The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1307: Divinely Blessed

Sid would’ve liked to respond to his Master’s thoughts with a simple,

Unfortunately, the guardian mecha knew better than to risk his continued survival for the sake of honesty.

His Master could simply rewatch the footage D-29 was undoubtedly filming later and decide for himself whether the future eternal light of Solaris was still right in the head!

Because sure, Luca Kyros had been flustered, shaken, and even genuinely annoyed by his first encounter with the Caldris Hostiles.

But somehow, all of that had eventually resulted in the golden-eyed cadet quietly giggling to himself often enough that even Theo was starting to become deeply concerned about his welfare.

"...!"

See, the drastic change in Luca’s mood had started not long after Battalion 10 managed to discreetly carve out a shelter for themselves, right after everyone received a warning about the incoming change in weather.

[ONE HOUR TO SILVER RAIN.]

Silver Rain.

That was apparently what the locals used to call the phenomenon that had nearly every group putting their current operations on hold.

Not because the droplets were actually made of literal silver, but because they supposedly resembled polished silver to the naked eye.

Personally, Luca thought the droplets looked much more like liquid mercury.

Though perhaps the people who’d named it had deliberately avoided calling it anything like that because sounded considerably more ominous.

Then again...

Maybe a more foreboding name would’ve been more helpful for the youngsters trying to move up to the next academic year.

At the very least, it might’ve made some cadets take the weather conditions more seriously when deciding on their battle plans.

Because for quite a few of them, the warning only seemed important because of all the earlier fuss about needing LME-resistant coating.

That, and the Academy had put a timer on it.

And anyone who’d survived enough academic examinations knew that if something came with a countdown, it was probably important!

So even though plenty of cadets still didn’t fully understand what Liquid Metal Embrittlement actually meant for their equipment, they certainly understood the implication of a steadily decreasing timer.

Whatever Silver Rain was...

They probably didn’t want to be caught outside when it started.

And with that final hour rapidly disappearing, finding somewhere relatively safe to shelter suddenly became a much more pressing concern.

However, just as several people had predicted, things became considerably more difficult once the cadets were left to fend for themselves without the comforts of their battleship.

"Are we seriously leaving it up there?"

Several heads tilted toward the sky.

Of course, from where they were standing, the massive vessel was already impossible to see.

One cadet sighed.

"There goes my bed."

"And the showers."

"Forget the showers. What about the workshops?"

A few troubled expressions immediately appeared as several cadets thought about all the repairs they’d now have to perform without the conveniences afforded by their suddenly very beautiful battleship.

Finn rubbed a hand over his face. "Guys, we’re not abandoning it. It’s staying in orbit."

"Which means we can still use its surveillance systems," another cadet pointed out. "We’ll have a much better view of the surrounding area from up there than we would from the ground."

"And if something happens to our supplies down here, we’ll still have whatever we left onboard."

They’d already gone over all these reasons before making the decision, but apparently repeating them now wasn’t doing much to make anyone feel better.

Maybe they needed better gaslighting skills.

But just as everyone was reluctantly accepting their fate, Jax casually added, "Plus, nobody can follow our giant battleship straight back to our base and rob us."

"..."

Everyone looked at him.

"What?"

"No, that’s actually a really good point."

Luca, who’d really had it out for all sorts of robbers, nodded seriously as he stared up at the empty sky.

Alright.

Maybe keeping their battleship in orbit really was the safer choice.

Still...

He glanced toward all the equipment they’d now have to transport, maintain, and protect on their own.

It was admittedly a shame.

Luca knew several extremely convenient ways to hide something as large as a battleship. Heck, he even knew a few ways to hide every single one of them...

Unfortunately, those methods either involved things they weren’t allowed to use during the exercise or secrets Luca couldn’t exactly reveal, so that move was probably their best option for now.

Besides, the hiding spot they’d accidentally couldn’t possibly accommodate something that large anyway, unless they were willing to expose a certain someone’s ability.

They were already fortunate enough to squeeze their rovers inside, along with several active mechas stationed around the area for security.

And admittedly, finding such a convenient location hadn’t been easy.

Unlike most battalions, which had to triangulate possible base locations while trying to avoid areas that overlapped with known objectives, supply drops, or extraction sites, Battalion 10 had received a little covert assistance from one Jackson Taylor.

Jax had personally volunteered to inspect several promising areas for what he very seriously called

Naturally, what he was actually doing was testing the ground with his bloodline ability to see whether he could subtly (not) disturb enough of the terrain to reveal, or perhaps the formation of caves and underground spaces large enough for Battalion 10 to use!

They could’ve searched the existing tunnels or abandoned underground facilities scattered across Caldris Minor-7.

But that would’ve meant risking another confrontation far too soon when they didn’t have a lot of time left to begin with.

And considering how much trouble they’d already gone through just to secure their current supplies, nobody was particularly eager to gamble them away immediately.

Eventually, Jax’s extremely scientific vibe checks led them toward a massive rock formation.

Which naturally confused nearly everyone else.

It would’ve been understandable if there’d been some sort of cave they could simply block off and use as shelter...

But there was nothing there!

At least, nothing that looked remotely capable of hiding five hundred cadets and a considerable amount of equipment.

The spectators monitoring them were equally baffled.

"It’s a shame they’re digging there of all places," one observer muttered, sighing as he watched the feed. "The terrain scans from our last evaluation didn’t show a damn thing beneath those rocks, so yes, I believe they’re wasting both time and energy. But I suppose that’s the lesson we were trying to impart with this scenario in the first place—"

"Wait..."

Another officer suddenly leaned closer to the projection.

"But look! Those kids just found something there!"

"Huh?"

His eyes widened.

"How the hell is there a hollow cavern under that cliff?!"

"!"

Sure enough, once Battalion 10 cleared away enough of the surrounding material, what emerged was an almost ridiculously convenient underground space.

Large enough to shelter hundreds of cadets.

Hidden beneath the surrounding rock.

And positioned far enough away from the obvious objectives that there was little reason for another group to stumble across it by accident.

The observers stared.

Even the scans didn’t show such a thing! Had something like that shown up, then they could’ve placed it as some sort of intel reward!

Well...

Anyone who knew Jax personally would probably argue that this wasn’t necessarily an inaccurate observation, considering he’d apparently been sunbathing outside when the gods decided to sprinkle luck all over the universe.

Just not in the way that everyone currently believed.

Because in this particular case, certain members of Battalion 10 were simply finding very subtle ways to make use of the abilities available to them!