Fantasy Starting from the Stone Age - Chapter 129



Only Noblemtl

Episode 129. Threat of the Legendary Age 3

Throughout the history of this world, there have been more than one or two vicious races and nations. However, neither the eon-old Tarap tribe nor the invincible Erin tribe were called demons. Although they are sometimes called that way in contempt, it is not specifically defined.

There are conditions for a race to be called a demon race.

First, you must have the intelligence to be able to have a conversation.

Secondly, even then, he will treat humanity only with infinite malice.

These are the two. In short, no matter how strong a monster that cannot speak is, it is not a demon. Even a single-shot is not a demon. It is just an incredibly strong disease.

Erin, the same goes for the Tatap tribe. Erin often causes trouble due to a racial defect or socio-cultural influence, and the Erin mixed-bloods in Datang have blended in with Datang and do not show a significant difference in crime rate compared to other races.

The same goes for the Tatap tribe. It’s hard for people to not become rough while living on the grasslands. The nomadic empire of a thousand years also appears evil due to the social environment and the personality of the leader.

That’s why the first appearance of the polar demon tribe, ‘Pencant’, in history was such a huge shock.

They have culture, they have civilization, they have intelligence, they have society, and they deal in mysteries.

And they acted like they weren’t human.

All they do is pirate. They raid the coastline, take over islands, take over the coastline to establish a base, destroy passing ships, and loot everything. Cannibalism, of course.

The world’s most vicious pirates are laying waste to coasts and islands in every ocean, east, west, south, and north.

Several islands have already been turned into ice fields like the ones they live on. They are learning the language of the humans on the surface, and are becoming more and more vicious as they acquire their culture and technology.

What’s even more incredible is that these ‘polar demons’ are the ones who are capable of dialogue, negotiation, and diplomacy compared to all other demons. After all, they’re just another civilized people living on the other side of the world.

Just looking down on humanity on earth.

These men also knew how to think, so what started out as a ruthless piracy of destroying any ship they came across changed into a systematic robbery of blocking the front of a ship and threatening to sink it unless it received more than half of its cargo.

“Is this even diplomacy?!”

It’s diplomacy. After all, they keep their promises.

And Datang has as its leader a man whose understanding of the concept of diplomacy is questionable.

The closest place to the Penkant polar region was Datang, or more precisely, the southern coast of Shuzor.

“From now on, we will build fortresses and watchtowers along the coast.”

“Yes! Liwaduwan!”

Shuzorumiya Liwaduwan’s actions were clean. Because he had read the battle reports. He had heard the results of battles in distant countries. What terrible things had happened, how the victors had won and how the vanquished had lost.

And the conclusion we reached was that we had to fortify the southern coast of Shujor to prevent the invasion of those pirates.

“They know the value of donum. They probably need magic. And there is a mint in Shujor. If they enter the mint and learn the recipe for donum, it’s over. We control the entire southern coast of Shujor with thorough defenses.”

But, you say the southern coast of Shujor… … . How wide is the coastline? It’s impossible to station troops all over it.

Liwaduwan therefore launches an airship and installs a lighthouse. He sets up a wide surveillance net that can monitor the entire sea at any time and can block the route to the city without fail.

And they’ve spread out all along the coastline, with huge structures that are more like barbed wire or iron fences than breakwaters, or so-called sharp tetrapods. There are hardly any ships coming and going from the southern coast anyway. The most important thing is to just block that sea route and prevent them from entering the coastline.

This task required enormous resources. Metal, stone, manpower, cattle, and horsepower. Elementalists and architects… … .

“All right. I want half of this year’s budget to be spent on coastal defense.”

“Half of the military budget?”

“No. Half of the budget for the party.”

“……good.”

A project that cost billions of dollars. Liwaduwan and Datang used their mad drive to really build a fortress along the southern coast. It was a Great Wall that was only meant to block the forces of the polar regions.

“No matter what they do, they won’t be able to get past this southern fortress.”

