After Alex emerged from the ocean, he saw a giant structure. It had several iron-grade layers and a massive hardened concrete building.
The base also had two giant flags, one with Alex’s coat of arms printed on it. It was a skull wearing a military tactic helmet, two crossed guns behind it, and a portal in the background. Everything else was black. That flag was the very symbol of their mercenary group, soon to be born. The other flag was the Unified Republic’s flag. It represented that their mercenary group was Asmerian, at least in this world.
The base itself was huge; it had at least 10 pavements.
When Alex entered the base itself, he could see that it had a thick wall of at least 30 cm and metal inside of it.
“You guys had quite the job, uh...”
Alex said.
“Well… You said we had to make this base simple yet big. We started pretty well, but at some point, we started to extrapolate. Comoron found a metal reserve in the background, and after using some magic to purify it and forge it, we constructed a wall entirely of iron. It had 10 cm, so we ended up adding hardened concrete to hide the metal structure; I think it is less suspicious after all.”
Michael said.
“In my defense, marble and limestone are a bunch of rocks for me, and as for that hardened concrete, it looks exactly like normal concrete.”
Comoron said.
“Well, I wasn’t complaining about that; to be honest, 4 inches of pure forged iron will add quite a bit of defense to our base. Well, I’m sure Harper will be surprised by this. As for Emily, maybe she can make this metal structure work for something else than defense, like energy transmission or anything similar; I don’t know; I’ll ask her later.”
Alex said.
“Thank you, Alex.”
Michael said.
“For what?”
“For not complaining about the base... We know it shouldn’t be that big, yet we got ourselves absorbed in excitement, and we ended up constructing something far from the original plan.
“Yes, but you did it at your own will, and I do value that. The most important thing is that you understand what you did, as you already did. And… Well, I can’t complain about you guys if I also did something outrageous.”
Alex said.
“Now I’m surprised... What did you do?”
Michael said.
“I ran into a gun dealer in New Lancaster, right? As we already combined, I would buy some guns, but nothing too flashy. Well, I ended up buying a continental missile.”
“WHAT THE FUCK?”
“You heard that right. I bought a continental missile. I also paid delivery fees, so we will receive that here in 4 busy days.”
“THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEAN... WELL, FUCK IT, HOW THE FUCK YOU GOT A CONTINENTAL MISSILE INTO YOUR HANDS?”
“Ah, about that, I ended up spending a few gold coins I had and discovered that in Asmeria, you can even buy military-tier equipment in civilian markets, but as for something bigger, you still can buy it as a civilian, but it would be too expensive. The gun seller I met had one of those pieces of equipment; I asked for the price, and it was surprisingly cheap. I bought it.”
Alex said it nonchalantly.
“The fuck… Well, if that is true, then we have the right place to start our business.”
Michael said.
As Alex and Michael were discussing the matter of the continental missile, Comoron entered the hall he had constructed. That place was big; an outsider couldn’t tell it was for only six people at most. Well, that place was well-made after all.
It had white granite tables, chairs made from dragon trees and special sheep wool, a giant marble statue, and a smooth grayish ceramic floor. Comoron had even added a water fountain around the statue.
It could easily be considered a noble hall; maybe that’s why Comoron did it that way. Well, it doesn’t matter. That place was their base for now.
As Alex said, it was meant to be simpler; they would plant some trees to camouflage their base later. Comoron planned on using iron trees, which would serve as decoration as well as camouflage and defense. That tree looked like Earth’s pine tree, but instead of being fragile like normal ones, the iron tree was as hard as iron. It would serve as a good defense.
Michael also told Comoron that he planned to create a Japanese pathway at the base’s entrance. It would surely be something alien for the people of Asmeria. After some thought, they would use normal trees instead of Sakura. Using such trees would mean they had some sympathy with the Rising Sun Empire, as Sakura is the national symbol of the Rising Sun Empire, and they are Asmerian-declared enemies.
