“Woooooaaah!”
“Hehh. No. Hehhh—haaah. No, seriously, what is this—heh!”
Books that Ariella and the vampires had finished translating after backbreaking labor.
When I brought those books over—
the engineers’ reactions were a little off.
‘Those sharp kids sound like they forgot how to speak.’
As engineers, they’re the ones in our unit with the deepest professional knowledge.
And yet they couldn’t string words together properly.
“What kind of insane tech is this...?”
“Ah-ha... so that’s how it connects. Hahk... ah! Of course...!”
“No way. This kind of thing actually works?”
“Ah, right... we were approaching it way too scientifically.”
“Well, if you treat mana as a medium, you could try far more methods...”
Before long, they started muttering epiphanies
I couldn’t begin to understand.
It was like they couldn’t even see their corps commander right in front of them,
too busy flipping pages with their whole minds locked in.
Why they were like that—
I could more or less guess.
“Commander.”
“Huh? Oh—yeah.”
One of the few with some reason left,
Team Lead Lee Sanga, sweating cold, spoke.
“I don’t know how in the world you translated these books, but...”
Thwack!
“This one thing, at least, I’m pretty sure about.”
She’d finished a whole book.
Closing it, she shouted toward me.
“They’re overwhelming pieces—so far beyond a typical achievement reward it isn’t even comparable!”
That’s why they were like that.
I brought them thinking they’d help the Production line...
and they ended up helping far, far more than I’d imagined.
I couldn’t quite gauge how far—until something happened that made it obvious.
‘...Huh?’
Team Lead Lee Sanga closed her book.
Inside her body,
I felt a familiar energy gather.
‘No way. Is that...’
It used to be utterly foreign,
but after the Day of Ruin,
it became endlessly familiar.
The one you only got
when you killed a monster
or accomplished some huge feat...
‘Experience.’
And—
it didn’t feel like just any old experience, either.
[Lv.27 Intermediate Tailor]
“S-Sergeant Shin...”
“We...”
Engineers who’d likewise managed to skim a whole book
spoke with trembling voices.
[Lv.28 Intermediate Tailor (New!)]
“Our level went up.”
“...”
Just by reading,
the Production classes’ levels had gone up—
that kind of overwhelming experience.
‘Insane.’
I could understand because I’d been through something similar.
Back then,
when I watched the Chef of Dasmur’s secret dish—
‘Even though I was over level 30 and the EXP requirement had ballooned, my level popped up by one for free.’
These folks are much lower level than I was then,
but the phenomenon is the same.
And—
this isn’t the kind of thing you just shrug off as “we got some EXP.”
The reason my level rose when I saw the Chef of Dasmur’s dish
was because that dish was leagues ahead of me.
If so, what’s contained in those books is—
‘technology so overwhelming that Production Awakened level up just by looking at it.’
And that technology
had fallen into the Legion’s hands.
****
Boom!
When they said their levels went up,
I couldn’t know exactly what result that would bring.
But—
‘These guys aren’t going to just sit on it.’
Corporal Lee Gongu, who’d finished a book,
shoved a door open and strode into [Research Lab Lv.2].
Then he set the gas mask he’d made on the bench
and muttered with a cold expression,
“Trash.”
“...”
“That I’m the one who made this trash... it’s downright shameful.”
I mean—come on.
Even so, “trash”?
“That thing worked ridiculously well...”
“This piece of junk!? Don’t go soft on me!”
“Uh, y-yeah... okay.”
To others, it had been an impressive piece of kit—
but the very maker tore into his own work without hesitation.
‘Come to think of it, that guy did have a hidden Sparta streak...’
A soldier with a craftsman’s temperament,
who gets angry at the slightest blemish on his work.
Corporal Lee Gongu looked at me and said,
“As I told you—until just now, the best our tech could do was this trash and nothing more.”
“...Let’s set the ‘trash’ talk aside. So?”
“Not anymore. Just give us a bit.”
With that,
the Production Awakened each grabbed the part they’d been in charge of from the Protective Set
and launched into some bizarre process I couldn’t make heads or tails of.
And the next day—
[Legion Protective Suit Set (Prototype No.2)]
“It’s finished!”
In just a single day,
the Production team came back with the Protective gear overhauled.
The name was exactly the same as before.
The difference was the tag Prototype No.2.
And...
“The look changed a lot, huh?”
“Yes. We finally realized the big design flaw in the old version.”