Not long after the construction, an army of half a million people invades the southern coast of Shujor. It is an army comprised entirely of mystic holders.

“?!”

“?!”

Both Penkant and Datang were surprised. Penkant was surprised by what kind of mystery the humans on the surface had that allowed them to build a castle along the entire coastline in just a few months, and Datang was surprised by the ridiculous scale of the work.

It’s said to be 500,000, but filling 500,000 with an army without mysteries and filling 500,000 with an army with mysteries are different in quality. In the previous battle of Mainilun, the absolute majority of the 1 million soldiers were either without mysteries or were weak Lulmo and Borin soldiers.

However, their army did not have such ‘number-filling’ troops. In terms of Datang, they only had 500,000 martial arts masters, spirit masters, and spirit beasts, which was an absurd troop mobilization capacity even for Datang, which had a population of 400 million.

“Raise the signal fire right now! Call for the All-Chan!”

Liwaduwan had to fight that insane army with only 50,000 men, including ordinary soldiers.

Is it 1:10? No. It’s 1:100. Because I spread my soldiers out farther to keep a wide perimeter. It would take a long time for the scattered troops to regroup.

The walls and traps built with spirit magic showed incredible defensive power. Pencant’s 500,000-strong army entered from 7 different locations, but none of them were able to break through the walls.

The battle is sluggish. Liwaduwan brings in scribes from the mint and bards from the theater to bolster his forces.

Liwaduwan, known as the God of War. Despite the enemy’s strength being more than 10 times greater than expected, he fights bravely and grits his teeth until the next opportunity comes.

However, as he was an adult and a powerful force, he fought with incredible fighting spirit, directly confronting the superhumans of Pencant on the front lines.

The period lasted a full 15 days. Even the Pencant army, which had been continuously reinforced and had grown to nearly 800,000 in number, was stopped by 220,000 men gathered from all over Shujor, including Borin.

When All Chaun finally descends and scatters fire, Penkant’s forces are reduced to fried penguins and grilled seals.

“Unbelievable! Liwaduwan. This fighting spirit deserves a medal.”

“Of course I should receive it. Give it all back to my subordinates and soldiers.”

Liwaduwan seemed almost exhausted after fighting and commanding on the front lines for 15 days. In Datang, they took their meat and equipment and examined them.

“Their equipment is all some sort of spirit weapon and magic weapon. A combination of spirit magic and magic… … It has never been successful before. These guys have succeeded.”

“Hmm… …. Are you saying that the technology is more advanced than ours?”

“It seems that they have the knowledge of the gods. It’s an old civilization. Could it be older than Datang…?”

For reference, historically, Datang is about 12,000 years earlier. They were born as a nation during the unification period of Datang.

“I would guess that their environment would be subject to similar magical pressure as the Holy Land. However, wouldn’t there be a severe lack of plants? There seems to be quite a bit of mineral material, but… … I don’t know what kind of terrain exists.”

It’s a bit too much to say that Castel Laurent is incompetent because he can’t figure it out.

Daton couldn’t imagine a world where there was nothing but ice. It’s only natural that he couldn’t imagine an ecosystem based on krill growing on magical pressure instead of plants, and an endless supply of animal resources.

That’s why Pencant is targeting the surface. First of all, there is land, and you can dive deep into the sea to mine the deposited gems and minerals, but refining them is difficult, and as is usually the case with magical tools, you need stronger materials to have stronger magical tools, and that’s how you can maintain the infrastructure of civilization.

The polar demons honestly thought they could take over Shujor if they went about 500,000 miles. And they were going to use that as a base to expand out… … But Datang was much stronger than they had thought.

And three years later, a wave of 1.2 million polar demons strike the southern fortress of Shujor.

“Aha. I knew it.”

And fortunately, Ol Chaun spent about three years leisurely pilgrimage in the Shujor region. Liwaduwan’s foresight that “those guys will definitely come soon” proved to be true.

