“That intent... was holding a conversation with someone.”
“......”
“An intent of a rank so high your head hurts just from the act of hearing it... that alone is astonishing, but the thing was talking to someone.”
The corpse miasma in the underground mine—
was the result of that slab of flesh’s intent being twisted.
And—
before it twisted like that,
the true nature of that miasma had been mana spilling out of the thing’s corpse.
In other words—
just as, when I headed toward the heart of the dense miasma, that intent flowed into my head,
when the mana that was the miasma’s true nature burst forth and flooded the fortress—
Morzan’s intent...
flowed into the soldiers’ heads.
At that moment, as for what intent it would have been—
the conversation it was having with me.
The conversation between me and the thing
was heard by the soldiers as-is.
“It came through only in fragments, but...”
No, maybe not as-is.
They wouldn’t have heard the entire conversation, and even among that, my words likely didn’t carry.
What Morzan said to me—
only part of that appears to have reached the soldiers.
But the few fragmentary lines they did hear from him—
that was the problem.
—Thanks to you...
That being,
thanks to the one it was conversing with, had accomplished something; and—
—Succeeded in extinguishing me...
—A great deed that annihilates a divinity...
also, that being,
by the one it was conversing with, had come to annihilation; and—
—My thanks.
—I will put my faith in you...
on top of thanking the one it was speaking with,
it went so far as to send him trust.
“......”
“When we heard that, we were left with one conclusion.”
The soldiers,
wearing expressions that said they could hardly believe it but there was no other answer, spoke.
“Please answer seriously, Sergeant Shin.”
“Huh?”
“When you ordered us to fire the cannon downward—was it, after all...”
Like they couldn’t believe what they were saying,
Corporal Lee Gongu asked, cold sweat beading.
“Was it in order to kill—by yourself—the divine being down there?”
“......”
Well, that...
How should I even put it.
“It’s not wrong, per se, but...!”
“I knew it...!”
While shock rippled through the soldiers,
I thought to myself:
It’s not wrong, per se... but it’s really off the mark...!
To say it was in order to kill the divine being down below—
it’s not false.
It was in order to resolve the thing’s warped intent and let it choose to disappear on its own.
In the end, it was to kill it.
“That voice—it sounded like it welcomed being extinguished.”
“Maybe it was a being that had fallen without even realizing it... and Sergeant Shin sent it on.”
What they were saying—
also wasn’t wrong.
But that’s not quite the feeling...!
What I did was only to restore its reason.
Thanks to that, it had merely become able to choose annihilation.
I was wondering how to explain this,
but I had no time to open my mouth.
“To think you annihilated such a being...”
“...Just how far ahead are you, exactly?”
They’d already settled on a conclusion in their heads,
and were exchanging absurd lines.
“......”
Faced with their certainty-soaked chatter,
I could only stand there, mouth half open, with no idea what to say.
[Divine power stat increases by ‘1’.]
****
And so,
once we’d more or less wrapped the situation for the moment—
“First off, we managed to stabilize the Mana Reservoir.”
After gathering with the squad leaders,
I began to review the current situation.
“Thanks to that, the crisis passed, but the absorption rate dropped a bit.”
“The absorption rate dropped? Can’t we just let it absorb everything?”
When I cocked my head and asked,
the squad leaders’ expressions instantly curdled.
“Huh? Why the mood?”
“...You can say that only because you didn’t live that situation. That reservoir genuinely got to just shy of blowing.”
“How bad are we talking...”
Every mage we had waiting in the unit threw themselves at it to redirect the rampaging mana’s vectors,
the Demon Hunters forced their way through and reduced the reservoir’s absorption rate,
and after a string of incidents fit for a movie,
they barely, barely prevented an accident that could have blown the entire fortress.
“In the process, some soldiers even gained new realizations in mana handling.”
“......”
That’s how brutal it was.
Beating it back like that had raised the mages’ realms a notch.
On the flip side, if we hadn’t opened that Gate,
the mana rampaging inside the mana mine would have caused some other disaster.
It couldn’t be helped.
“At least we succeeded in absorbing more than half the amount that quest you took demanded, all in one go. The rest we can take in slowly.”
“How long to absorb roughly the remaining half?”
“Hm, hard to say. At the present rate, as fast as a month. Even if slow, it should fill within two.”
“Insane speed.”
“Truly—agreed.”
Even now,
the infinite mana trapped in the underground mine was seeping upward and being absorbed into the reservoir.
