the archers, as the cavalry also rushed out with swiftness.

After that, the remaining infantry and archers advanced slowly.

This tactic was for when the enemy's attack failed and the foes fled. Most of the infantry and cavalry would charge and rundown the enemies, while the remaining infantry and archers would advance steadily and kill any foes who managed to evade or survive the charging soldiers.

In Marcius's opinion, it was a simple and effective plan, 'Defend, and then charge.'

But while the strategy was simple, it required extensive training and great discipline to pull of the tactic perfectly.

Which was why Marcius was drilling them hard.

'The training is still not perfect. But it is acceptable since we have only been drilling them for a month.'

Marcius thought, as he jumped down from the stage and landed beside Leon.

"Leon, stop the training. I have something to announce."

He spoke to his friend and Leon relayed his orders to the troops.

"Alright, boys! At ease! Our young master has an announcement to make."

The soldiers stopped performing and gathered as a crowd in front of Marcius and Leon.

Marcius slowly looked through the faces of the soldiers under his command.

"When I first recruited you, when you came to serve under me as a unit, as brethren and as comrades; I made a promise. That I would train you into elite of the elites. And if you serve me loyally, there will be great rewards and acknowledgements." Marcius started.

"Now, I have fulfilled the first promise. You have been trained to perform as professional and disciplined soldiers. You are still not the best of the best, but you are well on your way towards that title. You are not just cultivators now. You are an army of cultivators. An army who can work well together. An army who can swiftly response to various situations. An army who can be critical in turning the tide of a battle."

Marcius paused as the soldiers cheered at his speech. After a while, Marcius put up a hand in the air and the voices slowly died down.

"After the first promise has been fulfilled, I also want to show you how I intend to fulfil the second promise."

Marcius waved the papers in his other hand, so that the crowd could notice the documents.

"These documents will provide everyone a new residence after we cleared out the forest and expanded the city perimeters. In the newly acquired lands, each and every one of you will have a place to call home, and you will also be exempt from land taxes for twenty years."

This time, the cheers were louder. The reward was incredible, as the city population was currently facing a shortage of residential areas.

"Many of you have families. And those families will now have a comfortable and safe place to spend the rest of their lives, if we succeed in this expedition and bring glory to our city."

The crowd was now loudly chanting after each of Marcius's speech.

"Even if some of you fell at the expedition, your family, relatives and loved ones would be taken care of. They will be rewarded with generous wealth and still have a home at the new land."

Marcius stopped again and looked at the faces which were filled with joy and happiness. The morale of the troops was high.

"This is how I intend to fulfil my promise to you. As long as you serve me with loyalty, there is nothing to worry about for the future. So, I request of you; to give your all for this journey, to perform to the best of your abilities and to never fear and march forwards! Can you do that for me?!"

The response to Marcius's question was thunderous. And the Aemilia heir released a small smile.

"Then, fulfil your duty as I have fulfilled my promise. We will prevail!"

Among the cheers and chants, Marcius was satisfied. The troops were a bit low on morale from the intensive training they received. So, he had to put on an excellent performance to raise the men's morale.

And from the looks of it, he succeeded.

*** *** ***

'Now, I have successfully raised the morale of the majority. All that is left is to check up on Ser Janus and his 23 trainees, and do the same with them.'

He thought, as he left the jubilance crowd.

But as he walked towards the more exclusive area where Ser Janus was training the 23 cultivators with spirit beasts, he noticed something.

Marcius felt a familiar aura and paused. He looked around but found out that the area was empty.

"You better come out. I'm already familiar with your aura to not notice you." Marcius calmly said.

The response to his words was a soft laughter, as a silhouette slowly materialized beside him.

Marcius glanced at the figure and greeted.

"Hello, Karla. It is great to see you again."

*** *** ***

Author Notes

Hello! MidnightMK here!

This is the start of the Volume: 2, the Falvic Expedition.

Please leave comments and feedbacks. I really appreciate it.

Please enjoy the chapter! And please vote if you do!