The Disciples' First Expedition

I set the robot vacuum to run and the moment I gave the order, the golems wrapped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠themselves in pure white light and dashed off into the distance.

'They're really fast......'

I could probably watch them for a little while, but they'd eventually leave the range of my mana detection. I knew perfectly well that it was best to just leave this job to the golems, but I couldn't help feeling anxious.

While I wasted time alternating between mana detection and staring out the window, a message arrived.

Soon after, Dayeon suggested we have a simple snack and placed some peeled apples on the table. The three men followed her upstairs. We had water created through magic—100% safe and clean—and plenty of sweet snacks to go with it.

Even though our numbers had grown, the mass-produced golems wrapped in buffs were still sweeping the area clean, so we had no worries about food.

"I-is it really okay for us to eat this?"

"I'd rather you ate it before it goes bad."

Even though they'd heard the explanation several times already, the three men kept staring with their mouths hanging open.

"We're not dead and in heaven, right?"

"I'm so glad everyone recovered safely."

All three had wiped themselves clean with damp towels and changed into the fresh clothes that were now overflowing in supply. It was such a spotless scene that you wouldn't think we were in the middle of an unprecedented zombie apocalypse.

Just a few days ago I hadn't had any clothes to wear, but now my storage was packed with garments of every type and size.

Most of them were secondhand from abandoned homes, but there were luxury brand pieces that were now practically worthless, and even cosplay outfits of cartoon characters.

If this had been a normal zombie movie, the end credits would probably be rolling by now.

Crackle—boom.

"What was that?"

"The defense system. Something like a zombie or bug must have gotten close. I set it to kill all living things because of the spore zombies."

In this damn world, we still had to worry about zombie cockroaches and zombie mosquitoes. And even if we solved this problem, there was no telling when another special zombie would appear. That was the real issue.

I chatted slowly with the others. What I realized was that while they weren't quite at Taeho's level, the other two were also quite the oddballs. On the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠surface, they looked completely ordinary.

Jeong Sejin (29), a sales representative at a mid-sized company. Shin Seongwoo (28), an accountant at the same company. But that was only their appearance.

"Honestly, it was more fun, so I was thinking about just quitting the company."

Sejin was a hardcore otaku who uploaded anime review videos as a side job.

"Do I have to talk about myself too? Um...... I actually graduated from Seoul National University."

"Wait, someone like you worked at our company?"

And Seongwoo turned out to be an elite who'd been on the gifted track since childhood, completing every science and engineering course available.

"Then suddenly everything felt annoying...... I didn't expect the world to end up like this."

Yet he'd had this bizarre history of dropping out right before grad school, declaring he wanted to live as an ordinary office worker instead.

Yeah. The world really is wide, and people are diverse. Especially in a zombie outbreak like this, the people who survive are probably far more likely to be unusual than ordinary.

But whatever the case.

"From now on, all of you will learn magic from me and work here."

They were officially my workers now.

First, I taught the three newcomers the golem creation magic and left their training to Dayeon as well. It seemed like her summary notes—that is, her magic tome—kept getting thicker as time passed.

If we lived like this for a few years, she might end up with something she could sell to the mages beyond the Free Records Office.

'The newcomer training seems to be going well......'

The problems outside were being handled by my golems. Housework was being taken care of efficiently by her golem, Tosiki. And she was enthusiastically handling the education.

'I really don't have much to do.'

It was the perfect scene of automated hunting.

'That's what I said, anyway.'

Because the golems had gone far away, I kept glancing out the window or opening the experience window. The fact that experience kept rising meant they were doing well. Still, the anxiety wouldn't stop, so I eventually gave up on my plan to look for magic and lay down on the bed.

What if the golems failed? What if they got bitten by flying zombie cockroaches and died on the spot? Such useless worries kept popping up. The occasional crackle— of the Magic Tower Defense System amplified my anxious imagination.

I'd switched the spell on the defense system from Mana Absorption to Light of Rest for energy efficiency, and now every time it activated it made a sound like an electric bug zapper.

At least it seemed good at catching bugs. Honestly, I'm scared of bugs. I'd heard plenty of outdated, sexist comments like "Why would a boy be afraid of bugs?" But now I could be as scared as I wanted, right......?

'No, what the hell am I even thinking about?'

Time passed like that, and just as my brain was getting soaked in the endless stream of random thoughts during my break, the golems returned completely unharmed.

They looked almost exactly the same as when they'd left, except the white light of the buff had faded a little. And they brought back an unexpectedly large pile of Mana Cores.

"Apparently, zombified animals and insects also drop mana cores."

"Thanks to the Protection of the Law effect, the spores just shatter from a punch. And if we sweep the area with the water cannon we made by adding some mana cores, it finishes quickly."

"The buildings all collapsed anyway, and the stuff inside was probably too corroded by spores to be usable."

"Anyway, we cleaned up about five blocks."

Five blocks in three hours. It was fast if you called it fast, slow if you called it slow.

"Did you check how far the overall area goes and where the main body is?"

"We still don't know that clearly. All we can say for sure is that this job is going to take quite a while......"

The important thing was that the golems could clean up without taking any damage. I kind of wanted to go watch. Once training finished and the newcomers' golems were added, the speed would increase, so it probably wouldn't take as long as I feared.

A few days passed like that.

During that time, the disciples made three more golems and added them to the cleaning squad. Unfortunately, these people had only made ordinary tin golems.

Since they'd made them hastily with low proficiency, there hadn't been room for the creator's personality to come through.

"Then I'll be going!"

And Taeho learned Mana Absorption and the Mana Shield I'd newly taught him, which meant he could finally fight zombies himself. We'd happened to obtain a sashimi knife meant for weeding not long ago.

When I handed it to him, Taeho struck a pose like the action hero from a crime movie and excitedly ran off to hunt zombies. After seeing that scene, I thought he was scarier than the zombies.

I'd been pretty tense, worried he might do something reckless. But he used parkour to leap between complicated terrain features to lure zombies, blocked them with his knife and shield, then looked for an opening to suck them in with Mana Absorption. That was his only tactic, but it was surprisingly effective.

No matter how noisily he jumped between buildings, zombies were still faster than humans. And their strength was too great to block with a mere knife. But it was enough to draw the zombies in and find the right angle for Mana Absorption.

In the end, he succeeded in surviving outside for several hours without receiving any support from me.

"Whew, that was tough."

Seeing him smile with the brightest expression ever despite all that hard work, he really was a maniac.

"Only use mana detection in places where you judge it's definitely safe. As you know, you might faint after using it."

During the testing process so far, he'd once fainted even after detecting a much smaller range than I could. If he tried to detect the entire spore area, he might collapse again.

I repeatedly emphasized that he should stay hidden behind the iron door, use it only after clearing nearby zombies, and—

"Master Magician, I get it already. Can I go catch some zombies now?"

Only after drilling safety rules into his head until his ears were ringing did I finally send him off with the golems. I believed there wouldn't be any major problems since the golems would handle most of the fighting on the way there and back.

It seemed they weren't just protecting him—they were literally carrying him. After quite a while passed like that, messages started pouring in again.

He really had found the main body and informed the golems of its location. The golems immediately dealt with the main body and stopped the spore spread.