Stockpiling

A/N: I've tweaked some of the numbers so the math adds up.

Several hours later, I looked up at the setting sun.

I had just spent an entire day mining for rocks.

I had just stared at this plain, grey rock wall for six or seven hours straight, smashing it with a pickaxe every once in a while.

Well, it was going to be worth it.

In total, I collected almost 4000 rocks. My arms had no more strength in them, I could hardly support my body with the leftover energy in my biceps.

I slowly began making my way back to camp.

On the way, I decided to craft all of the rocks into Miner Minions, at this point, I decided that I had enough of them. From now on, all the rocks I collect will be turned into {Ultra-hardened stone} to stockpile for the demonic weapon.

After walking through the dense shrubbery and loose soil, I eventually made my way back to my settlement. The sun had mostly set at this point and the day was all but over. My Minion Manager made its way over to me to give me my report.

[I've got the end-of-day report]

-

<End of Day Report>

Total resources gathered:

- {x1627} wood

- {x20} leaves

- {x54} meat

- {x3409} rocks

- {x7} iron

- {x1} gold

Other:

- {x37} Scout Minions Crafted

- {x5} Miner Minions Crafted

~

I now had 16 Miner Minions in total which was quite a large number. Aside from that, I had gathered a total of 2 Ultra-hardened stone and 3409 rocks. I was around 5% of the way to crafting the sword, however, my rock gathering rate will be a lot faster in the coming days.

I looked around for Chloe who still hadn't returned. I had sent Rook and Knight with her on her expedition so there shouldn't be any really big issues. I still worried a little that maybe their trump card, the ex-5th ranker, might be staying at one of the settlements and if she coincidentally ran into him, there could be some big trouble.

There was no point aimlessly worrying about it so I started cooking dinner for the night, I set up the fire and began cooking some meat. It was the same meal I had had for a while now but until we get Elrich back I likely wouldn't be able to eat anything with flavour.

Several minutes later, I heard a ruffling in the forest.

I stood up and walked over to observe what it was, Bishop was standing beside me just in case there was any conflict.

Suddenly, Chloe appeared, covered in blood and bruises.

"Hey... I'm back~"

"You're not in great shape."

"Well, who's fault is that?!"

"Alright, so how did it go?"

As she continued making her way into the settlement, I noticed that there were quite a few people following behind her. As they got closer, I noticed that they appeared slightly different. Instead of the normal clothing that we would wear, their bodies were covered with bandages. The bandages didn't seem to be for wounds or anything, they simply covered their bodies and for some reason, they were perfectly clean.

However, aside from their relatively odd attire, they looked exactly like normal people.

"Ah, yeah, these are some mummies they were holding captive in their city."

"Mummies?" I did hear about them when Elrich was explaining to me the dynamics of the world.

"Yeah, apparently they can manipulate the bandages on their body or something."

"Ah okay."

Well, it was nice to have some more people with us.

There were five mummies in total, three girls and two boys from what I could see. They all looked around my age and appeared to be completely human aside from their bandages, except the fact that they were perfectly clean confused me. Just from walking around in the forest, one would expect at least some dirt to stain their attire, however, the bandages on these mummies were completely and utterly clean, pure white.

I guess I should cook some more food for everyone.

I took out a few more pieces of meat and began cooking them on top of the fire.

"Ah, the same thing for dinner again~"

"Expect this every day for the time being."

"Aw..." Chloe pouted.

"Anyways, how did the mission go?"

I noticed that Rook and Knight were both severely injured, and their health was below 10%, it gave me the impression that the settlement put up quite a strong fight.

"Well, they had quite a few soldiers who fought against me as soon as I got there." She brushed some dirt off of her dress, "They weren't exactly extremely strong individually, but as a group, they did manage to deal significant damage."

"Did you manage to find out any more information?"

"Uhm, I didn't really do any interrogating."

"Well that's fine, you can raid the other settlement that's marked on the map tomorrow."

"Hey, don't you think that's a bit much, even for me~"

I suppose so.

"Fine then, you can help me gather rocks for my weapon."

"Okie~"

I looked over at the mummies who were all staring at the pieces of meat I was cooking. Their faces looked in awe as they watched the fire slowly cook the steaks.

I guess they mustn't have eaten very well while they were enslaved.

I did want to see what use I could get out of them.

"So what do you guys know how to do?" I asked them

They turned and looked at me blankly, I guess I was nothing but a stranger to them at the moment so no wonder they were not too eager to speak to me. I looked over at Chloe and nudged her to speak to them.

"Come on guys~ tell William here what you can do." She said in a soft voice.

One of the boys spoke first.

"Um, the three of us were trained to be soldiers."

Chloe did say something about manipulating their bandages, I looked over at the boy.

"Can you show me what you can do?"

I grabbed a stick off the ground and stood up as if I was initiating swordplay. The boy hesitantly stood up and well and raised his arm. I noticed that some of the bandages on his arm began levitating slightly and moved around without any external forces.

"Ah, so you can control your bandages, that's interesting."

Suddenly, the bandages unravelled and started travelling straight towards me. It latched onto my arm, wrapping itself around me. I tugged against it but despite how it looked, it was quite strong.

"Alright, that's enough~" Chloe announced.

He unravelled the bandage from my arm and it returned to him.