The Card Apprentice

Chapter 262: Preparing for War (VII)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Why were you discharged?” Bogner asked warmly.

“Reporting, sir! I was wounded!”

“Wounded?” Bogner then asked, “Was it your perception?”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

“No wonder.” Bogner nodded. Once perception was harmed, not only would all its attributes be knocked down, but it would also stunt all other aspects of development. After thinking for a while, he asked, “How strong is your perception now?”

“Reporting, sir. The mid range of the fourth level.” There was no expression on Jiang Liang’s face.

“Mmmm, starting today, you’ll take the position of captain of one of the squads,” Bogner said.

“Sir, yes, sir!” Jiang Liang’s face didn’t even fluctuate.

Bogner then chose another four card artisans who had made an outstanding performance to assume the position of captain for the other four squads. He divided the 405 cards artisans into five squads, each having 25 fighting units. Each unit was composed of three card artisans. He would personally lead the remaining ten units, calling them the elite group, and set them up with a team leader.

The five captains and the team leader for the elite group would be the best treated, with the card artisans in the elite group treated the very best.

Following that, Bogner promulgated a series of assessment methods and measures for rewards and punishment. Their treatment would be directly related to the results of the assessments. Whoever got the best results would earn better treatment. Places among the elite group were fluid. Whoever did well could enter the elite group, and the original members could also be squeezed out. The captain of whichever of the squads had someone entering the elite group would also earn extra rewards.

Once those measures were in place, the card artisans’ enthusiasm surged. Having originally joined for the money, who would have thought they could get even better treatment for themselves?

Each of the captains was extremely diligent about urging their squad members to train. As a result, Bogner’s load was lightened right away by quite a bit.

Although the card artisans were making rapid progress, they were still far from Bogner’s requirements. Fortunately, he understood that the combat effectiveness of a team wasn’t so easy to establish. What he needed to do just then was move along steadily. A qualified commander would be adept at taking advantage of all kinds of conditions.

Bogner’s training was completely sealed off, which made many of Jiao Si’s ace scholars curious about what kind of training required such secrecy.

Even Jiao Si—who had seen quite a lot—found it hard to take, but he knew the rules well. Although the card artisans had come from the Origins Academy, they had no further connection to the Origins Academy until the agreement was completed. If anything were to happen, or if there were large casualties, it would have nothing to do with the Origins Academy.

He had also recently been busy guiding the card artisans. To tell the truth, he never stopped being surprised the entire time.

Twenty-some card artisans didn’t mean much. Even if they were 20-some high-grade card artisans, that wouldn’t mean much to the Origins Academy. But those 20-some card artisans really surprised Jiao Si.

In his eyes, their individual fighting strength was only ordinary. But their coordination was amazingly brilliant. In each small team were three people with tacit understanding among them; they knew when to advance and when to retreat, while each one still managed their own duty.

He would have to use a lot of tricks as a single person against a small group like that, which left him in awe. If there were a few more of them, no matter whom it was, they would have some headaches. He chose three from among the card artisans he had brought to fight against one of the small groups.

Nothing needed to be said about how strong the card artisans were who had followed Jiao Si there. One-on-one, those three card artisans could each beat their counterparts by a large margin.

However, the situation of the actual fighting was completely unexpected. In the situation where two of the adversary’s small group had been wounded, they would emerge victorious.

It would have been better if their strength wasn’t up to snuff, but it was clear their individual power exceeded their adversary’s. But the result was still defeat. That made the faces of those arrogant Origins Academy aces look unusually bad.

So, Jiao Si simply organized five trials, wanting to test the card artisans to the root.

The final result was surprising. In the five trials, they only took one victory, and that was an incredibly difficult victory. While their adversaries wouldn’t be considered powerful to look at, they won four victories.

On the training field, the card artisans in Chen Mu’s group were quite excited. The scholars from the Origins Academy felt ashamed.

Looking on with their heads down, Jiao Si felt rather upset with those favorite students in front of him. It looked like he had overemphasized their individual combat effectiveness and neglected their combat coordination. That was what had produced such a situation.

“I can see you aren’t so pleased with these results, either.” Jiao Si scanned over the scholars and spoke in a sunken voice. The scholars dropped their heads even lower.

