"First off. I’ve sent soldiers and engineers to Hwacheon County."
"Engineers to build defensive works, right?"
"Yeah. I’m planning to move the Dragon Fang Troopers there as we get the slack. Once the defenses are up, those tribe bastards won’t cross so easily."
After the battle,
I returned to our unit’s main base, Vimana, and focused on postwar processing.
Sending engineers to build defenses...
Hearing that,
one regret came to mind.
"It’d be great if we had a fortress like this over there too."
"Agreed. Problem is, it’s impossible."
In Chuncheon City we’re unlikely to see a large-scale fight that needs a fortress.
But in Hwacheon County, which we just occupied,
it borders Cheorwon County, where the Green Manes remnants are gathered.
Even if we inflicted heavy damage,
Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced) says their replenishment rate is beyond belief.
We never know when they’ll come to take back the land they lost.
If this fortress could guard the Hwacheon strongpoint, that’d be perfect.
"You said moving the fortress is still hard."
"Unfortunately."
Our guild’s fortress and main base,
[Mobile Fortress Vimana].
As the name suggests,
this fortress—
despite that massive hull—was originally... mobile.
In other words,
it can move.
[Constructing mobility device.]
[Failure]
[Prerequisites not met for construction.]
[Prerequisite: Vimana must reach Level 3 (1/3)]
"Looks like we need to level it up to activate that function."
"Level, huh."
Sadly,
that’s impossible for now.
"...How do you level a fortress? It’s not like it goes out hunting."
"I think raising the average level of internal facilities will do it."
We are investing points to raise each facility bit by bit,
but it’s picking up less speed than expected.
As buildings level up, time-to-level and engineer requirements both increase.
Moving this fortress anytime soon looks out of reach.
Still, with Dragon Fang Troopers deployed, they won’t retake it easily.
Their AI is mediocre on offense,
but in defense they’re brutally efficient.
And since we even took the head of what looked like their commander last time,
this shores up our defenses for now.
Next—
"Hmm. So I teach them martial arts, Benefactor?"
"Yeah."
Time to teach the troops the hard-won techniques I brought back.
"By the way... more people than I expected."
Seohwan looked over the lineup and widened his eyes.
"Do you manage the kitchen for this big a group, Benefactor?"
"Pretty much."
We were a guild that clawed and scraped just to stay alive at first,
but now we’ve grown quite a bit.
"What, do I look impressive or something?"
"Hm? I’m not sure about that. I do think cooking must be very hard work."
"......."
Technically speaking, not kitchen manager but legion commander.
He did join our guild on paper,
but perhaps the [System] is still humans-only;
it doesn’t show up to him.
He doesn’t seem to have verified via the system that I’m the guild leader either.
"No, really. Back when I was lowest rank, I made maybe thirty servings at most. This is in the hundreds at least. Feeding this many alone is impressive."
"Uh, y-yeah. Thanks."
He still only knows my class is Chef.
I’ll have to explain this part later.
Anyway,
seeing Seohwan chatting this casually with me, I’m struck again by how odd it is.
We can talk this smoothly even outside.
They’re from another world.
Most monsters speak different tongues, so basic communication is impossible,
but Miho once said:
—The Heavenly Mountain’s qi is a little special. Only the disciples of the Heavenly Mountain Sect can do this outside like this.
So the “Gate” they lived in—
the Heavenly Mountain Sect—held a very special position there.
A place where heavenly beings communicated with those on earth...
To enable that,
they scattered a qi that erased language barriers.
Thanks to that, we could communicate even inside the Gate, it seems—
I didn’t expect it to hold outside as well.
It seems possible only because they lived rooted in that Heavenly Mountain.
Well, I’ll take it.
****
And so,
the transmission of martial arts began.
[Training Ground Lv.4]
"Planning to spectate, Benefactor?"
"Yeah. I’m curious how you’ll teach."
"There’s nothing special about it, but..."
When Seohwan was teaching others,
I had been busy crafting my own martial art,
so I was a bit curious how martial transmission actually worked.
In my case he taught me with surprising delicacy—it moved me.
Watching to see if he’d do something similar for so many soldiers,
I saw them run simple bouts to identify a style suited to each person,
then begin full training.
"I’ll say this first before we start."
