Chapter 296

Chapter 296. Preparing for the Tanhoizer Assault (1).

Anyway, Aquarias had been subjected to all sorts of nonsense as part of Gryanarr’s “Clement-Voroshilov (K-V) Project,” but other than that, there weren’t any major issues. After going through that incident, I experienced a remarkably smooth growth phase and a period of resource accumulation. During that time, I realized that I could stockpile way more resources than I initially thought…

“Commander, I heard you’ve been struggling with resource stockpiling.”

“I heard the same, Commander.”

“Me too!”

“Ah, so you all already know about it.”

Led by the ever-majestic Lepan, with his glorious… *ahem*… presence, Belial and Tiamat came to visit. And then, I accidentally remembered a plan I had completely forgotten about.

“If the base warehouse can’t hold all the resources, why not use the transport compartments of the ships?”

“…Transport compartments, huh?”

“Exactly. Even just the destroyers, if we go all out, can carry thousands of units of resources each.”

That’s right. The plan was to use the “transport compartments” of the ships currently under my command to stockpile resources.

“Jessica, how much can we stockpile if we use the fleet’s transport compartments?”

“Hmm… Let me see. Excluding Kraken and Hreðsvelgr since they don’t have transport compartments, the rest of the ships combined can hold about 1.2 to 1.3 million units.”

“Hmm.”

“Oh, and I didn’t include the mining ships from the Resource Mining Fleet or the transport destroyers.”

After hearing that, Jessica and I put our heads together again.

“The base’s own resource warehouse can hold 16.5 million, and if we use all the ships’ transport compartments without separating the fleets, that’s roughly 1.5 million.”

“Adding that up, we’re looking at 18 million. If we spend about 30,000 gold on top of that, we can get an average of 700,000 to 800,000 more.”

“Let’s round it up to 19 million. That’d be about 14 million minerals and 5 million rare resources.”

“Right. That should buy us about a day.”

No matter how I calculated it, hiring four times the number of mercenaries I did last time would only give me enough resources to last a single day.

“We need to hold out for at least three days no matter what.”

“Commander, for that, we’d need to gather an additional 6.5 million minerals and 1.2 million rare resources from over there.”

Trying to attack a Level 7 base instead of a Level 5 one was proving to be way more challenging than I thought. But just then, something I had forgotten about suddenly came to mind.

“Wait, Jessica?”

“Yes, Commander?”

“Now that I think about it, haven’t we barely done any gacha pulls lately?”

“Not ‘barely’—we haven’t done any at all.”

That’s right. After accidentally pulling a mercenary gacha (?) and satisfying my random pull cravings, I had completely forgotten about it. It had been almost three months since I last did a gacha pull. Thanks to some dimensional causality thingamajig, I realized I had accumulated about 100 consecutive pulls.

Of course, pulling 100 gachas for 100 resource boxes was basically the same as blowing up the gacha. Normally, posting about it would get me roasted in the forums, but…

“Please, gacha, grant me 100 glorious resource boxes…!”

Since I knew the gacha wouldn’t give me anything good anyway, I figured even a single hand would be better than nothing. So, I immediately got up and headed to the gacha machine.

==========

But as always, this damn gacha machine didn’t give me what I wanted.

—————————————-

<Dimensional Causality Fixed Usage x100 Results!>

<Rare Resource Box x15>

<Common Resource Box x45>

<Common Equipment Box x40>

—————————————-

“YOU PIECE OF TRASH!!!”

No way. Out of the 40 boxes, all of them were equipment boxes, which would only sell for about 400-500 gold combined. The rest were mostly “common resource boxes,” so even if I opened them, I wouldn’t get much.

“This is…”

“Sigh…”

“At most, we’re looking at 100,000 to 150,000, Commander.”

“Yeah…”

With a heavy heart and a tattered spirit, I…

I returned to the command center, sat down, and decided to do what I needed to do.

But just then.

– Beep, beep!

“Huh, Commander.”

“What.”

“Princess Luka wants to meet with you or have a direct communication. Should I accept?”

“Princess Luka?”

“Yep.”

Lately, apart from her hobby of producing fleets, our Monster Princess Luka had been noticeably less prominent.

Why would Her Highness be looking for me?

There were many puzzling points, but since there was no reason to refuse, I nodded at Jessica’s words and decided to meet with Her Highness Luka.

A short while later.

“Ahem, Icarus, it’s been quite a while since we last met in person!”

“I think so too, Princess Luka.”

Appearing with Oxianor’s escort from behind, Princess Luka’s appearance was something else.

Unlike her first appearance, which suited the term ‘princess knight,’ clad in living armor.

A fluttering, thin white dress and long, golden hair.

Combined with her crown-like ‘horns,’ it gave off a very comfortable vibe.

And it seemed I wasn’t the only one feeling that way.

Princess Luka also had a much more relaxed expression than when we last met.

Seeing her like this, I couldn’t help but notice how much the princess had changed from before.

“By the way, Princess, unlike last time, you’re wearing quite comfortable attire this time.”

“This? Well, since my escort doesn’t need to be in armor form all the time, it seems this place isn’t that threatening.”

In response to my question, Princess Luka gestured as if thankful for noticing and pointed to the biological attire she was wearing, which also served as her escort.

“I see.”

“That’s right!”

After such preliminary talk, Princess Luka quickly conveyed why she had come to see me.

“Ah, right, the reason I came to see you is nothing else.”

“Huh?”

“Actually, hearing that you, unlike other commanders, have taken control of a stronghold alone… Her Majesty the Queen said we should give you a gift!”

“…Oh.”

And right after those words.

An event message I hadn’t seen in a long time popped up before my eyes.

—————————————-

<Event>

<Monster Force Trust Level 100 Breakthrough Reward Acquired!>

<Content>

<Finally, your trust level with the Monster Force has exceeded +100.>

<As such, the 'Space Monster' faction has decided to send you a 'Behemoth-class Mobile Ship Cultivation-Growth Platform' as a gift, signifying a 'special relationship.'>

<Of course, since it's a reward, there's no need to send an escort fleet this time; it will be sent directly through your base's teleport system!>

<Additionally, resources and goods will also be sent as a gesture of goodwill for the future!>

<Rewards>

<'Behemoth-class Mobile Ship Cultivation-Growth Platform' x1 Acquired!>

<Resource Comprehensive Supply Biological Container x1 Acquired!>

—————————————-

‘Oh.’

Surprisingly, I had somehow reached a trust level of over 100 with the Monster Force.

First, I bowed loyally to Princess Luka, who had personally come to inform me of this fact.

“Commander, a response has been detected in the base’s large-scale warp system!”

“Oh, it’s already coming!”

“As a special relationship has been established, shouldn’t the reward be given quickly?”

“Oooooh.”

Not even five minutes after the event message appeared.

Seeing the massive, beautiful cosmic cocoon and the relatively smaller cosmic cocoon beside it.

I felt my mood naturally lift at the sight of something that would be a great help in the upcoming base conquest battles.