Orc Defense (2)
The first stage, Orc Defense, had a medieval setting. To be precise, it was a fantasy version of the Middle Ages where magic and aura existed. And that meant…
“Haak… huk… haak…”
“Good! Doesn’t it feel like your body is finally loosening up?”
“No, huuk… this is… haaak… overwork…”
“Pick up your spear now! Recruit!”
It meant that the training schedule Jax presented was biased far more toward the smooth production of piss and vomit than toward scientific principles or thorough management.
A five-hundred-meter sprint as a ‘warm-up,’ followed by a hundred burpees with no cooldown, then immediately a hundred push-ups, and repeating that set ten times—did that even make sense? If this were the real world I would’ve been spraying cola-colored urine while sobbing on my way to the ER. It’s called rhabdomyolysis, you know.
…But well. Maybe it was only natural.
“Thrust until there isn’t a single grain of strength left in your body! Mana will fill the empty space!”
Before talking about the barbarism of medieval people, this place had a cheat key called mana. With a natural booster and supplement that could restore not only muscle but even ligaments that supposedly never returned to one hundred percent of their original state, why would anyone hold back?
“Kraaaack!”
Stab!
“Good! Now we’re seeing some proper spearmanship, recruit!”
“I’m not a recruit! Aaaagh!”
Stab!
It was real. This shit was fucking hard. It felt like a gym trainer screaming “One more!” for hours on end.
Stamina stat has increased. +1
Training skill is responding.
“Haak.”
If stats hadn’t been rising in between, I would have collapsed ages ago. At some point even the jiggling voice pouch just looked like a lump of fat. That said everything.
“One more!”
“Aaaack!”
I don’t know how long I kept rolling around like that. By the time the thought floated up that it might be easier to just stab that monstrous woman with the spear in my hand—
“That’s enough! Any more and it’ll cause real trouble!”
“Huuuuurgh.”
“I told the villagers to prepare a hearty dinner, so eat properly and get some sleep! Recruit!”
Jax declared the end of training like a ghost and left the clearing.
“To keep up with this… You’re something else?”
Along with a strange remark carried on the wind.
…Mom was never wrong. Women really are all either busty or foxes. No—she’s a fox.
As soon as I returned it was a village tour with Jax, a demonstration of Lanna Chal, inhuman training, stuffing a mountain of meat down my throat, crawling back to the lodging like a dying insect and immediately collapsing into sleep. Then morning again.
Battle Preparation Time: 96h
One of the five days Free Earth had given me to prepare for the defense vanished just like that.
“Uuuugh.”
The good news was that my body moved far better than I had feared. Oh, and that the cola-colored urine didn’t appear.
Is this really because of mana?
It was a literally miraculous power that even my brain—which had been turned extra soft by the general knowledge Free Earth forcibly crammed into it—couldn’t comprehend. I had accepted skills and the like without much resistance, but this was genuinely hard to swallow with a simple “Oh, I see.”
“Wow. What a body.”
At least until I checked my changed physique in the public bath-like facility at the village center.
Since I’d been discharged not long ago, I wasn’t as chubby as I had been in my teens, but there were still patches of fat here and there. The six-pack I’d had until my corporal days had gone missing long ago. Yet the person reflected in the mirror now?
All the flab had vanished. Abs sharply defined. On top of that, thanks to spear training, my pectorals and triceps—the so-called “pushing” muscles—were swollen with rage. Aesthetically, it couldn’t get more perfect than this.
This body had been made in a single day?
Hmm. Maybe I should seriously consider quitting cleanly right here.
But.
“Are you there! Recruit!”
As if she had read my mind, Jax had already come looking for me.
“W-wait just a second!”
“Even at this very moment the orcs are advancing—kyaaak! Why are you taking your clothes off!”
“This is the bathhouse!”
I ended up in a reverse 19+ situation, but whatever. I had a bit of confidence in my new body now, so I let it slide.
“Huuk, heok. Huk.”
“Good! Much better!”
Whether because of that or because my stamina had genuinely skyrocketed along with my body like Jax said, the training that followed was more manageable than expected. To the point I unconsciously had the terrifying thought, If I just do two more days like yesterday…
“Any intensity above this is nothing short of abuse! We will maintain this level until the mana that has permeated your body settles in place. Recruit!”
“I’m a newbie.”
I asked while catching my breath, having heard the word “abuse.” …I still didn’t understand why I had to listen to that kind of thing.
Anyway.
Thud!
Stamina aside, my spearmanship had improved quite a bit in a single day.
“Oh.”
The thrusts that had only barely nicked the tip of the training dummy yesterday were now digging in deeply.
“Good! This is enough for the basics!”
Jax-Style Spearmanship (Basic)
“Yeah. It actually worked.”
On top of that I had even gained a skill. I wondered if this was possible in one day, but apparently the bar was set low from the start.
“It’s at a level where you can knock the orc bastards off the palisade! Excellent for a recruit!”
It felt like a beginner-level basic skill. Though calling it beginner when my palms were already shredded like feet after a forced march was a bit much.
“You’ve earned the right to eat lunch today! Go eat!”
“Oh.”
