World Collision - The Eighth - 4

Yogur-tosoth's level was currently 10. It had reached the absolute maximum of its promotion-capable stats. Biin had deliberately funneled resources into Yogur-tosoth to ensure it could ascend during this battle, strengthening it to the limit.

The combined support from Sesaisa and Mihun had been enormous. In Creamland, where Yogur-tosoth resided, Sesaisa had constructed a palace just for it. Mihun had taught it several superior Daoist techniques—in other words, mystical magic that could be learned and used. As a result, the experience points of Yogur-tosoth, who had previously been holed up doing nothing but magical research, skyrocketed.

Yogur-tosoth greedily absorbed the knowledge spread by the gods of other worlds and grew stronger. Thus was born a truly insane colossal monster with a total score of 1,334,434 points: 310,000 in Combat and 360,000 in Authority.

Of course, a world's stat and an individual's stat didn't correspond one-to-one, but Yogur-tosoth alone shouldered nearly half of the Dessert Legion's total fighting power.

When it unleashed its full strength just once, an entire city was ripped from its foundations as if struck by a typhoon. Even the massive Spiritual Realm that Ogolraeot had installed after receiving advice from his allies was warped and distorted.

It would have been strange if the citizens' morale hadn't been completely shattered.

Both and plummeted like crazy. Since Yogur-tosoth's had already surpassed 100,000 points, its horrifying appearance was seared so deeply into everyone's minds that it haunted their dreams.

Ogolraeot had no choice but to soothe his people. He entrusted this task to the legendary entity in charge of and —the great shaman, Dolgoon.

Dolgoon was a legendary symbol whose combat ability was also above average. As the spiritual leader of these nomadic people, he cautiously offered advice to his god.

Ogolraeot gathered with the other gods and organized the situation.

First. The vanguard that had crossed over to the enemy world—they could only pray that those three thousand soldiers would somehow survive until the Dimensional Passage phase two years from now.

Sending three thousand troops during the Dimensional Gate phase was essentially sending them to fight as hard as they could and die, or sending them with absolute confidence that they would win and return.

In this case, it had been the latter. Ogolraeot had believed his vanguard would survive, suppress the ecosystem, establish a base, and crush everything in their path.

But that wasn't what happened. While the powerful vanguard could completely destroy the enemy's ecosystem, there was a insane creature that restored it all in a single day.

They couldn't just let three thousand elite soldiers starve to death. In the end, they kept the gate open and continued supplying them. However, the soldiers couldn't even build a proper camp. No matter what they did, that insane monster turned everything into bubbles within a day. The vanguard's morale and stamina had sunk through the floor and into the bedrock.

Of course, they couldn't abandon the idea of building a base in the enemy world. What, were they supposed to live in the jungle with the wild animals?

It might have been better to treat the troops as expendable and charge deep inside while sweeping everything away.

The problem was that this wasn't Ogolraeot's world of endless plains. The enemy territory consisted of jungles, deserts, mountains, and swamps. Their cavalry units were nearly useless there.

Worse, Ogolraeot had no way to open a Dimensional Gate deeper into the enemy territory beyond where his troops were currently stationed. That meant their supply lines would be cut.

Honestly, at this point, it would have been better if the enemy had just killed all the troops he'd sent. At least then the unit would have died gloriously in battle, and he could have cleanly given up.

But Biin wasn't doing that. He was simply draining their morale and stamina by forcing them to build meaningless camps, while refusing to commit any of his core forces.

Meanwhile, Haina's elite knight order and the two thousand military engineers sent as reinforcements were somehow surviving by magically cooking jelly mixed with sand and bread that tasted like iron. If he abandoned them now, the home world's morale would collapse.

Second. The conscripted soldiers were dealing with the evil species surprisingly effectively.

This was the one hopeful point. It seemed the enemy didn't have that many monsters either.

No—in a way, they seemed to treat even Hero-grade entities as disposable.

They had succeeded in delivering a heavy blow. Whether they lacked the concept of keeping creatures alive to grow them steadily, he didn't know, but they had already killed more than ten heroic entities. Six of Ogolraeot's own had died as well.

