The Archangel of Death - Chapter 99

99: Preparing 99: Preparing Chapter 99 “You may know each other but allow me to introduce you anyway,” I said turning to Layla before I turned to the girls to introduce them individually, “This is Rose, my attendant and soon-to-be knight.

This is Alicia, and this is Laura.” I introduced each of the girls without attaching any sort of special title to them because I didn’t want them to act unnecessarily wary in front of Layla.

“Adrian’s soon-to-be wife.” Just like this.

Laura boldly added another title to her introduction while tightly clinging her body to me.

I chose to be the smart man and remained quiet.

If I say anything, it would seem like I am trying to weasel my way out of this.

In contrast to that, Layla’s misunderstanding of something wasn’t that steep of a price to pay.

“I… I see.” Layla awkwardly replied, especially noticing how Laura was mashed into me as if trying to merge into me.

“Anyway, I figured that if I have to repeat the plan, then it should be for once so I brought her here as well.

This is Layla, a friend.

You may know her as the apostle of Frost.” I introduced Layla as well.

“Friend, you say?

Just a friend?” Laura asked, still not letting go of me.

“Yes.” I simply replied.

Laura turned to look at Layla to see that she wasn’t bothered in the least by this.

Me or Layla, both of us didn’t consider each other for romance so there were no such feelings like that in the first place.

Done with the unusual introduction, I started, “Since me, Alicia, and Layla are in the same group, I will first begin with the strategy of Laura and Rose.” Everyone nodded so I continued, “Rose, your job is to guard Laura while Laura, you will be the main damage dealer.

Remember what I taught you and go with that.

You should do fine against monsters of C rank at least.

If you can’t, then Rose is there for unexpected troubles but she won’t help unless absolutely necessary.” Laura and Rose both nodded without asking any questions so I continued, “Your team leader has a grudge against Laura so he will try to make things difficult for you.

What you have to do is refuse his orders if they are unreasonable.

As for the contribution, I hope you both know what you have to do.” Since I had already discussed the main points before we left the training room, I was just making sure they were aware of it right now.

“Why does he hold a grudge against me?

I don’t even know that loser.” Laura skeptically asked while quirking her eyebrow.

“That is for later.

All you need to know is that keep what I told you before in mind and it should all be okay.

Understood?” I asked once I was finished with them.

“Yes.” They both replied at the same time and I nodded.

Then I turned to Layla and said, “I have thought of something for the first siege but for that, you will have to transfer the command over to me.

You will still remain the team leader.” The plan I was going for was something that was used in old Northern wars.

It would be difficult for these kids to keep up but to get perfect scores, they must do at least this much.

======= “I hope everyone is ready to face this challenge.

I look forward to a satisfying performance.

Unlike your last one.” Desmond, as always, gave a hell of a pep talk and pretty soon, the familiar purple glow overtook me from the purple crystal and transported me to a different place.

Only this time, I wasn’t alone.

Checking around, I counted twenty-four more students similarly dressed as me.

The ones I was familiar with were Alicia, Layla, Zefton, and my supposed brother, Lincoln.

Feeling something in my hand I glanced down and saw myself clutching a crystal which I didn’t have before entering this artifact.

I figured everyone might have one.

On the crystal, it showed number zero and after a few seconds, a timer appeared that was written in the language of Isis.

The timer was counting down from twelve hours which if I had to guess strongly, was the timer for the first wave of monsters.

“Okay everyone, gather around.” Layla took charge even before one minute of the test was up and continued, “We will now discuss the roles everyone has.

If you don’t want to comply, you are free to leave.” That was a pretty strong approach and if the situation was somewhat different, I wouldn’t have done the same.

But right now, the situation was different.

She was about to give the charge to me.

I didn’t have a very good reputation, so I doubted any of them would listen to me so a hard approach was the correct approach.

Also, this was mostly pointed at Zefton since he was the one who disapproved of me the most.

After a few minutes, when no one responded, Layla nodded and said, “Very well.

Now, I will be leaving the strategy building to my strategist.” [This girl’s a natural] ‘You’re telling me?’ I’m the one she just appointed as her strategist all of a sudden and so naturally, even those who now had a complaint didn’t know how to say it.

“Nice to meet you, everyone.

I would be the strategist of this team.” I coyly said while Layla figuratively counted stars.

“Right now, the mana is protecting us but it will soon run out and in a few hours, we will freeze to death.

The first to go will be the mages so our priority is to keep the physical activity of everyone ongoing.” I began with a concerning point that none of them could disagree with and in doing so, started to take me seriously.

“We will be dividing ourselves into three teams.

One team will dig.

