Chapter 453: UP And Maps [Bonus - ]

Chapter 453: UP And Maps [Bonus Chapter]

The Goddess had her long slender legs locked tightly around Silas’s waist, her soft porcelain arms wrapped securely around his neck, and her radiant emerald-tinged blonde hair cascading wildly over his shoulders.

Her golden-green eyes sparkled with mischievous, breathless affection as she buried her face against the crook of his neck, inhaling his familiar scent with a happy musical giggle.

"My Lord! My darling Lord!" Eluned chimed, nuzzling her soft cheek against his jawline. "I missed you terribly during the morning march!"

STEP! STEP! CLANG!

Moments later, emerging from the northern tree line in crisp synchronized military order, came the twenty recruit maidens assigned to Eluned’s northern detachment.

Unlike the slightly fatigued units of the other squads, Eluned’s girls marched into the clearing practically glowing with excessive physical energy.

Several of the warrior maidens were flexing their toned, unblemished biceps, their ash-wood spears held proudly across their shoulders, their sky-iron cuirasses completely free of a single speck of dirt or monster blood.

"Squad Four reporting for midday assembly!" the lead recruit maiden called out, offering a respectful salute while bowing deeply. "We sincerely apologize to our Lord for our delayed arrival! An unexpected purge held up our return march!"

Silas stood in the center of the clearing, his arms instinctively supporting Eluned’s thighs to keep her from tumbling, though he looked at the Goddess with a raised eyebrow and a deadpan expression.

"Eluned," Silas said, looking directly into her sparkling golden-green eyes. "Why on earth is your squad late? You were only assigned to sweep the low-tier shrublands along the northern creek."

Eluned pulled her face back slightly, offering him a serene innocent smile that looked as pure as fresh morning dew.

"Oh, it was nothing of great consequence, my love," Eluned replied smoothly, her melodic voice floating through the clearing. "While my lovely girls were surveying the creek beds, we simply crossed paths with a rather rude collection of vulgar shapeshifting parasites... creatures who possessed the brazen audacity to mimic your divine handsome countenance."

Silas’s eyes narrowed slightly, a cold chill running down the back of his neck as he recalled Tasmin’s earlier report about the bipedal wolf-mimics.

’What did you do to them...?’ Silas thought, dreading the answer.

Eluned gently closed her eyes, resting her forehead against Silas’s temple.

A quiet radiant stillness settled over her expression as a vivid detailed recollection of the morning’s encounter unfolded in the depths of her consciousness.

(Flashback — Forty-Five Minutes Ago, Northern Creek Sector)

The northern sector of the Umbral Basin was bathed in the cool dappled sunlight filtering through towering willow-oak trees.

The recruits of Squad Four were moving in a loose, comfortable search formation along the pebble-strewn banks of a crystal-clear mountain creek.

The water bubbled merrily over smooth stones, the gentle breeze rustling through the ferns.

Suddenly, the brush on the opposite bank rustled violently.

RUSTLE! SNAP!

Stepping out from the shadowed thickets were seven figures.

Every single one of them possessed the exact height, broad muscular shoulders, sharp jawline, short midnight-black hair, and piercing blue eyes of Silas Graves.

They wore identical dark tactical tunics and held glowing golden longswords in their right hands.

"Halt, Squad Four!" the central Silas-mimic called out, its voice an uncanny pitch-perfect imitation of Silas’s tone. "The northern sweep is cancelled... Drop your weapons and approach me for individual mana replenishment."

The recruits immediately froze, their eyes widening in sudden confused hesitation.

"Lord... Lord Silas?" a young spear-maiden whispered, taking half a step forward. "Why are there seven of you...?"

Standing at the front of the formation, Eluned did not blink.

She slowly tilted her head to the side, her golden-green eyes narrowing into two vertical slits of divinity.

Her divine perception sliced straight through the visual illusions... the creatures beneath the skin possessed no golden souls, no Genesis Runes upon their knuckles, and their shadows on the pebbles... they didn’t have any.

"How crude," Eluned whispered.

The air around the creek bank did not simply grow cold... it completely ceased to move.

VUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!

