I Became the Commander in a Trash Game Who Copies Skills-Chapter 166 : Chapter 166

Chapter 166. The Emperor (5)
Personally, I remember the Ratman subjugation battle as the toughest fight I've had since falling into this world.
I went through all sorts of hardships in the sunless underground, and in the end, I was on the verge of death, a moment where I barely survived by a stroke of luck.
Of course, the reward was beyond imagination.
When I was lying in bed for a while after returning to Wolfskrig, I took the time to count the rewards I had gained from this expedition.
[Imperial Tank Doctrine (Level 2)]
[Parshan Archery (Level 3)]
[Basic Magic of the Red Magic Tower (Level 3)]
[Ancient Sword of the Blue Water (Level 5)]
[Unkam's Undergrou….]
…….
Exactly three hundred and fifty-nine skills.
Twenty-seven traits.
Including those consolidated into a single chunk like [Luark's Grace] or [Basic Magic of the Red Magic Tower], I think I've gained about 500 to 600 skills.
Perhaps in a webtoon or novel, just listing the acquired skills could fill an entire chapter with notification windows.
Though, from the perspective of someone who once sought out fanfiction based on Warlord Conquest, I would probably give up reading a story written like that.
Anyway, even in that endless list, what I was paying attention to could be counted on two hands.
[Miracle: Radiant Highway (Level 8)]
The miracle unleashed by the ‘Bishop’ of the Imperial Secret Knight Order, who had opened a path in the cavern battle.
[Frozen Sword (Level 8)]
The swordsmanship imbued with the supernatural power of Yula Katran, which had eliminated even the Ratmen's ultimate weapon, the plague bomb.
[Myriad Blossoms Rain (Level 7)]
[Barum's Blade in the Dark (Level 7)]
[Inevitable Disaster (Level 7)]
[Rakkash’s Eight Senses of Death (Level 7)]
[Anomaly of Corroded Time (Level 7)]
The secret techniques of assassination and curses left behind by two masters who did their best to teach everything to their disciple before their passing.
They would remain in my heart forever, joining the lineage of my first master, the [Shield] mage.
Of course, the MVP on my list of masters was determined not by the nobility of their sacrifice, but by the results.
First place would go to the young lady Ella Siollus, whom I had been so reluctant to approach, but who, with great magnanimity, shattered my foolishness and gave me the noblest gift.
[Rampaging Fire Nymph (Level 7)]
[Infernal Full Bloom (Level 8)]
[Flame Spirit (Level 9)]
I knew she was, in name and reality, the strongest flame mage in the empire, but I never imagined she had already reached the cusp of being a transcendent being.
The [Flame Spirit] she gifted me was the most powerful fire I possessed.
The unfortunate thing is that fire needs fuel to burn.
As a pure level 9 mage, she had plenty of oil, but in terms of my trait list, I was just knocking on the door of level 8.
In a word, I lacked fuel.
However, as someone who had enjoyed the benefits of 21st-century modern civilization, I didn't have the prejudice that fuel must be attached to the body.
A rocket consumes a huge amount of fuel to escape Earth, but in reality, that fuel tank is just an external component that is used and discarded, isn't it?
I could just attach a fuel tank.
As it happened, the new tenant was a specialist in fuel tank manufacturing.
***
Rumble!
Thunder.
Swooooosh-
And rain.
The squall-like showers characteristic of the south often poured down without warning.
In the downpour that obscured even my vision, I placed my hand on the pile of magic stones.
Perhaps finding it strange that I was standing still for a long time after pouring out the magic stones, Karen cautiously approached, brushing back her drenched hair, and asked.
“Are these all magic stones… right?”
“That's right.”
I nodded.
Each crystal was at least the size of a fist, and the largest were as big as a person's upper body.
The irregular sizes and shapes were due to the use of peat as the raw material.
I had given permission to the hardworking subspace laborers to open a bundle of sugar.
A good landlord should be able to show such generosity.
“Did you say that barrier was erected three weeks ago?”
