Temporary Base
"I understand," Ciemnosc said while giving the document back, the headmaster took it and nodded in return to Ciemnosc while also giving Ciemnosc an apologetic 'thank you'. The entire atmosphere then became heavy, besides already being silent. And so, Ciemnosc decided to speak right now and also start to get ready for the rest of the day and the next few that were going to be quite busy.
"I'll take my numbers with me and set that head base, but how many are going to be mine at the beginning then?" As Ciemnosc asked, the upper echelons looked at each other before altogether looking at Ciemnosc at the same time. Before the headmaster's words could come out of his open mouth, it was old headmaster Isol who won the headmaster for it.
“Just a few tens of thousands,” old headmaster Isol casually commented, with Ciemnosc turning around and facing her as she continued. “The major organizations don’t have that many at such a level after you escaped from their entrapment, anyway. What you will find most challenging, if anything, the actual challenging matter to overcome for you and your new troops are going to be those armored cars and cannons.”
“Over the last few days, reports of thousands of them crossing from the Little Lake or around it to the ‘true west’ have arrived, bringing us those bad pieces of news. Are you still confident?” The old headmaster asked, looking around at everyone else before looking down at Ciemnosc, who was looking up at her a little with a lifeless everything on his face and who also replied with a flat tone. “I still am.”
“Mm, good. Then…” The old headmaster didn’t nod and just said such to Ciemnosc, looking down at his face before taking a look at the headmaster’s face, who was waiting at the ‘side’ obediently. The headmaster nodded in return and he immediately brought a uniform with the main gold and secondary blue colors of the Rocaloi Academy with a style that was more of Ciemnosc rather than what Ciemnosc made his clothes have the style of his Mommy.
“This is officially your uniform, after several days, and of course copying the design you seem to like, as it is the only one that you seem to wear… Our Craftspeople have created this specifically for you, our academy’s first Genius. And though it does seem too much for Craftspeople to make something like this, when they heard that it was for you, they even used their own, unique materials to craft a really durable thin armor such as this for you.”
“...” Ciemnosc took a step forward and grabbed the left side of the top from the well folded pieces of garments, they were pretty simple, their style being like so and their color that of the simplest of blacks; Ciemnosc liked it very much as soon as he set his eyes on it - let alone when he touched it and did feel not only its incredible durability but also its special properties.
‘Those Craftspeople he mentions, they must have not known what kind of things they were putting into this uniform, maybe they only knew the use of some by having used them before or by comparing to those they had used before as well.’ While Ciemnosc shook his head mentally, outwardly, he was showing a natural expression of appreciation towards this set of clothes.
“I like it,” Ciemnosc said, but with his heart not beating, as he looked up and looked at the headmaster and vice-headmaster. The headmaster had a good smile on his face as he ‘chockingly’ said in gladness. “Then take it, come on, what are you waiting for? Go and get ready with it, there’s a spot there.”
“...” Saying nothing but nodding, Ciemnosc took the clothes away from the headmaster’s hands, who was pushing them more and more into Ciemnosc’s palms and fingers. After grabbing them fully and fully feeling them in his hands, Ciemnosc nodded again to nobody and turned around to face a tree that was about just 70 meters away and out of any Obsidiafying realm’s Spirit Sense even if it was to be at max.
It didn’t take long for Ciemnosc to come back, and when he did. Though his humbled styles were still much better in his eyes and body’s sensations, Ciemnosc still knew he was looking incredible with this new set of clothes as he walked into the group once again while attracting their attention with his aura of nature getting into the eyes of all. Even the old grandmother felt a sort of inspiration while he made his way back into the group.
“I have some questions,” the boy said, not leaving the old folks and semi old folks in suspense for he continued right after 2 seconds of him still being silently stared at by all in amazement. “If this ‘encounter’ lasts or extends for too long, can I receive more people directly at my command? I’m not sure I only want to recuperate this part of the west for the academy; only.”
“That is possible. Besides, though we are now at war, it isn’t a full out war for the time being. It’s impossible that we will be in one in a short time, but even then yes, you will receive more support from the academy. But as we said, your main goal with this encounter will be to recuperate the west, as well as to get to recuperate the mines of Powerful Stones and even find new ones if you could.” The headmaster spoke, the old headmaster remained quiet this time.
“We didn’t do so before, for the lives of ordinary people were not needed nor to be disturbed and our mines below the academy were more than enough for a couple millions of years, heh heh.” The headmaster laughed out loud proudly and recklessly, showing just how much he was confident with the founders having chosen quite the place, but he recomposed just after speaking.
“But now, and with this situation coming out of the control of our hands so sharply, we’ve realized the importance of the mines now more than ever. If we hadn’t been so cowardly before, even a few hundred of years before you arrived. Ciemnosc, despite having that other agreement between the major organizations and the foreign forces to this Region, we might’ve been able to be more prepared for today.”
