Chapter 9
Chapter 9: The First Commander
"Lots of points. First I'll fill up with Lowest-Grade, then pull some Mid-Grade and High-Grade for the rest."
Having served in the military, I was a proud Korean youth who naturally knew all about the military.
Among the important things in that was none other than the rank system.
Right now there were an enormous number of Lowest-Grade and Low-Grade, and comparatively fewer Mid-Grade—though the Mid-Grade count was also high.
The time had come to summon High-Grade Mechanical soldiers, the tier above Mid-Grade.
First, I quickly summoned Lowest-Grade units.
When it reached 9,000, I summoned 800 as Low-Grade.
Then summoned 190 as Mid-Grade.
"A whopping 10 High-Grade at 5,000 points each. Spending 50,000 points!"
The points earned after Wave Stage 11 ended.
All of it was spent pulling High-Grade.
For reference, with a Mid-Grade Gatherer gnawing at the Goblin Chieftain's corpse, it was a whopping 20 points per second.
If that was the case, how many points would an orc or something like that yield?
"A Commander is absolutely necessary."
A Commander could not be summoned with points.
I didn't know why, but it seemed like something that could only be obtained through quests or something special.
[Path of the Unique Trait (2) Complete!]
[Reward: Command Unit Summon Ticket (1)]
"Finally!"
Click.
Click.
Creeeeak.
Whirr whirr.
With the sounds of various machines, gears began turning and a single door started opening.
And the one who emerged from that door was…
"Ta-da! Locked on to your heart! Pitasha, entering!"
"…Huh?"
A girl with blue hair and exotic yellow eyes.
But the one thing different from ordinary people—her body was made of machinery.
As I was thinking that, the lively voice that had entered faltered and her face crumpled.
"Master! You have to respond! I came in so energetically! So it wouldn't be awkward!"
"Ah…yeah, nice to meet you. Master works."
Maybe because there were too many summons in novels that immediately said "Master…"?
Absolutely not expecting anything—ahem.
"Heeeh…do you like 'Master'?"
"What…! If you want it, fine!"
"Yes! Master!"
Pitasha smiled brightly and answered.
Naturally, I requested that the word "Master" be used only when it was just the two of us, and I had no intention of making a male unit say it.
"Of course I'll only use it when it's just the two of us. Got it, Master?"
"Yeah…yeah. Anyway, I'd like to know about your abilities first. Your body is mechanical, right? What can you do?"
"Heeh…"
"…?"
At my words, she pondered something for a moment and then grinned—Pitasha.
At her suddenly mischievous expression, a sense of unease washed over me.
Swoop.
"It's not like my entire body is mechanical…? Here, like this…"
[ ]
"Wha—what are you doing?!"
"Ah! Your face went red! Hehehe…"
"Just tell me what your abilities are!"
"Tch…fine!"
Pitasha lowered the hem of her clothing she had lifted with a regretful expression.
Just as I let out a sigh of relief, she spoke.
"First of all, I am a Commander of the Mechanical Legion specializing in maintenance! My ability would naturally be on the crafting side!"
She then opened the bag hanging at her waist—Pitasha.
But it was nothing like an ordinary bag.
"A subspace?"
"Correct! To be precise, it's spatial expansion…well, some magic is involved too, so it's not a strange term at all? I have expertise in maintenance as well, but I'll emphasize that our specialty is crafting!"
Smiling at my surprised expression, what she pulled from the bag was none other than a small tablet.
Hum.
"Like this, I can first draft designs virtually using holograms and then produce them. Oh, mechanical prosthetics and such are possible too, for reference. Everything on my own body was made by me personally!"
"So if someone loses a limb, a mechanical arm can be attached?"
"Yes! With Master's permission! Though I'd recommend not overusing it."
"Why?"
"Hmm…just because. Hehe…"
Pitasha's energy dropped slightly as if there was some story behind it.
Realizing that, she quickly continued.
"Anyway, my ability is on the crafting side! Guns are possible if you want them, and I can make lasers too! Though that's not possible yet since the level is still low."
"In that case…turrets and such are possible too, right?"
"Ha! Sweeping away mere goblins—that level is definitely possible!"
At her words, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders.
Even with walls in place, I'd often seen goblins targeting non-Combatant units while the others were fighting—I had been wondering what to do about that.
"Still, first let's prioritize reinforcing the room with the Crystal Orb. Is there anything I need to do here?"
"First of all, there are way too few High-Grade Mechanical soldiers! For now, it would be best to keep pulling Mid-Grade and High-Grade."
"Oh right. What are these guys?"
I had pulled a total of 10 High-Grade Mechanical soldiers, of which 3 were Gatherers, 2 were Combatants, 1 was a Mechanic, and 1 was an Engineer.
The remaining 3 were a type I'd never seen before—Heavy Weapons Soldiers.
A build that looked unmistakably like a massive golem, with a vibe similar to a mech walking on 4 legs.
They had 4 arms, with 1 hand holding a massive shield.
Another hand gripping a massive hammer.
And the remaining 2 hands wielded machine guns.
Their size was nearly 6 meters—extraordinary.