Honestly, I expected this coming back in about 20 years, but it came so quickly that I was happy about it.

The 1.2 million wave attack is literally baked by the sun that descends on the ground. Their ice weapons are completely melted by the fire of Datang Oram and turned into golden meat.

“Can I not eat this?”

“… … If you think it’s okay to eat Iyakan, then eat it.”

“I tried it. Honestly, it smells really delicious.”

It wasn’t that 1.2 million people melted away without even putting up a proper resistance. There were some talented people among them, and three of them, as strong as Anrai, rushed at All Chaun. The number of superhumans gathered was even greater.

The preparations for Datang were also more rigorous. They temporarily set up a temporary garrison in Hochukoi and drove Castle Loran, Manum Lapang, and Paron Echaca all south to fight against them. They also trained hard to fight in cold places by deliberately using the Shadow Snail spirit magic to resist the unbearable cold.

And eight years later, Pencant increases his power and attacks with an estimated 2 million troops. This is when even All Chaun really loses, but the other M-Anlayers arrive on time and successfully stop the polar demons.

In the end, all four attacks by the polar demons ended in failure. I wondered if they would bring 3 million or so next time… … . I was worried. There will be no next attack, at least not in this era.

Penkant doesn’t attack the southern fortress for a long time afterwards. It seems like he’s scouting, but is Liwaduwan the kind of person who would expose a weak point by making a sloppy defense?

However, the resources that Datang spent on this fight against Penkant were not small. Even if All Chaun did half the fighting, it is not like All Chaun could really deal with 1.2 million. In reality, if several Anrai-level enemies rush in, it would be difficult for All Chaun to properly display his firepower.

In particular, Datang was exceptionally good at blocking, and other places were going crazy. When Olchaun heard that Seiwamuyu’s castle, Rokoro, had fallen, he was so frightened that he loaned a huge amount of money to support the Iyakans and keep the security of the eastern coast from collapsing. In addition, there was chaos in Jor, which occupied the western coast, so he ended up building a fortress there as well.

Eventually, the fortifications surrounding the coast became stronger and taller, and since they moved faster in the moats, they filled the moats with bitumen and poison, and by doing this all along the coast, the confrontation with Penkant, which had been going on for less than a few decades, became a financial quagmire that consumed not even 50%, but more than 75% of Datang’s entire budget.

“I think taxes will have to be raised this year too… … .”

“How many years has it been going up?”

“But there is no way.”

“Yes. That’s better than people dying. Relax the population limit a little. If the population increases, the burden will be reduced in the long run.”

The population limit has also been somewhat lifted. 400 million to 500 million, 500 million to 600 million… …. As the population limit has been lifted, it has grown rapidly, and resource consumption has increased even more. There is a limit to the Donum produced in Shujor and the natural productivity of Datang.

The solid happiness of Datang is cracking. But that’s okay. Taxes are still low from a global perspective. Resources are still affordable.

However, other countries in the world were not in a position to say such things.

“What are those armored white bears and reindeer?”

The polar regions are incredibly vast. Penkant now invades the Northern Ocean, which he had been trying to expand for thousands of years.

The West was relatively untouched by attacks, having to cross the ‘Far West’, but seal pirates raiding the Mediterranean along the southern coast were now a given.

And the countries of the East, including Seiwamuyu and Goaran, who were in the south, had already lost to Penkant. Thanks to being the best in the world, the East barely avoided total annihilation.

“Where the hell do these guys get their troops from! They’re half sea and half pirates!”

Of course not. It’s just that all members of Pencant are warriors, all warriors possess mystical powers, and they all systematically plunder with a unified will.

In the late legendary era, the closest ones, Datang and Shuzor, melted millions of troops. That’s true.

But because of that, other nations will have to bear the full brunt of the aftermath. They will lose control of the seas and control of the islands and coastlines to a force that is less than a tenth of the force that attacked Datang. And they will come crawling back to the land again like a plague.

And there are still four more types of demons left in history.