All of the Ravenstein youths gathered around Atticus, gazing at the piles of heavy armor he had just thrown out of his storage ring.
They all simply nodded absentmindedly to his words, still surprised and wondering where Atticus had gotten all of these armors from.
"Did you rob an armory or something? How the hell did you get so many armors?" They all turned to see Aurora, who spoke with disbelief coloring her features.
All of them couldn't help but give her an internal high five for asking the question on each of their minds.
"I bought them all in the academy shop," Atticus decided to address their query. This plethora of heavy armors was one of the things he had bought from the Academy shop the previous night.
"Wouldn't all of this cost a fortune though?" Nate added while looking at Atticus. Nate had always been a person who believed that one should never cower in face of challenges, if possible, help people weaker than you.
But at this point, even he had to admit that Atticus had done far too much for them. Nate was sure that Atticus hadn't gotten the points he used from anyone, which meant that he had sponsored the armors from his own pockets.
Having understood what Nate meant, Atticus smiled, "Nah, it's cool. I bought them for dirt cheap in the shop," Atticus reassured.
"How dirt cheap could they possibly be? They're all easily past 400 pairs!" Aurora chimed in. Regardless of how cheap the armors could be buying more than 400 pairs was sure to cost a fortune.
Atticus smiled, looking at all the Ravenstein youths who were now looking at him with a serious expression. It wasn't hard for him to figure out what they were all trying to convey; they were all in this together. So he shouldn't try to take on things on his own.
Conveying this to Atticus with their expressions was the best many of them could do. Although they had all trained together and known each other of years, most of them were still not close to Atticus.
Only Nate and Aurora could even so much as question him like this.
The rest of the Ravenstein youths, although they all respected Atticus greatly, that wasn't their prevailing feeling towards Atticus. It was fear.
Fear that had taken deep root in each of them over the years after witnessing how much of a monster Atticus was.
Despite the fact that he was always chummy with Aurora, every one of them knew better than to trust that perception of him.
It was just simply hard to talk casually with him, knowing full well what he was capable of. This was why most times, they hardly ever talked when he was present, only listening. And now was no different.
Gazing at all of them, Atticus reassured, "Stop worrying so much. We all have our part to play in all of this. If you truly want to help out, then simply focus on the tasks assigned to you."
Hearing Atticus's words, they all nodded their heads in acknowledgment, a sign of determination on their features.
Seeing that they all understood, Atticus decided to continue his explanation.
He hadn't been lying when he said he bought the armors for dirt cheap from the academy store. When he had been browsing through the store yesterday, he had looked for the cheapest, heaviest armor he could find in the store.
The ones he eventually bought, of course, weren't worth much, only costing about 17 Academy points for each set.
This was simply because both the materials used and the simple fact that they weren't rune engraved and didn't have any magical properties served to bring down the price of the armor.
His major goal for now wasn't giving them armors that could majorly protect them; he simply wanted to give them something they could use to train with.
Although it had irked him that he had to use his points for this purpose, he suppressed that feeling. He would make sure he made his points back.
Atticus addressed the Ravenstein youths, finalizing some details of their training.
The training each of the youths would undergo was pretty straightforward and simple.
They would each get to the training grounds by 6 AM every morning. Just like the Raven camp artifacts, these ones were also equipped with the mana block feature, even going as far as blocking your bloodline if you wanted.
Each of the youths would get their mana blocked. And then all of them, donned in 10 kg weights on their wrists, ankles, and torso, would run multiple times around the 5 km large expanse.
After 3 hours of doing this, they would all leave to go get food. And after a two hour break, they would all gather themselves in the training ground once more.
This time, each unit would divide themselves into 2 groups, one being the Armored and the other the dealers.
The youths chosen to be the armored for their respective units would all get a full set of heavy armor equipment, consisting of armor, leg armor, helmet, and then a big rectangular shield towering about 3 meters tall; amongst the things Atticus had bought.
They would all be asked to run around the training grounds donned in their respective heavy gears to get used to them.
Of course, each of the youths, who would still be tired and weary from their earlier run, was expected to struggle to lift or even move while wearing the armor, talk less of lifting up the heavy shield.
But with the ambient mana in the air, coupled with the passive recovery of mana in their bodies, regardless of how talentless they were, they would all improve faster than normal.
Meanwhile, the dealers, donned in lighter weight armor, would all be training in learning how to fight with long-range weapons.
The Ravenstein youths, including Atticus, all had at least basic skills with most weapons. They all had to train with every weapon first before deciding the one they were best at using.
So Atticus had no doubt that each unit leader would be able to teach them the basics. The goal, of course, wasn't to train them individually, but as a single force.
Given the armors weren't at all enchanted and were low quality, with their constant use, they would gradually need repairs and maintenance.
This was one of the main reasons Atticus had formed a blacksmith group. They would be the ones to do all the maintenance and take care of all the repairs that they would inevitably need.
