Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~ Chapter 176

Military Meeting

Four cities, including Tiamo, won their siege battles.

Previously, the elves would have only been able to defeat a few magical beasts, and would have persisted until the sun went down and waited for the Demon King's army to retreat.

Naturally, the number of magical beasts attacking the next day would be almost the same, so the elven soldiers would be exhausted and the city or fortress would eventually fall.

That kind of battle had been going on for over a month.

However, that day's battle was different.

“Report! Your Majesty, in today's battle, we were able to defeat more than 200,000 magical beasts in the four cities combined!”

(Oh, so there's 2.5 million left. I have to reduce it rapidly.)

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. And Tiamo alone has defeated over 100,000. The…”

We were in a large building in the center of Tiamo.

We were in the hall with the Queen late at night, listening to the reports.

In the past military meetings, I had prioritized fighting the Demon King's army because of the danger of destruction, and had B-rank Spirit join them instead. Now I am participating in the meeting because I want to talk about the future.

The Queen was surprised to see how well the battle was fought and leaned back from her throne.

I had summons in each of the 3 cities to communicate with each other, so I was responsible for reporting the situation to the other cities as quickly as possible.

The four cities, including Tiamo, were filled with the voices of soldiers and refugees rejoicing in their victory.

“Your Majesty!” “Your Majesty, Spirit King!” “Spirit King!

It was said that elves were a quiet race, but many of them were bursting with joy because of the unprecedented victory.

“And what about casualties?”

“Yes. Some 3,000 soldiers were killed today.”

That was the total number of deaths in the four cities combined.

“Is that so ….”

Many elves were archers, and with their Talented characteristics as archers, they didn't have such a high [Endurance] status.

Also, their equipment was Mithril-class at best.

A single blow from a B-rank or rank magical beast could kill them instantly, or they could be attacked repeatedly before they could recover.

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As a result, some 3,000 elves died in that day's battle.

The number of deaths of the elves was much lower than it had been in the past.

I distributed [Blessing of Heaven]s to each city and buffed them with my Fish summons.

The number of elves who didn't die thanks to that was probably 10 times higher than the number who died.

But still, the Queen, the head of Rosenhiem, seemed to be heartbroken.

Thinking of the elven soldiers who died, she closed her eyes and tried to repay the lives of those who became Heroes.

“So, Your Majesty, what do you plan to do now? If possible, I would like you to evacuate to Nest City.”

“No, Gatoruga. I'll stay here and watch the battle.”

“No, no, but!”

The man who was standing in front of the Queen with me was not a General. He was an elf who looked to be in his twenties.

“Gatoruga. Don't embarrass the Queen too much.”

“Hey, I'm… I'm…”

Standing right beside the Queen, the Marshal, the highest head of the military, rebuked the man called Gatoruga. The man didn't say anything more.

(So this is Gatoruga, the strongest man in Rosenheim. He's the only Spirit Mage in Rosenheim, right? Wasn't the outer wall of this city also made by the legendary Grand Spirit Mage of Earth?)

I silently listened to the exchange between Gatoruga and the Queen and others, while checking the information on the Spirit Wielders in the Grimoire.

Gatoruga was the only Spirit Mage in Rosenheim.

In terms of rarity, it was said to be treated as equivalent to a 3-star Master Swordsman.

1-star: Spirit Wielder

2-stars: Spiritual Magician

3-stars: Spiritual Mage

4-stars: Grand Spirit Mage

And above the Spirit Mage, there was the Talent of Grand Spirit Mage, which had been handed down in Rosenheim since long ago.

It is said that a Grand Spirit Mage is born once every 1000 years.

It was said that the Grand Spirit Mage who existed in the past borrowed the power of the Grand Spirit to build an outer wall to protect the cities, and also built several fortresses. It seemed that there were no Grand Spirit Mages in Rosenheim today.

The Grimoire confirmed what Sophie had told me about Spirit Wielders.

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“So, what are your plans for dealing with this?”

The Queen talked about the future in order to change the atmosphere of the place, which had become a little heavy.

It was still a crisis of survival for Rosenheim.

“First of all, it looks like we'll be able to collect a large amount of magic stones this time. We're still collecting them, but I'd like to use them to resume using Magic Ship.”

(We can secure enough magic stones to use Magic Ships? That's good.)

Rosenheim, one of the leaders in the Five Continents Alliance has more than 100 Magic Ships.

