Start Of The Week

Ciemnosc was just waiting for a little bit more after having announced the many things that he would be asking the sect for their little corps and this mission while, at the same time, he would be looking at other things for himself in order to accomplish the mission's goal once he went back from the sect. Now, as he was giving via the intranet his orders to the outposts, he spent a little bit of time giving a few hints here and there from what he could, and all that he could do for them was to hope they would do well defending this little place of the entire corps.

Being gone wouldn't mean that the other 3 major organizations would give up Ciemnosc may even be tried to get a hold of them once he was out of the stronghold and outposts' protection but, other than that, the important thing was that these people wouldn't exhaust each other to death before he could come back and officially begin making them his little generals; or something.

After a few minutes of talking to the leading figures of each outpost in front of the stronghold’s people, Ciemnosc was now standing in a bit of silence from everyone looking at him. Somehow, the way they looked at their back had already turned into one similar to one’s subordinates expecting their boss back soon and making things even better for them to develop, as if addicted to work.

For as dumb as it could look, such was the way that the sect disciples were finally starting to look at the not even 11 years old boy, and from where Ciemnosc was also…feeling something unusually nice from this; ‘nice.’

“Well. I have a small announcement to give before leaving,” seeing that things were going well and that Schnell was nearby with his Spirit Sense, Ciemnosc turned around and gave his back to the now calmer, more stabilized, and even slightly subservient outposts’ leading figures as they were each in a monitor where Ciemnosc was facing and now gave his back to.

Ciemnosc faced the crowd and even extended his arms to the sides a little, his mouth smirked towards its left corners, and he suddenly looked at Situ Shi as the latter could only jump his eyebrows a little bit lightly.

“From hereon, the one to take care of matters in the stronghold, just as I’ve appointed these behind me to each outpost, will be Situ Shi.” Ciemnosc claimed and at once there were lots of reactions from the people around but mostly in silence, with only a few murmuring who Situ Shi was since he was at most someone who was introverted and never really got his name or handsome face spread despite having a history on his records of excellent leadership and decision-making ‘for the good of the team’.

Ciemnosc clapped his hands, everyone’s attention was on him now back again, and he concluded with a few words extra, “As he is now in charge of the stronghold, and I’m leaving for a couple of weeks at most. For every doubt or required need for the completion of the stronghold, you may trouble Situ Shi to help you, a couple of ‘secretaries’ would be needed, so if anyone is interested in that position you may go for it while I’m gone. But do remember that I will be back very soon.”

With that, Ciemnosc noncommittally turned around and faced the exit of the stronghold, everyone was still mostly in silence as Situ Shi slowly became noticed within the crowd and heads began turning in the latter’s direction. While on the other hand, Ciemnosc received Schnell, who approached with soundless steps and under the gleaming eyes of a pair of people with their names starting with ‘J’ looking from the ‘hidden shadows’ about 100 meters away.

Tap- pat.

“...Sir, wish you a good, safe trip back to the sect and then here with your own people, commander,” Schnell said, his left shoulder tapped by Ciemnosc as he had to bend his knees a little in order to not let his childish commander have to raise his own arm in order to pat his shoulder. He even looked a bit up at Ciemnosc while wishing well for the trip back and forth.

“Keep Situ Shi informed well, and let the ones I talked about to you become a bit more ‘knowledgeable’ as well. Don’t give him any more jealous faces. What you’re doing is more complicated and suited for yourself. If you ever think you can do better then…I’ll let you have 30 more agents at your command, train them well.”

With Ciemnosc’s words, Schnell’s eyes were staring where Situ Shi was changed, and looked back at his commander. Ciemnosc nodded slightly at Schnell as the latter returned the gesture before saying in a hushed tone and whispering into Schnell’s left ear; the ‘Js’ eyes shining through as they looked at such an action. But mostly with envy.

“...I have something for you to do. There are things I need to find. Not from just here or the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect’s organizational territory even. It is very likely to take some time, so starting right now to investigate this matter should be a priority…” Ciemnosc spoke so slowly that even Valeria couldn’t hear. While Schnell himself wouldn’t have been able to listen if he hadn’t enhanced his senses just now to only hear.

“Mn. Commander, rest assured I will begin as soon as you leave, though it may really be quite some time before I find out about these and can confirm it. Some years may have to pass,” said Schnell after hearing all of the details of this personal mission for Ciemnosc, his commander.

Yet, Schnell didn’t even doubt it once as he was even in the midst of already having more than 30 other people he’s been meaning to get his hands on but couldn’t due to Ciemnosc’s way of aiding him. Even though he wasn’t a leading figure as he wanted, Schnell was indeed how Ciemnosc had put it, becoming aware of his best capabilities being put to great use in his new ‘informant’ job.

And now that Ciemnosc himself had requested him with such an important mission that involved so many things that nobody really knew about yet everyone ‘knew about’ and mostly so due to the recent events in this little rock. Though Schnell wanted to say better things about this job, Ciemnosc’s words of before when he was being recruited about always being accurate struck him, and could not help but sincerely say.

