Chapter 178: Elites and potential

"What are you going to do, now that you are back in Gauna for winter?"

Having a mercenary for a father, Cleo was more than just well-advised in terms of the general rules of this job. Snuggling to Fen's chest, she rested his head on the young arcanist's shoulder.

"As funny as it might sounds… I plan to become a teacher? Like, I'm still going to return to my own unit and friends once the season starts, but before that time, I will try my best to train as many good arcanists interested in becoming mercenaries that I will be capable of."

Brushing his fingers through the soft fabric of Cleo's long hair, Fen looked at the ceiling. With a thin blanket covering the two of them, he could no longer adore the girl's body, limited just to feeling the softness of her skin with his own flesh.

"A teacher? Aren't you still a student? At least, theoretically…"

Brushing her cheek against Fen's arm, Cleo refused to let go of him. Ever since Fen pumped her insides full of his seed, her complexion improve by an insane margin. Even though she was still the same, obedient and slightly shy, cute girl that he knew, her weak aura from before now turned into a spring of energy.

And as much as everyone should be happy with such development, the sparks that Fen could see in Cleo's eyes whenever she looked at him, made the young man strangely worried.

"Yeah, that's why I don't really mean it as a job, but as a craft. Normally, mercenaries mostly scout their ranks, with some volunteers joining random groups each year, right?"

Feeling how the girl continued to move her head up, rubbing her tender skin against his flesh was enough to get a rinse out of anyone else… But Fen was simply too tired to even think about continuing. As lovely as it was to have such a cute girl fawn over him like that, now that the young arcanist allowed himself even the tiniest speck of rest, all the exhaustion from the last few weeks finally got to him.

"Yeah. Outside of the inexperienced newbies, there is still the auction but given your current situation, I think I do have enough reasons to doubt you are interested in it…"

Surprisingly, Cleo managed to bring a point that the young man completely missed. While the knowledge about this opportunity was hidden in his head, with everything that was going on so far, Fen simply forgot about the existence of the auction.

"You know, dealing with achieved individuals… Can be kind of a pain in the ass. But looking at it from the other side, we might have no other choice but follow this path…"

Now that Fen's plans were reaching beyond the level of local powers where the only true powerhouse of the areas he would operate would be limited to the lord of the place, the situation regarding the manpower of his mercenary group also drastically changed. 

So far, Fen could claim to have five elites in his group, only four of which likely to appear on the spring's rally. One way to ramp that number up would be to find a way to help Orsha rebuild her arm with arcana, bringing the total count to six that they started originally with. 

With Fen, Victor, Orsha and three more mercenaries that could be counted as the elite, their force looked… quite weak when compared to any serious army that any force they would be meddling with would rally.

Just like Kinar called for its elites for the times of war, Shallia was likely to do the same. At the same time, Kinzarian forces were bound to have their elites in their ranks while dealing with the nobles that had elites on their own.

In general, one could classify military force to just a few ranks.

Starting with recruits of all kinds, no one ever bothered to differentiate whether they were military newbies, arcanist newbies or officer newbies. They were newbies all together and they would gain any military value only after the baptism of blood. 

Then there were soldiers. In general, split into three categories of ranks, representing the baseline of any army, veterans that created its core and potentially heroes, believed to reach the level of even the strongest arcanists with their ingenuity and physical power alone.

When it came to arcanists, the number of possible groups were simply too insane to count, given all the possible combinations of the base arcana, school of thought, level of experience and so on. But in order to simplify the matter, they were split into three groups just as well.

At first, just arcanists. In this slightly elitist group, it was the title that brought one up the ranks. Once someone achieved the power that could be said to be greater than his peers, he would reach the stage of great arcanist. 

To a point, one could compare this position to veterans in the military, but the gap was even bigger in the arcanists case, as the ceiling for their growth was way greater.

Lastly, the elites. People who wielded extraordinary abilities or just had enough experience beyond their belt to compensate for their lack of talent with their skills. And once Fen's mind started to roam around the level fo countries and empires, it was this last group of arcanists that he needed to coax into his service.

And what was the better way to do it rather than buying their contracts on the auction? The only problem with that laid in fact, that those contracts tended to be on the expensive end of the scale of what one could buy anywhere on the continent. 

"For now, let's forget about the auction. While I have some funds, they can be better used for different things."

This was the ultimate problem that Fen had to face and somehow solve. Between hiring some proven elites and bolstering the overall power of his side and investing the money he had into training and helping the people that would later become at least great arcanists, which one was the right choice?

As much as Fen would love to have an answer for that, he could only guess. While both of his friends had their own job to do, he had to somehow do the unthinkable and solve both problems despite having the means to fix just a single one of them. 

"So, if not an official teacher, then what do you want to do in the dead season? How about just spending the time cuddling with me, here? I can guarantee…"

With the sparks of lust reappearing in the girl's eyes, she started to slightly move her body around, rubbing her tender skin against the young man in an attempt to get a rinse out of him. Sadly for her, Fen was simply too tired to react in the way she expected.

"As great as this offer is, I can't just ignore my duties. If I rest easy now, I will only grow to regret it in the future."

Cutting the girl off, Fen gently pushed her aside before sitting on the edge of the bed and standing up. Moving towards the small cabinet beside the doors, the young man pulled out a bottle of light wine from it. Opening it up with a small fire he produced, Fen took a huger gulp before turning around.

Only to see Cleo sitting shamelessly on the edge of the bed. Even though she spread her legs quite wide, she used both of her hands to both covers her most precious place and support her leaned-forward position. Surprisingly enough, hiding all her most attractive places with nothing but her own arms was far more intoxicating than just revealing herself out in the open.

"Don't worry, I didn't take it personally."

Noticing a worried look on Fen's face, Cleo giggled lightly before reassuring him. 

"But I'm not gonna lie. If you are going to become a teacher, I would love to partake in your lessons. I'm done letting my constitution eat away at me."

Suddenly dropping her mischievous pretence, Cleo stood up and looked seriously deep into Fen's eyes. 

"I know that it might be hard or even impossible, but just like you, I don't want to regret not doing something. If there is even a remote chance that I could manage to learn how to wrestle control over this damn body of mine…"

Embracing her own sides as her face grew a look of powerlessness and anger, Cleo unknowingly threw the absolutely strongest bait at Fen that she was capable of. Incapable of resisting the charm of this adorable create who despite her weakness was still trying her hardest, Fen couldn't stop himself as he approached the girl and brought her into a tight, caring embrace.

"I don't know if I can help you in any way beyond what we did a few moments ago, but I will do my best. And who knows…"

Instead of finishing his sentence out loud, Fen lowered his head a bit and placed his lips on top of Cleo's mouth. Surprised by this unexpected advance, the girl didn't show any hesitation when responding to the cuddle, quickly turning this gentle, surface kiss into yet another deep one, one of the kind they shared back on the bed.

'And who knows, maybe once you gain control over this damned body of yours, maybe you could jump through many stages and arrive at the level of an elite with the potential hidden deep inside you?'