Chapter 435: Grand Master Isaac

"Rise, Grand Master Isaac."

Ethan gave the order as he walked across the stone courtyard, his footsteps echoing in the silence until he came to a stop right in front of the kneeling knight.

Isaac rose in a single, heavy movement, the plates of his armor creaking softly against one another, his boots settling on the flagstones with a dull thud.

In an instant, his tall, imposing figure towered over Ethan, casting a broad shadow over him.

He weighed as much as a full-grown lion in its prime, and with his entire body wrapped in the dark green steel of his heavy armor, Isaac was a hard figure to ignore.

His shoulders were nearly as wide as two ordinary men standing side by side, and his gauntlets were almost the size of an adult’s head.

Ethan looked up to meet that hard, mature face—yet handsome in its own virility—and held the knight’s steady gaze for a moment before speaking.

"You will take control of this fortress and make it the heart of your order. Soon, a team of civil servants will come to visit you. Every man under your command will receive full citizenship in Goldenveil and a monthly salary befitting his position.

"Once you’ve finished stabilizing your order, you’ll receive your first mission."

Isaac lowered his head slightly in acknowledgment.

Of course, he had already been created knowing what his mission was. Still, Ethan preferred that he wait a few days before beginning to move those troops.

Isaac’s men first needed to become at least somewhat familiar with the forest, the fortress, and, of course, the laws of Goldenveil before taking any action.

The envoys who would arrive shortly would be there precisely to help with that.

Within a week, Ethan wanted to see them ready to begin the mission of clearing all the trash out of the Eternal Forest.

"Yes, My Lord. The Green Sentinels live to serve!"

Isaac declared forcefully, his fist striking his breastplate with a heavy clang, his deep voice reverberating off the walls.

Behind him, the army of giants rose to their feet as one.

Suddenly, Ethan stood before a living wall of dark green metal that stretched from one end of the courtyard to the other, every man in it easily over two meters tall.

Their size seemed exaggerated, but Ethan felt satisfied as he scanned those ranks.

On Earth, the fragility of the human body and modern firearms had turned a soldier’s size into more of a disadvantage than anything else.

On Estria, however, size mattered enormously.

After all, aura worked primarily by strengthening the muscles and increasing the power of the body it was imbued into.

A warrior with twenty percent more muscle theoretically had room for twenty percent more aura in his body.

This, of course, varied greatly depending on muscle density, level, talent, and mastery over the aura. Nor was it a linear relationship.

Twenty percent more aura imbued into a person’s musculature could easily mean a fifty to sixty percent surge in power.

That was one of the reasons magical beasts were so much stronger than humans.

A larger body meant greater aura reserves and more space for that aura to be infused into.

Of course, saying that more muscle equaled more strength was nothing more than a highly simplified explanation.

There were many other factors at play, from the meridians that carried the aura through the body, to the size of one’s aura reserves, and even the strength of the bones.

Still, generally speaking, Ethan always tried to keep his soldiers as tall as possible. It was a simplification that, in practice, worked very well.

His soldiers followed specific diets and were instructed to keep their body fat low at all times, since it directly affected the conversion of aura into strength.

Of course, after the Third Stage, this lost some of its significance.

Experts at that level had immense control over their own bodies and would need to eat absurd amounts of food to overcome that control.

Ethan didn’t talk much with Isaac. There really wasn’t much to talk about.

He handed a few communication devices to Isaac and the order’s two Vice-Masters—two knights nearly as large as the Grand Master himself—and then let them begin organizing their men.

As the courtyard filled with barked commands and heavy footsteps, Ethan used his own device to contact Goldenveil.

He ordered them to prepare a team from City Hall to come and settle the matter of citizenship for Isaac and his men, and to bring along a few copies of the Goldenveil Constitution.

In addition, he instructed master tamers of the Palace of Beasts to come and select suitable individuals from among the Green-Horned Giant Wolves for breeding.

The wolves wouldn’t be very useful to the Goldenveil army, since one needed a strong affinity with nature to form a bond with those creatures.

Still, their controlled breeding would be useful for the order’s future. And, of course, there were other potential uses beyond serving the talented children who might one day show a high affinity for nature energy.

"They’re giants, even by Goldenveil standards."

Evelyn remarked as she stood beside Ethan, her arms crossed over her chest as she watched the knights split into groups and spread out through the fortress that would be their new home.

Living under an absurdly high density of magic, Goldenveil’s citizens were already changing.

The people of the North were already tall on average, but the citizens of Goldenveil could be considered true giants by any standard in that world.

In the Kingdom of Burning Ice, for example, the average height for men was 185 centimeters. In Goldenveil, it was already approaching two meters, with powerful bodies brimming with vitality.

"Yes."

Ethan nodded, resting a hand on Evelyn’s slender waist. His fingers slid slowly across her stomach, tracing the firm, flat muscles beneath the fabric, powerful and yet delicate under his touch.

Evelyn said nothing. She just exhaled slowly and leaned a little closer to him, letting the curve of her hip press lightly against his as she continued to watch the knights.

Ethan gave her waist a light squeeze.

"Let’s go to Windmere now. Arwen must already be there, eager for me to bring the other priestesses from her church back."