“We are low in Powerful Stones as well as battle experience, but even those cannot compare to the technological disadvantageous gap we have now against them.” The headmaster’s eyes went incredibly narrowed, continuing with a slightly saddened tone, “I wish you great luck Ciemnosc. This is going to be the hardest moment in… your military life so far. And I know commanding many people you haven’t even gotten to meet is going to be difficult.”
“But,” the headmaster lifted his right index finger and aimed its fingertip at the sky, “Having heard of your previous achievements, I believe in you, Ciemnosc.”
“... Here are the blueprints for the armored cars; these are the improved ones but you have to use steel, not anything new or stronger already, it is unnecessary, and its production is already slow enough with just steel. Yes, the normal steel.” Ciemnosc directly took out several blueprints, some containing basically the same type of body, but there were lots of them.
Hearing Ciemnosc speak, the upper echelons were already more and more excited as they even saw a canon-shaped set of blueprints among the ones the boy took out! But Ciemnosc wasn’t even done with the first one, the armored cars.
“These are the arrays that are needed for the incredible things you’ve heard about our communication being much easier and nothing that has been seen before with methods to disturb it is completely hopeless. The major organizations cannot count on that too, because I made just little trap arrays to confuse them, they would only notice if they had a few thousand remaining, but they all became obsolete and destroyed.”
“Now they are yours to build. Though I don’t know what the academy’s morals are, you can explore these others and do them instead of the armored cars. But it is not the time to be petty, this- the academy could be destroyed if you are not careful.” Ciemnosc showed some of his blueprints that looked like an armored car but smaller or even taller, or even with much smaller size and differently shaped.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Ciemnosc, this-” the headmaster was, more notoriously than ever, incredibly taught as he could even feel his chest filling up a whole damn lot without mentioning his quickly beating heart. But Ciemnosc interrupted him, though the headmaster didn’t mind and just proceeded to listen.
“The cannons are these. They are all the same. There is no need to do anything to them. Only they need some guiding system to really be used well, and using the ones from the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect are too shabby and one-dimensional to even be called technological. This targeting system, which needs a lot of arrays, so pick your best array formation Craftspeople, is wonderful even for me - so start making them, and fast.”
“But now, what is really important in order to keep the west all under our hands, the academy’s.” Ciemnosc had already shared most of the blueprints with the rest of the upper echelons as the headmaster kept on passing them to the left and to the right, allowing everyone to take a look at them. Ciemnosc continued as he showed a smaller quantity from the total large stack of papers but that was also the one he had been working on the most.
“Ciemnosc!” The headmaster and old headmaster called out at the same time. They were abstruse when they thought that Ciemnosc would be showing them what they believed to be the ships made for the Little Lake. But when they saw that these were different from the ones drawn by some spies and spoke about them, they looked in closer only to find out how different these were!
“Were the ones before prototypes?!” The headmaster spoke as the blueprints were all in his and the old headmaster’s hands. He was looking at Ciemnosc only for half a second intermittently, focused all out on these blueprints as if he had gone crazy and beyond. While the old headmaster, on the other hand, was looking at them before setting her eyes on Ciemnosc for a long time and then returning to the blueprints.
“...” Ciemnosc didn’t even move a muscle and simply looked at the people around him, who were getting more and more shocked the more the blueprints of the ships and the like were being passed around. At some point, the only thing that took their minds away from the damned was the voice of Ciemnosc asking something that seemed to be whatever.
“How am I gonna be called? Like the major organizations, there doesn’t seem to be an official military system like it used to long ago.”
“... How would you like to be called, Ciemnosc?” The headmaster, feeling so much on cloud 9, asked back to Ciemnosc with a smile of his own. Ciemnosc simulated thinking hard about it with his chin high up and his left index finger against it, before lowering his head and calmly said. “Chief in Command.”
“...” The upper echelon became silent right away. They were of course known of what such a title could mean and, did they want to give such a powerful role to a brand new student, even if he was the one and only academy’s Genius? The answer was simple, some voices spoke out in unison, but only one was supported by all of them together. “That cannot be done! You are too young, and things have not been decided with enough examination, we mus-”
“It will be as you say, and I’m sure that the old headmaster will agree with me.” The headmaster raised his right arm to his shoulder level, and interrupted the voice that was speaking, which sounded as if his own wife was having an adventure with another woman. And he didn’t know how to respond, so he acted hurt. The headmaster also ignored any other voice and looked at the old headmaster, who slowly crossed her arms. And after looking at the headmaster’s eyes for quite a bit of time, she responded at last with a nudge of her head.
“I will agree of course.” The old headmaster spoke, and the rest quieted down at once. No one even dared to spit out anything with just their eyes for that matter as the headmaster sighed a sigh of relief through his nostrils and mouth.