“And this part is something we learned in a bit more detail after.”
“Yeah?”
“That mana—it looks like it has uses beyond simply charging the fortress.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“For example... we—the mages—could use it.”
Ah.
Come to think of it—
when we first checked the contents of that Gate,
I’d had that thought.
“It said a magi-civilization; wouldn’t what we gain there help the mages too...?”
At the time, though, with all the mages knocked out cold,
the end result was that only the Production line underwent explosive growth.
But now {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} that they’re awake—
“For starters, we’re going through those books you said you translated.”
“Oh.”
“Looks like there’s quite a lot that’ll help.”
Even in a formal setting,
Minjae, seemingly unable to hide how pleased he was, spoke with a grin.
“After we acquired [Martial Arts], the combat power of the Warrior Sections spiked hard. I only barely caught up because I acquired a vassal, but the other mages had gotten nothing.”
“And that’s no longer the case?”
“Heh heh. Well—give it time and you’ll see.”
Honestly,
it was impossible not to feel excited.
“And the especially encouraging part among that—Section Leader Lee Sanga will brief you.”
“Mm?”
At those words,
Section Leader Lee Sanga responded at once and spoke.
“Ahem... Commander.”
“Mm?”
“Do you happen to know the term magical enchantment?”
Magical enchantment?
Don’t tell me...
“Like Enchant?”
“Enchant? I guess it’s called that too? I’m not sure. If you know what it is, that’s a relief. Literally, a method to confer magic onto objects.”
Enchant.
Or magical enchantment.
An element that’s essential if this were a game.
By conferring special magic onto an ordinary item,
you can explosively increase the item’s performance,
or enable someone who cannot use magic to use it via the item.
And if they’re bringing that up now, then surely—
“It won’t be possible immediately, but we’ve started research in the [Research Lab].”
“A collaboration between the mages and the Production line.”
“It’ll take some time, but conversely, given enough time, it should be possible.”
“Insane...”
I don’t know what form it’ll ultimately take in this world,
but someday—
it was a statement that it could become reality at our unit’s hands.
“Besides that, using that mana, we might be able to implement fairly powerful large-scale magic. Remember? That large-scale spell we used in the [Dasmur] dungeon.”
“Ah...”
The spell we used after pooling the mana of every mage into Sergeant Lee Minjae.
Helped by that dungeon’s environment, we could annihilate an enormous number of monsters at once.
It was likely the core of how we managed to kill the [Pope]—an opponent our unit at the time would’ve struggled to beat.
But—
it was only possible after pouring in enough mana to make all the mages pass out.
To gather that much mana again, we’d have to overwork the mages, and having dozens of mages faint for one spell was a net loss.
In the end, because we couldn’t sustain that staggering mana cost, we never reproduced it even once.
However—
looked at the other way,
“With sufficient mana, we could somehow implement it again.”
“All that mana is down below, though.”
“And at the same time, it’s tethered near the reservoir. If we play it right, we could draw on that mana too. Well... as you said, to implement something on the level of what we used in that dungeon, it would only be possible while on top of this fortress.”
“Hm. Even if it’s only usable in defensive battles, that’s still extremely practical.”
Our unit was already stronger in defense than offense.
This would ramp our defensive power far higher.
“There’s also room to use it for offense.”
“Hm?”
“What, even if we can now fill the reservoir with all that mana, come on. Forgotten already?”
“Forgotten what...”
“Mana Stones.”
“Ah.”
Stones suffused with potent mana—
Mana Stones.
Our first objective had been to mine those Mana Stones
and use them to fill the reservoir.
It just so happened that we ended up achieving the objective by a somewhat different method.
Even so,
a considerable quantity of Mana Stones remained buried down there.
“If we refine those and hand them to the mages, they should be able to cast enhanced magic a number of times equal to the Mana Stones they hold.”
“Insane...”
“I tried it once. The Mana Stone gets consumed, but even a mage with no buffs at all could manifest magic on par with being buffed by your cooking.”
“...On par without buffs? Then, with all unit buffs applied?”
“Well, I haven’t tested that far yet.”
Grinning,
Minjae wore a confidence-soaked smile.
“Even without testing, we can broadly guess what that’ll look like.”
In this operation, even though the Mage Sections all passed out,
it didn’t cause major trouble in executing the mission.
The reason was simple.
Ever since we acquired [Martial Arts], the warrior jobs became the core of combat.