“Ah, by the way, commander Ciemnosc.” Schnell suddenly thought of something, his eyebrows jumped as he looked behind Ciemnosc to an empty space and asked, his tone curious.”Where is your commanding vehicle, commander? Why do I never see it in garages or around the roads of the stronghold?”

While Ciemnosc didn’t travel between outposts since they were fully completed, the last time being when they were needed of the last touch for security measures, he did move around the stronghold daily, especially to the research department where he spend most of his days in in the last few days before this departure.

“Mn, I’ll leave that in your hands, Schnell. As for my commanding vehicle…heh~.” Ciemnosc looked at Schnell giving his word and so on with eyes basically having no change in them, ‘expressionless’ in a way. He then smirked and turned around to face the monitors ‘floating’ from little dog-like moving devices crawling on the ground, moving them away with the simple gestures of his hands.

“...I just always keep it in my Covert Space bag.” With that, Ciemnosc flashed a little white glow-something from his left hand swinging from his left hip to up into the air in front of him. Immediately, a large armored car came out, with specially designed new features at the sides and front that for everyone, looked as if they were just unhelpful decorations, but to Situ Shi and other similarly sharp-eyed fellows. It was an all-terrain beast that might even move unimpeded through heavy snow!

It was as if canopy-like windows were all over the sides of the commanding vehicle, with the front even having a triangular-ish shape but that was somewhat way too ‘fat’ from below as it seemed to travel from the front all the way to the back and meet the back of the armored vehicle - it was a rather strange sight all in all.

Stolen story; please report.

Meanwhile, Ciemnosc received tens of thousands of glares as it wasn’t just sect disciples who were around, as even the entirety of the subordinate cultivators were around and watching the one who was seemingly their commander about to exit the soon-to-be-finished stronghold.

Many from that group already knew of Ciemnosc. Only, those who didn’t were still more than 10,000, which wasn’t a small number no matter what. And now that Ciemnosc, their commander, seemed to be leaving, it just didn’t attract that much of their attention.

Of course, that may be different if the same situation came to those at the outposts. They were already warriors and victorious ones thanks to Ciemnosc’s orders after all.

“...” Not saying much of a goodbye since it wasn’t necessary for whatever he wanted or needed, Ciemnosc gave a nod in the general direction of Situ Shi and Shnell before leaving, with Valeria following right after him and Mosto being second to them in getting into the commanding vehicle.

…Trckrr!... Vrrruumm~...

“...Safe travels.” - “Safe travels…” From about 100 meters away, a couple of eyes looked at the departing armored vehicle with arms crossed and cold glints sparking so slightly in them.

‘You better come back and keep on making more and more for the sect, it will all belong to me no matter what you do.’. From those pairs of eyes, Joah’s were the coldest. His arms were calmly crossed, but from his legs, he wanted to start running around and taking everything that could be his. including Ciemnosc’s corps and Valeria.

. . .

Vrrrrruuuuuuuumm…

On their way back to the sect, the much faster commanding vehicle than the armored cars of the sect really looked as if it was bursting through the ground itself, lifting with every ten meters it traversed a lot of smoke up into the air; dirt, sand, destroyed trees, rocks, and even animals. Anything that it touched as it went through them became utterly trampled on.

“...” Ciemnosc was seated at the center of his commanding vehicle, which could easily hold over 100 people now as passengers without counting the seats for the pilots and engineers or so.

It wasn’t a surprise that Ciemnosc could find enough materials to improve/give some changes to the commanding vehicle. What elder Apegos knew about crafting and stuff wasn’t that higher than Ciemnosc, or even lower.

Such an obvious thing could be seen, especially with how though refusing to let Ciemnosc use resources that can give birth to Mortal grade weapons, elder Apegos himself wouldn’t use it for that purpose even when he had enough for trying about 10 times and enough for a few to come out of those said ‘10 times’.

In any case, Ciemnosc was holding his chin with his elbows supported above his knees and his chin and jaw resting on his palms. He had a revolting expression on his face as he looked to the void, in front of him or at the floor of the smoothly moving commanding vehicle despite the tremendous max speed at which it moved with the sunlight still hours away to come, and the terrain that it was moving through as well as the things that it hit, which could be noticeably known by just taking a look at the front of the vehicle car where a few poor animals became meat past and dirtied the windows for a few seconds at most.

The windows were way too large for such a thing to be dangerous, and some arrays told one of the terrains ahead and in the surroundings to the commanding vehicle anyway.

‘...then, like this…or like that way, too… And that way, then that…’ Ciemnosc was adamantly thinking of what he had been doing as a commander and how he had been going at it. His face became more frustrated the more he thought about the things he ‘tried out’ doing.

