Chapter 699: Surprise Screens

00:00, 7 May 500 AA

Stronghold Building Phase Ends!!

The bold words appeared above each and every stronghold in the night sky as the students waited for the next message.

At that moment, the beacon beam shot straight up into the sky, revealing every stronghold's location.

Leo immediately looked around and could already see the faint lines of light in the dark night all around—even behind and above high hills and mountains. Since the realm was flat, Leo spotted all the remaining 13 beams at a glance.

And the closest beam was about 400 kilometres away—an elven stronghold, according to the intel Kaelion and Uraan had gathered.

Suddenly, high up above every stronghold, around the beacon beam, 4 enormous screens flared up.

The phase-ending message was also transferred onto one of the 4 screens as the other 3 screens lit up one by one.

Map

The 2nd screen displayed the whole circular realm's map with 14 marked points. They were the surviving academies' strongholds, but it wasn't specified which particular academy they belonged to or which race they belonged to.

And as Fruder had guessed, the central mountain had 5 strongholds at regular intervals—most probably those of dragons.

Leo noted that the corners of both screens displayed a 'Public' mark, indicating that other academies could also access these screens.

"What? 7 academies are already out? That's a surprise... considering this realm is so big," Lyra muttered, and the others agreed.

It was one thing that they themselves had taken out an academy, but still, 7 academies...

"Are people so bad at hiding?" Uraan chuckled.

Then the 3rd screen caught everybody by surprise.

Academies Rankings

Everybody's eyes immediately sharpened; now they would know where their academies stood.

The blank spaces beside the numbers started to reveal one by one... then again, not revealed at the same time.

14. ??? - 0 Points

13. ??? - 0 Points

12. ??? - 1 Point

11. ??? - 5 Points

10. ??? - 5 Points

9. ??? - 6 Points

8. ??? - 6 Points

7. ??? - 8 Points

6. ??? - 9 Points

5. ??? - 13 Points

4. ??? - 15 Points

3. Aurelius Beast Academy - 20 Points

2. ??? - 22 Points

1. ??? - 23 Points

"Huh? We earned points?" Leo muttered in confusion after seeing the leaderboard and realising that they were actually ranked 3rd. He also noted that no academy could know which academy ranked where.

People around Leo, and even other students across the realm, were confused when the 4th screen lit up with the tag 'Private'.

---

[Aurelius Beast Academy's Stronghold]

Structural Stability & Appearance: 3/3

Defensive Layout: 3/3

Offensive Systems: 2/2

Living Facilities & Functionality: 2/2

---

Stronghold Evaluation: 10/10

Elimination Rewards: 10 Points

Total Points: 20

---

Leo and the others studied the scoreboard for a moment, and only after a few seconds did they realise that their academy was the only one to score 10/10 in stronghold building.

As for the remaining 10 points, it seemed to have come from destroying the beacon of Lunareth Academy.

Meaning 10 points for destroying a stronghold beacon.

Leo figured that the other 2 academies ranked higher than them must have eliminated 2 academies each. And it seemed the top 5 academies, except for Aurelius Beast Academy, didn't focus much on building their bases, as was apparent from the single-digit extra points of 2 to 5 that made their numbers look odd.

Suddenly, the board, which was displaying the message "Stronghold Building Phase Ends!!", shifted and showed—

Stronghold Beacon can no longer be moved to a different location.

After that, the text shifted again.

Next Phase Starts In 12 Hours.

11:59:00

11:58:59

11:58:58

Another countdown began.

It seemed that the 12 hours were given for the students to celebrate or lament. But Leo had another guess.

"Why does it seem like I am about to see those 0- and 1-point academies disappear?" he muttered.

Realising that those academies didn't have a single piece of capable defensive structure to protect their beacons, and that they would be hunted down by those who wanted to score points by defeating academies, Leo felt an opportunity was in hand.

But since nobody knew which academy was where and they only had general locations, there were bound to be people passing by stronger strongholds, which even included the Aurelius Beast Academy stronghold.

In other words, it was more important to prepare for defence rather than attack.

But there was no immediate danger, as the nearest academy was an elven academy, and Uraan had recognised it as Evergrove Sovereign Academy, the 4th-ranked academy in the Elven Empire.

They started their own discussion.

"Full points on offence? What have we even prepared for that?" Ronan put his thoughts forward.

"I mean, I can understand the full point of defence: a 1-kilometre-long and 2-kilometre-deep acidic moat, Leo and Lily's aura dome, the stronghold walls reinforced by Roc's feather and Tavian's trap arrays, but what do we have in offence?" he said, looking up at the central tower through which the beacon beam was shooting into the sky.

"That? It's either Sylrael or Aeila who's going to shoot arrows while standing there—which, again, can simply be shot down by some flying lizard. There's no way the rest of our ranged attacks are going to cross this moat unless we exert ourselves to an extreme."

Leo simply pointed at Aeila's 4-meter-tall Metal Skeletal Golem.

"We have that. I can summon more—" He looked towards Lily, and she brought out multiple beast cores from the beasts they had hunted in these days.

"She can summon free spirits and, finally, the most conspicuous while still inconspicuous thing—the acidic moat, which looks like regular water."

Leo snapped his fingers, and the next second, the 5-kilometre area of the sky around their territory started to darken as stormy clouds gathered overhead.

"No dragon or avian beast is reaching here unscathed. Lily's hydra will make it a hell of a time for them."

Lily even summoned Lunaria. The 8-meter-tall hound materialised before them, its presence immediately filling the area. But almost immediately, Lily made her decrease her size to just 3 meters.

"Lunaria will make sure to strike down any aerial beasts that try to intercept from the sky."

Hearing all that, Uraan chuckled.

"Honestly, we should get extra points on everything."

After that, they addressed the important issue.

"Hmm, why do you all think those at the bottom of the ranking have 0 points? Like... they didn't even try to build anything, or were they so strong that they didn't feel the need?" Aaron asked.

He and Yano had toiled together all week to build up this stronghold with occasional help from Leo and Lily, so he looked a bit mad that some academies didn't even bother to build up a base.

But Yano was actually looking happy as he continuously glanced at the 3/3 score of Structural Stability & Appearance.

M-my contribution should be enough, right? I hope I can become a permanent member of their group... he thought nervously, not wanting to be labelled as a burden and a freeloader since he was the weakest fighting member of the team after Aeila and the scouts. And Aeila might as well be considered support.

Yano was an ambitious man, and though he might appear to have ulterior motives, he was actually quite straightforward and knew how to think and act. But his brain failed him when tackling impossible people like Leo.