I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 707

That evening. The Lord’s office.

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

‘The recovery of the fallen soldiers’ bodies, the city’s reconstruction… it’s all progressing unbelievably fast.’

With the true apocalypse having come so close and then vanished, people from all over the world, truly understanding the gravity of the situation at this front, volunteered to come here.

Thanks to that, we have an abundance of manpower, and it’s only going to increase. The size of the volunteer army is also growing rapidly.

‘But the elite forces gathered from each country are practically annihilated.’

Volunteers and laborers will be leaving again tomorrow morning to recover the bodies of those very elite forces…

I steeled my aching heart and began to organize the current state of the front.

‘First, the military force.’

The 30,000-strong unit, composed solely of elites from various countries gathered by the World Guardian Front, was wiped out. The air fleet was also completely destroyed.

The only airship we can currently operate is the ‘La Mancha.’ Even that one needs to go into repairs for a while due to being pushed too hard during the ‘Night Closing’ operation.

‘If there’s any silver lining, it’s that the soldiers who were originally part of Crossroads are still here.’

The Great Beast War specialists who have been through this hell with me since year one. The main force of the Beast War Front, who grew from a ragtag bunch of rookies into monster-slaying experts.

The Everblack Empire’s infantry also preserved their forces.

The other races’ units also preserved their forces, but they were never that numerous to begin with. They had been living under oppression in their respective autonomous regions, so they couldn’t have a large military force. However, the quality of their troops is high.

In addition to that, several remaining units are left, and finally.

‘The volunteer army…’

The volunteer army that began to be incorporated into Crossroads since the Autumn Festival.

Their size is quite large, and they have been steadily training since then, but they are still clumsy. Especially since this time the opponent was that Black Dragon, they couldn’t be deployed to the battlefield at all.

‘Their morale is high…’

Can they really fight against the beasts? Even if they do, can they properly fight against the terrifying beasts of the late third year?

“…”

After organizing the plans to reorganize the remaining units and the small units from various places into documents.

I put my pen on a new document to handle the next agenda.

‘Next is, defense facilities.’

It’s a bit much for me to say this myself, but Crossroads has become very adept at collapsing and rebuilding.

The various facilities inside the city and the destroyed facilities will be able to be restored quickly.

The problem, as always, is…

‘The city walls.’

They were completely destroyed by the King of Flies’ body slam followed by his self-destruction, and after struggling to rebuild them, they were torn to shreds by the Night Bringer’s breath and darkness. Well, when weren’t they? It’s the southern wall’s era of suffering.

‘We have to restore them.’

Yes, we have to, but…

‘How are we supposed to do this? Ugh.’

Facilities like the city walls, of course, require construction times of years.

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

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

‘The severed city walls… the destroyed forward bases…’

I sighed deeply, pressing my forehead with my hand.

‘I’m really swamped with work.’

I can’t see any immediate solutions.

At least, since the walls brought from New Terra were assembled in parts, the undamaged sections are still standing. Let’s focus on restoring those areas first and figure out a solution.

After reviewing the list of damaged facilities—city walls, forward bases, barracks, military warehouses—and organizing a rough restoration plan.

I looked down at the next stack of documents.

‘And, finally.’

Equipment.

The equipment of the heroes who fight directly against the nightmare beast kings on the front lines is far more important than any ordinary military supplies.

And that important equipment is…

‘Wow, this is no joke.’

As I flipped through the documents filled with the list of damaged equipment, my jaw dropped lower and lower. Damn, how much did they grind through?

Let’s start with my equipment.

[The Great Commander’s Flag], lost.

“Cough!”

I coughed violently without realizing it, then quickly grabbed my coffee cup and gulped it down like water.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo.”

Calm down, calm down, calm do… damn it! Damn, damn it! Kaaaaa!

‘That damn Black Dragon! How dare you touch my personal equipment! I worked so hard to get that, you bastard!’

I collected the five pieces by pulling them from gacha! [Gacha refers to a type of Japanese vending machine that dispenses toys or collectibles randomly.] I wouldn’t have been able to collect them all if it wasn’t for the blessing of the SSR God! [SSR refers to a term used in gacha games, meaning Super Super Rare, the highest rarity of items.]

