Chapter.2 A crisis is an opportunity is a crisis (3)
***
“Uuup uweeeek!”
The first thing the professor did when he got out of bed the next morning was to spit out all the alcohol left in his stomach.
“Uh oh…. the head.
Why do those damn mercenaries drink so much?
The pleasure of tasting pure alcohol for the first time in a long time came to me one by one and offered me alcohol to the point where I couldn’t breathe, so instead of drinking it, it almost poured down my throat.
“Ugh… I definitely remember the toast…”
Damn Gedroitz. Even a hangover can be realized. Still, in reality, if the film cuts out, you have no choice but to ask the person next to you, but in GG, there is a way to check for yourself.
“Status window. Check player log.”
Tiring-!
The professor scrolled down the log that recorded his actions so far and turned to the last part he remembered.
+player Professor’s log:
7 PM – Enter the pub ‘Silver Shout’
7 PM – Drink a glass of pale ale / Recover stamina by 5% for 15 seconds / Increase drunkenness by 2%.
7:00 PM – Successfully persuaded ‘Waldorf Tofrik’, the master of the Silver Shout. Battle phase canceled.
7:00 PM – Drink a glass of Dragon Blood / Recover 15% of your stamina, Increase your maximum mental power by 35 for 35 minutes. Fire resistance: Small 35 minutes. Apply skill [100 Times Courage] for 15 minutes / Increase drunkenness by 40%.
7:00 PM – Condition: Slightly drunk (80 minutes) / 1st degree burn (tongue and throat)
8:00 PM – Drink a glass of pale ale +
8:00 PM – Drink a glass of pale ale +
8:00 PM – Special selection Eat a pork steak +
8:00 PM – Drink a glass of Pale Ale +
8:00 PM – Become friendly with the mercenary ‘Mitch Edwal’ party
8:00 PM – Drink a bottle of Mount Ascent Lager +
9:00 PM – Drinking a glass of pale ale +
Drinking ….
Drinking …. Drinking
…. 11 PM Drinking …..
12 PM Drinking ….
“Did you intend to kill me?”
I thought I ate a lot, but I never thought it would be this much. For some reason, when I was emptying my stomach in the morning, it seemed like there was no end to it.
“Let’s see it …. Don’t drink it. Don’t fall down.
While I was looking around to see if there was anything special I needed to be aware of while the film was off, there was a record that caught my eye.
+player Professor’s log:
I received an F-class mercenary badge from Waldorf Tofrik, head of the Mercenary Guild’s Turan branch.
[Item: F-class mercenary badge (Turan / Trapper) – A seal used to prove the identity and level of mercenaries. The Roderick Mercenary Guild seal is engraved on the back.]
“My memories were so jumbled that I thought it was a dream, but I actually accepted it.”
I don’t remember the moment I received the mercenary badge, but Waldorf said, ‘A guy like you is a trapper!’ I vaguely remembered the scene where we were laughing loudly while doing this. Great job Professor Park! Even in that hellish place, you kept your wits about you!
When I looked at the occupation column in the status window, it changed from ‘Unemployed’ to ‘Trapper’. When registering as a mercenary, you can select your main position, but since you are unemployed, it seems that you were registered as an occupation at that time.
“It’s not a job worth continuing, but right now, there’s no job better than a trapper.”
Strictly speaking, Trapper is a job that has almost disappeared among players. Due to the nature of jobs that depend on materials, you have to invest a lot, and even if you invest a lot, you always have no choice but to move defensively, and the growth expectations are not that high. In addition, I did not receive training from a professional trapper or guild and then changed jobs, and I did not receive effects such as [30% bonus to job-related skill proficiency] that were given as a job change effect.
However, things like skill level and growth expectations are limited only when looking into the future.
It’s a different story if you only use things that can be found for free around you without any expectations of increasing damage at the beginning of the play.
“Anyway, since I changed my job, I have the skills to make traps, right? If you make a trap with items you can find nearby, the materials are free and there are many processing steps, so you can aim to gain the dexterity stat, and the biggest advantage is that you will never be hit directly. “I can use things like ‘broken twigs,’ ‘solid wood,’ and ‘small pieces of metal’ at will, which are much more powerful than my body!”
