Chapter 6: [STAGE 0] The Decisive Battle

From a distance, the sun began to rise.

The fortress, which had been immersed in the deep blue night, was dyed red by the morning sun. I was standing on the walls of the fortress.

I could see from afar.. the swarm of spiders that besieged the outpost.

The spiders that had been crouching as quietly as a rock during the night, began to move slowly as the sunlight began to fill the place.

The scene where hundreds of monsters stretched out their long legs at once was terrifying.

I couldn’t tell when I looked at the game screen through the monitor.

I sensed the terrifying horror of being on the battlefield.

Gulp.

I took a dry gulp subconsciously.

Will I really be able to defeat those things? With exhausted soldiers and low-level characters?

“Your Highness.”

While I was thinking about that, someone called me from behind.

When I looked back, there stood the blond escort knight, Lucas. I slightly nodded my head.

“Lucas.”

“The wind is cold. Please, let us head inside.”

“It’s fine. I must monitor their positions. So we can dispatch our soldiers according to that.”

I wasn’t saying that for nothing, I really was monitoring their positions.

Well, to be exact.. I was searching very hard for the location of the ‘queen’.

Lucas slightly shook his head as he watched me from the side.

“Your Highness, you really are an unpredictable person.”

“Hm?”

“Until just a few days ago, you looked very precarious.”

I could sense his concern toward me on his tidy face.

“It was as if you wanted to destroy yourself.”

“Was I really like that?”

“Yes. You’d been like that.. ever since I started serving you. As if you were looking forward to breaking yourself somehow.”

Soon after, a smile appeared on Lucas’s face.

“But now you’re different.”

I smiled awkwardly and turned my head as I was caught off guard by his intuition.

“Haha, you know how I roll. I’m a madman, so it’s strange to see me change over a night, no?”

“..Whether it was because your life was endangered, or because of other reasons.. There’s no way for me to find out why you’ve changed, but..

Lucas muttered faintly.

“I like you the way you are currently, Your Highness.”

“....”

“Please stay the way you are right now, Your Highness.”

After laughing out loud, I tapped Lucas on his shoulder.

“Well, in order to ‘continue’ being the way you like me, let’s do our best today, Lucas!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Lucas answered back lively.

I decided to head back into the building since I’d finished analyzing the enemy’s position.

“Lucas.”

I opened my mouth to speak, as we were walking together silently.

“If this operation fails.. don’t try to save me, try to save yourself and escape.”

“Pardon?”

“You are more than capable of making it out of here alive.”

“Because you are the main character.”

“Even if I fail, you have to save the world.”

“That’s why I really meant what I said.”

“Your Highness.”

“But—”

“A knight never abandons his lord.”

Lucas laughed as he said that. I too smirked after hearing what he said.

“Even if that lord of yours is an incompetent madman?”

“You are not a madman, nor are you incompetent. I always believed so.”

“....”

“I’ll take a look at the soldiers one final time. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Lucas, after bowing his head, ran down to the barracks.

“..Thank you, Lucas.”

I muttered to my protagonist who cleared the Hell Ironman difficulty stage and who will stay with me here as well.

* * *

Mid credit:

[Translator: Dawn]

[Proofreader: Alissa]

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* * *

The operation itself is simple. Actually, it’s so simple that it’s embarrassing to even call it an operation.

“The Black Spider Army, well, you probably already know this, but there is currently no way to win using an ordinary method.”

This gathering was to explain the operation one last time.

“So we have to play just as dirty.”

After putting a grin on my face, I pointed to the outside of the fortress.

“Do you know the biggest weakness of those damned spiders?”

The party members didn’t seem to get where I was going with this. I started explaining.

“They are a swarm. The individual spiders do not have the ability to think. So who’s the one that tells them what to do?”

Lucas answered.

“Is it the queen?”

“That’s right. In their army, there exists an individual that commands the swarm, which is the queen.”

“But the queen is..”

I knew what Lucas was about to say. I nodded my head.

“It sits in the back, in a place that cannot even be seen with the naked eye, while ordering the spiders around.”

“....”

“It’s normally impossible to defeat it. It’s hard to locate, and even if you manage to locate it, reaching it will be difficult.”

Snap!?I snapped my finger.

“However, I have the ability to locate the queen.”

The trait, Map Creation.

Gives me the ability to see enemies nearby in a pixelated form on a minimap

“And Demian has—”

I looked straight at Demian.

“The ability to snipe that goddamned monster.”

The trait, Thousand-Mile Eyes.

The ability to land the shot no matter what.

I locate the target, and Demian fires at it. My plan was to snipe the queen with it and get this operation over with.

“However, Your Highness.”

Lucas wiped the cold sweat off his face.

“Even though the Black Spider Queen is not a combat force, I reckon you won’t be able to kill it with an average arrow. So even if you are able to snipe it..”

“The mana cannon.”

I pointed at the top of our heads.

“We will be using the mana cannon, the artifact installed on the highest point of this forward operating base.

When I first looked for something useful in this outpost, the first thing I found was this mana cannon.

It’s a whooping SR-ranked artifact. It must be enough to deal damage to the queen.

“The mana cannon is indeed a powerful artifact, but it doesn’t possess the ability to hit the target at long range..”

“I’ve already finished calculating that part. We will increase the range by forcibly overclocking the cannon’s magic core.”

