The day after resolving the new Gates that had appeared in Seoul and the Gyeonggi region.
Sinhyeok got up with a disheveled face and headed to the mess hall, yawning, to eat breakfast.
“I’m hungry.”
For the first time in a while, the mess hall was bustling.
“So many people.”
Holding his tray, he looked around for a seat.
Just then, the operations chief raised his hand.
“Over here! There’s a seat.”
“Yes, sir! Thank you!”
He immediately scurried over and sat down.
Sinhyeok smiled and greeted the seniors filling the area around him.
“Salute. Everyone worked hard yesterday.”
“Yeah. But I heard you had it the hardest? They say the battalion commander finally caught a break thanks to that clever thing you made.”
“Hehe.”
Sinhyeok smiled and quietly picked up his spoon.
The operations chief smiled and casually spoke to Sinhyeok.
“You know, right? That new Gates are surging?”
Everyone choked at the same time.
“K-Chief, are you trying to ruin our appetites first thing in the morning?”
“Haha, sorry. There’s a saying that if you can’t avoid it, enjoy it.”
Boos erupted simultaneously.
“Booooo.”
The truly insane operations chief told them something even more insane.
“That’s why they need more of those Observers you made.”
Sinhyeok had been eating, treating it as idle chatter, when he jumped in surprise.
From the shock, his head creaked to the side like a broken robot.
“More? How many more?”
“Until they find a way to clear the new Gates for now, but first, ten days’ worth.”
*Choke.*
Sinhyeok choked on his food at those words.
He set down the soup he was eating and asked for the number in ten days’ worth.
“H-how many is it?”
“I don’t really know. Wouldn’t your ordnance chief know that?”
A sense of dread washed over Sinhyeok, and he shot to his feet.
He immediately sprinted outside with all his might.
“Hey! Where are you going?!”
“I’m deserting!”
Everyone laughed and continued eating.
In front of the mess hall.
The ordnance chief and the sergeant major appeared at the same time.
“Where is Staff Sergeant Sinhyeok going in such a hurry?”
“He’s bolting again.”
Seeing him get cut off right at the entrance, everyone inside the mess hall laughed.
“Poor guy.”
“This is Hongik, you bastard! You know that!”
“Damn it.”
Dragged away by the ordnance chief, he headed toward the workshop.
“Chief, making this is really difficult, and the materials are really hard to procure.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s why I asked Lady Elysia.”
Cold sweat trickled down at the mention of heading to that savage, insane elf.
“W-why? What did I do wrong?! I worked like a dog for you!”
“Sorry, Sinhyeok……!”
The ordnance chief shoved Sinhyeok into her room with all his might.
Slamming the door shut in a hurry, he shouted.
“Just—just make ten thousand!”
“AAAAHHH!!!”
Sinhyeok was aghast at the enormous number.
“Ah, seriously! Making ten of these feels like my brain is being torn apart!”
As he tried to rip the door off, through the cracked opening, the sergeant major was smiling savagely.
“Oh? Trying to come through?”
The momentum was considerable.
Sinhyeok gulped and raised both hands.
“F-first, please c-c-calm down.”
“Sinhyeok, if you make ten thousand, I’ll set you free. And even give you leave. You haven’t taken leave yet, have you?”
At her words, Sinhyeok’s eyes went wide.
“Leave?!”
“Yeah, leave.”
The sergeant major smiled at the irresistible bait.
“So be good and make them.”
She immediately closed the door.
Sinhyeok turned around and discovered her leisurely tending herbs in her field.
“H-hello?”
She smiled gently, a glint of madness in her eyes.
“Oh my, it’s our Staff Sergeant~”
*Gulp.*
Sinhyeok’s gaze went to the giant tree visible behind her.
Just like before, monsters were gestating inside giant artificial incubation membranes hanging like fruit from the trunk.
“Lady Elysia? Didn’t you destroy those? Don’t tell me you’re using a World Tree again?!”
