Chapter 108: The Second Mesa

A message from Guardian Command interrupted me before I had the chance to apply for that movie’s audition two days later. It asked any available Guardian for their service in the Next Leap project. I ultimately agreed because I wanted to gather some essence for myself and test how my tools had worked.

I didn’t gain any levels, but my class level had shot up to level 10 just by crafting bullets, shelters, and decoys.

“Are you sure this is normal? It only took a day for my levels to go up by ten levels. I only copied recipes from the Guardian forums.”

“Congratulations. Just like every other class, getting up in levels is easy in the beginning, but it will get harder as time goes on. The leveling will stall unless you invent new products and enchantments,” Felicia said.

“From what I read, Guardian Command wanted to take this fort on the peninsula, somewhere near Old Japan. I wonder why.” I read the mission objective.

“This peninsula is a defensible location. Instead of hiding from Anathema like before in Project Reconquer, we intend to bait them with this. Moreover, we also plan to use our prototype Anathema harvester.”

“I mean, why didn’t we do this before?”

“This peninsula has nothing of value. No oil or ores for mining. It would be difficult to even farm here. But now that we have new resources called Anathema essence, UNH now sees this as a viable target. We need only to defend, and the resources will come to us all on their own.”

“I see. But with the scale, I think it’s going to have the same fate as oil rigs.”

“In that case, everyone will flee. There is a reason it is located on the peninsula. New Mesa was located next to a harbor as well. It speeds up the evacuation process.”

“Well. I have misgivings about this. But I guess we could try going there. No movies for me then.” I sighed and messaged Shining. Moments later, she replied, agreeing to come.

I signed up for the expedition the very next day. The first wave would begin in a week with Agneya carrying several Guardians and troops, while ships would carry cargo to reinforce the peninsula and create a harbor there.

After several preparations, such as buying normal ammunition for crafting later, I departed with Agneya a week later. I didn’t expect a D-rank Guardian to get much attention in this expedition—we were merely foot soldiers in Zenith’s and Guardian Command’s eyes. But I was mistaken. In the cabin, a few minutes after boarding Agneya, about half of the staff members and a third of the Guardians were talking about me. I didn’t need to use my Mana Eyes to hear them whispering about me.

“Look. That’s the whistleblower,” a staff member whispered to another in the cabin.

“Hah… I knew this would happen.” I muttered. No one liked a snitch. Moreover, what I did was against humanity. Of course they hated me. “I should have rejected the excursion. Most of these Guardians are with Enra and Newstar, aren’t they?”

“Erm… technically, most of them are with private companies and UNH. Newstar and Enra’s stock had plummeted. Many Guardians, along with their parents, moved to greener pastures. Enra and Newstar barely have ten Guardians now.”

“I see. Even Guardian Command hated me, huh?”

“I believe the appropriate word is wary. They didn’t show hostility, right?”

“That’s true.”

Even after we landed on coastal Old Japan, I was largely ignored. To make it less suspicious—or to prove that I was not bullied—the general assigned me to monitor an area five kilometers away from the base along with Shining and her team. Looking at how far we were from the rest, I was sure they simply didn’t want me to see what they were doing.

“That’s the same barricade they used when we were on an expedition last time.” Shining looked at the base with her binoculars. “Are they sure it will work this time? What if an A-rank Anathema or S-rank Anathema comes over?”

“Why would an S-rank Anathema come to the middle of nowhere like this place? Look, there is nothing but sand and dirt here. There wasn’t even any village.” Red Flame Darkness groaned, kicking a random stone, annoyed, beside my jeep. “This is just another expedition to farm Anathema essence. The guy at the top was just scared we could get killed, so they assigned us to a remote place like this. We should go raiding cities or something.”

“I heard they are bringing Collector Towers for this mission. So this is not some impromptu base. They planned to stay their ground here. I also heard Pink Heart supported this mission and was willing to fly here herself if an S-rank Anathema comes,” Sapphire said.

“Pink Heart needed an hour to get from Eden to here. If an S-rank Anathema comes, we will be dead in two minutes. This is stupid. Will that tower even work?” Red flame muttered.

“It will! I made thirty of those. I have tested it!” Sapphire, one of the creators of the tower, assured Red Flame that it will work.

“Don’t fight, you two. Let’s go there. We have a very wide area to cover. Oh, Slifer-chan, are you well? Is there any discomfort?” Shining asked our newest silent member, Slifer—a dark Magical Girl just like me. Of course, she didn’t answer. She had been silent the whole time.

We were told to report if Anathema approached our base and seek shelter or hide. That was our mission. A kind of reconnaissance mission.

“But we were told to monitor an area over 30 kilometers, you know. Isn’t that kinda impossible?” Sapphire asked about the weirdness of the mission as I drove my jeep toward the plain.

