Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Aftermath of Destroying Tebrus' Command Tower
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"Really, I never saw this coming. Do you have any idea what the mood in Peniel is like right now?"
Olka faced Geon-woo directly.
The moment she heard that Geon-woo's clinic was behind the collapse of Tebrus' western command tower, she had rushed straight to Theopoli.
"Tebrus? You mean Peniel's mood?"
Geon-woo gave her a puzzled look, clearly not following.
"Everyone's shocked. They underestimated us and got burned—'hot, hot!' jumping back in surprise!"
"If that's the case, it's Peniel's own fault for taking our clinic too lightly."
"Honestly, while the clinic is a huge asset to our family in terms of shares, as a force in its own right, it wasn't much. That's how the family had categorized it too."
"What do you mean by 'that kind of thing'?"
"You know, something that's a big help to the family. Naturally, it's a top priority for protection."
"Should we be mad that they looked down on us, or grateful that they were trying to protect us? Tough call."
"Hohoho. It's all in the past now, so we should focus on the present."
"So, what about now?"
"The forces we need to be wary of."
Olka answered without hesitation.
"Our clinic is a force we need to be wary of? We're not going to cause Peniel any harm."
"It's not about whether we will cause harm or not—it's about whether we have the ability to."
"Is that so?"
"For now, the friendly atmosphere still holds strong, so no immediate issues. But thanks to this incident, Geon-woo Clinic is definitely on the watchlist."
"Destroying one command tower means that much?"
Geon-woo spoke as if he didn't attach much significance to the event.
Olka's eyes went wide.
"This was an incident where 20% of Tebrus' territory just vanished. You can't downplay it like that."
"It was a stroke of luck. We got the coordinates under the command tower, and we even had allies who could respond to open a gate there. Without that, we never could've reached the tower. Of course, now that they've been hit, that method's probably sealed off."
"Even so, you took down one of the five pillars maintaining Tebrus' undead. Shouldn't you be a bit more proud?"
"Proud? I heard they've already rebuilt the fallen tower."
"They rebuilt the tower, but the damage from its destruction hasn't been recovered. You might not know this, but when the tower fell, 20% of all the undead Tebrus had gathered up to now were wiped out. Didn't you know?"
"Hm? You're not speaking figuratively—Tebrus really lost 20% of its undead?"
Geon-woo hadn't known that.
He knew the command towers controlled Tebrus' territory and commanded the undead, but he hadn't realized that destroying one would erase 20% of them.
"Destroy all five command towers, and you could wipe out Tebrus' entire undead force. That's why the towers are so crucial."
Olka looked at him like she couldn't believe he hadn't known.
"Interesting. And yet, Rappin Tebrus has stayed quiet this whole time?"
"Hohoho. That's because Krosus issued a warning."
"Krosus?"
"Vladiclau from Tebrus was the first to attack Theopoli's free zone. It came out publicly, so Krosus saw it as a direct provocation. Krosus' heavyweights all issued warnings to Tebrus at once."
"A warning..."
"More like a threat that got them compensation."
"Compensation? Without even telling me, the one directly involved?"
"Hohoho. Was there any need to bother you, Geon-woo? It was handled at the top level—exchanging apologies and suitable gifts. They probably pocketed a nice sum."
"Our clinic's business, and they profited from it without a word?"
A sharp glint entered Geon-woo's eyes.
"Ah!"
Olka's eyes lit up as if she'd just remembered something.
"What? What is it?"
"Leave it to me."
Geon-woo gave her a quizzical look, but Olka stepped forward eagerly, offering to take it on.
"Leave what to you? What are you talking about?"
"Think about it—with your current standing, Geon-woo, we could shake down some of those Krosus heavyweights who got the compensation."
"Shake down the heavyweights' pockets?"
"They profited thanks to you, so they can't just wash their mouths and walk away. You're unhappy about it, so show some sincerity. Something like that."
"And then?"
"Hohoho. Naturally, they'll load up gifts and hand them over to me."
"You think so?"
"And I get to publicly announce to the family how close I am to you."
"Were you hiding it before?"
"Now you have real power, Geon-woo. You blew away 20% of Tebrus."
Olka looked at Geon-woo with full confidence.
As if just give it to her.
"Do whatever you want. It'll be good to see just how capable you are."
"Trust me. I won't let you down. Hohoho."
And so, Olka—who had come to brief him on the situation—unexpectedly ended up touring Krosus as Geon-woo's representative.
* * *
"Looks like you're all recovered."
About a month later, Muhammad, Cheon Su-wan, and the others returned to the clinic in Theopoli.
It was right around when Geon-woo Clinic had finished preparations in the new building and started services.