She glanced sideways and spoke.
“It was lonely without them. So I planted another one. Don’t worry. I didn’t make it into a World Tree.”
[Indeed. If she had, I would have ripped that wretched wench to shreds.]
The system came in again without knocking.
‘Why is it like this again.’
“But did you hear? I need you to provide the materials for what I’m making.”
She quietly nodded.
“Please write them down. I should have most things.”
“Oh…….”
Intrigued by her confidence, Sinhyeok recalled the materials he had used and wrote them down.
As soon as he finished, the paper fluttered away in the wind.
She snatched it out of the air with ease and scanned the contents.
“Mhm…… I have them all. For World Tree fragments, you can use the ones from my warehouse.”
Sinhyeok marveled at the fact that she had them.
“Amazing. There’s nothing you don’t have.”
She smiled, sat back down, and resumed her work.
“Of course. Staff Sergeant, please begin.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Thinking of “leave,” Sinhyeok began the hellish grind of transmutation.
Two hours after starting.
He collapsed even faster than yesterday.
Each time he overused transmutation, the pain of his brain being wrung dry caused him to blank out.
“Ah, I don’t want to die, but I want to die.”
At his blank expression, Elysia warned him savagely.
“Are you asking me to make you like those children over there?”
He followed her finger.
Seeing the bizarre monsters hanging from the grotesque tree, he shook his head violently.
“Ugh, no. I’ll get back to work.”
Each time his heart wavered, her savage warning straightened his resolve.
But even that reached its limit. Sinhyeok said with a blank face.
“I don’t want to. I really don’t want to do this.”
Locked in Elysia’s laboratory, he drank the tea she had brewed to boost his mental strength and was making ‘Observers.’
“If you didn’t want to, you shouldn’t have made them in the first place, Staff Sergeant.”
She smiled and refuted Sinhyeok, who had been repeating himself for hours.
“Wooo. Elves who only say the right thing should go away, wooo.”
Sinhyeok, driven mad, let out a sudden boo.
Elysia smiled and summoned a spirit.
“Silairon.”
“Eek!”
Seeing Sinhyeok startled, she put the spirit away again.
“If you don’t like it, hurry up and meet your quota.”
“Haaa. Are the materials not running out? Lady Elysia, the field doesn’t even look that big.”
Because Observers required many rare materials, he had come to her laboratory to make them.
“No~ This place is bigger than you think, Staff Sergeant~”
At her bright tone, Sinhyeok’s face naturally crumpled into tears.
“Damn it.”
[Attempting transmutation.]
[Successfully completed Observer transmutation.]
With vacant eyes, he clutched his throbbing head and alternated between making Observers and resting.
“My head hurts too much. I can’t do this.”
He flopped backward.
She stood up, smiled brightly, and warned him.
“Shall I bury you in the field as well? You look like you need photosynthesis.”
His body flinched at the savage words, but he lacked the mental strength to react.
“Just bury me instead. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t! I’d rather not take leave!”
“Hohoho, Staff Sergeant, if that’s the case…….”
She was really approaching when the laboratory door burst open.
“Found him!”
Sinhyeok turned his head to the side.
It appeared to be a dwarf.
Perplexed, Sinhyeok asked him.
“Why were you looking for me? I’ve been right here.”
Aurumstone shouted with an excited face.
“You brat! Come with me right now and complete our clan’s secret legacy!”
At the absurd words, Sinhyeok answered with a sullen expression.
“Are you doing this because you’re sulking that I didn’t respond to you the day before yesterday?”
“Ahem! How dare you say I sulked at my master, who is like the heavens!”
“Are you only my master at times like this?”
Elysia glared at the intruding Aurumstone.
“Get out. You pitiful dwarf.”
“Hmph! Witch, stay out of this!”
Aurumstone pointed at the Observers Sinhyeok was churning out like crazy and shouted.
“Do you see this!”
“I see it clearly, dwarf. Rather, I can’t see you. Where are you?”
