The Empire’s Invasion Arc
137. A year of Progress (Part 1)
After Yuuki escaped, we were unable to immediately pursue.
One could say that Leon’s impatience led to Yuuki escaping, but the real reason is the fact that we couldn’t trust each other.
I mean, there’s no question that all of us desperately want to save Chloe.
Fighting the Empire along with him puts as at a disadvantage. We need to prepare.
I was tasked with handling Milim, while Leon would handle information-gathering. But that entailed basically waiting for his spy to report in.
Leon will collect information while refraining from impatient actions.
Well, maybe he can just create a barrier around the battlefield—though whether a bearer of an ultimate skill would be affected is a different story—but I still believe that we should not act independently.
This common goal is the only thing that binds our group together. Should that common goal disappear there’s no way I’ll be able to control the other two.
For now, we need to return and prepare our countries for an eventual confrontation with the Empire.
But first, I have to deal with Milim.
Life got a bit complicated for me once I separated from Leon and Ruminas.
Soothing the raging Milim.
And have her “guardian” come right after Milim anger was soothed.
In short, I had to prevent Milim from rampaging.
Her “guardian” (Frey) should have come sooner. She seems to have come the moment Milim regained her composure, but I don’t want to think that Frey was just waiting for the right moment to return.
Right… Leon forced me into this.
Well, since Milim’s mood improved quickly, I guess it wasn’t that bad.
From within the orb I carried the Chaos Dragon’s soul formed into a small monster.
He basically appeared from within the egg the moment Milim came.
「… Gaia, is that you?」
「Kyuui!!!」
The dragon and the girl embraced each other.
After that, we “partied”… by going to the labyrinth and power-leveling Gaia.
Since Gaia could fly, he followed close behind me.
The dragon got used to fighting after only a few battles, and quickly started using miasma breath against multiple opponents—miasma breath would drive our enemies mad.
The barrier is rather strong, and now, even if the enemy is a mage, my magic barrier and Gaia’s gravity barrier creates an impenetrable wall.
As a result, though we had previously struggled against the boss of the 30th floor, we have now cleared him with ease.
「Kua-ha-ha-ha! He’s no match for us now!」
「Wahahaha! This made my day!」
「Kyui!!」
That was fun.
Stop saying such foolish things. We’re trying hard for Gaia’s sake!
But soon we… no, I couldn’t help but be overcome with worry over Chloe.
But, no, I must not worry. ‘Tis not an emergency yet, and undue worry harms one’s heart.
If so, I would be very grateful.
And though Milim protested, it was useless.
Figuring that Milim came over to play, Frey made sure that Milim understand that she’ll be working without a break for a while.
「I’ll be back!」
Milim said, leaving.
As for Gaia, he continued wandering the Labyrinth in his current form.
And thus another companion joined us in our labyrinth adventures.
In other words, when we controlled our avatars, we were so strong that adventurers would just roll over and die.
This, though, is how we appeased Milim’s anger.
None of us would dare to have fun while Milim was away.
There was that thing, about doing a joint research venture?
Thanks to Gerudo’s efforts in building a road and setting up barriers along it, the preparations for our various joint ventures are going well.
We also have a plan to build a railway heading towards the dwarfs, so as to facilitate faster exchange of goods and materials.
By the way, the researchers have arrived: the Dwarf Artisans, Sarion’s Sorcerers, and Holy Empire’s Engineers.
That’s why they arrived even before we completed the roads.
137. A year of progress (part 2)
We even set up night lamps and anti-monster barriers for night travelers.
That town benefited greatly from the various engineering projects and became rather prosperous.
That town, by the way, will later develop to be a central station district.
The fact that we so quickly built the roads and railroads actually helped me solidify dominance over Jura Forest entire.
In fact, we may have created as efficient a system as the one back in my previous world.
If the Empire really does invade us, then I’ll just completely destroy it. What’s the point of being anxious against someone you’ll know for a brief second?
Though if the Empire does advance we might have to destroy some of the rails; but even if we have to do so, we can just rebuild them later.
The matter of the angels is the same.
After all, things are not as important as people.
Having arranged our affairs around this notion, even I was surprised at how fast we developed.
The spirit research was primarily handled by the Dwarfs’ and Elves’ joint venture.
In contrast, Sorcery Studies are veiled in secrecy and taboos.
With many brilliant minds from the Sorcerer’s Dynasty here, we’re going to have a splendid Sorcery facility here. Of course, no state secrets will be divulged, though.
They study not magic, but physics and the laws of the world. Science of our world.
For a world full of magic, this kind of study is the true heresy.
The whole point of this was to fill Tempest with research of every kind—to exchange ideas of every kind, and, as a result, to create fields of research and facilities the likes of which this world has never seen.
So we need a location that can be easily protected and difficult to infiltrate.
And this city is also inhabited by elves, some of whom may want to help in the research.
Even if the angels attack, they will probably not be able to reach the 95th floor. Even if they do, Ramiris says we can just swap 99th for the 95th floor at a moment’s notice.
So with this, we proceeded to set up sleeping quarters.
That, however, would defeat the whole purpose.
What secret is safe from Raphael? I compiled their research in easy to understand terms and handed such a portfolio to each one of them.
But it is a step in the right direction.
Of course alcohol played a role. There’s a beautiful paradise of alcohol and elves right outside of the research facility. Any dispute could easily be… dissolved in a bar.
By the way, I too joined them on many occasions but was never paid for overtime work. Unfair, right?
Ramiris, of course, was also interested in this research.
Oh, and I did not forget that I broke her golem so long ago, so we focused on that first.
How long did they work without a single break through? I guess you would get discouraged if that were to happen.
We also were able to push for the release of the “Barrier-kun”—Kurobee’s and Bester’s Simplified Magic Circle Equipment.
The spirits would convert magical energy into spiritual energy, which would then be stored in batteries.
I have finally attained unlimited energy!
7 feet tall, weighing 1.5 tons. Charged with a number of batteries, allowing for individual and high-speed motion via gravity control.
So I personally think it’s more of a toy than anything.
I was considering at first to use golems or demons to power it, but that’s no longer necessary.
We emphasized horse-power, efficiency, and load capacity.
This invention, which redefined commerce, naturally altered history. With trains, you could transport even produce before it spoiled.
Not only between us and the Dwarf Kingdom, but also towards the seas, the four corners of this Earth! Too many requests are coming from other countries.
Nonetheless, the rail towards Dwarf Kingdom took a year to develop, so new rails will have to wait for a bit.
While Fortresses are not needed to counter the empire, armed trains might come in handy.
Well… this really was just a hobby, and I’m not really serious about this. So long as no one takes my words seriously.
It’s fine to use the normal train cars.
With these trains, we created a four-thousand-man strong train corps. We could increase that number, and would likely do so soon, but not now.
Once we’re done, a trip between the Dwarf Kingdom and Tempest should take at most three days.
And when did announce to the world this invention, countries were in total uproar over it.
So we accomplished lots in this one year.
According to what Leon’s spies gathered, Yuuki has been climbing the ranks of the Empire.
But they are still unable to invade us. There’s no doubt they are preparing for war, but war will not start just yet.
There may be a chance they’ll send assassins, but it’s actually rather unlikely. As Ruminas said: it’s a waste of men to try to kill us that way.
And it’s not like we could permit them to see what we’re up to.
And thus, our research continues.
There’s no question that, inasmuch as us, the Empire achieved grand things this year.
I actually found out about this just about when we started testing our trains.
Asking us to participate in their next meeting.
Of course, at this point, this invitation was essentially fated to arrive.