Blue Zone

Another 2 months passed since the return of Helena's squad from their first ever expedition in the Forest of Echoes.

The trainees have been training consistently with a high intensity of training regimen. Their physical foundations could be said to be quite solid now.

Although they are still increasing their physical strength, the main focus of their training now is combat technique.

After all, even if you have a strong body, it's pointless if you don't know how to fight.

The progress of the combat technique training is quite good.

From the initial 40 warriors-in-training, ten of them turned out to be talented in archery.

In addition to this, Helena noticed that Eden was a talented archer as well, maybe that was the reason why he was struggling in swordsmanship.

Due to this, he was assigned as the squad leader of the archer squad.

The current military status of the village is as follows:

1 Captain (Helena)

9 warrior squad leaders

1 archer squad leader

30 warriors (divided into 9 warrior squads)

10 archers (archer squad led by Eden)

Another month passed wherein the military continued focusing on their physical foundations, combat techniques and squad formations.

Helena determined that the new warriors and archers were ready to undertake their first real life or death struggle.

"Warrior squad first to fifth led by Alexander, Leif, Sabre, Warren, and Zander! Come forward! Also, Eden's Archer squad! line up!"

The mentioned squads quickly lined up in front of their captain Helena.

"You guys are now ready for your first real battle, we have been entrusted by the village chief to explore the blue zone and discover its mysteries. Also, bring huge bags, we will be gathering lots of mushrooms on the way back."

Although they were tasked to gather a lot of mushrooms on the way back, their main task is to explore the blue zone deeper.

The blue zone in the Forest of Echoes is quite cold.

The expedition squad weren't prepared for it last time so they were not able to go very deep. 

This time however, they plan to go deeper and investigate the source of the cold temperature inside the blue zone.

Half a day passed since Helena's troops entered the Forest of Echoes.

The newbies were visibly tense while their squad leaders were chilling since they already knew the dangerous and safe areas of the forest.

Helena and the squad leaders intentionally did not tell the newbies whether an area is dangerous or not so they will continuously feel a sense of danger and train their mental fortitude.

"Troops! equip the fur coats! we are now near the blue zone, stay vigilant. We will be going deep into the zone this time."

Helena instructed her troops.

After a few minutes of preparation, the squad entered the cold blue zone.

They advanced slowly and carefully checked the surroundings.

*Howwwwl*

A few hours in, they encountered their first opponents, a pack of 30 mutated arctic wolves.

Just to be sure, Helena charged in first and tested the combat abilities of these arctic wolves.

Although slightly stronger than a regular mutated greywolf, it isn't anything that the newbies cannot handle.

"I have tested the abilities of these wolves just now, although they will be tough opponents for you guys, this is a good chance to get some valuable experience. Work together and show me the fruits of your training!"

Upon confirming the abilities of these wolves, Helena stepped aside and ordered.

The new warriors displayed awkward movements while the archers were missing their shots likely due to nervousness.

A few minutes into the skirmish with the wolves, they all started to calm down. 

They were finally able to do what they practiced and their battle prowess was on full display.

"These wolves were nothing special after all, what was I scared of?"

Similar thoughts ran through the minds of the new combatants and they started to show better coordination and movements.

In a span of half an hour, all the wolves were slain including their alpha.

"Phew! seems like we did it." A new warrior said.

"Yeah! looks like our training paid off."

Similar conversations can be heard among the new warriors.

  It is visible that they were quite happy with their victory which basically confirmed that they were now true warriors of the village.

After a short celebration, the warriors butchered the wolves and took the important parts such as the fangs, claws, and fur. 

They left the meat though as it would be too heavy to carry all of it and they still needed to gather a large amount of mushrooms on the way back.

"Good job you weakshits! That's it for today, let's go back earlier to the marked safe area and camp there for the night." 

Although the warriors were quite tired both mentally and physically after their first battle, they were very happy after receiving a good job from their foul-mouthed captain as this is the first time they received some sort of acknowledgement from Helena.

Thus, the first battle of the new warriors concluded with no casualty.