The earthen wall made by magic was not as sturdy as a stone wall.
When a rabbit monster swung its forelegs, it gouged deep into it, and when the ants rammed it with their heads, holes were punched through.
When several ant monsters climbed up at once, sections even collapsed.
The earthen wall held out for only a few minutes.
But that was enough.
“Stab your spears into the holes!”
“Energy possessors, get up on top of the earthen wall! Keep jabbing them from above so the monsters can’t climb over!”
“It’ll hold your weight just fine! Even if it doesn’t, get up there!”
David’s orders came in rapid succession, and the people dealt with the monsters attacking the earthen wall one by one.
I thought I understood why people had built castle walls in the Middle Ages.
The presence or absence of a barrier made a truly enormous difference.
Even frightened people could thrust spears from behind a barrier.
Those who had struggled to use their abilities while blocking the monsters were able to show them off freely once the barrier was there.
Carlo darted across the top of the wall as if he were flying, and David moved without a sound, bursting the head of an ant that tried to push its head through a gap in the barrier.
Fireballs flew over the wall, and fragments of the broken stone wall shot out like bullets.
“Those are abilities I’ve never seen before. I should have looked into the advance party a little more.”
Because of what David had said, I hadn’t considered the advance party for additional personnel.
But seeing such fascinating abilities now, I found it quite regrettable.
[None of them even qualify as magic. There’s no need to pay attention to them.]
The mage said as much, and their effects did not seem all that impressive either, but they were extremely flashy to look at.
And there was someone whose attacks were not flashy, but were effective.
It was Hannah.
She was diligently shooting arrows with the new bowstring I had given her.
That bowstring looked like it would snap soon too, and she only had a few arrows left.
Even so, the monsters trying to climb over the earthen wall kept being pierced by Hannah’s arrows.
The people thrusting spears from atop the wall knew very well how many times she had saved their lives.
Sergeant Woo was the same.
He had no special ability, and only his physical strength had improved, but the skills he had been famous for in the special forces had not gone anywhere.
[As far as spear technique goes, he’s better.]
Just as Sof said, he was far better than I was at wielding a spear.
I did what I was good at.
I threw spears with all my might.
The spear I threw pierced an ant’s head and burst the belly of a desert mole that had been hiding.
People’s eyes widened every time they saw the spear return.
However, perhaps because there were so many people using flashy abilities, no one seemed to find it strange.
A short while later, the battle ended.
By the time the battle was over, more than half the earthen wall had been destroyed.
Since it had been hastily made with magic, there was no helping it.
Exhausted people lay sprawled everywhere.
We had only just arrived, but the others had been fighting for quite some time.
David shouted at the people lying about.
“Treat the wounded first!”
He called over the noncombatants who had been hiding in the cave and had them carry the injured.
“Carlo, pick some people and scout the surroundings! Find out whether we can reinforce this earthen wall!”
He gave orders to Carlo and the others.
“Hurry! We don’t know when they’ll come rushing in again!”
At his shouting, people forced themselves to move.
The same was true of Carlo, whose face had gone pale.
He looked in our direction, clicked his tongue, and then went outside the collapsed earthen wall with the others.
The reason he clicked his tongue was that we, too, were lying on the ground, panting.
The time we had spent participating in the battle was short, but we had run all the way here from the underground ruins.
“Hah, hah… Even so, this is too exhausting. It’s strange that we’re so tired we can’t move.”
Even Sergeant Woo, who was always composed, was panting.
Hannah and I were just as exhausted.
[This is the aftereffect of the magic, right?]
[I told you, didn’t I? If you use body-enhancement magic, extreme fatigue will come crashing down on you later.]
I had heard that at the time.
And it was thanks to that magic that we had arrived in time.
But I hadn’t known it would be this hard.
Pain aside, it was difficult even to move my body.
After giving the urgent instructions to the people, David walked over to me.
He looked tired too.
Since he had given orders to everyone and fought personally as well, it was only natural he would be tired.
But he did not show it.
With a calm expression, he said to me,
“There are more than a few things I want to ask… but first, thank you.”
“The base was in danger, so I fought with you. It isn’t enough to deserve thanks.”
At my words, he looked puzzled.
“Wasn’t that earthen wall made by Captain Hyun?”
I shook my head at David’s question.
“No.”
When he heard my answer, he turned his head and looked at the others.
“Then, someone else?”
Hannah and Sergeant Woo shook their heads.
“It couldn’t have been Carlo…”
His eyebrows twitched, and he looked at me with suspicious eyes.
When we appeared, the earthen wall had appeared.
He had no choice but to think that someone among us had made it.
On top of that, because of what I had done up until now, David had no choice but to suspect me.
But I pretended not to know.
Right now, I already held the roles of box carrier, spatial-transfer transport, and exploration captain.
On top of that, that earthen wall was far too impressive to be called the ability of an energy possessor.
Even now, it was already excessive.
It was not yet time to reveal more.
I intended to reveal things one at a time, only to the extent that people could accept them.
When I maintained my ignorance, he asked something else.
“The fact that you came up from inside means you succeeded, right?”
“Yes. I repaired the spatial-transfer relic in the ruins.”
I began reporting the exploration team’s return on the spot.
It was an absurd scene: the person receiving the report was standing, while the person giving it was half lying down.
But no one found it strange.
Arriving at the ruins, repairing the spatial-transfer relic, returning to the base through the repaired relic, then hearing Carlo’s story and running up to the surface—
The report ended quickly.
