Chapter 415 - Second Section (1/2)
Ren led his team over to Karen and Cecilia's group and when everyone saw the peculiar weapons that they were using, many people couldn't help but turn an eye towards them.
Karen stepped forward when she saw Ren and asked, ”Hey, little guy. You're Cecil's apprentice right? I hear he's here, where is he?”
”...Who're you?”
”Eh?”
”...”
”Uhh, well, never mind. Can answer my question first?”
”...Master isn't with us right now...”
”I-I see...”
Karen looked a bit dejected when she heard his answer. From the looks of things, she still hadn't given up on getting to Cecil so that she could get to his wives.
Ren felt that the girl in front of him was rather peculiar. He thought that it was best to stay away from her. He turned towards Cecilia and said, ”Miss Cecilia, our group is ready to move. We'll follow after you and provide support from afar.”
”Are those weapons long-ranged?”
”Yes, they're our kingdom's magi-tech guns.”
”I-I see... Well, let's get moving then. Is that alright with you, Princess Karen?” Cecilia turned and asked the other leader of their group.
Karen shrugged and replied, ”Since the High Priestess is ready, let's get going then. My group has many knights so we will take the lead.”
”We'll take the middle since we can provide long range support,” Ren quickly said.
”Then we'll leave the rear to the High Priestess' people?”
”Alright.”
With Cecilia's agreement, the groups got into formation. Each group had around 50 to 80 people in them.
Karen's group was quite large since she had over 60 people with most of them being magic knights and archers. Cecilia's group had only 50 people and most of them were priests and mages. There was only 20 Holy Knights with them.
The Silvaria Kingdom group had the lowest amount of people. There were only 40 people and over half of them were non-combatants. The remaining people were those from the kingdom's academy who were specifically trained for combat.
Ren found it quite odd that there were no a.d.u.l.ts with them. He saw that the oldest person around was at most in their mid-twenties. He wasn't aware of the age limit, but he found it a bit odd that the leadership position was somehow forced onto him for their group.
Normally, in their circle of friends, Angelia would be the one that took the lead since she was the most outgoing person in their group and in a way she was the glue that stuck everyone together.
He didn't find it all too burdensome since he was already used to leading and ordering around the team of artificers back in the Silvaria Kingdom which were being trained under him.
The group moved deeper into the plains and quickly encountered some monsters. Maybe it was because it was just the area outside of their initial location which was most likely a safe zone, but the monsters were rather weak.
Karen's knights and archers were all it took to defeat the monsters and the other groups didn't even need to interfere. The group moved in this manner and continued moving through the plains.
As they proceeded in deeper, the monsters became stronger and more numerous. Eventually they had to stop and reposition their people to make things easier for the ones who were fighting on the front and sides.
The rear was rather safe since the monsters weren't smart enough to move in a roundabout way and attack there. They instead just came at them in waves from the front and sides.
As they continued pushing forward, the trial now seemed to be telling everyone that there was just no way that a single person or small group would be able to push through by brute force. The monsters were going stronger and more in number and there seemed to be no end to their assault.
After one wave of monsters was dealt with another would quickly rush to attack them without any sort of break in between attacks. Not even half a day had passed since the group had marched into the plains but everyone was already exhausted.
*****
The other groups in the trial began making their moves after seeing Ren's group moving. They similarly met with the attacks of the monsters and while many were doing fairly well just like Ren's group, however, there were some foolhardy ones that didn't want to join any other groups and decided to proceed by themselves.
Most of them quickly met their ends but the ones from the Empires and hidden families and factions of the Midgard Continent didn't break a sweat dealing with the numerous waves of monsters constantly charging at them.
Their speeds of advance were even faster than Ren's large group and after clearing the plains, they quickly arrived at the next section of this trial which was a dense forest.
The average time that these strong groups took was around 1 to 2 days to get to this forest section. There was a big advantage of getting there first and it was that they received valuable rewards which were dependent on the time they took to get to the forest section from the plains section.
Ren's large group took 5 days to get there and when they got their rewards. It was rather lackl.u.s.ter compared to the groups that took only 1 or 2 days to get there. Ren looked around to try and find his master but he couldn't find his figure anywhere.
”Master must have arrived here on the same day...we're 5 days late...”
”You're looking for him too?”
”Hm?”
Ren turned around and saw Karen approaching him.