Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

The old officer stood up, brushed off the dust from his knees, and signaled for the guards to escort him inside. His tone was flat, clearly not his first time handling such tasks.

Grayson pulled out a piece of cloth marked with the sun emblem from his pocket and handed it to the quartermaster. The quartermaster took it and pressed it onto the interrogation record book, noting the team number and capture location in the remarks column.

After the quartermaster finished registering, he took a copper seal from his desk drawer, stamped Grayson’s commission order, and handed over several new commission documents from the wooden rack behind him.

These were the subsequent task arrangements. All patrol missions outside were canceled, and all adventurer teams were incorporated into the city’s defense sequence. Specific tasks included assisting the city defense forces in guarding the gates, patrolling major streets within the city, maintaining curfew order, and being ready to respond to emergencies at any time.

Grayson took the documents, flipped through them without saying anything, merely handing one to Old Toby while slipping another into his pocket.

That afternoon, Grey Rock City officially entered a state of complete lockdown.

All city gates were closed, and without the joint signature of the Earl himself or the City Defense Commander, no one was allowed to enter or exit.

Along the city walls, large cauldrons were set up every few steps, with oil boiling inside them. The soldiers guarding the city were stacking spare arrows and javelins behind the battlements.

The moat surrounding the walls was dredged again, with the muddy water diverted away and replaced by clear water released from the upstream reservoir. The water level rose to match the riverbank within hours.

Thick iron and wooden shields were added every few arrow towers along the city walls, the shields painted with the number of each responsible area and the name of the guarding captain in white paint.

In the streets, the originally bustling shops were mostly closed, and the doors and windows of the houses facing the street were shut tight. Occasionally, a few pairs of eyes peeked out from the window gaps, only to quickly retreat.

Temporary checkpoints were set up at the intersections of several main streets, with mixed teams of soldiers and adventurers taking turns to guard them.

Old Toby set up a small stall by the checkpoint, sharing the dried wild vegetables and wheat cakes he brought back from the camp with the soldiers beside him.

Grayson still wasn’t fond of talking, merely wiping the hilt of his sword over and over, occasionally glancing up in the direction of the city walls.

On the evening before the siege began, Grayson gathered the team at the temporary garrison.

This garrison was allocated to them by the quartermaster, originally a street-facing grocery store. The owner had fled with his family before the lockdown was issued, leaving the shop with only a few empty shelves and a tilted counter.

Grayson used the counter as a table, spread a hand-drawn city defense map on it, and pinned the corners with a dagger.

Old Toby leaned against the corner, slowly sharpening his short-handled axe with a whetstone.

The newly joined young team member sat on the shelf, holding his Hunting Bow with lips pursed into a thin line.

"Listen up." Grayson’s voice was not loud but very deep. "The Rebel Army has at least hundreds of thousands of men over there, while we defenders barely have eighty thousand, not even half of theirs. The troublesome part is they sent a unit to the east of the city, blocking the last retreat path leading to the kingdom’s interior. Now no one in this city can get out. I won’t comment on the Rebel Army commander’s intelligence, but for us, what’s the most important thing in a besieged city?"

Old Toby didn’t even lift his head, continuing to sharpen his axe, spitting out two words, "Stay alive."

"Right." Grayson pointed with his rough finger at several marked spots on the map, "The bounty for defending the city is indeed high; Earl Marshall really put a lot into this. But no matter how high the bounty is, you need to be alive to spend it. Once the siege begins tomorrow, our team’s task is to assist in defending the central part of the West City Wall.

The West City Wall is one of the main attack directions of the Rebel Army, so the pressure will be high. At that time, none of you are allowed to leave my sight, act alone, or play the hero.

Our primary goal is to survive until this battle ends, and then assist with the defense task. The bounty is secondary; life is the most important."

Duke understood what Grayson meant by not commenting on the Rebel Army’s intelligence, being a common knowledge in warfare.

As said in Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which he read in a previous life, "Besiege them but leave an escape route."

The essence is that when besieging the enemy, you must leave them a gap, a way out.

When the enemy is cornered, they will fight desperately, but if you leave them a way out, it can break their spirit and minimize casualties on our side, achieving victory with less cost.

Though this world lacks such summarizing terms, it is a principle known to those who frequently mingle in battlefields.

But now the Rebel Army has blocked the retreat route for those in the city, leaving the defenders no choice but to fight to the death.

Because while the Rebel Army may not massacre civilians, the same cannot be said for these city-guarding soldiers.

Moreover, these soldiers’ fortunes are all tied to the Earl, they’re in the same boat, sharing in either glory or defeat.

Duke leaned against a wooden pillar supporting the ceiling and listened quietly.

Grayson’s words were seasoned advice; even though his team consisted of veterans, in a large-scale defense battle like this, even a Level 1 Extraordinary could be crushed by the overwhelming inertia of war if not careful.

The adventurer profession in the Osseron Kingdom has existed for so many years, relying not on unwavering loyalty in battle, but on precise judgment and extensive life-saving experience.