“How… why are you here?”Hildegard was completely flustered by my sudden appearance.I shrugged at her.“Is there some reason I shouldn’t be here? Helping you with team formation and the exam content are two different matters.”Planting one foot confidently on the palisade, I slowly looked around.The team I had chosen as tonight’s raid target was Hildegard’s team, which had set up their base camp near our own.Here were Hildegard, her followers, and a few other familiar faces.The slippery Caron, who had taken the practical exam with me before. And—“Been a while, hasn’t it?”“Urk.”Even Dandol, who had taken a punch to the jaw from me earlier.From what I knew, he’d been carefully avoiding me ever since he got his nose broken by me, but I didn’t expect to meet him here.Anyway, the lineup gathered in this place wasn’t bad.If I put them on the team, they’d make decent forces.They might be easy opponents for me, but objectively speaking, they were pretty solid combat strength.Shrrk—.First, I recalled the Azoth Sword and stopped the attacking tree vines.Then I suggested surrender to Hildegard.“I don’t want to waste energy in the middle of the night. If you don’t want things to get ugly, surrender.”“……”Shwaaak—.Instead of answering, Hildegard unfolded her fan and covered her face.Even with her face covered, it was obvious what she was thinking.From behind the fan, her eyes flicked around, scanning the surroundings to see if there were any enemies other than Ciel and me.After a brief search, she seemed to confirm that only Ciel and I had come, and then she spoke.“……You mean to tell me that just the two of you are going to take on all of us? We have all ten people combat-ready here, you know?”“Hm.”Her teammates were all tense, fully in battle stance.And indeed, every one of them was in ally state, not subordinate state, meaning they could all fight.This was partly because their stats weren’t that high, so the Cost to recruit them was low.'Looks like they did a fair bit of monster hunting along the way.'I glanced at the pile of monster remains in one corner and sized up the situation.You could use monsters’ magic stones to replenish lacking Cost.It seemed Hildegard had found her own formula for victory.Kill as many monsters as possible to secure Cost, then use that Cost to expand the number of battle-capable members as much as possible.But that wasn’t exactly a good method.Rather than recruiting a bunch of middling people at random, the most efficient approach in the early game was to secure talented individuals with useful abilities.“Headcount doesn’t matter. You know our Competition Battle rankings, don’t you?”My current Competition ranking was 66th.Ciel was in the top 100, but her actual strength was evaluated as top 10.On the other hand, among Hildegard’s members, the only one in the top 100 was Hildegard herself.Caron and Dandol were each in the late 100s and around the 300s, and the rest of the students were far below that.Well, out of thirty thousand students, those ranks were impressive, but still not enough to match Ciel and me.I continued.“Out of those ten, there are maybe six who can actually fight a real battle. Ciel alone could take care of all of them.”When I rested my hand on Ciel’s shoulder, she closed her eyes and silently nodded.Then, she quietly eased her shoulder out from under my hand, dodging it.“……”I shrugged.“In short, you’re no match for us.”At my words, Hildegard frowned and shouted.“You’re far too arrogant. No matter how strong you are, you can’t know until you fight! Everyone, prepare for battle!”“Yes, ma’am!”True to her status as a high-ranking noble, she boldly chose to resist. I didn’t particularly care either way.It would be a bit of a hassle, but it wouldn’t take long.“If you’re choosing to fight, then there’s no need to drag this out.”Shrrk—.When I raised the Azoth Sword again, Hildegard tensed and stepped back several paces.“Ugh.”No matter that she’d decided to fight, facing me directly on the front line seemed burdensome.Hildegard’s power was more specialized in buffing others and reading the situation than in fighting with her own strength.At that moment—Step—.A male student who had been listening quietly stepped forward.“Hey, Loen. Let’s settle this like men. One-on-one.”Caron stepped up confidently and proposed a duel.Maybe it was because of the grudge from what had happened before.I looked at him and sneered.“Still hung up on last time? I hope your skills have improved since you punched the automatic golem and only shredded your own hand.”“…You little punk.”Caron glared, channeling mana into his sword.Vwooom—.Blue energy gathered around Caron’s blade.“Oh? You’ve reached the Expert realm?”“Yeah. Ever since Lady Freya helped me, I’ve been putting myself through bone-grinding training. I’m glad I can finally show you this power.”Shrrk—.In response, I too raised the Azoth Sword and leveled it at Caron.When I aimed the Azoth Sword at him, Caron scoffed in disbelief.