It consumes a large amount of magic stones to operate the Magic Ship, but since the war started, they have been operating the Magic Ships with all their might and had used up most of their stockpile of magic stones.

Magic Ships used a lot of magic stones. Magic Ships come to the city of Grandver about 3 times a month. One can't just casually increase the number of flights just because it's convenient.

(Well, it did cause a lot of injuries, but it also allowed many elves to return to the front lines.)

The Queen respected life and prioritized the transport of injured soldiers and refugees, as well as the transfer of supplies to evacuated areas. Thanks to her, there were hundreds of thousands of injured soldiers who did not die, and millions of refugees who survived.

However, because of this, most of the Magic Ships were currently unable to operate due to the lack of magic stones.

Since we succeeded in collecting many magic stones this time, we could resume operation of the Magic Ship. Rosenheim could begin to move.

(I have about 70,000 magic stones.)

All of the magic stones of the magical beasts that we killed when we eradicated the Demon King's army in the southern part of Tiamo will be given to me. Thanks to that condition, I had used up most of the [Blessing of Heaven]s, and the B-rank magic stones were running out at a rate of less than a thousand, but I was on the verge of collecting them.

“Master Allen, how is the Elven Elixir coming along?”

“I'm preparing for it now. The price is the magic stones, please.”

I answered the Queen's question.

More than half of the nearly 80,000 magic stones that would be owned by the Rosenheim would be used to operate Magic Ships and other magic tools in general.

The other half would be converted to [Blessing of Heaven]s.

I had been giving them away for free, but I had to take the necessary magic stones I needed.

Each siege battle day would consume 300 to 400 [Blessing of Heaven]s.

Since we were defending 4 cities, that means around 1500 [Blessing of Heaven]s in 1 day.

If I had 40,000 B-rank magic stones, I could 8,000 [Blessing of Heaven]s.

Of course, I hadn't told them that I needed magic stones to make [Blessing of Heaven]s. I was only talking about receiving magic stones as payment.

The Spirit Mage Gatoruga looked at me with a stern look on his face who asked for payment but he turned his gaze back to the Queen and asked why they should pay.

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“So, for the upcoming battle, I would like to return 100,000 of the injured soldiers who were moved to Nest City to the frontlines. With this, the number of troops in the four cities, including Tiamo, on frontlines should recover to 640,000.”

“'Oh, oh, oh!”

The report of one of the Generals was met with jubilation.

Everyone thought that in a day or 2 Tiamo would fall and it meant the end of Rosenheim.

They never thought that they would be flooded with encouraging reports of today's victory, the operation of the Magic Ship with magic stones, and the return of 100,000 troops to the front lines.

“Master Allen, we will pay you back for this, and we look forward to your continued support.”

“I'll lend you my strength. And now for the battle.”

(It's too early to be happy.)

“Battle? Does Master Allen have a plan for the next battle?”

One of the Generals reacted to my words. On that day's defensive battle, it was my plan to pincer the magical beasts down from the south with the soldiers on the outer wall.

“First of all, it appears that the Demon King's army has begun to retreat.”

“Retreat? Are they really retreating?”

“Yes. All troops, including those that were attacking Tiamo, are retreating.”

I had captured the Demon King's army retreating north from the four cities by D-rank Bird's awakening skill [Midnight Sun].

“Therefore, I would like to reduce the number of the Demon King's army while keeping track of their movements.”

“That's right.”

The General knew that we had defeated nearly 40,000 magical beasts in the night raids.

“As soon as possible, please call back the injured soldiers who evacuated to Nest City back to Tiamo. Once we have some idea of what to expect, we'll head north as well.”

Since the loading capacity of the Magic Ship was limited, we wouldn't be able to bring them all here, but I wanted them to hurry up.

“Oh! You mean we're going to go on the offensive!”

“Yes. Let's confirm the information about the cities we want to prioritize retaking at the upcoming meeting. And let's take back the Capital City of Fortenia as soon as possible.”

Hope returned to the faces of the elves.

We would attack the retreating Demon King army. In the meantime, I wanted them to bring back their troops and restore the border line that was taken by the Demon King's army.

It was about 8 days after I heard from the Principal of the Latash Kingdom's Academy about the request for support to Rosenheim.

After winning the siege battle, Allen and his party's next battle was about to begin.

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Thanks for reading.

Chapter end