My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 905: Chapter 906: Through A Place Of Hardship

The sole objective here was simple, and that was choosing the people who would go with Damon.

They could not be of a higher rank than Damon, and he was allowed to choose a hundred soldiers to go with him as part of his own squad.

After some thought, Damon picked a balanced set made of fourteen parties, which consisted of ninety eight people, and then the final two were extra healers.

Damon made sure the parties were balanced. Tanks, archers, mages, healers, scouts. With each party having an average of two healers or two mages.

This was Damon’s group.

After choosing them, each of them was in the third class, with the exception of the leaders, who were in the fourth class advancement.

Despite how dangerous it was, his grandfather had given him fourteen officers at the fourth class advancement.

But that did not make Damon feel any safer.

He bid farewell to his grandfather and sister, picked on Evangeline for benefiting from nepotism after finding out she would be joining their grandfather’s army, and then took a teleportation gate to the academy.

He had no idea that was even allowed. He knew the academy had a private teleportation gate, but he did not think they would allow its use for the public.

After some thought, he realized this was a wartime situation, but the real question was:

”Why am I meeting Seras Blade in the academy.”

Shouldn’t they be taking a ship to the demon continent after a long arduous travel through the continent.

When he arrived at the academy, they followed a forest path that seemed to be heading toward the Evil Forest.

When he arrived there, he found a whole military camp right next to the barrier to the Evil Forest.

An adjutant was waiting for him there and quickly ushered him into a tent.

When he got inside, he found Seras wearing a light green tunic that seemed to hug her curves. Her hair was in a bun with a few loose strands as she pointed at a map on the table.

Next to her was the old headmaster, along with Damon’s professor, Kael.

That was about it.

His entrance did not go unnoticed.

”You’re late,” Seras said without looking up at him.

”I’m not late, you’re just early,” Damon replied calmly.

Seras raised her head, then chuckled.

”This is a military structure, and by imperial orders you are my vice commander, which means I outrank you.”

Damon sighed, shaking his head softly.

”Yeah, I got it.”

She frowned at his lack of respect for military protocol.

”That will be commander to you.”

Damon nodded, walking up to the table.

He greeted the headmaster and Kael with a nod.

”So what’s our strategy. How are we supposed to get into the demon continent undetected with a thousand men.”

Damon pointed at the map with his hand.

”I mean, if we leave through the capital, we’ll be traveling through the Golden Road before we reach the sea. Many kingdoms will know about us and our mission.”

He moved his hand to the more dangerous patches of the map.

”If we travel through the uncharted lands, we will be more secretive, but the possibility of running into adventurers in different regions is high, and it will take months to navigate those regions without crossing through the Golden Roads. And should we take the shortcuts, we’ll still be seen, especially after we cross several nations’ borders as an army illegally.”

Damon gave several analyses of why their mission would fail before it even started.

After the land hurdles, they would have to go through the hurdles of crossing the sea.

Seras sneered and let him speak.

Assuming all of these did not fail, they would be sitting ducks in demon territory.

Seras crossed her arms.

”I’m glad you figured all this out, but no one said we’d be taking any of these paths. We considered all these problems a long time ago, and after much thought we found a safer, well actually not so safe but better way.”

Damon suddenly had an ominous feeling about where he was standing and why they had come to the academy.

With a dead expression, his hand shook.

”Son of a bitch, you want us to go through the Evil Forest.”

Seras crossed her arms over her chest.

It was the only viable option that kept secrecy, but it was also the most dangerous. The Evil Forest spread all across the continent, all the way through different nations and even to the sea.

The idea was to travel through this known death zone, past its heart, all the way to the other side.

This was an abominable place, as bad as the Whispering Forest. Just thinking about it made Damon’s hair stand on end.

Once again, he would face a deeply traumatic experience before the mission even truly began.

”Can I go home now.”

”No, you can’t,” Seras cut him off.

What happened to that devil may care attitude of his. This was not how she knew him before.

Damon turned to the headmaster.

”Something tells me you won’t be coming with us.”

He shook his head.

”No, I will be here. However, Kael will be going with you as your supervisor, as well as one more student.”

Damon winced in disgust.

”One more student. You guys are letting one more student come on this mission.”

The headmaster stroked his beard.

”Actually, she volunteered after seeing the files we gave you, so it’s technically your fault.”

The headmaster looked up.

”Ah, she’s already here.”

Damon didn’t even need to turn around to sense her familiar shadow.

He glanced at the violet haired young woman through his shadow perception and rolled his eyes.

Renata. Of course she would be interested in going to the demon continent. She was, after all, a demon.

”Wait, what about Lilith. She isn’t coming,” he asked.

Renata shook her head.

”Nope. It’s just me and you this time. But don’t worry, I’ll be sure to take good care of you.”

Damon sighed, looking at the lineup.

”When do we leave.”

Seras glanced at him.

”Now. We leave now.”