Still, through that process, even the previously unskilled conscripts were slowly transforming into excellent fighting forces.

"Hide that fact. We need to reassure the civilians."

Third. They had discovered the cause of the city's destruction. He'd wondered how such a powerful monster could overcome dimensional pressure and force its way through a gate—there was a method after all.

"What are you talking about?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠"...Insane. So now we have to catch all of those things too?"

Fourth. Food production had seemed to be gradually decreasing, but at some point weeds had taken over the pastures and fields.

What had looked harmless—Gamchi and the seeds stuck to monkey fur—had spread. Now the fields were filled with trash-like weeds, no, poisonous weeds that even the bison couldn't eat. This year's harvest was completely ruined.

"This is a serious problem. We don't have a small stockpile, but still..."

So Ogolraeot decided to resolve the situation with a very simple method.

"Alright. No choice then. Since it's harvest season, gather all the crops."

After the harvest, he concentrated his divine power. The vast pastures and farmlands of Ogolraeot's world—lands he had expanded to twice their normal size using World Shaping—began to shrink.

If he could expand land to twice its original size, it was only natural he could shrink it to half. Ogolraeot simply compressed the terrain to one-fourth its size, then used bison, plows, and fire-based mysticism to easily turn over the stubborn weeds in just fifteen days of labor.

He then sowed seeds densely across the shrunken land and expanded it back to four times its size. The result was vast fields and pastures completely free of weeds. The divine power consumed wasn't even that much.

"Whaaaaaaaaat?!"

Biin, who had been monitoring the situation through the Gamchi he'd sent to the enemy world, nearly fainted from shock. He knew the World Shaping trait was good, but he had never imagined such an application.

As expected of a top-tier player—their adaptability was incredible. Rather than restoring all the land to its original size, Ogolraeot had shrunk the useless areas, carefully repositioned them for better defense and organic connection between cities, separated the Dimensional Gate zone from the farmland, reduced the area where the Dessert Legion could operate, and made pest control far easier.

Biin clicked his tongue as he observed the enemy world.

"Figures he's the leader of the alliance. Looks like the real fight will have to wait until the Dimensional Passage opens in two years."

But Biin hadn't given up yet. This was thanks to the military tactics Wahando had taught him.

"Let's say your fierce assault gets blocked during the Dimensional Gate phase. What would you do then?"

"Well, sending more troops at that point would just get them slaughtered easily by the enemy's forces, so I'd reduce troop deployments and stockpile resources?"

"Correct. The problem is that the enemy would also reorganize. And your main plan only works with continuous pressure. In that ambiguous phase where your attack is blocked but the Dimensional Passage hasn't opened yet, you need a way to put massive pressure on the enemy world."

"Then what should I do?"

"Do what everyone else does, but you don't. Build a permanent outpost in the enemy world. Once you have a foothold, you can deploy all kinds of strategies afterward."

While monsters like Bisyakheet, along with predatory Puddings and candy-like beasts, were ravaging the enemy's cities and villages, a corner of the plains where only bison had lived was now occupied by Dark Ream and Caramel Camels.

The bison here were core cavalry assets granted the property, making them powerful creatures. But even so, they seemed unable to defeat the Caramel Camels and Dark Ream that had mastered Yo-su-gong-bop and crossed over from the hellish Dessert Desert.

"Shouldn't we drive those things out?"

"How? Normal fire magic doesn't work unless fired by a superhuman, and once they start running they're faster than bison. Plus, spears and swords can't even pierce their skin."

"So we just leave them alone?"

"Look. Evil species have invaded our interior. When would we have time to deal with them? We have to purge the inside first, then we can worry about the rest."

Moreover, the Dark Ream were descendants of Shuc-rimmurath. They crudely mimicked her Authority. They built Creamland and absorbed the surrounding mana and nutrients to produce a resource called 'Cream.'

And on land covered in Cream and Creamland, the Dessert Legion naturally flourished and devoured the terrain's level.

One additional effect was that any region covered by this artificial Spiritual Realm was treated as 'occupied' territory, where the enemy god's divine power could no longer reach.

"Terrain manipulation doesn't work... Damn it."

