We trooped upstairs. The door to the Records Hall was open, but I skipped it for now. More pressing concerns. Once more, I had kept all the monsters out of the tower, and all my summons alive. We killed a hidden boss. The Tower Rewards, the level clear bonus, would be enormous.

“So, Versai, you have never seen an Alpha monster before?”

”No, nothing like that. I have seen some bizarre things on expeditions. Some of those relic sites are beyond strange. But during a Wave, defending the Tower? Only monsters. Ordinary monsters. Just a lot of them, coming stronger and faster every time.”

Versai kept mindlessly touching the hilt of her sword. She kept looking out the windows as we marched up the stairs.

”Did you notice that I barely got touched during the wave? Wave Three. Even the other time we beat it, I got torn to almost nothing. It’s one reason I don’t remember much of the Fourth Wave. No medic. I died almost instantly. But this wave, I was barely touched.”

”Fortifications. Lots of fortifications. If you know the enemy can’t hit you with ranged weapons, make sure they can’t reach you and you can shoot them. I’d have built a giant stone wall, if I had stone. But those… things can climb worryingly well, so a palisade wall was never going to be enough on its own.”

”Slow them down, shoot them up.” Versai murmured.

”Yep.”

I shook my head. I had a nagging suspicion that tactic had run its course. The appearance of the Alpha strongly suggested that. Still. I would adapt.

“Mind you, if I had troops that could fall back faster than the monster could advance, this would look very different. I don’t suppose cavalry and horse archers are a thing?”

“They are.”

I stopped dead. “You’re kidding?”

“Nope. Not… common, but I have seen a couple.”

Well there’s some hope for the future!

The throne room was its usual barren self. There was the board with the missions and fliers, there was a chest with the loot from the monsters and the rapidly-becoming-welcome sight of a flashing gold spark in the air. I tapped the spark. A brief triumphal fanfare played.

WAVE THREE- COMPLETE! OPTIONAL BONUS OBJECTIVE- KILL THE ALPHA, COMPLETE! PERFECT PASS!

Optional? OPTIONAL?! What part of that was optional! The evil thing just appeared on the field! Where was the opt out button?

Rewards- 200 Resonant Crystals, 1- Cherished Memory: Rakim, 2 Frozen Diamonds-”

Ooh! Premium currency, and earnable in game? Who says the cabal of body snatching necromancers are completely immoral?

Award for Perfect Victory: -5% Resource Cost For Field Constructions.

That one gave me a pause. First, the number. Five percent. It was the difference between something costing a dollar and ninety-five cents. Which is to say, the difference between a round number and a fake bargain.

On the other hand, a flat, permanent reduction in resource costs? And five percent of a hundred was only five, but a thousand? A million?

It’s a gacha game. I should expect the numbers to get stupid.

The other thing that made my eyebrow twitch uncontrollably were the words “Resource Costs.” Because so far, there hadn’t been any. There was just “Hey, Judiths, do we have enough timber to make a few hundred stakes? How about a palisade?”

But that wasn’t how gacha worked, was it? Oh no. You needed to keep track of a gazillion different resources, currencies, timers, events, special event currencies, all kinds of nonsense.

I was still in the tutorial. The thrice damned honeymoon phase. They were still easing me into it. They were gonna stick me with resource management. I could smell the evil coming.

Perfect Clear of Hidden Wave Boss Monster Alpha- Alpha Skull Totem!

Alpha Skull Totem is a base decoration and may be hung in the Throne Room, The Master’s Chambers, or over a Tower entrance. If placed over an entrance, all Monsters approaching from that side of the Tower will suffer the Debuf- Lingering Fear.

Lingering Fear- Non-Boss, Non-Elite, Non-Rare Monsters will know that an Alpha was killed in that area, and will dread encountering whatever killed it. -10% movement speed, -10% attack speed, -10% attack strength, -20% morale.

There was a small heap of resource packs, Millenary Orders and even a hat box to round things out. I checked the hatbox. Big pile of fruit on a broad brimmed woman’s hat. I banished it to the depths of my inventory. Didn’t even give a stat boost!

Versai was blinking in shock. I had to keep reminding myself- if I had been Isekai’ed, she was stuck in a time loop. Reliving the same three days over and over, seeing all the permutations of failure. Remembering vividly one instance of blind, limited, luck.

I smiled at her. It was… hard. Trying to be sincere to a 3-D woman, especially one so strong and pretty. But, hell, didn’t she deserve at least that much? Or had Firen taught me nothing?

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”Hey. We beat Wave Three. We are all alive. We will have at least four new comrades by the next wave. We still have all my orders for Wave Four. We still have most of our defenses intact.”

I inhaled, scrabbling for something cool to say. “Ready to see what the Fifth Day looks like?”

Her face twitched into something resembling a smile. I don’t think she really knew how to feel. I was sure the game was messing with her.

“You know what? I really am. I really, REALLY am.”

“Well. Before we start the Fourth Day, we have one last thing to do.” I summoned all my… summons, and had them assemble in the area between the door and the palisade.

I didn’t know quite what to think of them. Some of them, like Versai, were complete people. Trimmed and molded into something more appealing to the Tower Master, but still a complete and functional person. The rest of them?

The Mikas were shuffling around, looking awkward. They would bump into each other with their enormous shields and reflexively apologize. Pammy wasn’t much better, as she kept looking around with an “awawawah” face, then tearing up for no reason.