Jiao Si furrowed his brow in an unhappy look and abruptly raised his voice to say, “Lift up your heads! Can’t you even take this little setback? Argh, then you don’t deserve to be my students. If you lose, you lose. What’s so great about that? What is our Origins motto? Have you all forgotten? Huh? If you can’t beat someone, go study; once you learn it, fight again! If you still don’t win, go study some more until you learn to win!”

The scholars lifted their heads up one by one, and each of their faces had flushed red. They were ashamed of their recent performance. It seemed as though what Jiao Si had said was full of power. Even the gazes of the card artisans with Chen Mu were full of admiration.

“Argh!” Jiao Si swept his gaze over the students in front of him, noting how the desire for victory was being inspired in their eyes. That made him satisfied, though that’s not what his face showed. “Tang Cheng!”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Academy President, sir!” A rather gentile card artisan stood up with an excited expression.

“Starting today, you will be responsible for the training of all your classmates. Be sure to get the advice of these aces. Even if you aren’t up to the others, give your heart to study for me. Hrumph, if anyone is disobedient, I’ll shoo them back to school.”

“Yes, sir!”

The card artisans under Chen Mu had never seen such a ruckus. Even though they had a little bit of fame, the senior students of the Origins Academy would humble themselves to get advice from them, which was flattering. Moreover, those words had come from the mouth of such a heavyweight as Jiao Si.

The fighting power of those people was really strong! Jiao Si had seen quite a few card artisan firms, but he had never seen such high-quality tactical coordination. If the school’s card artisans could have such tactical qualities, then…

Jiao Si’s mind heated up.

Seeing the rather chaotic situation on the training field, Lu Xiaoru couldn’t help but feel a little concerned. Their own training would be heavily influenced by it. However, Bogner was just then sealing off the training, and Chen Mu was busy. She was afraid that after Bogner came back, he would certainly be dissatisfied with the results of their own training if they went on like that.

For the past few days, she had learned Boss Bogner’s temper quite well. Their own boss talked a lot by comparison. Boss Bogner paid a lot of attention to such things as training, but he was never satisfied. They were going to end up miserable.

She hadn’t been expecting to be punished when the time came, but she couldn’t think of anything to do about it just then. Apart from Bogner and the boss, those people didn’t obey anyone.

Someone suddenly walked into the training room and shouted, “Lu Xiaoru!”

The voice wasn’t loud, but all the card artisans under Chen Mu surprisingly closed their mouths. That sudden, unforeseen event left all the Origins Academy scholars with no response for a while as the scene on the field went cold.

In the abrupt silence on the huge training field, everyone’s gaze had turned onto that person who had just entered.

Wei-ah had no expression on his face, and he wasn’t looking at the card artisans.

Lu Xiaoru felt overjoyed. How could she have forgotten he was still there? In the eyes of those card artisans, Wei-ah was a demonized presence. The day he had so easily knocked down those six card artisans had turned him into the object of awe for that gang.

Bogner had been furious about that affair, and the pace of their training had then increased dramatically. They had suffered for it. The guy had cost them face in front of their boss, so their gazes toward Wei-ah were naturally unhappy.

Still, no one dared to make a move. The six who had been knocked over that day were top-notch among them. With even them having been so easily knocked over, the rest of them would have to do a lot more thinking if they wanted to make a move.

That guy wasn’t even one-on-one, but rather one-on-six!

So, when they saw Wei-ah, they unconsciously shut their mouths.

The Origins Academy scholars, who didn’t understand, looked at Wei-ah with curiosity. Could he be some kind of big deal?

Lu Xiaoru rushed over to Wei-ah and asked respectfully, “What are your instructions?” Wei-ah had come over to find her, which made her think something must have happened. She felt a little hesitant.

“The fat dog might be sick. Where is a doctor?” Wei-ah still had no expression on his face.

Everyone in the entire training room stopped what they were doing, shut their mouths, and stared at Wei-ah. There was nothing else going on apart from the dialogue between the two of them.

Jiao Si stared at Wei-ah, feeling rather curious. Could he be an ace too? Almost unconsciously, he deployed his own perception, wanting to do some probing.