Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)
chapter-236

Chapter 236: Preparing For War

The aftermath of the first battle was quickly calculated. Every class was either happy or in despair with their own results, but totalled up, 40 were dead from all the classes and the injured numbered near a hundred. Out of the heavily-injured ones, over ten of them had lost all battle capabilities, basically making them no different from casualties of war.

There were way too many casualties!

That was just the first day, and because of that, the acting monitors were in a heated discussion within the headquarters. Some of them felt like the fortress was too small, and coupled with their disadvantage in numbers, they would not be able to defend for too long if they were surrounded. That was why they felt that they should begin their defense outside of the fortress–in order to delay the enemies.

However, the others felt that their foes could be the orcs’ main army. Based on their earlier battle, the orcs were definitely stronger than them, so leaving the walls would be a stupid endeavor.

Everyone wanted to show off their leadership skills in order to earn a better score for themselves, since the year leader could very well be chosen from that criterion as well.

That was why the first day was filled with arguments, and Xiao Lin had joined the acting class monitors in the headquarters after he woke up as well, but he did not voice his opinion most of the time. Instead, he discussed with Cheng Ming before sending two students from each of their classes with decent archery skills to go scouting for information.

Regardless if they were going to defend the fort or attack aggressively, they still needed to get a good grasp of their opponent’s power level before they took action. Xiao Lin did not know why, but he had a nagging feeling in his head, as if he was forgetting an important point, but never managed to figure out what it was.

Even though they argued nonstop, the acting monitors were still not completely clueless. They quickly issued the orders, and let their classmates carry them out.

The first thing was to place a large number of traps at the foot of the hill, as well as the path leading up. Those engineers were a big help in that department, and the resources within the supply depot were very useful as well. The traps were mainly split into two kinds. Flame traps were made using solidified animal fats and low-level flame magic materials. If someone walked on it, their feet would set it off and light up the trap.

They also had spiked traps, which used long spiky plants as the primary material. They were buried into the ground, but the spikes themselves did not do much damage. It was the poison added to the spikes that would deal most of the damage. At the same time, they made various obstacles to stop their mounts, such as large rope traps.

The students that Xiao Lin and Cheng Ming sent out did not find anything in their scouting, so the first day after they took down the fortress passed by relatively peacefully. During the night, the monitors used the meat within the warehouse to make large pots of meat stew on the large training fields. The thick smell of meat wafted through the air.

They had wanted to invite the troops on the warships to join them, but they were rejected politely. That was because they needed to always stay alert, so they could react immediately if anything happened. Those warships were also set to return to Dawn City in two or three days, which caused everyone to be quite disappointed. Some of them had actually suggested asking the warships to continue to scout for them along the seas.

However, according to the historical schedules, the warships definitely needed to leave. Compared to that supply depot, defending Dawn City was definitely a much more important task.

The day after, the ships started to pull up their anchors and set sail, but Xiao Lin managed to locate the captain and make a small request first, which was quickly met with agreement by the latter. Thus, there was now a batch of vision-enhancing scrolls within the fortress. In this world, that scroll which had farsight, night-vision and other capabilities had replaced binoculars.

Rather than argue about how they would defend the fortress like the other monitors, Xiao Lin felt that it was more important to scout out the enemy. Even though some students had learned eagle vision, the skill’s radius was still not as good as the scrolls.

Just like that, four days had passed. With everyone’s hard work, over a hundred traps, big and small had been laid around the fortress. The engineers had also built more than ten defensive towers around them, but thanks to the tight schedule, those towers were just more simplistic archer and spell-casting towers that still needed to be manually operated.

No matter what, the defenses had begun to look quite impressive. The scouts Xiao in had been sending out still could not find any trace of the enemies, but they had still managed to draw a more or less complete map of the surroundings.

Other than the fort on the hill that was surrounded by a dense forest, the rest of the area was surrounded by fast plains. No wonder the orcs decided to establish their biggest supply depot there. In terms of transportation, it was quite easy for their wolf cavalry to reach the area.

Under Xiao Lin’s constant reminders, the rest of them had begun to focus on scouting. Late into the first day, they started to build a few simple sentry towers along the major roads, since they did not have any long-range communication devices. They were like fire towers on Earth, with piles of dried grass on top. The moment any enemies were spotted, they would light up the sentry tower.

The power of collective thinking was obvious. Everyone had spent every ounce of their brain power to watch out for any possible flaws in their plans. A lot of details had gone through intense discussion, but in the end, everyone’s goal was the same. The longer they could defend the place, the more benefits they would get.

After the initial anxiety, the renewed fortress and the countless defenses caused everyone to swell with pride. Thanks to the ample materials within the warehouse, as well as the skills of the engineers, they had made very good progress.

Relaxing a little, everyone could finally take the time to enjoy the surrounding scenery. Standing atop the fortress and admiring the sea below was enough to lift anyone’s spirits.

Some of them would even slip away to the beach, taking advantage of the low tide to pick off some seafood. After that, they would discuss how the seafood of that world was supposed to be eaten, or even sunbathe on the beach. The air around them was definitely fresher than anything back on Earth.

The monitors had initially banned those things, but after they established their scouting system, they were confident that they would have enough time to deal with any incoming attack and started to relax their restrictions. They did not want to exhaust themselves before the orcs even arrived, and some of the monitors and instructors even joined in on the fun.

Xiao Lin had worked tirelessly those few days, even continuing to send out two squads of archers every day. In the day, his attention would be focused on the skies, not allowing any flying creatures near the fortress. Feeling like he had done all he could, he finally allowed himself to relax a little, inviting Gu Xiaoyue for a walk on the beach.