Its exterior—
Prototype No.1 had looked like a standard CBRN protective suit.
Pretty baggy, and honestly, a little awkward to move in.
“Basing it on an old, ordinary protective suit from the start was our big mistake.”
“Call it prejudice? We assumed referencing Earth-made forms would naturally help.”
Now, by contrast—
‘At least it looks way easier to move in.’
The design hugged the body more.
And it looked far sleeker than the old protective wear.
Likewise, the gas mask had been through its own round of modification; the clunky look was gone.
Rather than “protective suit,” well...
it looked closer to a smooth, futuristic design for a special forces unit out of SF.
‘Honestly, it does look pretty cool...’
Still—
obviously, what mattered wasn’t the design.
[As the Production line of the “Iron Legion” poured their utmost effort into the overhaul, the item achieved a staggering performance boost that can’t even be compared to Unit No.1.]
[Not only its core purpose—resistance to miasma—but also sustained combat capability and activity in miasma environments: massive improvements were made across the board.]
The performance.
Where Unit No.1 had granted us [Lowest-Grade Miasma Resistance] on equip—
[Lower-Grade Miasma Resistance]
[Lowest-Grade Miasma Tolerance]
Not only was the resistance stronger,
it also came with
a bit of tolerance as an added trait.
“With stronger miasma resistance, we should be able to go deeper with no problem.”
“And because wearers gain tolerance, even if strong miasma punches through your resistance, you won’t be hit with instant, excruciating pain. You’ll notice miasma seeping in, sure, but the pain won’t be severe. That’ll minimize disruption when we have to pull back due to miasma.”
With the old protective suit, the moment you faced miasma strong enough to pierce your “resistance,”
the wearer immediately suffered under miasma’s effects.
Not anymore.
“Busted, broken, pay-to-win classes...”
“Sir?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
Lately, they say other survivor groups are starting to see a Production class appear here and there—
but no one’s going to catch up to our unit’s Production line.
If I had to pick the biggest reason the Legion pulled away from everyone,
I wouldn’t hesitate: it’s the power of these Production specialists.
And...
the tech gap that was already wide—
right this moment,
thanks to those books, it yawned even wider.
“This is crazy.”
I couldn’t help muttering in awe.
“Did those books have content on miasma tolerance?”
“No. There was a little of that mixed in, but... that wasn’t the important part.”
“Hm? Then what was...”
“The mindset.”
Team Lead Lee Sanga explained, bright with excitement.
“I don’t know exactly who wrote these books, but we could tell one thing.”
“?”
“They were people who could spend all day, every day, doing nothing but research.”
At that,
I recalled the line that popped up in the status window when we found the Dwarven bodies.
Because they used slaves for almost everything,
they could comfortably focus only on magi-engineering research.
‘You figured that out?’
To me it was a ridiculous leap—
to her, it was obvious.
“If they didn’t devote that much time purely to research, I don’t see how they could have done it... there were attempts born from every kind of idea.”
“Ideas, huh...”
“The theories themselves are too high-level for us to use right away. But the ideas that enabled those theories are different. Combining magic and science tech in any and every way to make something new... that’s not something you do just because you’re talented.”
Thock—
she tapped her own head.
“You have to break the preconceptions you’ve piled up, and establish new rules. And that takes a significant investment of time.”
Conversely—
for our unit to acquire that mindset, we’d have had to invest significant time.
‘Not anymore.’
Ideas that demand long investment.
The things those runts built up by pouring staggering time into them had come into our hands.
The Production line took those ideas as reference,
came up with new methods, and used them to improve the Protective Set’s performance.
“What matters is, this is still just Prototype No.2.”
“Huh?”
“If we read these right, that underground mine was their temple, their home, their mine... and their research lab.”
“A research lab means—”
“Yes. The deeper we dig, the more knowledge we’ll find.”
Corporal Lee Gongu,
eyes shining, grabbed my shoulders.
“Sergeant Shin! I beg you—just one favor!”
“...”
“Please dig as deep into that mine as you possibly can!”
My reasons for attacking the mine were personal first.
I wanted to grant those monsters a proper death.
And if we managed to acquire mana here and the unit got stronger—
I figured it would be acceptable even if I went alone into Gyeonggi-do.
So I’d decided not to mobilize the rank and file,
and instead use the vampires for a fresh push.
“For our sake!!!”
Not anymore.
Now we had
an official, Legion-wide reason to dig into those depths.
