Chapter 125: The Grand Mountain Formation

“Now, we should get right to the next task, shouldn’t we?”

“Again?!”

I gave instructions for the next task immediately.

Both Ruan and Suid made faces that showed they were sick of it.

Toden had long since made an excuse about another deal and fled the scene.

“Haha. I’ll be back. Hehehe. What a shame. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

Toden, who had been laughing like a madman, said he’d be back quickly, but everyone seeing him off knew the truth.

‘He’s definitely not coming back soon. He might not come back for months.’

He is never on time.

The expressions on Ruan and Suid’s faces as they watched him were like those of privates seeing off a sergeant about to be discharged.

“There’s not much left now. As for Laireun Castle…”

“……You’re building all the other castles too, you… you… no, Young Master!”

“Tsk tsk. But we still have to go.”

We embedded all sorts of Magic Circles into Laireun Castle.

In the end, even more magic was embedded than the traps Birence had originally designed.

‘My realm has improved, so I should put it to use.’

With my increased understanding of mana, I enhanced the blueprints on the spot.

The difficulty of production increased significantly, making the mages struggle.

Still, the traps plastered all over were enough for the castle walls themselves to repel the invasion of any ordinary monster.

There were also hidden traps that weren’t visible; many who approached without knowing about them died without a sound.

‘It was a good idea to have them take the Mana Oath for secrecy.’

It would be one thing if this information spread, but for the sake of the deal, I took measures in advance to ensure no information related to this place could be leaked.

Therefore, for me, the mages were workers who couldn’t leak information and were practically unpaid labor due to the secret techniques of the Magic Circles!

Indeed.

I was making very good use of them.

“Sir Suid, you can focus on establishing the Monster Corpse Trading Post here.”

“Oh…… Understood! I’ll gladly take charge.”

“Hehe. Yes. And Lady Sui, you will take direct command of the Magic Tower construction.”

“Of course.”

The mages, each assigned their tasks, left happily.

‘I gave them easy work.’

I gave relatively easy work to Sui and Suid.

That’s why they could make such expressions.

“Then…… what about us?”

The last remaining manager-level person was Ruan.

The fifteen mages under her were also looking at me with uneasy eyes.

“Lady Ruan will stay by my side to… very… well help me learn Magic Circles. Shall we head to the next castle?”

“Ah, you devil!”

“Oh. A new word has been added. Hehe.”

It was already summer.

Beyond Laireun Castle, the foundation work for the other castles was all finished.

Thanks to Iron Fist and the mercenaries rolling around in places unseen.

There, I plan to take the mages and plaster the walls with magic again.

‘Finally, I can see the next step slowly coming into view.’

The next step was slowly coming into view.

The northernmost frontline fortress is the newly built Leireun Fortress.

Centered there, I intended to create two gates in the northeast and northwest.

One would be the Merchant Gate, and the other would be the Mercenary Gate and castle.

‘They will be composed exactly as their names suggest.’

As soon as I arrived at the gate—

“You’ve arrived. Oh. These gentlemen are the ones who will strengthen the defenses.”

“That’s right. Take good care of them. They will install the Magic Circles.”

I was welcomed by Birence and Iron Fist.

‘Sian has grown stronger again in the meantime. Looking at her eyes, she seems to want a match.’

Perhaps from hunting monsters in the meantime, the aura of my retainers had changed from before.

Now, they had an aura worthy of matching veteran knights.

Especially Hoden; for some reason, his Soulforce had become quite strong.

‘Why would that lazy Hoden…?’

He had outstanding talent, so if he wanted to, he could become the strongest, but he was inherently lazy.

I thought it was still too early for him to complete the War Sword, but with this level of aura, he might be slowly approaching completion.

“Salute! We greet the Commander!”

“Salute!”

Looking at them welcoming me, Ruan and the mages opened their eyes wide.

Their astonishment was evident.

‘Since I sent most of them to the gates or monster hunting, this must be the first time they’ve met like this.’

They are mages who have been tormented by Magic Circle analysis and all sorts of tasks.

Still, they are not fools.

They must have read the aura of the Iron Fist soldiers or the soldiers welcoming me with their mana.

And they must have reached a conclusion.

An unexpectedly strong army.

‘Everyone has gotten stronger.’

Even the recruits who first joined the Suppression Force have grown stronger.

Although I created a safe environment, monsters are not easy opponents.

Having fought them constantly, it would be more strange if they were weak.

“Did you train these people too, Young Master?”

“I laid the foundation. Everyone worked hard. Just like you, Lady Ruan.”

“Enough small talk. Let’s get to work quickly.”

Indeed.

The mages had become veterans in construction from their work at Laireun Castle.

“Embed the Magic Circle!”

“Got it.”

Whooooooom—

It didn’t take much time to engrave, embed, and activate the designed Magic Circles.

Although this place near the gate was smaller than Laireun Castle by design, the speed was incredibly fast.

Defensive Magic Circles were engraved on both gates.

Ruan, who had installed all the defensive Magic Circles as designed, was curious about one thing.

“If we install them like this, what about the rest? Isn’t it dangerous?”

As Ruan said, if we only installed them like this, the two gates would be in danger.

I told you, they are gates.

