"...Listen, I have a proposal."

Three weeks had passed since I said that, and now I was on the 25th floor.

As I swung against the Sarcophagus' attacking shadow arms, I closed in on it.

The Sarcophagus was swarthy with a girth of over 2 meters wide, and a height of over 5 meters coffin. Bulges and crevices could be seen here and there on its body, exuding an eerie aura. The simple prominent face, with red, menacing eyes were attached on its 'forehead'. White, sharp fangs created a devilish smile and magical inscription patterns veiled the coffin.

And every time it opened its coffin, lifeless mummies were swarming out. Wrapped from head to toe in ancient strips of mouldering linen, and some mummies had magical texts in their linen wrappings,

Judging by the way they glared in my direction, it was definitely not friendly. However, the same held true for me as well. I was here to defeat it.

They were an undead-type Magical Beast, both of the Sarcophagus and the Mummies were able to restore its body by growing its own body.

I killed the slow mummy one after another by coating my dagger with Healing Potion and slashing at their body, while sometimes throwing the Healing Potion flasks to them. Yes... Healing Potion was giving damage to every undead creature in Exceed.

But, even if I had an information advantage and was currently in favour, I still couldn’t let my guard down.

This wasn't a normal situation. Emika wouldn't support us with her magic, Kabuto wouldn't chip the Sarcophagus, and Ieyasu wouldn't snipe and protect us from the oncoming mummies. Azusa and the rest wouldn't single-handedly destroy the Sarcophagus.

I was alone... no, I needed to do this alone.

On top of the Sarcophagus' head, was able the shadow magic, Shadow Arm, making it annoyingly tough to close in at the Sarcophagus. Not to mention the mummies endless army, and for some who had inscription... they could use Despair.

Despair was an Mind-affecting fear magic, it was a magic specialized for the undead. If one didn't have Wisdom higher than 32, they would be paralyzed by fear whenever they saw the mummy's eyes.

Mine was definitely higher than that, but if I didn't keep my emotion in check or get careless, it would still affect me. I continued fighting while avoiding their eyes for some time until the Sarcophagus suddenly let out an incomprehensible scream.

Then suddenly, the Sarcophagus did something different. It slightly opened its casket and the Sarcophagus' shadowy arms appeared a pitch black shadowy blade, it raised the swords about its head and swung them towards me.

Under ordinary circumstances, it was a blow that should have cleaved my body in two while creating a spray of blood.

However, when the tip of the shadow sword was close to making contact with my head, a sharp sound rang out and sparks flew.

The blade was stopped mid-swing, as though it had been blocked by my daggers.

The Sarcophagus groaned several times as if it was dissatisfied and tried to force its way through, but there was no way brute force would work.

"It’s useless. Such attacks won’t work on me." I monologued with confidence and stretched my right arm outwards, while my left hand was reaching my pouch.

Right now, I was under the effect of Foresight, this spell would let me saw in advance where the enemy would attack me for the next 5 minutes.

From my left hand, I took a flask filled with grey powder and throwing it against the floor. Normally, it would only create a 10-metres-radius blinding burst of light. But if I used it on the creature that was sensitive to the light, such as the mummy and the Sarcophagus' shadow arms.

"UoOO!"

They let out a scream as the mummy got stopped and the Sarcophagus' shadow arms temporarily dissipated.

"Ye almighty weapon that destroys everything through all of creation, appears in front of me-- Sand of Time!"

As soon as I said that, sands appeared in mid-air, swirling near my right hand, and burst forward.

Sand of Time would temporarily age the target, immediately advancing it to the next few years. And normally, this spell couldn't kill any living creature. But the one in front of me wasn't a living creature.

Maybe because it was only a sand, the Sarcophagus didn't even bother to avoid it and focus on growing another pair of arms, but when the sands touched the sarcophagus' casket and the creatures inside it.

A cry of agony rang out. The Sarcophagus' stopped moving its shadowy hands as the part that got touched by the sand, in the blink of an eye, became sands.

