CH 168

<E-Rank Test>

Format : <Capture the Castle>

Participants : Students (5) vs instructors (3)

Stage : Diamond field

In a diamond field that was already small to begin with, a castle and two forts are laid out in a baseball game like format with the giant castle in the first base and the other two forts in 2nd and 3rd base respectively.

The stage formed a miniature version of a nine sided-polygon field. Participating members are at the base placed in the middle of the home base and third base.

Our group gathers at the west side (white) base while the instructors group are assembled at the East side (Red) respectively.

The members participating are me, Hannah, Lana, Sierra and Ester who have already crossed the Lv40 mark.

Unfortunately, Rika, Celestine and Karua still have a long way to go, so they were moved to seats near the base and are acting as spectators.

I hope we will be able to participate together in the next D-rank exam.

"The distance is really something."

Ester whispers out while gazing at the opponent castle.

I hadn't exactly felt the distance in game but now that I'm experiencing it in reality, it's really just as Ester has said.

"I can't say it for sure given how the distance between the fort’s changed from arena to arena but it’s around 500m apart."

After all, this is a dungeon. It's as wide as Olympic venues.

With the vastness of the area, it's quite often the spectators watch the match through the help of an item or live coverage. Therefore, the spectators' seats are placed in key points such as in front of the giant castle or the base.

Incidentally, the price of the seat they are sitting on is the most expensive one. Though, it's free of charge this time.

"500m, we would be thoroughly exhausted if we have to run across this distance"

"Rest assured, one's stamina increases each time you raise your AGI. Isn't it evident from how you didn't even get that much tired from dungeon exploration, Lana?"

"...... Ahh, now that you’ve mentioned it, that seems to be the case."

This is also a blessing of having status. Status gives you the blessing of improving your physical ability. Though it's a mystery why Hannah, who hasn't put a single point in her agility, didn't get tired...... She sure is a tough girl.

"If everyone's doubts are cleared, shall we start a strategy meeting?"

"No questions. You can start."

Sierra nodded as everyone’s representative.

"Good. The format this time is <Capture the Castle> with advantage of numbers favoring our side, so this game is practically in our bag"

"Really? But instructors aren't easy to defeat."

"Valid question. However, it's fine as long as you don't initiate a fight with them. Have you wondered why Philis-sensei added the rule of instructors being banned from attacking the base? So that we don't unnecessarily start a PvP. In fact, no one needs to work their brain to know what would be the outcome if they attacked our base but with that rule, as long as we steadily earn points while avoiding them, since we have the advantage in numbers, it would be our win. This game is all about who can make more moves.''

Because we have more people to score the points. There's no reason to play a game of daredevil uprightly when we know it would be a fool's errand to fight them. This is one of the <Capture the Castle> tactics.

This game is all about the point system. Even if there's a disparity between the strength, there's no problem as long as you avoid them.

And this in fact, is one of the test perimeters. The exam will result in instant failure if any foolhardy students recklessly initiate a PvP against the instructors saying something like "Give me some pointers, sensei".

Please fix your foolhardy mindset first.

"Now let me show you the road to victory, Zephyr’s style. The first way to win is to capture 2 castles of the opponent’s. It wouldn't be wrong to say that's the only available route. So, the victory is almost set in stone if we capture the castle in the north and west. Then, the opponent wouldn't have any choice but to re-capture them again."

The group who takes down a castle will receive 2000P. Even if the castle is captured in reverse, the opponent team will receive 2000P but we will not lose the points earned and will result in a draw.

Let's hypothesize that we secure two castles and the teachers team secure one again, the points will be 4000 vs 2000 respectively.

In addition, forts are even more of an advantage point because we have more people and can take a much larger number of them. By simple calculation, if we gain 500P, the opponent will only be able to earn 300P. Then, the difference will become 4500P vs 2300P. And that difference will just continue to rise.

To get out of this deadlock, the instructors group can only opt to capture two of our castles. Then, the situation will reverse with 4500P vs 6300P.

At that point, the number of castles <Eden> will have would be 0 and <Instructors> 3. However, if we were able to take down one of their castles, our points would be 6500 and we could maintain the deadlock.

<Eden> will have one castle while instructors 2. Our win would be secured with just having 1 castle in our bag. Isn't it amazing?

There's no more than three instructors, so they don't have enough manpower to defend even if they capture all three. Because if they really divide themselves in three to safeguard castles, the empty base would be left vulnerable.

After all, students aren't banned from attacking their base. All of the castles will belong to the side who has taken it down and there's 2 min buffer time before the opponent group can initiate an attack. So, the opponent would be unable to do anything if we did it when the time was about to run out.

In contrast to the harsh conditions for instructors where they have to take down their castle and they wouldn't be able to win unless they protect them all, the difference is overwhelming for us who can win just by holding down one castle.

This is the terrifying aspect of having a large number of people.

"Then the central north castle is the key point of this strategy, right?"

"Just as Ester has said, victory is practically ours as long as we take it down."

"Hmm. I understand."

The first step you take is more important than anything in the <Capture the Castle>.

The first move is to take down the central north castle with everything we’ve got. It's startling how victory would be almost decided with that, but that's also what makes it interesting.

"Here's how we're going to split our strategy. The one who has the highest AGI among all of us is me, followed by Ester. We will be taking the lead and aiming for the castle"

"Okay."

"Hannah, Lana and Sierra follow after us as soon as possible. After all, the HP of the castle is huge. I believe you may have felt it in the mock battle but it's not something one or two people can take down in a short time."

One of the rules of <Capture the Castle> being the castle will belong to whoever that brings down its HP to 0.

As an example, even if our group has taken down 99% of the castle HP, the castle will belong to the opponent side if it's there attack which brings it down to 0. I absolutely want to avoid this happening.

For this reason, I hope to take down the castle in the shortest amount of time possible when the opponent still has yet to catch up with us.

The strategy is simple. Taking advantage of our speed, Ester and I will make a monster free road for other members to catch up with us quickly and will immediately take down the castle with the all out attack from everyone's help.

I explained the specific strategy to them.

"Does anyone have any doubts?"

"I don't have any!"

"No."

"As Zephyr-dono wishes"

"I will do my best!"

Everyone's eyes were burning with fighting spirit.

That's great, everyone is excited.

"Good, then let's do it!"

"Roger!"