Chapter 708

That evening. The Lord's office.

I was lost in thought, twirling a fountain pen in my hand.

'The recovery of the bodies and the reconstruction of the city... It's happening unbelievably fast.'

As the imminent destruction disappeared, people from all over the world, realizing the gravity of the frontline's work, volunteered in droves.

Thanks to this, we have an abundance of manpower, and it's expected to increase further. The scale of the volunteer army is also rapidly expanding.

'But the elite forces gathered from various countries are virtually annihilated.'

Volunteers and workers will leave tomorrow morning to retrieve the bodies of those elite soldiers...

I steadied my aching heart and began to assess the current state of the frontline.

'First, the troops.'

The 30,000-strong unit of elites from the World Guardian Front is annihilated. The airship fleet is similarly wiped out.

The only operational airship is 'La Mancha'. Even that needs significant repairs due to the strain from the 'Night Closing' operation.

'If there's a silver lining, it's that the soldiers who were originally part of Crossroad are still here.'

Specialists in monster battles who have fought alongside me in this hell since the first year. The main force of the Monster Front, who grew from a ragtag bunch of rookies to master monster hunters.

Additionally, the Everblack Empire infantry have also maintained their strength.

The allied units of other races have also maintained their strength, though they were never numerous to begin with.

Living under oppression in their autonomous regions, they couldn't amass large forces. However, their quality of troops is high.

There are also several remaining units, and finally...

'The volunteer army...'

The volunteer army began to integrate into Crossroad during the Autumn Festival.

Their numbers are quite large, and they've been undergoing solid training since then, but they're still unpolished. Especially against the current enemy, the Black Dragon, they couldn't be deployed at the frontline.

'Their morale is high...'

Can they really be deployed in battles against monsters? Even if they are, can they fight properly against the dreadful monsters of the late third year?

"..."

After organizing the remaining units and small units from various regions into documents, I placed my pen on new papers to handle the next issue.

'Next, the defense facilities.'

It's awkward to say this myself, but Crossroad has become very proficient in demolishing and rebuilding.

All sorts of facilities and collapsed structures within the city can be quickly restored.

The problem, as always...

'The city walls.'

They were completely destroyed by the body slam and subsequent self-destruction of the King of Flies, and when we finally rebuilt them, they were torn apart again by the Night Bringer's breath and darkness.

The southern wall has always had a hard time.

'We need to restore it.'

Yes, we need to, but...

'How are we going to do this? Ugh.'

Structures like city walls naturally require years of construction time.

During the last reconstruction, we were able to drastically shorten the construction period thanks to magical construction technology from the Lake Kingdom and wall parts airlifted from the Imperial Capital of New Terra,

But this time, we can't rely on such luck.

'The broken wall... the wrecked forward base...'

With my hand on my forehead, I let out a deep sigh.

'There's really a lot of work to be done.'

No immediate solution is in sight.

At least the wall parts brought from New Terra were assembled in a modular fashion, so the undamaged parts are still standing firm.

We'll have to focus on restoring from there and devise some kind of strategy as we proceed.

City walls, forward bases, barracks, supply depots... After reviewing the list of damaged facilities and outlining a rough restoration plan,

I looked down at the next stack of documents.

'And lastly, the equipment.'

The equipment of the heroes fighting the nightmare monsters at the frontlines is even more crucial than ordinary military supplies.

And that vital equipment...

'Wow, this is insane.'

As I flipped through the documents listing the damaged equipment, my jaw dropped lower and lower. Damn, how much did we wear out?

Starting with my own equipment.

[Great Commander's Banner], lost.

"Ugh!"

I couldn't help but cough violently, hastily grabbing my coffee cup and drinking it like water.

"Hoo, hoo, hoo."

Calm down, calm down, calm down... Damn it! Damn it all! Arrgh!

'You damn Black Dragon bastard! How dare you destroy my personal equipment! Do you have any idea how much I went through to get that!'

