After Xiao Lin had a simple meal with Class Seven, he proceeded to leave. The dinner was a preparation of roasted bacon stocked up by the orcs and paired with fragrant soup. It was incredibly delicious.
Everyone was enjoying their meal, but Xiao Lin was feeling a little distressed. Although the water sprayed by the healer seemed to be working and gradually began reducing the pain, he still could not touch anything yet. Simply holding the dishes would send waves of pain coming over him.
The ever-attentive Gu Xiaoyue noticed Xiao Lin’s embarrassment and pursed her lips, as if thinking of something. Her cold face felt slightly warm and she looked a little hesitant. Xiao Lin, who had also been keeping watch over her, realized something and looked over with a blatantly pitiful expression.
Most of the others noticed that the atmosphere had become a little odd. Those who were about to volunteer themselves by standing up immediately turned away, as if they had not seen anything.
It was the instructor Qin Chuan who broke the atmosphere. He had just filled his bowl with broth when he turned back and happened to catch Xiao Lin’s pitiful appearance. Having already known about Xiao Lin’s injury, Qin Chuan walked over with the broth and sat down next to Xiao Lin, saying, “I almost forgot that your hand still hurts. I’ll feed you!”
Xiao Lin’s eyes twitched a few times, but he could not possibly reject it. He forced a smile that looked even uglier than a crying mug and said thank you. When he looked at Gu Xiaoyue again, she seemed to have let out a sigh of relief and turned away.
In fact, he originally wanted to have a chat with Gu Xiaoyue, but in that atmosphere, she would definitely have little to say in front of everyone.
The acting class monitors once again gathered in a separate room for a meeting. Since the establishment of this temporary headquarters, everyone seemed very keen to exercise the power of the battlefield commander. They frequently did not listen to each other and were constantly at each other’s necks, resulting in reduced efficiency. Even so, any decision to be made could only be issued from the command headquarters.
Xiao Lin was late, and his snow-white bandage made many of the others bow their heads in shame. Xiao Lin was the only one who took the initiative to leave the fortress during that afternoon’s battle.
“Our casualties today are quite serious, but it’s not quite appropriate to disclose some of the data to the rest. I’m worried it will affect morale. Let me explain everything first.”
The person who spoke was a tall and thin man. His name was Sheng Guo, and he was the monitor of Class Eight. Since he was responsible for the battlefield statistics, the opening remarks of that meeting started with him.
“We lost eight archer towers. I’ve spoken with the architect just now and it’s basically impossible to repair them. As long as the orcs continue to go on the offensive tomorrow, our remaining defense towers may only be able to support three more days at most.”
“Three days? That quick? I remember we had dozens of defense towers!” Han Manman from Class Four did not seem to agree.
Xiao Lin said, “Class Eight’s statistics are correct. Every time we lose a defense tower, it means that the orcs will attack even stronger the next round. May I remind you that the spell towers use far more energy than we initially thought.”
Xiao Lin briefly described the operation process of the spell device on the lower magic tower. Among them, the inventory did not have any of those metal pieces that needed to be replaced whenever the spell device was used to fire. They did not find anything similar in the orcs’ warehouse either, which meant that there was an absence of replacement metal pieces. That the remaining spell towers would become useless was certainly a possibility.
Xiao Lin was thrust into the limelight that day, and although everyone criticized his statement silently in their hearts, his words made them stop and think for a long time. Depressingly, they soon discovered the fact that things were not looking very optimistic.
That day’s defensive battle seemed like a victory, but judging from the results, why did it appear as though they were on the brink of defeat?
“How long can the spell tower’s metal pieces last?” Cheng Ming interrupted everyone’s thoughts.
“One day.” Xiao Lin gave an answer so firm that Class Eight’s monitor could not even refute. They had no right to object since they were not privy to the information Xiao Lin had, and he was the only one who had actually been inside the defense tower.
No one could voice any opinion on that.
“What if we use them sparingly? For example, you mentioned that the process of cooling and replacing the metal pieces takes only a minute or two once a person is proficient in it. We’ll extend that duration. How about changing it to fire only once every five minutes?” Han Manman’s spoke optimistically. In fact, there were only three women among the acting class monitors, and the natural advantage of a woman was that they could get a little bit of preferential treatment. However, Han Manman was an exception.
As soon as she finished speaking, Class Twelve’s monitor Chen Dao rolled his eyes at her. The boy who had not even graduated from high school did not see eye-to-eye with Han Manman and they often clashed heads with each other. At that point, he mocked her, “Those who don’t understand spells should keep their mouth shut! Everyone saw it from today’s battle. Even though the spell tower’s firing intervals are quite long, they’re very powerful. The burning effect that comes along is also useful in blocking the orc’s charging direction. The reason we’re able to have this meeting today is only because of the spell tower’s uninterrupted attacks!”
Xiao Lin did not want to target anyone specifically, but he stated the facts all the same. “Yes, in the second half of today’s battle, one of the main reasons why the orcs were able to attack was because the operator of the spell tower had poor mental strength, which caused the firing speed to slow down significantly. My suggestion for tomorrow’s battle is not only to extend the firing interval, but also to shorten the time!”
Feeling slightly embarrassed, Han Manman said, “But you just said that the process from cooling to replacing the metal sheet is an irreplaceable one. How do you plan to shorten the time!”
Xiao Lin glanced at her like an idiot, paused for a moment, and continued. “I did say that this process is indispensable, but what if someone else was arranged to take charge?”
“You’re suggesting for two people to board the same tower?”
“Yes. Two or three people is ideal!”
“That’s not good. We only have this small number of people, and if we assign others to go out, the power to defend the city will be greatly weakened.”
Xiao Lin said, “I don’t think our strength in defending the city will be weakened. In fact, if you carefully count the results of today’s battle, did the kills of those who used archery for the first time in the long-range attack add up to the total number killed by one defense tower? Those who excelled at close combat didn’t contribute much when defending the city. It’d be better to have them on the tower to help. Moreover, if the orcs charged over, they could also defend their spot.”
His words made some of them turn their heads in some embarrassment. There were a few close combat specialists among the acting class monitors, and some—like Cheng Ming—even admitted it and acknowledged Xiao Lin’s words.
With Cheng Ming’s support, Xiao Lin’s resolution passed smoothly.
A point to note was that all measures and plans to be implemented was decided by the temporary headquarters through voting. That was something Zhou Feng and Qin Chuan argued in private with Xiao Lin for quite some time.
Although the voting system was designed to allow 12 monitors of equal status to maintain balance and fairness, such so-called democracy could sometimes be a huge detriment when a battlefield emergency arose.