Chapter 2: Scout
WITH the founding of their new empire out of the way, Takuto and Atou immediately started what would’ve counted as a domestic affairs turn in-game. They sat on the stone dais and considered their first move.
“Mynoghra is a mild-mannered, peace-loving civilization that governs over evil and ruin. We need to start by basing our strategy around those facts.”
“You are absolutely correct, my king! In other words, we must avoid being detected. That’s the golden rule during early game, right?”
“Right! We don’t know where we are, but gathering information without letting anyone find us is our first move.”
“I completely agree! Your tactics never cease to amaze me, my king!”
Takuto returned Atou’s sparkling, expectant gaze with a wry smile, then took stock of their current position. About 150 feet around the stone dais was a clearing where only flowers grew. Beyond that lay a dense overgrowth of trees.
The local tree species had complex roots that bulged out of the ground, making it difficult to navigate. The trees were also monstrously tall, and Takuto had no knack for tree climbing. It was foolish to expect that from a former patient of the Intensive Care Unit for Rare Diseases.
I doubt Atou can climb either, and I don’t feel comfortable sending her to scout the area…
Eternal Nations players started the game with a base and scout units, but Takuto didn’t see anything like that around. Atou was classified as a combat unit, so she wasn’t equipped for exploration. As it was, her current stats were abysmal, and Takuto wanted to take every precaution possible.
In other words, there were only a limited number of moves he could make right now. Even in this situation, there was still a path. It was only a matter of time before the thousands of in-game actions he’d repeated gave him a hint.
“I guess our best move here is to use Emergency Production.”
Atou immediately reacted to his words. “Emergency Production? I certainly remember a skill like that.”
Takuto shifted his gaze toward her voice and nodded when she peered searchingly into his eyes.
As a strategy game, Eternal Nations has several types of main resources and sub-resources. Mana is one of them, and it is the most carefully managed strategic resource alongside Food and Materials. Basic gameplay consists of making your empire prosper by producing and managing various facilities and units with these three main resources.
Among those, Mana has similar properties to Currency and Energy in other games. Emergency Production is a skill that uses Mana to instantly produce any units or buildings. Of course, this useful skill came with disadvantages too.
“Ugh, Emergency Production is such an inefficient use of Mana. Heck, it’s a complete rip-off. I seriously don’t want to use it when we don’t have a way to produce more Mana yet…”
Takuto heaved a heavy sigh while scratching his head. The fact was, he didn’t have a better alternative. Atou was also groaning with her arms crossed, but neither could come up with an ingenious plan to overcome their present predicament. As it was, their current situation was different from the game, leaving them at an impasse.
“If we must, we must. How much Mana do you have total, my king?”
“About 200 if we go by game logic. We’ll blow right through it.”
In-game, resources are displayed with numbers. This was a video game concept, but Takuto could mentally convert what he had into those numbers. It made him dizzy to think he only had 200 Mana when he was used to having tens of thousands by endgame.
“Only 200? Then we want to make every drop count. With that in mind, what should we produce?”
“I considered a Base or a Mana Plant, but I want to start with a Scout.”
Takuto and Atou both knew complaining about their situation wouldn’t get them anywhere. Perhaps having someone else there to make decisions with was part of why they could both calmly think things through.
Despite experiencing the absurd situation of suddenly waking up in an unknown world, Takuto could adeptly form a strategy.
He chose information gathering as his first move. He couldn’t take any risks when he didn’t know what kind of world he was in. So he decided to learn more about it.
Takuto shifted his gaze back to Atou and asked, “Are you good with that?”
“Yes,” she responded.
There was no way she would ever question his decision when she trusted Takuto unwaveringly. Still, he wanted to check with her. Her opinions mattered to him.
“Here we go! Emergency Production: Scout!”
Takuto took the plunge. With his shout, a torrent of invisible energy gathered in front of him and something appeared from the distorted space. The thing appeared, covered in goo like a baby from its mother’s womb. It looked up at Takuto when it fell on its wobbling legs and let out a cry.
