On day 5 of their training, they eventually found out the trick. Since they were not able to use offensive magic to destroy these Spitfire ’Monsters’, what they could do is to break out of formation and evade.
And the only offensive that they can have is through the bullets that were bestowed on them by Jin. However, one shot of it would never bring down the Spitfire planes at all regardless of how they tried it. Not to mention, these Spitfire fighter planes were all automated without any humans inside at all compared to the time when the System had to assign a minion to control it.
It seems the planes themselves have a sentience of their own and they could make their own decisions to do things such as retreating away from the trainees or attacking aggressively against them. That was why it was not wrong for the trainees to call them monsters of their own class considering how they were acting.
Jin also did not know that they could be these potent and thought that the fights would be over in a day or two when the Spitfire planes ran out of fuel and ammunition and he needed to replenish them himself.
That was when the trainees were able to find the trick. If they go high enough of an altitude, they would be able to evade most of the spitfires who were engaged in the dogfight because once their fuel had been depleted, they slowly glide themselves to the sea for landing and remain stationary for the time being.
If left untouched for perhaps an hour or so, it would be reactivated with fuel and ammunition to boot. This made Jin realised that the Spitfire Fighter Planes that he had created had the ability to regenerate itself and go into the fight again. This was the same for those who had lost only their wings or tails but still landed safely on the raging waters.
They had regenerated the metal wings and tails like a living organism which left Jin to be awed by it.
Not the trainees though.
It was because they did not have the perception of fighter planes for the entirety of their lives and hence when they saw the monsters regenerate, they assumed it was part of their abilities. And the next section of the trick was that when the Spitfires were regenerating or resting, that was where they could start attacking.
Number 4 finally figured out why the bullets were given. Jin only restricted offensive magic and not other kinds of magic like the defensive barriers that was taught to them before going into the portal. And even though Jin had only shown them how to use the bullets offensively, Number 4 wondered what if the bullets could also be used defensively or as a support?
That would change the ball game of this survival.
But ultimately, by Day 10 they managed to not only survive through sheer will, but consistently harnessing their float magic made it almost natural for them to levitate for an extremely long period of time. Not to mention, they also got the hang of the higher altitudes which initially had them vomit from the high up or fainting due to the G force.
By the time they came out of the portal, all of them were shamelessly lying on the ground to take a moment’s respite since they had been floating for 10 days straight. Jin clapped and said that for the first time, they had successfully completed the portal in one attempt.
That was when their King finally decided to let them rest and use the subsequent days to teach them tactics as well as hone their abilities to fight at their full force. Now that they learned how to use their Wand Rifles, able to fire without any incantations, fly, and survive high pressures, what they need now is to fight with enemies or monsters that are at the same level as the elites.
In total, they only spent 3 ’real’ days worth of training and there were 11 days left. Each day, they were being sent into S Rank dungeons to hone their skills in killing and it was to the point where Jin had nearly managed to increase the difficulty by manipulating it a ’little’ with his Maqi that it was nearly an SS Rank portal rather than a S+ rank portal.
Those runs were exclusively team battles where they practiced tactics on where and how to shoot, got scolded by Jin on the near miss or friendly fires and how they could improve their runs.
And when the fake SS rank portals had been completed, all of them would be running solo in A rank portals where Jin once more poured way too much Maqi that it became an S+ Rank portal. They were given objectives to clear from something stupid like collecting 1000 leaves in an extremely short time limit.
But they realised that it was because it was something stupid like this that trained their patience, precision, and thinking ability on how to move on quickly.
Soon, they were unconsciously using their Odin’s lesser Jewels to aid them with the calculations to optimise the best efficiency in magic usage and layering incantations to enchant their shots. Experience more tales on m v|l e’m,p| y- r
It did not take long for them to eventually reach Day 14 where Jin had officially passed them out as the First Mage Air Squad under the King’s command.
Compared to the cries and suffering they had to endure, the simple passing out ceremony that was held in this random basement they were stuck in felt like years had gone by. They do not know whether they could be as strong as the direct disciples of Grand Sage Mex but one thing was for sure.
They had been remoulded as efficient killing machines by Jin.