I dashed forward, pointing my right arm towards the Sarcophagus and once again, cast the Sand of Time with a yell.

The Sarcophagus reflexively tried to defend against the sand by closing its casket down and seal it with its shadow arms. But it was too late, its arms didn't have enough time to regenerate.

Another burst of sands burst forward, and this time, some of the sands managed to slip in before the Sarcophagus completely closed its casket.

Immediately after that, the Sarcophagus was twitching for a while, before it completely stopped moving and then slowly collapsed to the ground.

Simultaneously, the mummies surrounding me also fell to their knees and disappeared to the dust, leaving only their wrapping behind.

After confirming that with a glance and ensuring everything was ok, I used fast forward to destroy the rest of the Alchemical Potion on my body and restoring my stamina. Well, the truth was I didn't need to do this after every battle, but just in case something happened.

In any case, I reached into the Sarcophagus' body and took the treasures from the inside. The mummies wrapping itself could be used for Magic Paper material.

But that wasn't the reason I came today.

In front of me was this floor Safe Room. It had the same look like the other safe room, square with a teleportation magic circle that would teleport us back to the entrance. With the only difference was the mark on the wall.

Series of tally marks were etched onto the walls. And as I made another Tally Marks, made me the 139th person from the student group to arrive here.

3 weeks ago, I proposed the plan to create a sub-team.

Basically, whether or not they wanted to join in the war, they must help the others, in any mean necessary.

And what started only as the War group and the Support group had been developed into several divisions.

The first of all was the War group. Their Job mainly joining in the war. And they had four divisions.

Conquest group, for participating in the war. Liberation group, for liberating the area that had been captured by the Demons or Exterminating the Demons and Magic Beast in the human zone. Defend group, for the countermeasure against the Demons attack, mainly acted as back-up for another group. Searching group, for searching the 3 missing people, mainly acted in the Catacomb, also acted as the funding group.

The Support group, their job mainly providing the support for the War group by any meant, also acted by searching the way back to the Earth. Also had four divisions.

Convoy group, mainly going to another country and asking for more backup and cooperation in the war, also responsible by making sure no one was using the Chosen One's status for their own convenience.

School group, basically they just went to the Magic School for searching the way back to the Earth.

Research group, the same as the School group in a more individual way, also acted by making several tools to help the other groups.

Funding group, basically looking for a way to make money. Either by making a store in the merchant city, gathering the ingredient in the Dungeon and doing Adventurers job. This might seemed unnecessary, considering we'd the country back-up, but with this group, we would have spare money for our own.

The last, Information group. Basically searching for the information about anything. In the simplest way, a Spy. Consisted of only six people.

Four of them would be searching for information by any meant necessary, they moved individually while gathering the information.

While the other two would be the one to sort and relay the information to the other groups. This one was my Idea.

In any case, I looked to the wall... and only gave a wry sigh when I saw the tally result. From 243 students, we only had 236 left, 3 among us was losing a limb on an eye.

Anyway, this time I etched a new mark on the Informant group, making me the 3rd person in this group.

War Support Information Conquest

(36 / 75 people.) Convoy

(9 / 15 People.) Relay

(1 / 2 People.) Liberation

(11 / 30 people.) School

(25 / 25 People.) Defend.

(24 / 30 people.) Research

(4 / 20 People.) Informant

(3/4) Search

(6 / 10 people.) Funding

(20 / 25 People.)

At least in this way, anyone could choose their side.

If you were slow, then you couldn't complain. If you wanted to get into the division you wanted to be, then try harder.

As for why we needed to mark this in the floor 25th, It was to make sure everyone could take care of themselves. An average party of 5 C rank adventurers were needed to pass this floor, and if we could do this all by ourselves, that meant we were much stronger compared to some of the best people in this world.

Of course, everything wasn't as smooth as we were planned. Especially from their side. On the very first day, we proposed this plan.

***

"Your... own division you said?" Said Jorgen.

"Yes, and don't worry about the equipment and the tax, we would pay it once we had the money."

"That... would be troublesome... and I believe I don't have the liberty to give you guys the right." Said Jorgen.

