[Ingredient Management]
[Ingredients that have undergone the chef’s management remain in the best state the chef has in mind.]
[Ingredients under management suffer no negative effects from the passage of time, and even if external factors intervene, damage to their state is greatly slowed.]
Ingredient Management.
Among the many cooking Skills Howard possessed, this was the one I wanted most.
‘Just by having them go through “management,” they’re freed from the negative effects of time, and even if external factors intervene, the damage from that is reduced to an extreme...’
Interpreted with humans as the reference point—
It roughly goes like this.
“Best state...”
In other words.
Every stat gets buffed, and both stamina loss and injuries recover.
“Negative effects from the passage of time...”
Meaning.
They don’t undergo aging.
“External factors intervening...”
Meaning.
They gain a resistance close to immunity against damage from attacks.
‘And on top of that, you only need to have them go through it once... and there’s no time limit.’
With just a single application of the buff—
All those effects would be maintained permanently.
If I could have taken it over as-is.
It would have been a busted Trait capable of boosting Iron Legion’s combat power tenfold, a hundredfold, even a thousandfold.
[This Trait is degraded!]
Unfortunately—
What I’d borrowed now wasn’t that level.
[At present, ingredients under the chef’s management remain in the superior state the chef has in mind.]
[However, you cannot exclude negative effects from the passage of time, and you gain only mild resistance to state damage caused by external factors.]
“Best” state had become “superior.”
And the fact they had to be under my management meant I had to be on that battlefield in person—
And those who’d receive my buffs had to be under my “command.”
Compared to what Howard had, its performance was downright miserable.
It couldn’t block aging at all.
Even in terms of stat increase and resistance, it wasn’t fully intact.
But...
‘This alone is enough.’
No matter how lacking it was compared to the original—
Its effect was...
More than enough.
“...Huh? What the, my stats went up.”
“I can feel... strength coming back into my body?”
The Awakeners who’d been fighting an uphill battle—
Were confused by the sudden changes in their bodies.
“...It’s a buff!”
“A wide-area buff just came in!”
Soon enough.
They were able to grasp the source of the changes in themselves.
“We’ve got a buff!”
All their previous buffs had been stripped away, and then they’d even been hit with a debuff on top of that.
The Awakeners who’d been driven into a brutal disadvantage.
Their exhausted stamina and injuries suddenly began to recover.
Not only did their stats rise—
They even gained extra resistance against enemy attacks.
“...At this level, we can do it.”
“Push them back!”
The tide of battle flipped.
Even if the effect on each individual wasn’t that huge.
A buff applied to every Awakener present.
The momentum of the entire group swelled dramatically—
And they started forcing back the monsters that had been pushing them.
That wasn’t all.
“Guh... urk.”
“...!”
“Captain Jo Jun!?”
“Captain Jo Jun’s breathing just got a little more stable!”
The moment he came under my management.
All ingredients were maintained at “superior.”
[Jo Jun]
[Freshness: Lowest]
→
[Freshness: High (Temporary)]
Captain Jo Jun, who had been practically a dead body.
His condition improved, just a little.
“What are you all doing? Treat him. Now.”
“Uh? Ah, yes!”
Of course, it was only a slight improvement.
It was still uncertain whether he could be saved.
“...My healing power just got stronger?”
The healing light flowing from the healers’ hands.
That light, too, became stronger because they themselves had become the “superior” state I had in mind.
They were already the only ones here still receiving Jo Beomseok’s [Command] buff.
Once my management was added to that—
“A-at this rate...”
“Yeah. We might really be able to save him!”
A faint light of hope flickered in the eyes of the healers clinging to Jo Jun.
Looking down at Jo Jun’s body, I thought—
‘Maybe... putting this guy under my management was the wrong call.’
He’d caught on to the identity I needed to hide.
The one saving grace was—
He’d questioned why I was hiding that identity.
Because of that question, he hadn’t been able to fully believe his own guess.
So the Penalty still didn’t seem to have activated.
‘If he opens his eyes, there’s no telling what’ll happen.’
Thinking about that.
Letting him die here might very well be the best way for me to survive.
But.
Well, it wasn’t exactly some grand reason, but—
‘That kind of thing just doesn’t sit right with me.’
I definitely hated dying.
But surviving by sacrificing someone else in a way like that—
I despised that with a passion.
‘Well, what can you do.’
If the easy way rubbed me the wrong way—
Then there was only one path left.
‘I just have to stubbornly choose the hard way.’
Still.
It wasn’t like there was no benefit at all to trying to save this man.
My [Ingredient Management] was—
Definitely contributing to the attempt to save Jo Jun.
“Ahh, Jun...!”
Which meant.
[Command Order – ‘Save Captain Jo Jun’]
[You are currently carrying out the commander’s order!]
As long as the buff emanating from me remained in effect—
I was, for all intents and purposes, carrying out General Jo Beomseok’s order to save his grandson.
