Home Sweet Home (5)
There was a house near the middle of the back mountain that was on the verge of collapse. It was barely even a house—more of a collection of boards woven together like a spiderweb.
“Yes. I’m the herb gatherer.”
The herb gatherer emerged from within. She looked to be about 16 years old, a small girl with a slight frame. Behind the wall, an even smaller child was hiding.
I asked her, “Is there a separate habitat for the herbs?”
“No. Herbs don’t have a separate ‘habitat.’ You just find them with an herb gatherer’s intuition. But why are you asking about that? Everything is going to ruin anyway.”
“You rascal! What do you mean, going to ruin! This is the person the Emperor sent to save us!”
The village chief waved his cane. Hyeon Dan dodged it this way and that while she spoke.
“But it’s the truth. The world has gone to ruin, so there’s nowhere to sell herbs.”
“You little!”
I stopped the chief and held out a bag of snacks to her.
“I’ve come to ask you to supply us with herbs.”
“My name isn’t ‘you,’ it’s Hyeon Dan… and what is this?”
“Try it.”
Hyeon Dan tilted her head, but she ate it without much suspicion. As an herb gatherer, it seemed she could distinguish the presence of poison like an instinct.
Crunch.
Her eyes widened.
“Whoa, what is this? Seon-ah! Come here.”
Hyeon Dan beckoned. Her younger sister approached cautiously.
A child smaller than the small one. She was almost like a peanut, not even reaching my pelvis.
“Try eating this.”
“…….”
The child picked up the snack with her fern-like hands and ate it. Her eyes sparkled adorably.
“Yummy!”
“Right?”
I looked inside the shack. There was no food to speak of. Mostly herbs, and if there was anything to eat, it was just wild greens and mushrooms.
No wonder they were so small.
“Hyeon Dan, please pack your things and come to the village.”
“Huh? I don’t have a house there.”
“I’ll build separate quarters. Chief?”
“Yes!”
“From now on, I will control all the food in the village. We will gather it in the warehouse and implement a rationing system.”
Fixed rations via ration cards. It was unavoidable if everyone was to survive. Fortunately, the wealth gap in this village didn’t seem very large, so there shouldn’t be too many complaints.
“For you, Hyeon Dan, considering the risk, I will give you two extra daily ration cards, and up to four depending on your performance. Please supply herbs consistently.”
“Ration cards~? Then~ does that mean you’ll give me things like these snacks too?”
“Of course.”
“No, don’t!”
Suddenly, the younger sister blocked our path.
“Don’t! No herbs!”
“…You little one. This is all for everyone’s sake.”
The chief hardened his expression sternly. Still, he didn’t use his cane on a child.
Hyeon Dan gave a bitter smile.
“My sister knows that being an herb gatherer is dangerous. Our father went out to gather herbs and never came back.”
She then bent her knees to meet her sister’s eyes.
“It’s okay~ It’s what your big sister does!”
“But, but….”
“I won’t die~ I’m better at it than Dad!”
Hyeon Dan laughed sheepishly, and Seon-ah forced a smile.
I watched the sisters quietly.
Is this over-investing? I felt a slight hesitation.
Still, Hyeon Dan was the village’s only A-rank herb gatherer. She might be the only one in this entire labyrinth.
That meant she was a very important asset.
Therefore, this was not a matter of sentiment.
“Hyeon Dan.”
“Yes?”
I handed her a ‘Base Teleportation Ticket.’
“If you are in danger, tear this. You will be teleported to this village.”
“Oh… really? That’s amazing.”
Hyeon Dan fiddled with the ticket.
“Also, your primary goal is not herbs.”
If the herb gatherer dies, there will be a setback in herb supply. The stamina and fatigue of the offenders depended on this small herb gatherer.
“It is your own survival.”
She had to work without dying.
I worked with the chief to scrape together all the food in the village.
It was a miserable sight.
Two bags of rice, edible mushrooms, wild greens, beans, and 11 dogs raised in each household.
They said they had already eaten the livestock like cows and pigs.
“Let’s send the dogs back.”
The dogs they were raising couldn’t be helped. It was bothersome to see the children sobbing, saying they were their own dogs, and besides, I couldn’t dare eat a ‘dog-nim’ while being broadcast. Surely 20% of the fandom would drop off.
“Chief. You must not eat the dogs.”