After gathering the warrior-class soldiers,
Seohwan stood in front and shouted:
"Depending on how you behave, this instructor can be an angel—or a demon!"
...Huh?
That sounded familiar...
What did I just hear?
Maybe I misheard—while I wondered if I was imagining it—
"Can’t you move any faster!?"
"Did someone drag you here!? Didn’t you come by your own will!?"
"From now on, this instructor is getting serious. This is not my fault—this is because you have been unserious in training!"
Training began in earnest.
"......."
The lines Seohwan roared with venom...
dragged up PTSD from that awful time,
when I first entered boot camp.
"Where the hell did he learn to talk like that?"
I muttered in disbelief,
and Miho, watching the instruction beside me, answered:
"Learn?"
"...?"
She tilted her head, utterly untroubled,
as if to ask what the problem was.
...No way.
"Don’t tell me that’s the normal way to teach?"
"For first adaptation, yes."
"..."
"If there’s a difference, it’s just the word ‘instructor,’ perhaps? Since you assigned us to serve as instructors... only that term has changed. The Heavenly Mountain’s training to acclimate first-time initiates generally proceeds like that."
Good grief.
"When you taught me, it wasn’t like that."
"Because... you were a benefactor. We could not show such an attitude to one who granted us grace."
"..."
"I was a little worried since Seohwan has little experience teaching, wondering if he’d do well... Fufu. Seeing this, I think he has more talent on the teaching side."
Seohwan bellowed at the soldiers with a savage snarl,
and Miho smiled, pleased, watching him.
Seems the dynamic between instructor and recruit is roughly the same in any world...
"Still, it is fascinating."
"Hm?"
Miho spoke.
"Ordinarily, people’s talents are all over the map. Your people are no exception."
"And?"
"The minimal requirement to use martial arts... to learn the frame—takes exactly the same time for all of them. Precisely three days."
"...Huh."
Right.
Even I—who have no talent for brawling no matter how you cut it—
and Corporal Jeon Gwangil, our unit’s most gifted fighter,
both took three days to learn ‘martial arts.’
This is probably
because the system enforces it.
Just like facilities have fixed upgrade times in the fortress,
there’s a fixed time to learn from the Trainer NPC.
"Is three days considered slow?"
"Hardly. To learn the frame in three days and achieve Star 1 is something only the quite talented can do."
Ah, by Star 1 she means proficiency level.
Once you hit Proficiency 1, you can continue alone and raise stages yourself.
"It’s astonishing that even the seemingly untalented are managing it."
"Well. That’s not a bad thing."
Anyway,
it’s good for us.
We have many troops, but fewer than half are truly talented.
Thus,
the legacy left from that ruined world
began to take root in this one through our guild.
****
"Flamethrower!"
Fwoooosh—
In the square near Chuncheon City linked to Vimana,
the fire mages blasted out gouts of flame.
Why were they throwing fire where there weren’t any monsters?
Nothing special.
"Snow removal, huh."
"Ah. Yes. We don’t have plow trucks or anything right now."
It was snow removal.
"Thanks for the hard work."
"It’s nothing. This is easy."
Clearing the sky’s trash is misery for soldiers,
but now we don’t need everyone out there.
A few fire mages working a bit harder is enough.
Watching the snow melt,
I folded my arms and drifted into thought.
Winter’s here.
Our guild is relatively fortunate.
Inside our base fortress,
Vimana has built-in temperature control.
There’s a cap on admission,
but for now our guild headcount is under that, so it’s fine.
Even so, we won’t be able to operate as freely.
Traveling long distances was already hard in the post-collapse world:
wrecked vehicles and monster corpses,
lurking zombies, and so on.
Even our soldiers—well-adapted to this world—
can’t relax when moving far.
Add winter to that.
Gangwon’s snow piles high.
And there are no plow trucks to clear it.
Here in the stabilized zone, fire mages can clear the streets,
but we have no leeway to worry about outside the city.
Even with Awakened physique, winter rough-sleeping doesn’t leave you unscathed.
Our operations
will have to contract somewhat.
****
Since we have no choice but to reduce outside activity,
our unit decided to focus on internal strengthening.
"We needed a round of internal maintenance anyway."
"Yeah... we grew too fast for too long to have any breathing room."
For reasons unknown,
the [Green Manes] who lost and withdrew are oddly quiet too.
