Chapter 2037: Boot Camp -Part 5
Chapter 2037: Boot Camp -Part 5
While the trainees were given free rein to their training regime as long as they completed what was needed, Jin continued to work on the third portal that the trainees were supposed to enter subsequently.
It took some time for him to adjust mainly because there were warplanes involved in it and to not make things too difficult for them, he merely put Spitfires Fighter Planes as the primary 'monsters' compared to other futuristic jets that he could have made. This was because he was using quantity to train the trainees compared to quality.
It was highly likely that the trainees would be overwhelmed considering this would be the first time that they would encounter such a 'metal monster' that could wield explosive fire. "Ah right, I did not teach them defensive magic... Ehhhhhhhh" Jin suddenly scratched his head and wondered if the trainees needed any last minute defensive mechanism placed in them to make sure that they did not die.
But it did not take long for Jin to prepare the insurance for the trainees as he prepared the inscription charms with whatever materials were available for him on sight. Perhaps, the King could give them a crash course on defensive magic now that each of them has Odin's Lesser Jewels. But that does not mean that he should not have the insurance prepared.
After all, he needed to make sure that they were alive to fight for the bet.
Jin also wanted the insurance so that the trainees could feel the full blunt force of the spitfire fighter planes. But what he did not expect was that when the scheduled training for the trainees was over, everyone passed with flying colours. The Magic Eye had indicated that they had done everything Jin had asked for.
And some even lost consciousness after hitting their record timing for the obstacle.
So, while giving them time to recover, Jin gave every one of the impromptu inscription charms that he made so that the final hit that would have killed them would be nullified by the activation of the inscription charm. They did not know what it was nor did Jin explain much, saying that it was beneficial for them and nothing else.
"Now I am going to give a crash course on defensive magic. Watch." Jin said as he enveloped himself with a full shield, partial shield, and focus shield which only covered a specific portion of his body. "That's all, you have five minutes to try and figure out or imitate before I send you in," Jin instructed and the trainees fumbled with the shield making.
Because of Odin's Lesser Jewels, they were able to grasp the full shield without too much trouble through brute force magic. It was able to cover their entire body in a 360 degrees fashion for a moment but whether the toughness was able to withstand attacks, was something that the trainees needed to figure out.
However, that was the limit of their testing before Jin told them their next objective. "Go in, survive for 10 days without landing in the sea. The objective could be completed earlier depending on whether you are able to figure out how to survive.
You are allowed to bring your Wand Rifle with you as well but this time, you are not allowed to shoot any magic." He snapped his fingers and a load of bullet clips emerged from his storage watch.
"Instead, you would be given 15 clips of ammunition to work with. Any release of offensive magic would be deemed as a penalty and everyone has to come back. Failure to admit will result in even harsher punishment." Jin said as he walked towards his desk and flipped the hourglass.
Hearing what Jin had said, the trainees were expected to use the normal bullets which were not as effective as compared to the magic shots that they had been practicing. Perhaps, he wanted them to learn how to use those ammunition in case their magic had been exhausted.
But Number 4 did not think that way, he believed that the King might have other agenda in mind as he said that no offensive magic was allowed. And yet, he briefly told them how to use defensive magic, telling them to figure it out now that they have Odin's Lesser Jewels as part of their repertoire. And the fact that they needed to survive for ten days without dropping into the sea.
All these slightly cryptic messages had enabled Number 4 to believe that this fight was not about killing any monsters or enemies. It's all entirely about survival. .com l'e.com
And he was spot on.
Everyone knew that they might be going through the very same kind of environment that they had suffered on the boat. So with their heart and attitude ready (alongside the magical spell of float), the trainees entered the portal to find themselves once more in a situation they had never encountered before.
There was no ship to land on as the dungeon portal entrance was in midair and that was why the condition was to not fall into the sea. But what they realised was that the float magic did not seem to work as well as it would have compared to what they had experienced in the previous dungeon.
It felt like they needed to put in more effort to maintain the float despite the optimisation they had done when they were creating speed records in the obstacle course.
It was because Jin had manipulated the dungeon in such a way that the gravity was three times stronger than the world that they were usually, forcing them to be in an experience where it was worse than carrying weight loads. (But the fact that their weight loads from the first dungeon had yet to be taken out, could this be considered a double whammy?)
While they were adjusting their float magic with the aid of Odin's Lesser Jewels, they noticed that there were strange sounds aside from the heavy rainstorm and lightning that were occurring in the midst of everything. Most of them took their Wand Rifles out to prepare for a fight but they could not see anything until one of them realised there were small blinks of light flashing from above.
It did not take long to realise that those flashes of lights were an indicator of danger and Number 4 quickly told everyone to put their shields up and go into defensive positions. They got hit the moment the shields came out and Number 4 was able to catch a glimpse of the object that was aimed towards them.
It was a bullet just that it was a few times bigger than the ones that they were using. At that time, they thought they understood what they were going against, but things changed when a large projectile came, and when the group blocked it, an explosion ensued after that.
Surely, they could block one easily as a group but when they saw multiple of such huge metal projectiles coming at them at such speeds, their instincts were shouting to them to split.
That was when the flying component of the float spell came into play and eventually, they were in a dogfight with the flying metal monsters that shot those bullets and huge explosive metal projectiles at them.
Not to mention, the weather was horrendous with the lightning storm and heavy rain that was covering the visibility making it hard for them to predict where on earth they needed to run. Some of the trainees were thinking of just putting the shield up the entire time but Number 4 told them not to.
"Remember! We need to survive for 10 days! Even with the Magic Relic that King Jin had bestowed us with, there is no way we can survive 10 days if we used our magic excessively!" Number 4 said and the rest tried to understand where he was coming from and tried to maneuver and evade while keeping that in mind.
Soon, all of them realised more and more of these 'Spitfires' were coming into the picture. The trainees called them as such because of the names being written on the side of their bodies. And with more of these covering the skies, this meant that they had to move not just horizontally but vertically as well.
But what Number 5 and 6 had noticed was that these Spitfires seemed to have a mind of their own, it was as if their agenda was to push the trainees out of the current target environment and to seek higher grounds.
Surely, there were lesser spitfires that chased them as they ascended higher but the thunderclouds were more intense and the pressure they were handling seemed to be comparable to when they were underwater. The only difference was that one was piercing, and the other was crushing.
The trainees had to consistently release their magic to make sure they were not crushed by the immense pressure from mining the sea bed. They initially felt that the pressure was hurting them so they covered themselves with mana to buffer but then they also realised that their mining pickaxe had been compromised and crushed as well. So, they had to cover their weapons too.
But this time around, the pressure was not like this, it felt more like the feeling of lightheadedness and breathlessness even though they had already prepared an air bubble to breathe with their magic powers. The headaches were intense the higher they climbed but compared to the crushing weight that they experienced in deep sea levels, this was a new beast that they had to contend with.
All they hoped was to find a solution quickly where they could survive easier.