“We are just the first line of defense. We can let one or two Anathema past, but not an army. I think that’s what the commander was thinking. If a strong Anathema or an army tried to attack our base, we would know ahead of time.” Shining said as she observed her surrounding, searching for any mana signatures.

In the end, nothing happened. When we returned to the base at sunset, I found them erecting poles, similar to electric poles but with a silver canopy on top, over six meters tall, all around the base. Sapphire told me they were Anathema essence collectors.

“We plan to plant 300 of these poles. When an Anathema dies near it, those canopies will collect their essence and store them in a vial. Then we can collect the vial afterward.”

“What if the Anathema destroyed it?”

“They shouldn’t target it. At most, some will be destroyed because of stray shots, but the fial should be save. and as long as the canopy was not turned to dust, it should still collect some essence at a reduced rate. Will you attack a random stone in a battle? That’s what we were thinking when making these collectors. Anathema do not attack buildings, right? They only attack living organisms.”

“Hm… We need more of them…” Red Flame muttered.

“Yeah. But this is a prototype. We want to see how effective these towers are before committing more. Three hundred poles with 25-meter-square coverage each means over seven hectares of land — about seven soccer fields. That’s enough for us to use guns and long-range attacks without endangering our soldiers and low-rank Guardians.”

“I just received word from the commander. Tomorrow we will have a mission to bait Anathema to this location,” Felicia said.

“Where would we even find those Anathema? The field is practically empty,” Red Flame said.

“We can use Lily’s jeep to reach the nearest village — about 100 km southwest. Construction for the harbor is also underway. They plan to farm saltwater rice somewhere.”

“So this is a Reconquer project all over again, huh?”

“Yes. But the objectives and method are different.”

While I had some reservations about this project, I ultimately agreed with UNH and Guardian Command’s objectives. They could not just do nothing. This would be the testing ground for future projects against Anathema. Slifer stepped out of my jeep without saying a word. She then activated her skill, blending herself into its surrounding.

“We will have a mission together again tomorrow, Slifer. Please gather here again, alright?” Shining waved at an empty air where she thought Slifer was. She was off by about two meters.

“Yes…” Slifer nodded and left.

From the top of the Hesco barriers built near the sea, I watched the empty field — poles with canopies dotted the land like a concrete artificial forest. It didn’t take long before an alarm rang, signaling a usurpation rift and alerting everyone on the base to man their positions.

[Warning: Usurpation detected. Anathema attack imminent. Prepare to engage Anathema at the designated location.]

“God. Why do they always come after work? They’re making us work overtime,” Red Flame Darkness complained beside me. I blinked for a moment. He didn’t wield his usual red sword, but a sniper rifle.

“Did you open a new vault?”

“No. This sniper rifle was bought using credits, not Gate points. The company I was contracted with recommended that I have some means for ranged attack and gave me this, along with some darkbane bullets made by Sapphire.”

Meanwhile, Shining brought out her new bow from the Masterwork Vault. She still kept my sniper rifle, but weapons from the Gate are more effective. Those bows can do rapid fire and other tricks. They also don’t require ammunition to use.

“All right! We are ready!”

“How nice — we got a warning this time. Did the government buy a RED for this mission?” I recalled my experience in New Mesa and the oil rig. There had been no warning whatsoever there.

“No. Those poles can also detect usurpation attempts. We only have less than two minutes to react, though. So unlike a RED, which can delay an usurpation for up to two hours, these poles only warn after an usurpation has formed,” Felicia said as black miasma gathered and swirled, forming gates on the field. Thirty Fomorian hounds spewed out from the gate.

The hounds surveyed their surroundings — hungry, yearning for the souls of the living. Driven by hunger, they beelined for the base. Soldiers and Guardians lined the Hesco barriers, their sights trained on the invading monsters. The base flashed with gunfire; each darkbane bullet tore through the invaders before they could get close.

And that was the end of the usurpation. It was a bit anticlimactic, but Felicia explained this was normal for an F-rank usurpation. This was likely just a vanguard usurpation; more should come within the month.

Here came the real kicker — the objective of this mission. From the Anathema corpses, dark miasma swirled and was absorbed by the canopies on the poles.

“Mission success. Now all we need to do is collect the vials from those poles,” Felicia said. “We didn’t expect much since it was only an F-rank usurpation, but we’ve proven we can harvest Anathema this way. It should be safer. There are many improvements possible — traps, kill zones, decoys on this field. The possibilities are endless.”

“I see. That was interesting. So if we go on the offensive, we use the usual method; if we go defensive, we use this,” Red Flame pondered at the new strategy. He affirmed the new method with a nod.

“This battle is being broadcast in Eden. Let’s see — it seems to be well received by the masses,” Felicia said.

I watched the poles strewn across the empty field, and an idea came to me. Instead of making towers to collect Anathema essence from fallen Anathema, couldn’t I just make bullets that do the same thing?

As that idea nested in my mind, we all took dinner inside the barracks.

Let’s test it later.