Distribution

"That is alright, just wait until we're at the front of your outpost 2." Ciemnosc said after a bit of silence, letting Shidar feel more at ease and nod even though he couldn't see her from here in any way possible, because the video feature wasn't on. So both Ciemnosc's commanding vehicle and Shidar's outpost 2's forces all began moving, Ciemnosc reuniting with Shidar amidst the road then picking her and Li Saer up before driving back to the outpost 2 while the rest of armored cars went on their way to pick up their brand new, future fellow troopers.

…It took only more than a couple of minutes for Ciemnosc to drive to the front of the central outpost, the driving towards there was silent but comfortable at the same time, and neither did Shidar or Li Saer ever asked about the new fellas who their commander seemed to have taken from the ‘suspicious’ party just before they contacted him successfully.

It was, in a sense, humiliating to them to see them. Because seeing them imprisoned in their commander’s commanding vehicle only confirmed it furthermore that they could’ve lost their commander. Not just the dishonor of letting their leader be felled by a much smaller number of ‘enemies’, but commander Ciemnosc who is so incredible and has done so much for them all.

Trckrr~rr~...

Parking just outside of outpost 2, Ciemnosc was followed by Mosto and then by Shidar and Li Saer out of the commanding vehicle, while the prisoners remained in their temporary mobile prison. Coming out, the disciples stationed at the walls were naturally surprised, confused and then gladdened upon seeing that from the larger armored car came commander Ciemnosc into their view!

“Look! It is really him, commander Ciemnosc has returned, finally!” - “Wow, did he grow taller? Look at those muscles, oof, why does he have pants that hide so much, I wonder?” - “...slut.” - “Eh, he does look mighty handsome in those clothes, they must be new.” - “Honey, do you still love me??” - “...Eh~, who?”

“...Arr, sorry about that, commander.” Shidar, who was below the walls and with the armored car facing towards the east instead of towards the outpost, said as she blushed slightly and looked at the ground. She wasn’t a delicate young lady, but well, it was her boss being perverted around by some— and even others who seem to be taken ah —girls and young women as guards right now; which were none other than her people.

“Oh, it’s fine. I’m used to it, hehe.” Ciemnosc shrugged his shoulders and, under the gaze of Mosto who nodded at them with a pair of honest eyes, they kinda became speechless for a few seconds… All until Ciemnosc spoke out again, signaling for them to begin at last, “Shidar, Li Saer, report to me already. Your respective fields, as mentioned before.”

“Mn,” knowing that she wasn’t that good of a fighter, Li Saer was the one to follow her in all battles to protect her and show her what to do, also teaching her how to react and even read a battlefield as well as doing the sufficient changes in case of emergencies or stuff. They had ample time to do that in these almost 2 months of Ciemnosc not being around.

After mumbling with her lips closed, she looked at Li Saer and only spoke after they declared, silently, that she was the one to speak first with their silent, intimate eyes.

“Commander, there have been several attacks on our outposts’ territories. At first, it was the outposts themselves being assaulted and tried to infiltrate or simply advanced into by the enemy major organizations. There were even a few Conflagrate realm battles that required all of our small number of acting elders to involve themselves in those few battles.”

“There was a much better reaction time from our troops in that way, our sect disciples have become really used to the tactics of the armored cars while the Craftspeople manage to find a way of repairing with better efficiency when needed. But the materials for fully repairing an armored car are still lacking, so we will run out of them in a month and a half at most if we don’t find any way of getting more of them.”

“Afterwards, however, the major organizations began to only selectively attack our people outside the outposts and only when they were patrolling.” Shidar nodded, explaining the following struggled with a bit of a frown on her obscure brown skin. “At first, we were too slow to react and some of our people were successfully killed and even kidnapped. We believe that some vital information has been already stolen in this way as it took not much time for their Identification to send a ‘death notice’ notification to our outposts’ central communications.”

