Death… And Me

Chapter 1289 - Darker Than Usual

After having decided that, Roan took his War Points and left. He knew that Tixa probably had many questions in her head, but he wasnʼt about to go tell her anything anyway. Instead, Roan was more interested in Reanʼs performance during the five days since they arrived. ʼHowʼs it going? Are you making enough points?ʼ

Rean, who was using Healing Aura on another batch, immediately nodded, responding, ʼBut of course! Iʼve accumulated about 20200 points until now. Theyʼre bringing batches of 200 cultivators for me to work on every time, so itʼs always 200 points. Theyʼre even giving me Rank One Divine Stones to recover my Divine Soul Power faster. If not because my Healing Aura uses a huge amount of Divine Soul Power, I would have much more now.ʼ

Roan wasnʼt surprised by that. At a war of this scale, Rean simply wouldnʼt need to worry about running out of injured people to take care of. In fact, even 100 Reans wouldnʼt be enough to take care of everyone to start with. ʼGood, youʼre earning faster than me. I got 12740 points during the days I was out. In any case, I should be able to increase the amount now, so just continue focusing on the points. Kentucky and Celis are cultivating in our stead anyway.ʼ

Rean nodded. ʼSure. Just donʼt go die out there as Iʼll die as well.ʼ

Roan ignored Reanʼs final statement as he returned to his battalion. According to his and Tixaʼs agreement, he would be the second in command of these people, so he decided that they should change the way they work to optimize how they gained points. ”Listen up, weʼre going to spend our time following a training schedule I devised. I already obtained Tixaʼs permission, so follow my orders. Iʼm now the second in command of this battalion.”

”What?!” Everyone was taken aback.

”Bullshit!”

”Thereʼs no way you became second in command!”

”I wonʼt follow the orders of some Initial Stage Saint weakling.”

”You just got lucky during the last battle. Do you think you can repeat what you did again?”

Suddenly, Tixaʼs voice echoed in the entire battalionʼs ears. ”Shut up! Heʼs telling the truth. From now on, heʼs second in command. Donʼt judge him for his cultivation, as you have no idea where he came from. Those who complain will be sent to other battalions. Thatʼs all Iʼll say.”

If they were surprised before, they were now left aghast. The only ones who didnʼt seem to care were the ones who fought with Roan in the previous battle. They knew very well that Roanʼs abilities werenʼt a fluke. If anything, they were unhappy that the source of their war points was now having to control the rest of the battalion instead of them alone.

Even though Roan said they would need to follow his commands, the war wouldnʼt wait for them. Because of that, his training only followed the most basic parts of his strategies. If he really wanted a perfect team for offensives, it would take several weeks until they could perform to his liking. Naturally, he didnʼt have that time.

Tixa then asked Roan through Divine Sense. ʼWhat do you plan to make with my battalion?ʼ

Roan looked at her before replying, ʼFor now, Iʼll devise a training regimen that will first focus on survivability. To make the perfect team for offensive, I canʼt have too many people being swapped by new cultivators every time a battle is over. Last time, our battalion lost 30% of its forces, so Iʼm aiming for 5% or less this time.ʼ

ʼ5%?! Is that even possible?!ʼ Tixa was amazed by Roanʼs words. ʼNo, wait! Even if you can achieve 5%, will you be able to accomplish the objective in that case? Itʼs through the sacrifices that we achieve our powerful offensive, you know?ʼ

Roan nodded, saying, ʼItʼs hard since I probably only have two or three days to whip them up into shape, forming the basic form at the very least. In any case, it should be possible to at least not repeat your grievous amount of losses.ʼ

Tixa narrowed her eyes in response, feeling like Roan was blaming her. Well, he truly was. Itʼs just that he didnʼt have the patience to discuss it.

Roan then looked at the cultivators and began to issue his commands. ”Before, we had several groups with 50 cultivators forming each group. From now on, I want small groups of ten people, with one leader among them. Then, I want ten small groups to form one large group, consisting of a hundred people. Finally, ten large groups of one hundred will form, having me as their commander. There are still more cultivators coming to replace the dead people of the last battle. In any case, our division should have something around 3500 people. Because of that, Iʼll form one elite group that will have 500 people while the others will take on a more supportive role.”

Sure enough, more new Dark Element manipulators kept arriving to replace the dead. The difference was that now, Roan didnʼt send any of them away. He had his uses for each type of Dark Element user, even if they werenʼt good at concealing. Tixa found it strange at first. However, after witnessing his training methods, she finally understood that those bad at concealing could still work well as long as their positioning was good.

Well, Roan kept complaining about them all from start to finish, though. It was as if everything they did was wrong, to the point that to them, their existence was wrong. Tixa wondered if her division would end up hating Roan. In the end, she could only stay to ensure that they would follow his order at the risk of severe punishment if they didnʼt.

Eventually, three days later, Tixaʼs division was called once more. This time, however, Tixa shared their objective with Roan instead of being the only one to know where they were going.

However, after checking the battle information and what his division was supposed to do, Roanʼs expression turned darker than usual.