In the end, the evil species began creeping across the land that hadn't been shrunk in time. While Ogolraeot couldn't even build a proper camp in the enemy world, the enemy was already encroaching on his ecosystem.

Naturally, Ogolraeot was in a foul mood at this stage of reorganization.

"Gather the army. We will destroy the terrain those bastards have occupied."

It went without saying that they weren't living in a fortress—they were simply existing on the plains.

To prepare for the possibility of a trap, more than half the forces had to remain at the main base. Still, roughly 3,500 bison cavalry should have been more than enough to trample the Dessert Legion occupying the plains.

"Send every single legendary entity as well."

The second legendary entity of this world was not human.

It was the great bison 'Unzara.' The 'symbol' of the bison that served as livestock, friends, and comrades to this world. It was a legendary entity created during a mysterious unique creation event early in the game and raised with great care.

Its stats reached a staggering Level 9. True to its name as the great bison, it massively boosted the abilities of all nearby bison. It possessed an Authority that transmitted its courage and strength to its riders, as well as a mysticism that could overwhelm surrounding enemies with immense spirit and release shockwaves to exert real physical force.

Its rider was naturally the great shaman Dolgoon. In truth, he wasn't even a rider. He simply followed where the bison went and unleashed mysticism according to his will.

To the horned dwarf race, Unzara was effectively a proxy of the gods. It was the strongest creation in this world, having been with them since the barbaric days when they first milked bison, made clothes from their fur and hides, and crafted weapons from their horns. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ Even so, its stats were not so weak that it couldn't handle the evil species that had crossed over during the Dimensional Gate phase. Just in case, a thorough defense force had been left inside the cities as well.

Thus, what should have been less of a battle and more of a pest control operation—right as the great bison Unzara charged forward with the cavalry following behind.

Crrrrrrrrrrrrack!

As if it had been waiting for exactly this moment, the dimension tore open at the location of the Dessert Legion.

Of course, Ogolraeot wasn't surprised at all. He had naturally predicted something like this.

He had assumed that if the entire army charged, either that unidentified bubble demon would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠unleash magic, or that horrifying colossal monster would cross over, leading to a direct clash.

And his army was not weak enough to be overwhelmed by something of that level. They were fully prepared to block any kind of mysticism or physical attack. They wouldn't fall for such an obvious trick, nor were they unprepared.

In fact, he had been thinking of borrowing Dolgoon and Unzara's power to reverse the Space-Time magic, slicing the body of whatever legendary creation tried to cross over in the middle...

Puff!

A wind blew.

A refreshingly pleasant breeze and warm air that somehow felt beautiful.

An enormous amount of pollen and dust—enough to obscure one's vision—crossed from the enemy world into this one, completely enveloping the 3,500-strong army.

"Wo! Wo! Wo!"

And the moment the pollen spread, the creatures of the Dessert Legion immediately turned around and retreated through the opened Dimensional Gate.

It seemed they had temporarily violated the one-way rule using Space-Time mysticism.

Seeing them act like they had released a poison fog and fled, Ogolraeot grew urgent.

"Wait. Everyone, inspect the troops immediately. What the hell were we hit with?"

The army hurriedly checked themselves.

"No abnormalities in physical condition."

"No issues with sensory organs or mental state."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠"The bison are all fine too."

"No abnormalities in mysticism. The flow is perfectly normal."

"???"

In other words, nothing had happened. He looked toward Dolgoon, the mysticism expert.

"Dolgoon. What do you think this was?"

"No way they scattered it for no reason. Even using attack magic would have been better than this."

Even so, what they didn't know, they didn't know. It was just pollen with a rather strong scent. That was it. It had simply been sprayed on 'all 3,500 soldiers.'

As if they had built a camp and dug a trap to lure the army in solely for the purpose of sprinkling this pollen.

Only later did they learn that this pollen's scent literally would not come off no matter what they did.

Whether they washed their bodies, soaked in oil, burned themselves with fire, or applied other perfumes—the smell wouldn't disappear.

After the lull, even two years later, right up until just before the Dimensional Passage phase, the scent remained distinctly noticeable. By then it had become such a normal smell that no one paid it any attention anymore.

Yet Ogolraeot felt a growing sense of unease.