After listening to my report, David confirmed it again.
“So you’ve piled the materials in the underground ruins.”
“Yes.”
“And further spatial transfers are possible, but Captain Hyun is necessary for them.”
“Yes.”
David looked at me and clicked his tongue.
“Another ruin that needs Captain Hyun has appeared. We found three ruins; one collapsed, and two need Captain Hyun.”
The collapse of the ruin had also been because of me.
But I was the only one who knew that.
I had no intention of telling anyone.
Compared to collapsing a ruin, the other ruins were hardly a problem.
At David’s gaze, I shrugged.
“…Even if you said it was intentional, I’d have nothing to say. All of it is useful, after all. In any case, good work. Once your stamina recovers, I’d like you to bring the materials. We have to hurry and complete the stone wall.”
He had given me work to do, but David’s way of speaking had changed from before.
It was not the tone of someone giving an order to a subordinate, but one that sounded like he was making a request to some extent.
Feeling as though I had earned more recognition than before, my mood improved.
This was only the beginning.
Fortunately, the muscle pain and fatigue did not last long.
After an hour, I was able to move.
It wasn’t to the point where I could fight, but it was enough to go underground and bring back materials.
By the time I went underground, the cleanup had ended too.
The monster corpses had been gathered in one place, and all the dead and wounded had been sorted out.
Four dead, seven wounded.
The number was not as large as it looked.
Part of that was because minor injuries had not been counted, but it was also because the people were tough.
It was fewer than expected, but looking at the entire expeditionary force, it was not a small number.
One-fifth of the total personnel had died or been removed from action.
It was a serious problem, but there was nothing I could do about it immediately.
‘David or the people above will take care of it.’
Fortunately, Staff Sergeant An was fine. The university student scientist was safe as well.
Excluding Huiwon, who had gone out hunting and had not yet returned, everyone I knew was safe.
“You two can keep resting. I can go underground on my own.”
Unlike me, Hannah and Sergeant Woo still had muscle pain.
Hannah tried to come along, but eventually gave up, and Sergeant Woo remained on the surface for another reason.
“I’ll look for the people who came with us.”
Sergeant Han and Sergeant Kim were nowhere to be seen.
It seemed those two had gone out hunting as well, but I did not stop Sergeant Woo from saying he would look for them.
I waved to the two of them and headed down underground.
On the way, I asked Sof.
[How did you do that earthen wall?]
I had been the one to designate where the earthen wall would rise, but I hadn’t known such a tall, long earthen wall would be made.
It had not been as hard as a stone wall, but the earthen wall Sof created had been an incredible spell, enough to overturn the outcome of the battle itself.
[I made it using the black stone’s energy.]
“We had stored energy in the black stone, but was such powerful magic possible?”
There had been a time before when we made a net of lightning with the dark energy contained in the black stone and swept away a group of monsters.
But the earthen wall created this time was on a different scale entirely.
Because I had been watching Sof’s magic all this time, I could distinguish the level and power of magic to some extent.
[You misunderstood me. I mean I used the energy the black stone originally possessed. You’ll know if you examine the black stone.]
At Sof’s words, I checked the black stone attached to the tip of the spear.
The black stone’s light had dimmed.
On top of that, I could see hairline cracks.
[Because I’ve lost my memories, there was a lot of waste. I think I drew out roughly half of it.]
It seemed Sof, sensing danger, had drawn on the energy the black stone originally possessed.
As expected, there was no way an earthen wall like that could have been made easily.
The reason Sof had not fainted was also because he had drawn on the black stone’s energy.
[It’s half broken, but when we go to Tenia’s facility, it can be repaired.]
He meant that once the researchers arrived, we would go back to the terraforming ruins, and I should have it repaired then.
‘Was that a spell he used while taking into account the fact that we’ll be going to the terraforming ruins?’
As expected, he was a mage with sharp calculations.
Since he had gone so far while considering what would come afterward, I couldn’t say anything against it.
With gratitude in my heart, I asked Sof,
“Then that means you can use such an incredible spell one more time.”
[I told you to repair it, and the first thing you think of is using it again.]
Hearing my words, Sof clicked his tongue.
In any case, Sof did not object to what I said.
That meant it could be used one more time.
‘So if we fill it with energy, we can use a special move, and if we repair it, we can use an ultimate special move?’
In reality, it would be different, but I decided to think of it simply.
I did not use magic and walked down to the underground ruins.
My stamina recovered along the way, so I was able to arrive at the underground ruins in an hour.
The people waiting for news at the underground ruins—the blacksmith, the heat ability user, Tom, and the ruin technicians—rejoiced when they heard the news from the surface.
After hearing that the base was safe, the ruin technicians clung to me.
“Could we know how you did it?”
“Is there no way for another person to connect to that ruin?”
They kept asking, spitting as they spoke, but I did not answer anything.
I did not know anything, and to use that relic, a mage was necessary.
Leaving their questions behind, I put the materials into the box.
After packing as much stone and as many iron pillars as possible into the box, I returned to the surface with the group.
When I unloaded the materials, construction began again.
The construction proceeded quickly. David did not even need to give orders.
Everyone who had experienced the battle stepped forward. They all wanted to lend even one hand.
While construction was underway, Carlo and the advance party members who had gone to check the surroundings returned.
“There are no monsters left nearby.”
It was good news.