Finally, they were drawing closer to one of their objectives.

The ability to relocate the village to a safe location was no longer just a plan fueled by hope. It was now a fact, and it would soon come to pass.

However, there were still matters to resolve; the relocation remained but one step further to climb.

After leaving the smithy, Ryan headed to the training field, with Alicia remaining at his side.

"Is that everyone?" Ryan commented as the number of people in the training field became visible while he approached.

"Yes, Your Majesty. These are the only ones I could gather: twenty-two elven women and fifteen warriors from the beastkin race." Alicia paused and looked at him with some concern.

"I am sorry, are they not enough? Since you only mentioned women, they are the only ones capable of fighting."

"No, don’t worry, I wasn’t complaining. In fact, it is more than I thought, and this will be useful."

Ryan stopped at the main entrance of the training field; the place was quite spacious.

All those women were in the center of the field, watching him closely.

’So there are thirty-seven women... this will be the first time I use my skill on so many people at once. No one here could consider it heresy, though I still won’t allow them to be controlled. I will only give them simple orders.’

Ryan began walking toward the center of the field.

Alicia adjusted her pace to stay by his side.

They continued until they were standing in front of the crowd.

Almost as soon as Ryan came to a halt.

The shout of all those women together rang in his ears.

"Your Majesty!"

Following the phrase, they all dropped to their knees. To Ryan, it almost seemed like something rehearsed, but after all, this was quite common and they should already be accustomed to it.

’Unlike me, who didn’t even know how to deal with a king, but somehow I ended up becoming one.’

Ryan sighed.

’And what a peculiar king I turned out to be. I am supposed to have humans, beastmen, demons, and elves at my service. And now a dwarf as well.’

"Rise," Ryan ordered.

They obeyed and stood up almost at the same time.

Though they were calm, some seemed to have expressions indicating they didn’t know exactly why they were there.

"I am sure you are wondering what you are doing here. But do not worry too much; I simply want to watch you train."

Ryan crossed his arms and kept his gaze on the large group.

"I know you are aware of all the problems we have in the village, and even more so, of all the enemies chasing us."

They met his gaze as he said these things, nodding their heads without moving from their spots.

"So... basically, what I want to see during these eight days... is to realize just how capable you are. I will evaluate your skills so that if we have a problem and an enemy manages to enter the village..."

He paused.

Then he finished the sentence.

"I want you to defend yourselves as best you can. You must be prepared to kill, and you must believe that your lives are very valuable."

The girls looked at him with expectation. It was a mixture of calm and excitement at his words.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Ryan stared at Alicia for a moment.

She met his gaze and smiled at him.

"Do you want me to take charge of them, Your Majesty?"

"Did you think I would ask you that?"

"As your assistant, it is my duty to foresee any situation, and I have prepared instructions for them. If you permit it, I will take charge, and you will only have to observe," she said with a subtle smile, her tone of voice overflowing with confidence.

’She never ceases to amaze me. She is very efficient.’

"Very well, you may do so."

"Yes!"

Then Alicia took a step forward.

"I have prepared several sessions regarding what you must do," she commented, addressing the elven girls and beastkin women.

They remained in silence, their attention centered on Alicia.

Then she continued with her explanation.

"It is a shame to say this, but currently, no one in the village—not you, nor the soldiers—reaches even 40% of the power required to protect this place. We depend on the power of His Majesty and his group."

She gestured toward them, pointing with her finger.

"I do not expect you to get stronger in this training, because for that you need to level up, I know that. But His Majesty is here, so you will fight in sparring pairs. Do not fear getting hurt because my lord Ryan will heal you if something happens."

After that, Alicia continued giving directions, though basically, she just made them see that even though it was a training session, they had to fight each other with all their strength.

Ryan also intervened and told them that as soon as they were wounded, he would heal them. They would also have brief breaks.

Since they couldn’t all fight at once.

He began to buff their bodies.

And just as Alicia had indicated, they began to fight.

As they rested between bouts, the debt skill activated, granting him stat points.

Of course, to keep things from spiraling out of control, Ryan made sure to give orders to each of them after every fight and when the effect of the debt activated.

In this way, he accumulated points progressively for several hours.

’Doing this with so many people has given me a good amount of points. But... why am I feeling this headache? It is like a migraine... until now I hadn’t thought about a limit for my skill, but perhaps I should not continue for today.’

Ryan had his eyes closed, reflecting while holding his forehead with two fingers.

"Your Majesty?" The high-pitched voice echoed near him. "Is something wrong?"

"No, it is nothing, do not worry."

"Oh, look. It seems Miss Mirian, Helen, and Karol are already back," Alicia said, pointing to the three silhouettes becoming visible in the distance.

Ryan observed them, but he focused more on beginning to distribute the points he had earned.

’As expected, I can no longer gain experience, but at least I gained 4,800 stat points. If I do this for eight days...’

He distributed all his points.

"Stat."

[ CHARACTER STATUS ]

› Name: [Ryan]

› Level: 110 — Rank: S 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

› Class: Priest

› Titles: Wolf Hunter

› Strength: 10,000 | Magic: 3,233 | Agility: 10,000 | Psyche: 10,980 | Stamina: 10,000 | Luck: 100 |

› Available Points: [0]

› EXP: 0,000 / 1,350,000