Radz looked around calmly, the brokenness in her eyes horribly obvious. The Judiths stood next to her, casual, bland, blue-collar optimism personified. Next to them was Kim, much more life in her eyes, a trace of mischief, but some knowing creases in that too-perfect face.

Then there were the Blue Roses, each still in their new costumes, each still a staggering beauty, and each still a massive pain in my once-ample rear. They had a tragic backstory, but… right now… so what? Who didn’t? Kim had one arm and was physically incapable of attacking, and she STILL went toe to toe in melee. Talk about tough!

I sighed. I didn’t want to think of people purely in terms of their usefulness to me. I think everyone here, myself included, were victims of that thinking. Still. I had played enough gacha to know that was exactly how it would work out. Damn it all, and damn me too.

Time to act like a real leader. I don’t know, maybe it would trigger a cut scene. Give us a little boost for the next wave. Maybe I just wanted to feel like the heroic leader, instead of a loser put in charge of actual heroes.

”Alright everyone! I don’t know how much of this will stick, but we did the impossible tonight. Beat the Third Wave, beat the Boss Monster, and none of us died. WE DID THE IMPOSSIBLE!”

Only Versai and Kim looked like they really got what I was saying, but I wanted to say it anyway. I had to say it!

”So I am putting up a reminder- for us and for the monsters. This is a place where the monster-killers live. This is the Tower that WILL NOT FALL!”

I grabbed the totem in my inventory, and selected the West Entrance to hang it. It floated up from my hands and fixed itself over the door. A huge, ugly skull, teeth like a wolf, nose holes like a bat, curling, pointed horns from a particularly sadistic goat. It had been painted over with some sort of blue mud and decorated with long feathers.

Never mind the monsters, I wanted to run at the sight of the horrible thing!

”This is it! Proof that we are monster-killers, not monster-victims! Now- On to the next day, and victory!”

Nobody clapped.

There weren't even crickets.

“That. That was the applause line.”

There were some nods from Versai and Kim. The Judiths managed puzzled smiles.

Should I… ask them to clap?

________________________________________________________

Before the orders could go out, I had to see what new troops there were. I had two new specified summoning crystals. Neither were big or shiny enough to be a six star, but I had seen how nasty Kim’s buffs made the Mikas. I would gratefully accept whatever support I could get.

Back up to the… oh dear Goddess what was it called? Pool of something? It would come back to me. Radiant something? Maybe?

Summoning pool. Yeah. Gonna go with that for now.

“Great God Pachinko, you wronged me in the past, but now is an awesome time to set it right. See how I honor you by engaging in games of chance? Yeah Hozzanah and other religious sounding words. Alehu wahoonie, give me those blessed pulls.”

My muttering was near silent, but very sincere. I tossed in the crystal we got from the Alpha. The upswelling WOOiioooAAAHH music was rather jaunty. Was it a little bit louder than Kim’s? I couldn’t be sure. Fingers crossed.

From out of the mist came a frankly sorry looking figure. Covered in grime, face almost blackened with dust. A handkerchief covered their head, and a rather complicated looking long-handled tool was slung over her shoulder. She was second only to the Judiths in not dressing to impress- a white tank top stained gray from dust, and a pair of blue jeans tucked into utilitarian boots.

“Marci. If it needs digging up, shaping up, or planting in, I’m who you call.” Three glittering stars flickered over her head. I smiled.

“Glad to have you on board. Always more work to do building fortifications.”

”Yep.”

There was a long pause. Apparently Marci felt no need to further elaborate. I shrugged. She was right. I tossed the next crystal in, the one the system had called the “Cherished Memory-Rakim.”

Was that what the specified summons crystals were called? It would make sense. Each crystal a “cherished memory” of the departed.

In it went. The music went up. Loud this time. Full on orchestral, with hints of Evanescence. Not at the level that Versai got, but solidly more impressive than Marci’s intro music.

From out of the mist marched a dark haired beauty- tanned and with the steady look that said she had seen it all before, and wasn’t impressed the first time.

The forest camo and armor carrier were not flattering on her, but she gave every appearance of not giving the faintest damn about that. Interestingly, she had what appeared to be a short handled spade attached to one hip, a satchel labeled “EXPLOSIVES” on the other, and a rifle slung over her shoulder.

My very favorite thing about her, though, were the four stars glittering over her head. My very first four star summons.

”Master Sergeant Rakim, Army Corps of Engineers. Holding lines or breaking them, it’s all the same to me.”

I hunted over her uniform, trying to spot a flag. There- on her right shoulder! But not a flag I recognized. Which was… interesting. Because her uniform was telling a story all on its own. Digital Camo. Not even every service branch in America had made that work, let alone other countries. So… what was Rakim’s story?

”We are very glad to have you. Are you a Front Line unit?”

”Yes Sir. Some of my skills overlap with Workers and Direct Damage, but I am primarily intended to create and hold defensive positions. I can also create traps, or breach enemy defenses. I am also skilled at civil engineering tasks, though less so.”

Pachinko, you came through for me. I retract several of the unkind things I have thought about you. In fact, I’d go a step further. Evil black robe necromancers? I am officially subtracting one punch from the beating coming your way.

Just one. But hey, -.0000005% of a beating is better than nothing, right?