Chapter 80: Siege of Base Camp D I

"Group Leaders, keep your members away from the staff tent!"

Naturally, nobody listened.

Rian followed the others while keeping the brass receiver hidden under his cloak. The rear section of the staff tent had partially collapsed, and several wooden crates had been thrown across the ground.

A fresh crater opened directly behind it, evidence of someone tripping off the trap from before. At its center, or at least what remained of it, was the reservoir.

Several conduits were completely exposed, its side was partially torn open. Fortunately, the chest itself remained mostly undamaged.

Martin stumbled out from behind the smoke a moment later, still clutching onto the large cooking pot he had supposedly gone to wash.

"What happened?" the butler coughed. "The ground just suddenly exploded underneath me!"

"Are you injured?" Klein asked.

"Only startled."

A few other academy workers who were near the impact came crawling out a few seconds later, with some receiving worse injuries than others.

Martin hugged the dented pot against his chest and retreated from the crater with the other injured workers.

Still, nobody died, which was a plus. But the minus was the fact that there was too much collateral for Rian to figure out who did such a thing.

But it confirmed one thing:

There was indeed someone intending to steal the cores, and it could only be Academy staff. All the students had an alibi, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t do the same thing that Lillian was planning on.

"That explosion..."

Eliza stepped closer to the crater from his right. The moment she saw the blackened dirt surrounding the panel, she began to frown.

"What about it?" Rian asked, playing it off.

"It felt familiar," Eliza crouched and picked up a warped piece of brass from the ground. "The explosion dispersed in waves outward...That’s how I usually design mine as well...."

Marie leaned over her shoulder. "Are you saying that was one of your traps?"

"I think so..."

"You think?"

"All of mine should still be surrounding the chapel." Eliza turned the piece of brass between her fingers. "But this looks exactly like one of the rods I made."

Marie’s golden eyes slowly moved toward Rian, but he stared back with the most innocent expression he could manage.

"How would one of your traps end up here?"

"I don’t know..."

Before she could question him any further, Instructor Klein approached the exposed chest. "What is this?"

The custodian flinched.

Klein turned toward him. "You maintain the camp. Explain."

"T-That is the mana reservoir," the custodian answered. "It supplies power to the transportation mirror."

"And why was I never informed?"

"The location is restricted to permanent maintenance staff." The custodian swallowed nervously. "Instructors are only taught how to operate the mirror because the reservoir normally requires no intervention."

Instructor Klein stepped into the crater and pulled the damaged maintenance panel farther open. Several cores remained inside, each resting within a separate socket.

The cores were still inside, and from the surface, it looked like everything seemed fine...only if the person examining it glazed over the fact that there was a gigantic core missing from the middle.

The custodian noticed the missing core a second later.

"No..."

Klein looked toward him. "What?"

"The primary core."

"What happened to it?"

"I—I don’t know."

The custodian scrambled into the crater and began inspecting the central socket. Its restraints had been released cleanly, and there wasn’t a single fragment left behind.

Klein grabbed onto the man’s shoulder and spoke aggressively. "Tell me now! Does that mean the teleportation mirror is broken?!"

"Y—Yes, sir."

"Goddamn it!"

Before the situation could deteriorate any further, a strange aroma drifted across the camp. It was faint at first, before Rian managed to pinpoint its source:

The damaged staff tent.

Thin strands of dark-green mana had begun leaking through the torn fabric before disappearing into the surrounding air.

’What is that?’

Marie’s expression changed as well, noticing the same thing. However, before Rian could take a step over to investigate, a scout that was stationed above the eastern gate suddenly ran toward them, completely out of breath.

"Instructor Klein!"

"Movement throughout the Graveyard," the scout said breathlessly. "The perimeter array is detecting a hundred and increasing..."

"What...?" Klein muttered. "How many of them?"

"We don’t know exactly, sir."

"What direction are they moving?"

"...Toward us."

’What?’

In the original novel, Base Camp D wasn’t supposed to be attacked until the final day. This was just way too early.

Klein turned toward the walls. "Which region are they coming from?"

"All of them," the scout answered. "Every monster in the Graveyard is moving toward Base Camp D."

BOOOOOOM—!

A translucent dome flashed into existence above them. Cracks of sickly green light spread across its northern face before gradually repairing themselves. Then another impact struck from the east, followed by a third from the south.

And beyond the walls, countless green eyes began appearing through the fog.

Klein instantly looked between the four gates, already giving out commands. "Group Ten, defend the north! Group Eleven, take the east! Group Twelve—"

"No," Rian interrupted.

"What?"

"That’ll get everyone killed."

Several students stared at Rian as though he had lost his mind. Klein looked like he would reprimand him if it weren’t for the dire situation.

"We have four entrances and four groups," Klein argued. "If even one gate is breached—"

"Then whichever group you assigned there gets surrounded and dies before anyone can help them."

"We need to stay together."

Rian pointed toward the southern and eastern ends of Base Camp D.

The camp had been constructed beside a small lake whose dark waters curved around both sides of its walls. Only a few narrow stretches of marshy ground connected the southern and eastern gates to the rest of the Graveyard.

"Abandon those two gates."

"You want us to leave half the camp undefended?"

"Seal them and pull everyone back," Rian answered. "Most of the undead are wearing rusted armor. Anything approaching from the south or east will have to cross the lake or squeeze through the marsh."

"Undead don’t need to breathe," Gareth pointed out. "The water won’t kill them."

"It doesn’t need to. They’ll sink into the mud and slow each other down."

Rian then pointed west. "The western region has fewer monsters than anywhere else."

Instructor Klein narrowed his eyes. "And how exactly do you know that?"

"Because you just spent five minutes questioning why we couldn’t find any."

"..."

CRACKKKKK—!

Another monster struck the barrier, and this time, the fractures lingered longer before disappearing.

Klein looked toward the lake, then at the candidates surrounding him. Most were exhausted from the day’s hunt, and several had already suffered injuries.

Dividing them into groups of four would leave each gate dangerously vulnerable.

Finally, the instructor made his decision.

"You heard him!" Klein shouted. "Seal the southern and eastern gates! Move the supply crates away from the staff tent and use them to reinforce the northern wall!"

Everyone sprang into action, but the instructor himself stood at the center, watching the barrier with a grim expression.

"But what’s the point...There’s no way we can hold out until help arrives."

Rian looked toward him. "How long until the Academy realizes something is wrong?"

"The emergency signal should activate automatically if the barrier suffers significant damage. However, the Graveyard is several days away by ordinary travel."

"They can’t open the mirror from their side?" Klein turned to ask the custodian.

"N—not while our array is broken and missing a core power source..."

The students standing along the wall watched cracks spread across the barrier before slowly knitting themselves together again.

"We need to repair the transportation mirror," the instructor quickly concluded from the situation. "But...is there anybody—?"

Before Rian could say anything, Eliza stepped forward.

She pulled the goggles over her eyes before taking in a deep breath and exhaling, rolling her shoulders and grabbing her toolbox.

"I can do it."