This winter,
we’ll teach martial arts to the troops, review our unit’s systems,
and govern the inside more than the outside.
We can leverage this because it’s us.
For most people, it’ll be a brutal time.
Awakened physiques far surpass ordinary humans.
Being a bit cold doesn’t crater their capabilities.
But
that’s not the whole terror of winter.
Snow, sure... and there’ll be not a blade of edible green to forage.
Many will go through a merciless season.
Thankfully,
it’s not full-on winter yet.
We’re at the leading edge.
"Benefactor Shin? About the items we requested last time..."
"Ah. Give me just a moment."
The survivors
began preparing to get through winter.
"Here you go."
"Ooh...! So this is it."
"Yes. The vegan—grain-based combat rations you asked for."
This time it was the monks of Myohyangsa who came to me.
They’d been suffering from food supply issues.
Since last time,
they’ve relied entirely on the rations I produce.
No ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) downside for me.
Until they secure their own food source,
they can’t abandon our alliance.
Since producing food is easy for me, this alliance is overwhelmingly in our favor.
Up to now we’d provided jerky,
but several monks had said:
—We ate it because we had no choice.
—If possible, we’d prefer non-meat.
What I made to meet that request was
this:
[War Chef’s Courage-Filled Grain Energy Bar]
"Ooooh...!"
Made from rice grown by a farmer-Awakened managing the paddies
near the Inje County Ammunition Battalion.
I’d wanted to try something besides jerky anyway.
The skill name is [Combat Rations],
not [Jerky].
Since it’s made via the [Combat Rations] skill, the shelf life is virtually unlimited.
Compared to jerkies, it can’t carry as many special properties—
but the raw stat bonuses are on about the same level.
Perfect for Myohyangsa’s winter rations.
"Truly, thank you, Benefactor Shin!"
"Then, here are the items you requested last time..."
By alliance terms,
we give a portion of food outright,
but since the quantity is substantial,
the rest is traded.
And—
...jackpot.
Oil, monster byproducts, and more—
we obtained a considerable amount of goods through them.
"We’re always grateful to your Legion."
"Truly. To receive such precious rations in exchange for items we scarcely need."
Oil and monster byproducts are extremely precious for us,
but they aren’t operating actively like we are,
so we trade their useless items
for our combat rations, which for us are produced in abundance.
A win–win exchange relationship took shape.
"It’s nothing. By the way—are rations alone enough? What about the cold?"
"It’s not that we aren’t concerned, but Myohyangsa sits deep in the mountains. There is plenty of firewood."
"We will keep the temple and endure the cold."
"I see."
In this way,
survivors sought ways to get through winter by trading with us.
After that,
Changsu, who once led an Awakened group in a dungeon and now runs a guild,
various friendly Awakened factions who fought alongside us—
many came to our guild to trade.
"At least around here, the ratio of Awakened is overwhelmingly high. That’s a blessing."
"...It is."
When I murmured that,
the one who answered was Sergeant Lee Minjae.
But...
"Around here. Yeah, a blessing."
Across his face,
a faint shadow began to fall.
Right.
Here is fortunate.
Elsewhere...
"There may be people dying one by one, who don’t even know we exist."
"......."
Our reach covers only a tiny slice of northern Gangwon.
How people in other regions are dealing with this winter—
"Whew."
—we can’t know.
****
While wintering plans were proceeding like that,
a group came to the Legion’s reception room set up in the square.
"What brings you here?"
"We wish to meet the head of this unit."
"...Hrm. And how should I introduce you?"
The sentry eyed the gathering crowd warily.
But
the humans showed no hostility,
and spoke with humble attitudes.
"We don’t have a proper name to give."
"Think of it as several Awakened groups in the area... coming together."
There are many Awakened groups nearby.
Leaders from several of them gathered and came to our unit.
Ordinarily the rank-and-file would have handled them,
but—
That’s a lot of them.
All of those present led their own groups.
Counting their people, it would be a considerable number.
So, in the end—
"Welcome."
Our unit’s outward-facing leader.
"I’m Lieutenant Kim Hyunsik, head of this unit."
The lieutenant went out to receive them.
Then—
Gulp.
"L-Lieutenant Kim."
"...It’s really Lieutenant Kim Hyunsik."
At the sight of him, the visitors
murmured with cold sweat beading.
"The Legion’s ruler..."