– Soy Sauce Gay Bar: ….. Didn’t he feel a little salty from earlier?
– takealook: So. Even the kids who work as ceiling anglers at the dome throw away all the twigs that accumulate while cutting down trees, and they talk about it like it’s some kind of precious material…
“You can’t compare it to other normal characters. Compare it to my body. Swing it once and hit it again! Which is more reliable, an arm that breaks like a cane or a trap that swings a heavy and sturdy wooden club when you step on it? “Look not at the value of the item, but at its usefulness in the current situation.”
I’ve experimented with various things before when I had nothing to do while moving, and this body is quite resistant to tensile stress, that is, axial pulling or pressing force, as befits its characteristics as a ‘glass body’, but it is extremely vulnerable to shock. This means that unless it is armor with good options such as shock absorption, it is of no help to me.
‘It’s the same with weapons. ‘Because the same amount of impact will be felt on my arms and wrists as the force I swing.’
So, after much consideration, I chose the job of trapper. Since I am weaker than a civilian, it is best to resolve this issue without encountering the enemy.
“Ugh- wow, it hurts inside. “I should go down and eat something or something.”
All I wanted to do was lie in bed and rest, but in GG, time is the most important resource. If you play around now, you’ll have to deal with the crazy increase in Mutation Blood later. As someone who was already lagging behind in growth, I couldn’t waste even a single minute.
After roughly organizing my clothes, I came down the stairs and saw the floor being a little quieter than yesterday and Waldorf wiping his glass with a slightly frowning face.
Waldorf must have heard me coming down, so he stopped cleaning his glass for a moment and waved at me.
“…..good morning. “Waldorf”
“I was going to call the undertaker if you didn’t wake up by lunch, but you managed to wake up, old man.”
“….old man?”
“Yeah dude. I drank a lot yesterday, so it’s just a bit louder. never mind. It’s not the first time I’ve seen rookie mercenaries straining their shoulders for no reason. When you did it, it looked a bit better, but now it’s all gone. So don’t use your voice down and come and eat some soup.”
“yes.”
It seems that while he was drunk, he asked various things about me.
‘Hmm… there was a reason why I gave him a lot of alcohol.’
but. He is in charge of mercenaries in a region, so how could he be a dishonest person? A cool-looking guy who wasn’t even a criminal crawled in, so I guess I drank too much to see what he was doing. I got a little goosebumps when I thought that the low attitude and noisy atmosphere shown to me yesterday might have been intentional.
Whoop-
“Koooooo-!”
“So, would you like to live?”
“Wow, I feel relieved. “Just now, my stomach was so upset that my intestines were moving in and out of my throat.”
“Won guy. “He speaks well.”
“Whoop – but where have all the others gone? Oh, has the request already been sent?”
When I looked at the clock in the status window, it said [10 AM]. It wasn’t that early, so everyone seemed to have gone about their business.
“…..okay. “I went to work.”
“But why does your expression look like you chewed shit like this? “Didn’t you have a hangover?”
At first, I thought it was because the Master had been drinking too much, but as time went by, instead of calming down, the Master’s expression became more frowning.
Hwaak-
Sigh!
“Ugh!”
After I sobered up a bit and my head became clearer, I started having mental breakdowns.
‘A snack bottle that I couldn’t even clean up from the disheveled table. Soot marks and some ash beyond the bar table. What did you burn? Muddy footprints on the floor. The entire center of the city is made of flagstones, so there are people from the outskirts or outside of the city…’
Each and every piece of information asked was too serious for me to just brush it off.
‘I saw yesterday that the Turan Mercenary Guild seemed to have quite good unity. The relationship with the master also seemed good. There’s no way you can leave a mess like that. Unless there’s something particularly urgent…
After I gathered my thoughts, the Master’s frowning face looked different.
“…Is something bad happening?”
“Old kid. “It’s useful to have a sense of humor.”
Waldorf pressed the tobacco into the pipe with his hand, lit it, took a big puff, and spoke slowly.
“…A knight came from the lord’s castle in the morning.”
A knight from the lord’s castle The atmosphere was completely calm. The professor began to become increasingly anxious.
“…Why did you come here?”