A primordial domain of sovereignty erupted from Eluned’s slender frame as the tranquil creek waters instantly parted, and the earth beneath the opposite bank groaned violently.

Massive arm-thick roots of ironwood tore upward from the bedrock like the skeletal claws of a submerged titan.

"W-Wait—!" the lead Silas-mimic shrieked, its human vocal chords instantly distorting into the terrified guttural yowl of a feral beast as it tried to leap backward.

CRACK-CRUNCH!

It was far too late.

Dozens of razor-sharp ironwood roots erupted beneath all seven shapeshifters, wrapping around their ankles, wrists, and throats in an unbreakable, vice-like grip that pinned them horizontally in mid-air.

The seven monsters panicked, their human illusions melting away like hot wax to reveal their true forms... grotesque eight-foot-tall bipedal wolf-aberrations covered in patchy gray fur, with rows of needle-like fangs and bloodshot crimson eyes.

"SCREE!"

"SCRAAAAAAA!"

Eluned walked across the surface of the bubbling creek, her bare feet gliding over the water without disturbing a single ripple.

Her face was completely devoid of anger as instead, a bright melodic hum danced past her pink lips.

"Roots in the soil, seeds in the ground... Little pests make a wonderful sound..."

Eluned raised her right hand, her slender fingers curling into a slow, delicate fist.

"Grind~ Grind~ Grind~" Eluned incanted softly.

KRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-CRUNCH!

The ironwood roots did not merely crush the seven beasts... that would have been too easy.

Thousands of tiny barbed thorns... harder than diamond and humming with acidic digestive enzymes sprouted along the surface of the wood.

The roots began rotating in opposing, high-speed helical spirals, transforming into a massive meat-grinder that dragged the screaming shapeshifters into the center of the wooden vortex.

SPLAT! SQUELCH! CRACK! CRUNCH!

The sounds of fracturing monster bones, popping organs, and pulverized muscle tissue echoed through the serene forest clearing like a gruesome orchestral symphony.

The seven eight-foot wolf-monsters were crushed, stripped, and ground into microscopic, nutrient-dense biological powder in less than ten seconds.

The terrifying superheated friction of the divine grinding process flash-dried the organic matter, reducing the entire pack of Tier-2 anomalies into a mountain of fine dark-brown mineral dust.

POP.

With a wave of her left hand, a hollowed-out, two-foot-tall wooden storage jar carved from living spirit-oak materialized in the air before her.

Eluned swirled her index finger in a graceful circle.

FWHOOSH.

A gentle gust of wind mana gathered the entirety of the nutrient-rich bone-and-flesh powder, funneling the dark dust neatly through the air and straight into the open mouth of the wooden jar.

CLACK!

The spirit-oak lid snapped shut, sealing the jar with an airtight rune.

Eluned picked up the heavy wooden jar, hugging it affectionately against her chest with a bright, radiant smile, resuming her cheerful song.

"Rich in the bone, sweet in the marrow... My garden will bloom so brightly tomorrow..."

She turned back to the recruits, who were standing on the creek bank with their jaws hanging slack, their faces completely drained of color as they stared at the spot where seven monsters had existed moments prior.

"Come along, girls!" Eluned called out with boundless, sunny enthusiasm, waving her free hand. "We must hurry! We cannot keep our darling Lord waiting for his midday meal!"

(Present Clearing — Under the Willow Tree)

Eluned opened her golden-green eyes, her tranquil affectionate smile returning in full force as she looked up at Silas from where she hung wrapped around his waist.

She patted his cheek softly with her warm hand, her voice sweet and dripping with honeyed innocence.

"You truly don’t have to worry about those nasty little shapeshifters anymore, my darling," Eluned chirped happily, her eyes curving into soft crescents. "They are in a much, much better place now."

Silas stared at her, feeling a bead of sweat trickle down the nape of his neck.

He didn’t ask another question as he didn’t need to.

He simply wrapped his arm securely around her waist, letting out a long slow breath as he looked out over his assembled, formidable army.

"Alright," Silas smiled wryly. "Let’s finish lunch and prepare for the afternoon march."

...

The soft rustle of the weeping willow leaves provided a rhythmic, soothing canopy above the Lord’s woven linen mat.

