The colored snow engulfed the whole group, but unlike the last time I went through it and I could still see the shadow of my teammates and felt like a circular barrier covering the entire team, the last time I just stayed covered in snow and appears in an arena surrounded by snow.
It only took a few minutes for the snow to recede and so the first challenge of the illusory matrix was revealed. We were on a hill covered with grass and some rocks, around us a forest is a small fort in mine, but there was one thing that stood out and it was the small column of straight and smooth stone that served as a table for a piece of folded paper.
I sinned the role is the abri, believing that it should be the instructions of this first challenge, most challenges turn with instructions only a few that don't come, because I discovered the goal of the challenge is part of it. On paper there were simple lines it was basically like that.
Don't die, kill the people of the fort and don't destroy it too much, the more damaged the structure and if your enemies run away, your score will decrease and there may be penalties for the next test. Good luck, try not to die.
Clear and simple extrusions without even a margin for different interpretations, I passed the paper on to the rest of the group and went to observe the second floor of the fort that stood out against mine in the forest. Even though I was far away I looked for any aura, mana and elemental energy in the fort, thanks to the advantage of being in a higher position than the fort I have a very clean line of sight to him so I have very little energy between min and the fort already. that the air here has little mana and elemental energy for the interior of a matrix.
I see around twenty-six bodies containing enough mana and most of them don't have elemental energy only seven have elemental energy in addition to mana, unfortunately we are facing golems that replicate intelligent races and not real people. To me it looks like there are twenty-six mages in the fort, but analyzing all the data I have I can say that only seven golems can be of the mage type since every mage has to have an elemental energy, but there should probably be some warrior golems elementals in the fort so there should be around five to three mages in the fort.
Golems that only have mana should all be fighter type and taking into account that at least two types of intensity in them I can tell that most of them should have the strength of a black core fighter and the rest should have the strength. of a gray core warrior. Unfortunately, I only get this limited amount of information looking at the fort from so far away if I didn't have a clear line of sight, I couldn't even get that, we're still a long way from the fort.
I was interrupted from my thoughts about the fort, when I was called by Isabela, the team had already finished reading the message.
"Hey! We'd better start going down the hill now, if that building over there is the fort, we'll have to spend half an hour just to get there." Unfortunately, Isabela was wrong about how long it will take.
"Half an hour only if you go limp, with the assistance of my magic we can get there in ten minutes." Another wrong person and being an idiot, perhaps the transition into the matrix has left him confused and prone to silly ideas.
"You're both wrong, you're thinking this is an easy test! The teachers may not have let the golems we're up against have a lot of fighting power, but they're not simple low-level golems with a good paint job on the outside, they're pretty smart golems with a bunch of security protocols ready to break our game. training, you should treat them as if they were adventurers or thugs if you feel better killing thugs but the main point is not to underestimate them."
"We're going to form a lineup and I'll guide everyone through the forest to cause as little vegetation disturbance as possible, we can't alarm the golems in the fort. After we get closer, I will do the reconnaissance of the fort and only after I get back with the information about the fort, we will make a combat plan."
The way to get closer to the fort was smooth, because there are no animals or magical beasts in the forest, they must be taking it easy because this is the first test if it was the third the forest should be full of enemies for us to tire is to make it much more difficult to get to the fort without alarming the golems that are patrolling around the fort.
I used this moment to sweat my new aura art and suppressed all my aura and elemental energy into my core, to make me invisible to the golems, I still kept my movements hidden using the cover of the leaves of the golems. bushes are trees, even though I think golems should only be able to identify their target through the energy emitted by us.
It's much simpler to make the golems' sensory system split into two parts, the first is the matrix itself where the golems should focus and it passes to them where the enemies are, the second part is the rune arrangement within the golem itself that allows you to track the aura is people's mana, it's basically a radar. Creating a golem capable of receiving and analyzing visual information similar to our eyes is something very laborious and is only used by eccentric people or high-level golems.
I approached the fort on my own to pretend to my team that I did the recon, because of my eyes my method of gathering information is safer as I don't have to be too close to my target. But since I have to put up a theater for my colleagues, they would make a lot of fuss if I didn't appear to be doing my job in a normal way, so I took a good stroll around the fort, keeping a constant distance from him as I walked away from my group.
As I am much closer to the fort, I can get more information from the golems and how they are moving around the fort, my guess about the number of fighters and mages was almost right, only four fighters with elemental energy and two mages who have the element fire, the rest are simple warriors.
I don't feel like either one of them is really a big challenge, I can't judge how tough the golems' bodies will be, but their weapons and armor are not very good, they are simple and yes very adorned and without any kind of energy inside, so it shouldn't be too complicated to kill them. The problem with killing as many of them without activating even an alarm is preventing any of them from escaping, on the way back to my team I managed to think of a plan that I believe might work well.
I met with my team and started telling them the information I got from the fort and the golems and only after I told them my plan.
"I believe our best chance of being able to complete this test with the least risk of getting hurt and penalties is this. I will infiltrate the fort by myself and eliminate as many low-level guards as the fort, it's risky, but I believe I can kill a good number of them before the alarm goes off and that's where your part will come in."
"Isabela and Vali should sneak in and kill as many low-level guards as they invade the fort and then you should keep the element fighters occupied while I take out the mages, at this point if we're lucky more than half of the low-level fighters will. being dead is I doubt warriors with elemental energy will flee they should stay focused on Vali and Isabela. If you have problems dealing with the golems you should get together and work in pairs.
"It's for the three of you, I have two extremely important missions, I have some explosives that can be intended using the fire element, I want you to use them on anyone who flees the fort, but remember to blow up the golems who are already outside the fort do not want you to damage the fort. After you kill the fugitives who try to flee the camp on your side, you can go in to help Isabela and Vali if they haven't already killed all the golems."
"Does anyone have any questions or objections to the plan?"
It's with the comforting silence of my team, the attack plan was defined and I'm going to play assassin.