Chapter 245: Invasion Plan
Finally, after hours of walking through Backwater’s sewers and killing Giant Rats, my Valkyries and I managed to find the manhole that led into the Silver Fang Battalion.
"Your drawing is pretty bad, Master," Justine said, sitting beside me. "I’m surprised yours manages to be even worse than Sarah’s."
"But it’s still hard to get a good idea of what he looks like," Erina said, comparing the three composite sketches. "Alicia’s is definitely the best."
"She didn’t even get to see Leo..."
"Haha, it seems my art classes were pretty useful after all," Alicia said, happy that her drawing of Leo had beaten those of the other two contestants.
She had drawn it in a single attempt without expecting much, but she had utterly crushed Sarah’s scribbles and mine. We had a winner, light-years ahead of second and third place.
We had improvised a hideout not too far from the manhole leading into Silver Fang territory, but positioned it well enough to keep us hidden in case someone came to inspect the area.
At that moment, we were working out our plan. First, the girls needed to be able to recognize his face, which was why we had made the composite sketches.
Neither Sarah’s drawing nor mine looked any better than something a kindergarten child would draw, so we chose Alicia’s realistic portrait of Leo. It was very accurate—perhaps even too accurate.
’She’s a much better artist than she ever was a cook, without a shadow of a doubt!’ I thought, admiring my princess’s work.
"Well, the plan is to find Leo, grab him, and get the hell out of here before anyone catches us. That’s it!"
All my Valkyries stared at me with disappointed expressions.
"Shouldn’t an action plan be more..." Diane began.
"Detailed!" Erina cut in.
"You just simplified the steps!" Sarah began lecturing me.
I sighed. "Even if you want me to go into detail, there isn’t much to say. Diane and I can turn invisible, so we’re the best choice for getting in and out without being noticed."
"Ah, that’s right! That skill you two have!"
[ Darkness Walker: Causes the user to be shrouded in darkness and become invisible at night.
Cost: 5 MP ]
"That’s right. Although it can only be used at night, Darkness Walker is perfect for missions like this."
"The plan sounds completely different when you actually break it down!" Sarah was still irritated.
"Even so, it’s not a perfect plan," Justine commented. "It looks like a trap."
"Yeah, if Leo is really that important, wouldn’t they assign Night Apostles to guard him?" Erina added.
"Yes, we’ll almost certainly encounter Night Apostles there," I replied.
"Wait, hold on!" Sarah was genuinely angry with me. "You want to go into the middle of the Silver Fang Battalion with just Diane?! And with Night Apostles there? Are you crazy? It would be better if we..."
I didn’t even need to argue because she reached the same conclusion I had.
The more of us who went, the greater the risk. Besides, only Diane and I had invisibility skills.
My plan put Diane and me at risk, but reduced the danger to everyone else.
"For the gods! Now I’m starting to regret asking you to break down the plan."
I shrugged. After all, I knew it wasn’t easy to hear, but unfortunately, this was the situation we had gotten ourselves into.
"Do you think you can handle it?" she asked. "It’s going to be dangerous."
"What part of our journey hasn’t been dangerous?" I shot back.
The others looked at me, their determination to press forward written across their faces.
"You have a point," she said with a laugh. "Just be careful, okay?"
"That’s right," Erina said. "Don’t underestimate the danger just because you can turn invisible. Laios is extremely dangerous. If you mess up and get caught on your way back with Leo, things will get very complicated."
"I know. In the worst-case scenario, I’ll have to use Gather to summon all of you there. But that’s only if things go wrong, so be prepared."
"Right," they answered in unison.
Of course, I would have preferred all of them to stay together down here until the mission was over. We were already in enemy territory. I couldn’t be certain, but I had a feeling that we were being watched.
Navigating the sewers was quite difficult, since I kept running into monsters at every turn, which kept my Sixth Sense on constant alert.
That put me at a disadvantage if our enemies were preparing an ambush, since it made it difficult for me to distinguish genuine warnings from false alarms.
That was why I wanted my Valkyries to stay together in one large group, as they would have a better chance of fighting off any enemies they encountered. I would only be gone for a few minutes—just long enough to grab Leo and bring him back here. It was a simple plan, but even so...
