The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 56

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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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#056

The second raid that Sung-jun participated in was planned differently from previous raids aimed at expanding conquered floors – this one was solely for expanding each base camp and resupplying materials.

Rather than the Awakened forces needed to conquer floor bosses, the main focus of this raid was civilian specialists needed for basic construction like electricity and plumbing, doctors.

And professionals like chefs who would stay at the base camps to support the Awakened operating on each floor.

Sung-jun in particular showed performance that made him practically the protagonist of this raid.

-Whoooooosh-

The moment Sung-jun extended his hand, a pre-assembled temporary building with perfectly arranged furniture was summoned to the empty field, and when he extended his hand again, a massive water tank with thousands of liters capacity and pipes waiting for assembly appeared from thin air.

Then the workers who had been waiting moved in unison to connect the water tank and pipes, and began assembling connectors prepared for electrical wiring according to the required voltage.

“This is the space for placing magic stones to secure water supply. Put a magic stone inside this circle and touch the magic circle on the outside with another magic stone to activate the water generation magic.”

“How do you stop it when the tank is full?”

“It’s designed so that touching the magic circle with a magic stone again stops the magic circle activation.”

“Since magic stones can essentially be obtained by hunting monsters that respawn within the floors, we won’t have to struggle carrying water containers to transport water from the surface anymore!”

“That’s true, but elemental generation magic basically has extremely poor mana efficiency, so it’s better to use water sparingly. Or charge a high price for water.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Then let’s move on to the septic tank next.”

Just as important as eating and washing was the equally important matter of ‘relieving oneself.’

The amount of waste produced daily by the numerous people active inside the dungeon was by no means a negligible quantity.

Sung-jun designated a separately coordinated subspace as a dedicated sewage treatment area and connected a permanent gate leading there to the septic tank.

Rather than magic that annihilates the sewage itself, making it endlessly disappear into subspace through the created gate was overwhelmingly more efficient.

Sung-jun created treatment rooms where injured Awakened or civilians could be treated in each base camp, medical storage for medicines and surgical instruments needed in the treatment rooms, harvest storage for safely storing harvests brought from each floor’s harvest sites, lodging facilities with comfortable beds for sleeping, and dining halls for providing meals.

Not consisting of a single building, but a collection of numerous buildings built to the necessary scale for their respective purposes.

The ‘base camp’ that Sung-jun created now boasted such massive scale that it felt burdensome to call it a camp.

“It seems like the work on this floor is roughly finished.”

The conference room of the ‘Clan Headquarters,’ which boasted the largest scale among the buildings Sung-jun had summoned.

Looking at the furnishings in the room that sparkled with everything being brand new, Shindo Ayaka smiled.

Until meeting Sung-jun, no one could have imagined being able to leisurely enjoy tea in such a bright and clean room after entering this dark and smelly dungeon.

But at the same time, her biggest concern was that Sung-jun’s help was desperately needed to maintain this beautiful and sparkling space.

Of course, the magic circles Sung-jun installed were permanent magic circles rather than temporary ones that disappear after a few uses, and the base camp was constructed in a form that could be maintained indefinitely as long as there were sufficient magic stones… but that didn’t mean they no longer needed Sung-jun’s help.

The permanent magic circles and facilities that were painstakingly installed could be destroyed by Corrosion Entity attacks at any time, and Sung-jun’s help would definitely be needed to repair them.

Moreover, as convenience facilities increased and more Awakened wanted to use the dungeon, expansion of the camp scale would need to be considered accordingly.

Knowing this fact well, Shindo Ayaka looked at Sung-jun sitting in front of her and steeled her resolve in her heart several times.

‘I must definitely lead this negotiation well.’

What Sung-jun had promised was to participate in just this one raid.

Whether it would become two times, three times, or an ongoing partnership relationship depended entirely on her negotiation skills.

“Then since the camp installation has been completed as planned, I’d like to discuss the next stage.”

“By next stage, do you mean installing other camps?”

“I think someone like Sung-jun would know well that the next stage I’m referring to doesn’t mean that.”

After thinking for a moment, Sung-jun spoke.

“I suppose so.”

“I’ll get straight to the point and ask again. Ma Sungjun. Please join the Guidance of the Goddess Clan. If what you want is money, I’ll give you money; if it’s artifacts, artifacts; if it’s magic stones, magic stones. I promise in the name of the clan master to give you greater rewards than any other clan could offer you.”

“I am…”

“Please, I beg you.”

Seeing Shindo Ayaka suddenly stand up and bow 90 degrees, Sung-jun closed his mouth.

Because he knew that her actions were not simply for the benefit of her clan, but for a greater cause.

Naturally, it was impossible to feed all of Tokyo’s over 10 million citizens with just the food produced from Tokyo Dungeon.

The situation might have been better if deeper floors could be cleared to secure all the numerous harvest sites within the vast dungeon interior, but that was practically impossible.

