Combat is Easy, Governance is Hard
"Hmph, now will you believe in my brilliant mind?"
Davin shrugged her shoulders with a smug grin and opened her mouth.
"A most obvious outcome. Even in Terra, no one grasped the battlefield better than I."
Davin stationed Humes atop the walls for defense. Magic and arrows poured down on the martial artist refugees, blocking their attempts to scale the battlements.
[Dang Hyeok-un: You cowardly bastards! How dare you to my base… Urk!]
Enemy morale has dropped!
Soon enough, the martial artist refugees surrendered.
[The enemy has surrendered! You may decide their fate.]
[1. Designate enemy forces as slaves and turn them into a colony.]
[2. Accept enemy forces as a vassal state.]
[3. Recruit enemy forces as equal citizens.]
In that instant, memories from Terra flashed by like a panorama. Davin's expression hardened.
"Hmm, no option to wipe them out entirely? In my experience, leaving roots of trouble never ended well…"
Davin shook her head. Focus on the stream.
"Dang Hyeok-un's stats are good, but no need to make them citizens."
Davin chose colonization. With a click, the martial artist refugees became slaves. Then she tweaked the base settings, designating the castle as her main base and the original wooden base as a colony.
"Straight to slaves! I'll take this fine castle as my base, so you lot develop my old one!"
Suddenly, a base surrounded by walls appeared!
"Jackpot!"
"What… even this is frame now? Tough crowd…"
After a brief banter with viewers, Davin resumed the game. Then she felt dizzy from the flood of complex text.
"Taxes? Loyalty? Food? Ideology? I clearly won the fight, so why is there more work…"
"Good thing I refused to be king of Terra… returning was right…"
Davin gritted her teeth, following viewer advice to somehow finish the internal affairs setup.
"Lower colony treatment sparks rebellion, higher makes my Humes unhappy… No wonder Terra's kings and ministers died young."
While steadily gathering resources and advancing tech, thoom—thoom—thoom— the raid alert vibration rang out again.
"Annoying every time. Alright, what mess now…"
Grotesque raiders emerge amid ominous smoke…
"Such a fuss. You guys spoiled it for me…"
Davin panned the screen to the smoke. Grotesque forms emerged: multi-armed, zombie-rotted, or 2m giants with one massive arm—varied horrors.
[A horde of aberrant cultists has appeared.]
"Terra had a few who used corpses. Those who defiled dignity for easy paths. Not that strong."
As she quickly mobilized the colony refugees, an old man with a staff among the monsters began chanting.
"I, ██, beseech thee—rotting ███, manifest a portion of thy form…"
Davin's Humes, lacking ranged magic, could only watch.
"No choice but defense."
As Humes manned the walls, the old man's chant ended. A black mist cloud formed above him and headed for Davin's base. Upon hitting the wall, the mist made it vanish smoothly.
The cultist shaman's spell has temporarily sealed the walls in another dimension.
"How does it happen right after I say it…"
No time to form up—the cultists charged the Humes.
Davin quickly placed refugees upfront, archers back firing arrows.
"If this game is historically accurate, that shaman leads the aberrants. Octavia, flank and eliminate the shaman."
"Then main force gets easier. Whittle their numbers with Octavia, strike the shaman when they misallocate."
Archers felled a few, but not enough. Bam! Monsters hit the main force. Refugees barely held formation.
Octavia sneaked around, striking the flank with magic. Constant training with resources had raised her mana realm. Splat— One [Fireball] shredded flesh from a giant, toppling it.
The shaman frantically gestured at Octavia. "████!" Monsters turned. Some flankers peeled off toward her; refugees downed the rest and recovered stamina.
Overwhelming cultists swarmed Octavia. Pfft. Laughter burst from Davin.
"Dumber than I thought."
She chanted haste on Octavia, pulling back to base, while ordering main force forward to hit cultists. Monsters couldn't catch up. Shaman realized, re-commanded—but main force had thinned them significantly.
Intense mind games followed. Constant tweaks to main and Octavia positions baited errors. Shaman adjusted quickly but took losses.
Unable to sustain losses, shaman committed: ignore mobile Octavia, all-in on main.
"Knew you'd do that."
Davin exploited the gap as forces consolidated. Octavia charged the shaman. Too late to react—head exploded from chantless [Fireball].
The aberrant cultist horde retreats without their leader!
"Took more effort than expected."
Adrenaline pumping, Davin handled cleanup and governance frantically.
"Hauling and burning corpses one by one is work too…"
After essentials, she came to—sun rising outside.
"Alright, it's late, so stream ends here… hm…"
"Nap and back at 9 PM! Octavia's waiting!"
Click— Stream ended, silence filled the room.
"Still… not bad."
Feeling light, she showered and went to shut down the PC when a chat popped up.
[Inappropriate chat detected and deleted.]
"…"
Don't overthink. This isn't Terra. No need to fight or desperately scheme to survive. Best to erase bad thoughts.
"Meee…"
She dove straight into bed!