Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

A nap on the boat was his plan, but Wolfe had underestimated the nature of [Eternal Vigilance] as a spell. Though he closed his eyes and leaned back in the seat to rest, once the exhaustion passed, he no longer felt any need for actual sleep. 

Meditating for the duration of the trip refreshed his mind, but his body felt no lingering weariness, and he was ready to go again as soon as the boat landed.

[Eternal Vigilance] didn't just allow the user to recreate a destroyed body, it allowed the user to be eternally on watch over whatever it was that they deemed important. For the creator of the spell, that had seemed to be the happenings of the world, though he chose not to interfere in them, just observe them, but he did that very well.

For Wolfe, it meant that unless he was distracted or meditating, he could always be alert for threats, and no longer needed the long downtimes that were more normal and natural for the human or in his case, Magi, body.

It was a strange feeling to know that he should be tired, but to not be tired. The spell seemed to be similar to the stamina enhancing spell that the Witches used, but somehow different. Perhaps his body would need the rest eventually, but so far, his exertion had been mental and magical, and that didn't seem to wear him out anymore.

The four of them climbed out of the boat to meet with the duo that was working the border duty, but they were currently busy with a report from some local scouts. The other scouts from their village had spotted the incoming vehicles and sent a radio message ahead to make sure that the Fae Forest villages were ready to receive them.

That meant that the first arrivals shouldn't be more than an hour or two away, since they were being guided through the Frozen Wastes by the locals, who all knew where to send them, even if it was possible to miss the Forest once you got within twenty kilometres of it.

The trees were massive, and there were a number of hills involved, so visibility wasn't the issue, only finding just the right spot to meet a local guide.

But once they knew to follow the river, that was solved as well, and it was nearly impossible for them to get lost.

"How is the curse breaking going outside the forest?" Wolfe asked as he walked up to the scouts.

"We're up to about sixty kilometres from the forest now, where we can talk to the Witches. They sent out more supplies today, and everyone tried talking to them if the greenery had reached their village, so we should have pretty accurate numbers." The scout replied.

"Mostly munitions, or did we send out anything else today?" Wolfe asked the guards at the border.

"Ammunition boxes with the amulets, and a bag of vegetables today. We weren't sure who needed what, so we sent them a mix bag for the gardens. All the nearby villages have a garden and light charm now, even if they were only ones that had been made by our better students." She explained.

The scouts nodded happily. "It's been a big improvement. They connected my village to the underground highway today as well. That is going to be awesome."

For the villages outside the Forest, it really would be a remarkable thing to be able to connect to other villages underground, especially with the delivery trucks that they had scheduled to head out from the Forest. But more importantly, it meant that the roads were spreading, and they would be able to rapidly move forces without being detected by the enemy. 

Every new village was a new opportunity to pop up through a hidden vent and ambush enemy troops, then disappear.

There was a sharp whistle in the distance, and both scouts turned to stare at the horizon, waiting for the intruders to appear. Since the invasion had begun with a radio message on all frequencies, they had nearly stopped using the military radios for nonessential communication.

Not because they cared if the messages got intercepted, but because they were more worried that the enemy would be able to locate their villages by the sources of the signals and herd monsters to them, like they had heard happened to the villages in the East.

Once the enemy knew roughly where they were, they could start a small Monster Tide, and let the beasts do the dirty work of finding the village. That was game over for most villages, even if they tried to fight back. If they lost, they had to flee. If they won, they still had to flee because now they were no longer hidden and the enemy would be back with a stronger force.

So, the villages that were connected to others by road now had reduced the size of their entrances as much as they could, leaving only enough room to bring in air dropped supplies, and hiding better than ever.

If they had to go to another village, they could do it through the roadway, and the scouts could still exit through the narrow tunnels that they had always used.

Often, those were disguised as a fox burrow, Wolf Den, or other animal hole, and the scouts crawled the last dozen metres to get in and out. Nobody would think that would lead to a massive settlement, so even if they were seen, they could collapse the end of it and their pursuers would think they were trapped.

The fact that most of the tunnels were dead ends, and only one actually led anywhere reinforced that notion, and even when the mundane army sent dogs down after them, the dogs just ended up getting lost in the tunnels, which were full of scents from the scouts taking breaks in the dead-end tunnels.

"There they are. Refugee vehicle one is on the horizon, headed straight for you. Good luck with them, we're back to our route." The scout informed them as he packed up to leave.

"Good luck out there, keep a close eye out for enhanced monsters and anything out of the ordinary, we don't know what sort of trickery they will think of next to try to get us out of our homes." Wolfe replied, giving him a parting wave farewell.