178 – Mutation (3)
The day after defeating the angelic army.
“Hmm…”
Kim Hyun-woo, who was receiving a report in the midst of a very peaceful everyday life as if the angelic army had come just yesterday, discovered several unexpected facts while receiving Elena’s report.
“… The damage to the territory is less than expected?”
Of course, the battle with the angels took place outside, not inside the Rartania territory, but that didn’t mean there was no damage at all.
For the time being, there were Metatron’s spears and various divine magics of the angels that flew into Rartania.
However, Kim Hyun-woo was surprised that the damage to the territory was less than he thought, given that he had seen buildings being destroyed in real time yesterday.
“Even the 3rd wall was broken to this extent, but it wasn’t broken that much.”
“As a result of my thorough investigation, it was really only that much damage.”
“…That’s a good thing.”
Kim Hyun-woo nodded at Elena’s words and soon spoke.
“Apart from that, there seems to be… no casualties.”
Kim Hyun-woo muttered as he looked at the report as if it were strange for a while.
“To this extent, it’s at a ridiculous level?”
Kim Hyun-woo nodded with a satisfied expression and opened the territory window.
—
Territory: Rartania.
Territory Development: 6619
Territory Population
[Humans: 55,244]
[Beastmen: 1,082]
Secondary Buildings
[Institute of Demonic Engineering]
-Subordinate Buildings-
[Engineering Power Plant]
[Institute of Demonic Weaponry]
[Institute of Demonic Refining]
Owned Buildings
[Lord’s Castle Lv4] [Under Construction] 99%
[Walls Lv5]
[Residential Area Lv8↑]
[Smithy Lv8↑]
[Barracks Lv8↑]
[Tavern Lv8]
[Market Lv5]
[Wood Processing Plant Lv7↑ ＞＞＞ Upgrading 44%]
[Restaurant Lv5]
[Leather Processing Plant Lv7↑ ＞＞＞ Upgrading 32%]
[Stone Processing Plant Lv6 ＞＞＞ Upgrading 92%]
[Trading House LV7↑]
[2nd Wall LV5]
[Inn LV7↑]
[Administration District LV5 ＞＞＞ Upgrading 86%]
[Paved Road LV5]
[3rd Wall] [Under Construction 66%↓]
External Buildings
[Mercenary Guild LV1]
[Mage Tower Branch LV1]
[Blacksmith Guild Branch LV1]
Owned Troops
-Normal Soldiers 1000
-Inspectors 500
-Guards 700
-Apprentice Knights 200
-Watermen 1084
—-
Most of the buildings had grown past level 7 and were now level 8, which made Kim Hyun-woo feel a bit nostalgic for his old Lartania Territory.
With the buildings having been upgraded to this extent, he could clearly see the shape of the territory that he had seen in the game.
‘The percentage of the 3rd Wall has dropped as expected, but it doesn’t look like it has decreased much considering that a war just happened.’
With those thoughts, Kim Hyun-woo checked the status of the territory for a while before nodding and speaking.
“First, since there were still casualties, we should reasonably compensate the reasonable ones. So, do we need more resources to build the 3rd Wall?”
“No, from what I’ve checked, we seem to have enough resources in the territory to build the entire 3rd Wall. However, we now have…”
“…We’ll soon need to drop the resources that we invest in other buildings.”
In fact, thanks to the enormous resources provided by the Kallan Kingdom, the territory had developed several stages in an instant, but naturally, that growth rate could not be maintained forever.
‘On top of that, we’ll be receiving even more resources from now on, and we’ll have to build other 2nd buildings. It’ll be impossible to continue growing like this anymore.’
After thinking for a while, Kim Hyun-woo saw Elena off as she bowed to do her work and began organizing his thoughts.
‘…So far, everything I’ve been worried about has been resolved without any problems.’
Kim Hyun-woo had been worried about three major things up until now.
The first was the invasion of the demons and angels.
The second was the process of recruiting all of the former heroes.
And the last and third thing was the development of the territory.
However, contrary to his worries, the angels and demons had already vanished in an instant, and the former heroes of Lartania had been recruited much more easily than he had expected.
‘…Well, I wasn’t really worried about this part after the seal was lifted.’
Excluding that, the last thing that remained was the development of the territory, and currently, the territory was growing very well both in terms of level and as a labyrinth city that Kim Hyun-woo had originally aimed for.
In other words, everything was going well.
However, Kim Hyun-woo did not relax because of that. The reason was Roria.
‘…Is this something she prepared?’
Kim Hyun-woo recalled her words and thought for a moment, but soon shook his head.
