Volume-1: Chapter-9: The Aftermath
Great Demon Law Forest:-
The forest at the fight scene had become a mess.
But in a way, it was very clean as well.
That’s because everything there had been blown to nothing.
All of Harry’s weapons, his chemical concoction and all the beasts that had attacked. Everything had been obliterated.
Harry felt like crying.
All the precious weapons he had stolen under the nose of the system had been blown to bits.
He wouldn’t be able to get those motion-detecting automatic guns or crossbows again unless he were to invent them himself.
And this was going to take a long time.
The forest would fix itself. Nature was like that.
Harry wouldn’t have to do much.
But who would deal with the two humans in front of him?
One could tell just by looking at their faces that Qing and Shin were very worried and would drill him with endless questions later on.
But the one good thing that happened was that no one noticed.
And thanks to the system’s help, no one will notice it for the next three years.
“But before all that, I really, really need to rest...”
Harry felt like collapsing from all the efforts he had done to set everything up.
And just the scene of the cultivator coming towards him after obliterating his surroundings had shaved off a few years from his life.
Then came the energy used up in healing his burns at that speed.
But the system didn’t give him another energy booster.
And now, seeing the siblings coming towards him, Harry smiled and simply collapsed the moment they came close.
When he woke up, it was morning.
He was lying in his bed.
The two of them (Qing and Shin) were dozing off beside him.
[Good morning host. It appears that the host has finally recovered.]
“Yeah, seems so.
So, how long was I out for?”
[The fight happened three days before today. The host has been sleeping for a little more than two days.]
“Woah! I didn’t think that I’d be out for that long!”
[The host would normally have recovered with only a day of rest due to the host’s physique. However, due to the energy booster provided by the system, the host’s body had been pushed beyond its limits, leading to a longer period of recovery.]
“And there I was, thinking why you didn’t give me another one right before I passed out.”
Harry laughed to himself.
[If the system did that, the recovery period might have increased to a week, something that the host might not prefer.]
Just then, the siblings started to wake up.
“Huh? Elder brother woke up...”
Qing mumbled with relief as she looked at him with her eyes still half-closed.
She didn’t seem to be overworked or lacking sleep, just a little worried.
“Yeah, I’m up and all healed up. You guys don’t need to worry any longer.”
Shin also woke up with a similar reaction.
After talking with them for a little bit, all three had their stomachs grumble.
The clock showed the time to be 10 in the morning.
It was already past their breakfast time.
The three of them walked to the kitchen while laughing.
After eating the food, began the actual talking.
Qing was very worried for Harry.
For her, Harry was this monster of being who could do anything.
And suddenly, he had passed out for two days straight.
She was so worried that even her own brother started getting jealous when he saw her actions.
“Harry! Please tell my sister to be at least half as nice as she is to you! She treats her own brother like trash when compared to how she treats you!”
“My dearest Elder brother, can you tell me what have you done that’s even half as great as elder brother Harry for me to treat you with that much respect?
That being said, I do behave nicely with you if you do something good.”
“...”
Harry felt sorry for Shin. Even he wasn’t dissed this much by his sisters, both in his previous life and this life, especially by his younger sister.
But thankfully, these guys didn’t deviate too much from their daily schedules while he was unconscious.
They did reduce their fighting time and hunting time to take care of him though.
“Keeping my sister aside, when will you tell us what happened in the fight? How come there was so much destruction?”
“Ah, that? That’s because one guy exploded!”
“One guy exploded!?”
“Yeah, one guy exploded...”
Then Harry started explaining what had happened during the battle.
“Ten people on flying sword!? They must be on the Limits-Shedding Realm at the least!”
Qing exclaimed in shock.
“No wonder there was so much destruction! Thankfully you didn’t fight them head-on.
If you did, even you might only be able to take down only 5-6 of them before getting killed.”
Hearing Shin, Harry thanked his past self for not taking it so easy that he took the popcorn for the battle.
Even though he could defeat at least seven of them, but that one guy (who he figured was in the Immortal Realm) would have been a bit too much for him even in his best conditions.
The reason why his weapons could kill them was simple.
They were built by the system and modified to suit the fighting capabilities of this world.
Even the normal mortal humans were supposed to be stronger than the ones back on Earth, so if the weapons weren’t built stronger, they would be essentially useless on Etheldor.
Harry also had to exclude that last cultivator from the explanation he gave to Qing and Shin.
Otherwise, how could he explain to them that the destruction was so limited even when a cultivator of the Immortal Realm supposedly exploded?
It took him about an hour more of explanations before Qing calmed down.
As for Shin, his sister asked all the questions that were possible, leaving nothing else for him to ask. The guy just kept staring at Harry and his sister as the rapid-fire questions kept flying.
Sometimes the questions got so close to forcing him to tell the truth that Harry had to consult the system while he pretended to think about the answer.
Near the end, the questions started getting quite absurd. (Qing started asking stuff like how many times he got ill since he was born...)
So, Harry had to cut her off and end the interrogation.
He had more important things to do than telling her what were his first words after he was born.
‘Haah…
She acts like she wants to build a detailed documentary on my life...’