“Yes! Hey! Everyone! Did you hear that! Even if you’re hungry, the dogs are our family! Think of the time we’ve spent together!”
Still, everyone listened well to the chief.
“Chief. By any chance, do you have mana stones?”
“Mana stones…?”
“The sparkling stones.”
“Ah~ yes. We do. Merchants from far away used to come by sometimes and buy them at high prices. We had collected them to sell….”
Human mana and natural mana are different. Human mana volatilizes over the passage of time, but natural mana matures instead.
Since mana stones are natural mana, they can hold human techniques, maintaining their duration for at least several times, up to dozens of times longer, and in the case of very special mana stones, ‘forever.’
“Please bring them.”
“Yes!”
The chief left busily.
I looked around at the young people gathered in the square. There were about 80 of them.
“Then, from now on, I will categorize your specialties… your roles.”
First, medical, administrative, cooking, transport, and communication. Five categories. Combat specialties didn’t seem very necessary. I didn’t think they would be of much help.
“Everyone, please stand in front of me one by one.”
I would judge their talents with my eyes and assign them appropriate roles. It was easy work.
I’m glad I bought the high-grade draw.
After finishing the organization of the civilians, I climbed onto the shabby wall and took out the Scarecrow Blueprint.
For reference, the Subspace cannot be activated within a rift, but ‘simplified use’ is possible.
In other words, I can’t enter the subspace with my body, but I can take items out of it.
I only found that out just now, so I don’t know the principle. It’s probably due to an ambiguous collision or connection between rifts. Since the subspace is also a rift if you look at it broadly.
I unfolded the blueprint.
The Scarecrow Blueprint is being opened.
The first scarecrow’s traits will be randomly assigned.
Whoosh. The blueprint glowed, summoning a scarecrow onto the wall.
Archer | Bonded
EXP 0
In MoMo, there is a concept of character attributes. Depending on each attribute—lineage, class, unique, elemental—the adventurer’s capability and individual stats change, and it seems such a system is applied to the scarecrow as well.
This scarecrow is a [Archer] class of the [Bonded] lineage.
Bonded archers perform these guard duties faithfully.
“Your name is….”
Kesu-abi.
At first, I thought of Yun-suabi, but I named it after the person who seemed like they would do the best job among the archers.
Even so, Im Hae-jun didn’t have a bonded personality.
I infused mana into the scarecrow.
Mana Coefficient has been activated.
The circuit was opened.
Next, the second scarecrow.
Whoosh!
Spellcaster | Supporter
EXP 0
This time, it’s a spellcaster.
Seo-suabi… that wouldn’t fit, since this one is a support-type buffer. Seo Ji-woo is the type who wouldn’t do something like a buffer even if I threatened her with a sword.
The buffers I know are Kim Woo-hyun and Yoon Hwa-rim, and since Kesu-abi is female, let’s make this one female too.
Yun-suabi.
I gave Kesu-abi a bow, and infused Yun-suabi with more mana for buffs.
With this, the two scarecrows would guard the wall on their own.
—I have finished cutting the timber. Transport is required.
Just then, Akiman’s voice brushed against my ears.
Using Sound Transmission. Akiman, he’s a true master.
“…Right. Then.”
I looked below the wall. There were quite a few able-bodied men.
“Sergeant Akiman says the logging is finished. Everyone, go together and transport it. Execute.”
Execute!
They shouted back at my command and ran outside the wall.
“…No. This doesn’t make sense. Why are those S-rank mercenaries following him so well?”
Before I knew it, there was one more onlooker monitoring Seol Ha-woon.
“Why are S-ranks playing the role of woodcutters?”
Mentor DK muttered as if he were flustered. Kim A-rang shrugged her shoulders.
“They know. That he’s a person worth following.”
Im Hyeong-uk and DK frowned at the same time.
“What the hell. Are they UDT too? Is this the UDT Universe? I saw the UDT, and they weren’t much. I searched, and they get beaten by the 707. And they can’t even follow the Navy SEALs’ footsteps.”
Kim A-rang just laughed, then suddenly looked up with serious eyes.
“Mr. Hyeong-uk. Mr. DK. Do you know about the Black Team?”
“…What? Black Team?”
Im Hyeong-uk swallowed hard. DK raised his sunglasses as if he were interested.