At least from his judgment, he felt instinctively that this was not something she had prepared.
In addition to that.
‘…Even if we have both races in check now, there’s still one more race.’
Kim Hyun-woo thought about the other world that the blue merchant and the red merchant had mentioned, and he suddenly thought of the mysterious merchant and checked the notification window.
[The ‘Mysterious Merchant’ will visit your territory to deliver the artifact!]
[Time Remaining: 28 days, 17 hours, 29 minutes, 13 seconds]
“?”
And then he felt a sense of doubt.
‘Only 28 days left already?’
Kim Hyun-woo stared blankly at the decreasing time remaining, and soon his expression turned grim.
‘…It hasn’t even been a month since the last time the notification window popped up?’
Kim Hyun-woo calculated the days, and as he looked at the notification window that popped up with a different time than the one displayed last time, his expression became a little tense.
Since he had already been tricked by the system window once, he wondered if this was perhaps Loria’s doing.
However, there was no way to confirm that.
“…”
Kim Hyun-woo had no choice but to silently stare at the notification window of the mysterious merchant that was counting down.
####
That afternoon.
“Ugh…”
Elena finished everything she had to do today and tried on the ‘clothes’ she had bought last time in her room, but her face turned bright red and she quietly took the clothes off.
‘This isn’t it.’
The thought came to her mind.
“Haa-”
Elena had been sighing a lot lately.
The reason, of course, was Kim Hyun-woo, who she had fallen for at some point, but to put it bluntly, it wasn’t just because of him.
The reason she was stressed right now was because she felt like she was gradually being phased out.
‘…Shadra and River definitely said they got the authority to make a ‘request’, right?’
Of course, that wasn’t all Elena knew.
She knew that even the former heroes of Lartania had received the right to make a request yesterday.
…And she could even guess where the heroes would use that request.
“Whew…”
But unfortunately, Elena had never received a proper request from Kim Hyun-woo.
Of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t understand that part.
Unlike the other heroes who had clearly helped Kim Hyun-woo in some way recently, she hadn’t really helped him that much.
In fact, up until recently, she had thought that she was definitely helping him by growing steadily, but she hadn’t been able to become that useful of a hero since the former heroes of Lartania had arrived.
She was a hero whose main focus was strength, and her strength was far inferior to that of the former heroes of Lartania.
Of course, since she had recently started to naturally do more administrative work within the territory rather than using her strength, she had become stronger in that area, but that was only in that area, and it wasn’t enough for her to get a request from Kim Hyun-woo.
It would be strange to give a request just for doing her usual work.
Anyway, since she was clearly aware of that situation, Elena felt like she was being phased out in terms of her usefulness, and even in terms of her romantic relationship with Kim Hyun-woo, so she had made up her mind today.
‘Is this the right thing to do?’
But she still couldn’t make a final decision.
The reason for her hesitation was because of Kim Hyun-woo’s reaction.
Elena thought it was pathetic of her to think this way, but she still hadn’t built up much of a rapport with Kim Hyun-woo.
From Noble mtl dot com
Even though Elena had expressed herself to some extent, she honestly didn’t know if it had reached Kim Hyun-woo.
And she wasn’t sure if making a decision and pushing forward like this in such a situation would be helpful or not—
…More precisely, she couldn’t imagine how Kim Hyun-woo would react.
However, Elena knew all too well that if she stayed afraid and did nothing, then nothing would happen at all.
There were so many heroes aiming for Kim Hyun-woo right now.
That’s why Elena, after thinking it over for a while.
“…Let’s do it.”
Finally made up her mind.
No matter how much she thought about it, the thought of not being able to convey her true feelings to Kim Hyun-woo because of her fear was too miserable.
So that night, Elena left her room around the time Kim Hyun-woo would be done and dressed in her battle attire.
“Whew.”
As soon as she opened the door to Kim Hyun-woo’s room.
“My Lord! Forgive me!”
“Huh!?”
Elena’s eyes widened as she felt something being stuffed into her mouth.
Gulp-!
She felt something wet sliding down her throat and swallowed it.
And then.
“…Huh?”
Elena looked.
Adria, who was breathing heavily, had a clear look of bewilderment on her face.
And then.
“Eh, Elena?”
The moment she heard her bewildered mutter.
Thump thump thump-!
Elena’s heart started pounding.
And. That moment Elena realized.
“…Ah.”
That what she had drunk was the famous water from the Fountain of Xayu.
“…”
The expressions of the two people in Kim Hyun-woo’s room turned ashen.