“Her?” Both Jeanny and Grace said at the same time after seeing Red Death.
Jack had invited Red Death after Callan gave him the invitation. She was still in the Roman theater then. She had to leave for a while to talk with Rhemos’ aide, the cloaked man, who had not yet left this place.
Jeanny turned to Jack, “You mentioned this ancient battleground gives good rewards if we perform well, right? Is it wise to share them with our enemy?”
“Our guild is enemy with hers, but she herself is not our enemy,” Jack said.
“I’m completely lost on that logic, mate,” Giant Steve said.
“The divine priest gives him the right to choose, so it’s his right,” Grace uttered. Jack turned to her. She sounded supportive, but why did he feel like there was a hint of anger in her tone? Must be just his imagination, Jack thought.
Red Death arrived before them, she just gave them all cold looks. Her eyes lingered longer on Grace, she then said to Jack, “Congratulations on getting a new guild member.”
“Oh, right! I saw your name pop up in the member list. I was wondering at first if it is the same Grace from this tournament,” Jeanny said.
“Yeah, now we can have access to the elven country,” Jack uttered, before turning to Grace and saying, “You will establish the teleportation link for our guild, right?”
“Once I return to one of the cities,” Grace replied.
“Awesome,” Giant Steve uttered.
“Ahem!” They heard Jet’s voice. Everyone turned to him. “You people sound so glad about getting access to the elven country, what about the dwarven country?”
Jeanny and Jack used Inspect on him.
“You have also joined our guild? I didn’t notice you before on our member list,” Jeanny said.
“Wow, how did you join?” Jack asked.
“I invited him not long ago,” Domon said.
“Shit! I am twice being offended now. I want to quit the guild!” Jet uttered.
“Hey, come on. Calm down now, my good uncle,” Jack said with a laugh. “We all welcome you with open arms. To get a martial expert like you, our guild has hit the jackpot.”
“Hmpha?|, my friends in the tournament team also follow me in joining,” Jet said.
“Sure, sure, the more the merrier,” Jack said.
“Don’t expect me to be a lackey, though. I simply joined because Domon mentioned it is not so strict there. I simply plan to hang around your guild headquarters and help Domon once in a while.”
“Do you think our headquarters is a cafeteria?” Jack said. “Well, I don’t mind about you. You helping Domon teach other members martial arts is already a great help, but your other friends will have to contribute at least the basic weekly requirements. Otherwise, it will look bad with the other members.”
“I’m surprised you care about that,” Jeanny commented.
“Should be no problem,” Jet said. “Domon already told us about the minimum contributions needed.”
“Are you done discussing your guild? Are we going to do this ancient battleground or not?” Red Death uttered.
<br/>”You are welcome to leave anytime you want,” Grace retorted.
The two women ended up in a staring contest.
Jack hurriedly interfered. “All right, let’s talk about the ancient battleground we will be diving into. We have less than three hours before we go in, so I’m going to lay out what George and I have experienced until our last run.”
Jack told them about the details of the ancient battleground, the levels and grades of the armies inside, the minimum requirements they needed to achieve before getting individual scores, and the secret path they had found in the last run which allowed them to gain some decent scores.
“If we kill more than one thousand opponents before the three hours time limit, will the excess kill counts contribute to our scores?” Jet asked.
“No, our scores will only start after both requirements are met,” Paytowin answered.
“Then there is no use for us to kill more than needed after we hit the one thousand mark, right?” Jet said. “If only the two of you can achieve one thousand kill counts before three hours, then with my mighty help, the kill count requirement will sure get accomplished in a much shorter time. We can then just sit by the side and watch the whole show as we wait for three hours to pass.”
“Although you are not wrong that we will get the kill count requirement faster now that we have a full team, I still advise against taking such a lazy approach,” Jack said.
“And why is that? Why should I put my old bones to labor when there is no benefit?” Jet asked.
Jack rolled his eyes at Jet, he then said, “Remember the eternal-grade commander that I said wiped out everything with his spell?”
“What about him?”
“I think he is some sort of an internal time limit in that simulation. I can hardly think of anyone surviving that spell of his. This means once he takes action, everything is over. Remember what I mentioned about when he starts taking action?”
Paytowin came to a realization. “The time when the war at the chokepoint fort is over!” He uttered.
“Exactly! He stayed indifferent even when a battle occurred so close to where he was sitting. He only stood up and joined the battle after every enemy at the fort is defeated. This means if we help thin the enemies attacking the fort and keep more friendly soldiers surviving the first three hours, the war at the fort will be prolonged. Hence, our battle at the enemy’s camp will also be longer. We will then have more time to gain more scores.”
“So, basically the point is still to kill as many enemies as possible,” Giant Steve said
“Yes. However, I advise saving all your long cooldown skills for the last battle at the enemy’s camp. That is where we will need to give it our all to get scores.”
“What about the supply carts?” Jeanny asked. “You mentioned the camp is full of it, right? Do we get scores for destroying it?”
“We didn’t destroy any supply cart in our last run, so we have no confirmation, but I highly suspect it will. In fact, I think it is the whole point of the operation into the enemy camp. The eternal-grade commander is certainly impossible to kill, so that sneak mission is not taking the enemy’s head. I think the defenders know they have no chance to win, but if they take out the enemy’s supplies, they can halt the enemy’s advance. We should be able to know for sure if we check this world’s history.”
Jack said the last sentence and looked at Paytowin at the same time.
“Why are you looking at me?” Paytowin asked.
“You didn’t study the history of the simulation you enter?”
“What about the two of you?” Jack asked Peniel and Carnelia.
“Our knowledge doesn’t include all history. We know the general history of this world, but not those details,” Peniel answered.
“Hma?| Anyway, I’m still pretty sure destroying those supply carts is the key to getting more scores. In fact, my plan on the last run today is to target those supplies. Now that I have more underlings, this task should be easier.”
Everyone rolled their eyes at his remark.
“I have a question,” Jet asked. “If that commander you mentioned sits still with his back on you. Isn’t that the best chance to ambush him? Even if you can’t kill him, at least damaging him should be a feat worthy to be granted scores, shouldn’t it?”
“I don’t know. Until our last run, we only get scores from killing opponents,” Jack said. “I don’t say that your theory is not likely, but we only have one chance to do this run. If you hit him when there is no score and he ends up taking action earlier due to your hit, then we will be the ones who lose the chance for more scores. So don’t try that experiment.”
“So, what’s the game plan?” Grace asked.
“We kill as many enemies as possible before the three hours mark. Save the big skills. Follow the shock troop to sneak into the enemy’s backline. After that, we follow the troops that rushed towards the supply carts and destroyed as many supplies as possible.”
“Sound simple,” Jeanny said.
“If everyone is clear. We will go together to the temple a bit over two hours from now. You can go somewhere else to relax in the meantime, just make sure to come back here after two hours,” Jack said to them.
Everyone stayed there. Most sat relaxing at the roman theater’s stone steps. Leavemealone went a few distances away and started training on his own. Jack also trained his mana manipulation at the arena. He had somehow performed the perfect execution of One-word Slash utilizing mana manipulation in the combat against Mihos. He still got the feeling. But when he tried it again, he saw the flash produced by his slash was slightly crooked. He could sense the power accompanying that slash was much weaker than the one in the bonus match.
‘Was that slash a fluke?’ Jack thought
He didn’t let this failure bring him down. He continued training while waiting for the time.