I gathered the pieces that were split into five through gacha! If it weren't for the blessing of the SSR God, I wouldn't have been able to gather them all!

Remembering the days I painstakingly collected those flag pieces, tears welled up in my eyes. This is so damn unfair. Sigh.

Still, thanks to my fusion... or merging...? or jogress... with Super-Ash, I can still use most of the functions that were on the flag.

Though I'm still pissed off that my personal equipment got destroyed.

'Sigh, fine.'

At least some of the functions were preserved. Let's move on to the next equipment.

'[Lord of the High Tower], repairable. [Light and Shadow], repairable.'

The armor made from the King of Flies, [Lord of the High Tower], was almost reduced to dust, but since its concept is decomposition and recombination, it's fortunately repairable.

The flagpole made from White Night, [Light and Shadow]... I used it as bait, and this piece of equipment managed to avoid severe damage by disassembling itself into a sheath and a ceremonial sword in a critical moment.

Its survival instinct is just like its original.

The rest of my equipment was neatly stored in the inventory. That's some relief, at least.

'Next, Evangeline...'

This is another big issue. I opened the equipment damage report of our frontier margrave's heir.

'The Cross Family's Spear, the Cross Family's Shield, destroyed...'

Oh my god, you bastard! My painstakingly upgraded, spirit-infused personal equipment... I mean, Evangeline's personal equipment is...!

'Damn Night Bringer, you bastard! Change your name right now to 'Personal Equipment Breaker'! You claim to destroy the world but only break personal equipment! Die! Die again even though you're already dead!'

Grinding my teeth, I cursed vehemently.

The only consolation is that according to Kellibey, although the exterior of the equipment is destroyed, the core is intact, so there's a chance to salvage it...

"Sigh. Everyone went through hell."

Yeah, let's think positively. At least she's alive and only the equipment is lost. Kellibey might perform some magic.

Evangeline's armor [Snow White] was also significantly damaged, but since it's a self-repairing magical armor, it's fortunately being repaired.

'Next, the Nightmare Slayers.'

The [Slayer of the Full Moon] that was attached to Kuilan has been separated again. Kuilan himself has lost all the curses of the wolf and returned to being a normal human male character.

He says he's gained some sort of enlightenment and that his martial arts skills have improved...

'It was really great to have double-layered equipment...'

To be honest, his specs are downgraded now. The negative trait 'Glass Body' has returned. He no longer gets buffs and debuffs depending on the phases of the moon.

'Instead, the [Slayer of the Full Moon] has been purified.'

This purified leather cloak now provides Kuilan with various significant buffs.

While wearing this equipment, he's immune to all kinds of curses.

'It seems to also consider 'Glass Body' as a curse, as long as he's wearing it, he's sturdy Kuilan. I'll have him wear it 24/7.'

'...What about in the summer?'

I don't care. I'll think about it after this winter.

Anyway, the purified [Slayer of the Full Moon] provides Kuilan with several buffs, mostly focused on speed.

Having lost the curse of the wolf, Kuilan's durability has significantly decreased. His character concept seems to be shifting towards an evasive tank. I hope he can endure it.

'Hang in there, Beast King.'

But all the wolf curses are gone. Does that mean he's still a beastman? Considering the divine blessing still resides in him, it seems the tribal god still sees Kuilan as an avatar...

'Whatever, next.'

Additionally, all the Nightmare Slayers in our possession have been 'purified.'

Each equipment user overcame the darkness in their hearts with strong will and awakened.

Besides the equipment made from the magic cores of Nightmare Legion commanders, various new equipment forged from dragon hearts also underwent purification.

And with the ordeal overcome, all their specs have dramatically improved.

Among them, Lucas's equipment is particularly noteworthy.

'Wait, [Excannibal] could be purified?'

The cursed sword [Excannibal] has transformed into the holy sword [Excalibur].