“Heh, don’t tell me you plan to fight me with a sword?”“That’s not it. The sword is just a shape.”The Azoth Sword took the form of a sword, but its essence was closer to a magical artifact than a weapon.“Then, here I come!”Thud—.Caron kicked off the ground and charged at me.Maybe because he’d reached [Intermediate Swordsmanship], his movements were noticeably sharper than before.'But he’s not my opponent.'Crack—.I stabbed the Azoth Sword into the ground and twisted, sending a current of magic toward Caron.Buzz crackle—.Blue lightning flared as Transmutation Magic activated, and the ground in front of me rippled like waves.Wobble—.“……!”As the earth bucked like surf, the charging Caron lost his balance and fell.“Kh.”I maintained the Transmutation, gathering the surrounding soil to wrap around Caron.Chwarururuk—.Soil swirled around Caron like a vortex and clung to him.“Y-you bastard!”In the blink of an eye, Caron ended up buried in the earth, looking like a clay doll stuck in the ground.Seeing only his face barely poking out of the dirt was pretty hilarious.After subduing Caron in an instant, I turned to Dandol, who was staring blankly from the side.“You want a piece of this too?”Dandol sighed and shook his head.“…I’m good. I already decided not to go against you.”“Looks like you didn’t forget our promise. Good.”Once Caron was down and Dandol’s will to fight was gone, Hildegard stepped forward herself.Clicking her tongue, she borrowed the power of the stars and invoked [Blessing] on herself.Vwooom—.“Tch, in that case, I’ll…!”Blue light flared brightly around Hildegard. It was a form of magic different from ordinary physical reinforcement.Of course, she never got the chance to land an attack on me.Because when I sent a glance—Swish, swish—.Ciel appeared behind Hildegard [N O V E L I G H T] in an instant and lightly chopped the back of her neck.Tap—.“Ah.”With a short cry, Hildegard lost consciousness and collapsed.Ciel caught her so her body didn’t hit the ground.The top fighters of the team were subdued in just a few minutes.I held a hand out to Hildegard’s bewildered teammates.“All right, the rest of you, surrender. Let’s not make this a hassle.”Clatter—.Clank—.In response, Hildegard’s teammates set down their weapons on the ground and raised their hands.***In less than an hour after the raid, we had completely absorbed Hildegard’s team.Total Cubes acquired: 20.Base Level had risen to 6, and including subordinates, our team headcount had increased to 15.At Base Level 6, the Cube-made dwelling became a two-story structure.Roughly the size of a small dormitory building.I liked the size, but the layout was awkward, so I used the power of [Transmutation] to rearrange the positions and structure of the rooms inside the Cube.I made large private rooms for Ciel and myself.Everyone else I divided by gender and stuffed into shared rooms as appropriate.Also, from Base Level 6 and up, the additional feature “Outpost” became available.I placed the outpost on the high ground above the waterfall and assigned it to Hildegard and her followers so they could stay there comfortably.Though small, I re-transmuted it into a capsule-hotel style space so two or three people could stay there quite comfortably.Once the Cube installations were complete—Ciel asked about ally assignments.“What will you do with the combat members? I think it’s about time we increased our allies.”“Right.”With this many people, just Ciel and me moving around was inefficient.Time to increase our combat personnel—our allies.'Right now, I have 66 Cost available to spend.'Sixty Cost for Base Level 6, plus an extra 6 from Ciel’s [All-Purpose] trait.Tepes cost around 62, so it made sense to recruit her first and then gather more Cost to recruit Hildegard or Caron afterward.'Auto Cost recovery is about 5.4 per hour.'Base recovery per hour was 3. Then Ciel’s [All-Purpose] trait added another 0.3.On top of that, one of the students I’d made a subordinate had a Cost recovery bonus, adding another 2.1.At that rate, a single night’s sleep would be enough to recover it.I decided to hire Hildegard tomorrow.For now, I called Tepes over and made her an ally.“Tepes, I’m going to take you on as an ally. From now on, you’ll act as combat personnel.”She frowned and shot back:“…You sure about that? I might attack you.”“I figured you’d say that. First, put this on.”When I handed her a bracelet, Tepes tilted her head.“What’s this?”“An artifact that places restrictions on you if you show hostility toward me. The electric shock will sting a bit, but as long as you don’t entertain any impure thoughts, it won’t activate.”“And you expect me to wear this crap?”“If you don’t want to, then forget it. I’ll just hire Hildegard instead.”