I just heard the enemy was going to launch another assault. I really wish that they would give us time to recover and honestly, I’m starting to feel a bit bad about mowing them all down. But I relayed my commands and everyone who already wasn’t in defensive positions started to move.

My subordinates didn't want me fighting on the front lines, they wanted me in the command centre, but we were currently only holding this narrow entrance to the valley meaning I can command better from the front lines.

There was also no possibility of backstabbing like it used to be. The command had finally stabilized and everyone who was here for their own gains was dead or back where they came from. It took almost 14 years and so many lost lives, but we are finally making proper progress in ending this damnable war.

I still remember what it was like commanding millions of soldiers but now it was no longer necessary. I was in command of around 200,000 which was a perfect number that allowed me to be a lot more strategic and react faster when necessary.

The entire frontline is now split between hundreds of commanders who control similar numbers of soldiers to me. This way of command has been incredibly effective, and we have finally started to push deeper into the Chinese mainland.

The Pacific theatre is currently fully blockading our opponent and they're waiting to launch amphibious assaults when we penetrate deep enough. I am confident that even though we are facing stronger resistance we will be able to punch through thanks to the new weapon I was holding. It was called PA-50 and it was the assault gun that I felt was from the future.

The gun used projectiles that looked like small needles kind of similar to sabot shells. The propellant came from gas chambers that you could pressurize to hold enough gas to fire almost 10,000 rounds. My current drum magazine held 600 rounds and I could fire them all in 47 seconds.

If you didn’t hit anything vital it would be hard to put a human down but the amount of armour and the quality of that armour that our opponents used meant, we needed the extra penetration these kinds of rounds gave to do anything.

It had a burst fire mode which I used most often. The maintenance was a nightmare but logistically we can now bring in a lot more ammo a lot faster, which was necessary. This thing could chew through a tank armour if I used up my current magazine, which was impressive. You could also change how fast the round went, you could keep it subsonic or crank it up and really let those rounds fly.

I could finally hear the assault coming. I got into position. As soon as I saw the first head, I let off a burst of fire having four rounds hit the soldier’s helmet instantly killing him. Aiming at vital spots was important with this weapon and after so long I was really good at it. This new weapon did take a bit of readjusting, but I was now back at my prime. It didn't have much recoil and the sound it makes was similar to a racing car changing gears.

Its firing system was incredibly designed and used itself to cool down allowing us to keep firing. I had already killed more than 50 enemies in a short time and once again I was glad that this weapon was designed just for this purpose. It was grim work, but we were easily able to defend. The enemy must have lost around 8000 soldiers. If this keeps up we might finally be able to start pushing.

I woke up having dreamed of my previous life. This didn't happen often, but I guess there was a correlation. That place that we held turned out to be the turning point in the war as that new weapon allowed us to truly start making progress. It still took over five years more to finally end WW3. The battle we had here also represented the turning point. Everyone now knew that we could defend ourselves. Now they will be willing to devote themselves to making a life for themselves here.

I believe that a lot of refugees would now stay and accept our way of life more easily. I tried to make as little noise as possible as five other people were sleeping here, one of them was a dwarf. We didn't have a lot of other races but slowly we seem to have gathered a lot of different ones.

I was kind of excited about having different races as that meant that we could also have different places we could make into livable areas. It turned out to be true that dwarves liked to live in mountains and while some humans would as well humans seemed to do better when there was farming land around.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

It was already quite late in the day and the sun had started to go towards the horizon. Work was still ongoing, and it would take quite a long time to sort and bring everything valuable back to the village. I left them to do their work while I started heading back to the village. I didn’t run just yet as I wanted to look over my achievement page to see what I have gotten.

The first thing I did was check my stat points and holy shit I had gained a lot. My strength was now over 1.1K. My dexterity and vitality were over 900. My other stats improved a lot as well, but my endurance, empathy and intelligence reached the 160 milestones. Wisdom had a grand total of three milestones as I got it passed 40 stat points.

New trait gained.

endurance reaches 160 new trait gained: adaptive metabolism.

empathy reaches 160 new trait gained: harmonious bond.

intelligence reaches 160 new trait gained: clarity of mind.

wisdom reaches 10 new trait gained: better empathy.

wisdom reaches 20 new trait gained: quick memory.

wisdom reaches 40 new trait gained: enhanced awareness.

Those were some nice traits, and I could already feel clarity of mind and quick memory working. Enhanced awareness was something that didn't seem to work well or perhaps I have to go to somewhere I needed to use my awareness more to gain the extra boost the name suggested.

I expected harmonious bond to affect something between Goose and me, but I couldn’t tell what it was affecting or how it could have changed our bond. Adaptive metabolism sounded interesting, but I currently didn’t know what it was doing. It most likely meant that I could now eat a lot more stuff and survive but a good meditation session would allow me to figure out what exactly it does.

My commander ability gained 4 levels bringing me to 6 and some of my other abilities levelled up as well. Like with the rest of my abilities, when I gain levels, I can push the ability further and get better results. I wonder what the limits might be if I’m had commander at level 100. How many people I could give incredible boosts to? It's weird to think about how much one person can affect an entire army's strength in this world.

In the skill department, everything was even more amazing. My weapon skill tiered up giving me a choice of abilities. Of the three options, two were interesting. Energy freedom and Splitting control. Splitting control sounded like I would be able to more effectively control two abilities. While currently, I’m also using multiple abilities to boost my weapon or armour, taking active control of that ability means that I don’t have the mental capability to manipulate another ability to that extent.

Perhaps with this ability, I would be able to do it but then energy freedom also sounded incredibly interesting. Every ability came with limitations and how far you could push that ability from its intended effect was one of the biggest. Over time I’ve learned how to push that limit but what if this ability would give me even greater control? If that's the case the choice comes down to either one even more powerful ability or enabling me to boost two abilities at the same time.

I took quite a while to think about this while walking. Both options sounded good, so I turned to numbers. During all the battles that I have had having that one strong attack or defence seems to be a smarter move. While I could see scenarios where having two different types of powerful abilities at the same time would be more desirable. I think most of the time having one extremely powerful ability is better. I ended up choosing energy freedom.

Next came intimidation. I quickly looked at the options.

Skill increases intimidation level 20 is upgraded to advanced intimidation level 1

Choose one of the following abilities

physical presence

fearlessness

assert dominance

I didn’t like the fearlessness option. Having fear is important but perhaps there are monsters or people with abilities that make you feel an unimaginable amount of fear. Assert dominance was something I wasn’t really that interested in although it might also be useful when handling animals. Physical presence I also wasn't too fond of. I believe I already have enough presence but once again I could see some benefits, especially when dealing with animals.

I felt that all had their pluses and minuses, and this truly was a hard decision to make. None of these abilities was especially desirable. I ended up going with physical presence. I had a few other traits and abilities that helped with something similar and stacking effects was always powerful.

The next and last skill tier-up was command. There weren’t really any choices. As soon as I saw, elite unit I immediately picked it. I now have three abilities that ended in unit and hopefully, I will get a few more and then combine them all into one incredible ability which will hopefully help my commander ability a lot. Then any army that I lead will be a lot more powerful than anyone expected to be.