[The debuff from disobeying the order is removed!]
[The stat bonuses from the Trait – Intermediate Command are granted.]
[The stat bonuses from the Skill – Commanding Shout are provided.]
“Hm.”
Jo Beomseok’s buffs, which had only been applied to the healers treating Captain Jo Jun—
I could feel them seeping into my body again.
Looking at Jo Jun, gasping with a hole almost the size of a large dog blown through his torso, I thought—
‘I don’t know if he’ll live or die... but I’ve done everything I can.’
The rest was up to the healers here.
And to Captain Jo Jun himself.
I needed to leave this place to the healers—
And go do the work I had to do.
“Son Naeun. Son Nahoon.”
I looked down into my shadow as I spoke.
“You two go find a man named Kim Jongdu.”
—Sir?
“Stay out of sight as much as possible, but if it looks like he’s about to die, do everything you can to save him. He’s someone who’ll be a huge help to humanity’s survival going forward.”
Among the humans I’d met in Gyeonggi Province.
There were two people important enough that I felt they had to be kept alive somehow.
The [Strategist], Jo Jun.
And the [Architect], Kim Jongdu.
With the other one, Jo Jun, now in a situation where it was unclear whether he’d survive—
The [Architect].
Kim Jongdu, at least, needed to stay alive.
—B-but!
—Our mission is to protect our master’s master...
Last time, they hadn’t listened to my orders for this exact reason.
This time, the story was a little different.
“You know, I’m not the only one guarding me right now.”
—...
“The amount of protection assigned just to me is overkill. You understand that, right?”
—Urgh...
I could feel the vampires hesitating and nodding inside the shadow.
—Then our master’s master...
“I’ve got... way too much to do. It’s hard to even say what I’m supposed to be doing.”
—...
“Anyway, what are you doing just standing there? Get going.”
—Yes, sir...!
And with that—
Once I’d confirmed the vampires in my shadow were moving, riding the shadows in between the Wall’s buildings—
“Ahem, ahem.”
I turned my body toward the battlefield.
Forced all my magic power into my vocal cords.
And shouted in as loud a voice as I could.
“All expedition forces!!! Hear me!!!”
If there was one thing I had confidence in, it was my stats.
My shout, filled with that overwhelming magic power, spread across the entire Wall.
*****
{All expedition forces, hear me!!!}
“...!?”
A colossal voice suddenly rang out.
Even Awakeners in the thick of combat heard it clearly.
{Captain Jo Jun, General Jo Beomseok, and the rest of the expedition command are now in a combat-incapable state!}
“...The command group has been wiped out?”
At that.
Every Awakener belonging to the expedition began murmuring in bewilderment.
“No wonder the orders were late, and the one order we did get was insane...”
“Did the command group get hit first?”
And.
Among them, someone muttered weakly.
“The command has collapsed...”
An Awakener speaking with a grim expression, like he’d lost hope.
It would take considerable time to repair a broken chain of command.
Right now, even the leaders of each branch were too busy fighting the monsters right in front of them to have any leeway.
Restoring a proper command structure and mounting a counterattack would take an immense amount of time.
And this battlefield didn’t have that kind of luxury.
“Then what are we supposed to do...”
The answer to that question—
Came sooner than expected.
{Therefore!}
{As of this moment, the entire expedition force will come under the management of me, Sergeant Shin Youngjun, who has been delegated command authority by General Jo Beomseok and Captain Jo Jun!}
“...Huh!?”
At the content contained in the next shout—
People were stunned.
*****
“W-what did he say?”
“Sergeant Shin Youngjun? Who the hell is that supposed to be?”
“Sergeant... so he’s from the Southern Branch?”
A sudden declaration of command authority being transferred.
They didn’t even know whether the owner of that voice was qualified to command them or not.
All they could do was be confused.
“No, I know who that is. He’s that guy. The one they say is insanely strong and goes around massacring monster mobs by himself...”
“...Then he’s not even a leader of any group. Why is someone like that commanding us?”
Even if they now knew that voice wasn’t an enemy.
If things continued like this—
No one would fully accept the orders from that voice.
The battle would just drag on in a muddled mess.
“Northern warband!”
A warrior drenched in monster blood from head to toe.
He climbed onto the corpse of a huge monster where everyone could see him and shouted.
“We will follow the orders of that voice! Execute!”
“Yes, sir!!!”
A declaration that he would follow the orders of that voice.
That booming shout changed the situation a little.
“...Junggu!?”
“What the hell are you saying, Junggu!”
Ha Yunseong, the Central Branch’s elite warrior and acting leader who’d scrambled his forces over to join the fight—
And Heo Yunchang, the Eastern Branch spearman barely holding the main gate, both responded in dismay.
‘Did he say Shin Youngjun? I get that he’s strong...!’
Heo Yunchang looked at Junggu in the distance and thought.
