Chapter 705: War Song

[Common Trait]

[Absolute Taste]

Absolute Taste.

This was an ability with a tremendous effect in and of itself.

Since it multiplied the effects of everything eaten, one could take in enough energy even with a small amount of food.

And as long as something was eaten, it regarded everything as a target of its effect, drawing the greatest possible effect even from stat potions.

Thanks to that, my stats had been able to reach a level other awakened could not hope to follow.

It would not be an exaggeration to say the greatest reason I, who was not a combat class, could fight other awakened was precisely those overwhelming stats.

But.

'Even that is insignificant compared to its true ability.'

No matter how excellent a person’s sense of taste was.

If that person only ate dishes that were not particularly delicious, that sense of taste would have no meaning.

Right. The environment where an excellent sense of taste could truly shine was...... above all, when eating excellent cooking.

[Five Loaves and Two Fish]

When together with a chef.

That common trait revealed its brilliance.

For example, like this.

FWAAAAASH!!!

“......!”

“This is.”

Not as any kind of metaphor.

A truly radiant light.

It was the light produced as the dishes copied through [Five Loaves and Two Fish] were absorbed into the bodies of every awakened on the battlefield.

The number of soldiers lined up across the battlefield was large.

Even more so because the non-human races were fighting alongside us as well.

The number of dishes that had to be copied was also enormous.

But.

'......I’m not who I used to be anymore.'

There was no burden that I could feel from it.

To the point that the old days, when I had struggled to cook for hundreds even with the talent of [Large-Scale Cooking], felt absurd.

Like that.

The copied dishes melted into the soldiers’ bodies.

[Insect-Eater Mazar Jerky Infused with the Demigod Chef’s Care]

The Legion and the forces under its command had hunted monsters across all of South Korea from the early days of the destruction and collected their ingredients.

The variety of ingredients gathered that way exceeded imagination, and the traits contained in those ingredients were the same.

[A dish made from the meat of Mazar, a hunter who rose to the summit in a world where most living creatures were insect-type beings.]

[The history of hunting and eating countless insects is engraved into its meat as well, and insect-type creatures feel threatened simply by encountering Mazar.]

Among those monsters.

There had even been cases where a monster, while not that strong itself, possessed a trait that made it powerful against bugs.

[The effect of Absolute Taste is activated!]

A dish made from that kind of monster as an ingredient.

When the power contained in that dish swelled through Absolute Taste.

[Temporarily, you acquire the trait ‘Contempt for the Weak - Insect.’ Combat power increases against insect-type monsters weaker than yourself!]

[Temporarily, you acquire the trait ‘Insect-Killing Instinct.’ Combat ability greatly increases against insect-type monsters.]

[Temporarily, you acquire the trait ‘Scent of the Hunt.’ Insect-type monsters smell your scent and shrink back.]

[Temporarily.......]

Countless traits.

[All stats greatly increase!]

And.

The stat increases to support those traits followed.

“Go!”

The black wave flooding in without end.

But that wave of black corpses.

Sweep away those bugs!

CRRRRUNCH!!!

Began being brutally destroyed.

By a light even greater than itself.

***

FLASH.......

As they pierced the head of an approaching monster.

The Legion members thought.

The effects of the cooking made by their commander were already absurdly powerful to begin with.

Even without the power of that common trait.

The moment his cooking spread among the Legion members, it would have produced a sufficient effect.

That alone would have allowed one Legion member to handle dozens of enemies.

[You have acquired experience points.]

But...... right now.

How should it be put?

[You have acquired experience points.]

[You have acquired a large amount of experience points!]

It far surpassed an effect that could simply be called “sufficient.”

—Gwoooooooooh......!

A monster of tremendous size approached the Legion members.

[Combat Power Measurement Device]

The mana flowing from its body was pale blue.

Originally, it was an enemy that absolutely could not be handled unless by Legion officers, or by a few among the non-human races.

“Kahahahahahaha!!!”

“Squad leader!”

But.

CRUNCH—!

A single squad-leader-class soldier.