Michael found it really eerie. How could this world look like Earth without Germany winning World War Two? Even though he hadn’t done deep research like Alex and Harper, he still could tell that the Germanium Reich was really similar to Germany, and Asmeria was really similar to America.
….
..
5 hours later.
Emily and Harper finally returned to Tom’s land, but what stood there wasn’t Tom’s anymore. It was something really unbelievable. A giant military base was built from nothing. In a mere 12 hours, Michael and Comoron constructed an entire base using materials from nature and other worlds.
Unlike Harper, Emily felt a sense of pride for her team, mainly Comoron. Those guys built a giant base; they could only tell it was theirs because of Alex’s coat of arms on the main flag. The other flag there was the Asmerian. It would really feel eerie if they had a massive military building in Asmerian territory without a flag representing it being theirs.
As Harper and Emily entered the group’s new base, they saw Alex and Michael discussing something. Alex saw them and made a gesture with his hands, calling for them.
As Harper and Emily came closer, Alex finally spoke to them:
“How was everything? Did you guys manage to get legal information about our terrain usage?”
Alex asked.
“Well, according to Mr. Mush, the lawyer we hired, we have almost full access to our terrain. The only issue would be the ocean. Unlike the terrain, where a mere geological study for heavy operations, like mining, would be enough to grant us full legal support, in the ocean, as it also stands for international waters and treaties, a more complicated study would be necessary.”
Emily said.
“Well… I’m not surprised at this, honestly. I’ve found even more strange things in New Lancaster than I’ve found in my entire life. That place was so full of life, yet not. I guess it has to do with Asmerian freedom and its pollution. Even though the place seems dead because of how contaminated it is, the people have the sparkle of life in their eyes, something that Germanium people didn’t.”
Alex said.
“Alex, I think that the more we study Asmeria, the less we understand it. Initially, I thought of it as a copy of the USA, but as I’ve studied it more, I can find differences; things that would be impossible in the US can easily happen here.”
Harper said.
“I guess you are right, Harper... I even bought a continental missile in a normal gun store.”
“Wait, you WHAT?”
“That’s what we are discussing, Harper.”
Michael said. He was already used to Alex’s craziness at this moment.
“Well, I guess all we can do is accept it then.”
Harper said. He was also used to Alex.
Emily was looking astonished at them. Alex bought a continental missile, and all they say is, “It can’t be helped; let’s have the missile." What’s next? Nuclear bombs? Emily was thinking really hard about everything that just happened.
“I’m going outside. I need some breath.”
Emily said.
“Alright, good luck with that, I guess.”
Alex said.
Then Emily left.
After that, Harper and Michael looked at Alex.
“It isn’t my fault, guys... I saw the promotion and thought that it would really be a good addition for us.”
Alex said.
“She just needs to get used, that’s all.”
Harper said.
Alex, Michael, and Harper would talk more about the missile itself for the entire day.
As Emily was leaving the building itself, she saw Comoron standing in a tree nearby. He was a good friend; maybe she could have a little normality with him? It is what she thought at that moment.
As she was approaching Comoron, he saw her and waved.
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“Hey Emily, here for an air?”
“Yeah, it is quite hard to be on the same wavelength as those guys.”
“You get used. It also happened to me that Alex destroyed magical beliefs that stood there for hundreds of years in hours.”
“Coming from him, I really don’t have any doubts.”
“You are right, Emily. Alex is a weird guy, hahaha, but don’t worry, he’s a good guy. I can feel that through our coat of arms. We are linked, and you are as well. It is just that you can’t sense magic well, and because of that, you can’t feel the link directly. But you are linked, and you have access to Alex's arsenal, including portal magic.”
“He told me about the same thing before, but I just can’t get a grasp of it.”