“…Wuuuu”
Waldorf, who was speechless and just smoking a cigarette, opened his mouth with an expression of astonishment.
“There’s a war. “It looks like the Mutts have pushed their way into the vicinity of Turan.”
“Yesss???!!!!”
For a professor who was just starting to do small farming with tree branches or pieces of metal, it was a shocking sound.
***
“Whoa.”
Waldorf must have been feeling sick too, so he emptied his pipe several times and filled it with new tobacco.
“The situation seems serious. “Everyone at the training center on ‘Training Street’ inside the city has already been conscripted, and an order from the lord has been issued for all of us to participate in the war regardless of our level of skill.”
“Now wait a minute. I just came in yesterday…..”
“….Sorry. Mercenary badges are registered with recording magic as soon as they are issued. “Including you, Professor.”
“Aaaah!!! Ssaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”
Even if you are unlucky, how could it not be like this! Even the sky is indifferent! If it were a mountain beyond a mountain, I would curse and let you go over it, but is it Everest? The level difference is so big! Mute? Even the lowest level 9 mutra is too much for this body!
“Don’t be so sad. “I would have been conscripted anyway even if I had stayed outside the city.”
“Ugh…why?”
“Other than people like us who make a living, young, strong men are being dragged to every place they see.”
There’s more bad news. Since mercenaries are people whose job is to fight, if something like this happens, they will be dragged to the top and later have to pay for the request through the mercenary union. But conscripting civilians too? As soon as the young men responsible for the city’s production die, the city’s productivity declines, leading to a long-term weakening of the city’s power. But are you dragging away all that precious labor with meat shields?
“Is the situation that serious?”
“Turan is deeper than Moludic Castle and Pelas. But what does it mean that they came right under our noses?”
“….shit.”
It means that the city has fallen. No matter how much peace the lords of this period may have had, they would not have been taken over by ordinary resource-gathering grade 9 or 8 mutes.
‘It’s still early in the era of warlocks. There is no way that level 5 or higher high-risk entities could have been mass-produced. That’s impossible. Who touched the mother body? Was there an incident that made the Queen feel threatened enough to focus on gene collection?’
‘Let’s calm down. It’s only the second day of gameplay. Regardless of my character’s level, it’s impossible for me to intervene in what’s happening right now. It’s the normal story line for this seed. If so, the scenario wouldn’t have progressed to the point where it could never be resolved.’
Although it is a solo play game, no one plays the same game.
Even if you inherit someone else’s world clear seed, you only inherit the effect, and the created worlds all have different flows, so no one can predict how the game will progress. There is only one thing that is predictable.
It didn’t make it impossible to clear. That means this event is an event that naturally occurs in the world I am currently playing.
‘We start by handing over two cities from the beginning. Making a battle that would normally be impossible at this time possible means that a lot of investment was made on the part of the warlock or the queen. This means that it is not simply a high-risk, high-difficulty event.’
There is not enough information. I knew that this was a watershed moment for this episode, but other than that, I didn’t know anything else.
“Why do I feel anxious when they say it’s war?”
“…I can’t say no.”
Waldorf smoked a cigarette with a bitter look on his face, wondering what he thought of me thinking with my eyes closed.
“It’s worth it. At best, I’m only nineteen years old. I also tried to get rid of you, but when the conscript officer saw you registered on the union personnel list, he said he had to take you regardless of your age. I’m sorry. All I could do in my power was to postpone your turn for second conscription.”
“…What is your position?”
If your name is on the conscription list, there is no place for you to step down. The good news is that I listed ‘Trapper’ in the special skills section…
“….Shield Soldier.”
“WHYEH!!!”
“shit! You think I want to send a bright blue baby to the forefront of that hellish line fight! “What can we do when high-ranking people say there is no need for scouts?”
“Then there are also regular infantry and archers!”
“All the civilians in the castle have been conscripted! The supply positions are already full, and the positions that require even a little bit of strength are already filled with skilled soldiers! “They say all F-class mercenaries are shield soldiers!”
Shield soldier. It is a shield soldier, but in battle with Mute, it is no different from a meat shield that reduces their charging power and is consumed.
The reason war against mutes is difficult is because of their ridiculous quantity and wild nature, but the biggest problem is that you become infected the moment you get covered in their blood and saliva.
