Book 5: Volume 1 Chapter 3, Preparations

Translator: Kazumi

Editor: Silavin

 

The Tower of Sarita, which had initiated this Conquest Battle, undoubtedly belonged to the Santo Emingo Kingdom. Yet its Administrator’s identity remained unknown.

 

Since the Tower had originally been controlled by another kingdom, determining whether the King had assumed administrative authority or whether control continued under its previous arrangement proved to be impossible.

 

Consequently, whether the Tower of Sarita had launched this Conquest Battle under the Santo Emingo Kingdom’s orders or through the Administrator’s independent decision remained unclear.

 

Regardless, since the Tower of Sarita fell under the Santo Emingo Kingdom’s control, protest through Razequa Amamiya was possible.

 

Whether to protest openly or quietly represented a political decision, so they had left that determination entirely to Razequa Amamiya.

 

Rather than concerning himself with such matters, Kousuke preferred focusing his attention on the Conquest Battle itself.

 

Succubus’ reports indicated Alec was maneuvering behind the scenes, but Kousuke remained uninvolved. He was confident that Alec would not take actions detrimental to Amamiya Tower at this juncture.

 

Floria and others seemed to have anticipated this development to some degree, though Kousuke did not ask about the specifics.

 

He felt it best to avoid dealing with anything political.

 

Setting aside such political negotiations, Kousuke and his companions continued preparing for the Conquest Battle.

 

Three days separated the declaration of war from the commencement of the battle.

 

Considering that actual warfare never provided such generous preparation time, this qualified as a substantial grace period.

 

However, for preparations in regards to Towers, no time could truly be called generous.

 

Close examination of the Conquest Battle conditions announced alongside the declaration revealed the enemy had made extraordinarily meticulous preparations.

 

“I see. There’s a good reason they want a short battle.”

 

Kousuke muttered this after finally completing his research into Conquest Battles.

 

The ‘short battle’ he referenced was among the conditions the enemy had specified.

 

Normally, one victory condition in a Conquest Battle required controlling more than two-thirds of the Floors, to seize enemy territory.

 

However, in this short battle format, results would be tallied every half a day.

 

The battle would begin in the morning and conclude around nightfall, with the side controlling the largest area at that point being declared victorious.

 

Their specific request for such a short battle format indicated their confidence in rapidly expanding their controlled territory.

 

Kouhi and Mitsuki, researching alongside Kousuke, nodded in agreement.

 

Like him, they had barely researched Conquest Battles previously. This was an unusual oversight for them. Though, considering all the managing members shared this blind spot, it was a collective carelessness and no one really could be blamed.

 

Reflecting on this, everyone now diligently researched Conquest Battles.

 

Shrein and the other managing members were checking for any differences in their respective Towers.

 

Consequently, Kousuke and his team would handle at least the first battle independently.

 

Kouhi, who had been nodding along, tilted her head questioningly. “Does this mean they’ll overwhelm us with numbers?”

 

“Maybe. If that’s their only strategy, dealing with it would be too straightforward.”

 

If the approach simply involved numerical superiority, numerous countermeasures existed.

 

Losing access to Kouhi and Mitsuki, Amamiya Tower’s greatest assets, in the Conquest Battle would be unfortunate, but the Tower’s own fighting force far extends beyond those two.

 

However, the same applied to the enemy.

 

“If they’ve gathered evolved summoned monsters, they might hold an advantage.”

 

Having gone to the trouble of declaring war, they naturally must have made preparations. Moreover, they had controlled their Tower longer than Kousuke had with his.

 

Consequently, they might possess more evolved monsters than he did.

 

Even without intentional evolution, time was necessary. With so much more time than him, they could hold this as an absolute advantage.

 

If they had identified easily-evolved summoned monsters, evolving them across multiple generations was not impossible; even without achieving single-generation evolution like Nana’s case.

 

However, based on Floria’s information, Kousuke suspected the Tower of Sarita was not particularly advanced in that aspect.

 

If they were, they could summon superior monsters and continue winning Conquest Battles against other Towers.

 

Yet their recorded losses clearly indicated they were not perfectly all-powerful.

 

If other Towers similarly fielded high level monsters, this assumption would be incorrect. But if that were true, the timing of attacking Amamiya Tower specifically now made little sense.

 

Kousuke and his companions had concluded that Amamiya Tower uniquely possessed the capability to freely summon high level monsters.

 

Despite reaching this conclusion, Kousuke had reason to make that observation to Kouhi.

 

“In Conquest Battles, numbers appear to be more important.”

 

“Yeah. Summoning high level monsters individually will not increase our total numbers that quickly.”

 

Kouhi nodded in understanding.

 

High level monsters like flying dragons could only be summoned in extremely limited quantities per summoning circle.

 

The cost would be enormous, making mass deployment difficult.

 

However, Amamiya Tower was an exception.

 

With abundant Divine Power currently available, summoning high level monsters was not an issue.

 

If anything, the time and effort required for summoning was the actual limitation.

 

Nevertheless, Kousuke and the others felt that quantity might prove more valuable than quality in Conquest Battles.

 

If that held true, Mitsuki’s observation was not merely a valid point, it might be crucial one.

 

“So, our response will depend on our opponent’s summoning capabilities.”

 

If the Tower of Sarita attacked with only low level monsters, a reasonably strong mid level monster army would be enough for defense. Conversely, if they could easily summon mid level monsters, incorporating some high level monsters would be best.

 

“So we’re waiting to observe how they move first?”

 

“Yes. For the first battle, I’ll deploy a decent number of low level monsters first.”

 

Kousuke responded to Kouhi’s question. He did not intend to lose from the start, but winning was not mandatory either.

 

This represented one tactical element in Conquest Battles.

 

Even losing once only cost a single Floor.

 

For Amamiya Tower, losing one Floor in the short-term was not that big of a setback.

 

This time, they would prioritize gathering intelligence on their opponent over maintaining control of the Floor.

 

Kouhi and Mitsuki, understanding Kousuke’s intentions, nodded in agreement.

 

All that remained was summoning monsters to conquer Floors before the first battle commenced.

 

Incidentally, they’d simply placed numerous summoning circles rather than summoning familiars.

 

This also served as a strategy to observe enemy reactions. No need to reveal all their capabilities immediately.

 

They had thought of numerous countermeasures, but their effectiveness would remain unknown until the battle actually began.

 

In the end, Kousuke and his team faced the first battle in less than ideal conditions.