“Well, everything is connected through magical links and power. What we can have with magical powers is nothing but the ability to see them and manipulate them through will. We usually do that inefficiently, but after some research and nonstop discussions with Alex about something called physics, I started to understand the true nature of magic. It is matter and, at the same time, a wave. Try to imagine a solid block made entirely of energy, a new state of matter like plasma. You can manipulate that mass at will. Imagine it burning, and it will burn. You won’t get full potential using that method, though, but it is still better than nothing.”
“Well, I can understand when you say it like this. But I can’t feel that mass of energy you described.”
“It is understandable. Let’s stimulate you then. I will forcefully let my own magical power enter you, and you will be able to feel it. If you can get a grasp of it with my help, you can do it alone.”
“Alright”
After that, Comoron introduced magical power to Emily. She could feel the energy coming and going. It was different than anything she ever imagined. The energy was like electrons without a core keeping them in.
Emily could feel the power, and with that, she manipulated it to freeze. Imagining the energy draining most of the environment's entropy into itself, it created a huge endothermic reaction, which froze the entire environment around her and Comoron.
“It worked!”
Emily couldn’t hide her emotions. She was extremely happy and excited.
“I’m glad it did. Now, I will stop giving you my own magical power, and you will try to utilize that by yourself.”
“I’m ready.”
Emily shouted that she was ready and started to cast the spell. She could feel the magical power now; it was always there, but she couldn’t notice it at all. Now that Comoron gave her a stimulus, Emily couldn’t just ignore that power like before.
As Emily finally sensed magic, she trained her spells like crazy.
Comoron brought a measurement stone with him.
“Emily, touch that, please.”
“Alright.”
As Emily touched the stone crystal, it started to glow.
It glowed brighter and brighter.
As it finally stabilized, the color shown was blue.
That was really strong magic, even stronger than his own before meeting Alex.
“Emily, you are a blue-user.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means you are strong.”
“Well, I will take that as a compliment, then.”
Emily and Comoron talked with each other for entire hours; they only noticed the time when the sunset was.
As the day ended, Alex opened a portal to the nightclub, and they would only return to Summerville in 4 days to receive the container containing Alex’s continental missile.
As the four days passed, Harper sold more items in the Kingdom, earning more than 500 gold coins. It is approximately 3 million dollars, or one million credits.
He would use this money as a reserve.
As for Alex, he and Alicia went on a date. Alex and his wife would talk about many things, including the new world and the possibility of Alex returning to service.
It wasn't, as Alicia wasn’t used to it. She and Alex married when he was still in service, after all. The only issue was that Alicia was far more worried about her husband than before. Unlike in the Middle East, where he was fighting some terrorists with better technology and tactics, now Alex was entering unknown terrain.
Alex assured Alicia that he wouldn’t get into trouble. And with magical powers, there’s no way he could lose. In the worst-case scenario, he still had his portal, and he could easily flee away.
Alex also brought up the topic of buying a spacecraft. Alicia didn’t understand why he would go so far for a mere spacecraft, but she guessed that it was a man’s dream after all. Alex was born in the same country as the first man who stepped on the moon; he couldn’t stop dreaming about space when he was a kid; even Alicia could tell because she knew him at that time after all.
It doesn’t matter now; Alex already started going down this path, so Alicia would support him as her husband.
Alex even invited Alicia on a space trip, but she said that an interdimensional trip would suit her more. Alex then asked her on a date in the cafeteria he went to in New Lancaster, and she accepted. They would do it when he had more free time.
As for Michael and Jenifer, they will prepare for their wedding soon. The nightclub would serve as a good place for the party after the main event. The only problem was finding a good church. Michael said that the nightclub’s profit was enough to borrow a good place and do a great ceremony. Jenifer doubted a little, but after hearing the numbers, she was shocked. Little did she know where those numbers actually came from.
Jenifer thought that her husband was rich now, as was his brother. What in the world are they doing in that nightclub to make so much money?
Harper was alone, as always. His home was big, but there was only him there. Jenifer and Michael would visit him, and they would talk about many things, including their wedding day.
