Sounds of morning trumpets resounds across a base, in a near darkness. Trumpets in the morning are a classical signature for the start of a day, the morning at a base. This base is a text book military fortification for heavy defense that is normal on earth. Yet, this is a forward staging base surrounded by enormous wall of tress on all sides, on a scale impossible to replicate on earth.

This is the third day since Ryu arrived in this new world. The rays of sunshine or dawn have not cast upon the base with the wall of tree surrounding it, but like clockwork, gears of a trained military function.

Soldiers can already be seen changing rotations on guard duty and early reconnaissance teams departing. Heavy machinery and vehicles are starting their engines to begin rounds of work.

At central command, Ryu is in his apartment, already awake. He had already woken hours before the sounds of the trumpet. In a state of Zen, he stays in a mediation position in the garden of his apartment. Big beads of perspiration are on his forehead.

Ryu, had not truly had a good night. In the late hours, he had been plagued with several torturous nightmares. The experiences have not been kind to him. Flashes of split carcasses, raining blood, scattered gore, agonizing howls and screams. Ryu had been through a night of ghost haunts and grudging mares. Waking up every few minutes, he had only had a good hour of sleep before this series of nightmares started to plague him. Some had been worse enough for him to barf out his dinner and empty stomach.

Ryu’s face had a severely pale constitution. Opting to not sleep further, Ryu has tried to meditate and calm himself. To separate himself from the haunts.

One would wonder, were these the haunts of the dead soldiers. Surprisingly, they were not. In his meditation, Ryu has tried to recall his nightmares, as vividly as possible. His improved ability to concentrate, greatly aided by AI has helped identify the scape of each of his visions. He can only determine that they were not, because, each of the nightmares, had been different.

The first one was of a burning village in pitch darkness, with the screams and wails of slaughter. The second, had been the haunting figures of ghouls and undead within in a white shrine in a valley of dead forestry. The next, was the images of glowing eyes within a darkness. Incomprehensible speech and oppressive aura. Each of these had been several minutes long. The feeling as real as being present in the spot himself.

A dangerous sense of ill-foreboding welled within Ryu. Ryu could not determine if it was the trickery of the so called Gods. And skeptically, he also wondered if wandering spirits had come to him at night. Least of his considerations was a sense of foresight, a prediction of what is to come in future.

After spending three hours in meditation, with no conclusive decision on his nightmares. Ryu shelves his thoughts to contemplate on for later.

Today is the start of his third day in a new world. He still had many things that needed to be done to setup his foothold. He needed to venture out to know the world. Looking up into the dimly lit sky above the trees, Ryu recalled on the start of his ordeals. The actions sequences of, a god who killed him unremorsefully, lied deceitfully and made him a pawn of a game between gods that nearly killed him yet again, was deeply embedded into his psyche. An irreconcilable grudge. The lack of a sense of rest and safety spur him to act against his fate.

Walking back inside his apartment, Ryu looks at the wall clock. A quarter past seven in the morning. Breakfast was in fifteen. Ryu quickly prepares himself and makes his way to the command’s mess hall.

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Arriving at the door way to the hall, Ryu meets up with Tolle and Kuroz.

[Good Morning Commander] X2

[Morning to the both of you. Did you two rest like I asked?]

They greeted each other as they made their way inside the empty mess hall. Both Kuroz and Tolle affirmed their peak condition after a good night’s sleep as they quickly took trays of food and sat down to eat. Ryu observes the mess hall, that is the floor size of a gymnasium, as it is scantly occupied by soldiers. During meal times, the mess hall is normally always filled to capacity, however at present, other than Ryu’s company of three, there is only a handful of soldiers and the kitchen staff present. Noticing the floating question mark, Kuroz interjects to explain.

[Commander, the quietness of the mess is only because the soldiers are still setting up the equipment and fittings across base. The soldiers in the mess at present are half of the manned communique soldiers operating out of the command center.

I had issued directives last night to the majority of the command battalion that the setup was their highest immediate priority and that logistics teams for the present need to dispatch meal provisions to soldiers at fixed intervals. This will only last a day as all setups should be completed by the afternoon]

Kuroz summarized the actions to minimum as he explained to Ryu. On lingering his thought on it further, Ryu opted to finish his meal first. He asked both Tolle and Kuroz to bring summaries of the overnight progress and meet in his office after breakfast.