“It was only that bad at first, because our armored cars couldn’t reach in time before each of their small ambushes were detected. By the time they arrived, every single ambush was over with.” Shidar held her hands behind her back, sweating a little, while Ciemnosc asked with a neutral face, “Ambush?”

“Yes, ambushes.” Shidar nodded, then continued without any other obstacle keeping her from resuming her briefing. “Before a whole week was spent like this, we already concluded our tactics by arranging our patrolling teams with an armored car for each 2 teams, they can cover a large range with commander Ciemnosc’s newest tools. Hmm, I wonder when will the sect show them to the public.”

“Yep…” Ciemnosc lacked an answer or the need to speak more about it as he just looked at her curious expression and wrinkled eyebrows, Li Saer was the same though, so she couldn’t be blamed. Shidar continued after this little pause. “Since then, our patrolling teams are now basically without casualty, but every now and then, some Moribund Yearning Cult believers would go all out to the point of even sacrificing themselves just for the sake of capturing or killing one of us.”

“The former for situations where they still had a chance to do so and the former, which was the most common nowadays, was whenever they were just completely helpless against our patrolling teams.” Shidar said, almost finalizing her part. “But commander, let me reassure you that such things rarely happen since a month ago, they are extremely rare and our casualties are almost without touching.”

“Almost?” Once again, and rather simply, Ciemnosc asked with only his eyebrows jumping up in askance. Shidar pressed her lips together before saying after a couple seconds of a pause, “If it wasn’t because of Joah and Jenlin taking a few hundreds of our fellow disciples from each outpost and from the stronghold, there wouldn’t be a ‘lessened’ number in our ranks that was actually impactful, commander Ciemnosc.”

“Mn, okay then. That is good, so what are your doubts?” Ciemnosc nodded and asked again at Shidar, she nodded, gulped down once and then said after licking her lips simply to wet them. “Commander, we are still not capable enough of devising a different way that our subordinate cultivators can help during a battle; or any kind of battle to be specific, other than using those thruster tools or the missile-like tools.”

“We find that they became practically useless when there was no longer a pitch battle, and so they had been doing barely anything during the whole time since the enemy began targeting our patrolling teams only.” Shidar finished explaining and then took a step backwards, waiting for Ciemnosc to elaborate if he was so kind as to do so - without saying a word.

“Okay,” without any stressed expression or troubled light in his eyes, Ciemnosc began doing his best to figure something out right away. “Did the tools meet their quota? If so, what happened to them since they were virtually unused? And so, what training have the subordinate cultivators been doing so far?”

“Yes, commander. The quota of 3 per person from the subordinate cultivator’s number have been met every month, but the weapon and armor of top notch quality have been somewhat reduced by 30% at the very least, with some going as far as to 80% of slacking in their quotas despite the warning of the rules set by you, commander.”

“We just…” Shidar’s eyes fell once again to the ground, she took a breath before saying it all at last, “Didn’t dare to go along with the rules without you here, sir. We didn’t want to implicate you in our choices if there was another way you wouldn’t want it.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“That’s…nice, but you should’ve just cut their heads off, since they do less than even a not so ‘amazing Craftsperson’ every month then they were as good as freeloaders. After this meeting, contact the other outposts and the stronghold, tell Ernesto, Makis and Situ Shi to bring all of their Craftspeople along with their entire armored cars as well.”

“I will also use this chance to distribute all of the new blood that is coming, tell them to hurry up since not all of these can fit inside the outpost.” Ciemnosc relayed his orders and then Shidar responded as she is supposed to, her face stern and neutral at it. “Yes commander, I will contact them as soon as possible.”

“The missile tools have been separated, the oldest ones have been left to be stored far away from the nearest army warehouse to the walls, while the newest ones are stationed at those warehouses closest to the walls in case of an emergency. The thruster tools have been treated differently, the oldest ones are directly disassembled and melted down, their materials used for either creating more but newer or other weapons and armor.”

