Chapter 159: Base Defense War (2)

As expected, the ripple effect of the attack that Ian uploaded onto the community was enormous.

Before even 30 minutes had passed since it was uploaded, it moved to the Best of Best Attacks bulletin board, and even before a quarter of a day passed, it had gone in the top 10 for the most hits in the Best of Best bulletin board.

This was a result that was able to appear because at the same time that Ian uploaded the YouCast video, he tactically promoted it through his guild members, but that wasn't the only reason.

Even if they promoted it well in the beginning and it gathered strength, if the quality of the content that was inside wasn't good, it wouldn't be able to do anything but be buried away.

However, Ian's attack was one that was higher quality than any of the attack pieces related to Summoners that had come up until now.

After he had completely made an attack piece for exceptional readability, he asked Sojin, who was a design graduate, for a favour, and the meticulousness of Ian, who left the final editing up to her, had shone through.

And as for the aftereffect of Ian's attack, posts were coming up at an incredible speed to the point that whenever the Summoner bulletin board was refreshed, the page would change.

• Wow, I just read Ian's attack piece carefully, but there was a reason why that he was showing such unbelievable growth as a Summoner. Seriously, all the information that was inserted was just completely honey-like information...

• Agreed. Especially for Potential, there was a lot of word around it, but through this attack piece now, it seems that will be the end of that dispute. Ian even took screenshots of the ability growth of his own Familiar Ly and took them at different levels before making a numerical formula, so who would criticize that?

• Keu, Ian is truly the hope of Summoner users. It looks like I can now evolve my Ice Golem as well! I was having a mental breakdown because it still wasn't evolving even at lv 70, but for the solution to be Potential...

• Everybody, now is not the time to be here like this, but to hurriedly go to the Lotus Domain. Apparently, the waitlist for booking the training ground is already full. If you're late, who knows, you might actually be pushed to the thousands on the waitlist.

• Huhu, person above. It seems you are slow. The people that are hanging around here probably have already run to the Lotus Domain and left their Familiars there, or have put their name up on the booking waitlist.

• No kidding. To be planning on going to the Lotus Domain only now, my condolences. It seems like it will be your turn around next year...

• No, but is there only a training ground in the Lotus Domain right now? Why is everybody going to the Lotus Domain?

• Ah, the Lotus Domain isn't the only one with a training ground itself. From what I've found, there's one built in every region. However, the other training grounds haven't been active after they were built, so the facility level is incredibly low.

• Is the difference in effectiveness that big depending on the facility level?

• Yes, as big of a difference as the sky and the ground... When I went to the Summoner bulletin board earlier, apparently a wolf with 60 Potential hit 100 Potential within a quarter of a day and evolved. On the other hand, even if you left a Familiar all day at a normal training ground, its Potential only goes up about 5.

• Hul... How does that even make sense?

• It is also because the lower the rank of the Familiar the easier it is to raise its Potential.

• Hul.

• And large-size monsters cannot be trained in low facility level training grounds.

• Ah... So then, my Golem and Mammoth must go to the Lotus Domain no matter what.

• That's right.

To Summoners who had, with great difficulty, caught a Familiar with the 'evolution possible' option and were waiting all day and night for the day that it evolved, the training ground of the Lotus Domain that was at its max facility level was close to a blessing.

Because of that, the price of 100 thousand gold per hour, which was not a small price whatsoever, there was not one voice that complained about it.

However, complaints came from a different place.

• Wow, then doesn't this mean Summoners have to create a character in the Luspel Empire no matter what?

• That's what I'm saying. What are you saying the Kaimon Empire Summoners do then in this case?

• What are you talking about, Kaimon Empire Summoners should give their all into one training ground starting now at least and quickly raise the facility level. Since the Lotus training ground, which is already at the max facility level, won't get any better, so won't you guys catch up eventually?

