Chapter 30 – Lord

Chapter 30 – Lord

Seongjae likes machines.

This was a fact known to everyone, and naturally, Siwoo also knew it. But there was a story Siwoo didn’t know.

Seongjae liked machines and technology, but he wasn’t originally so obsessed with them in society.

But after losing his parents.

On the day his younger brother was also dragged away somewhere.

Seongjae, left alone… needed something to soothe his heart.

So he began to immerse himself.

In things he was good at. And things he found fun to do.

Because otherwise, he felt like he would really go crazy.

Even so, when he was doing what he loved, he could forget his family for a while and soothe his gloomy heart a little.

Even though he was good at fighting with fire manipulation, the reason he hated fighting was because of that. Whenever he tried to fight, this thought never left Seongjae’s head.

‘If only I had known how to fight then.’

‘If only I had done better then.’

‘Wouldn’t my family still be alive?’

Therefore, even though he had a talent for fighting, he didn’t fight. He had already lost what he had to protect, so he didn’t want to think of his family.

But now, it was different.

‘Siwoo. Thank you so much.’

How could he express it in words?

Seongjae definitely felt that Siwoo wanted to lean on him for technical and engineering aspects.

Fortunately, this was an area he was really good at.

‘I need to work harder in the future.’

At the same time, he had another thought.

‘And… Should I get more training from Ms. Sua?’

He got back the person he had to protect.

Now, he had a reason to fight.

***

[Seongjae. If you’ve confirmed, I’ll proceed with the escort right away.]

[Yeah. Thanks, Siwoo. Really, thank you.]

[Then do better.]

[Of course! Hey, should I build you another power plant?]

[No, one is enough for now…]

Exchanging such silly jokes, I instructed the Magitech Armor to bring Seongmin inside.

It was the best way to escort him.

And leaving Cheonsu’s slumped corpse behind.

[Seongjae. Next phase of the operation.]

I sent a short message to Seongjae.

Then, I, Sua, and Seongmin, in our Magitech Armor, moved out of the building.

Once the Worker Bugs had also moved a considerable amount of important supplies out of the building, fire manipulation began at all entrances on the first floor, including the windows.

The blazing fire manipulation spewed out highly toxic smoke into the interior. Of course, I wasn’t going to let it end with just that.

‘Assault Cannon. Open fire on designated coordinates.’

Boom-!

Boom-!

Artillery barrage hitting the hotel in succession.

Now, there would be no survivors.

* * *

Back at the Shopping Mall, we assigned Seongmin, Seongjae’s younger sibling, the room right next to his. We then had a brief conversation with both of them.

“Seongmin. This is Siwoo. Say hello.”

“Hello? It’s nice to meet you. Thank you.”

Seongmin bowed stiffly, like a robot, as if feeling awkward.

I tried to be as warm as possible towards him.

“Oh, so, are you hurt anywhere?”

“Ah, well, it seems they didn’t treat him too roughly, considering he’s a child. They just forced him to use his abilities.”

“How old did you say he was?”

“I’m 15…”

“What, so you’re in the second year of middle school?”

“Yes… I’ll be in the third year of middle school soon…”

He seemed to be a latecomer.

Meanwhile, Deokchan and Sua also stepped forward to greet him.

“Oh, so you’re Seongmin.”

“My sister’s name is Kang Sua. Should I call you Sister Sua, the Fire Manipulator?”

They exchanged greetings like that.

After explaining the locations of the electricity, water, and other facilities, he briefly explained the rules. There were no exceptions for being young.

Meanwhile, they decided to make a contract with everyone on this occasion.

They made a simplified contract focusing on the most important things, such as not betraying each other, and if this contract was violated, everyone would be notified.

‘Well… I don’t think anyone would betray us.’

As he emphasized the necessity of the castle a bit, everyone seemed to agree without much to say. Especially since it was an opportunity to raise mutual trust to the next level, everyone quickly went along with it.

He didn’t ask them to do anything else.

Young Seongmin seemed to be having difficulty adapting to the situation and was quite shy, clinging to Seongjae for support.

‘Well… I guess I can just leave him alone for a while.’

Now that they had a contract, there would be no accidents.

***

Meanwhile, Deokchan, Sua, Seongjae, and I discussed the next objective. Of course, that was the fortification of the shopping mall.

This was because I was thinking of summoning a mana refinement facility soon.

“It would be good to put steel plates on the outer walls. We have so many steel plates left, what’s the point of just leaving them?”

“Hmm… That’s a good idea. Then it would be good to reinforce the building by erecting pillars inside as well.”

“Oh, Ms. Sua. I’ll have the Worker Bugs dig the ground from here to here, so please fill it with water. It’s good to use it as a moat, and if necessary, we can draw water from here to use for attacks.”

“Oh! Shall we do that?”

The final plan was this: build a concrete wall around the outside like an outer castle, and dig a moat in front of it.

Seongjae suggested making a drawbridge with a pulley in front of it, and I accepted. Deokchan decided to put steel plates on the outer walls of the shopping mall and reinforce the interior with pillars and other structures.

After hearing all the conclusions, Seongjae chuckled and made this joke:

“Should I call you Lord Seong Siwoo from now on?”

Indeed, the plan was to make it no different from a castle.

Also, while they were at it, they decided to do some remodeling of the rooftop.

This was because of the new harvest they had acquired; Deokchan had scavenged solar panels from somewhere while the three of us were away.

I decided to install solar panels on the roof, and while I was at it, I also put up a small greenhouse next to it to grow some Water.

“The Worker Bugs will help, so farming is nothing to worry about.”