“Is all of that alright with you, commander?” Shidar asked with her face clearly asking for praise and not to be bashed with his words again, seemingly, Ciemnosc’s words were quite a blow to her before, ah.

“...” Grinning, not caring if she misunderstood that, or Li Saer for that matter, Ciemnosc grinned really widely and strongly before nodding his head and making her breath and heart become ordinary again…for a cultivator of her realm and stage.

“Mhm, it’s all alright. You’ve done good, I also didn’t expect you to suddenly create the best army in the world, so don’t sweat it.” As the little kid said those words, a totally gladdened Shidar jumped a tiny bit with her feet barely departing from the ground, gyrating to face Li Saer, whose poker face only changed once he looked at her once again, grinning as well.

“Thank you! Commander!” Recuperating her cool, Shidar said after bowing towards Ciemnosc, her head almost at his chest-level which made all 4 of them embarrassed to see, and even more for Ciemnosc to experience, ah…

“Li Saer.” After a little bit of time, Ciemnosc faced Li Saer, this young man of regular height, nice brown sand skin and very short black hair with a slim body that seemed to have gone far from ‘holding hands stage’ with a certain somebody, eh.

“Yes, commander.” Li Saer faced his commander and bowed his head and upper body only, before lifting his head and saying with a neutral tone. He then began briefing Ciemnosc with his own experience in these weeks…

“The Moribund Yearning Cult sent people towards all other outposts, sir, but the Preferential Light Justice Sect suddenly stopped attacking altogether about a month ago or so. On the other hand, the Eagerburning Flames Sect seemed to be trying to figure out ways to counter our armored cars, also somewhat targeting our subordinate cultivators’ firepower on them.”

“Their tactics were not much, however, only trying to set up a barrier like a wall of fire on their own, but they failed as they were not Conflagrate realm cultivators. However, we cannot discard the option that they have had enough time for studying our ways and preparing for a kind of decisive battle. Or at least one where they intend to, but hope to hurt us badly at most.”

“Their attempts were not much, so we can only speculate, they could also devise all kinds of tools and even use some of their acting elders or clergy elders; even the possibility of them sending elders or clergy is not improbable. We have to make sure we can deal with them and…and…”

“And and what? Speak it, you are not supposed to be this hesitant as part of my army.” Ciemnosc cocked his head heavily and brusquely to his left, almost as if intending to rest on his very own left shoulder as he said those words. Li Saer could only nod while hiding his slight embarrassment and spill it out right after with yet a slightly quiet tone.

“And if you, commander, could upgrade at least 1 of our armored cars to have a cannon like that of your commanding vehicle, we could very well deal with those possible greatest dangers to our mission.” Li Saer ended up saying, feeling calmer the more he spoke until he felt his torso no longer weighing heavily after fully speaking his mind out.

“A cannon, huh? Uhm…” Ciemnosc muttered, his eyes squinted a little bit while looking at his commanding vehicle’s cannons. Meanwhile, Li Saer was doubtful on whether such a thing would be allowed, it was so easy to distrust one’s people when they asked for such powerful weapons just to take care of enemies’ powerful ‘weapons’, but that was just how things worked.

At the same time, though, Li Saer and Shidar both became apprehensive of his words…army? An…army, an actual army of sect disciples…was he now a general?!

“I’ll deal with it later, for now, I have to first find a way to give the armored cars more tracking and have properties for many things, including those other than moving through land. Also to begin the creation of more of these armored cars, since we’ll be having more Spirit Gathering realm disciples as our troops, we’ll need more and better armored cars.”

“Thank you so much, commander!” - “Thank you commander!”

They both bowed and shouted their gratitude towards this one of a kind commander, it was already expected for Ciemnosc to choose to delay the matter as soon as it was brought up, as such ‘tactics’ were not unknown amongst even team leaders, let alone actual generals of the sect and even commanders that were ‘very well’ reputed within the sect.