• No, no, person above, you're missing something. About the time that a max facility level training ground appears in the Kaimon Empire, the Lotus Domain training ground will probably just get rebuilt to a higher-level building instead. It looks like you haven't seen the person that posted about their forge that hit the max level a while ago.

• What do you mean?

• After maxing out the facility level and continuously piling up the facility EXP, it looked like it was possible to remodel to a higher-level building instead. In the case of the forge that came up in the post last time, it was upgraded to a 'Weapon Laboratory'.

• I see!

As the Lotus Guild was a guild affiliated with Luspel, the Domain as well was obviously a domain affiliated with the Luspel Empire.

Because of that, unless the domain was taken, it was impossible for Kaimon Empire users to use the training ground of the Lotus Guild.

That's why, in the case of beginner Summoners that weren't lv 30 yet, they actually just even made new characters instead, and there were also Summoners that spent a fortune and purchased an Empire Changing Item, and changed their nationality instead.

And there was one person that was monitoring these series of situations while wearing a pleased smile.

"Huhu, as expected, the reaction is as good as I thought."

That was, of course, Ian.

"If this is the case, even if we were to build some defense towers now, the guild's vault won't be lacking, right?"

Ian, who was continuously browsing the bulletin board and the chat windows, lifted his smartphone and called someone.

The standard ringing of the smartphone rang out, and shortly after, the deep voice of a man was heard.

It was Professor Lee Jinook.

"Professor, it seems like it's going well as planned. How is the situation at the domain?"

• Haha, what do you mean how is it. The number of people on the waitlist right now are filled up to four digits right now.

"And there's no problems?"

• There is one.

At the words that there was problem, Jinsung's two eyes slightly grew.

"What kind...?"

• We're understaffed. The guild members remaining in the northern continent are helping out, but its to the point that it's nowhere near enough.

At Lee Jinook's words, Jinsung scratched the back of his head.

This was a part that he hadn't thought of in advance.

"Professor, I will appoint workers and deploy management as fast as I can. I didn't think of that part."

• Oh, would you do that? Then I would be grateful.

And Ian got to the point as to why he called Lee Jinook.

"Ah, Professor, there's actually a different reason as to why I called you."

• Sure, tell me. What is it?

"As soon as the reinforcements are there, I was hoping you would go to the Ollibus Domain, Professor."

• Oh-ho, if it's the Ollibus Domain, you're talking about the seaside village, right?

"Yes, that's right."

Professor Lee Jinook figured out the intentions of Jinsung's words immediately.

• Okay, understood. As soon as everything is organized here, I will immediately go to the Ollibus Domain and build a new training ground there.

The Ollibus Domain was the same village that was hidden towards the eastern seaside.

Because they had completely hidden the existence of the external Domain, it was a village that nobody even knew existed besides the Lotus Guild members, but he wasn't planning on leaving it like that.

'If the territory of the Ollibus Domain just expands a little more, we'll be able to secure a bigger site than the Lotus Domain, so we should build something as big as a large-scale farm there instead.'

As the demand was overflowing, there was a need to expand the supply quickly.

Ian, who organized his thoughts, slowly opened his mouth.

"Either way, thank you so much for your efforts, Professor. Thanks to you, we were able to get passed a large obstacle."

At Ian's words, Lee Jinook laughed as he replied.

• Haha, if it's hard work like this, I welcome it anytime. I wonder if it's time for me to retire from being a Professor now.

At Lee Jinook's unexpected joke, Ian wore a flustered expression.

"Sorry?"

However, as he heard his next words, he couldn't help but nod his head right away.

• Why are you so surprised? Even I just exchanged the gold that I obtain as commission from maintaining the training ground into money, it's to the point that I could make 10 times more than my salary as a professor. I'm about 10 percent serious about resigning from my position as a professor right now.

Jinsung, who was momentarily silent, replied with a serious voice.

"Don't do that, Professor. If you're not here, then I have to take a leave of absence..."

• ...