It sounded easy, but overclocking an artifact basically meant that the artifact would be destroyed.

An artifact that has a broken mana power engine will malfunction no matter what.

But we’re in a dire situation right now, it doesn’t matter how expensive and rare the artifact is. I’ll gladly sacrifice it.

The plan goes like this! I find the queen, and Demian snipes it. In the meantime, all of you—”

I took turns looking at Lucas, Ken, and Lily.

“Will do your best to block out the enemies.”

All three of them took a dry gulp at the same time. I pointed at Lucas.

“Lucas, you command the soldiers around. Buy as much time as possible while blocking the enemies on the frontline.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“You must defend the central artillery battery where the mana cannon is at all costs. Do you understand?”

“I shall even risk my life doing so.”

Lucas said with a determined face. Then I turned to look at Ken who was sitting next to him.

“Ken.”

“Y-yes, Your Highness!”

“Take these. I’ve gathered every health potion left in the fortress.”

I handed Ken a belt with a bunch of red potions attached to it. Ken took it dazedly.

“Your mission is to go out of the fortress, get the enemy’s attention, use stealth, and repeat. To put it simply, distract the enemy by getting their attention.”

“....”

“The black spiders’ principle of action is simple. They attack the nearest human.”

I continued to speak to Ken who was pale.

“However, their cognitive abilities aren’t that high. If you hide, they won’t find you.”

“....”

“Get their attention, and use stealth. By repeating that, you’re pulling them away from the base as much as possible. Thus, distracting the spiders by making them go toward you. Will you be able to handle that?”

Ken nodded his head heavily with his teeth clenched.

“I’ll try my best, Your Highness.”

“Thank you. I wish you the best of luck.”

After tapping Ken’s shoulder a few times, I walked over to the next party member.

“Lily.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“I must entrust you with a painful role as well.”

I handed Lily a belt with a bunch of blue potions attached to it. Lily pursed her lips and accepted it.

From the outpost here, there is only one entrance to the central fort with the mana cannon

“....”

“If the spiders reach all the way there after breaking through our frontline, you will have to activate your Fire Skin and withstand their attacks with your body, all at the same time as you block the entrance.

Fire Skin negates physical attacks after consuming mana. If she has this many mana potions, she will be able to withstand quite a bit.

Lily seemed to have expected the order to use her body as a barricade and didn’t show any agitation.

Although blood started coming out of her pursed lips.

“The entrance hallway is narrow, therefore, the spiders will have to come in one by one or two by two at most.”

“....”

“All you have to do is withstand. That will be enough.”

I was ordering Lily, who had acquired this trait because she was afraid of sharp weapons, to be attacked with sharp weapons all over her body.

Lily was a strong person. She slowly nodded her head.

“I’ll try, Your Highness.”

“Good.”

I turned my head to the last member.

“Demian.”

“....”

“You will be coming with me.”

Demian silently nodded his head. He seemed very scared but didn’t run after looking into my eyes.

The operation instructions ended with this. Actually, there were a few more things I wanted to say—

Bang- Bang- Bang-

There was a loud sound of drums coming from outside, announcing the enemy’s approach.

“The Black Spider Army is coming! Monsters are coming-!”

The scouts’ desperate shouts rang out. Tension crept across my spine.

It has begun.

The tutorial stage that will decide the lives and deaths of all of us..

* * *

On top of the central artillery battery.

The maintenance soldier handling the mana cannon looked at me in a cold sweat.

“Is this really okay, Your Highness?”

“Don’t worry. Just do as I command.”

“Y-yes, Your Highness!”

The maintenance soldier clenched his teeth and tore off the inhibitor surrounding the mana core.

Ptsss..!

The mana that poured out of the magic core jumped like an electric current through the cannon’s barrel.

If it wasn’t for this dire situation, I would’ve analyzed it thoroughly with interest, but there was no time for that.

I clenched my teeth and looked beyond the wall.

Tremble!

They were coming.

From all directions, swarms of black spiders.

With their vicious claws outstretched like rakes, to slaughter all living humans.

“Get in formation!”

Lucas, standing on the fortress wall at the forefront, gave the command.

“Until his highness defeats the Spider Queen, we’ll buy as much time as possible!”

“Yes, sir!”

The soldiers answered in unison.

It’s all thanks to Lucas that the soldiers are able to stand up like that even though they might’ve lost their will and morale to fight.

Lucas, who was skillfully arranging the soldiers, turned to me and nodded his head.

I also nodded my head.

After taking a look at Ken, who was getting ready to run out of the fortress while taking a deep breath, Lily, who was standing in the hallway of the entrance to the main battery on the first floor, and Demian, who was standing right next to me,

I carefully activated my trait.

‘Map Creation.’

With the feeling that the entire terrain was being scanned, a pixilated minimap appeared in the upper right corner of my field of vision.

It’s a skill that can only be used once a day, so this was the first time I actually used it.

I glanced at the map quickly, scanning the map as I licked my dry lips. Where are you, queen? Where are you?

‘Where is the queen?’

However,

‘Huh?’

After a few seconds, I noticed an anomaly.

‘The boss monster mark is..”

I can’t see it.

The core of this operation—the enemy queen—

‘Not here?’

Is nowhere to be seen.

On the map.

Tremble-!

Swarms of black spiders were already rushing right in front of the wall.