Beside Silas, Tasmin remained curled in a peaceful exhausted ball beneath her light woolen blanket, her lips parted slightly as tiny adorable snores escaped her throat.

Her dark hair was splayed across the rolled-up traveling cloak serving as her pillow, the deep dark circles under her eyes finally softening under the influence of rest and full nourishment.

Sitting squarely on Silas’s lap now was Eluned.

The Goddess had made herself completely at home, her slender arms resting comfortably across his shoulders as her porcelain thighs bracketed his hips.

Her golden-green eyes fluttered with sunny delight as Silas lifted a steaming wooden bowl of buttered tuber mash mixed with shredded spirit-fowl, scooping up a generous spoonful and extending it toward her lips.

"Ah~" Eluned chimed, parting her soft rosy lips obediently.

She took the bite, humming a melodious harmonic note of culinary bliss as she leaned her cheek against his jawline.

While Silas kept a steady comforting rhythm of feeding the Goddess, his mind began to drift toward the administrative part of the territory.

’Now... let’s check the UP haul,’ Silas thought, his blue eyes narrowing with quiet anticipation.

Throughout the entire morning campaign, his senses had been subtly bombarded by a continuous stream of system notifications.

Because his expeditionary force had split into distinct operational squads... sweeping through jagged gorges, incinerating subterranean arachnid nests, butchering wolf-shapeshifters, and much more... The tabs had been rolling in like high tide.

Multiple recruits had broken through levels and Vala herself seemed to be one of them.

’That woman... She sure is strong.’

Silas had deliberately muted the active system chimes to avoid distraction during combat but now, with the camp secure and lunch underway, he willed the interface to manifest.

VUUUUUUM.

A sleek translucent blue holographic ledger materialized before his line of sight, invisible to everyone except himself.

[UP Balance: 3,020 UP]

Silas stared at the glowing golden digits, his fingers tapping rhythmically against Eluned’s hip.

’3,020 Upgrade Points,’ Silas mused, a satisfied smirk touching his lips. ’Not bad at all for a single morning’s run in addition to what we had left... It’s a solid haul that gives us plenty of breathing room for our next infrastructure leap.’

Still, his boundless greedy ambition hummed beneath the surface.

’It’s good, but I’d still like to harvest significantly more before we pack up for the Keep. We’ve got an entire operational afternoon ahead of us, and Thora’s foundry needs every scrap of high-grade raw ore and reinforcement we can provide.’

"My darling Lord?" Eluned’s sweet voice interrupted his inner calculations.

She gently reached out, placing her soft, fragrant fingers over his hand holding the wooden spoon.

"You seem lost in territorial strategies. Please, do not trouble yourself with feeding me every mouthful... I can happily feed myself so you may attend to your thoughts."

Silas chuckled warmly, giving her head an affectionate pat that smoothed her green locks.

"Alright, eat up."

With a flick of his wrist, Silas opened his inventory.

A roll of thick enchanted paper materialized in his grasp, and he laid it flat across the unoccupied edge of the mat, weighing the corners down with small river stones.

He looked at the marked quadrant where they had just cleared out the Broodmother Spider Queen.

On the original cartographic survey of the Umbral Basin, that particular cavern had been stamped with a faded red X... indicating an unchecked geographic anomaly suspected of containing mineral-rich veins.

With a charcoal stylus, Silas drew a firm dark circle around the red X.

’That spider den wasn’t just a monster nest... it was sitting on top of an unrefined underground stratum,’ Silas thought, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. ’Which means we didn’t just clear out an arachnid menace... we officially secured a brand-new mining cavern for the territory.’

Silas traced his stylus across the map, scanning the adjacent terrain.

Roughly three miles to the northeast of their current encampment, another prominent red X was marked near a jagged limestone cliffside, designated in Thora’s dwarven handwriting as Sector KB-22.

TAP! TAP!

Silas brought the tip of his stylus down firmly on the mark.

’This is the way to go,’ Silas decided, his strategic layout snapping into place. ’We’ll march out, raid the interior, and exterminate every beast nesting inside... That way, when we begin mining tomorrow morning, the entire sector will be completely sanitized and ready for excavation.’