“There you have it. You are now the Rocaloi Academy’s Chief in Command. How does it feel?” The headmaster had a slightly warm tone as he looked at Ciemnosc with a severe expression. And, in return, Ciemnosc used both his thumbs and index fingers to grab at the collars of his uniform to ask another thing. “I want to study the ‘magnificent’ array when I come back as well.”
Everyone: “...”
. . .
Northeast of the Rocaloi Academy, already quite some thousands of kilometers away from the academy and drifting into the snow with just their bodies, late in the morning.
It’s been a few hours already, and on this 8th day since Ciemnosc became the 3rd member of the workshop, Ciemnosc had set off with his team and a few tens of thousands of students and leading students following his lead towards the northeast of the Rocaloi Academy. As the Rocaloi Academy itself was situated around a mountain in the southwest of the western part of the Region, there was quite a large chunk of free land between it and the Little Lake.
Where Ciemnosc was bringing those behind him who consisted right on his back with Missa with Fatima, Leen, and Gallah just a couple of steps behind her, rushing to wherever Ciemnosc led them in the middle of nowhere through the thick snow. And right behind this team of his, Ciemnosc’s forces of tens of thousands of troops were following without missing him or them for even more than a few seconds.
The procedures for telling the people that the enemy was the one to declare war on them and that they were now in danger, with their land already taken by the enemy, the students and leading students were more than ready to defend what’s theirs and what they have been desiring to explore even more!
If it wasn’t because of defending what they already considered their land, then it was for the sake of exploring and taking the war as an ‘adventure’ that they simply and just - embarked upon and were going to slowly build their own legend. However, their one and only fighting force was going to be a selected Genius, which was none other than the only one: Ciemnosc!
And while the academy’s students were up for it, even knowing more or less of his amazing feats back at the eastern side of the Region, they were still not completely satisfied with the answer, but asking for someone better was impossible as only very few leading students were at the Conflagrate realm, and most only needed a few more years before being able to take the assistant teacher’s test.
However, Ciemnosc wasn’t a leader just because he got to lead and because he got a nice title, the best of them all, if possible. And when it came to leading his brand new forces with him, it was simple for him, though eye-opening for his team and even more so jaw-dropping for the troops in question.
It all just started with Ciemnosc standing up on his commanding vehicle, becoming easily visible by those tens of thousands of his brand new troops who were all cultivators who could see perfectly even far in the distance as such; during daylight.
Then it was all simple, Ciemnosc didn’t have to speak a lot, only a few things. He came from the strongest organization in question, so he more than anyone could speak ‘on their behalf’, though speaking about how these major organizations are all killing thousands of other cultivators just because they didn’t do many humiliating procedures was enough to rile the students up.
And now, easily marching forwards, Ciemnosc became the moving beacon that the tens of thousands followed through the snow. The snow had piled up to the point even their waists were buried and unseen from on top of it if it wasn’t because tens of thousands of people were all walking on the same steps, with a few following Ciemnosc and his team trails, while most had to make their own while following them at all times.
It wasn’t snowing, but just 3 minutes after the last person to walk through a trail on the snow, the snow itself would have already filled up the missing parts and made it look as if there wasn’t even a single abnormality and the same as before Ciemnosc even passed by. One could only think not only how faster would that occur but how straight-up difficult would the journey be even for cultivators if it was even just lightly snowing, let alone if there was heavy snow.
“Chief in C-” Missa yelled at this time at Ciemnosc, they were close, but she was also quite riled up and her emotions were surging strong and, according to his teaching notes, why hide them thinking it would make them less vulnerable? But Ciemnosc interrupted straight away. “It is Ciemnosc if it isn’t about work.”
“... How long until we get there, Ciemnosc?!” Missa yelled again, and neither she nor the rest of his team were tired, but they were calming down by now and sobering to their current situation. War was just going to be many deaths coming to ‘be’ from both sides relentlessly, and nobody was immortal…
“A couple hours more. We are almost there.” Ciemnosc responded, and Missa nodded knowing that Ciemnosc was very well seeing her doing so, ‘seeing’ her doing so. She looked to the right, though, while still efficiently running behind his trail with her uniform getting snow onto her uniform only to be melted right away. And what she saw made her smile a lot, it was part of the shallowest waters of the Little Lake, barely visible through the plains even with the snow all around them.
“It’s beautiful!” She yelled, and the rest of the team looked to the right to get dazzled for a bit, before rushing forwards with more vigor and strictness than before.
“Arriving there, I will start teaching you. We will rely on tents for the time being, until we get more troops.” Ciemnosc said suddenly, at this moment, and garnered his team’s whole attention. He added after giving them a quick look back, “Once there, start distributing the communication devices.”
…