7 - Incomplete crocodile blueprint

"Wanderer… Whatever I am can wait until I get you home safely"

Jane nodded, she needed to return home before the worst happened to her family, she asked

"So what is our plan?"

Merlin thought for a bit before he asked

"Is there a source of water closer to the forest you came through?"

Jane nodded

"Yeah there's a spring on this side of the forest, about an hour walk to the forest"

"Good… Then we'll move our base of operations there"

Jean nodded before she looked at the tiger and asked

"But Merlin, you can't bring the metal carriages through the forest"

Merlin nodded before he spoke plainly

"Then the forest has to go"

"Eh..? It takes almost a month to get through the forest on foot, how are you going to remove that much forest?"

Merlin showed a smile but didn't elaborate, instead he spoke

"System, what are the requirements to advance to rank 1955?"

[Ding! To unlock rank 1955 host requires 10 grade 2 monster cores, having summoned 30 tanks and having completed a randomly generated quest]

"Well then, start the quest now"

[Ding! New quest received:

Reach the human civilization

Fail condition: none]

"Dang… Oh well…"

Jane tilted her head slightly before she asked

"What's wrong Merlin?"

"Nothing, let's just move the base camp, come into the Puma, let's roll!"

One the way towards the new basecamp the convoy passed the centaur former village, Merlin stopped the convoy there and after making sure to wipe out all the scavenging magic beasts that were feasting on the decaying centaurs Merlin walked up to the Puma that had been destroyed by the centaur Sharman and used his new salvage ability on the wreck of the tank

"Salvage"

[Ding! Starting salvage…]

Merlin watched as the wreck of the puma quickly rusted away before the system sounded out again

[Ding! Salvage complete received: 1x grade 1 tank spare parts]

"Not bad…"

Merlin said a silent prayer for the poor puma tank before climbed back into the other Puma tank before they drove off towards the forest of death as Jean called it

It was evening before they found the spring that Jean had described, Merlin made a guard formation before he summoned a pair of MRE's from his inventory and added some water before he sat himself down on a stub, then Jean walked over and sat down a comfortable distance away from him, she looked over at the MRE's that were boiling by now before she asked

"What was your old world like?"

Merlin thought for a moment before he replied

"Way too convenient"

"...In what way?"

"Everything was at your fingertips including information, so people seemed to regress and began forming groups where they would believe everything their leader told them…"

"That sounds complicated…"

"It was… At this point, I don't know if I prefer this world, but I am definitely leaning towards it"

"I see…"

After they ate, the two of them went to sleep inside each of their Puma…

The next morning Merlin woke up and began to command the tank groups, Berta had arrived during the night and arrived at the new base camp

"Good, let's test the waters…"

Merlin went to work and boarded a Puma before he set off from the basecamp with Jane, from there they drove along the edge of the forest when Merlin spoke

"Let's see what's inside here…"

Then he waved his hand and the Tanks all turned their turrets toward the edge of the forest before they opened up and began firing blindly into the forest, Jane covered her ears before she yelled at Merlin complaining

"What's this good for?"

"Drawing out the magic beasts… See there comes the first target!"

A feline magic beast rushed out of the forest towards the tank group, it was however quickly mowed down by the machine gun and autocannon fire, during the day Merlin managed to gather about 200 points in monster cores, looking at the system interface that showed 604 points he decisively spoke

"Draw the gatcha 5 x 100 points"

[Ding! Received: 1 x tank commander jacket, 1 x Colt M1911, 1 x Incomplete crocodile blueprint, 50 x Military grade MRE 20 x grade 2 tank spare parts]

"Nice a blueprint! But what does it mean that it's incomplete?"

[Ding! Incomplete blueprints need additional components to complete, view the incomplete crocodile blueprint now?]

"Sure"

[Incomplete crocodile blueprint

Required components: 30 grade 3 magic beast cores, 2 quests

Start the first quest now?]

"...Better wait until tomorrow… Good thing I kept 50 magic beast cores from the centaurs so that's done at least"

The next morning Merlin woke up and climbed out of the Puma he had spent the night in before he stretched and saw Jane swinging around a sword they had looted from the centaur village, evidently she had been at it for a while as sweat purred from her body, she stopped once she saw Merlin and greeted him with a smile

"Good morning Merlin"

Merlin nodded and greeted her back

"Morning, I see you're training?"

"Yeah I don't want to go soft, gotta keep in shape"

Merlin nodded and sneaked an extra few glances at her sweat covered body before he cleared his throat and spoke

"I'll go out and hunt on the plains today, do you want to come with Jane?"

Jane shook her head before she showed a smile that seemed to be clouded by something

"I'll stay here and train"

"Okay…"

Merlin took out 2 MRE's out of his inventory and handed them to her before he spoke

"Then make sure to eat when you are hungry, I'll return later tonight"

Jane nodded before she spoke with a slightly brighter smile

"Okay, happy hunting"

Merlin nodded before he quickly climbed onto a puma and spoke out loud

"Start the first quest!"

[Ding! The first quest for the incomplete crocodile blueprint started!

Destroy the kobold village

Time limit: 10:00:00]

Merlin looked towards the north as he faintly felt the location of the Kobold village, then he turned toward Jane and spoke

"I'm off! Forwards!"

The convoy of the 19 Pumas quickly spent off into the distance as they disappeared into the distance the smile on Jane's face disappeared too as she muttered

"I've got to work hard to… For my fallen comrades…"

Merlin arrived in the vicinity of the Kobold village, the village itself seemed to mostly underground with a few guards peaked their fury heads above the ground a few times a minute, from what Merlin saw the Kobold's were demi-humans with rodent and dog features, after observing for a bit he nodded and spoke out loud

"Load High explosive move to 500 meters and begin firing at the tunnel entrances! The 20mm's load armor pricing and fire at any target that reaches within 200 meters!"

The engine of the 19 pumas fired up as they began combat movements, the 14 that were equipped with the 50mm gun quickly formed a circle around the Kobold village with spacing in between them and spacing to avoid friendly fire, this was a carefully crafted formation which Merlin had thought out the night before, the 5 20mm Puma's moved a little closer before they readied their guns, then the 50mm Pumas opened up at the tunnel entrances at Merlin's command

"FIRE!"

With a roar the 14 Puma's opened fire at the entrances of the Kobold village, then an effect nearing that of an anthill being stepped on happened, the Kobold's rushed out of the tunnels at the Puma's that kept up the fire as fast as their guns could, soon the Kobolds managed to push past the entrances of the tunnels and out into the open where they quickly closed in on the Puma formations before they were turned to swiss cheese by the heavy 20mm autocannon fire of the 5 Puma's equipped with 20mm autocannons, back at basecamp Jane looked towards the Kobold camp as sounds like thunder sounded out in the distance, she did a quick prayer before she picked up the sword again and continued training…

[Ding! Quest complete!]

"Hold fire!"

The Puma's stopped firing, their barrels were almost glowing from the heat, and the machinegun barrels on the 7.92 MG42 had been changed a couple of times by now

"And that's that…"

Merlin looked over the carnage of shredded semi-cooked meat that littered the entrances of the former Kobold village with a slight smile on his face

"Now for collecting the cores…"

Merlin dismounted the Puma and walked forwards into the field of death, he felt slightly cold in the field of death so he took out the tank commanders jacket from the inventory and put it on before he removed the bayonet from his inventory before began digging through the carcasses, as he worked a small amount of the coldness that was in the air got absorbed by the jacket without Merlin was aware of it, by evening he was done working and felt his stomach rumble before he nodded to himself and climbed up on a Puma and gave the order to return to the basecamp...