Chapter 5

[ x ] You focused on digging lessons, the magic blade formula is after all quite a bit more useful than most people realise. [Grants the 354th Mage Battalion the ability to build underground fortifications and improves its melee proficiency.]

[ x ] You focused on the uses of the dehydration formula, staying dry was quite important for a soldier, excessive humidity and moisture made up the first steps towards the spread of sickness. [Grants the 354th Mage Battalion the ability to improve the moral of other units.]

You continued to think about your teachers for a bit more while you had some time to yourself, and then you thought about all the efforts the instructors of the Fatherland as a whole were making to properly train the new generation. You decided then and there in your little quarter that you couldn't waste their work by letting your men embarrass the Fatherland through dying an early death trying to lift more heavily than they reasonably could. Stealth might have made for a great tool to strengthen your Battalion, but once an encounter devolved into open combat, they would simply be as hopelessly outmatched as they were now.

And while there is no such thing as too many medics on a battlefield, you couldn't imagine that the higher ups would be all that satisfied with getting a few medics after they sent you tried and tested officers to instruct the 354th. Your Battalion would need skills that were undeniably valuable to not be seen as cannon fodder due to its current lack of combat ability. And you already had an idea that should work out nicely, why not focus the efforts of your Battalion on construction work, the Empire loves its infrastructure and fortifications like no one else in the world after all.

Using the magic blade formula on a spade or shovel to dig tunnels and trenches through solid rock at unprecedented speed should more than satisfy the General Staff if they decided to take a look, and hardening concrete with the dehydration formula didn't seem like it would be a bad idea either, there's no such thing as too much concrete on the battlefield after all. Thinking about it, it really seemed like there was nothing that war would decline to devour if offered, there were never enough soldiers and never too much concrete nor too much firepower, the God of war must truly be a glutton.

You couldn't help but shudder at the thought of someone paying for it all, for you couldn't even make a guess at how much ammunition three imperial Artillery Divisions could go through in a day. You heard some years ago that most generals back in Berun were of the opinion that mages were most of the time too simple-minded, and you guessed that they weren't as wrong on the matter as you had believed till now. It would be deeply embarrassing if the rest of your Battalion was already aware of the madness that was modern and industry fueled war, but even if they were, there was a difference between knowing and knowing, and you hoped that your men wouldn't be slowly corrupted by that knowledge like you were now.

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Thinking about humans as little more than numbers or a certain military value was not something that you ever hoped to do, it made you wish that you were born a century earlier into a time in which war wasn't detached from common sense. Logic was great, and it was the foundation of the modern Empire, but planning on logic alone felt like a terrible mistake to you, and you're sure that mistake would carry down the ranks all too quickly with the imperial mindset. You had absolutely no interest in making someone into a number and neither did you like the thought of becoming one yourself just to please the higher ups, once infested it would surely weaken the Empire no matter what one might say in defence of that worldview.

You had decided in what general direction you wanted to take your Battalion, and you knew that your officers would soon, perhaps in as little as a week, be ready to present you with the first fruits of their labour so that was all going as smoothly as you could hope. But now that everything was slowly working out, and you had time on your hands, you couldn't understand why you were still treating them more like a resource to be refined rather than people. And that sadly wasn't a matter that you could simply bring to the attention of the generals to get it resolved like the mana pollution, you would sound like a fool trying to explain how you didn't want to see your comrades in duty as resources to men that had sent thousands to their deaths to protect the Empire.

Please select the option you like the most:

[ ] This mindset absolutely wouldn't work for an officer serving his Imperial Majesty, you decided that you needed to toughen up, one justification for this worldview was that you could lessen your losses if you just detached yourself from your men, you never agreed with it, but perhaps you should rethink your stance. [This is a story decision and affects Elmer's disposition for the story moving forward, there might be a chance to change said disposition if the worldview is shaken enough by a new experience.]

[ ] This mindset absolutely wouldn't work for an officer serving his Imperial Majesty, you decided that you would need to spend some time with the troops to get your mind properly working again. [This is a story decision and affects Elmer's disposition for the story moving forward, there might be a chance to change said disposition if the worldview is shaken enough by a new experience.]

[ ] This mindset absolutely wouldn't work for an officer serving his Imperial Majesty, you decided that you couldn't let the imperial mindset corrupt your men like it was slowly corrupting you, surely his Imperial Majesty wouldn't agree to such madness. [This is a story decision and affects Elmer's disposition for the story moving forward, there might be a chance to change said disposition if the worldview is shaken enough by a new experience.]

[ ] This mindset absolutely wouldn't work for an officer serving his Imperial Majesty, you decided that you wouldn't abandon your beliefs and that you couldn't serve the Fatherland in your current position anymore. [This is a story decision and affects Elmer's disposition for the story moving forward, there might be a chance to change said disposition if the worldview is shaken enough by a new experience.]