“Yes, it's been exactly 24 days.”
“I see.”
I didn't play as the beastmen often, but since I had cleared the game with every hero of every race, I knew their forces in detail.
The great spell that resided in the Black Forest, the [Wild Great Wall], was no exception.
Powerful defense and spell resistance.
A regenerative ability so strong that a thrust spear wouldn't even come out.
Perhaps to maintain that regeneration, an eating behavior targeting everyone except the beastmen.
Each characteristic seemed to indicate a perfect fortress, but there was one weakness.
‘A duration of 90 days.’
The [Wild Great Wall] lasted for 90 days and had a 3-day cooldown.
Since it was a fortress that cost nothing to build, it wasn't a major flaw in itself, but what was important was that it couldn't be arbitrarily dispelled during its duration.
Arbitrary dispelling was impossible.
That one thing turned that castle from a fortress into a prison.
As anyone who knows would know, a typical medieval siege is not composed of spectacular arrows, catapults, siege towers, and fierce street battles like in the movies.
Most sieges are a drawn-out affair, waiting for either the attacker or the defender to starve to death.
Animal carcasses thrown by catapults or entrails released into the water source are good ways to accelerate that process.
As you can see from the desperate struggle happening in the imperial capital right now, in this era, it was common for an entire city to fall due to a single epidemic.
Of course, the beastmen were resistant to disease, and a catapult couldn't get anything over that several-hundred-meter-high living active defense system barrier.
But what about fire?
[Deploying [High-Speed Mana Rotation].]
[Deploying [Combat Circulation].]
[Deploying [Mana Inhalation].]
[Deploying [A Spare Battery is Always Right!].]
I placed my hand on the pile of magic stones and sucked in the mana.
The most broken aspect of [Warrior’s Insight] was that when it copied a skill, it filled the proficiency to 100 percent.
A skill with 100 percent proficiency and one with less were as different as heaven and earth.
Even with the same power, you could manage mana more efficiently and add slight variations.
For example.
[Deploying [Fireball].]
As practice, I floated a fireball.
The fireball, which left my hand and floated up, soon settled on a fist-sized chunk of magic stone that I had set aside beforehand.
No more mana was being drained.
I wasn't even calculating the formula separately.
“Oho.”
Randal, looking intrigued, stomped on the fireball with his foot.
The shape of the flame was momentarily crushed, but when he lifted his foot, it returned to its spherical shape as if nothing had happened.
That round flame would burn in that form until the mana stored in the magic stone ran out.
“Is it okay to step on it like that? How come your foot isn't on fire?”
“You just have to get hit by magic tens of thousands of times.”
“Huh…?”
“If you ask the Viscount, he'll do it for you.”
“Eh……??”
Putting the idle chatter aside, I began to absorb mana in earnest.
The preparations were finally over.
The preparation process beyond that barrier took longer than I thought.
Another way to enter the impregnable fortress was to leap over the space itself.
I couldn't use Kkumteuli's spatial teleportation ability, but Starfish's doppelgänger creation distance reached quite far on its own.
I had been sending the doppelgänger into the fortress since a while ago.
The doppelgänger, disguised as a beastman, dug pits at key points and poured in large quantities of magic stones.
Although I was discovered by their warchief just as I was about to finish, so the perfect smuggling failed….
‘Guoook…! Th-that strange one!’
‘Geok! That one's strange! It has a strange stone!’
‘It's called a magic stone!’
The delivery of the fuel tank was complete, so it was time to throw the spark.
[Deploying [Flame Spirit].]
A flame bloomed.
It suddenly covered the ground.
It filled the sky.
The white flame lingered for a moment, then, as if alive, it fluttered over the forest and flew away.
KWAAAAA-!!
Breaking through the downpour that blocked its path.
After briefly colliding with the living barrier.
Like a single snake carefully pushing aside the obstructing vines and trees and climbing the wall.
It went over the giant barrier and vanished without a trace.
“…….”