If we examine the details closely, it's actually the opposite; it seems that the holy sword [Excalibur] had fallen and become the cursed sword [Excannibal], and now it has regained its original form.

'...That sword that used to tremble and beg for fresh food was a holy sword?'

The result was so unexpected that I was utterly bewildered.

Anyway, the holy sword [Excalibur], which has regained its original form, possesses incredible performance.

Its base specs are far superior to the [Bestowed Sword] that Lucas originally used. The attached special abilities are also at an insane level.

'Looking at it this way, it wasn't all bad.'

As I reviewed the list of purified equipment, I sighed. Objectively speaking, it's a blessing in disguise; in terms of equipment, we actually gained more.

'More than anything, we obtained a lot.'

It's not just the purified equipment.

We defeated that damned... no, more than damned, the most wretched monster in history, the Black Dragon, so the rewards were also enormous.

First of all, we harvested a massive amount of materials from Night Bringer's corpse.

I didn't manage to get an intact corpse since I burned it all with the bombardment of light at the end, but I still managed to gather a lot.

A dragon's entire body is made of top-grade equipment materials.

A mountain of these materials is piled up right in front of the city. Scales, bones, horns, claws... all sorts of parts were swept into the forge.

Without exaggeration, it's enough to outfit all the soldiers on the frontline with weapons and armor. The equipment of the entire frontline will be able to level up.

'The materials to watch out for are, of course, the magic cores and the dragon heart.'

Night Bringer had a structure with the dragon heart, the core of the magic power, and another magic core assigned to each of its seven heads.

So, there should be one dragon heart and seven magic cores.

'We got one dragon heart and eight magic cores.'

At first, I wondered why this was, but upon examining the recovered magic cores, I found the reason.

One magic core belonged to Scalian, who had been absorbed by Night Bringer at the last moment. Although his body was lost, the magic core wasn't fully absorbed and thus remained.

I could tell because it had the mark of my flag, which had pierced Scalian's heart.

"..."

What should I do with this?

Should I make equipment out of it, or...

Pondering, I reviewed the rest of the list.

Besides the intact seven magic cores (actually, six auxiliary heads were eaten by Jörmungandr, so we recovered them from Jörmungandr's severed body).

And, similarly, the dragon heart with the mark of my flag.

'As much as you destroyed our equipment, you shall become our equipment, Night Bringer...'

Since the forge is extremely busy right now, I'll make the equipment request when things settle down a bit.

I looked up at the pile of golden and white boxes stacked in a corner of the office.

These are the stage clear rewards. Besides the EX-grade boxes, I also obtained eight SSR boxes.

'In the game, I could barely get ten in one round...'

It seems I got close to twenty SSR boxes during this three-year campaign. Why is the game being so generous? Did Aider pull some strings? Or...

'Looking back, they did provide some weirdly complete set items... They are pretty generous with items.'

Despite the hellish difficulty of the game, at least there's a minimal sense of fairness. Hmm.

Thinking this, I reached out to the boxes. I intended to open them all right here.

But then,

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

I heard someone running down the corridor, and

Bang!

The office door was flung open.

Startled, I looked towards the door. It was Lucas who burst in. Catching his breath, Lucas shouted.

"It's an emergency, my lord!"

"What? What's going on?!"

Lucas panicking like this? What on earth happened?

'An enemy raid? Or internal strife? A construction site collapse? A defection of an allied nation? Which one?'

All sorts of thoughts flashed through my mind in an instant,

"Uh, Evangeline! Evangeline...!"

"Evangeline?!"

Hearing the name of our melee commander made me even more flustered.

What about Evangeline? Is she hurt? Did she have an accident? Did she run away? Did she get PTSD and splash pink paint all over the construction site? Damn, which one is it?!

Then Lucas delivered the answer I never could have imagined.

"She got a confession of love-!"

"...?"

For a moment, I was so confused that I stood there blankly.

Then, without realizing it, I screamed.

"Don't lie to me-!"