I couldn’t help but tear up as I remembered the days of struggling to collect the flag pieces. It’s so unfair. Ha.

Still, thanks to me merging with Super-Kim Ash… fusion… jogress… whatever you call it. Anyway, thanks to becoming one with the real Ash, I can still use most of the functions of the flag. But regardless, I’m still pissed that my personal equipment got burned.

‘Hoo, okay.’

At least the functions are preserved. Let’s check the next equipment.

‘[Owner of the High Tower], repairable. [Light and Shadow], repairable.’

The armor made from the King of Flies, [Owner of the High Tower], was shattered into pieces, but since it was originally designed to be disassembled and reassembled, it’s thankfully repairable.

The flagpole made from Bai Ye, [Light and Shadow]… I used it as bait, but at the dangerous moment, this equipment detached itself and split into a scabbard and a ceremonial sword, avoiding major damage. Just like its original owner, its survival instinct is top-notch.

All my other equipment was safely stored in my inventory. I guess that’s a relief.

‘Next, Evangeline…’

This is another big problem. I opened the damage report for the equipment of our Marchioness heir.

‘[Cross Family Spear], [Cross Family Shield], destroyed…’

Oh my god, this is insane! My personal equipment that I worked so hard to upgrade and even imbued with spirits… no, Evangeline’s personal equipment!

‘Night Bringer, you son of a bitch! Change your name to ‘Personal Equipment Breaker’! You said you’d destroy the world, but you just went around breaking personal equipment! Die! You’re already dead, but die again!’

I cursed and gnashed my teeth.

The only good news is that Kellybay said that although the outer shell of the equipment is destroyed, the core inside is intact, so there’s still a chance to fix it…

“Sigh. Everyone went through hell.”

Okay, let’s think positively. It’s a relief that she didn’t die and only her equipment was destroyed. Kellybay might be able to work some magic.

Evangeline’s armor, [Snow White], was also severely damaged, but since it’s a self-repairing magical armor, it’s thankfully being repaired.

‘Next, the Nightmare Slayers.’

[Slaughterer of the Full Moon’s Light], which was attached to Kuilan, was separated again. Kuilan himself also lost all of the wolf’s curse and returned to being a normal human man.

He says he gained some insight, and his martial arts skills have improved…

‘It was so good to have him wear two layers of equipment…’

To be honest, his stats have been downgraded. His negative trait, ‘Glass Body,’ has also returned. He no longer receives buffs or debuffs based on the waxing and waning of the moon.

‘Instead, [Slaughterer of the Full Moon’s Light] has been purified.’

This purified leather cloak gave Kuilan several massive buffs.

While wearing the equipment, he is immune to all kinds of curses. It seems that ‘Glass Body’ was also considered a kind of curse, because as long as he wears it, he’s sturdy Kuilan. I have to make him wear it 24/7.

‘…What about summer?’

Ah, whatever. Let’s get through this winter first.

Anyway, the purified [Slaughterer of the Full Moon’s Light] provides Kuilan with several other buffs, and overall, the effects are focused on speed.

Now that he’s lost the wolf’s curse, Kuilan’s durability has become much weaker. It seems like his character concept has returned to being an evasion-tank like in the early days. I wonder if he can hold out.

‘I hope you can hold out, Beast King.’

…But the wolf’s curse is all gone. Does that mean he’s still a beastman? Looking at the fact that the blessing of the god of beasts is still with him, it seems that the god of the race still considers Kuilan as his avatar…

‘Okay, next.’

In addition, all the Nightmare Slayers we possessed were ‘purified.’

It was thanks to the users of each equipment overcoming the darkness in their hearts with their strong will and awakening.

In addition to the various equipment made from the magic cores of the Nightmare Legion Commanders, the various equipment forged from the magic cores of the evil dragons this time, and the equipment that had been tainted by darkness, were all safely purified. And as they overcame the trials, their stats all increased dramatically.

Among them, the most noteworthy is Lucas’s equipment.

‘Wait, [Excarnival] can be purified too?’

The demonic sword [Excarnival] has transformed into the holy sword [Excalibur].

Looking at the details, it’s actually the opposite. The holy sword [Excalibur] had been corrupted into the demonic sword [Excarnival], and this time it has regained its original form.

