At the same time, William asked them to try sending more masters, ones without wind element, weaker grade ones, and such things. He wanted to test all the variables about this way out, so others would be ready to face any unexpected situation.
The distance they tested made it clear that the toxic layer expanded over five kilometres only. This was a bit bigger than what William thought before, but it was still doable using the new catapult.
During the next day, everyone was working with hope blazing in their chests. As long as there was hope, then masters were able to do anything to see it through.
William kept hearing more reports about the success of making catapults at different sides. And since then, things started to head for the better.
They all tested it, and all sides were able to get over the toxin region safely. The only issue now was in the limited capacity of these catapults.
When the guild members tried to send hundreds of masters before, the ability to throw them over the toxin region seemed impossible. But then the explosive device William used showed its worth.
The core of these things were the scarlet ores. They were explosive enough to be used instead of grenades. Not to mention they didn't need any processing or complicated preparations or something.
Using such a help aided in making them pass through. But it was clear the limitation of these catapults to everyone. The number of masters here was in the hundreds of thousands. And trying to get them out like this seemed to take ages.
William then asked for masters to try out his modified cloak creation. When they tried it out, they found to their surprise that they could cross a distance of an entire five up to ten kilometres if they used wind techniques to help.
This came as great news, but the landing was quite rough and few who tested this way ended up getting injured. Yet it wasn't a big problem.
[... So, it's better if we made much bigger boats, sending thousands in one batch. Then midway, they will use the cloaks to make up for the distance…] Stark briefed what everyone kept discussing for an hour or so, [As for the injuries, they can use healing potions just before landing to help in minimising the risks]
"How many catapults have we made so far?" William knew this was going to work, provided that there were enough catapults out there, "and don't forget, we can't just throw people over at the same spot. If we did, then things would turn ugly, and many will land over each other."
[We got around a hundred so far] Lara paused, [And we calculated and tested. We can move the catapults in their places, slightly changing the landing point of everyone. We got long distance to cover, and that will turn few metres adjustment at our place end up in a kilometre or so at the other end]
"Cool," William took in a deep breath, "let's start getting our people out."
[But…] Lara paused and didn't know how to express what she was thinking about.
[How about you?] But if she was acting this hesitant, Ro wasn't. Soon enough, all of the vices expressed their desire to remain behind with him, especially Berry.
"Easy there, who said I'm going alone in such cursed place?" William laughed, "first of all I had no mind to deal with all these Wrathers here. And I'm sure more deadly traps will appear later on. So, give me few hours, and I'll select those who can help me in the next battle, and they'll remain behind."
William's words landed and everyone in his vices hoped to remain with him. Alongside them, Lara also wanted to remain behind.
William was quite busy thinking about everything to get out of here, and so he didn't have enough time nor mind to think about the upcoming clash against the dark academy.
As things ended up quite fine, he started to think about what that monster was preparing for him out there.
The first and foremost most dangerous threat was that vapour. If unleashed, things would grow quite ugly. And then it came down to the Wrathers which would flood the entire region once the masters retreated from here.
William thought before to let the masters keep lots of their forces behind to help in containing these creatures. But when he thought about how the entire place was arranged, he knew the possibility of Wrathers appearing in the middle of the region was quite high.
"This monster killed tons of lives to secure a good spot for such monsters to get formed. In addition to that, it also formed that vapour using the same way. That means it's safe to assume the rest of the traps waiting for me inside are related to such an unknown area…"
William started to get a headache about that. He knew this was a good idea, but that also meant there were ways he'd not be familiar with, techniques he knew little about that this monster could use.
The explanation for how this monster knew all this was simple… It was part of the nine-tailed fox spirit, and it seemed it got access to the old memories of that scary monster.
As for why it selected such a way to handle William, it was for different reasons. Such a turf was indeed unknown to most if not all masters, and William would have little chance in antagonising these traps.
The second reason was the lack of the necessary materials if that monster decided to use other ways and traps. Even if it looked cruel, William knew that monster wouldn't flinch to do it.
"I have to think about the entire place and see if there are clues here and there…" William returned to one of the first three grand formations he created.
Once he stood in the middle of a formation, he spread out his spirit sense and started to see the entire area as if he was a god or something.