Deployment! The Golem Legion Marches

While the golems finished up their healing, I dumped all the experience I'd gathered into Golem Creation, pushing the spell all the way to level 10.

'Finding the main body with Mana Detection is important, but this is way more critical right now.'

Because I had already checked what the level 10 perk actually did. It wasn't just a simple buff. According to the description, it applied to every reinforcement effect ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠inside a golem's body, including auxiliary magic circles.

But my situation was different. I hammered the reinforcement button like a madman. Experience poured out in waves until about ten message windows popped up all at once. Most of them were just Reinforcement complete notifications, but then—

A huge window appeared at the end, and suddenly my experience bar refilled. I used the fresh batch to raise Protection of the Law and Mana Detection a little as well. Once they passed level 5, Protection of the Law gained longer duration while Mana Detection mainly expanded its range.

Better to spread the pain around.

To soften the shock, I cast Mana Detection after each level-up and slowly explored the new range.

“Ugh—”

My head went white again, but I really could sense part of the spore zone now.

'Still, if it only does this the very first time, isn’t that acceptable?'

Tsk. The sensation was awful, but it wasn’t actually dangerous. It didn’t even hurt.

That aside… these spores really covered a huge area.

'Just how far have they spread?'

Swarms of bugs in the sewers, clouds of mosquitoes in the flowerbeds—everything showed up in my mana vision. It was downright disgusting.

“Blegh.”

No, seriously, zombie mosquitoes? That was just unfair. If those grotesque, shameless creatures were roaming the entire planet, rebuilding human civilization would be an absolute nightmare. Even with the Magic Tower.

I didn’t want to think about it. I had to survive first.

Which meant I needed to find one of those pest-control trucks that sprayed insecticide. There had to be one somewhere if I looked hard enough.

'Once I clean up the spores, I’ll track down one of those trucks, some fuel, and spray the whole city.'

But first, I had to deal with the spores themselves. Right on cue, the golems came up from the lower floors.

“Treatment is complete,” Unit 1 reported.

But the golems weren’t alone. A man walked out from between them. He had changed into clean new clothes, but he was the same guy who had been wearing work overalls earlier.

“I really thought I was done for, turning into a zombie. Thanks to you, I’m alive.”

He grinned and lightly tapped his healed shoulder. He looked surprisingly fine. Unlike the others, he hadn’t had any major injuries except for that one spot, so I expected him to recover the fastest. Still, it was quicker than I thought.

But that wasn’t important. Why was he here?

“What’s going on?”

“We told him to rest longer, but he insisted on following us, so we brought him along,” Unit 1 explained.

Before the golem could finish, the man jumped in.

“I heard the explanation from your friends. So… I want to go fight those spore zombies too. Is there any way you could teach me magic…?”

He said he had seen the golems using magic and claimed that if he could do the same, he could fight zombies. What a lunatic. The way his eyes sparkled while saying that proved he was completely insane.

He had barely been rescued, and the moment his body healed he wanted to march straight back into a zombie pit.

Maybe the zombie virus that had gotten on his arm affected his mind? Hmm. No. He was probably just like this from the start.

The man introduced himself. He used to be a snowboarder. These days he ran an extreme sports travel YouTube channel in the summer and worked as a snowboard instructor in the winter. A total dopamine ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠addict. He lived in such a different world from me that it felt like a fantasy setting.

But no matter how much he volunteered for dangerous zombie hunting, I couldn’t let him join this operation. How was he supposed to block the spores? One wrong breath and he’d turn. He’d only get in the way.

“Even a grand mage can turn into a zombie if they accidentally inhale the spores. It’s too dangerous. You’d just be a liability.”

He looked disappointed and lowered his head. Honestly, I couldn’t understand it. But the world was wide and full of crazy people. Somewhere out there, someone probably wanted to enjoy a real-life hack-and-slash against zombies.

Unfortunately, the ones who had rushed out with crowbars the moment the outbreak started were most likely all zombies by now. The zombies had enjoyed the thrilling action game far more than the humans.

This guy was actually one of the lucky ones. At least he was still alive.

“But if you really want to go out, I do have a job I can give you.”

“What is it?”

With that deranged mentality and those physical abilities, once he learned magic he could probably pull his own weight against those insane zombies.

“You’re really confident, right? You can hunt zombies if you have magic?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then take this first.”

I applied the disciple registration to him. He barely glanced at the long list of terms that popped up before smashing the accept button.

The spells I taught him were Mana Absorption, Telepathy, and Mana Detection. I had considered teaching him Light of Rest too, but it seemed too difficult for a beginner. He’d probably need to learn a shield spell first.

“If you mess up, I won’t let you go. Da-yeon will handle your lessons.”

I opened the messenger and explained the job I wanted to entrust to him.

'So his name is Taeho.'

The job I was giving him was the communications officer role I had been thinking about for a while. Having someone in that position would make things much easier for the golems too.

It was like having a coach who could watch the soccer match and give real-time tactical instructions instead of just drawing up plays beforehand. Total cheat code.

“Still, I absolutely cannot send you on this deployment. You have to learn all the magic, test it nearby, and prove you can fight zombies before I let you go.”

Anyway, because of the duration limit on Protection of the Law, we would have to repeat the spore cleanup operation several times. While he trained and learned shield magic, he could build up enough combat power to be sent outside.

And if something went wrong nearby, the Magic Tower’s defense systems could save him. Once I confirmed he could comfortably handle a decent number of zombies, I would deploy him for real.

If he couldn’t cut it, he’d just become another Mana Core production factory.

“So this is the magic that instantly slaughters those zombies. It’s amazing. A friend of mine said normal guns barely worked on them.”

“A friend?”

“I have one friend who’s a cop. Before communications cut out, he told me that.”

Then he probably wasn’t alive anymore. But Taeho seemed to think differently.

“In his last text, he said he somehow managed to link up with a military unit and was heading to the southern defense line. I wonder if he’s still alive.”

Southern defense line? If it was the south, he might have escaped down the Gyeongbu Expressway. Or maybe he went toward that survivor camp near Pyeongtaek. Honestly, I didn’t think his survival chances looked good either way.

“That’s why, if I ever felt completely hopeless, I was planning to steal a car and drive south until I died. But then this happened.”

He gave a bitter laugh. Continuing the conversation would only waste time and bring up more depressing topics, so I sent him ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off to Da-yeon and gathered the golems.

Applying the level 10 Golem Creation effect was a bit of a hassle. I had to open their cores and do some delicate work. Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, and the three mass-produced units. I lined them all up, removed their cores, poured mana into them, and expanded the magic circles.

Both the main circles and the auxiliary ones inscribed with Mana Absorption and attribute magic grew by another layer thanks to the level increase. Once I reinstalled the cores, the golems woke up with surprised expressions.

Six of them standing in a row like this looked pretty intimidating.

“How do you feel?”

They nodded in response.

“My body definitely feels lighter,” Unit 1 said.

“I think I can make even tastier and more effective Healing Berry cocktails now!” Unit 3 shouted brightly.

The mass-produced golems didn’t show emotions, but they flapped their steel arms as if eager to charge out immediately.

Now it was time for the buffs.

'Please let it succeed in one go.'

Feeling like a general standing on a platform before leading his army to war, I clenched my fists, cleared my throat, and shouted.

“I’m about to grant you an absolutely broken buff that will wipe out every last one of those disgusting zombie mosquitoes and scrub the spores clean!”

Whoosh—

“……?”

Unit ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠1’s expression twitched slightly, but it succeeded anyway.

Ah. That was so embarrassing.

“Buff time is precious! Let’s move out right now!!!”

And so, the spore zombie extermination operation officially began.