What was Xiao Lin thinking?
Unbeknownst to the rest, even his classmates from Class Seven—such as Zhou Feng—returned without success after attempting to enquire further from Xiao Lin. Qin Chuan and the others even persuaded Xiao Lin not to beat himself up over it. Even if the situation had already reached the point of no return, simply doing nothing would affect the final evaluation nonetheless.
Xiao Lin merely smiled and said, “Don’t worry. There’s just something I haven’t figured out yet.”
“But it’s too late now!” Qin Chuan was getting anxious. His promotion to sophomore year hinged on that exam.
Xiao Lin shook his head and sighed, “If that battle really was a trap, I believe that the orcs and the elves must have been prepared for this, otherwise Dawn Academy’s defeat wouldn’t have happened in actual history. Instructor, do you really think we can rely on ourselves to change the course history?”
“No.” Qin Chuan said after a moment’s silence. He was not underestimating those new students, because it was an indisputable fact that the freshmen’s combat strength was quite commendable. However, it was no longer a question of a one- or two-rank difference when facing the orcs’ most elite troops.
Although they did very well at the beginning of the battle and defeated the orc infantry rather swiftly, their odds of winning were too low in terms of the overall situation.
At that point, Captain Yu, who was in charge of the resurrection tower, looked for the other acting class monitors. The resurrection tower must never fall into the orcs’ hands, so he planned to install a self-destructing device near the resurrection tower. If the fortress really was breached, he could destroy the resurrection tower as a last resort.
The so-called self-destructing device was actually a high-strength magic scroll, the kind that could deliver great destructive power on the building. Basically, anyone who was responsible for making the resurrection tower would be in possession of it. Such a defense mechanism was very much necessary, and it was also why the captain did not seem to worry about the resurrection tower being snatched away.
Captain Yu’s confident remarks snapped Xiao Lin back to his senses when he was told about it. It was as if he woke up from a big dream when he stood up with a look of horror on his face.
“What’s gotten into you?” Qin Chuan was puzzled with Xiao Lin’s reaction. He was responsible for relaying the content of the meeting to Xiao Lin despite his slight disappointment in Xiao Lin.
“I understand now! I keep having this strange feeling ever since Lightning’s death. Plus, there was also that anxiety in my heart during that period of time. I finally understand what happened!” Xiao Lin’s tone was urgent and low.
“What are you blabbering about?” Qin Chuan still did not understand.
Xiao Lin opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, but then shut it again all of a sudden. He left the room and rushed to the top of the fortress. At that point, almost all the students were still defending their posts. The orcs were camping a few miles away, and although they had yet to commence any offensive action for the time being, no one dared to let their guard down.
“Where did Captain Yu go?” Xiao Lin found Chen Dao and asked.
“He went to install that so-called self-detonating device. I can’t believe they had such a powerful magic scroll and didn’t even take it out sooner. It might even be helpful to the battle!” Chen Dao had plenty of complaints.
However, Xiao Lin had already ran off, leaving Chen Dao with a baffled expression.
The resurrection tower was built in the centremost location. It was 70-80% complete as of then, and it was slated to complete in a few days at most if nothing untoward happened. According to Captain Yu’s plan, he would continue to insist on completing the resurrection tower before assessing the situation and deciding whether it had to be destroyed.
There were architects aplenty near the resurrection tower, and some students would occasionally pass by. Since the fortress was filled with people and defending it was not a problem, it was left unattended most of the time.
No one was surprised to see Xiao Lin. In fact, those NPCs rarely had any contact with the students. After all, it was just a simulated exam. Except for Captain Yu, most of the freshmen did not have much interest in communicating with anyone else.
Xiao Lin took the initiative to speak with Captain Yu because the two of them were quite familiar with each other. Although Captain Yu seemed anxious, he still patiently said, “The self-destructing device is a standard configuration of the resurrection tower. I didn’t deliberately conceal it before. According to the regulations, no one else should know about this except for a few people. After all, the Academy is still quite worried that such a thing would fall into enemy hands.”
“Security purposes? Oh, don’t worry about it. Just look at this!” Captain Yu was amicable with Xiao Lin and thus made a brief introduction.
A light blue spell formation, visible to the naked eye, was present at the base of the resurrection tower. The spell patterns on it were very complex, but they were all directly engraved using the scrolls. It was rumored that they were made by very high-level mages, and all Captain Yu knew was how to use it.
“This self-destructing device is divided into two scrolls, both used to power it up. Haha, you heard that right. This device is very safe. If you want to power it, you need to activate both scrolls at the same time.”
“Where are those two scrolls?”
“It’s with me, of course. Don’t worry!” Captain Yu probably felt that Xiao Lin was worried about their safety.
“Can you show them to me? I’m still a little worried.” Xiao Lin remained calm.
“Just this once. That’s the most I can show you.”
Captain Yu hesitated, then took out two scrolls from his possession. He raised them up and said, “Besides, after the resurrection tower is completed, these two scrolls will be guarded by different people. The selection of candidates is confidential though.”
“Mm, that’s good.” Xiao Lin pretended to be at ease, then suddenly asked, “By the way, what level of strength did you achieve, Captain Yu?”
“What?”
Captain Yu was a little surprised by that question but quickly answered, “This is embarrassing. To tell you the truth, my basics aren’t that good. I’m just fortunate to have a little bit of talent as an architect when I was on Earth. It was only when the resurrection tower appeared that the college began paying attention to that talent. That was how I was able to follow them to the New World... Well, for now, I’ve just managed to pass Black Iron-rank.”
“Oh, apologies then!”
“Apologies?”
Confusion had barely sunk into Captain Yu when he suddenly noticed Xiao Lin pulling out the Holy Soul Sword. Frightened, he asked angrily, “What are you trying to do?”
Thump!
Captain Yu had been knocked down to the ground. He fainted but was not injured. With Xiao Lin activating his Miracle and transforming all his attributes into strength, Captain Yu was very much vulnerable despite being on Black Iron-rank.
Everything happened so suddenly that the architects around him were caught by surprise. Meanwhile, the new students passing by stared at Xiao Lin with a heinous look.
A few seconds later, those students made a desperate run toward the headquarters.
Xiao Lin had no time to pay attention to those people. After knocking down the captain, he quickly grabbed the two scrolls, placed the Holy Soul Sword down, then held one scroll each in his left and right hand. He stood quietly in front of the resurrection tower with a mocking sneer in the corner of his mouth. He shouted loudly at a distance in a very cold tone, “How about that? Still scared to show yourselves right now?”