After breakfast, Luon entered the Vortex Container and with CITA’s instruction he successfully logged into the class lobby.
Luon was a little bit early as there was still time before class starts, but he noticed that there were already other students in the lobby.
Although his dorm mates had yet to arrive as well as Zythos’s lackeys, Luon who sent his gaze around the room noticed a particular group of students and made his way towards them.
Compared to the other students in this class this group was more elegant and refined, it was Arisa, Belle, and Shizuka.
However, Luon didn’t come for idle chatter. He was still mad that he lost his weapon even though Arisa’s book did help him a little with his new cultivation technique. Luon came to see if he could receive more benefits for the one-sided trade.
As Luon arrived at, Belle who was happily talking with Arisa and Shizuka noticed him and said, “Hello Luon, what’s up?”
Arisa and Shizuka diverted their attention to Luon after Belle pulled him into the conversation, Luon said, “Hello girls, I just came by to see if I can get my sword back from Arisa.”
“Eh, Arisa you took his sword?” Belle questioned.
“Don’t worry about it, Belle. Luon, it was an equal trade was it not? A unique grade sword for a unique grade manual.” Arisa said nonchalantly.
“Although it was a unique grade manual it isn’t usable or practical, I would probably be better off with my sword back.” Luon firmly said.
Arisa sighed and said, “Alright you win, here you go.”
With that casual remark, she tossed the sword back at Luon but since this was virtual reality she was able to duplicate the sword as many times she wanted to.
Luon looked at her strangely and said, “I meant in real life.”
“Look here mister, I gave you the manual, and now I digitally gave you the sword what more do you want?” Arisa said.
“How about you just give him some materials to make a sword? Well since you have already given some kind of manual why not just cut the cost in half?” Shizuka uninterestingly interrupted.
Arisa nodded at her suggestion and said: “Alright write me a list of materials you want, I’ll have Shizuka check on the materials you requested to make sure it’s properly valued if you dare deceive me you might be in for another night visit.”
Belle blushed at her last remark, but Shizuka who interpreted it the same way showed no expression whatsoever.
Luon agreed immediately he didn’t expect to receive any benefits, but because of Shizuka, he got more than what he bargained for. Luon began to contemplate on what materials he needed right now considering he had received some from his parents already. He decided to send Arisa a list of some more rarer materials, of course, they cost about half of what [X-Reaver] had cost.
Arisa received the list from Luon on her BMPU and forwarded to Shizuka, and she told Luon that she would send the materials to his room later.
After some idle chatter more and more student began to arrive, and surprisingly Zythos came for the class as well.
Luon was shocked at the healing ability of rich families have at disposal coupled with the regeneration rate werewolves have they might become invincible, never-tiring warriors. After Zythos had logged in, he interrupted Luon and girls conversation wedging himself in as he greets Shizuka and Arisa.
“Good day Shizuka and Arisa, it been awhile since the last party. You shouldn’t hang out with filth like him it will degrade your beauty.” Zythos pompously said.
Luon brows scrunched at his words as he venomously retorted “And this filth made you eat dirt yesterday.”
Zythos unlike Chester has a lower amount of self-restraint but in front of these influential girls he couldn’t just rage, he held his anger to the best abilities and quietly said to Luon, “You watch yourself now with that kind of attitude you might end up dying a young and fruitless death.”
Luon only smiled silently at his remark.
Shizuka stayed quiet as Arisa said, “Sir Zythos worries are uncalled for, who I talk to and who I meet is my own will.”
“Ho, then are you supporting someone like him?” Zythos questioningly stared at her.
“If I did would you considering backing off?” Arisa said.
“Hmph, to support a wastrel like him how extravagant can you get.” Chester came in with the other lackeys.
“Beggars shouldn’t butt in when your leader is talking, and I didn’t mention that I would.” Arisa was unfazed by his statement.
“Haha, she called you guys beggars,” said Gizmo, Bendan and Tyron came to the scene. Bendan, of course, was laughing really loudly where it annoyed everyone in the area.
The two groups gave a stare down, this was like a continuation of what just happened moments ago.
Before tensions can get any worse, the teacher for the commander class arrived.
“Hello everybody is everyone having a good day? Mine’s been great thanks for asking. Eh? You didn’t ask? No problem, no problem. Let’s get started already later today I got a date with my darling to attend.” The teacher, Helen entered full of energy.
Helen continued, “Alright gather up and get in your little groups, minimum 2 people maximum 5, you know the drill, ones the leader and the rest are slav- I mean soldiers.”
Although full of discontent Zythos formed one group and he got Chester to lead another, after all, they have a lot of people to manage, and it would be more successful to have them separated. Arisa on the other hand, grouped up with Shizuka and Belle while Luon paired with Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan. For Luon’s group, Gizmo took the commanding role as he said to Luon that fighting in groups requires a different kind of strategy than before.
The matches started, and the first few stratagems used by his fellow classmates helped broaden Luon’s view of this war game.
Besides the Commander role, the other students occupying the soldier role would divide themselves into 4 different sub-roles. They have scouts to help provide a network of information. Interceptors to confront the opposing team’s scout and aid the allied scout. Attackers who with the army press the attack against the enemies Crypt of Heroes. Last but not least, Defenders who defend the base from the opposing team forces.
First of all, any scouts summoned by the Crypt of Heroes were only useful in controlling allied terrain. As for sending something out to figure out what the enemy had in-store, cheap scouts die relatively fast, and the most common move was to have one of the soldiers take on the role.