“The info we got from the books you brought is considerable, but full of gaps. The beginning of a theory missing, or we only have the middle and the conclusion—things like that.”
“Ah... like having junior-year coursework without the freshman-year foundation.”
“If we could fill those gaps, we could make something even better!”
They were right—there’s ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) no way the Dwarven facilities we found down there were the only ones.
“So this is only No.2, which means...”
If we brought them more things from more facilities, our tech would advance.
And then—
“Yes. If we’re lucky, we can produce No.3.”
“...”
“If you bring back even more info, No.4, No.5...”
Even if Prototype No.2 can’t traverse the underground mine,
then No.3 can push deeper.
If we get stuck there but bring something back, No.4 will come.
With No.4, we go deeper...
and then...
Uh.
Is this—
“Perpetual motion...?”
“Sir? That’s not really the phrase for this.”
“Anyway!”
Like that,
if we repeat the tech excavation, we’ll be able to push ever deeper.
“And if we reach the end of those depths—”
only then,
“we’ll have something that isn’t a prototype... a true ‘Completed Model No.1.’”
The mine assault’s
Phase Two had begun.
****
“Whew.”
“Good work in this operation as well.”
After finishing the battle to secure an area,
the engineers begin constructing a facility nearby to use as a base camp.
Following Sergeant Shin Youngjun’s uncanny strategy, it had been weeks since the occupation war truly kicked off.
Winter weather had grown even harsher, a fierce blizzard dumping from the sky.
For combat in an environment like this—
stable supply is essential.
“Supply unit. We’re heading out.”
As the supply detachment attached to the occupying force
moved to head back to the main body, the Vimana—
“Hmm? Corporal Jeon, are you returning for a bit?”
“It worked out that way.”
The tanks—core strength of the occupying force—burned too much fuel to move recklessly.
So lately we’d push as far as we could, build a base camp there,
then gradually set out to occupy farther territory from that point.
Because of that,
it had been quite some time since the whole expeditionary force could return to the Vimana.
In the meantime, soldiers had been taking leave in ones and twos to return with the supply unit.
“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you go back, Corporal Jeon.”
“To be honest, I’d like to stay out a while longer. Still, I should head back at least once.”
“Aha.”
Corporal Jeon Gwangil was the one who’d been with the expeditionary force the longest.
But even then, you can’t immerse yourself in operations forever.
Judging it was time to return once, reset his condition a bit, he decided to head back mixed in with the supply detachment.
‘Since I’m going back, I should report to Sergeant Shin.’
With that thought,
Corporal Jeon Gwangil returned with the supply troops.
First, he looked for their corps commander—
Sergeant Shin Youngjun.
But—
“Sergeant Shin isn’t in the Dining Hall?”
“No, sir.”
“...? If the man whose job is Chef isn’t in the Dining Hall, where would he be...”
After returning to the Vimana,
he heard something unexpected.
“I hear there’s an operation underway inside the fortress lately. I’m on guard detail, so I’m not included.”
“As expected of Sergeant Shin. He never really rests.”
He’d thought he himself had been immersed in battle with brutal focus—
but unlike him, taking a brief rest by returning on leave, Sergeant Shin Youngjun was stirring another affair even inside the fortress.
‘He says he’s nothing special, but from someone else’s perspective, the only reaction is awe.’
Since he was here anyway,
as a junior it was only right to show his face, thought Corporal Jeon Gwangil, and he asked:
“Where’s this operation being carried out?”
He went to at least say hi,
trade a quick update, and pop right back to the front—
he went casually to find him, but...
“Mark 5! We’ve reached the limit.”
“You’re back. Where was the limit?”
“Six thousand eight hundred meters down.”
A soldier in an oddly shaped suit
was talking with Corporal Lee Gongu.
‘...?’
This was definitely where Sergeant Shin Youngjun was supposed to be.
But what was happening there was...
“It can’t be helped. The completed Mark 6 is ready, yes?”
“Yes. Judging by how the miasma has intensified so far... by our calculations, this Mark 6 should pass down to at least eight thousand four hundred meters without issue.”
“Good. Here are the translated copies of the technical manuals we got from this exploration.”
“Thank you!”
“Everyone else, change into Mark 6. As soon as you’re ready, we go right back in!”
“Yessir-saahh!”
The place he was fighting—
a scene like a battlefield unfolded.
‘What on earth...’
Just what
was going on here?