‘But whether he has the right to command us is another matter!’
The leaders of each group who’d been fighting near the Northern Branch side—
Also frowned as they looked at Junggu.
Every group leader present here—
Had been focused solely on leading their own group, believing they had no authority to take on the role of commanding other groups.
“We had orders coming late, and when they did come, they hurt our own troops. In this situation, there’s only one thing we can say for sure!”
So the idea that some suddenly intruding voice would command all the forces.
And that they were supposed to follow such an order.
It didn’t make sense.
“The command group has a problem, and if this keeps up... we’re all going to end up buried together in one grave!”
Junggu shouted at the top of his lungs so that every warrior could hear him.
“If we want to overturn the situation, somebody has to seize command authority!”
“Why does that somebody have to be that man instead of another leader! He’s not even part of our guild!”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for you or Yunchang to take it...”
To those objections—
Junggu answered by hurling a throwing axe and smashing through a monster’s skull.
“Because that’s the best option!”
“...!?”
Shattering a monster’s head in one blow with a relatively light throwing axe—
Was something Junggu hadn’t been capable of just a moment ago.
“When that weird order came down, everyone felt it. The buffs on our bodies vanished and we got hit with a debuff!”
“....”
People silently nodded.
Everyone had already guessed that was the result of disobeying Jo Beomseok’s order.
“On the other hand! The moment we heard that voice, we all got hit with a massive buff!”
And it wasn’t some ordinary buff.
Lost health had recovered, and their wounds had healed to a certain extent.
The stat increase was quite significant as well.
The area of effect might have been a little different.
But overall, compared to General Jo Beomseok’s Skills, this buff wasn’t far behind at all.
‘...Wait, don’t tell me.’
Only then—
Even the Awakeners who’d had no room to think because of the battle—
Reached a single conclusion.
“I don’t have the faintest idea how that guy is capable of this kind of crap either...!”
WHOOM!
Junggu swung his massive axe and lopped off another monster’s head.
With a wide grin stretching across his face, he said—
“But there’s a high chance this buff is also a command-type Skill!”
“...!”
There wasn’t a single person who knew Shin Youngjun well.
But there was exactly one thing everyone knew.
‘The man who never joined the group fights, but every time another mob approached, he’d head over solo and butcher them all.’
He didn’t join the group battles; he acted alone.
But he’d displayed overwhelming power.
Everyone had just assumed he was a ridiculously strong warrior.
And now they were hearing that someone with that kind of power—
Was actually a command-type Awakener with wide-area buff abilities?
‘No way.’
‘There has to be some kind of balance, right.’
It was too hard to believe.
But the power circulating ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) inside their bodies wouldn’t let them deny that hypothesis.
“And! You all know how command-type Skills work, right?”
“If you follow the order, you get stronger... if you don’t, you get weaker.”
“Exactly!”
The fact that Jo Beomseok’s buff had turned into a debuff—
Had been because of that very property of command Skills.
“I don’t know what kind of orders that guy is going to give us. But I’m pretty sure they’ll be more reasonable than telling the entire expedition force to drop everything and cling to saving Captain Jo...”
“....”
“Well? Am I wrong?”
At that—
People seemed to wrestle with it for a moment.
Then—
“...Hoo, damn it.”
“We don’t have much choice at this point.”
They sighed—
And began to move to stand beside Junggu.
“From this moment on, the expedition force will follow Sergeant Shin Youngjun’s orders!”
“Everyone, act the moment an order comes down!”
“Do as Shin Youngjun says!”
And like that.
Every powerful Awakener in the Association.
All accepted the command of an Outsider—
Sergeant Shin Youngjun, who didn’t even belong to the Association.
{The enemy monsters are converging on the main gate!}
{Northern Branch, support Eastern Branch as they defend the gate!}
“You heard him, you bastards! Break through!”
Before this—
They had been less like one large force and more like small groups gathered in one place.
Scattered all over, they’d just been fighting in a disorganized mess.
“Yunchang! It’s been a while!”
“...I was wondering when you’d show up, Junggu.”
Now, finally.
They—
Began to gather properly as a true [expedition force].
{Central and Southern Branch forces, escort non-combat personnel to the central building!}
{Defensive installations around the central building are set up to serve as an inner wall! Use them to shift into a defensive battle posture!}
{Northern and Eastern will be the main forces for monster suppression! Central and Southern, defend the central building and project firepower into the rear of the monsters trying to assault the gate!}
“Follow the orders!”
“Everyone, run to the center!”
“Buy as much time as you can and harass the ones trying to break through the gate!”
Together as one.
They began full-scale operational maneuvers.
“Move out!”
“...The Awakeners’ Association fights as one!”
The massive expedition force formed by gathering all of Gyeonggi’s Awakeners.
The overwhelming power born from uniting all the Awakeners of a single region...
“Kneel before the power of unity!!!”
Finally—
Began to fully unleash itself.