One team will cut timber while the last team will hunt.

The most prominent monster in this region is the Ice Kuma.

They have high attack damage and strong magical resistance.

Going against them using mages is inefficient while putting physical combatants against them is a risky move.” I once again took my time to explain to let these brats know that I only meant business.

Given how serious the rest seemed now, it looked like the seriousness of the situation was sinking in.

They noticed that even though they were surrounded by heavy snow, they weren’t feeling it because unconsciously, they were using mana to protect themselves.

But now that they were conscious of that fact, they soon realized that their mana would soon run out.

“So first of all, we will be hunting which is most important right now.

Second, we need timber.

Lots of timber.

I will be the first one to hunt.

For the rest of you, all of you will be divided into two teams.

One team will dig while the other team will collect timber.

Any questions?” I ended my instructions and asked.

Immediately, a hand was raised and it was none other than Layla, “I get hunting and timber, but why digging?” A valid question but one that didn’t need to be answered right now.

“That is for the siege.

For now, that is all the explanation you are getting.” Layla didn’t ask anything after that so I nodded and began assigning roles, “The team one leader would be Zefton which would consist of mostly physical combatants, and if there aren’t enough, then mages who have earth blessings.” After that it took some time to make a team of twelve, Zefton included but it wasn’t that difficult since most of the students in our class were physical combatants.

After all, mages were very rare but equally more destructive than physical fighters.

The second team consisted of Layla being the in charge who along with seven more mages and four physical combatants, was responsible for cutting trees and bringing them to the camp.

Well, the camp was a generous word.

It was just an open ground that if done nothing about it, would become the optimal hunting ground for monsters who could surround us easily.

Alicia was part of the digging team.

Her job was to buff the rest of the team so they could work more efficiently.

Of course, the most she could manage right now was a five percent increase but it lasted a lot longer than my ‘Sacred blessing’, so it was better to have her assigning buffs.

Done with all the instructions, before anyone else could ask something stupid like how will we dig or cut, I pulled out exactly twelve shovels and twelve axes from my inventory.

It baffled almost everyone seeing how things magically appeared out of thin air.

“The digging team takes the shovels, since there are no other tools, it would be a little difficult to do precise digging but it doesn’t have to be very precise.

Just dig enough for it to be three meters deep and five feet long.” I relayed the instructions and despite the grumpiness on the faces of these privileged brats, no one complained since Zefton wasn’t complaining.

Zefton led the team away and I turned to the rest of the students.

“Take the axes and get to work.

The minimum requirement for a tree is at least five feet high.

Get around five hundred of them.

Those who run low on mana, recover and then get to it again.” Now all the instructions were relayed.

All that was left was to get provisions which I will be dealing with.

Before I could leave for that, Layla stopped me, “I’m curious about something.” I nodded in return so she continued, “Couldn’t you have brought provisions to this test if you can store everything?” “That is what anyone would do but you see, this whole test is a trap.

You can go solo but also at the same time, going solo is out of the question.

You can bring anything from the outside but wouldn’t doing so make everything easy?” At my question, she went deep in thought but couldn’t arrive at an answer.

“My guess is that however many things we use from the outside, the more our points would be impacted.

And the significance of points would depend on how important that thing is.

Usually, one wouldn’t even bat an eye to a shovel and an axe but here, where their importance is unquestioned, they must be at least worth one point each.

So just consider, how important would provision be?” No matter how much of a doofus she was, even she understood this simple explanation.

She didn’t say anything in return and simply left while nodding.

I also left for the hunt since it was an important piece in all of this.

[Wouldn’t the girls also be impacted because of the things you brought from the outside?] ‘That’s why I told them to use them unless absolutely necessary.’ I realized this test was a trap when Desmond gave us an hour to collect things we could bring inside the test.

That was why I told the girls to be careful and only use things when absolutely needed.

If they feel like they can survive without them, don’t use them.

If they feel like they can’t, then and only then, use them.

I’m sure with how serious I was; they wouldn’t make any such mistake.

As for if they do, I could only hope they have a high amount of points so they can keep their grade.

Anyway, while analyzing all of this, I arrived at the Ice Kuma territory.

The books on monsters in the library gave detailed information on every type of monster ever encountered and researched.

Also from the novel, I knew of the monsters encountered in this test and their hunting spots so I was fairly familiar with everything regarding this test.

The markings on the tree suggested the territory of Ice Kumas so I entered and as soon as I crossed the boundary, a roar fell into my ears as a white bear-looking monster appeared in my view from behind some trees a little far away.

Its size was about eight feet tall and it was as thick as a sumo wrestler.

It ran towards me while I prepared myself for battle.

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