Heaven's Greatest Professor

The reinforcement came half an hour later. Over a thousand infantry marched on, each of the soldiers stepped forward with purpose, their uniforms and armour indicating they were well-trained for this exact job.

Unfortunately, the orcs were already moving to leave by that point. The trolls had brought them the advantage to withdraw, dealing all the damage they came to do. They had looted part of the ores, and killed and heavily injured over a few hundred human rankers.

Of course, they took damage as well, heavy damage, considering only about half of their numbers managed to withdraw while the rest were slain on the ground.

The commander in charge of the troops was a mage, and as soon as he arrived, he began shooting sharp projectiles of ice at the remaining few forsaken.

A swift attack came out of nowhere and beheaded the troll Warden was almost finished with, stealing his kill.

[You have slain Trolls (Iron), 5x]

[+4.7 Recovery.]

Warden spat on the ground and sat down. His whole face was covered in troll blood, exhaustion burning through his muscles and channels. The surge of power from the essence harvested did drive away some of the exhaustion, but it was far from what he required to feel free.

Gasping heavily for a few minutes, he wiped the blood from his face. With how many times he had to cut the trolls, he was literally bathing in their disgusting blood. Nothing less than a proper bath would solve this, not that he thought he would be freed from duty any time soon.

A few of the sixteenth infantry came to join him, all of them similarly exhausted with several cuts, though they weren't bathing in blood like him.

"New guy, you're alive," said the spearman. He did not sound surprised, probably having seen him fight. "Unfortunately, not everyone was so lucky."

Warden sighed. "How many?"

"Well, among our numbers, I saw two dying," the spearman said, resting across from Warden, his spear still clasped tight. "Over a dozen are seriously injured, the healers will take care of them. Dozens died before we came, and more died after too... for what it's worth your maniac assault alone on the enemy managed to save the lives of these lots."

"Call me Warden," he husked, looking around with searching eyes at the dead.

"Caleb," the spearman gave his name. "Healers will be here, but at the very end after they take care of the regular soldiers, if that's what you're wondering."

Warden raised an eyebrow and nodded. In the hierarchy of the army, they fell right at the bottom, just above slaves in chains. Of course, they would be taken care of last. Well, Warden wasn't really injured, his natural regeneration power had already healed the few wounds he had taken. But it was the exhaustion he had to deal with. A healer might boost his recovery a lot quicker.

"Is it always like this?" Warden asked.

"Yeah," Caleb said leaning against the corpse behind him. "But you came on a bad day. Attacks like this near our camp rarely happen. It's almost a suicide mission for the forsaken, they only managed to save their numbers because the attack was unexpected and they came in force."

Warden nodded in understanding. The blood was drying on his skin, making him feel uncomfortable. "How are the usual days for us soldiers?"

Caleb shot him a look. "Other than these skirmishes, not that bad. A lot of guarding, day or night, and mostly exploration... We only lose our numbers in direct confrontations like this. The general is going to be royally pissed about this loss."

Warden saw Luis talking with the mage, probably the commander of the reinforcements. Well, by talking, he meant Luis was getting all the rebukes silently, even though none of it was his fault.

A healer came half an hour later, a young woman with a mask on. Probably couldn't handle gore all that much. She literally cringed, finding them sitting with corpses covered in blood all over their bodies.

"Show your wounds quickly, I have places to be," she said, her tone haughty.

As Warden's need was minuscule compared to the few heavily injured, he remained silent while the healer took care of them. There were literally a couple of them with their severed limbs in hand, waiting to be reattached by the healer, their expressions imminent and tense.

Thankfully, the healer was masterful in her job. She worked quickly to take care of them one by one until she turned to Warden.

"Just throw me a rejuvenation spell," Warden requested.

The healer woman shot him a piercing gaze, as though checking for wounds. Sweat trickled down her forehead. This job wasn't easy on her either. "I don't have energy to spare for such spells."

With that, she turned and left, leaving a dumbfounded Warden.

"What the actual fuck!" he cursed.

Caleb shook his head as if it was only natural. "I'll ask Luis to spare you one rejuvenation potion."

"Thanks." Warden scratched his skin, wiping away the layers of blood plastered to his arm. "I think I need a bath more than a rejuvenation potion."

"Unfortunately, you have to make it do with a Cleansing Crystal," Caleb said, causing Warden to wince.

He wasn't unfamiliar with Cleansing crystals, as he had used them once during his time in the dungeon with Jason and others. Honestly, it wasn't any better than bathing. It saves time, but the detriment was that it did not give any refreshed feeling either.

Well, since he wasn't stained with disgusting murk that came out of his body when he went through the body transformation, the cleansing crystal could clean him up.

"120 contribution points," Caleb muttered with the army token in hand. He shot Warden a look. "How much did you get?"

Warden drew his badge and infused his energy, as soon a number lit up in the air.

[820]

Caleb whistled as many of the others looked with envy as well. Most of their contribution didn't wasn't higher than 50 points.