The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 111

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#111. It’s a Golem.

Upon arriving at the target location, Sierra Army Depot, Sung-jun first checked the number of casualties sacrificed to reach the objective.

‘482 people… 2,539 remaining personnel?’

Since the initial departure force was 3,021 excluding himself, about one-sixth had been sacrificed.

Considering that all forces were civilian soldiers rather than Awakened, it was an incredibly small sacrifice to achieve the objective, but Sung-jun’s expression wasn’t very good.

Despite Sung-jun’s fierce fighting, more than half the enemies remained, and even now new enemies were continuously emerging from underground without rest.

Sung-jun caught his breath while looking around his surroundings.

There, countless tank and armored vehicle wreckage so destroyed their forms were unrecognizable stretched endlessly like a junkyard made of war machines.

“There doesn’t seem to be any intact equipment…”

“As mentioned during the briefing, after the Pioneers announced D-day, the U.S. Military proceeded with construction to move most of their main facilities underground. Of course, they couldn’t build facilities large enough to accommodate all that equipment, but they still stored a considerable amount of repaired equipment underground. Those equipment are the main recovery targets of this operation.”

The driver who had been driving Sung-jun’s vehicle spoke to him.

When he stopped the vehicle, the soldiers riding in the armored car came out.

Those soldiers, all composed of maintenance technicians, immediately began moving toward the collapsed building in the central base under Sung-jun’s protection as soon as they got out of the car.

“As expected, the entrance is also collapsed. Sung-jun, please help us.”

The collapsed building blocking the base entrance wasn’t destroyed by Corrosion Entity attacks.

When the base was attacked, they deliberately collapsed the building covering the entrance to protect the equipment underground.

When Sung-jun waved both hands to cast magic, massive debris that would require heavy equipment to barely move began floating into the air and clearing a path.

“The gate is intact. I hope everyone inside is safe.”

A soldier loosened the bolts of a thick steel panel next to the gate.

Inside was a control panel that could forcibly operate the emergency generator inside the underground facility from outside.

When the soldier operated the panel here and there to start the emergency generator, switches attached to the panel began lighting up with a ‘thunk-thunk’ sound.

“It works! I’ll open the gate right away.”

With heavy mechanical sounds, an incredibly thick steel panel began opening left and right.

Then a soldier who had been watching the gate with a tense expression spoke to Sung-jun.

“According to the operation plan, we’ll go inside immediately to prepare for equipment recovery. Sung-jun, please prepare for defensive construction here.”

When Sung-jun nodded, the 10 soldiers who had ridden in the same vehicle as Sung-jun entered through the gate, and Sung-jun came out of the ruins where the gate was located to join the soldiers who arrived later.

“Set up barricades!”

“Everyone to positions!”

Establishing a defensive line on the surface was essential for carrying out the operation.

If Sung-jun immediately went down to the underground gate to begin equipment recovery work, there was a risk that the forces on the surface would be annihilated while Sung-jun finished his work.

To recover the vast amount of equipment in the underground base, above all, they needed to establish a defensive line that could protect the soldiers on the surface while Sung-jun worked.

‘Fortunately, there’s an abundance of materials.’

When Sung-jun cast a spell, broken tank wreckage scattered throughout the base floated into the air.

Sung-jun gathered that wreckage into hundreds of massive chunks and arranged the clustered tank remains like fortress walls to serve as barricades.

“Once I go underground, it becomes impossible to support you. So please establish the defensive line as solidly as possible.”

Hearing Sung-jun’s words, the soldiers began moving weapons loaded in vehicles onto the barricades.

The top of the massive fortress wall made by clustering broken tank wreckage had sufficient space for people to climb up, with flat metal panels and spread tank treads, so it didn’t take long for the soldiers who climbed up there to install the weapons they had prepared in advance.

While the soldiers prepared new armaments, the soldiers remaining in the vehicles were desperately blocking attacks from endlessly swarming monsters.

“Sung-jun! I think you need to come down now!”

Then, a soldier who had gone underground first ran up to the surface and called for Sung-jun.

Then Sung-jun, who had been finishing the somewhat completed defensive line, used levitation magic to soar into the air.

To give final assistance to the soldiers who would have to risk their lives guarding the gate entrance even after he went underground.

Flying up onto the steel fortress wall he had created himself, Sung-jun extended both arms toward the wave of monsters spread before his eyes.

“Since I need to use magic for equipment recovery too, I can’t use all my mana here. Instead, I’ll provide maximum fire support possible right now.”

When Sung-jun waved his hand, dozens of massive magic circles were summoned and an enormous amount of magical bombardment began pouring toward the enemies.

And shortly after, where the explosive sounds had subsided, instead of the wave of monsters that had been writhing and moving alive, only a miserable mountain of corpses with their entire bodies shattered to pieces remained.

“More will swarm in, but this should help to some degree. This is all I can do.”

Gripping the shoulder of a soldier beside him who was looking at the scene before them with surprised eyes, Sung-jun said.

“I’m counting on you for the rest.”

***

The enormous amount of armored equipment the U.S. Military had hidden in preparation for emergencies.

Leaving the soldiers behind and coming underground, Sung-jun immediately began equipment recovery work.

Waving both arms to summon a massive magic circle on the floor large enough for 30 tanks to enter simultaneously with room to spare, Sung-jun gave instructions to the 500 soldiers who had entered the base interior with him.

“From now on, please drive the vehicles inside the base onto this magic circle. When all work is finished, get out of the equipment and come outside the magic circle.”

“Everyone heard that!? The longer we take, the more dangerous it becomes for our comrades on the surface! Everyone move like your butts are on fire!”