There were many empty spaces between the gates.

If monsters poured through those gaps, it would be a real headache.

“Hehe. That’s why I brought you all here.”

“……What are you going to make us do now?”

“Just follow me for now.”

Building walls doesn’t mean defense is complete.

Defense…

‘If you can just block the enemy, that’s defense.’

It could be done in other ways.

For example…

“Something feels strange about the energy here.”

“I adjusted it.”

“How!? How did you do that?”

“You’ll see if you watch.”

You can also create castle walls by setting up Jinbeop.

Illusory walls that block monsters.

Originally, I had left many gaps here and there.

‘We need to lure the monsters.’

I used Jinbeop to make the monsters lose their way and come to the points I designated.

The charging monsters would be handled by the recruits or mercenaries.

The created corpses were planned to be traded through the Monster Corpse Trading Post to be established in Laireun Castle.

In gaming terms, it was like creating a kind of workshop.

It was quite successful, and thanks to that, all the mercenaries of the four mercenary groups were satisfied.

They were thrilled that they could make a fortune throughout the trading period.

In the past, I would have left it at that, but…

‘Not now. Because of the orcs, I need to make it more secure.’

I was thinking of raising the castle built with this Jinbeop a bit higher.

Since I don’t know when the orcs will come, I’m preparing defenses in advance.

That’s why I made two gates.

“Please tell us quickly. According to the deal, you’re supposed to teach us about things like this…”

“Alright. Come on, follow me. I’ll show you from here.”

I led the impatient Ruan and the mages.

‘I should dismantle it here.’

Drawing up my mana—

“Magic Arrow.”

Sssshhhheeeek! Fwoom! Bang!

“Why on earth?”

“Explanation later.”

I destroyed the Jinbeop originally installed here myself.

‘Because I need to make a new one.’

Saying that, I advanced.

Only after reaching the target point could I give the curious mages a new task.

Namely, Jinbeop installation.

‘This time it’s large-scale.’

It was a task that consumed considerable mana, requiring installation over a fairly wide area.

A Jinbeop encompassing the two gates.

Moreover, creating a Jinbeop that operates exactly as I want couldn’t be easy.

I wouldn’t have even attempted it if I didn’t have mages whose bodies were burning with enthusiasm.

“You just need to install a Magic Circle at each point I designate.”

“That seems very simple?”

As Ruan said, the beginning is humble.

“You’ll be able to see the magic interacting with each other.”

“Interacting?”

“Yes. It’s an extension of the Magic Circles on the castle walls adapting to the surrounding mana.”

“……That’s nonsense!? How could that be possible?”

“First, just watch. You’ll see something new again.”

“You know what happens if it fails, right? According to the contract, you have to give us something else.”

“Hehe. As much as you want.”

Though suspicious, the mages moved in unison.

“Here! Install it!”

“In the name of mana, blessings!”

Here and there, the mages embedded the iron plates they had brought in advance and activated the engraved Magic Circles.

Whooooom~

The Iron Scrolls I had separately made worked without fail.

‘It’s working properly. It would be strange if it didn’t work after grinding in mana stones.’

The Iron Scrolls were just humming and spewing mana, not doing anything else.

“…….Is this really all it takes?”

“Can they interact with each other like this?”

The more the Magic Circles embedded in the iron plates activated, the more suspicious the mages became.

In their view, making and activating Magic Circles like this was a waste in itself.

They had expressions wondering what good it did to just spew mana.

No further explanation was needed.

Everything would be told by the result.

“Alright, now we’re past the halfway point. Let’s start wrapping up.”

I led them, coordinating, and spent quite a long time in the mountains.

-Squeeek!
-Eek!

“I’ll handle that. The rest of you, keep installing.”

Kwaaaang!

How much time did I spend dealing with the charging monsters one by one?

By the time the summer heat had settled into the forest—

“We’ve done everything you said, for now.”

“Hmm…… No margin of error.”

“Magic Circles of this level are easy.”

“Is that really so?”

Ruan came to me with a confident face.

Her appearance, having installed Magic Circles all over the mountains until now, was quite shabby.

But seeing that her beauty remained, she was quite a beauty.

‘Not interested.’

I’m not a fool who forgets my own tasks just because there’s a woman next to me.

“What are you going to do now? We installed everything, but nothing is happening?”

“Watch.”

Thump. Tap.

I took out ten mana stones I had prepared in advance.

Five low-grade, four mid-grade, and one precious high-grade.

“Gasp! What are you doing?!”

Crrrrackle

I broke the precious mana stones from low to mid-grade into pieces.

Using them, I drew a Magic Circle at my feet.

‘It has to be precise.’

This is the center of the Magic Circles the mages installed all over the mountain.

In an instant, a Magic Circle was drawn.

I firmly planted the high-grade mana stone in the center.

‘It’s something I barely completed.’

It’s not like I was playing around while working the mages.

To install the large-scale Jinbeop, I engraved a Magic Circle on the high-grade mana stone.

I applied a Jinbeop that only I could use.

“……It will be quite a rare sight.”

Gooooooo—

The moment the Magic Circle was completed, I drew up my mana and resonated it with the circle.

It was the moment when a huge amount of mana poured out and the Magic Circle began to activate!