"Do I look care? As far as I know half of us are even stronger than you. Give me one good reason to listen to listen to your opinion? Anyway, we're doing this, whether you like it or not. But for the sake of cutting unnecessary conflict, how about letting us meet the person in charge?"

Just like this, Jorgen immediately went back to the Kingdom and the very next day, we, and what I meant by we was me, Azusa, Shishio and Chikage had an audience with King Leighton Nicolai L.A. De Grurian.

"It’s been a while since we met, aren’t we? I’m glad because there is no further causality after the last one."

"Well, it’s somewhat safe, for now..."

"Hmm.. what do you mean by that, Mister...?" He spoke by using small voice as he was trying to hold his surprisement. And it seemed he had forgotten about me, well... I guessed that was normal, considering I never talked to him at the palace.

"It's Eiji. For starters, I wanted to apologize, but I believe there is a traitor, either in your rank or between us."

The other three totally stunned as the word 'traitor' bounced around inside their skull. Couldn't help it, after all, I never mention anything about a traitor.

"Traitor, you say? You have made a serious accusation over there boy. And what's your proof?"

"There isn't any definitive proof. But you can say it is my instinct."

"Instinct, you say? And is that the reason you wanted to make your own division? Hm... I think I know what you wanted, but deciding selfishly without definitive proof, that's a serious crime, you know?"

It seemed the king already connected the dot. Indeed, if there was a spy, the little your organization the easier it was to find them. Not to mention, by splitting the cheese, the rat would have a hard time to gather a necessary information.

"Yes, I'm well aware of that. But there is no problem to prepare an umbrella before the rain, right? I personally believe it will be better to suspect one or two people rather than none."

I believed, even if the King didn’t want it, but judging from his character and his upbringing, this would probably be ok. After all, I bet he was the one that ordered the knights and the rest to train us into a soldier. And if that was what he wanted, this request wasn't unreasonable.

I gave him the paper, and it was about the rough plan. "Moreover, if you don't like our idea, then we'll return our equipment and repay the food, alongside with the longing. I believe we don't need a lot of time to gather that amount of money."

After all, if the King rejected our proposal, we could go to the Archbishop. If not, we could go to another country, I meant, what kind of sane leader would let go 236 cheats like characters?.

"Not to mention, if this plan goes well, the other's country might also give more support. I don't see any minus in our proposal, if, your objection is fighting against the Demons."

Or is there another hidden agenda? such as, monopolizing the chosen ones to become the greatest country after the war is over? ... That was what I wanted to say if he still rejected our offer.

And if he got offended by my words, then it was worthless to speak further with this person and that was why I brought Chikage with us. As far as I knew, her Charm was undetected, almost untraceable if I must say.

"Oh, and don't worry about the taxes, we will pay it as per normal citizen. And we won't join at political that's unrelated to us and the war. In fact, we've created a whole division to help the war victim, you can think it as the free gift and the free donation." I said.

The king was crossing his arms and closing his eyes for a few seconds.

"...I confirm the arrangement. And I’ll issue the instruction immediately, I can even prepare the building for your base of operation."

"No, it’s fine."

"Then, do you even have enough money to buy the land and the building? Just think this as our gift."

"To tell the truth, we have prepared the place, it might haven't habitable yet. Since the roof went bad, as for money, as I said, we could gather that in the blink of an eye. Not to mention, we don't want the spy, if it from your side, to put some kind of eavesdropping magic on our base camp."

"Then, there is no problem. But since I know several buildings will be disposed of eventually, please suit yourself. I’m going to circulate a non-intervention order from this side, but don't forget to send someone if you're interested in one of this building."

The conversation was rough... after all, he was indeed a real King. But, in the end, King Leighton was managed to sweeten his deal. As the conclusion, King Leighton gave us several private lists about the estate, big enough to handle 300 people.

And our basecamp must be in his territories and must be reachable. Then, for every base we would make outside of our main base, whether it was inside of the country or another country, we must report it directly to King Leighton.