The meeting between the captains of Platoon 3 was over, and everyone swiftly went their separate way as planned. Some of them decided to take some time to prepare themselves, while the others, especially the ones tasked to clear the Abyss nests, immediately went to their assigned area.
Emery's small group followed the latter's example. They, who were in charge of about a third of the continent, flew in the north direction on their orbiter.
There were a total of 50 Abyss nests discovered and marked on the map from the previous exploration, and Emery was aiming to clear them all in 7 days. That way, he could start helping the survivors' migration on the 8th day.
Being on a tight schedule, Emery swiftly took out the map to search for the marks of the nearest Abyss nest. Before they went to the Abyss nests, however, he divided the six people into three teams. This time, in a more balanced pairing.
The pairings were as such: Atlas with Thrax, Sigurd with Chumo, and Annara with Klea.
The reason for the changes was that despite Annara being, arguably, the weakest privileged member of the three and being paired with Klea will increase their fighting force.
The red-haired girl also had her familiar summons that could help her navigate through the underground terrain. Her ability was something comparable to Atlas' Seismic Scan and Chumo's Eye of the Raven.
However, it was apparent that the Egyptian queen was not too happy with this arrangement. Unfortunately for her, Emery was hell-bent on his decision that even her sweet persuasion couldn't budge him.
After all, this time, he had neither the intention nor the time to play favorites. This plan was one that he had proposed himself, so he didn't want to mess it up. Hence the reason he arranged the most efficient pairings that would increase the chances of success as well as survival.
Emery went ahead and cast more [Mineralized Warriors] this time 30 soldiers more, given each paired 30 each. These summons would exist to protect them from being overwhelmed by hordes of Abyss creatures. Also, he instructed one Chizpur brother to go with each team. They would be his eyes and ears for the team.
"With this, all of you should be able to clear an Abyss nest in 6 to 8 hours."
That was the approximate time it would take for them to clear an Abyss nest with only half the fighting force from before. Also, since the Abyss nest would have two tunnels connected to the main chamber, going down through one tunnel and heading back to the surface through a different tunnel would be the most efficient and productive way to get all the points they could.
If he was somehow occupied by the time they reached the surface, Emery asked them to immediately proceed to their next allocated nest.
Therefore, if everything went according to plan, with the travel and rest, each team should be able to clear 2 Abyss nests a day, meaning 6 Abyss nests were cleared in total per day and a total of 42 nests in 7 days. That was the minimum target that Emery has set.
It would be a tiring grind, obviously, but this was what the test was all about. Getting more points, after all, would give them extra contribution points after the test ended. Hence, this opportunity could be considered a good chance to gain more benefits for self.
Emery then reminded his two teammates Atlas and Annara to give the task completion by breaking the runed boulders from each nest to the two teams.Thrax and Klea, while Sigurd could alternate with Chumo. These will be to help Anas and Julian team who were in charge of helping survivors on the other side of the continent.
In return, the group would let Annara and Atlas to kill most of the stage 4 Abyss creatures they encountered during the clearing. This way, it was mutually beneficial for both parties.
"Remember, work together, stay safe, and if by any chance you come across a stage 5 Abyss creature, retreat first and wait for reinforcement!" Emery stared intently at each and every one of them.
"Me! Stay safe? Hahaha! You should tell that to the monsters hiding on the ground" replied the overly excited Thracians.
Afterward, Atlas group and Sigurd went separate ways and headed to different Abyss nests as planned.
Klea approached Emery before leaving to remind him to also be careful. After all, she knew very well how much Emery had stretched his power to assign them each a squad of Mineralized Warriors.
"You too." Emery smiled fondly.
Klea said, "Remember if you meet any trouble contact me i will come right away!"
The red hair girl interrupts with a smirk "Don't worry, I'll make sure to take care of your girl here," and Emery just smiled and nodded in response.
After a peck on the cheek, Klea reluctantly went with the red-haired acolyte towards the Abyss nest allocated to them.
When everyone had finally left, Emery let out a sigh.
It was true that this arrangement put a lot of strain on him.
After creating 90 Mineralized Warriors, he actually only left with less than a third of his spirit pool, making him much weaker than usual. It would be quite troublesome if he were to run into trouble in his current state.
Even so, Emery didn't regret his decision. In his eyes, all those large numbers of summons were necessary measures, as not only would it protect his friends from danger, they would also be the proxy for him to get the required points to pass the test.
The privileged acolyte requirement to pass which was 500,000 points was indeed a huge number to achieve.
However, different from the other privileged acolytes who fought with their true strength, Emery who fought through his summons would not be able to kill those stage 4 Abyss creatures that gave a lot of points. So instead of quality, he decided to compensate with sheer quantity.
90 summons; should be able to earn him quite a sum of points, wouldn't they?
With the matter regarding the Abyss nests mostly taken care of, Emery only had two more issues to resolve.
One was to find a way to gather survivors into one central base, and the other was to find Rayne's group that seemed to have gone under the radar. The latter did not reply to any message sent her way with the last message mention about trouble with Arcana,
Emery flew further north, and when he crossed 200 miles, he descended down for a moment and told Chiku to use its [Earth burrows] skill and hide among the rocks.
"You stay here, okay? I'll call on you later."
"Ku.. ku.."
The chubby creature looked reluctant, but eventually nodded its head and stayed put in the crevices of the rocks.
Emery left Chiku there as he needed it to become his beacon and keep track of his friends. With [One Mind], he could now extend his Spirit Reading radius another 200 miles to the north. He continued to maintain his Spirit Reading as he continued to move north.
After another half an hour of traveling north, Emery finally sensed the presence of Rayne's squad. To his surprise, they were currently battling a large horde of Abyss creatures that would certainly overwhelm them if it wasn't for the walls covering them.
Just as he was about to jump in and give assistance, Emery suddenly stopped in his tracks. He noticed how Rayne was fighting together with members of Arcana squad, but the kid-looking acolyte was nowhere to be seen.
Therefore, instead of blindly joining the fight, Emery decided to stay where he was and observe what was going on for now.