Besides, I didn’t have to worry about Water because of Su-a, and there was enough power for temperature control. And since Deokchan was the one who set up the vegetable garden in the first place, he would do a good job.

The training ground, which was starting to get cramped for Su-a and Seongjae to use at the same time, was better off being made separately outside.

Meanwhile, the mention of a greenhouse reminded me of something else.

‘Now that I think about it, winter is approaching.’

Time had passed, and it was time to prepare for winter.

The first winter was a stage where many people died.

They had to endure the harsh cold of the Korean Peninsula without proper heating, and if they used Fire Manipulation because it was cold, it was no different from inviting Marauders.

On top of that, the food problem was also starting to become a big issue, so many people were expected to die overall.

‘Hmm… I can’t just leave it like that.’

I decided to post on Apoin for the first time in a while.

[Precog Friend Story 3]

[They say a monster called a Maned Deer will appear soon. It’s just a strong deer, but its personality is ferocious, and it just has a mane like a Messenger.]

[But this is good news. You’ll be worried about food in winter, but they say Maned Deer can be eaten. And if you make clothes from their manes, they’re supposedly really warm?]

[And there’s also a monster called a Stomper, which is the size of an elephant and doesn’t die easily. They say not to provoke it.]

For me, Stompers were a good source of Mana Stones, but even Su-a couldn’t properly kill a Stomper yet.

I added the information that it’s best not to fight with Stompers unnecessarily.

However, it would be good if ordinary people could at least catch Maned Deer soon. If they could also improve their combat abilities, get food, and warm clothes, it would be a triple benefit for Humanity.

‘May everyone live long… ‘

That way, the Monsters will suffer more.

***

I left the overall fortification plan to the three of them and headed to the Dungeon alone, with Mana Facility Summoning also activated.

I added this to the others:

“Three days. I will definitely be back within three days at the latest. The Mana Facility will also be completely Summoned by then.”

Once the Mana Facility is fully summoned, a Defense Battle must be carried out. However, even with my busy schedule, there was something I really wanted to do before the Man.

‘I need to get the Artifact quickly.’

The Artifact from my first Dungeon was the [Broken Spear of Tenos].

It was an Artifact with a simple effect, increasing the wearer’s movement speed, but like the Man, it had high versatility in many ways.

In particular, my ability allowed me to use these Artifacts as controlled summoning, and in the Man’s case, I could even inherit the Artifact’s effects.

In other words, I could also create Special Entities.

‘It was a Valley even further north than the Adamantite Mountain Range, wasn’t it…?’

I recalled my Past Life Memories, sending out Observation Probes, and once again took the well-maintained path towards the Adamantite Mountain Range.

Trrrrrrrrrr-

Whoooosh-

This path had almost become a Highway, with Worker Bugs rolling around in a controlled movement pattern, transporting the mined Adamantite.

I carefully avoided colliding with them, quietly leading my forces towards the Valley where the Artifact was said to be.

Currently with me were 2 Assault Cannons, 4 Mountain Breaker Soldiers, and 6 Magitech Armors, which felt much more relaxed than when I came with Sua last time.

My Maximum Mana had increased once due to overusing mana in the last battle, and the significantly increased mana stone mining by the Worker Bugs also played a part.

Thanks to this, I could leave 4 Assault Cannons, 4 Mountain Breaker Soldiers, and 16 Magitech Armors at the Main Base for defense. Moreover, Sua’s combat ability had also improved considerably, so I believed she would handle things well even without me.

‘Now, once the Mana Facility is complete here… ‘

My forces would undoubtedly grow much larger.

“Lululu…”

A pleasant humming naturally escaped me.

Having arrived at the Adamantite Mountain Range without incident, I observed the neatly organized surroundings and thought.

‘It seems they’ve picked up all the metal rain by now.’

Indeed, those Worker Bugs were truly diligent workers.

[Worker Bug: Self-Destruct Research in progress… 57%]

‘It does sting a little.’

While seeing the rising research rate brought a little pain to my heart, summoning Worker Bugs also cost mana and resources. I absolutely had no plans to use them as expendable units.

Let’s keep this as insurance…

The problem was that there weren’t many upgrades to do when I was short on mana and mana stones. Once the mana facility was completed, there were truly mountains of upgrades I wanted to do.

Alright… then.

I looked at the Dark Forest north of the Adamantite Mountain Range.

This area was now uncharted territory.

I put the Magitech Armor and Mountain Breaker Soldiers at the front first.

And the Assault Cannon at the very back.

I stood in the center and began to walk forward.

Lululu-

And a hum.

Tatata-tatata-tatat-

Whoosh- Thwack!

Thump! Thuuuuump!

To my humming, as if keeping time, my forces advanced, adding interjections with their firepower. All I had to do was walk forward.

Then, worker bugs scurried behind me, collecting mana stones, and once they had enough, they transformed into spheres and quickly left the battlefield.

Having come this far north, I searched for a suitable location by examining the terrain from the sky with an observation probe.

Soon after, something white appeared below a sheer cliff.

Oh, is that it?

Upon closer approach with the observation probe, a dome-shaped building made of white marble stood out against the green forest.

It must be inside that.

If I quickly got it and went home, it felt like I could return home tomorrow, let alone in three days.

Things are going well, aren’t they?

It was then that I entered the building.

Through the opening in the dome roof, sunlight illuminated the very center of the building.

Is it some kind of temple?

That’s when I looked at the center of the Man with an indifferent expression.

“Oh?”

In the middle of the Man’s light, a spear was neatly stuck in a straight line.

“Uh… why is this intact?”

The Man’s spear was somehow still unbroken.

[Tenos’s Spear]

[The one who endures the trial shall obtain this spear intact.]

And a peculiar phrase was also with the Man.