After the days passed, Alex returned to Summerville to receive his container. It contained the missile he bought from the old man in the gun store. Everything was right and intact, so Alex signed the delivery papers, and he was ready to prepare the missile launcher.
That missile would surely be a great show of power.
The base itself had also changed; unlike 4 days ago, with the environmental license, Comoron planted tons of dragon trees in the terrain, which made the base look like a European Victorian mansion.
The contrast between old-fashioned architecture and technological devices in the base made it extremely Unique.
Everyone from Alex’s group gathered in the main hall to discuss their next step: what they would do next, how they would use that missile, how they would earn enough credits to buy a spacecraft, what they would do with it, and other small topics.
From the meeting, they had some main topics about what they had to do.
Comoron brought up the topic of the Demon Lord being resurrected in the kingdom and how that would cause problems. He also brought up the topic of the Sand People, a group of natives fighting the Empire that the Kingdom separated from.
These two things would make it easier for further operations or terrain establishment on the continent that the kingdom and the empire were on. Helping the sand people could provide them with great reserves of oil, and defeating the Demon King could provide them with countless golds. That would help them buy their spacecraft soon, and even a mothership.
Emily said that there are issues on the east border of the Germanium Reich. The Rus people were threatening to unify under a new banner, and they swore revenge on the Germanium Reich and their people. They could use this opportunity to help a specific warlord in Rus territories and get their goodwill, or even forcefully take the spacecraft of another warlord and request that as payment for defeating them.
There were plenty of opportunities. They could also help in the fight against gangsters in South Asmeria. The Asmerian army was having trouble in the Sahr region with pirates, which was also a way to earn money. The Diretorium was a complex world, unlike any place they had ever thought of.
Michael and Harper said that they could use the spacecraft to discover new continents in the Kingdom’s world. They would call that place Phalanx for the time being.
If there are new places to discover, they could use them to earn money. In the best-case scenario, they could even find an entire continent empty.
Alex said that they would first engage against the Demon Lord forces. If what Comoron said was true, that entity was somehow endemic and reappeared from time to time. Every time the demon lord appeared in the kingdom, something called a “hero” would appear to fight against it. He also said that the Demon Lord cycle would soon reset and the Demon Lord would soon appear. There would be another 20 years or so of war.
Alex thought that this “hero” was somehow curious. What was the meaning of it? A random individual coincidentally gains immense powers at the same time the Demon Lord invades a continent. There’s no way there isn’t someone behind it.
It was odd; it had to be investigated. If Alex finds the cause behind it, he could utilize this “hero” power for his own sake.
There was also the matter of mixing magical stones with technology. Alex couldn’t think of a way to hybridize the two of them, and neither could Comoron.
“Alright, then, it is set. We will investigate this ‘Demon Lord’. According to Comoron, he had already been reborn, and it was preparing his army.”
Alex said.
“It is public information about the Kingdom. The Demon Lord is already between them, and they are preparing for war. That’s why our items sold so fast.”
Comoron said.
“What if we kidnap the Demon Lord?”
Alex proposed.
“What? Shouldn’t we just kill it?”
“No. If we kill the demon lord, there won’t be a hero. I want to understand what this hero is.”
“I think that I get it now. Do it just like you did with the King of the Forest. It won’t work. The Demon Lord is on an entirely different level. I know that your magic is strong, but you can’t simply bring living beings to the spatial storage, can you? That’s why you couldn’t just take the Germanium ships at that time. The Demon Lord cannot be defeated by normal magic; it needs the holy attribute.”
“I’ll take that, but the Demon Lord cannot win against technology. You are underestimating something, Comoron; we have technology, magic, and high explosive power.”
“Even so, the Demon Lord cannot be pierced by normal materials. Only the holy sword can pierce it, and that sword is heavily guarded by the kingdom.”
“So, I just need to explode ‘Holy Material’ in a fragmentary bomb.”
