Becoming a Swordmaster by Reading Chapter 52

A few days later.

Roden's barracks.

Roden was receiving a report from Chevalier.

“The new recruits are adjusting well. At this rate, I think they’ll be able to pull their own weight during the transport operation scheduled for the week after next.”

Roden nodded in satisfaction upon hearing Chevalier’s report.

“That’s good. I thought it would be quite chaotic for a while since so many people came in at once.”

“I thought so too, but it seems our platoon's atmosphere of focusing solely on training was a great help for the new recruits' adjustment. After all, as long as they adapt well to the training, there are no other problems in our platoon.”

In other units, the evening hours after duty or the personal maintenance time on days off tended to be rather harsh.

This was usually when various forms of misconduct occurred.

This was also why misconduct was generally more severe in the rearmost units than at the very front.

However, the 3rd Infantry Platoon was quite free from this kind of misconduct.

Not only was it a frontline unit with extremely high-intensity training, but they had very little personal maintenance time to begin with.

In particular, to get their nine hours of deep sleep, the soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Platoon rarely drank alcohol in the evening.

At first, some drank intentionally, saying it helped them fall asleep early, but after realizing it interfered with their sleep, almost no one drank now.

At most, they would have a glass or two.

Thus, a culture of sleeping early for the next day's training had naturally taken root in the 3rd Infantry Platoon, and this made adjusting much easier for the new recruits.

All they had to do was train hard for a day, sleep, and then train hard again.

Even on personal maintenance days, everyone was busy with their own individual training.

So, it would have been stranger for a new recruit not to adapt to this atmosphere.

“Anyway, it seems there are no problems with the new recruits. What about the thing I asked you to look into?”

“From what I’ve found out so far, the new 1st Archery Platoon Leader seems to be managing the platoon quite well. It will still take time for him to gain complete control of the platoon, but the overall evaluation isn't bad.”

“Will the new 1st Archery Platoon Leader be able to normalize the unit by the next transport operation?”

“Still, I don't think he'll render the 1st Archery Platoon completely unable to fight like his predecessor. I believe their combat power will be normalized to some extent.”

He had felt it keenly during the last operation.

What happens when a unit that has to conduct an operation with you cannot demonstrate its combat power properly.

For that reason, Roden couldn't help but be curious whether the new 1st Archery Platoon Leader could successfully take control of the unit and restore its combat power.

That was why he had asked Chevalier to look into it.

‘He’s not bad, better than before……. That’s a relief, at least.’

For reference, the new 1st Archery Platoon Leader was part of the reinforcements that came in with the 3rd Infantry Platoon’s new recruits.

At that time, other platoons were also reinforced.

In this way, the Transport Battalion periodically received reinforcements.

“Keep an eye on the 1st Archery Platoon’s situation. Let me know if anything unusual comes up.”

“Understood.”

After watching Chevalier nod, Roden stood up from his seat.

Then he spoke.

“Well then, shall we vigorously start our regular training for today?”

***

Although the new recruits were adjusting well and the atmosphere in the 1st Archery Platoon had improved significantly, Roden was not satisfied.

There was no guarantee that a large number of deaths and injuries wouldn't occur again due to another unexpected variable.

Of course, completely eliminating such variables on the battlefield was impossible.

If that were possible in the first place, the concept of war, which only ends when one side dies, could not exist.

But from Roden's perspective, he wanted to reduce the variables as much as possible.

If personnel continued to drop out unexpectedly, all the hard training he had put the soldiers through would be for naught.

And above all, seeing someone he had eaten and trained with until just a short while ago die or get injured so badly they had to be discharged was a great mental shock to Roden.

That was why Roden couldn't help but come up with a new research topic related to this.

It was ‘how to increase the soldiers’ survival rate.’

Roden thought while conducting regular training with the soldiers.

‘How can I increase the soldiers' survival rate?’

For now, Roden’s goal was to raise the soldiers' survival rate to over 95%.

And the current survival rate of the 3rd Infantry Platoon, including the injured, was barely over 80%.

In other words, he had to raise the survival rate by at least 15%.

‘15%. The number itself isn’t high, but it’s not an easy task.’

That's how many variables there were on the battlefield.

So, Roden needed a groundbreaking method to increase the survival rate.

‘Should I look into auxiliary magic?’

