Chapter 57

The next day, Timothy woke up earlier than he wanted to just so that he could get the last shower he would most likely be able to enjoy in a while. Unlike the other school uniforms, now that he was in the third year class, Timothy did not have to wear the Grey Imperial Academy's uniform and only had to make sure if he wanted to represent the school which was his intention, to wear the academy's insignia on his armor. Timothy liked using advantage of his speed in battle, and so he chose to wear fairly light steel armor so that he could move around still as if he was not wearing any armor at all, and he had his sword on his back that he could grab easily at any time along with the highest quality steel bracers similar to the ones he wore during the tournament a while back.

With his armor on and weapon on his back, it was finally time for Timothy to head to the entrance of the campus to meet with his squad leader and fellow squad members who were students like him. He was somewhat nervous because he would obviously be the only dual expert while the rest of the squad would consist of only mages. Normally this would still be alright depending on the type of formations the squad chose to utilize in combat, but since he was the highest ranked warrior by far, chances were that he would be solely responsible for any scenario that required close to close combat or even tanking hits for the rest of the squad.

Timothy was not very thrilled about this, but on the bright side, if he would be the one doing most of the heavy lifting, there was a good chance that the loot which was split would end up with him taking a somewhat larger share of the overall loot during the mission. He was still unsure which area they would be heading to, but according to his master, there was no way that the military would willingly send a group of students into a place where their squad had a high probability of being slaughtered by demonic beasts.

Timothy upon arriving realized that he was not the first in the squad to arrive but the second. The figure standing by dressed in a modest mage type battle outfit but stacked with many items that gives mana boosting capabilities, saw Timothy approaching and quickly introduced himself. "Hello, my name is Thomas and I am a rank four mage. I will be the instructor of our squad and it is a pleasure to meet you."

"From the report given to me and from what I can sense from you, it looks like you must be Timothy, a rank three dual expert if I am not mistaken? In my experience, having a warrior class squad member makes the success rate of a mission increase significantly especially given that I am a mage that specializes in the light element. With you and I here, it is almost guaranteed that we will be able to finish our mission in possibly a faster amount of time as well!"

Hearing the instructor's introduction shocked Timothy greatly because it was extremely rare for a mage to exist that did not specialize in one of the five most common elements but instead one of the rare elements. The light element was a very rare elemental affinity that an expert blessed by the heavens would have the opportunity to train in. Not only was it slightly stronger than the wind element in terms of speed, but the light element was known to be used to heal the injuries of one's allies whether one on one or even healing multiple cultivators at one time!

Seeing the shock on Timothy's face made the instructor feel slightly overwhelmed because he understood what it was like introducing himself to others, even those with less experience in general. Out of ten mages, nine out of ten would fall under the five basic elements of fire, wind, water, lightning, and earth. However, the other one out of ten mages would fall under different elements such as light, darkness, and others such as death, life, and destruction. But it was determined in ancient times that in battle, the light element was considered to be the perfect support class element.

Sure, the life element could literally bring a cultivator back to life, but for specifically battle related situations, the light element overall was the best support type element. Not only that, but some doctors who had the ability to train as light mages, were sometimes even able to cure different illnesses without using any pills or other means that doctors would normally use in order to help their patients. So as long as the rest of the squad was able to ensure the safety of the instructor, the chances of any of them being unable to be healed after a harsh battle was simply non-existent.

Unfortunately, this would mean that the instructor who was supposed to be the heavy lifter concerning the squad would not necessarily be that. Instead, as Timothy had originally guessed, he would most likely be used as a tank and would most likely not be having much fun being injured so often during battles. The injuries he would sustain would be healed and he would feel brand new thanks to Thomas's healing capabilities but it would not make the wounds hurt any less.

Soon after Thomas and Timothy introduced themselves to each other, the other three squad members arrived one after the other. As expected, each of the three were rank three mages and they were actually very excited since Thomas was the perfect support type and had so many artifacts on him to increase his mana while Timothy was a dual expert and would be able to take on anyone or anything that required a close to close combat scenario. Still, they were all somewhat bitter because this meant that they had to each give up a smaller portion of their loot towards Timothy for his high contribution throughout the mission.

"Now before we head out there is something as your instructor that I must tell you. Due to the emergency orders being in place, the Grey Imperial Academy was given permission directly from the Imperial Family to offer you all additional resources even if the mission were to for whatever reason end in complete failure. The mission we will be receiving once we land in the area we were assigned to, will most likely be equivalent to us heading into very dangerous territories of demonic beasts in order to slay as many as possible."

"With the lineup our squad is working with, we should be able to remain fairly safe throughout the mission and I do not believe that the military would send us into anywhere that had a chance to run into a rank three demonic beast because our entire squad unfortunately would be wiped out very quickly if that were to occur. Just know, that if a mishap were to happen, that the Imperial Family would make sure that your families including my own would receive proper compensation and if our entire squad is wiped out except for one or two of you or even just me, know that our storage rings will also be handed over to our families or next of kin."

Timothy was used to heading into battle but he could tell that the other three were under the age of eighteen and this would be considered their very first time in the outside world. Having a squad of mostly greenhorns was not ideal for him, but this was in fact a war of survival and whether he liked it or not, Timothy was forced to act but at least he had his own trump cards hidden that he could use in case of an emergency. The battlefield was a common place for cultivators of any rank and any age. The only thing was, why did the instructor say these things so bluntly? Was it possible that he already understood the situation and where they were going? And if so, just how bad was it?