As Elysia swept her gaze through the empty air, pretending not to see him, Aurumstone bristled.
“I can see you!”
“So what!”
“I said I can reproduce the secret legacy!”
“…….”
Staring at Sinhyeok, who was sprawled on the floor, he spoke.
“Will you not make a golem with me?”
“No, I will not.”
Sinhyeok didn’t want to think about anything right now due to his throbbing headache.
Flustered, Aurumstone stomped his feet and shouted.
“What nonsense is this!”
“I feel like my brain is about to fall out. Please leave the golem for later.”
“Ahem! That’s not what’s important right now!”
Enraged, Aurumstone kicked one of the Observers.
“AAAHH!! Do you know how much my headache spikes to make just one of those?! Has this master lost his mind?!”
“Kaaak! This trivial thing! If we have a golem, we can copy hundreds, thousands of them!”
Sinhyeok was drawn to the tearful dwarf’s words.
“Copy?”
“Yeah! Copy!”
Aurumstone placed both hands on his waist and spoke proudly.
“That’s what a golem is. Omnipotent! Almighty! A helper capable of anything!”
Sinhyeok was tempted by those words.
“Otherwise, I’ll shave every hair off your head, Master.”
Sinhyeok, his eyes rolled back, threatened savagely.
Startled, Aurumstone stepped back and said.
“Ahem!”
Elysia looked at the dwarf with cold, dead eyes.
“There he goes peddling again.”
“Ahem! I…… I mean it!”
Sinhyeok sprang up and looked at Aurumstone.
“Then what should we do first?”
“Hehehe, listen to the explanation first.”
Watching the dwarf drip a sinister smile, Elysia clicked her tongue in disgust.
“Why are you being so foolish. Tsk tsk.”
The dwarf raised his head to look at Elysia and spoke.
“Am I the only foolish one? You knife-ear! You’re just as foolish as me, you idiot. Anyway, I’m taking this kid!”
Excited, Aurumstone snatched Sinhyeok’s wrist and dragged him away.
“Tsk tsk.”
She turned around, watching the two leave.
“Pot calling the kettle black.”
Elysia walked past the field toward the center where the World Tree was planted.
Behind the still far-too-small seed, the tree gestating monsters stood.
She passed between them.
And what came into view were countless trees planted in rows and numerous elves hanging, surrounded by membranes.
“Did you sleep well today too?”
She smiled bashfully as she looked at those who couldn’t even open their eyes.
“I wonder when my siblings will smile at me.”
She gazed at the hanging elf with wistful eyes.
She touched the artificial incubation membrane and murmured.
“Brother. An Alchemist truly exists. I witnessed it with my own eyes.”
She spoke as she looked at those who could not answer her.
“If so, can they really make the ‘Elixir’? And can they save all of you?”
She kept asking questions to which there could be no certain answers.
“May I look forward to it……?”
Thinking of ‘Sinhyeok,’ she smiled bashfully.
“But I’m looking forward to it.”
Someone approached her field.
“Oh my, what brings Mr. I Gangyeol all the way here?”
When she turned around, Brigadier General I Gangyeol was approaching her.
“Is what I requested previously ready?”
“My children? Of course. I’ve made plenty.”
He nodded and turned back.
Elysia looked at him and asked.
“It seems it won’t be long now?”
“It seems so.”
She sent off I Gangyeol and stroked her siblings.
“It’s not easy. With hope in sight, the apocalypse and genesis approach. This just makes me want to work even harder.”
Elysia turned around with a savage smile.
“Then shall we work even harder~”
She flicked her finger, bending it sideways.
The curtain lifted, revealing an orchard fully equipped with artificial incubation membranes.
Tens of thousands of monsters were being cultivated.
“This seems like it won’t be enough. To face monsters, they need to be bigger and more brutish, don’t they?”
She stretched out her hand and looked at the sample she had recently obtained.
A piece of blue flesh.
“I’ll use this as a reference to make something truly amazing~”