“Mn, now. Let’s wait for the others to arrive, start telling those inside to build a temporary encampment, let me see how much your people have improved in those terms.” Ciemnosc said, not remaining any more strict and behaving casually, sitting on the front of his commanding vehicle and crossing his arms as his eyes faced the night sky for the umpteenth time in his life.

“...” - “...” - “...” - “...” Shidar and Li Saer nodded and bowed all of their backs until they heard Ciemnosc sit up in his armored car and gaze at the sky without seemingly any thought of working hard, yet, they both knew of the incredible ways that their commander’s— or general’s —mind worked. As for Mosto, he only looked at the boy with his eyes…becoming troubled.

As for those 4 inside that were watching as Ciemnosc laid his back to them, seemingly defenseless, their assassin nature was let out but just for a split second as the moment they harbored such intentions and their faces changed…they could feel the insides of the car lit up slightly by what seemed to be an array.

All in all, people silently looked on at Ciemnosc in respect, actual and genuine, straightforward respect. Only differently at some pairs of eyes, but each of them with unique sensations crossing through them. Then…they waited.

… After what seemed hours and hours long, the whole ordeal was already in motion, but by the time that things were already set and with the leading figures of other outposts having already arrived at the central outpost, it was already late morning of the next day. It was only a few minutes before 12 am by the time that Ciemnosc was resting on the front of his armored car, so after some hours it was already morning and soon it was noon, which by then everything was set and he made his way towards the stronghold while Situ Shi remained behind to take care of the manpower allocated to him.

As for the land forces’ 200k extreme increase in their numbers, the commander in charge of the land forces had already been notified by a messenger of the sect itself about his new duty as Ciemnosc’s direct subordinate in the chain of command. Though his thoughts might’ve been totally different before, over the past almost 2 months’ worth of time, coming into contact with the port mission’s forces more and more frequently, he came to know of Ciemnosc’s achievements both by word and by his own eyes.

Hence, when the notice came, only the thought of a better cooperation for the nearest future was in his head, and he was more than glad to know that he will be having direct connection with commander Ciemnosc in this deathly part of history that might ‘just’ be noted down the books yet again as it has been the case for the whole world since yore.

Of course, it was nowadays that he began to really think that such things could change, and that he could somehow manage to…follow someone who might be as capable as what the legendary General Hanato Wang of the sect is, but in terms of a set of words that were long forgotten in the vocabulary of the cultivation world, one that wasn’t even in the ordinary people’s hearts anymore in this Region… Navy!

Though that was not something that the land mission’s commander was skilled at, and was even something akin to the lines of being his bane due to his heavy specialization of the land battles that have been the only place for warring and battles, skirmishes to even just brawls between major organizations or missions of the latter against ‘rebelling’ and ‘unruly’ weaker organizations, no matter how actually large or tiny they were in comparison to the legendary, ‘eternal’ major organizations in the world.

Still, the commander of the land mission was excited to see this happening, even more when he heard the messenger speak of the ships and port that even the other sect masters and pastor crazily spent a fortune over to just have them. He also wanted to try it out, even if it wasn’t his thing…

Hell, he even arrived before either outpost leading figure or Situ Shi arrived at outpost 2, which came to be obvious of how much thought and care he put into this hunch of his.

As for Ciemnosc’s cultivation base, age and accomplishments for and within the sect? He of course couldn’t care anymore; there was information that only core disciples got to know when having accomplished so much that their overall total gained merit summed up to even 100,000!

A feat that only some managed to reach every generation among the core disciples, and one that the commander of the land forces just happened to be one of those few ones in this generation. And that was…the fact that…

General Hanato Wang didn’t gain much opportunity to aid the sect in controlling the entire Region due to the sect master, elders, grand elder and grand ancestor of back then not allowing him to raise into power, letting him become, at most, a platoon leader before he made his striking move in the Region’s history books and shocked the world!

Yet, this Ciemnosc…only 10 years old…he, wasn’t he having a much earlier start? And even had extreme proficiency in Craftsmanship? That. Was. Nuts…

…