Yet, every time he was reaching a conclusion of such thoughts, which were driving around noiselessly and so annoyingly. He would shake his head and start over all over again and again. Valeria watched him go like this but didn’t stop him though. This was ’his time’ at the very least and, besides, she knew no stuff about commanding and much less such a large force.

‘...Ah, forget it. I can only be me and do me.’ After some hours, at last. Ciemnosc calmed down with his head never feeling so ‘better’ than ever before. If he was going to try and become someone capable of these things and even more so to become the best that there could be, then he could not follow the advice or the path that others took, especially if they failed to even leave a legacy long-withstanding that wouldn’t just corrode itself as the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect has done.

Even if he was slow or unresponsive to most, so what? Ciemnosc had already gone through ‘being seen as another him’ when he was just entering the world of cultivation, but that resulted so exhausting already when it all came to the sudden extermination and death of everything around him; changes all around him and conflict of power all around him…it was all too…annoying.

Ciemnosc looked around and saw Valeria meditating with her eyes closed seated just 3 meters to his right. She opened her eyes and turned her head to her left when Ciemnosc looked at her. She looked at him calmly and moved her bum in the air without standing up, only using her arms to sit right beside him.

“...What’s the name of that thing I see you use whenever you are trying to design ‘the’ big stuff?” Placing her head on his right shoulder, strong and wide, Valeria asked with her left cheek rubbing his shoulder a bit before settling in and warmly yet coolly resting on his body.

“Oh, teacher’s gift?” Ciemnosc took out the tube-like elastic tool and held its miniature version with his left hand. It still had a square-shaped body with those tube thingies forming it, it wasn’t a miniature version of another such tool, but simply the same one has become extremely small, mostly about the size of a child’s torso but with equal width to its length.

“These are called Steel Array Snakes,” Ciemnosc said, immediately feeling Valeria trembling on his right shoulder. He called her out right after tsking with displeasure, “What is it with you? The name is fine. It’s just that it’s the very first version of it. In the future, it will be improved, and its name will roar through ‘the entire world’!”

“Hehe, I wasn’t thinking it was silly,” Valeria lifted her face up, her mouth visible to the bottom corners of his right eye as she spoke; their lips ‘sensually’ moving in his eyes - so appetizing. “I don’t doubt you, they are already so strong and have such a…cute, cute name. I can’t wait what kind of ‘dragon’ these snakes will become in the future when you upgrade them.”

“Of course, they will be above Mortal’s grading, I’ll be the first one to make such a weapon, a tool that became a weapon yet didn’t lose its tool-like capabilities. Doesn’t that sound incredible?” Ciemnosc spoke out freely while Mosto was busy driving the commanding vehicle, having lots of fun doing so while Ciemnosc flirted with the beauty.

“Mmm…” Valeria’s eyes looked at him, a blind spot from his naked eyesight when she elaborated with her tone becoming a bit quieter. “Tool-weapon? A weapon with tool capabilities? Many have tried but for some reason. It all ends up exploding and turning into wasted materials. Leaving the major organizations with quite a lot of wasted resources, let alone other organizations.”

“That’s why only I can make such a thing happen; become reality.” Ciemnosc proclaimed without the slightest trace of bearing a heavy burden, much less even sounding arrogant or conceited. Valeria could only look at his jaw and think that it was really cute, it was slightly pale but he was so strong and always so calm, as if at ease of knowing everything that happened in his surroundings.

“Oh, right. About the tournament, how are you gonna participate? How does it work?” After a little more cuddling like this, Ciemnosc asked with his hand going over to caress her right cheek, even pinching and pulling her skin as she comfortably took this massage.

“Mm, well, it’s just fighting,” Valeria answered with semi-moaning words, her eyelashes looking so relaxed and peaceful as she frowned just a little to answer. And without needing to see Ciemnosc’s face of ‘is it really just that?’, she added. “Of course, the sect wouldn’t let those old, foolish tricksters win at us at anything they could. My Master especially hates those other organizations, but the trade with them is too good for him to give up on.”

“In any case, we fight many people on the first day, many. And then we fight less and less, mmmh~...” Valeria said with small words before falling silent, getting comfy on his shoulder while his right hand worked that damn massage on her right cheek.

‘...’ On the other hand, Ciemnosc shook his head mentally while looking at the seemingly lazy big monster that everyone was so worried about in his corps; he gave Valeria a few more minutes of massage before letting his hand rest by going bed mode on the seats and cuddling with her more naturally.

As they made their way towards the sect, probably about to take half the amount needed that they traversed before to get to the mission location, not only because of speed but because of the customization added to the commanding vehicle. Ciemnosc and Valeria laid together with the former being used as a long pillow by the latter, her frontal body against him, though barely pressing much onto his body as she calmly let her most vulnerable side show to him.

“...sigh…” On the other hand, yet again, Ciemnosc was thinking about his own future. What would he choose then? Maybe, since he has shown some worth, it was time for him to stop playing around and simply do whatever he wanted. However he wanted and…simply…be himself?

…