Tap! Tap! Tap!
Kevin stirred the campfire with a branch, preventing it from extinguishing too quickly.
Right beside him, leaning against him, was a large, tightly wrapped "dango" bundled up in a quilt.
Pozëmka only revealed her adorable little face. Her delicate, elf-like nose twitched occasionally as she breathed steadily. Her content and peaceful sleeping expression indicated she seemed to be lost in a beautiful dream.
Kevin slightly adjusted the position of his shoulder to prevent the restless sleeping posture from causing the quilt to catch fire from the campfire.
"Ah..."
He let out a long, quiet sigh. Kevin suddenly felt a bit of regret. If he had known earlier, he wouldn't have agreed to the girl's somewhat willful request.
She had said something like, "If Kevin is keeping watch alone, I won't be able to sleep, you know? So please let me keep you company a little, maybe tell some stories?"
Yet, within just half an hour, this girl who had just been muttering "I'm not sleepy, I'm not sleepy" had comfortably closed her eyes.
Under the clear starry sky, Kevin directed his consciousness deep into his own body, into that small, spinning crystalline structure.
If someone could see through Kevin's body, they would discover strands of deep purple energy flowing into his body through that crystal.
A Herrscher core?
No, it resembled the one formed when he bore the Finality before, but the "him" back then had indeed handed over all authority to her.
Moreover, this core was far less powerful than a Finality Herrscher core. However, in this world without Honkai energy, having a core capable of converting Imaginary internal energy was already a rare and precious thing.
"Hehe, Kevin, if you have questions, why not try asking this system?"
"?"
"Ask me! Maybe I know!"
"..."
The system felt its professionalism was being challenged. Why? Its host had questions but wouldn't even ask it!
Wuwuwu, so difficult.
"You once said you encountered me in the Sea of Quanta. So let's assume my body had been drifting in that 'Sea' for a long time before that..."
Kevin's gaze was calm as he step by step advanced his deduction.
"...And the Parvati genes within my body inherently have an aggregating property towards energy. Therefore, this core should be the result of Imaginary internal energy settling within my body over a long period. Am I correct?"
Correct?
Correct! Very correct!
So correct that the system was left speechless. So correct that it couldn't find even a single point to add to the deduction.
The host was strong and also intelligent. Shouldn't these two things combined be something for it to be happy about?
Why did the system now feel like a failure?
Because it sadly realized it was just an accessory; it made no difference whether it was there or not.
After waiting for a long time without receiving a response from the system, and not knowing why it was silent, Kevin simply took its silence as agreement with his speculation. He said no more.
The Honkai energy within his body gathered like tidal waves and violently surged towards that core, causing it to tremble frantically.
What followed was an intense pain capable of jangling nerves!
Kevin's expression didn't change in the slightest. He just continued impacting that core again and again, as if the pain meant nothing to him.
"Hiss—"
It was the system that sucked in a cold breath. Of course, it understood what Kevin was doing. He was expanding capacity, widening the channel capacity of this core!
This method itself wasn't problematic. The requirement for physical constitution was secondary; the challenge to pain tolerance from this brutal method was even more exaggerated. Most people using this method would numb their pain nerves to lessen the impact.
But its host wasn't ordinary in his ruthlessness!
Only when the core grew from the size of a fingernail to about the size of a thumb segment did Kevin give a slight nod. Although still insufficient for him to use recklessly, it was barely acceptable.
The time should be about right now. He raised his head and glanced at the full moon in the sky.
Even while enduring intense pain from expanding the core's capacity, he could still spare attention to keep track of time.
Casually supporting the "dango" beside him, he silently stood up. After pondering for a moment, he gently picked her up and placed her back inside the tent.
Just as he lowered the tent flap, a Shieldguard clad in heavy armor appeared before him as if right on schedule.
"Kevin..."
Kevin first shook his head, glanced at the barrier (tent), then nodded.
The Shieldguard understood and lowered his voice.
"The Captain sent me to notify you. Prepare for action."
"Mhm."
The two quietly departed.
...
Tap, tap, tap.
Under the faint moonlight, several pitch-black squads moved across the snowy ground.
Although their heavy armor and over-two-meter-tall builds made them resemble "beasts," strict military discipline and the nature of the snowy terrain still concealed the sounds of their movement.
Suddenly, as if receiving some command, all squads instantly halted. The entire process was swift and crisp, with no superfluous actions occurring.
Orders obeyed instantly! Anyone seeing this force would likely be left with such an impression.
The Shieldguards lay in wait, observing a certain location under the cover of night.
Not far away was a mine as dark as ink. In contrast were the surrounding tents lit by campfires. The tents encircled the mine like a giant maw ready to devour anyone entering it, intending to swallow all flesh and blood of those inside whole.
"Together..."
The fully armored Wendigo lifted his great halberd. The menacing shield left deep marks in the snow. He turned his gaze towards the white-haired man beside him.
"My thoughts exactly."
Kevin nodded.
Under flag signals, these squads split up. Groups of Shieldguards moved silently towards various strategic objectives around the mine.
Viewed from above, it was like a large black net slowly enveloping the entire mine.
...
Vernulevsky Mine, at one of its guard posts.
"Hey, want a drink?"
A Ursus soldier pulled out a bottle of alcohol from his thick padded coat, took a swig, and handed it to his companion beside him.
"Mhm, give me some. This damn weather will freeze a man to death otherwise."
The companion casually took it and also gulped down several large mouthfuls. The fiery liquor flowed from his mouth down his throat. In this icy world, only alcohol could bring them some warmth.
Although earlier those above issued some damn regulation about banning alcohol, which almost caused a mutiny.
After some commotion, this alcohol ban became virtually nonexistent in name only.
After all, hardly anyone took it seriously. The military discipline officers and superiors in the army didn't want to enforce it because they loved drinking themselves.
As long as no one got truly drunk out of their minds, nobody wanted to make trouble.
"Not bad booze?"
The companion said with surprise.
"Hah, of course. Save some for me! This is good stuff from Shengjun Fortress."
He quickly snatched back his bottle and stuffed it back into his padded coat, saying with annoyance.
"Give me more... Mph!"
The companion's voice cut off abruptly. He looked up in confusion.
A black shadow flashed past.
Thump!
Two corpses fell to the ground silently. The outermost guard post gate of the mine was opened.
A group of black-armored Shieldguards filed in one after another. Long periods of peace had made these vermin lower their guard. No matter how hard they racked their brains, they couldn't imagine that the guerrilla force operating further north on the tundra just over ten days ago would conduct a long-distance raid here and launch an attack on them.
Enemy attack! If they still had consciousness, they would probably shout that. But unfortunately, they would never have the chance.
Because the slaughter had begun!