‘…That blood-stained sword that was trembling and begging for fresh food was a holy sword?’

I’m very bewildered by this unexpected result.

Anyway, the holy sword [Excalibur], which has regained its original form, has tremendous performance. Its raw stats are far superior to the [Bestowed Sword] that Lucas originally used. The special abilities attached to it are also insane.

We’ll test the detailed performance one by one in actual combat with Lucas…

‘Looking at it this way, it wasn’t all bad.’

I groaned as I looked through the list of purified equipment. If I’m being objective, it’s a blessing in disguise. In terms of equipment, we’ve actually gained more.

‘More than anything, we got a lot more.’

It’s not just the purified equipment.

We defeated that hellish… no, it wasn’t just hellish. We defeated the most awful beast, the Black Dragon, in history, so the rewards were also enormous.

First, we harvested a huge amount of materials from the Night Bringer’s corpse.

I ended up burning most of him with a light bombardment at the end, so we didn’t get a complete corpse, but it’s still like we got a huge equipment mine.

A dragon’s entire body is a top-grade equipment material. And that equipment material is piled up like a huge mountain right in front of the city. All sorts of scales, bones, horns, and claws… all parts were swept into the smithy.

Without exaggeration, it’s enough to make weapons and armor for all the soldiers on the front lines. We’ll be able to raise the equipment tier of the entire front.

‘Among them, the most noteworthy materials are the magic cores and the dragon heart.’

The Night Bringer had a dragon heart, which was the most important magic core, in its heart, and each of its seven heads had another magic core.

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, but after examining the recovered magic cores, I understood the reason.

One of the magic cores was from the Scalerian that was absorbed by the Night Bringer at the last moment. The body was lost, but the magic core was not completely absorbed and remained like this.

I knew because I pierced Scalerian’s heart with my flag, and the pierced mark remained.

“…”

What should I do with this?

Should I make it into equipment, or…

I pondered and looked at the rest of the list.

Seven other intact magic cores (actually, the six auxiliary heads were eaten by Jormungandr, so they were recovered from Jormungandr’s torn body).

And, the Night Bringer’s dragon heart, which also had the mark of being pierced by my flag.

‘You broke our equipment, so you’ll become our equipment to pay for it, Night Bringer…’

The smithy is too busy right now, so I’ll have to request the Black Dragon equipment production later when things get a bit more relaxed. Let’s wait while planning what to make.

‘And, those things.’

I looked up at the gold and white boxes piled up in the corner of the office.

Stage clear rewards.

In addition to one EX-grade box, I got a whopping eight SSR-grade boxes.

‘These SSR-grade boxes, in the game, you’d be lucky to get 10 in one playthrough…’

I think I’ve gotten about 20 SSR boxes in the three years of this playthrough. Why are they being so generous? Did Aider pull some strings? Or…?

‘Looking back, they also strangely matched all the set items. They’re surprisingly generous with items.’

It’s a terribly difficult game, but I guess they have a minimum of conscience in this regard. Hmm.

Thinking this, I reached for the boxes. I was planning to open them all right here.

‘My friend, SSR God! You know, right? Please help me out this time too! All complete sets!’

But then, it happened.

Thud thud thud!

I heard someone running down the hallway,

Bang!

The office door was flung open.

I was startled and looked that way. It was Lucas who had rushed in.

“Huff, huff!”

Lucas, who was catching his breath, shouted.

“It’s a big problem, my lord!”

“What is it? What happened?!”

Lucas is this flustered? What could have happened?

‘Is it an enemy attack? Or internal strife? A construction site collapse? A member state leaving? Which one is it?’

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

“E, Evangeline! Evangeline…!”

“Evangeline?!”

I was even more flustered when our captain of the White Knights’ name came up.

Why Evangeline? Was she hurt? Did she have an accident? Did she run away? Did she eat too much and get a stomach ache? Did she suffer from PTSD and start pouring pink paint on the buildings under reconstruction? Damn it, which one is it?! What happened?!

And Lucas gave me an answer I could never have imagined.

“She received a confession-!”

“…?”

I was blank for a moment, not understanding.

Then, I couldn’t help but scream.

“Don’t lie-!”