“GYEEEEEEEE!”
The torso resembled a praying mantis without the raptorial forelegs. Its legs were also much thicker and grotesquely longer than a mantis’s. The cockeyed creature wouldn’t stop emitting a nervous, high-pitched cry as its eyes rolled around, taking in its surroundings.
This was the Scout unit Takuto summoned—Long-legged Bug.
“Disgusting, huh?”
“It really is…”
Takuto’s immediate reaction to his first subordinate was disgust. Seeing as Atou shared the sentiment, clearly, this bug didn’t have a very agreeable appearance, even for the Civilization of Ruin.
✦ ✦ ✦
Growing sick of gawking at the trembling Long-legged Bug with its restlessly rolling eyeballs, Takuto turned back to the girl, who was much easier on the eyes.
“Aren’t you used to these from seeing them in-game, Atou?”
“I also saw them only as you do in the game—as 3D images… The real thing is a bit much.”
“I see. Want to touch it to celebrate the moment?”
“No way! Why don’t you touch it, King Takuto?”
“I don’t want to touch it either!”
“Then why would you suggest I do it?!”
“Just thought it would be funny.”
“My King is such a bully!”
“Sorry!”
They playfully joked around. Meanwhile, the Long-legged Bug silently stood in place with its big, round eyes darting around. Of course, he—the Long-legged Bug—was only waiting for orders. But something about his grotesque appearance and huge eyes made him look like he was judging them. Realizing that with a start, Takuto and Atou cleared their throats at the same time.
“Well then, my little bug friend! I command you, in the name of the glorious Mynoghra, to go check out the area around us! Avoid contact with all other life forms. Surveying is your main task.”
“Complete your mission in a manner that does not disappoint our great king, Takuto Ira.”
“GYEGHYEEEEEEEEE!”
Long-legged Bug let out another piercing, inhuman cry before zooming off into the dark forest in the creepy-crawly way only bugs possessed. As they watched him go, Takuto and Atou both sighed with a mix of emotions.
“I was a little worried at first, but it looks like it’s following orders like a proper unit. How’s it working for you, King Takuto?”
“I can share its vision to a certain extent. The information it gathers is beamed back into my head, too… Haha, it really is like the game, but with my brain acting as the computer screen.”
The world was displayed like a 3D map with Takuto at the center in his mind. Areas explored by the Long-legged Bug became visible to him, too, just like when the grayed-out regions of a game map, covered by the fog of war, are lit up after a unit passes through.
A dry laugh escaped him over this all-too-convenient skill.
“I guess we can say things are going smoothly for now. Speaking of which, how much Mana do you have left, my king?”
“I just used up 100 and have 100 left. I need 20 just to build the first base: “Settlement.” We need to be strategic with what’s left.”
“Just because we have some Mana doesn’t mean we can afford to waste it, right?”
Forcibly producing units that required specific facilities, time, and resources, consumed enormous amounts of Mana. Units with facility and resource perquisites like the Scout cost much more than a Settlement, which counted as an essential facility at the start of the game. Obviously, they didn’t have the Mana to spare to produce additional units.
“I actually wanted to get us a Warrior in case of attack, but it’s out of the picture with our current Mana. It’s really hard to take action like this.”
“‘I will handle our enemies’…is what I would love to say, but I’ll struggle to win a fight even against wild animals right now. Running into enemy forces would pretty much mean game over.”
Atou currently had 3 Strength. That was low compared to even the non-combat unit Long-legged Bug’s 1. Her weakness was further proven by the early-game combat unit Warrior starting with 3 Strength, and the wild animal unit Wolf having a base Strength of 1.5.
In other words, with Sludge Atou as its Hero unit, Mynoghra started the game off in the precarious predicament of being unilaterally destroyed by any enemy they encountered.
“This is quite the nasty difficulty level…”
“I-It always has been. Please keep your chin up, my king!”
Sure, they’d experienced similar situations hundreds of times before—in the game. Takuto couldn’t help wishing reality had slightly easier settings. His solace in all this was Atou and her words of encouragement.