“Getting your hands into these materials isn’t as easy as you think. The best approach for us would be to destroy the Demon King army and escort the hero to defeat it.”
“Well. I disagree. You will soon learn that even though magic is great, it can’t compete against technology. Remember the ships I destroyed? I could only do it because they were caught off guard. If they activated their shields, we wouldn’t be able to defeat them.”
“How can you be so certain of it?”
“I already evaluated magic. You said that my ‘Mana pool’ is great, right? I liberated the maximum amount of mana I could at the same time, and it made the impact of an ordinary WW2 heavy artillery. That was great, obviously, but it couldn’t compare with a barrage constantly shooting. As for the magical power, the maximum I could do is imbue it in physical objects temporarily. Heavy impacts make it easily dispersed. If I put a strong magical material imbued with pure magical power, element-less, the explosion will cause it to disperse at heavy speeds, and the fragments will pierce the demon lord while the magic power disorganizes the demon lord's magic.”
“I think that I understand it now. I just remembered the first moment we met in that forest. Your weapons were great and could even pierce through the skin of the skin of the king of the forest. Well, worst-case scenario, we could still open a portal and teleport back to our base.”
“Now you have the spirit. Let’s do it then.”
Alex said.
He then told them their plan. Alex would imbue the maximum amount of magic he could into sharp metal objects. Harper would use cold magic to make the material less agitated, so it wouldn’t disperse easily. After imbuing everything, they would mix it with gunpowder and launch it using their new continental missile. As the missile had at least match-2, the Demon Lord wouldn’t even know what had hit him, and before he could even react, Alex would engage against it.
The plan was done. If the Demon Lord proved to be strong, Alex would teleport himself to the base and leave it alone.
Comoron was still concerned about that approach, but Alex assured him they would be fine.
“Now, the only issue regarding the Demon Lord is its location. Where can we find it?”
Alex said.
“Usually, beings like the Demon Lord live in a dungeon. We can ask for newly formed dungeons and start searching for him from there. I can even get some of my contacts in the Kingdom to look for his location.”
Comoron said. He was a noble, after all.
“I guess that we have to find him before acting. Until we find him, let’s clean up the Demon Forest in the kingdom. If we sell tons of monster material, we can earn some gold, can’t we?”
Alex suggested.
Comoron was afraid that it would get so much attention pointed at them. Alex selling modern stuff in the kingdom wasn’t something big to make the kingdom forces move, but selling tons of monster carcasses would surely catch the King's attention, and he could try to turn Alex against him.
Unlike before, Comoron wasn’t concerned about it anymore, as he and Alex formed a link using the coat of arms, but the uneasiness remained with him.
“Well, they will surely pay for it. But wouldn’t we attract unwanted attention?”
Comoron said.
“We will, but we will also attract clients. Don’t worry, Comoron, we won’t forgive the king for what he did to you.”
Harper said.
“Yeah, he’s right. We will give them bodies, and they will give us tons of money in exchange. Can you think of a better way to confront the king than this?”
Michael said.
“Yeah… I think that you are right. Let’s do it.”
As Comoron agreed to Alex's plan on what to do until they found something about the Demon Lord, all four men opened a portal to the initial plains biome where Alex first arrived. Comoron and Harper would investigate, while Alex and Michael would clean this forest. Both were trying to get more panacea, monster materials, rare materials, and everything else they could put their hands on.
“Alright, then, let’s do what we do best.”
Alex shouted. After giving the signal, everything started, and they would earn a lot of money. If Alex’s calculations were correct, he could buy the triphibic vehicle he saw in that workshop with 100 million credits, which stands for 5 tons of gold.
5 tons of gold is 50 thousand royal gold coins. According to Comoron, there are monsters here for which the Kingdom will pay an entire 2 thousand coins for their bodies.
As Harper and Comoron left the plains and teleported to the capital city, Alex and Michael started to defeat monster after monster in the demon forest.