* * *

Ian, who had spread out an incredible amount of work, was welcomed warmly by his guild members as if he was practically returning home in glory as he returned to the base.

"Yo, this is really amazing. How were you able to think of such things?"

"No kidding. We seriously won't have any reason to worry about funds for a while."

Ian, who received each and every welcome that poured out with Herz and Fiolan as the head, entered the barracks of the base and began taking care of the internal activities of the base that had been put off.

Because Herz usually dealt with everything, the work that Ian needed to do was examine the progress situation and plan for further technical plans.

'The only real concern now is if the front line gets pushed back again close to our base...'

The day after Ian left.

The battle between the two empires ended with an overwhelming victory for the Kaimon Empire without a doubt.

The distance that Ian worked hard to create had been restored within a day again.

But it wasn't like Ian could leave right now.

This was because, while Ian was gone, the damage received from the Desert Warriors was quite big, so if additional damage came in, it would be a situation that would be impossible to block off without Ian.

On top of that, as it was a situation where they had spent a fortune and began building all defense buildings and production buildings, the defending of the base had to be thought of as the highest priority even over other things.

'And truthfully, because the Kaimon Empire didn't have additional support troops either, we were able to win, if even the Desert Warriors or a couple high-ranking guilds came in as support, it would be impossible to win with my strength.'

Ian, who organized his thoughts, opened his mouth towards Herz, who followed him into the barracks.

"Yoohyun, it looks like we'll have to play defense for a while."

"Huh? What are you saying all of a sudden again?"

"I expect that within the next couple days from now the empire defense line will be pushed back all the way to our base."

At Ian's words, Fiolan, who came in late, wore a flustered expression as she asked.

"Hul, really? I did hear that we were continuously losing... But still, it looked like starting tomorrow the Splendor Guild and the Oaklan Guild would also be entering the war, so wouldn't it be a little better if that's the case?"

There was a point in Fiolan's words.

In the background as to why the Luspel Empire was being pushed back one-sidedly right now was because there was the power of the Titan Guild and the DarkRuna Guild, who had settled down into the central continent one step quicker and had begun to support the Kaimon Empire troops.

However, the problem was that compared to the Titan or the DarkRuna Guilds, the strength of the top-ranking guilds of the Luspel Empire were, to be honest, substantially lower.

Ian shook his head as he replied.

"Of course, it's possible that we might not lose so one-sidedly like we are now, but there's no change in the fact that it will be pushed back. Since, whether it's Oaklan or Splendor, compared to Titan or DarkRuna, their fighting power is much lower."

Herz nodded his head as he agreed.

"Jinsung's right. On top of that, it's possible for dudes that are as cunning as Samuel Jin to just withdraw instead if they think that they are starting to get pushed back."

When talking about Samuel Jin, he meant the Guild Master of the Oaklan Guild.

Fiolan asked Ian with a worried expression.

"Then what do you think we should do, Ian?"

And Ian looked back and forth at the two people as he opened his mouth.

"From how I see it, it will take roughly about ten days for the line of defense to be pushed back to here. If they're fast, it could be about a week, and if it takes longer, it will be two weeks."

The gazes of all the guild members that were inside the barracks, including Herz and Fiolan as well, were focused on Ian's mouth.

"Since we've expanded our resources quite sufficiently, let's halt the hunting of all guild members for a week and gather everybody together to build a proper rampart."

Fiolan asked back before she even realized.

"Sorry?"

"I'm saying let's scrap up all the guild gold and expand our workforce as much as possible, and if we're lacking, we'll even post up a help-wanted ad in the community and build an impenetrable fortress."

Herz, who understood Ian's words, wore an interested expression as he opened his mouth.

"Ah, so when you said we'll have to play defense, is this what you meant?"

Ian nodded his head.

"That's right. Let's play defense properly. To the point that we'll be able to block everything off even if the line of defense is pushed completely back and just our base is isolated in the middle of the enemy camp."

However, even at this point, Ian had no idea that these words would actually become the truth.