"An impressive view," I said to Mahruss as we watched the army move out of the first mountain pass and started to spread. It certainly was, with their magic matte dark gray armor catching the sunlight in interesting ways, contrasting with the golden presence that followed them.

I had insisted on adding the colors for a very simple reason. I wanted to reinforce a certain message.

For the other forces of this world, even the royal military, there was a huge gap between the gears of the commoners and nobles, and between different ranks, a glance enough to ascertain the difference. I chose a more homogenous style to give a sense of equality.

Of course, the armors of different ranks were not identical. The Shades, for example, had an even deeper color, with tasteful golden lines enhancing their looks. Similar armors were already made for the eventual commanders, though none were distributed yet, waiting until they could distinguish themselves in battle.

It was never too early to drive a sense of meritocracy.

The armor and the other methods I integrated with the army were very different from my usual methods — both back on Earth, and most of the things I used here — but I was too old not to realize trying to smash every problem just because the hammer was my best tool was not a smart strategy.

Once they left the first passage behind, the army split in multiple lines. The first was made of a mix of our new recruits and the experienced soldiers. Eight gray armor teams, and two golden, the colors helping to observe them easier.

Some of those donned with golden armor stayed back while the new recruits cut through the wild critters and the occasional beast, ready to intervene in case of an emergency, while some of them stayed behind the first line, not only carrying bows, but also with carts carrying magic ballistas, ready to deal with any emergencies, be it a beast stampede, cultist attack, or an ambush from one of our many enemies.

In a way, it reminded me of the past, the first refugee caravan where I first met a shockingly incompetent recruiter that was looking for new members for his team, a team that I joined … wow, it had been just a few months, but it felt like years ago.

They were spread in teams, dealing with the wild beasts as they walked, cutting them down one after the other just like we did back then.

Naturally, there was a great gap between the density of the beasts. Back then, the refugee caravan was moving through an area that had been already colonized and patrolled. Furthermore, there were other caravans to split the attention, and the bigger threats were distracted by the breach created by Set.

Here, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that the danger was a hundred-fold higher. The mountain was teeming with large beasts — and Lord Beasts, but they possessed enough cunning not to attack an army unless they saw an indication of weakness.

However, despite their low levels and common classes, our new army wasn't easy to handle either. Unlike the refugees that were armed with weapons fit for a garbage pile, they wielded high-quality magic weapons that cut through the giant beasts easily, had unlimited arrows for threats that were too dangerous to be dealt in melee.

And, most importantly, each had received multiple Expert skills — and an assistance from a healer to hasten their assimilation. While those skills were still more of a hindrance than assistance to me, that was only because of my impossible combination of Stats.

For people with ordinary classes, Expert Skills were nothing less than treasuries. I might have chosen differently if I had a month or two, and dealing with a group with ambition to constantly challenge themselves, I might have chosen to forgo skills and trained them in a more traditional manner.

But, it had to do. Maybe later, if their training for Awakened skills bore fruit.

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Still, the combat was beneficial to them. As they used their new abilities the first time in battle, they started to get more and more competent, each swing, each stab taking down multiple critters while their expertise grew.

Each team had a small mana-powered metal cart behind them, and on each cart there was a bonfire, where they would burn some of the killed critters, the resulting vitality attracting more and more beast toward them — though they still left most of the slain critters intact, which would eventually be used for farmers to establish mountain farms and expand our production.

Ordinarily, it was not advisable to leave them, as it would draw other monsters, but it worked well for our purpose. We much preferred if the monsters gathered the foothills of the mountains rather than sending teams to the tricky peaks.

Not everyone had the right stat loadout, and skills famously struggled without a stable footing.

It was an impressive showing.

I had to admit, it was paying well for me as well. The divine system didn't give much experience to me from killing giant beasts, but it gave me almost all the Experience from killing critters, which was by far the most common threat in this new land.

On average, every new recruit killed a critter about every two seconds — a shocking physical exertion that would have killed a man without System through sheer exhaustion in less than five minutes — meaning every recruit killed about twenty each minute, and twelve hundred an hour.

With a thousand new recruits, and about fifty experience from each critter, the total reward, even as a conservative estimate, was around sixty million Experience.

At face value, that wasn't too impressive. A dungeon run would give me more, while our defense against the beast wave granted me enough Experience to be measured by double-digit billions … every day. Compared to that, sixty million in an hour was nothing.

Yet, I was excited for it.

The simplest reason for my excitement was coming from a previously untapped source. I had used the smallest wild beasts as a source of experience back when I was just starting, and then used the outpost to scale my gains. Ultimately, I stopped using both, because they were not a good use of my time. I needed to be there to use my Charisma to get a share of the reward.

Technically, Takis and Mahruss could help me replicate that trick, but doubling that meager amount didn't mean much.

My divine followers didn't need my presence. It didn't matter if I was with them or not, every critter they had slain rewarded me with incredible reward, while the reward for killing the giant variants was still earned by them.

Even if it stayed at the current level, it would mean more than a billion Experience every day without any supervision, which was decent enough.

Then, there were the other factors that made this approach more valuable. They were still level ten … but, behind the army, there was a giant mobile leveling ward, crafted by Zolast, that could handle the pressure from their constant leveling easily.

Even then, teams were taking turns visiting the ward and leveling up. The stronger they got, the easier it would be for them to operate as independent teams. My hope was that, once they reached level forty and got more familiar with their power, a squad of a hundred could easily surpass the gains of my current army of a thousand.

It would give me ten billion Experience every day, which, even with the potential increase in the Experience needed, should be enough to push me to level hundred. Of course, then, once they push over level thirty, I would start getting a majority share of the giant beasts as well, increasing that number even further.

Tempting.

I looked at Mahruss. "We can't simply increase their numbers to ten thousand, right?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, no, boss," Mahruss spoke candidly since we were under a ward and his helmet hid his face. "We have the numbers, and thanks to the most recent changes in the dungeon, we would collect the necessary experience, but the problem is the magic weapons. We don't have enough to supply an army of twenty thousand, especially since we're still supplying the princess and her allied forces. We neither have the metal nor the blacksmiths required to scale up that much."

"The blacksmiths are not a problem," I said. He looked at me, surprised. "Zolast is able to repair master production skills. It's not enough to supply an army, but it should be enough for the blacksmiths."

"We don't lack mana stones," he answered. "We already opened the casino like you requested, and gambling for Ability stones is proving extremely popular. The casino alone is earning us a lot of mana stones. Moreover, the chips are a hit. Since the princess allowed its use within the city, the exchanges skyrocketed. The problem is, even if we pay premium, we're lacking in materials. Establishing new mines takes time."

"Make sure to prioritize the mines," I said, even as I considered what to do. "Meanwhile, I'll visit Oniphia again and see if there's a way to get some metal shipment. They should have a considerable stockpile," I said. "That's the first priority."

Then, I looked at the horizon, the distinct red of destruction mana visible, representing a dangerous threat that deserved my attention now that the mysteries of my new position somewhat resolved. "Correction. Second priority."