The essence of Mutation Blood is not a normal life form, but is closer to a slime made up of cells that have received the queen’s commands.
The orders given by the queen vary depending on the time of year, but 124 years is a time when the queen is not yet fully grown and cannot think complex thoughts. There will be at most one or two commands given to Mute.
‘More meat, more genes’
So, the mutes of this period have extremely high infectiousness compared to their weak combat power. When bitten and covered with blood through saliva, the mute cells that invade the capillaries through the pores rapidly multiply and dominate the host’s brain, turning them into infectious agents. When enough infectious agents are collected to satisfy the queen, Mute returns to the northern permafrost where the queen resides and sacrifices herself.
“Is it possible that there were no survivors in the two cities ahead?”
“Is that possible? “I heard there were quite a few refugees, and the lord and his knights also escaped.”
“Every person?”
“Every single one of you.”
“….bastards.”
He ordered the soldiers to be locked up and they were the only ones to escape.
‘Because of the lack of troops left, the handshake became worse. The soldiers of Pelas Moludic Castle are famous for being well-trained soldiers. The city fell, but the number of infected agents decreased due to the soldiers’ struggles, so it was not possible to fill the necessary amount.
Thanks to this, they have changed from the bodies of dogs or cats to the bodies of trained soldiers and are heading to the next city to replenish their numbers. You stupid lord! If we had had them fight together with the knights, we could have prevented them from suffering great damage!
It’s obvious even if you don’t look at it. He must have been frightened by the mute wave, which seemed to have no end in sight, so he ordered the strongest knights to guard his body and property and hurriedly ran away.
Thanks to you, I now have to run into that enhanced infection.
bang!
As I was tearing out my hair in a hopeless situation, the swing door opened roughly and a soldier wearing leather armor came in. He took a quick look around, took a deep breath, unfolded a piece of antique parchment, and shouted loudly.
“Mercenaries of Turan! Open your eyes and ears! “Follow the orders of Romelio de Valcados, the lord of Turan, the conqueror of Northern Roderick and the knight of knights revered by all people!”
“You’re here.”
“Already?”
“It means that the lord is also worn out. Enough to gather up those who postponed conscription during the first conscription due to illness or old age.”
After that, the soldier was talking a lot, but to sum it up roughly, it was something like, ‘If you don’t want to be branded a deserter and chased away for the rest of your life, come back on your own.’
‘Damn it, you come to play a game and do mandatory military service! ‘What a warrant!’
While I was feeling frustrated for a while, Waldorf leaned over the bar and whispered softly.
“Hey, you’re old.”
“why.”
“I can’t help it that it happened like this. “When you work as a mercenary, there are unlucky days like this.”
“Does this happen from day one as a mercenary?”
“…Anyway, I used my strength to drive most of our mercenaries to the left wing.
Since the mutes just rush in without any strategy, when the battle begins, most of the battle will be a melee. At that time, we will group together and stick to the area closest to the leftmost wall.”
“What that means is…..”
“What they’re saying is that if you hold out just once when they rush in before the melee begins, we will create space behind you.
Hold on somehow. Don’t run away from the battlefield. Die by a poisoner. Hold on just once and then run backwards without looking back. “Once the fighting begins, you can’t even see that much.”
….nod.
I just nodded quietly at Waldorf’s words. His words were so dangerous that he would have nothing to say even if he was immediately beheaded if he tried to ignore the command system and form his own phalanx as soon as the battle started.
“I don’t think I need to explain that it’s something that shouldn’t be said out loud.”
“more! Forward to the person whose name is called! F-class mercenary Neil Casey F-class mercenary Sabi Mojo F-class mercenary Professor D-class mercenary…”
“I really have to go now. Don’t forget, it’s only been a day, but since yesterday you are our silver shout brother. “Let’s not meet the corpses on the street.”
“Don’t be so foolish.”
“Hehe, they say the God of Battle is a liar, right? “If you say this, you will survive.”
Waldorf and I greeted each other by tapping the backs of each other’s right hands, as mercenaries often do.
“Okay, everyone’s gathered! Let’s move to the front lines now!”
Following the command of the lead soldier, I moved with other conscripts toward the barracks in front of the castle gate.
***