No Awakened wanted to do the work of harvesting crops from harvest sites and carrying them to the surface.

The ‘awakening abilities’ they possessed were abilities granted to fight monsters appearing in dungeons, not abilities granted to dig potatoes and carry loads.

Therefore, the acts of ‘harvesting’ and ‘transportation’ within dungeons inevitably became areas that civilians had to handle.

And the Awakened served as shields protecting civilians active in dungeons and swords fighting to secure more harvest sites.

‘But if supplies aren’t properly maintained, those swords and shields are useless.’

It wasn’t a problem with civilians.

No matter which ordinary person without the ability to fight monsters you asked, finding people to support the difficult work of harvesting and transporting in dungeons wasn’t very difficult.

That was because they were hungry.

They had to work to eat, and the easiest place to obtain that was inside the dungeon.

Knowing this better than anyone, civilians came to clan headquarters every day begging for work.

For just one plastic bag’s worth of potatoes, less than a cup of rice.

Clutching their empty stomachs, for their waiting families, or to fill their own stomachs where their belly skin seemed to stick to their back skin, they willingly threw themselves into dungeons where they couldn’t properly wash or rest.

Rather, the problem was with the Awakened.

For them, who could obtain enough rewards to be full without having to endure filth and discomfort, the deeper layers of dungeons were nothing but endlessly inconvenient, highly dangerous ‘self-imposed suffering’ that they didn’t need to challenge.

However, now that a person named Sung-jun had appeared, the situation was different.

If Sung-jun could do in other camps what he had done here, there would be mountains of Awakened who would voluntarily enter the deeper layers of dungeons without even being requested.

Awakened are ultimately human too.

Ordinary humans who want to become stronger than anyone else, but don’t want to sacrifice their lives for it.

It would have been simpler if what they had to sacrifice was their lives instead.

There weren’t many humans who wanted to become strong while enduring the inconvenience of having to carry their own feces in plastic bags like dog owners taking their dogs for walks.

Because they didn’t need to go that far.

Because they didn’t need to go that far – while others clutched their starving bellies and resented the sky, they had plenty of opportunities to safely and comfortably fill their stomachs.

Forcing such people to sacrifice for others was never an easy task.

Shindo Ayaka explained these aspects to Sung-jun, expressing why he was absolutely necessary for raid clans.

“At this rate, countless people will eventually starve to death. The government is still distributing food by mixing food secured from dungeons with food stockpiled for disaster situations, but that won’t last long either. If the food consumed daily by over 100 million people is 100, the food currently harvestable from dungeons doesn’t even reach 60.”

“So you’re saying the situation would be different if I were here?”

“Look at the camp completed with Sung-jun’s power. Originally, dungeons were spaces without proper places to wash, eat, or rest. Most Awakened hesitate to advance to deeper floors for that reason. But now it’s different. If we can secure such places on every dungeon floor, Awakened won’t hesitate to advance to deeper floors.”

“Improved convenience doesn’t reduce danger though.”

“Japanese Awakened were originally fighting monsters easier than the difficulty they could handle. That’s not just because of the inconvenience they have to endure going down floors, but also because of condition consumption during the process of reaching floors matching their abilities.”

There aren’t many soldiers who can fully display their combat power even after marching nearly 100km without rest while carrying full gear weighing nearly 40kg.

Through the last raid, Shindo Ayaka came to painfully realize that Awakened combat power doesn’t depend solely on their own awakening abilities.

‘Just being able to bathe in warm water before battle showed completely different combat power.’

In fact, if only the problem of inconvenience could be solved, dungeons wouldn’t be such an unpleasant place for Awakened.

Dungeons were places where you could pursue wealth by hunting periodically respawning monsters and selling magic stones, receive rewards for escorting civilians doing harvest work, or aim for a windfall by finding periodically respawning treasure chests.

For exactly that reason, the base camp completed by Sung-jun would become a stepping stone that would willingly make countless Awakened head to the depths of dungeons.

And eventually, those increased Awakened would help conquer deeper places to secure more food.

That was exactly why Shindo Ayaka risked her life on conquering the deeper layers of dungeons.

Securing even slightly more harvest sites stably to supply even slightly more food to people.

For that purpose, she was prepared to willingly yield everything she had built up to Sung-jun.

“If you want, I can even give you the clan master position. If you don’t like what you’ve seen of our clan so far, I’ll transfer the Tokyo Dungeon raid authority to a new clan that Sung-jun creates. If you need it, you can take all the artifacts in our clan’s treasure trove.”

Bowing 90 degrees once again, Shindo Ayaka said.

“For the sake of the poor people starving to death outside the dungeon, please grant my request.”

Looking at Shindo Ayaka bowing toward him with an endlessly earnest voice, Sung-jun’s expression was gradually darkening.

“I am…”

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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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