“Then do that.”Tepes turned sharply, clearly in a foul mood, and started to walk away from me.I called out to the back of her head.“If you want to keep working as a grunt, I won’t stop you. Want to spend your days digging holes and putting up posts like today? Wouldn’t you rather be out fighting than doing grunt work? I’d think your body’s starting to itch for it.”“……”Tepes was, at her core, a battle maniac.Born and raised in Jerome, which revered strength, she had a fiercely combative nature, and she wasn’t the type to obediently follow orders and do chores.Whatever else she might be, she was still a princess of a nation.If she had to take orders anyway, she’d choose fighting over grunt work.After a moment’s hesitation, Tepes returned and held out her hand.“Give me the bracelet. You’re not trying anything weird with this, right? Like controlling me however you want…”“Not interested.”“…Answering that so flatly is annoying in its own way. Whatever.”Click—.Tepes put on the bracelet without further complaint.Once I confirmed it, I slotted her student ID into the Cube and registered Tepes as an ally.Shrrr—.The Cube’s blessing settled on Tepes.Now her attacks could affect anyone who had a Cube, and she could seize others’ Cubes as well.Except for mine, since I was the Host.I handed back her student ID and said:“Good. Once we’ve increased our fighters, I’ll assign some under your command. Take them around and subdue enemies.”“Fine.”I didn’t completely trust her, but at least the first strike force of our faction was now formed.***Center of the jungle island.Many students were moving in the same direction through the thick undergrowth.Their steps were taking them toward a massive fortress made of Cubes.At the top of the fortress flew a flag bearing a shining cross—the symbol of the Kingdom of Celestia and the Lu Church.Elena’s team’s current Base Level was 8.Total Cubes acquired: 219.Allies: 20. Subordinates: well over 200 and still increasing.Just two days after the Faction War had begun, Elena was, in every sense, the current number one on this jungle island.Even now, students from all over the island were coming to join Elena’s team.From the top floor of the Cube, Elena looked down at the line of people stretching out in an unbroken chain.“Mm, very smooth.”Without her needing to do anything, students were flocking to join her team just from hearing rumors.It seemed they’d decided that rather than fighting and getting eliminated by other teams, they’d rather join Elena’s team and survive as long as possible to earn survival points.Even as subordinates, staying attached to the number-one faction for a long time would earn them points based on survival time.Instead of working hard to become the head of a snake, they’d chosen to be the tail of a dragon and survive longer.Elena looked down at them and slowly shook her head.“Well, personally, I’m not terribly fond of people who surrender without even trying properly.”It was nice that they were surrendering to her faction on their own, but on a personal level, she didn’t like it much.Naturally, she felt more drawn to those who challenged themselves and fought to claim victory, rather than those who simply weighed profit and bowed their heads.“Adler, how are the other teams doing?”“Yes, I’ve received reports from the scouts. On this jungle island, our faction is of course the strongest, and about six or so minor factions are gradually building up their strength as well.”There was a team centered on Kiriel’s aide Silphiette, composed of elves and beastkin. Also, one of the noble-alliance factions from Eredor.There was also an Ishtal faction centered on Theon, one of Freya’s aides.After hearing the report, Elena nodded.“Well, all familiar names. Any outliers?”“There is also a faction centered on Loen and his maid.”“Oh? Loen is on this island too?”At the mention of Loen, Elena’s eyes sparkled with interest.Adler inwardly regretted bringing it up, but seeing Elena’s curiosity, he had no choice but to continue.“Yes. The scale itself isn’t large, but it’s said they’re cutting down every team they see in the surroundings. They’re probably operating multiple teams in parallel.”“Hmm, so he chose to run a small, elite force rather than just increasing subordinates? That does save Cost, at least.”Subordinates consumed far less Cost than allies, but they still drained a bit.After thinking it over, Elena—Having had nothing to do up to now anyway—Rose from her seat and spoke to Adler.“I’ll go and see it myself. Loen’s faction.”“Huh? Then I’ll…”“No, I’ll go alone. Adler, you stay here and oversee things. I’ll be back, all right?”With a bright smile, Elena left the base in Adler’s care.“……”Watching Elena’s retreating figure, Adler let out a small sigh, humming under his breath.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.