Transcendent Resurgence: Regressing on an abandoned Earth

Zyrus made 12 divisions with the 2000 monsters. The so-called monsters tamed by Aiden were mutated animals from the first ring, and thus, they weren’t unfamiliar with living in a pack.

They didn’t need complex command structures like intelligent species. As long as their leader was stronger than them, the monsters didn’t mind following anyone.

The rats already had their kings. Zyrus told them to kill all the insects on the island after they were done on the beach. Only goblin riders and specter scorpions didn’t have a leading figure, but they weren't difficult to handle with their small numbers.

Zyrus summoned Elsid and assigned him to act as a commander. He didn't plan to lead anyone in battle for the time being.

‘I’m not pushing my work on others; I’m training them for the future,’

And while his logic was slightly flawed, he didn’t plan to stay idle either. It wasn’t an easy feat to bring nearly 10,000 players on the ocean.

“Let’s fly up,”

“Hmm.. my hooves are getting stiff anyway, let’s go!”

Zyrus didn’t ask why Franken’s hooves were stiff and more importantly, why flying would help with that.

“Look for an empty spot,”

“Don’t you have better eyesight than me?”

“I’m reading,”

“…”

Franken gave up on retorting and looked for an empty ground. Thousands of trees were cut down thanks to the players' efforts.

It was for this reason that Zyrus attacked the monsters first. Although the players had only leveled up once, they were no longer suppressed by the island.

Of course, the suppression didn’t really vanish. They were still unable to use their superhuman strength. Nonetheless, they had no trouble with the wide-scale deforestation.

“How about there?”

“Hmm… a bit small, but I’ll ask players to expand the range,” Zyrus replied as he looked away from Oroszlan’s journal.

“Got it,”

*Crash*

Not even a second passed before Franken landed on a thicket. His descending speed was similar to teleportation.

“You’ve gotten stronger as well,”

“Naturally. Just wait till you see my stats,” Franken gave him a smug smile and sat down on a clear area.

“Call other players before you laze around,”

“Tch..,”

After sending off the lazy reindeer, Zyrus calculated the number of logs and other materials he’d need to build ships.

He was by no means an expert shipbuilder. However, it wasn’t an issue with the help of mana. He was sure that over time, the ships built by him wouldn’t be inferior to anyone else.

‘I might as well go all out since it’ll be the first and last time I’m doing this,’

Zyrus slit his wrist and dropped his blood on the logs. The players under his command would increase by a tenfold once he started recruiting from the first ring.

At that time, he could employ experienced humans to handle all the crafts and construction projects. But before he did that, Zyrus wanted to tell the leaders under his command about the truth of the sanctuary.

A truth that he guesses in his past life. A truth that was confirmed after he received the shard from the cube.

*Rustle*

Footsteps of approaching players jolted him awake from his thoughts.

‘Whatever, I’ll deal with it after reaching the next island,’

Zyrus ordered the players to call most of the ogres, trolls, and mages along with a few players of each profession. He also tasked another group with clearing the nearby forest.

The construction would be a hassle with the large number of materials involved, but it wasn’t a big deal with the flag’s storage function.

“Bring over the corpses,” Zyrus told Stephen who was acting as his aide.

Since Ria, Kyle, and others were busy with their own work, Zyrus decided to appoint Stephen as a manager. He knew that the youth wasn’t impressive on the battlefield, but his sharp head was pretty useful in management tasks.

“Got it. We’ll be back in an hour,”

Quite a lot of iguanas and bats had fallen in the last battle. Normally, their corpses would scatter into motes of light after some time passed. There was no way to preserve them in inventory or flag’s storage.

However, it was a different case if you dismembered their corpses. As long as their skin, bones, and blood were separated, they wouldn’t scatter in the air. In case of high-rank or special monsters it was also possible that their body parts would be recognized as ‘Items’.

There were many such hidden rules and functions in the sanctuary. Zyrus had a natural advantage in this regard, as in a way, he was 1000 years ahead of them.

He looked at the pile of materials around him and did some calculations. In the end, he decided to build a warship, 3 galleons, and about 50 Viking longships.

