Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

While most of Wolfe's tour was nothing more than catching up on the changes around town, when he got to the armoury, there were a suspiciously large number of weapons signed out by the patrol teams.

If things were as calm around the perimeter of the forest as they were in town, that shouldn't be necessary, but now that the forest had expanded, it was beyond the range of the [Kind Intentions] spell, and the beasts that entered wouldn't be calmed immediately, only when they got deeper into the forest's depths.

There were also a few more nearby villages that had been subsumed by the expanding Fae Forest, and now needed direct deliveries, as the airplanes couldn't get to them, but the underground highway had already reached them before Wolfe left on his voyage south.

That would have to be expanded soon so that they could keep more regular contact between the towns, or conventional highways would have to be made in the Frozen Wastes so that vehicles could easily navigate with something resembling decent speed.

Keeping the area free of infrastructure no longer served the essential deterrent purpose that it used to. Now, when they were attacked, they would be able to fight back. With that change in dynamic, it was more important that reinforcements could get to where they needed to be than that everyone was able to easily hide.

As he was contemplating the number of weapons that had been signed out, another patrol group came and signed out rifles for everyone, plus two heavy machine guns for a twenty-person team.

"Might I ask, what are you expecting to find that you're going that heavily armed, even with a team that's all at Rank Two?" Wolfe asked.

"Monsters. They've been ranking up faster than we can cut them down, and now that we're starting to see more Rank Four groups at the edge of the forest, we've started to pack heavy weapons. Our magic is good to hold them in place for a few seconds while the guns get the job done, but we're no match for them without the extra power." The patrol leader explained.

"Do you have any of the Demons or Fae with you?" Wolfe asked.

"They will be meeting with us near the border. There should be a pair of Rank Four Faeries this time, if I read the deployment orders right." The team leader explained.

That was still cutting it close, if they were going to be facing Rank Four monsters in groups. The rifles were loaded with ammunition made by Rank Two witches, and while that was powerful, it was still very lacking against a target with that much of a durability advantage.

That would explain why they needed so much weaponry to bring the monsters down.

"I will see if I can get the ammunition upgraded to at least Rank Three for the next batch. If you're facing Rank Four monsters, this will not be enough for long before we have a bad ending. The Fae will help, but if you run into a large group, it could still be bad." Wolfe added with a sigh.

"Thanks, Wolfe, that would be perfect. It looks like the rate of growth is slowing down, so the upgrade should be enough to keep up with the monsters for a while. They're not moving in tides anymore with all the extra food that's available now, but this winter they might start again once the snow starts." The patrol leader agreed.

She took her team off to the boundary of the forest, while Wolfe went looking for whoever was doing the reports in Priya's absence. The more he could learn about the situation, the better, and if there really was that much danger to the locals and patrols near the edge of the forest, it must be much worse for the villages that were further out.

They had just given them the means to come out of hiding, but with Rank Three and Four monsters around, they would have to go right back or risk being overrun.

This change was a huge setback for their progress, and for the Wastes as a whole, even though the curses were clearly crumbling, and very soon the entire Frozen Wastes would have returned to what it was supposed to be. Even if it was an enchanted grassland with scattered regions of Fae Forest, it wouldn't matter much if there were still too many monsters to make it safe for anyone else.

It would become a monster paradise, and instead of improving and building the nation that he had hoped for, Wolfe would have only increased the danger of the beast tides for his neighbours.

Finding the leader of the patrol teams was a simple matter. Mio was sitting in the defence team office with a large familiar that looked like it was some form of Demon Knight, as Wolfe didn't recognize the guardians right away.

She had a stack of papers in front of her, and a map of the latest attack reports up on the walls, with a constant stream of chatter from the radio being recorded by an elderly beastkin man.

"Wolfe, good to see you again and welcome home. Have you come to see how things are going? It's not all bad news, we've cut down the total number of monsters that we're finding, and it looks like all the cursed talismans are gone now." She greeted him.

Mio spun around in her chair to face him, making her long black hair swing into the face of her helper, who was so used to the situation in the small office that he didn't even stop writing.

"I did. I met up with a patrol on their way out, and I wondered why they were so heavily armed when they were all Rank Two already. They gave me a brief update, so I came to see you to find out what the bigger picture was." Wolfe agreed.

"Alright, here it is."