Two Weeks

The next day, while everyone was busy working, Ciemnosc had just gotten to finish the next batch of armored cars of every 8 hours batch, around late noon.

Just after visiting for the second time since establishing his authority within the Craftspeople in the army, and after having finished up assembling and using his own hands and Spirit Sense to inscribe the last touches of arrays, and add a few things here and there with his precious Inscription Pen. Ciemnosc moved semi stealthily from the stronghold to the outskirts of it. He did it so well even with a towering hill following him that Situ Shi only learned that he might be missing from some soldiers as he was never seen returning to the prison or his mini mansion.

While Situ Shi was only confused and didn’t really give it any thought, even giving orders to let the matter be and not to divulge it, Joah and Jelin weren’t so calm themselves, but how could Situ Shi know what they were going to plan when he only knew that they were meeting and being secretive with their meetings more often with the arrival back of the Commander?

In any case, there were many ongoing thoughts, and some people even dared to mobilize a little, but Ciemnosc, who wasn’t even driving his armored car and was being followed by Mosto within the small forest of the northern side of outpost 1, only one thing mattered to him as he made his way towards a very specific place hidden within the forests that only he and…Schnell knew of.

Step, slash! Fwoosh, fwuoosh, slash.

From time to time, Ciemnosc’s left hand would seemingly automatically come over to meet a piece of a branch or very tall grass, cutting it but not necessarily entirely unless the plant or herb itself actually moved towards either Ciemnosc himself or to Mosto, who was following him.

His left-handed sword wasn’t short, so it was even more comfortable to cut with it his way through the jungle-like, wannabe small forest. Most of the time it was tall grass being cut, followed in density by branches that swayed with the wind. But there were indeed times that Ciemnosc had to deal with carnivorous, poisonous plants and herbs and even some weird ones that could be called venomous instead.

Every single one of them, though, and without a doubt about it were all cut down by him almost as soon as they showed up in his way or seemed to want to attack him, get close to him.

“...Mosto, here you will wait for me. Don’t follow me, alright?” Ciemnosc suddenly said, without stopping in his tracks, to Mosto, who was enjoying a very comfortable walk without needing to bend, ‘glide’ through below the branches and mercilessly stomp on plants and herbs, making them really ugly to look at and possibly forcing them to die slowly for the next several days…

“...?” But Mosto suddenly stopped in his tracks. He couldn’t tell what was going on abruptly as if he was being bullied by his best friend forever while in ‘for babies’ school. He looked at Ciemnosc, and Ciemnosc looked back at him with a sweaty body after a couple hours of doing just this but having fun and only being able to sweat due to him ‘wanting to’.

“Do this for me.” Without offering any explanation, Ciemnosc finally stopped cutting through grass and the rest of the wild, non-meat— mostly —life around himself and looked at Mosto, who suddenly had his shoulders slumped and was looking at himself, appearing to be pitiful.

“I won’t take long, and I won’t be in danger,” Ciemnosc spoke after a short, soft sigh keeping his sword in his Covert Space bag, he still had 179 top notch quality swords that the so-called ‘Father Lyono’ had sold to him about half a year ago. Ciemnosc didn’t bother using those which he himself created, he wasn’t an actual swordsman anyway, and it was mostly used due to his need of hiding his true self before he knew any better about how it would be taken if everyone knew his strange ‘tastes’

“Good then, don’t drift too far away from here. You know I got a big brain so I’ll find you fast as soon as I’m done with this,” Ciemnosc said, gesturing to his forehead with his left index finger, tapping it with the tip of his finger, but Mosto was still pitiful, even looking at the ground now. Ciemnosc sighed mentally and threw his head about a little, turning it to his left before adding. “If I have even 1 scratch of a single blade of grass on my clothes, I will even let you sleep on the same floor. Don’t get weird now, I’m talking about in any of the other beds, yeah that’s right, erase that expression off your face - me neither!”

“...” With a silly smile on his face, Mosto nodded and gave Ciemnosc the green light to finally disappear into the tall grass and large vegetation around with his back against it and facing Mosto, slowly stepping backwards until even his own Spirit Sense no longer caught Mosto’s movements of being followed even after waiting for a couple minutes.

…Next, Ciemnosc made his way through the vegetation, trees, and little poodles that looked like swamps but were actually Conflagrate realm Creatures’ homes. And Ciemnosc was in no way nor disposition to even get near them for a single second. Ciemnosc moved with ease and unobstructed through, on land, between trees and vegetation, and on top of the trees.

Eventually, he arrived at a neat place with tall grass seemingly growing to an extent that it seemed to form up a circle around a certain large area of clean, no tall grass nor overgrown vegetation with light green endless grass and a huge cascade at the other side of the entire area sandwiched between a pair of huge walls each made out of tons of boulders about 10 hectares big.

The water that fell on a rather small lake in diameter, more or less, was of a unique light blue color as if they were the tears from a goddess that didn’t do any attempts to hide the unknown profundity that the actual little lake had compared to the smallish diameter of its surface.