It is generally said that completely mastering a spell of a certain tier is only possible after reaching the next tier.
By that logic, I suppose I have at least set foot in the realm of a transcendent being.
The transcendent beings secluded throughout the continent are regarded as god-like existences in their regions.
Well, I don't feel like I've become a god.
Perhaps it's because I've spent too much time rubbing shoulders with the tenants in the subspace.
It's just that I've learned a little more.
That's all it is, being able to set a small backfire against the flames of war that are burning the continent.
“……Wow.”
Karen, who had been silent, let out a belated gasp of admiration.
Indeed, the senses of an elf are amazing.
To be able to feel the sounds and smells coming from beyond that barrier through this downpour.
The screams of the beastmen and the terrible smell of burning must be filling the space beyond the barrier.
Anyway, the rest would be up to her and the elves….
“You completely fooled me.”
“……Huh?”
“You tricked me by saying you were going to save His Majesty the Emperor, but you two actually went into some mountain or forest to train. You were even deceiving your allies.”
“?”
“No, that's not right. But His Majesty the Emperor is in the Lord's castle right now. So did you do both? Was it a triple bluff, not a double?”
I led the confused Karen back the way we came.
For reference, the pile of magic stones, having lost its mana, collapsed into dust.
Since the pouring rain was already creating small streams, it would probably be washed away somewhere.
Gush gush gush gush…!
I looked up at the sky.
It was October.
The southern part of the empire was in its full-blown rainy season.
A season where it rained as if a hole had been punched in the sky.
However, even the pouring rain would not be able to extinguish that fire.
During a certain week in October, when it was said that it rained unusually heavily and a strange burning smell wafted through the rain near the western farmlands.
When the rain that had poured for four days straight stopped, the queen of the elves declared a second subjugation and retook the Black Forest.
When the rain that had poured for four days straight stopped, the queen of the elves declared a second subjugation.
Unlike the first subjugation, that force consisted only of about three hundred elven volunteers.
The subjugation of the beastmen of the Black Forest ended in three days.
A rumor spread that the entire forest had been burned down, but it was soon replaced by another rumor.
That the Black Forest itself was a hotbed of all sorts of curses and spells, and that it had been purified.
It was a long time later that the elven kingdom officially established a new settlement near the Black Forest.
***
Anyone who has ever taken care of a young child will know.
These innocent little demons often drive their caregivers to the brink of madness with the spell of ‘why?’.
I was similar.
‘The electricity bill is high…….’
‘Mom, what's an electricity bill?’
‘It's the money you pay for using electricity.’
‘Why do we have to pay money?’
‘Because someone has to make electricity. They make it with oil, coal, or nuclear power.’
‘So if there's this much oil and coal, like an infinite amount, is it free?’
‘Uh… I guess so?’
‘Then isn't there this much oil and coal?’
‘…….’
My gratitude to my mother, who never once got angry with me even while struggling with utility bills.
As I grew older, I came to understand how messy and complex the supply and demand of society were, and I stopped asking such questions.
But I still think about it sometimes.
Does an infinite supply trigger development?
‘Omnyam?’
It was a meaningless question, but I believe I have now earned the right to wonder.
Although a raw material that accepts mana well is needed, as long as there is a raw material, ‘Crusty’ can produce an infinite amount of magic stones.
Furthermore, its quality was verified in the recent Black Forest subjugation.
It was inevitable that even during my visits to the Emperor's sickbed, my mind would occasionally get preoccupied with concerns like ‘how to best utilize the magic stones’.
However, it seems our Emperor was one step ahead of me.
“That's right, you have the sacred relic of ‘The Aphid that Consumes the Universe’, don't you?”
“What is that? Something to eat….”
“I told you before, I won't take it, so don't worry. Anyway, use it well. You'll be able to make Wolfskrig the imperial capital of the empire.”
“I think I just heard you say imperial capital.”
The Emperor laughed.
“Yes. The imperial capital. Speaking of which, have you ever thought about becoming the emperor?”
……Huh?