It was vital for every soldier to have the ability to use a ranged attack for the sole purpose of disabling weak scouts. The scouting battle was like a wild cat and mouse chase to find out the opposing team’s strategy and at the same time doing as much damage as possible.
After the initial scouting phase each team would then begin to build an army based on the information they have received it was like a game of rock, paper, scissors and knowing the opposing commander’s tendencies could be an essential factor on deciding the battle.
Although the stratagem was about the same for every match, every commander so far had different thoughts and reactions on how to handle each situations keeping Luon staring at the battleground.
Eventually, it was his group turn to fight, they only have 4 people, and Gizmo was the commander. Their opponent was coincidently Chester who had 4 powerful beastmen.
Gizmo and Chester made a couple of smart remarks against each other as a greeting then came back to their respective groups to develop a strategy.
The field change and Gizmo chose to battle on a wasteland with many cliffs for his side making it difficult for the beastmen, Chester, on the other hand, picked a forest map to empower them.
The field had changed, but the match had yet to start because both teams weren’t ready yet. Gizmo gathered the underlings to explain the strategy he planned to use for this match.
The plan was simple Luon, and Tyron are assigned scouting positions while causing as much trouble as they can on Chester’s side of the map. During this period Gizmo plans to create a network of scout drones to map his side. After doing so, he intended to build a group of eleven rangers and with Luon and Tyron leading them to do even more damage while continually scouting. Midway in the match Gizmo was then going to create the main force centering around Bendan completely countering Chester’s arrangements.
No one had problems with the plan, werewolves were as slightly faster than elves, but they were melee making it easier for them to kite around.
However, just as the team was about to ready up for battle, Luon pointed out an important factor that may determine the results of the battle.
“I know I’m scouting, but I don’t have any good range attacks.” Luon embarrassingly said.
Luon then explained that the only range attack he can do right now is wind magic, but this would exhaust his mana supply quickly. He also revealed that he was no good with the bow either.
“Then how about a gun? Here use mine and test it out.” Gizmo said as he gave Luon his rifle.
Holding the rifle steadily Luon attempted to aim at a rock several meters away. Luon pressed the trigger as a hail of bullets flew towards in the intended direction completely missing the target.
“Well, I guess you’re not good at that either. I don’t have any more range projectiles left. How about you guys?” Gizmo asked Bendan and Tyron to see if they had any options.
Tyron pulled out a single knife that he used when dismantling and gave it to Luon. Surprisingly Luon was able to accurately throw the knife at the target, but it lacked power behind the toss.
“All I have is a deck of cards with formations engraved on them,” Bendan pulled out from his pockets. Apparently, Bendan on his spare time trained his mental strength by inscribing formations on cards, and he has a variety of different types in a deck.
Luon took one of the cards and tossed it at the target only to find it shine midway and change into an electrical charge zapping and decimating the predetermined area. The cards were way too effective.
“This would do, but is it fine for me to use them?” Luon said.
“Sure I can duplicate as many as you want,” Bendan replied. However, even though he was able to duplicate them, they were only allowed 10 items assigned to the battle slots before the battle started. The deck of cards was limited to 52 units, so Luon just had 9 decks worth as the last slot was occupied by the sword Arisa gave back to him, digitally at least.
Seeing how the team was now prepared for battle Gizmo initiated the ready sequence.
The match started a few seconds later after Chester also pressed ready and right away Gizmo sent Luon and Tyron to scout. Gizmo using his commanding authority summoned 5 Human workers, several essential tools, and a pile of metallic scrap.
For the scouting drones, he was planning to lay it out in his wasteland region, Gizmo wanted to save the construction costs by manually constructing them, the workers can also construct weapons for his elven archers later on or traps in this complex terrain.
With haste Tyron and Luon treaded the wasteland, it was a series of cliffs and dirt with many vital points making it difficult to attack if traps were laid out. A few minutes passed, and they reached the halfway point there was a clear divide between forest and wasteland, a single border which defied all logic but at the same time the path to enemy territory.
They entered the forest while being carefully aware of their surroundings in search of the opposing Crypt of Heroes. Over the trees and under rocks they used as much cover as possible, although the beastmen on Chester side were more than likely going to attack in close quarters combat they still can’t factor out the possibility of a ranged attack.
Sure enough, Tyron stopped his tracks and halted Luon as well. Using experience as a hunter, he realizes that the enemies were close. Luon took this opportunity to cast out his wind-based detection magic finding all four of those beastmen taking ambushing positions.
Luon silently signaled to Tyron that the enemy wasn’t going to scout their base out as all the enemy soldiers were taking the role of being interceptors. However, even knowing that they are going to be intercepted, it was vital to get information on what Chester was using his points for. Information was key in winning the match, and a scout’s job wasn’t to engage in combat but to relay information to the commander.
Tyron signaled Luon to strike first using as many blinding and disastrously damaging attacks before going into hiding. Tyron was planning to act as bait as Luon sneaks by their defenses to investigate what Chester was up to. With the plan set, they put it into action.
Luon tossed a whole deck of cards all with the explosive array engraved on all of them before hiding himself under a tree trunk. A series of explosions roared as smoke and flames started to spread within the forest region. The four beastmen worked hard to disperse the fire using water magic and taking this chance Tyron used his bow to snipe one of them off instantly killing him before retreating after confirming the results.
The flames were settled just as one of them died, with anger the rest of them chased after Tyron. Luckily the beastmen weren’t able to detect mana waves as Luon concealed his scent using wind magic.
Luon stealthily made his way through the forest scouring a path to their base by following the footprints the beastmen left behind.
Luon eventually made it to a clearing to find Chester and his Crypt of Heroes and a shocking starting move he made.