“...” The moment that Ciemnosc arrived here, he stepped forwards and forwards until arriving at the little lake. He crouched down with his left hand and passed it over the light blue tearful water as if simply crossing through the air unobstructed.

The water was extremely cold, though Ciemnosc didn’t even flinch, it was cold to the same level that the Little Lake where the port was built and that spans over more than half the Region in terms of raw length when night comes and the time for the afternoon break is all over for most. Since there are some who have a beauty or more, a handsome darling or more, waiting at their tents for some talking about life every day in their busy lives, ah.

Cruuugsh~...

From his right, Ciemnosc saw a bunch of trees falling over before dozens of vehicles which were basically moving cargos on land toppling over the grass. These vehicles had original yellow paint but were covered from it with a dark green color. Not just for camouflaging but also simply to pass through the small forest right outside of this area mostly unobstructed by the vegetation.

Trckrr, trckrr …trckrr …trckrr …trckrr …trckrr…

While these vehicles moved towards Ciemnosc’s back, about half a kilometer away from him, Ciemnosc was closed in by…none other than Niloi! That one orange haired pretty boy, smooth talker and player that once dared to talk to Valeria, or so, in front of him himself!

“...” But Ciemnosc only looked and blinked as he looked to his right where Niloi was looking back at him, not really awkwardly but also not knowing how to proceed. Finally, after a few more seconds and with most of the vehicles brought here having already unloaded the entire stuff, Niloi opened his mouth to speak cordially and even with a soft tone.

“I heard these were all for you, so I took the chance to deliver them myself. Hope you don’t feel threatened. Ahem,” Niloi now became a bit awkward as Ciemnosc only did as much as give him a side glance, but he persisted and added with the same tone. “After today, there will no longer be any time to talk, I believe, we could all die in the next battles for all I and history know of.”

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“So, err, dunno- just take care and don’t die that fast. I have been told by the sect master and grand elder that you may very well best that General Hanato Wang if you were to grow. But also that I should not be merciful towards you…exactly because of that.” Niloi finished his words, looking at Ciemnosc with his clear brown eyes not rippling or showing much emotion.

“...How’s that Helala?” Suddenly, Ciemnosc broke all kinds of tension in the atmosphere by asking with casualness and not caring a bit about it. But he didn’t do so with such a purpose, instead, he just didn’t care about words of the likes of ‘I’ll meet you on the battlefield’. Weren’t they so dumb and impractical anyways?

“Ah…she’s damn fine. I can’t believe I became a keeper because of her. Also, I heard that Lena and Yeri are really damn beautiful too. I didn’t even take a look at them as I was with Helala at that point… If you have the chance, you must-” Niloi suddenly became boosted up with chicken blood, his dialect becoming eloquent furthermore as he talked about girls; but now mostly about his girl; ah.

“Leave.” Ciemnosc ‘grumpily’ said, though he was just annoyed and irked by Niloi’s talk ‘bout girls instead. It wasn’t that he didn’t have interest, rather, he could not bear to talk ‘bout them when he hadn’t found a wifey to lose his innocence with. To watch but no touch wasn’t something that Ciemnosc would allow for himself, he was well brought up!

…It didn’t take long for the dark green-painted yellow vehicles to leave the area and for Ciemnosc to ‘deal’ with those tons of materials. But it wasn’t going to be the only one, as the Moribund Yearning Cult also had a promise to fulfill from their trade with Ciemnosc himself.

Hence, around 15 minutes later, a new batch of woodish brown vehicles carrying tons and tons worth of resources arrived. They came to a wide open area that was never before seen but was taken note of directly by the believers who arrived at it.

This time, there wasn’t anyone there to talk with Ciemnosc like Niloi did for a couple of minutes. The Moribund Yearning Cult believers even thought that they were the first ones to arrive here with how empty and traceless the whole area was, not a single piece of glass seemingly trampled by a previous vehicle or a heavy object.

After the Moribund Yearning Cult believers went away, Ciemnosc disappeared from the large area as well, naturally walking back from where he came from, nothing too fancy. He left the tons and tons of resources, either boxed or in large, heavy and durable, special cases on the ground as he left the area to meet up again with Mosto, who was sure to be restless despite not even an hour going by with him not being in Mosto’s eyes all this long.

. . .

Stronghold, Ciemnosc’s mini mansion, it was just past 4 AM. In his bedroom, naked of course.

Time passed fast. The first week went by so fast that even receiving 5 times the amount of armored cars for the new flesh and blood still did not help for time to become more ‘discernible’. Of course, the new disciples received their armored cars days after the previous disciples that have been long in the mission received their brand new upgraded armored cars!

It wasn’t that big of a deal for their upgrades; the only standing out ‘result’ from this impactful return from their Commander Ciemnosc was that each outpost, each corps now…had an armored car with a single cannon on their rooftops!

These armored cars, which were only 1 per outpost, and even Situ Shi got his own cannon, were all only for the commanders of each outpost and the stronghold itself. It has been a long time since Ciemnosc shot those 3 babies. But the images, that scene of the Conflagrate realm acting elders being pulverized by pure energy remained perpetual inside their heads.

