The Devil's Evolution Catalog

Hrmm… I think I went off on a tangent again, I should get back to training those brats.

Speaking of which… one can never predict when an enemy will attack in war… So maybe… How about a night simulation?

With that decided, I immediately hopped off my comfy bed, and sought out the guard captain of this base, Sir Johnson. With his men, a night raid should be possible.

A little later, I got the man’s approval -he was very supportive, in fact. Thus at an hour after midnight, when the kids were all sound asleep, a deafening explosion rocked the camp.

Some of the more alert students quickly threw on some clothes and ran out of their tents. On the other hand, there were those who were still rubbing their eyes in confusion, enjoying the light show outside their tents.

Soon enough, they did not even have the luxury of rubbing their eyes, as a bunch of masked men charged into their tents, swinging left and right without a warning.

Only a small portion of the students were able to mount a resistance, but they were clearly outmatched against the black masked men and their steel clubs…

The students were all divided into tents of ten, with the ten of them forming a team.

Of the 100, only Ansom was able to break through the black masked men to reach the warehouse of the magitek armors, where I and an eager Sir Johnson were waiting.

The moment he noticed me, Ansom’s face immediately lit up as if he met his savior. “Instructor! It’s an enemy attack! Our camp is under attack!”

“Just you?”

“The rest have been surrounded! We need to save them!”

“Seems like the students were wiped out… I guess that’s the best you can expect of a bunch of kids.” Sir Johnson eyed the boy with a hint of contempt -a disdain borne from an old soldier looking at a bunch of freshies. However, was there anyone who wasn’t a fresh soldier at one point?

On my part, I didn't even expect a single person to reach the warehouse. The fact that Ansom was here was a pleasant surprise.

“At least there’s someone who passed.”

“Instructor?” Ansom muttered a little unsure of himself after seeing me so nonplussed, coupled with the presence of the guard captain who was even more uncaring than me.

“Do you not understand what’s going on? Hah, I thought you would be smarter than this.”

For a moment, I thought this would finally be the straw that broke the royal camel’s back. However, Ansom instead calmed down.

“Instructor, was this ambush of your making?”

Before I could even reply, Sir Johnson was ready with his snideness. “Took you long enough.”

But the boy wasn’t bothered to even answer the man. Instead, he kept looking at me as if searching for an answer.

“On the battlefield, your enemies won’t wait for you to get a good night’s rest… perhaps in the past, but not now.”

“…” Ansom’s face went through a myriad of changes, but he finally understood what I was trying to say. “But, Instructor, was there a need to be so harsh?” he smiled wryly.

“A little pain is always helpful to make you remember, and being on guard wasn’t the only lesson I was trying to impart on you. There were other problems with this little exercise as well.”

“Other problems?” The young boy blinked his eyes like a lost puppy.

“When you and your peers realized that this was an enemy attack, what were your first reactions? How many tried to work together? I doubt there were many, seeing that you were the only one who made it here.”

“…” He was startled, but he knew what the problem was now. “I only made it here with the help of my classmates. I’m sure there were others who tried to work together as well, but only I was able to succeed…”

“Then let me tell you another fact -there were only fifty assailants tonight. Roughly half of your numbers. If you were prepared beforehand, combined with some group tactics, at the very least, you wouldn’t be the only one here right now.”

“…” There was no refuting what I just said, because it was all true.

The ones dressed as the masked men were naturally the subordinates of Sir Johnson. Everyone of them was a hardened veteran in their own right. Bare minimum, they were at least at the peak of one-star, with some even being three-stars. Having gone through the hell that was war, they were beyond fierce in a fight. In contrast, these pilot candidates were basically hovering around the two-stars and three-stars band of magisters. Under normal circumstances, the only way those soldiers could have won would be through an ambush or a desperate attack.

A veteran soldier couldn’t be compared to ordinary bandits at all. The sheer aura they exuded from months of hell wasn’t something that could be explained away so easily. There were even cases of lower-starred beasts running away in the sheer presence of such an ominous aura.

No more was this more apparent than in this age of swords and shields. A powerful general could easily influence the morale of the battlefield with his overwhelming aura. And emotions like fear were a plague that, once released, would spread like wildfire.

These elite students were nothing more than baby chicks to the hardened soldiers.

By the time I was brought to the resting area of the students, I learnt what it meant to be treated like dogs…

The male students were all beaten on the ground. The female students were mostly cowering in the corner. As long as they didn’t try to resist, they weren’t beaten up. As for those that tried, they were those boys on the floor.

“Instrustor… hel me…”

Unfortunately, that was seen as a form of resistance as well, and another beating for him…

Yikes, that’s a nasty face…

In actuality, the troops had suffered some casualties as well, but they were more stoic about it.

Maybe weakness is contagious after all.

“I think that’s enough for today, have the healers come.” I took this opportunity to glance at Ansom, his face black as the night. “Report at eight in the morning, do not be late.”

“Yes, Instructor!”

Regardless of how much those students were yelling at me in their hearts, I wasn’t about to change my tactics. Hmph.