To assess our current situation, I opened my system’s HUD to check our updated stats.
[
Name: Richard Forster
Class: Valkyrie Tamer
Level: 68
Valkyries: 6/6
Health: 700 points
Mana: 370 points
Strength: 100 points
Defense: 30 points
Magic: 82 points
Agility: 70 points
Status Points: 0 points
]
[
Name: Sarah Lockhart
Level: 54
Class: Swordmaster
Title: Valkyrie
Master: Richard Forster
Health: 580 points
Mana: 285 points
Strength: 90 points
Defense: 15 points
Magic: 53 points
Agility: 65 points
Status Points: 0 points
]
[
Name: Alicia Ludvila Von Astrea
Level: 45
Class: Saintess
Title: Valkyrie
Master: Richard Forster
Health: 260 points
Mana: 480 points
Strength: 1 point
Defense: 40 points
Magic: 103 points
Agility: 34 points
Status Points: 0 points
]
[
Name: Justine Blackwood
Level: 47
Class: Sage
Title: Valkyrie
Master: Richard Forster
Health: 300 points
Mana: 530 points
Strength: 1 point
Defense: 20 points
Magic: 116 points
Agility: 57 points
Status Points: 0 points
]
[
Name: Diane Stollen
Level: 52
Class: Shadow Assassin
Title: Valkyrie
Master: Richard Forster
Health: 570 points
Mana: 458 points
Strength: 106 points
Defense: 15 points
Magic: 33 points
Agility: 76 points
Status Points: 0 points
]
[
Name: Erina Ashburn
Level: 51
Class: Marksman
Title: Valkyrie
Master: Richard Forster
Health: 550 points
Mana: 420 points
Strength: 83 points
Defense: 10 points
Magic: 71 points
Agility: 47 points
Status Points: 0 points
]
[
Name: Camula
Level: 52
Monster: Demonic Slime
Title: Valkyrie
Master: Richard Forster
Health: 743 points
Mana: 305 points
Strength: 52 points
Defense: 83 points
Magic: 8 points
Agility: 52 points
Status Points: 0 points
]
Thanks to our journey through the sewers, we had killed enough creatures for each of us to gain ten levels. We had plenty of power and a solid arsenal of skills, but I was anxious. I didn’t know why, but my instincts were telling me not to go.
As we walked through the dark underground caverns, I couldn’t get the reality of our situation out of my head. Laios was a formidable opponent. I wondered whether I would be able to handle him if I had to confront him head-on.
’No, I can’t think like that! It’s not like I can simply turn around and leave Backwater empty-handed,’ I thought. ’We need to get Leo out of this place as soon as possible.’
At that moment, I felt a warm sensation envelop my hand. When I looked down, Sarah’s slender fingers were intertwined with mine.
"Don’t look so gloomy!" she scolded me. "You said everything would be all right, didn’t you? So there’s no point in getting all worked up."
I looked around, and all their gazes seemed to encourage me.
What an idiot I was for making them worry. I would have to reward them later for putting them through this and for being such good women to me.
I simply nodded, because nothing I could say would be enough to express how grateful I was to have them by my side.
In the end, we went ahead with our plan. Diane and I kept track of the time by watching the nearby Silver Fang manhole, through which a beam of light shone until the sun had completely set.
"It really is just like the book," I observed, still in disbelief. "So, directly above us is a rarely used passage within the battalion. We shouldn’t have any trouble infiltrating, but it would be best to activate Darkness Walker right now."
Diane nodded in agreement, and together we activated the skill.
"Darkness Walker."
It was the first time I had used this skill, so I was surprised by how my new power appeared through my own eyes.
My hands were still visible in front of me, but they looked pale and somewhat transparent, as though I had turned into a ghost.
"Rick, are you still here?" Erina asked, looking around.
"Yes, I’m still in the same place where I activated the skill," I replied, and she looked in my direction.
"Ohh!" Sarah seemed amazed. "This skill is incredible!"
"It’s extremely useful, but we still have to be careful," Diane explained. "We can still be heard, and we can still be touched. We can even be injured."
I felt Diane’s invisible hand touch me as she grabbed my arm.
"I think we should hold on to each other... to make sure we don’t lose track of one another," the now-invisible white-haired girl told me in a slightly shy voice.