Thanks to that, the second day’s training even guaranteed lunch. And that meant—
“Thank you for the meal.”
After finishing the combat rations, I finally had time to look around the village.
Training was good, skills were good, and staring at the jiggling pouch was good, but I couldn’t just keep getting rolled around forever. Orcs were coming and there was a structure in the village center that had to be protected. This stage followed the defense game format so perfectly—yet we were just supposed to trust the wooden fence and hold out?
Well, maybe. It was only the first floor, after all. But the real core of defense games lay in upgrades, troop summoning, and the tightrope walk in between.
It’s not a stage that can be cleared by just sitting still.
And there were probably items scattered around the village that could be used for exactly that purpose. At least that was what my senses told me. Every time I looked at the space between the palisade and the village—where various pieces of junk were piled up, apparently for barricades—I felt blood rush to my head.
Whether the beginner benefits had dulled me or I had grown too complacent from the game-like atmosphere, this was an unknown world. One mistake and I might never return to reality, riding the train straight to the afterlife just like with the tower. So I had to try everything possible.
“Re—cru—i—t—!”
“Hup.”
Ignoring the voice calling me from afar, I moved quickly and discovered a clearly suspicious pile of stones.
◈ Perfect baseball size for throwing
◈ Can upgrade spear-throwing NPCs to ranged attackers
A huge pile of stones, each perfectly sized like a baseball and shaped nicely for gripping and throwing.
If my guess was right, this pile could upgrade the defense NPCs who only knew how to thrust spears into proper ranged units. Or maybe I could just use them myself.
There’s too many to carry alone.
Since it was literally a pile of stones, both weight and volume were too much for one person. So I took off my top and started stuffing in as many as I could manage. They were all NPCs anyway, so there was no shame, and carrying something might spare me from Jax’s wrath.
Clatter.
“Ugh. Heavy.”
Half-possessed by a construction worker, I arrived at the clearing.
“What took you so long—huh! What’s with that appearance! Recruit!”
“I have a routine of taking a walk after eating. Anyway, take a look at these.”
Jax, momentarily flustered by my sudden toplessness, soon began examining the stones I poured out with a serious expression.
“Stones shaped nicely for throwing! Where did you find them?!”
“They were in that clearing over there.”
“Hmm! Maybe the previous defender prepared them but couldn’t use them? Anyway, good! Perfect for smashing orc heads! This will make the defense much easier! Hey!”
As usual, she called over a couple of guys who were thrusting spears meaninglessly into the air, had them carry the stones up onto the palisade, then looked at me.
“Are there more items like this?”
“I only brought about a third of them.”
“Good! Hey!”
Good. That seemed to resolve the issue of not returning immediately after lunch.
Hmm… should I go for one more round?
“Ah, and.”
“And?”
“I’d like to search for more items like these. Could you give me some time this afternoon?”
“What?!”
When I boldly requested exemption from training, Jax stared at me with a slightly reddened face. However, even she couldn’t resist the charm of legal and infinitely beneficial treasure hunting.
“G… good!”
It helped, didn’t it? There might be tons more left. Was she really going to leave all these useful items lying around? Of course we should pile them up.
“But I’m coming with you!”
Eh? Wait a second.
“To save time we will conduct combat jogging during movement! Recruit!”
Ah.
Two more piles of stones. A waste oil drum that looked perfect for boiling and pouring. Three able-bodied men hiding in the basement of the village’s only inn and restaurant. A bow and arrows leaning against the palisade entrance on the opposite side of the forest.
“Very good! Recruit!”
These were the tower upgrade materials—no, the defensive supplies Jax and I had found yesterday and today.
The central tower looks suspicious…
In truth I wanted to investigate that place more than anything, but every time I tried, Jax would go crazy in opposition—maybe it was locked—so I couldn’t actually check it. She said that if the beacon were damaged it would mean pointless death, so she couldn’t entrust it to an outsider like me. She looked slightly apologetic, which was different from the Jax I had seen so far… Sigh.
Instead—
“Huk, huuuk.”
Whether out of apology or because she was encouraged by my initiative, she trained me even harder than the first day.
Stamina stat has increased. +1
Stamina stat has increased. +1
Stamina stat has increased. +1
The growth that had seemed to slow down suddenly gained explosive momentum. But—
“Is it hard?! Newbie! Hold on!”
There was definitely something different now.
“Huuuuurgh…”
“Hehe. It feels good to die, doesn’t it? Receiving this kind of personal service from a mana user of my level isn’t easy, so feel free to like it even more, newbie!”
Accelerated recovery through direct mana infusion.
Duration: Active
From some point onward, whenever I collapsed from exhaustion she would place her hand on my bare back and pour mana into me.
“Um, but… is there a reason it has to be on bare skin?”
“Hmph.”
I wondered if there was any need to flip my back over for it, but I decided to think of it as a change due to favorability.
“Huu.”
I didn’t exactly hate it either.
And.
Two days later again.
In the distant sky.
Battle Preparation Time: 12s
The moment the timer only I could see reached zero—
“Kuwoooooooooor!”
“Everyone prepare to throw stones!!!”
The orc horde’s attack had begun.