Our lacking rear-line firepower
was covered by captured military weapons,
and with personnel capable of operating those weapons plus the Warrior Sections alone, we could conduct combat.
The Mage Sections... they were strong enough,
but compared to those military weapons or the warrior jobs, they’d been a bit lacking—that was the reality.
“Now, again... the mages might become the main force.”
As if that were already yesterday’s story,
Minjae wore a supremely confident look.
If he was saying it like that, I could trust it.
“Well... anyway, that’s about it for immediate reports.”
“A tremendous outcome.”
“Yeah. Truly tremendous. And frankly, Youngjun, most of this outcome is what you accomplished.”
“Huh?”
Blindsided by the sudden praise,
I opened my mouth, flustered.
“I accomplished it? Come on. It only worked because the Production line made the gear.”
“If we’re talking only up to enabling Mana Stone mining, then you’re right—the Production line’s share was fifty percent or more... no, give them ninety percent, even.”
However—
the core event that allowed these outcomes—
came right after that.
“You... headed for the very bottom.”
“Ahem.”
In the meeting with only squad leaders present,
“Now that we’ve covered the good, let’s move to the serious.”
Minjae,
with a sharpened expression, opened his mouth.
“What happened down there that made the miasma suddenly vanish and the mana explode and all the rest.”
“Mm, well...”
“No—let’s pin this first. Last time we chose to trust you and let it slide, but this time there were too many things oddly off about what you did.”
“Odd in what way.”
The one who answered my question was Corporal Seo Suhyeok.
“The monsters underground... I can understand that you tried to kill them. From what we’ve heard, it was a hideous state. Even if they weren’t human, wanting to put suffering things to rest... well, I don’t think I would have done it, but I could accept that Sergeant Shin might.”
“......”
“The problem was after that. I asked you down there at the time, too.”
Arms folded, Corporal Seo Suhyeok asked:
“Why did you push yourself that far to head deeper.”
“......”
“Once you’d succeeded in digging far enough to mine Mana Stones, you could have withdrawn. The way it turned out was far better, yes. Sergeant Shin’s judgment was right again this time, so I don’t mean to nitpick the choice itself, but...”
As if it simply defied understanding,
Corporal Seo Suhyeok tilted his head and asked:
“Curiosity is still curiosity. I couldn’t for the life of me grasp the reason you pushed yourself like that. I considered that maybe you wanted to put the monsters further below to rest too... but no matter how you cut it, you’re not the type to stake your life on just that reason.”
Something that could have easily gotten me killed.
Sure enough, as he said—
if that alone were the reason, I wouldn’t have gone that far.
“When you returned to the surface that time, Sergeant Shin—honestly, your state looked... like it wouldn’t be strange if you died any moment.”
“Uh... was it that bad?”
“Words don’t do it justice. The Sergeant Shin I’ve seen is someone who does value others’ lives greatly. It’s why the unit could believe in you and follow you. But... at the same time—”
Looking straight into my eyes, he said:
“—you’ve also valued your own life quite highly.”
“Excuse me?”
At that,
Lee Sanga shot back in surprise.
“Has he? For someone like that, he sure does a lot of reckless things.”
“...There are times he does things with no regard for his life. I’ve gotten angry seeing that in the past, too.”
He must be talking about what happened not long after we came down to the surface—
the tank battalion raid.
“But unless it was something tied to the lives of other unit members, every other action—however reckless it seemed—at its core helped your own survival.”
As he said,
most of the times I pushed myself, it was this:
unless I became stronger even at the cost of some risk,
I believed I wouldn’t survive long in this world.
“This time was different.”
Not attacking the depths wouldn’t have hurt the unit members.
Attacking the depths didn’t come with guaranteed growth, and we already had Mana Stones secured.
Indeed, as he said—
this time, what I did was a little different from my past behavior.
Because the reason
was different from before.
“After you went down, when mana started gushing out like a runaway from that place, we heard a voice.”
“Hmm.”
“It’s related to that voice, isn’t it.”
A question that stabbed in sharply.
I couldn’t just wriggle out of it—
all the soldiers had already heard parts of that conversation.
“Sergeant Shin. I said it before; I respect your choices. This time too, in the end, you were right.”
“That—I’m grateful for.”
“But that and this are separate. What on earth was down there... that caused this.”
“......”
Corporal Seo Suhyeok was merely speaking as the representative.
Every other squad leader, too,
was looking at me, questions in their eyes.