All three were famous in history. While humans had developed many high-tech ships in the last thousand years, Zyrus didn’t know anything about the topic.

Hack, he didn’t know much about the old ships apart from their shape and materials used to build them. His knowledge was barely enough to create some wooden ships. Afterall, there was a limit to how much mana could do.

While waiting for the players to arrive, Zyrus cut down the large logs into different shapes and sizes.

Keel, plank, masts, risings, flooring… just the main parts numbered a dozen. Adding the small sections the three ships needed around a hundred wooden parts.

‘Maybe I should create a claw skill as well,’

Every part of a Sylvarix was made for combat. His razor-sharp nails could cut down anything with precision.

By the time the players arrived after an hour, they were greeted by the sight of hundreds of logs cut into different shapes.

“Rogues, assassins, and mages, stand over this side,”

“Yes, Your Majesty,”

Zyrus then pointed at the group of trolls and ogres and ordered them to collect wood according to the size of the pieces. There were many tall and short trees scattered at the center of the island. With trolls’ affinity towards the nature and ogres’ herculean strength, it was a task most suitable for them.

“Archers, while it is inefficient, use your arrows to pierce holes in every part. Swordsmen are to cut down the logs and as for the spearmen, they are to deal with slicing the wood and working on the edges.”

While many players were confused about his orders, no one dared to object his arrangement. In just a dozen minutes all players were busy doing their respective tasks.

The humans had an intelligence of 1 before coming to the sanctuary. Now, each and every one of them had at least 21 intelligence. They were anything but stupid.

Anyone who wielded mana had enough brainpower to handle a simple task like this.

“Shield warriors, select an empty area and spread the bones on the ground. Make groups of 100 and fight against 12 monster divisions until the bones turn into dust. Repeat until all the bones on this island are turned into powder,”

“…”

“…”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” A somewhat forced shout rang from the group of shield warriors. Their task was a bit heavy-handed compared to others.

“Good, now follow me,” Zyrus called over the group of dagger users and mages towards the bloody logs.

Or rather, bloody logs which were cut into different parts of the ship. Zyrus didn’t bother to explain anything and started drawing on the logs in an unhurried manner.

Magic had its own runic language, though it was similar to electrical circuits.

‘This much should be doable for them,’

Just like a newbie couldn’t understand nanocircuits in a day, the players couldn’t draw complex runes either. The simple runes drawn by Zyrus were similar to a switchboard’s circuit diagram in terms of difficulty.

“Can you draw it now?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,”

“Remember it, it’s a rune for gathering mana.”

Water repelling, adhesiveness, weight reduction, healing, speed, strength… Zyrus drew numerous runes on different parts. They were at most a foot in length, and thus, the players were sweating after their ‘lesson’ came to an end.

It could be imagined just how many runes they had to draw for all ships.

At last, Zyrus taught the mages about how to fuse their mana into monsters’ blood. Their task was just as huge as each and every piece of wood had to be fused with the monster’s blood.

“Stephen, you’re in charge of managing the players. Make sure they rotate between fighting monsters and shipbuilding. Also, stop anyone who’s being a smartass, they are to follow the exact steps I told them to.”

“Understood,”

Stephen bowed in response and left the area. The players might not understand the motives behind these tasks, but they’ll realize its benefits when they fight against the monsters.

‘Phew… now I can read in peace,’

Zyrus sat under a lush tree and took out Oroszlan’s journal. The sky was clear with patches of clouds floating by. The sunlight wasn't too intense either, so the weather was quite perfect according to his standards.

“Look who’s lazing around,”

“Did you wait till now to say this?”

“Hmph! I’m just stating the facts,”

Thus, while thousands of players put their blood, sweat, and tears into building ships and conquering the island, a Sylvarix and a reindeer rested beneath a large tree.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Zyrus would go once in a while to assemble the finished pieces and distribute the materials he brought from the shop.

Apart from papyrus plants and cursed iron nails that he used himself, the rest such as sails, ropes, tar, and metal wares were used by players in construction. The working efficiency of the players was nothing to scoff at.

Exactly four months and sixteen days after Zyrus arrived on the Pisces archipelago, his fleet stood ready on the southern beach.