"Glad you made it back in time."
"Recovering the chaos mana took longer than expected."
Muhammad and Cheon Su-wan greeted him in turn upon their return.
"What about the chaos mana stones?"
Mana stones weren't very efficient, but they could restore small amounts of chaos mana.
That's why they'd decided to stock chaos mana stones to replenish the chaos mana occasionally used in daily life.
"We went into the Great Devil Vein and stocked up plenty."
"We even had a proper scrap with those 'residents' too."
This time it was Tucker and Ivan.
Geon-woo glanced at Cheon Su-wan and Muhammad at the mention of fighting residents.
"There was some friction while harvesting the chaos mana stones. We handled them easily."
"As expected, Devour didn't activate. But dealing with the residents earned us the right to stay in the Great Devil Vein. We're no longer treated as outsiders."
"Is that right?"
"Yes. This fight happened because they saw us as outsiders. Now that we're residents, future conflicts might come under concepts like Devour or challenges."
Cheon Su-wan explained the events in the Great Devil Vein in detail.
It didn't seem like there were any immediate problems, so Geon-woo decided to let it slide for now.
"You probably know this, but there are a lot of eyes on us. They're curious about the power that took out the command tower in one shot."
Geon-woo said that, then looked at Cheon Su-wan, Muhammad, and the others with a soft gaze.
It was a look conveying his gratitude for the camaraderie—or sense of belonging—they'd shown during the clinic attack.
"Is it still unknown that chaos mana was used?"
Muhammad slightly averted his gaze from Geon-woo's as he asked.
Geon-woo didn't prolong the eye contact either.
Sticky gazes between guys? That'd give you hives.
"Thanks to the mutual annihilation of energies, no traces were left. Just destruction—no aura, mana, superpowers, divinity, or any other kind of energy."
"But everyone knows chaos mana is the only thing that can cause a phenomenon like that."
"Surprisingly, no one's speculated that far. Or rather, they deny it's possible."
"But why..."
Muhammad looked baffled.
"Because there's no precedent. The only damage from chaos mana so far has been from chaos mana stones, and that couldn't cause command tower-level destruction."
"But..."
"You're the ones who can wield chaos mana outside, so you accept it easily. Others lack the trigger to shake off their preconceptions—they think it's absolutely impossible."
"Hmm. Preconceptions, huh. I get the gist."
"Anyway, thanks to this, our clinic's under massive scrutiny, and our status has skyrocketed. We're seen as at least duke-level now."
"Hahaha. That's great!"
"Does that mean we don't have to bow to anyone?"
"Any bastard can have a staring contest now, right?"
"Nice! This is how you live!"
Not just Cheon Su-wan and Muhammad—Tucker and Ivan grinned widely at the mention of duke-level status.
"From the rumors and vibes, it doesn't seem like there'll be any hostile moves against us for a while."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, Muhammad. Especially Peniel—they're showing way more proactive care than before, and it's helping a lot."
"Olka's position must be rising nicely."
Cheon Su-wan immediately thought of Olka upon hearing about the Peniel family's shift.
"Olka's using this chance to flaunt how tight she is with us. Anyway, with the situation like this, we can ease off on external worries and focus on strengthening our internals. First priority: restoring the Hundred Man Unit jiangshi."
"Ah! We lost all the Hundred Man Unit jiangshi?"
"What kind of jiangshi were they? Those bastards!"
"So what do we do first? If it's jiangshi, we need bodies to turn into them, right?"
"We can't just use any corpses."
"So we gotta go hunt some? From Tebrus or demon territory?"
Tebrus and demons came up right away from the implant users hunting for jiangshi candidates.
Natural, since they were enemies of Geon-woo Clinic.
"The Hundred Man Unit's corpse jiangshi don't need worrying about. We've been refining spares just in case. We can wake them up anytime. But we don't have live jiangshi prepared."
The Hundred Man Unit's corpse jiangshi weren't an issue.
No rush—they had plenty ready.
The problem was the live jiangshi for the Ten-Man Squad leaders.
"Guess we need to go hunting then."
"Where to? Tebrus? Or demons?"
"For diversity, I'd vote demons."
"I agree with Tucker. Demons!"
"Tucker's finally had a good idea. Demons sound good to me too."
"So my opinion doesn't matter? Still, one vote for demons."
Following Tucker and Ivan, Muhammad and Cheon Su-wan agreed on sourcing live jiangshi materials from demon territory.
Geon-woo chuckled at the sight.
"Fine. Demons it is."
And so, Geon-woo set demon territory again as the source for the Hundred Man Unit's live jiangshi candidates.
But even among demons, it'd be different this time.
He planned to aim for at least viscount-grade as the base.