Black Team. As someone in the broadcasting industry, there was no way he wouldn’t know. An organization consisting only of monsters evaluated as the elite among the UDT. One of the 1st-tier units recognized worldwide.
“D-did Seol Ha-woon come from there?”
“I wouldn’t know~”
“Ah, what the hell.”
Im Hyeong-uk stood up from his seat.
“I’m leaving. This isn’t fun anymore.”
He wanted to see him trembling while being pushed around by the mercenaries. Like, ‘Please help me, please save me.’
Seol Ha-woon, that guy really lacks human touch, human touch….
Akiman had cut down almost the entire forest area. Smeshion had also half-destroyed the quarry, producing a tremendous amount of stone.
With the materials obtained thanks to the two of them, construction began on the warehouse, medical room, cafeteria, and living quarters. I only did the most difficult foundation work with my techniques, and left the rest to the civilians.
[ 11:35:32 ]
24 hours had passed before I knew it, but there was no time to sleep.
“…Is this all?”
I arrived at the fields outside the village. It was the place the chief had guided me to.
“Yes.”
Most of it was barley, and even that was unripe, but it couldn’t be helped. Monsters would be swarming in soon.
“Let’s harvest.”
I waved my cane in the air. Countless barley stalks were pulled out. Thump. Thump. I shook them like a broom. Barley grains fell onto the ground in droves.
“A-as expected of the Emperor’s mage….”
“I am not a mage.”
Not yet.
“Use the barley stalks for horse feed, and I’ll leave the rice grains to you.”
“Yes. Everyone, hurry and move!”
The chief beckoned to the residents.
[Can’t we just turn these barley stalks into snacks too?]
Suddenly, Smeshion seemed to have developed curiosity.
“Impossible. This isn’t an item that performs miracles.”
The Snack Box is merely a Rare-grade item. It only purifies toxins and improves taste, while inheriting the calories and nutritional content as they are.
However, barley stalks are fiber. Some livestock can digest them, but it’s difficult for humans.
Above all.
“They must be given as horse feed. The horses in this village are excellent. They’re almost at the level of war spoils.”
Perhaps this is a labyrinth in a world where horses are particularly developed.
They would eat as much as they ran, but the barley stalks were sufficient.
“However. I would like to make one suggestion.”
This time, Akiman requested the right to speak.
“Yes.”
“I would like to train some of the civilians.”
“…Will it be of help?”
“I understand your intentions. However, utilizing residents for combat will help with internal cohesion. 0.1 is better than 0. That 0.1 will create 0.2.”
Thinking about it, the number of people in the village is larger than expected. It might be a waste to have all 170 people, excluding children, doing only menial labor.
“0.1 is meaningless. Can you train them to a level of 1, no, 2? There isn’t much time.”
We must move quickly. Once the time I spend fortifying the base ends, two more weeks will pass in labyrinth time.
That is when the real game begins.
“It is possible.”
“Yes. I’ll leave it to you. By the way, Smeshion, is there anything you want?”
I turned to look at Smeshion. Smeshion looked at me and grinned.
[I am infinite power. I accept human mana into my core and regenerate it.]
“So?”
[Your mana looks very good.]
He showed me his back and opened his shell. Where a human would have internal organs, he had a core.
A top-tier core as war spoils, capable of self-generation, infinite power, and mana regeneration.
This is the reason why such mercenaries don’t even trust their own employers. Because they themselves are war spoils.
I asked him.
“Smeshion. Do you trust me?”
[Ha! I know guys who have walked the line of death like you. We recognize each other just by looking into each other’s eyes. Those who know the battlefield keep their principles. Those who don’t have all died.]
That was explanation enough.
“Yes. I will give you mana. However, use at least ‘you’ when addressing me. I am your superior.”
[Confirmed.]
I supplied mana to Smeshion’s core. I poured out nearly 1/3 of my remaining mana.
[Kuhahaha. That’s high-quality mana.]
Smeshion laughed like a villain and raised his massive body.
[Do you need more stones?]
“I heard there is a mana stone mine nearby. I have already selected a few people, so please go with them and mine the mana stones.”
I had already selected all the miners who were C-rank or higher.
[Confirmed.]
Whoosh, thump. Whoosh, thump. Smeshion left like a robot, and the miners followed him with slightly fearful faces.