Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 261: A Strange Feeling

Xiao Lin’s guess once again embroiled them in an intense debate, but most of them felt that it was not very possible. Just like what Han Manman and Sheng Guo said, even if the orcs wanted the completed resurrection tower, there was no way they could eliminate all of them instantly. As long as they had enough time, Dawn Academy could choose to destroy the resurrection tower before leaving.

Of course, Cheng Ming and Chen Dao, plus a few others, felt like Xiao Lin’s suggestion should be taken very seriously. This was Planet Norma after all: a world filled with magic. If the orcs had deliberately placed certain traps in the fortress, it was not a stretch to imagine that they could all instantly be immobilized.

That was why in the days that followed, the students who had relaxed for over half a month were once again mobilized. They were made to search every corner of the fortress, looking for anything that could be remotely suspicious, and the debate that happened in the command room started to spread among the students.

There were quite a lot of complaints among them, and most of them had a lot of private discussions that mostly ended up with the conclusion that Xiao Lin was trying to make a scene out of nothing. Some of them even had intentions to retaliate.

Xiao Lin’s hypothesis was that the entire amphibious assault had been part of the orcs’ plan from the start, or even a ploy done with the help of the elves to lure Dawn Academy there. Based on their usual actions, Dawn Academy would start building a resurrection tower after taking over the fortress, which was the end goal of both the orcs and the elves.

Based on the current results, the possibility was not low, but there were way too many problems with the theory. First of all, the orcs had no way to guarantee that Dawn Academy would attack that place. The orcs also had very valuable resources stored in the fortress. Their cavalry was also definitely in the vanguard, and losing those resources would greatly tax their cavalry. Putting their entire army at risk for just the chance of getting a resurrection tower was not a very smart gamble.

Captain Yu was also not very happy. As the engineer in charge of the resurrection tower, the other students had no right to interfere with him, and Xiao Lin’s suspicions infuriated him. If they listened to Xiao Lin, the construction of the resurrection tower would have to be halted.

That was why Captain Yu constantly visited Xiao Lin, emphasizing that the resurrection towers were a miracle unique to those of them for Earth, and the Law of Immortality would never work on the natives. Even if those orcs and elves got their hands on a completed resurrection tower, it would mean nothing.

At that point, they had finished investigating the fortress. The students had basically turned the entire fortress upside down to no avail, even the nearby beach and hills, which were filled with traces of their digging. They could not even find any tools that had a trace of magic, let alone any magical arrays or scrolls.

The ones supporting Xiao Lin started to dwindle. Chen Dao was still firmly on Xiao Lin’s side, but Chen Dao’s suspicions had shifted to Lightning. As the second-in-command of the entire legion, the shaman being so easily captured was extremely suspicious. That was especially true, since he was a mage, which meant no one could guarantee he did not have some mysterious spell that would cause them trouble when the time came.

That was why Chen Dao religiously kept his eyes on Lightning in the following days. Spells, especially large scale ones, always required long cast times: that was an unavoidable truth. Chen Dao was very confident he would be able to sense any spell being casted immediately.

Mages may be very threatening, but a mage that had been tied up and constantly being held with an arrow to his head was not threatening at all.

After that, Gu Xiaoyue started to guard Lightning as well, taking shifts with Chen Dao. Chen Dao chose to take the night shifts, while Gu Xiaoyue stood watch during the day. They had very simple responsibilities: if Lightning made any sudden movements, they would send an arrow right through his head.

Lightning only smiled coldly at that. Even though Xiao Lin tried to get more information from him, Lightning just said he had given everything he should, and stopped talking.

The investigation was once again stalled. Even though Xiao Lin’s own prestige did not suffer much from it, especially since everyone had seen his contributions in the last few battles. Everyone had started to fall into the culture of admiring the strong in Dawn Academy, which naturally meant Xiao Lin had the approval of many, but Han Manman and some others were increasingly more hostile toward Xiao Lin. Some of them even wanted to remove him from the command room.

It was a week after that debacle when their fire signal towers were once again lit. They had noticed a new orc army advancing toward them thirty kilometers away. Compared to the orc foot soldiers they encountered before, this new army was without a doubt much stronger. They had failed to get any reports more detailed than that because all the scouts they had sent for all killed mercilessly.

That caused a lot of alarm among the acting class monitors, causing them to eschew their relaxed attitudes. Even if the orc troops needed a few days to reach them, the monitors had ordered all the students to start with intensive training in the hope that they could whip everyone back into shape.

However, everyone maintained a positive attitude. It was nearing the end of the examination. They only needed to hold on for about half a month before the wolf cavalry units in the frontlines would be forced to retreat for resources. At that point, Dawn City’s reinforcements would arrive, signalling the end of the examination.

During this period of time, Xiao Lin had been hard at work trying to figure out what strategies their foes could employ. Even though his investigations had all led to dead ends, he did not give up on his theory. He got progressively more unsettled the nearer they got to the end.

Xiao Lin was very frustrated. He did not believe he had some sort of sixth sense that could sense danger, especially since he was inexperienced and did not even have any skills related to that.

However, that feeling was very strange. Ever since the night assault ended, Xiao Lin’s heart felt like it had a strange pressure on it, causing him to have a strange sense of frustration. The feeling was so intense that he would even be awoken by it at night.

That was why Xiao Lin did not dare ignore his theory, no matter how skeptical everyone else was.