This was the most conventional choice for now.

While there wasn't much auxiliary magic in the 1st and 2nd Circles, from the 3rd Circle onwards, there were quite a few auxiliary spells useful on the battlefield.

‘Representative examples include Strength Enhancement, Speed Increase, and Endurance Maintenance magic.’

Certainly, if he converted these auxiliary spells into a sword dance and used them, the 3rd Infantry Platoon was unlikely to be pushed back in a confrontation between regular soldiers.

However,

‘Our soldiers have almost never suffered fatalities in fights between regular soldiers.’

Looking back, that was true.

The 3rd Infantry Platoon had never had a single fatality in a battle between regular soldiers.

The soldiers had lost their lives or been injured by Dikwan, a 2-star knight, during the rear disturbance operation, and by the cavalry’s charge in the recent operation.

So, strengthening the soldiers with auxiliary magic was unlikely to be of much practical help.

No matter how much stronger they became, it was not enough to block a knight’s aura or a cavalry charge.

The same would be true even if their speed or endurance improved.

Thus, the idea of researching auxiliary magic to increase the soldiers’ survival had to be rejected.

‘I need another way. Should I just openly use defensive magic?’

Compared to auxiliary magic, the effects of defensive magic were more direct.

In particular, a Mana Shield created with defensive magic could block aura, unlike a regular shield.

This was because its essence was a shield formed of mana, which was the same as aura.

However, the Mana Shield from defensive magic was too visible to the naked eye.

With auxiliary magic, the effects were absorbed directly into the body, so knights below

5-star who couldn't see the flow of mana wouldn't notice that magic had been used.

But the Mana Shield was different.

One could immediately tell that magic had been used, and this was a poor outcome for Roden, who wanted to keep his magic as a hidden trump card.

‘In the end, if I use defensive magic, the moment I have to reveal that I'm a magic swordsman will come quickly.’

He didn't think he could hide it forever.

But it was Roden’s wish to postpone that moment as much as possible.

‘In conclusion, I need to find a way to use defensive magic while hiding the fact that I’m using magic as much as possible.’

It was a rather tricky condition.

But Roden’s genius brain, which could be said to contain the entire library of the Penitudo Mage Tower, easily solved the conundrum.

‘The only way is to use enchantment magic, right?’

That was right.

The method Roden came up with.

That method was to use enchantment magic.

Certainly, using this method would allow him to use defensive magic without it being visually apparent that magic was being used.

This was because the basic principle of enchantment magic was to bestow a magical effect on an object.

‘Of course, it’s also possible to enchant it so that the magical effect is visible to the naked eye.’

For example, it was possible to enchant an object with Fireball so that a Fireball would be launched under specific conditions.

But Roden had no reason to perform such an enchantment.

Above all, performing this kind of enchantment greatly increased the amount of mana used.

Though in Roden’s case, it would be aura, not mana.

‘Originally, with enchantment magic, enhancing an object’s basic properties is the most efficient in terms of mana.’

Creating something from nothing was always the most difficult.

For that reason, it was naturally difficult for enchantment magic to bestow an ability completely unrelated to the object’s properties.

‘So, it would be best to bestow defensive magic on things like shields or armor.’

In conclusion, Roden decided to enchant shields with defensive magic.

He judged that bestowing defensive magic on armor, which had various parts, would be inefficient.

Besides, the number of shields Roden had to bestow defensive magic on was a whopping 32.

‘Alright. Then let’s go with enchanting the shields. Starting tonight, let's begin researching enchantment magic in earnest.’

Now that he had a direction, the remaining task was how to cast enchantment magic with aura.

In fact, this was the biggest problem.

It was difficult to cast enchantment magic by singing an Aurasong or performing a sword dance.

Also, for enchantment magic to be effective, a Mana Stone had to be embedded in the object.

Without a Mana Stone to serve as an energy source, the magic wouldn't manifest even if enchanted.

However, Mana Stones, even the lowest grade ones, were extremely expensive.

It was doubtful one could be bought even after pouring in a commoner’s entire annual living expenses.

‘In conclusion, there are two major things I need to worry about from now on. Finding a way to cast enchantment magic with aura, and finding something to replace Mana Stones.’

Indeed, neither task seemed like it could be solved easily.

This was why Roden's thoughts were deepening even as he was undergoing regular training.