TBATE: Art and Tess's Second Chance

Chapter 15: Change of Plans

Arthur Leywin's POV:

Tess and I entered the beast glades through the teleportation gate after verifying our identities to the guards. Similar to the first floor of the relictombs, the smell of sweat, dirt, and smoke filled our nostrils. 

We quickly pushed our way through the crowded area of adventurers to one of the spots Jasmine and I used to train. Specifically the first place she had brought me when I was an adventurer, so it felt right and nostalgic. 

"Okay, first things first, I need the map you two made of the dungeon locations, portal locations, and Alacryan camp locations," I ordered Sylv and Regis as I conjured a large, round, and smooth stone table for planning. It was similar to the council's table from the war that sits in the floating castle. Tess and I removed our masks and set them near the map to hold it down from the nice, cool breeze.

Sylv, now in her human form, pulled a large map out of dimensional ring while Regis also manifested in his human form. They both looked happy not being a little mana beast or confined to an aether core. 

We all took places around the table with Regis to my right, Sylv to my left, and Tess across from me, and inspected the map. Unique markings were made to differentiate discovered and undiscovered dungeons, friendly and hostile portals, as well as enemy camps.

The pair broke the map into three different areas: the green zone, blue zone, and red zone. 

"I can explain the map to you guys if you want?" Sylv asked to which Tess and I nodded and she started her explanation. It was nice to see her act like her old self again, she definitely feels more comfortable in her human form.

"The green zone is the largest area and is closest to the three kingdoms. It has a lower number of high ranked dungeons, only a few being AA and S ranked, and there were no Alacryan camps. The only portals in the green zone were ones linked to Xyrus City that are run by the Adventurers Guild so adventurers can travel to and from the beast glades.

The blue zone is smaller than the green zone and has the highest concentration of Alacryan camps as well as portals that are currently under their control. The high density of portals is likely the reason for the high number of enemy camps. It also has a fair amount of high ranked dungeons that are being used to corrupt powerful beasts for use in their army.

The red zone is the smallest area and was mainly inhabited by beasts, very powerful beasts at that. I doubt anyone but the Lances in the Dicathen could survive a night. There are a few destroyed portals and every dungeon has at least an S class boss if not an SS class."

"Each Alacryan base has a highblood leader with many named bloods as guards and unadorned as their labor. Most camps also all had boxes of the corruption agent and the spray that works as a counteragent." Regis added for Sylv to give us all the details they gathered together. 

"It's weird seeing you so serious, you know that mutt," I teased only to get an eyeroll accompanied by a grunt as a reaction but I felt him take pride in knowing I acknowledged him through our bond.

"Now that we have all this information and we're out here in the glades, do you want to take out these Alacryan camps?" Tess asked as she leaned over the table to study the map.

"No, Agrona is a smart adversary. I hate to admit it, but he's too unpredictable, especially when cornered. We need to let things go according to his plans for as long as possible," I replied and made some marks on the map.

"I see, we're going to use their sneak attack as a counter attack!" Sylv voiced as she tracked each mark I made on the map.

Tess and Regis still wore confused expressions so after I finished editing the map, I filled them in on my plan, "We are going to set up some traps so they can't use these dungeons to attack the closer cities or the Wall."