Faced that monster alone, and in the end, pierced the red light inside its body that was its weak point.

THUD.......

The monster’s body collapsed with a massive sound.

Its heavy bulk crushed more than ten zombies beneath it.

No matter if those monsters had gained a weakness they originally did not possess, it was still far too absurd.

Even the soldier who had accomplished that feat looked down at his own hand and thought.

'This is the power Sergeant Shin possessed.'

He recalled the absurd miracles Shin sometimes showed.

The way Shin would suddenly become so transparent that he could not be seen, or display bizarre abilities that made no sense.

At those times, the Legion members had only been able to stare at him with dumbfounded eyes.

But.

'Not anymore.'

Their commander.

Sergeant Shin Youngjun had decided to share the authority that had been his alone with every awakened.

The price of that noble decision was this.

—Kruoooooogh!!!

A tremendous number of zombies were literally being ground down.

A single soldier was cutting down dozens, hundreds of enemies in an instant.

Literally one against a hundred...... no.

'One rider against a thousand.'

Without any exaggeration.

Even a single soldier...... even an ordinary Legion soldier, not °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° even squad-leader class, was capable of handling a thousand of those rushing zombies.

'Overwhelming power.'

And.

The squad leader cutting down the enemies thought while intoxicated by that power.

'At this rate...... maybe I’m also at a level similar to Sergeant Shin.......'

But.

Before that thought could even finish.

BOOOOOM!

“......!”

Massive shapes brushed past in front of him.

When he turned his head in shock.

He saw corpses flying far away.

'......Deep blue!'

Monsters with blue mana far denser than what he had faced.

Several powerful enemies, not just one.

THUD.......

Were flung away after being caught in a massive impact.

Their entire bodies had been reduced to mush, leaving them unable to fight.

And on top of that.

'The red mana is still there?'

Even though the parasites that were their weak points had not been removed.

Separate from that weakness, they had been rendered incapable of fighting by an impact that was simply too great.

He blankly turned his head and looked in the direction those monsters had flown from.

And then.

'......Hm.'

At the person standing there.

He looked at Sergeant Shin Youngjun and blankly opened his mouth.

THUD, THUD!!!

Countless enemies filled the battlefield.

And among them, Shin was selecting only the strongest and most troublesome monsters to hunt.

He was even eliminating those strong enemies with overwhelming force, as though even the time spent aiming for their weak points was a waste.

“......Similar, my ass.”

After seeing that sight, the squad leader soon nodded blankly and muttered.

“Let’s just work hard.”

Thinking that this was a unit where there was no room to become arrogant at all.

He began moving in search of the next enemy.

***

BOOOOOM.......

As I eliminated another enemy, I thought.

'We were lucky.'

When we were going through the battle against that System.

Even though we could have completed the Conquest War faster, I had felt enormous displeasure over the sudden situation where humans had to fight one another.

But thinking about it now.

'If we hadn’t gone through that...... these enemies would have been impossible to handle.'

If we had not modified the System through the flesh of that System back then.

The Legion would not have been able to do anything against enemies of that level.

Even if my cooking had been added, it would not have made a large difference.

There would still have been a limit even if combat power against bugs increased, and locating the parasites with the [Combat Power Measurement Device] would have been impossible.

I never imagined a situation would come where that fight actually felt beneficial.

The problem was.

'Even now, they’re still hard to beat......!'

Even after increasing our strength that much.

It was not easy to think we could win against them.

It was not because the Legion members lacked strength.

Nor because my abilities were lacking.

It was one extremely simple problem.

'The absolute difference in troop numbers is too large.'

One ally could handle a thousand enemies.

No, perhaps even ten thousand.

But even then, the difference was so overwhelming it could not be crossed.

Right now, since we were clashing in a frontal battle.

It looked as though our side, with overwhelming troop quality, held the advantage.

In reality, the exchange ratio of troops was probably overwhelmingly in our favor.

But.

—Kweeeeeek.......

Among that tremendous number of zombies.