But right now was not the time for this.
He needed to go outside and check how much of the damage still remained after the two days when he was knocked out.
He could just ask the system, but he felt that it would be better if he saw the scene with his own eyes.
On reaching there, he saw an astonishing sight.
The landscape of the area did change a lot due to the fight.
But, in just two days, the forest had almost completely taken back the destroyed land.
As the system told him, it was mainly due to the amount of qi that had been released due to the killing of the ten experts.
Though used for destruction, qi was still qi. And all that qi with high levels of purity had accelerated the growth of life in the area where it gathered.
Harry had to admit.
Even though he didn’t have much of a use for qi himself, he might try to find a way to mix some in fertilizers and stuff. That or extensively research the properties of qi and try to make some new thing that he could produce and control and would also be completely different from the two energies already present in this world.
Kinda like what Iron man had done for his arc reactor’s core in the second movie.
But that was a future project.
Right now he had to hasten his preparations for leaving the forest.
He had only three more years left of his forest life instead of the original four due to all the help he took from the system in the fight.
And since the stay time had been reduced, so did the time he gets to use all the tech he took from the system.
‘Hey, system, can’t you increase the stuff that doesn’t get destroyed? I really like the tech I have...’
[The host has two choices.
Either the host can shut up and try to make the stuff himself. The system will help and reward the host for inventing things.
Or the host can go for the newly created punishment dimension where a year equals less than an instant outside. If the host gets ripped apart for two years straight in that dimension, the system might consider giving the host one extra item to keep.]
‘I-I-I’ll shut up for now...’ replied Harry, feeling that he might end up crossing the line for the system’s kindness if he tried for any longer.
Harry went into his lab, the place where he had made that aggro generation solution he had created.
He had earlier got a lot of chemistry equipment from the system.
Till now, all the stuff he had done with it wasn’t anything serious. Even that solution he made was something he discovered while trying to act like an arrogant looking alchemist.
He did get some cooking knowledge as a reward though.
So far, it had been fun and games in his lab.
But now, he didn’t have the time for that.
He brought all the smokeless powder he had from his weapons storage. (The improved modern propellant that is the equivalent of the old gunpowder)
He needed weapons. Hot weapons, not cold ones.
And the first step to get those weapons was to get smokeless powder.
Normally he would have tried for gunpowder, but he already knew its basic ingredients and felt that he could easily make it in a few tries if he needed to.
He had lots of the improved stuff on him. So, why should he waste time on the old stuff?
He just knew that smokeless powder contained nitrocellulose along with some other nitro compounds.
All he had to do was break down the samples of the powder and do a bunch of tests.
And he had to make sure that his lab doesn’t go up in flames while he’s researching.
***
It took him a few months.
Mainly because he couldn’t stay cooped up in his lab every day.
Harry had to do stuff around the house and also train in the gym, along with the fighting and the hunting.
But he did spend any free time he had on research, including a lot of his sleeping time.
And in this time, he sometimes felt so tired that the powder had almost caught fire.
It did take about half of his stored powder before he was able to find the exact combination.
There was no books or tables to refer to for the compounds he found.
But that’s where the system helped.
Seeing his dedication, the system helped him confirm the compounds that he found in the powder.
All Harry had to do was do the tests. And the reference table was provided by the system for Harry to compare the results and figure out the names of the compounds he found.
And then, Harry finally succeeded in reproducing a somewhat passable smokeless powder.
[It seems the host has finally succeeded in his research!
As a reward, the system will remove all traces of smokeless powder in the ammunition that the host receives for his guns. The host can make it and fill them up himself!]
“Oi! Don’t you dare do that!
I’ve barely succeeded in just making something like smokeless powder and you’re cutting my supply of the top-grade powder!? I don’t even know the proper procedure to refill the bullets!”
[The system was just trying to make a joke. It appears that the host is too dumb to understand jokes. The system will make note of this for future reference.
But all jokes aside, the host will get proper rewards for his achievement.]
Harry got excited.
His life hadn’t been the best recently due to all the time he spent in his lab, surrounded by chemicals.
[Since the host researched and succeed in the creation of an advanced item, skipping the items that are usually made before achieving it, the host will get several rewards.
Since the topic of success was in the realm of warfare, more non-warfare rewards will be given.
The rewards being given are:
- Knowledge on the creation of modern weaponry such as automatic rifles, rocket launchers etc.
- Knowledge about military strategies
- Knowledge of proper military training and military structuring
- Knowledge of farming and related items
- Resource detection feature in the system’s menu
- Knowledge of the management of a country
- 10 days of free access to a subspace where 1 minute in real world=5 days in the subspace (Access time in terms of subspace time, not real-world time)
The system hopes that the host is satisfied with the rewards.]
“More non-warfare items? Why?”
The host needs to understand that while warfare is required, it is necessary to balance it with non-warfare things unless the host is already involved in or plans to be involved in large-scale warfare soon.]
“Figures…
I can’t exactly have a war-oriented country and expect it to prosper for long...”
The biggest task was done now.
All that was left was training to get as strong as possible as well as gathering lots of the basic resources needed while travelling before they left the forest.