With the resounding sound of tank engines running, numerous equipment inside the base began moving simultaneously.

Then Sung-jun began drawing another magic circle at a location slightly away from the magic circle he had summoned.

It was a multi-layered magic circle composed of dozens of small magic circles, with incomparably more complex patterns than the massive magic circle he had just drawn.

Then a soldier who had been watching Sung-jun’s work approached and asked.

“Is that also teleportation magic?”

“…”

Whether it was work requiring high concentration, Sung-jun focused on drawing the magic circle instead of answering immediately.

Then only after a considerable time had passed did he lower his arms that had been waving dizzyingly and speak to the soldier.

“It’s different.”

“Then what kind of magic is it?”

“You’ll understand when you see the subsequent work. Before that, may I ask one favor?”

“What favor?”

“Please bring three tanks from here and place them in the center of the magic circles located here, here, and over there.”

When the soldier who received Sung-jun’s request moved his subordinates to relocate three tanks to the center of the magic circles, Sung-jun said.

“As you well know, the tanks we’re currently recovering were made to fight humans, not Corrosion Entities. No matter how many there are, we can’t advance east with just that equipment. To move east with our limited forces and fight Corrosion Entities, we need to create new equipment using the existing U.S. Military equipment as materials.”

When Sung-jun waved both arms again, the magic circle carved on the floor began emitting brilliant light.

Then with the sound of metal being forcibly twisted, the tank on the magic circle began shaking violently.

“…This is…!”

“Originally this was work to be done after finishing recovery work and moving to JBLM Base, but the battlefield situation is too poor for that. Since I was planning to do field testing anyway, I’ll temporarily modify a few here on the spot.”

-CRRRRRACK!-

Instantly with a tremendous sound, the tank placed on the magic circle was simultaneously disassembled into tens of thousands of parts.

Then dozens of magic circles on the floor that had been deactivated in gray began emitting red light and started heating the metal fragments floating in the air.

-Screeeech, screech, CRRRRRACK!-

With the sound of forcibly bending heated metal, the special alloys floating in the air were forcibly changing shape.

It was a bizarre form completely different from the existing shape, difficult to understand what kind of parts they were intended for.

-HISSSSSSSS!!!-

It was an automated factory created by magic.

Magic that forcibly disassembled target materials, then applied heat to transform their shape, carved magic circles on the parts, and forcibly cooled the completed metal pieces.

According to blueprints Sung-jun had prepared in advance, simultaneously proceeding with thousands of processes while slowly taking shape, it had the appearance of a massive steel knight about 4 meters in size.

It wasn’t a steel knight armed with spear and sword, but looked like a medieval knight with modern weapons, holding a massive gatling battery made by connecting multiple tank barrels with both hands.

“That’s… what exactly…”

“It’s a golem.”

Looking at Sung-jun speaking decisively, the soldier said.

“It’s holding a gatling though?”

“It’s a golem holding a gatling.”

“No matter how I look at it, it’s a robot…”

“It’s not a robot, it’s a golem.”

“Robot or golem, it’s cool. Just looking at it gives the feeling it would be strong.”

“If you like it that much, would you like to try riding it?”

The soldier who heard Sung-jun’s words turned his head with surprised eyes.

“That thing is operated by people?”

“To be precise, it feels a bit ambiguous to call it operation. It reads the pilot’s thoughts directly and moves without any particular control method.”

“If it can be controlled, it’s not a golem but a robot…”

“It’s a ‘piloted’ golem.”

With exposed power lines, hydraulic cylinders placed at each joint, and the vigorous sound of a dynamic engine, it had an appearance that looked like a robot to anyone, but Sung-jun insisted that what he created was a golem.

That was because Sung-jun thought that if it was a bipedal structure made by a mage, it should naturally be called a ‘golem’.

“The gatling gun in its hands…”

“It looks similar but is quite different. If a gatling gun is a weapon that fires thousands of bullets per minute, that one fires large-caliber magic cannons at a much slower rate. To be precise, it would be more accurate to call it a rapid-fire magic cannon that fires tank shells in succession.”

“If it’s a magic cannon, does it fire magic power instead of physical bullets?”

“No. To produce cannon-level destructive power using pure magic power alone would consume too much mana. But if we use regular shells, they’re too ineffective against Corrosion Entities. The rapid-fire magic artillery that guy is holding receives specially processed magical ammunition from the backpack on its back and fires it.

For ease of ammunition supply, the backpack has alchemy magic applied that automatically processes metal and converts it into magic bullets. So if you just throw in any metal you can find, it automatically processes it into magic bullet form and supplies it to the magic artillery.”

What Sung-jun created wasn’t just the gatling-type armament.

Sung-jun installed various weapons on multiple golems so that the piloted golems of the same type could use different armaments depending on the situation, including large-caliber long-range artillery mounted on shoulders, rapid-fire rocket launchers, and railguns that fired metal bullets using magic power instead of electricity.

When the number of golems created this way reached 20, Sung-jun wiped the sweat from his forehead and said.

“This should be enough. While I recover the remaining equipment, I’d like 20 of you to pilot these rideable golems and support the ground forces. If there are any volunteers…”

Before Sung-jun could finish speaking, everyone in the base raised their hands.

Riding such heart-thumpingly cool golems to rescue allies in moments of crisis.

It was nothing short of the embodiment of every man’s dream.

Watching the soldiers desperately start playing rock-paper-scissors with each other to fight for the chance to go to the surface, Sung-jun turned his head.

To convert the state-of-the-art tanks still piled up like mountains inside the base into golems.

It was work absolutely necessary for the next step Sung-jun had planned.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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