Some were slowly seeping through gaps where our troops were absent.

We had built fortresses in preparation for enemy attacks.

We had built defensive facilities on every major route that allowed easy movement.

So that if enemies tried to pass those fortresses, they would have no choice but to suffer severe losses.

We had prepared the optimal defense.

But.

'Those things don’t fear taking damage.'

They crawled mindlessly into difficult terrain that would normally be hard to move through, such as forests and rivers.

And they ignored fortresses that would cause enormous damage if not dealt with, simply advancing onward.

For us, it was an environment where we could inflict great damage with maximum efficiency.

But the story changed if the opponent paid no attention to that damage at all and continued pouring troops in.

If one could send only one out of a hundred into the enemy rear.

Most strategists would call it madness.

But.......

'Enemies are flowing into the rear.'

Those things were doing something like that as if it were nothing.

Even if we could fight one against a thousand.

There was a physical limit to the area a single human could handle.

Gaps our allied forces could not block in time.

Enemies that burrowed through those holes continued flowing into the rear.

The number of enemy monsters that had begun slipping through that way already looked fairly considerable.

“Commander!”

Some soldiers frowned after seeing that.

Right.

For now, this was a frontal battle, so we were at an advantage.

But if enemy forces increased in the rear like that.

'We’ll be attacked from behind, too.'

Once that happened.

No matter how overwhelming the Legion members’ strength was, casualties would be unavoidable.

And even if they did not attack us, it would be the same.

'Most of our troops are here at the front. The rear defense forces are empty......!'

If those things ignored us and burrowed into Legion territory.

The Legion territory, lacking defensive troops, would have no choice but to be ravaged.

The facilities and cities the Legion had struggled to build might be destroyed.

“We’ll deal with those bastards!”

“Squad members! Move with me......”

The soldiers knew what it meant for enemy forces to flow into the rear.

Some among them tried to step forward to eliminate those enemies.

“Don’t chase them!”

“Yes?”

I had no choice but to stop them.

Because.

“We have to maintain even the current defensive line.”

If we sent troops here.

We might be able to eliminate the enemies slipping through right now.

But.

“The moment we pull troops to the rear, we’ll only let even more enemies pass through.”

“......!”

Then even more gaps would appear in the already hole-filled defensive line.

It would only create enemies flowing into the rear at an even faster rate than now.

'I don’t know how much damage the enemies that slipped into the rear will cause.......'

But rather than pulling troops from here and letting even more enemies flow through.

Leaving the ones that had already passed alone was the best option.

'Damn it.'

We had mobilized even the Dragon Fang Soldiers guarding Bimana, as well as Ariella’s vampires.

But the enemies were charging in while filling the entire border with North Korea.

To block them all, we would need enough troops to physically seal off that long Demilitarized Zone.

With our reduced fighting strength after the destruction, that was obviously impossible.

No, it would have been impossible even before the destruction.

'Even at the bare minimum, we’d need another hundred thousand awakened for it to maybe be possible.'

From the moment enemies in numbers like that began surging in.

This was the limit of what we could do with the few allied troops we had.

'......I can only hope those things don’t interfere with Kim Jongdu.'

The only thing I could do.

Was pray that the enemies slipping past us did not head toward the place where our unit’s Architect was located.......

Doom.......

That was what I was thinking.

At that very moment.

“......?”

From far away.

A small sound suddenly reached my ears.

Doom-doom, doom...... doom, doom-doom, doom.......

A battlefield where fierce combat was taking place.

A sound that came faintly, buried under the roaring and artillery fire.

'This is.......'

At first, it seemed I was the only one who heard that sound.

But as time passed, the sound gradually grew louder.

Soon, a few soldiers other than me heard it as well and turned their heads in confusion.

[Group Skill]

And at that moment.

The same thought rose in the minds of the soldiers and me who had heard that sound.

This sound that had suddenly begun to ring out.

For some reason.......

'It’s familiar.'

As though we had heard it somewhere before.

[The war song of the Green Mane tribe echoes forth!]

That thought.