"Ah! You pulled these ones! They're like Combatants but completely different. It's a good thing I'm here. I can turn all 4 of their hands into heavy weapons, or make them full shield-bearers instead!"
Impressive.
The issue with the Mechanical Legion right now, if there was one, was that they were too uniform with no variation.
"In that case, the Low-Grade Combatants look like golems. For those units…?"
"They can't have machine guns like the Heavy Weapons Soldiers, but…at least regular guns and things like that should be possible."
"Ha…you're the best. Seriously."
"Hehe…"
After exchanging a brief conversation with her, I asked her to request the materials she needed and had her work on reinforcing the room with the Crystal Orb.
The minerals Pitasha requested were absurdly expensive without exception.
The idea of a single mineral costing 5,000 coins was genuinely unbelievable.
"For now, I need to earn coins whenever I can."
The form of the High-Grade Combatant I pulled this time was different from the Heavy Weapons Soldier.
It was a humanoid form that looked almost slender—holding a whopping sniper rifle.
The difference being that it used a whopping 3 sniper rifles.
A unit with 6 arms and 7 eyes, no less.
It sniped with 3 eyes while scanning the surroundings with the remaining 4.
Definitely a big difference from High-Grade onward, I thought, and when I told them to repeat the battle, the gate opened in an instant.
Hmmmmm—
Boom!
Boooom!
"…Huh?"
Goblins had their heads blown off the moment they emerged.
The goblins coming out of the gate kept tripping over the corpses of the fallen ones, so I quickly sent Low-Grade Combatants to push them aside.
Like that, the goblins came out one after another and obligingly died, and simultaneously the Goblin Shaman, Grand Warrior, and Chieftain all had their heads blown apart as well.
"Ha ha…repeat."
At that, the gate opened again.
Corpses piled up in an instant and points began resupplying, while at the same time hundreds of coins began stacking up.
"The minerals Pitasha mentioned are these and…oh right, she said this was needed too."
Of course, the materials she said she wanted each required astronomical amounts of coins, but at least it didn't seem like it would take that long.
"For now I'll need a Combatant-side Commander too. Oh right. The Enhancement Ticket."
The Enhancement Ticket obtained last time—I decided to just put it into Overload.
I'd wondered if I'd ever need to use it, but given how getting a nosebleed from applying it to dozens of raptors last time, I figured applying it to Heavy Weapons Soldiers or High-Grade Combatants might be difficult.
"Come to think of it, how are the others doing?"
For the combat, I just set a reminder to repeat every 5 minutes and went inside the fortress.
There, the drones she had deployed along with various Mechanics and Engineers were beginning to reconstruct the fortress under her command.
"Ah! I'll make Master's quarters first!"
She then suddenly took the Engineers and Mechanics away and told me to come back in an hour—Pitasha.
I said understood, then placed my hand on the Crystal Orb and opened the Community.
It wasn't necessary to keep your hand on it the whole time—roughly placing your hand on it every hour let you continue.
The improved bed was in my room, so I lay down in what had now become the secondary bed, made when this place was first built.
Lying there and entering the Community, posts that seemed to indicate combat had just ended were visible.
[I'm in a party with Troll. Everyone form parties.] Author: 777
Think of Troll as a tank, to put it simply.
It's a perfect fit since he has the Super Regeneration Unique Trait. Oh, I got permission to say this, so don't worry.
The two of us came in here, formed a party, and cleared Stage 11 not long after.
Per Mechanic's words, knowing there was a Shaman, we dealt with it immediately.
It was a pain at the end, but fortunately Troll has the [Throwing] trait so it was easy to catch.
It was quite different from what Mechanic described. First, 30 more ordinary goblins appeared, and 10 more Grand Warrior goblins appeared.
But even accounting for that, it's approximately 1.5 times rather than 2 times the original count, so forming a party is recommended.
Whether it'll keep being like this going forward, I don't know.
"Hmm. Forming a party doesn't make it twice as hard? In that case, always doing it seems better. Wait, no. Then the count decreases so the coins would also drop to about 0.7, right? Thinking about it that way, it's not a gain."
Still, for those without a Unique Trait or whose Unique Trait wasn't suited for combat, forming a party clearly seemed beneficial at a glance.
Beyond that, passing the time while collecting various information, I eventually fell asleep.
And when I woke up, where I was had changed entirely.
"…Huh?"
A room filled with the faintly glowing blue minerals I had bought.
"What the?"
"Ah! Master! You're awake!"
"Where is this?"
"This is Master's room. The materials are insufficient for now, so only Master's room and the area protecting the Crystal Orb have been done like this."
"Ah…I see. It's a shame I couldn't repeat."
At that, she tilted her head and clapped her hands.
"Ah…! I forgot to tell you this! I can repeat it. Oh and advancing the upcoming rounds is possible too."
Pitasha dropped a bombshell out of nowhere.
"Advancing…that sounds good."
In a situation like this, rather than continuing to repeat, it would be better to park at a stage where large quantities come out.
"Then let's do it. Stage 12."
Saying that, Pitasha smiled mischievously.
"Let's blow straight through to 20."