Even if it was too fast, the explosion itself did not last more than a few seconds before abruptly disappearing altogether, it all was so memorable for them who could never have imagined such weapons could be used. If they landed on ordinary people’s hands…of course, such weapons would need high maintenance and so, a capable Craftsperson was needed which the ordinary people could obviously not afford to contract. Nor was it a good idea, as…how could mere mortals have such powerful weapons in their hands? They would be betrayed right away by the Craftsman or Craftswoman!

In any case, their upgrades were notoriously helpful overall but not extensively new or groundbreaking. The armored cars’ heat and cold resistance improved. Before, they would’ve become obsolete after some Spirit Gathering realm believer or sect disciple came to use fire or icy tools against them, easily being subjugated by semi elemental attacks in truth.

But now, with these upgrades being given to each and every already existent and newly produced armored car, such things were to no longer happen, as it would only be possible if an actual strong tool from said semi elemental attacks were to be used against them and not just any that can be easily made use of and with a really quick ‘reload’ before the next attack with the tool.

There was obviously no increase in the armor of such. But their maneuverability had been improved slightly, but enough for them to become, for example, as easy as a walk through their living quarters when going around and over mountainous areas, hills, uneven terrain at extreme degrees, and even though not so deep swamps and puddles of mud.

There wasn’t an increase in speed though, only maneuverability. But, at least, their resistance has been improved overall, and it was now able to move better on a battlefield where movement was the most important. Able to mitigate some incoming damage if not dodging it or blocking it fully, but also to close in on the enemy without the same problems from before.

Heavy training regimen with the new armored cars’ version ensued. And for days long, even being willing to lose about half their time in the Little Lake before it cooled down like crazy, cultivators of all realms could be seen moving about with them and driving them alike.

Tactics of a much faster approach were now being familiarized by the cultivators. While even strategies of massive movement in coordination were being developed, Ciemnosc not needing to interfere in the slightest, even only nodding when asked if something was alright or if it was utter garbage and needed Commander’s vision to help them do better.

They were kinda extremely apprehensive of Ciemnosc now. But they also knew of their own growth over the past months, but they also wanted to make sure everything was at its best that there could be among their logistics.

For this, Ciemnosc didn’t really have much to do. After all, it was just some armored vehicles that could take on roles that not many others could do. Especially because of their previous obvious weaknesses, they could now be bold and less wary of being targeted by just a few teams or squads of the enemy and become immobilized or neutralized after just some minutes.

In terms of currency, Ciemnosc now had 649,322 Inferior grade Powerful Stones and 183 Supreme grade Powerful Stones. His already low Inferior Powerful Stones were semi replenished once he was given those many resources from the other 2 major organizations.

Additionally, there hasn’t been an attack from the Moribund Yearning Cult nor the Eagerburning Flames Sect even ‘after the week and a half’ period was over, leaving the stronghold and corps; Ciemnosc’s army, more time to adapt to the new armored cars, tools, and training of the new disciples from the sect.

That didn’t mean that there was less security. Ciemnosc made it clear that it was to be a period where the maximum security was to be held and that any negligence could be paid even with death. Hence, everyone who got their turn at security within those who formed part of it became extra attentive and hard working whenever it was their time.

Not only because of the possible punishment but also understanding what kind of ‘important’ these moments were now that ships were close to being built at the port and the enemy could now have much more to offer in terms of equipment, let alone manpower.

The only setback was that some would not be able to enjoy the Little Lake with anyone else besides their following night’s partners in guarding the stronghold. No beauties or mighty handsome ones would be around to flirt, act coquettish and even bang to death, or something.

But, right now, as Ciemnosc was naked on his bed and not on the balcony like some sick, perturbed, and psycho, he already had his Steel Array Snakes out on top of his mattress and was gripping his chin with his left hand whose arm was in turn supported by his left knee; cross legged on top of his bed and with his huge piece of phat meat feeling ‘cute’ instead of warm on his shins.

As he looked at the now ‘clean’ arrays of the Steel Array Snakes, Ciemnosc was deciding which materials to use in order to upgrade them too, because he was not conformed with the current Steel Array Snakes despite them being so helpful and ‘overpowered’; seemingly.

Anyone with a brain could just void the tubes that would be ‘floating’ around with nimbleness or by simply striking at them, even possibly breaking or cutting them in half or smaller pieces. Such obvious weakness came from the ordinary steel that they were made of. And as Ciemnosc tried to decide which resources to select for its upgrade, the second most alarming level of notice came from his Identification Token.

At once, Ciemnosc grabbed one of the 2 Covert Space bags that were just there beside his left knee and took it out, quickly reading through it in less than a few seconds despite its large contents. Ciemnosc got up, and on his way out of his bedroom, he got dressed before opening the door.

His swords in his Covert Space bags ready and so prepared to dust off the rustiness that their owner had been forcing them to deal with, Ciemnosc met a Mosto who was already with his watchdog mode on and was now just waiting for Ciemnosc to make as much or little as to take a single step.

The message from his Identification Token was never so alarming…

…