Chapter 174: More Defenses, the Better

After realizing he couldn’t craft the upgraded tonics, Axel left the laboratory.

The derailment of his plans slightly soured his mood.

However, all things considered, the current tonics should be more than enough, unless they intend to challenge the gods.

Upon returning, Axel’s day passed quickly.

First, he trained with the sword alongside the other girls, members of the Valkyrie Knight Order. He had already distributed some potions to boost their stats, leaving it to Arianne to keep track of who received which potion.

The armors and weapons were distributed simultaneously, allowing the girls ample time to get accustomed to them.

Nina also joined the morning training, then left midway and followed Teruria afterward.

When training concluded by noon, Axel returned to the castle to manage internal affairs.

He read reports compiled by Beatrix concerning their little kingdom. Population report, resource consumption, spaces used, everything.

“Farming… huh…”

Among them, one request stood out.

A request to establish a farm within the constraints of the walls.

Axel pondered for a moment before shaking his head. It wasn’t feasible with the current area they had enclosed. It was just a kilometer on each side, after all. Simply accommodating all the buildings in their kingdom was enough to fill it to capacity.

“If we’re going to create a farm, we need to expand the wall’s coverage significantly…” Axel noted. “So for now, this proposal is on hold.”

Aside from that, other requests of a similar nature remained. In short, the people were seeking “jobs” they could do that were not dangerous and could provide for themselves or their families.

“Then, what about the Workshop?” Axel asked. “Don’t you need extra hands there?”

Beatrix frowned cutely, shaking her head.

“We do need some extra hands, but the current workers are sufficient. We can’t include new ones immediately either, as they’d require training and orientation before becoming reliable members of the workforce.”

“Is that so?”

Axel sighed.

The workshop was generating little profit, barely reaching the hundred thousand Colts range daily. The only reason Axel continued its operation was to give people something to do to pass the time.

A source of income, a job.

But now that their numbers had increased, aside from the members of the Valkyrie Knight Order, a few dozen people remained who couldn’t find anything to do. A fraction of those didn’t really care whether they had a job as long as they could eat and survive.

Axel wanted to kick out those “lazy” individuals, but he needed to give them a chance first.

“Alright then. I’ll be setting up a new workshop. Rather, a forge. With that, more jobs will be available, for sure.”

He recalled the tons of minerals and metals he had “gathered” from Mimir’s labyrinth. They had been sitting in his inventory since then, so maybe it was time to put them to use.

“A forge, is it? That might work,” Beatrix nodded in agreement.

After that, he continued reading various reports until late into the afternoon.

In the few hours left before dusk, Axel patrolled the top of the walls instead. He checked the ballista set at even intervals and assessed their remaining ammo.

Since the walls had been upgraded, the ballistae were rarely used. They could leave the Giant Zombies and normal zombies until morning, after all.

The crossbow, however, was more frequently employed.

Axel had just refilled the bolts for it the other day, so that shouldn’t pose a problem.

Still, he couldn’t sit idle. So, he decided, “I should upgrade our defenses, just in case…”

The “upgrade” was not extensive.

He simply added more fortifications on the wall—specifically, one M2 Browning in a semi-pillbox at each corner, positioned at the top of the walls. Each would hold 100,000 rounds at the ready.

Of course, it would be better if they remained unused… Both mentally and financially.

“I should also buy recipes for the bullets now,” Axel sighed, feeling it was too expensive to keep purchasing them from the shop.

Specifically, he needed just the normal bullets for now.

His crafting somehow added a holy attribute to everything he made. If he bought the recipe for Hecate’s ammo, they wouldn’t need to buy the expensive Holy Bullet Clips anymore!

Axel also explained to the girls on patrol around the wall how to use the machine guns. With this, he would have one less thing to worry about.

Soon, nighttime arrived.

Once again, zombies began to rush toward them.

What differed this time was that over a hundred female knights now had stats over two hundred. With their enhanced abilities, they cleared the three main targets in literal seconds.

As for the remaining zombies, Axel continued to use them for training.

Thankfully, his skills had improved significantly. He no longer destroyed his surroundings with every swing; instead, he eliminated the zombies in a controlled manner. Thanks to Arianne’s teaching, Axel learned how to avoid misfiring the Mana Slashes!

But even without that, with his stats increasing significantly, he still wiped out all of the ten thousand-plus zombies in just a few minutes.

Despite these impressive results, Axel’s expression remained grim. “Still far from satisfactory…” he lamented. With his current skills, he couldn’t even fathom fighting against Vulcanus, let alone Surtr.

He was still lacking something more fundamental—something that was supposed to be his “edge.”

After their nightly defense, Axel returned to the castle and had dinner with everyone, just like the previous day. However, one thing changed.

“Fenrir,” Axel called to the gray wolf lady, who had spent the entire day with Eve.

His expression was serious as he asked, “Teach me how to use magic.”

Right.

The fundamental thing he was missing was a way to make use of his abnormal amount of mana! And for that, learning magic was the first and most obvious choice!

“Master wants to learn magic?” Fenrir asked, raising an eyebrow. “It’d be difficult…” She then shook her head.

Axel smiled, giving her a reassuring look.

“I don’t mind. We have plenty of time to practice, after all.”

However, Fenrir shook her head again, clarifying, “That’s not what I mean. I use magic instinctively, so I don’t think I’m fit to teach you, Master.”

It was something he should’ve expected. Something he couldn’t do anything about.

Now, his attempt at learning magic had hit a roadblock right from the start.

Just as he wondered who might be able to teach him…

“Can’t be helped… I’ll teach you, weakling,” the little cat spirit said.

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