Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

"So, you're saying that you can repair the damage that we took from the nerve gas and give us some small chance to actually reach the second rank?" The golden-eyed witch asked.

"That's right. It's really up to your talent, and the younger you are, the better it works because the bloodline curse has done less damage to your body, but there is a chance that most of the witches in the Den will at least reach the second rank over the next few years if they stay." Wolfe agreed.

All of the exhausted witches' eyes glowed with excitement at hearing those words. The Second Rank was nearly a mythical achievement in their generation, and the news that Morgana Coven had one in charge had been huge enough that even the Covens on the north side of the Continent had been reporting it on their evening news.

"Just imagine the Moon Ceremony that you could hold at the Den. With at least one Fae, and a Rank Two Demon, plus multiple Rank Two witches, the attunement ceremony would be incredible." One of the others agreed.

Wolfe smiled in agreement and winked at the pale-skinned witch. "We will have to try to find the materials before the summer solstice. When the Academy in Morgana did it this winter, it was a huge improvement for all of the first-year students. Most of them weren't nearly as talented as you all are, so your growth should be even better if you haven't been to one before."

"Who has? None of the smaller Myrrh Coven villages can afford the materials on a regular basis, so they only get done once a decade or so, and we're not that old. Maybe Myrrh City does them more often, but they're over a thousand kilometres from here on the west coast, so not many of the witches on this border have ever been there." Another of the witches shrugged.

The conversation faded as the witches began to fall asleep in the small cave, and June called back to inform the Den of their findings, as well as the need for transport vehicles.

[Understood. The locals found one more group in the same situation near the coast, but it has been turned over to the Sylvan Coven. We will send trucks out at first light to search for you.] The witch on radio duty informed them.

[Send one of my bonded witches with them. They can all track my location well enough to find us without getting lost.] Wolfe added, not expecting a response.

It was a flawed system since the witches could only detect his position from a distance, but he could locate all of them individually. However, it was still useful when he was out and about or they were searching for their way home.

True to their word, the truck arrived a few hours after dawn with a whole cooler full of roast turkey sandwiches and a pot of soup, which was quickly reheated using Fire Magic.

"This is incredible. Not only do you girls get all the power, but you also get the good food," a burly blonde witch laughed.

She definitely spent time at the gym. Wolfe hadn't seen a witch that buff in his life, and that was saying something after hanging around the athletic group at the academy.

The driver of the truck, one of the original twenty Servants, chuckled at her assessment. "You haven't seen anything yet. There is an array inside the Den that more than doubles the mana density, and I've heard that some of the stronger witches are looking to have Wolfe set up a wing of rooms with an additional array to increase that even more now that they're reaching the Second Rank.

Once you get there, you'll be practically swimming in mana, and even without a living Familiar, you will be able to grow your strength through meditation. It's crazy, but that's how it's going. We have five girls who lost their Familiars in the Morgana Offensive, and they are likely to break through in the next week."

The rescued witches stared at Wolfe with wonder in their eyes as they ate their breakfast. Once everyone was nearly done, Wolfe gave the driver a wink and got to his feet to address the group.

"I guess that was an effective sales pitch for our resident recruitment drive. I will help everyone cure the damage from the gas when we get there since I'm due to go over the entire population anyhow to make sure that they're all growing as well as they can.

If any of you are homesick, we can arrange for an army unit to get you and bring you back to the lines though. It might take a bit since everyone is busy with the retreating mundane army units, but from what our scouts say, the war is almost over." He informed them.

"That's what we heard as well. But they will be back. The rumour in Morgana and Myrrh is that they have been seeing planes flying in the rural areas, so a lot of people suspect that they're going to try to snatch witches from outlying areas instead of a full offensive.

I don't know what the Covens will do if that happens, but it might be nothing. The villages don't get much protection. There aren't enough soldiers to go around if every village is a potential target. But I haven't heard any reports of kidnappings or villages being raided, so maybe they're just flying over to scout." A rescued witch offered.

"The human soldiers told us that they have been embargoed by their neighbours along the coast, and they're short on everything. That is supposedly why they've been desperate to get witches to keep the country running, but you would think that there would be a better way to obtain them than a full military offensive." Wolfe sighed.

June made a dismissive gesture and waved everyone toward the vehicles. "Enough speculation. Let's get loaded up and get back to the Den. The scouts reported no new movement today, so we've got a day of rest before we go hunting for leftovers and finish up our stockpiling for the summer.

It's a normal thing out here since the armies only move to bother each other in the winter and use the Frozen Wastes as a battleground. In the summer, the terrain is just too inhospitable for anyone to want to try moving through it."

June explained the situation as she understood it to the rescued witches, who were mostly from Myrrh Coven, and both lived and operated well away from this part of the Wastes where there was open ground for armies to move across.

Myrrh ran for quite a distance along the southwestern coast of the continent, with the mountains on their northern border, so they got a lot of monster attacks, but it was incredibly rare for anything else to come out of the Wastes through the extremely treacherous mountain passes.

They also had witch covens on their northern border, so only this southeastern section of the territory was at risk of both the Monster Tide and foreign military invasions.

"If there are more of those turkey sandwiches, I'm in." Someone joked.

"Do you raise the Turkeys in the Den?" Another witch added.

"Not a chance. That's a Turkey Monster. They weigh hundreds of kilos. There wouldn't be enough room in the Den for even a few of them. But if you can find them, they're pretty tasty, and you only have to dodge their lightning attacks when you want to hunt them."

With food in them, the mood was light as they loaded everyone into the trucks, and Wolfe gave them all one last check for trackers using [Detect Hidden] while June burned the remains of the prisoner coveralls.