18 - Rank 1955

Merlin felt terrible, though the smile on his face was dazzling to Jane and Geo, especially since he had just saved their life from the metal grizzly as he helped Jane up from the ground he, then he reached out his hand and helped Geo up from the ground he heard the notification of the system

[Ding! Unlocked rank 1955!]

'So this counts as contact with the human civilization… Level up I guess? There are so many new options Though I guess it all depends on my wallet...System how many points do I have?'

[Ding! 2658 points are currently available]

Merlin began mumbling

"A Centurian Mk. 3, M26 Pershing, M41 Bulldawg, PT-76, T-54, M46, M47, and the ugly duckling M48… But first, we need a big sister to Gerta, system how much is a Königstiger? The one with the Henschel turret"

[Ding! A Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B is 528 points]

Merlin exclaimed

"Damn she's expensive!"

Much to Jean's and Geo's surprise, though Jane had an inking and asked Merlin

"Is it a new tank?"

"Yeah a classic, though she's a little expensive…"

Jane narrowed her eye slightly before she asked

"How expensive?"

"Oh you know, a casual ⅕ of my total points"

Jane sighed before she reached out and wiped some tears from Merlin's face, though he quickly got embarrassed and stopped, Jane giggled a bit before she showed a bright smile and spoke

"If you really want it then I guess you can buy it?"

Merlin nodded and just as he was about to speak Geo interrupted the two of them

"If you want to flirt you can do so at another time, we have company"

Merlin really wanted to comment on the flirting part but turned to the new arrival, it was the merchant from yesterday, Henrieta, she looked slightly pale as she gaze at the field of gore, though she quickly snapped her fingers and two carriages followed out of the gates and stopped, then Henrieta walked up and took out a chest form the carriage before she opened it and spoke

"You're in luck, we haven't sent the last shipment of the magic beast cores yet"

Merlin looked down at the chest that was sprawling with magic beast cores, then he asked

"How many do you have?"

Henrieta closed her eye and spoke

"1557 grade 1, 592 grade 2 and 196 grade 3"

Merlin did some quick math before he spoke

"So you can afford 184 scales, you know since I am generous I'll give you 190 for the entire stock"

Henrieta was surprised before she spoke

"You would certainly make a great merchant Merlin, if not for the price that's going to come on your head from all that killing"

"Well a great man once said 'Kill one man and you are a murderer. Kill millions and you are a conqueror. Kill all and you are a God' So I think I'll be fine, though it was not men I was set in this world to kill, but magic beasts"

Merlin opened his inventory and pulled out 190 dragon scales on the dirt beside him before he turned to Henrieta and asked

"Do you want to count them?"

Henrieta's eyes glinted slightly before she spoke

"No need"

then she gestured for some servants to quickly unload the magic beast cores and laid the dragon scales before she spoke

"This concludes our business, good day Merlin"

Then she turned around and walked back into the city along with the 2 carriages and the servants, Merlin swept his hand over the small hill of magic beast cores and spoke

"System convert them all to points

[Ding! 3329 points added, new balance: 5987]

Merlin showed an excited look on his face before he spoke resolutely

"Purchase one, no two Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B's!"

Two new tanks materialized on each side of Merlin, 7.38 meters long hull, or over 10 meters if the gun was in a forwards position with a width of 3.7 meters and a height of just over 3 meters, these beasts were commonly known as King tiger's

"These kitties carry the long 88mm or as it's commonly known as, the famed 8,8 cm KwK 43! It shoots a shell weighing over 10 kilograms at a muzzle velocity of 1000 meters a second! This shell can penetrate 153 mm of steel at 3 kilometers away! It was truly the terror of each and every allied tank during the war! Listen to its V-12 Maybach HL 230 P30 engine roar!"

At Merlin's command the two kitties powered up their 690 horsepower engines up and roared out as Merlin raised his hands like a maestro conducting an orchestra, Geo's eyelid twitched before he asked Jane

"Is he always like that?"

"Yep, though it seems to get worse with every new tank he gets… hey Merlin?"

"What?"

"Why did you purchase two?"

"Well… You know how it's every man's dream to be loved by a pair of beautiful identical twins?"

Jane opened her mouth to say something, but then she stopped, she could feel that it was futile to argue with Merlin on this point and simply showed a wry smile as she looked to her side and saw Geo seemingly agreeing with Merlin as he nodded along, Jane felt a headache come on as she sighed deeply, then she yelled over the noise of the engines to Merlin

"Merlin! Weren't we going to head to the orphanage?"

Merlin's expression changed before he quickly waved her and Geo over as he explained his reasoning for not going to the orphanage for now, after a bit Jane and Geo nodded, they understood his reasoning and so soon the 16 tanks were once again on the move as they drove around the edge of the city before they headed deeper into the Engir kingdom, only stopping to make camp in the evening, as the tanks drove off the dirt road and formed a defensive circle in an open field a little away from the main road next to a water spring Merlin thought back to how he had overcome his mental breakdown, it was when he saw Jane getting chased by that Metal grizzly, at that moment it had snapped inside him, that he had slaughtered all those people not because he wanted to make a statement, nor was it because they threatened his life, it was because they threatened Jane, Merlin sighed before

'It's almost as if I am in love… No, this isn't love, it's Stockholm syndrome…'

Merlin chased the thoughts of love out of his head before he switched gears and muttered

"System, how do I use the unknown blueprint I got earlier?"

[Ding! Use 50 points to examine the unknown blueprint fragment?]

"...Sure"

[Ding! Humanoid android Mk. 2 blueprint fragment received! View blueprint fragment now?]

Merlin became excited at once, the fact that there were an Mk. 2 of the humanoid androids was something he had suspected ever since he first laid eyes on them, whether this would improve their skill in controlling the tanks or intelligence was very welcome to him as it would improve the combat effectiveness of the tanks either way

"Yes, view the blueprint now"

[Humanoid android Mk. 2 blueprint

Required components: 1 x grade 5 magic beast core, 1 x quests, 50 x grade 1 tank spare parts, 1 x ??? magic beast component

Start the quest now?]

"...No"

Merlin wanted very much to start the quest now, but know that it could be a time-sensitive quest made him hold off, he looked over the rest of the requirements and sighed, he had none of those in his inventory at the moment, the magic beast core he had gotten from the dragon was grade 7, not 5

'Now that I think about it I've never killed a grade 5 magic beast… Oh well…'

Merlin stretched before he climbed out of the tank and walked over to the other 2 that were eating next to the water spring, Merlin looked at the water spring, it wasn't a natural spring, more of a water fountain, or an unlimited bird fountain, well it was nearly unlimited anyway, these were set up along the major roads over the entire Engir kingdom by the decree of the king, Merlin purred some water into his self-heating MRE and waited for it to boil on its own, as he did he looked down to the road for a bit, a convoy of carriages were passing along with a large group of people

'Wait they aren't passing…'

Merlin called out to Jane and Geo that also turned to look at the convoy that approached, Geo asked

"What should we do Merlin?"

"...Nothing, let's just head back to the tanks"

Merlin and the other two moved away from the water spring and walked back towards the tanks, when they arrived someone called out to them

"Wait!"

Merlin and the other two turned around and saw a person approaching, it was a middle-aged man, he looked to be the sellsword kind too as he wore leather armor and carried a sword at his hip, he stopped a few meters away from them and looked at the tanks packed behind them and could not help but ask

"What are those?"

Merlin showed a smile and spoke a single word

"Tanks"