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The whole of breakfast took fifteen minutes, and almost half an hour later Tolle, Kuroz and their assistants all arrived at Ryu’s command office to go over the briefing.

The command room was decorated much like a war room and personal office combined. Ryu’s personal desk was arranged at the end of the room near the windows overlooking the south portion of the base. At the center of the room was a large table with a theater map of the base and its surrounding. This was a larger version of the maps drawn up by Ryu and circulated to the various forces. Removing from the center the right side of the room was decorated with bookshelves that were at present completely empty and on the left side, a lounge space with sofas and a small table was arranged.

Ryu, Tolle and Kuroz sat around the lounge space as the assistants stood behind the sofa respectively at the sides of Tolle and Kuroz.

Both of them summarized the progress of the base into four points.

Base defense, which had been completed before dawn. The outer fence and traps, as well as the defensive mounts and fittings on the outer walls were completed. The next portion was the interior of the base, for the segregation of area and final line of defense for the central compound.

Setup of division posts, other than the minimum summoned facilities by Ryu, facilities like armory, bunkers and garages are 50% complete. The speed of progress was due to the participation of troops from each division, increasing the number of hands on projects.

Progress of Utilities of base, such as the development of power plants, water and sewerage. The project was only quarter of the way completed. The delay is due to insufficient resources and support. A request was made for prioritizing the project. Currently, only central compound had power, water and sewerage in a separate network.

Reconnaissance report. It was mentioned that scouts had not encountered anything as of yet. It is marked that no creatures were heard or around base or scouting routes. This has been marked as a concern.

After the report Ryu took the documents presented. The discussion moved forward on to the next steps to taken.

[Kuroz, supplement for me, what is the requirement of the builders working on Utilities as well as immediate supplies for base]

[Yes Commander. As of right now, the builders require special equipment for the functioning of the plants as well as the pipes, furnaces and construction material. A list of the amounts is attached in the report]

As Kuroz mentions, Ryu rummages through the documents again to find the list.

[MASTER: Understood. Establishing calculations]

[Understood, Kuroz, mention to the builders later that supplies will be made available soon.

Moving on, Tolle, from the experience over the past three days, can you suppose any ideas for improvement?]

Ryu inquiries from Tolle, who turns from startled to a bit solemn from the question.

[Commander, quiet honestly, I do not think being a modern force is of much help within this forest. If this were out in the plans or mountains, we would have some advantages. Within the forest, the fast moving monsters and demons will have greater advantage against our modern troops]

[I see. You also noticed this. I have also thought on this earlier. The forest has become a form of obstacle as we cannot fight within it. The battle on the first night was exemplar proof of this. We cannot see nor target anything beyond the meadow’s edge. Simply because we cannot see behind the forestry and the fact that it can shield, friend and foe]

[Commander, I believe you mentioned about having preliminary knowledge about the world and its norms. Can you elaborate about it?]

[It is as you mention. Referring to it, I have learnt that the world has very many forms of combat and abilities. Not all is mentioned, but the primary roles as expected in a fantasy realm are swords, spears, archery, magic, sorcery, martial arts and tamers.

The professionals of these arts normally register into organizations such as Adventurer Guilds, Mercenary Guilds, Guilds, Shadow Guilds, Magi Circles, Magician Association, Royal Assemblies, Knighthoods, Nobel’s Court and so on so forth. These existed in nations of each of the races. From among them, the guilds operate beyond borders and beyond racial divides.

Additionally, there is mention of slave warriors, death sworn and gladiators among the combatants of this world. Strictly, the world is a mess of fantasy, magic and medieval. Our modern norms may not exist at all or exist in a twisted form by chance.

Based on this, I think we should look to retrain all of our forces to have additional skills and increased abilities]

[I agree. At-least, based off my personal experience fighting the demoness, we need to have additional combat skills other than our guns and weapons. In this forest, out heavy armor and the like are almost useless]

Tolle, spoke, contemplatively as he furrowed his brows, digesting the information from Ryu.

[Based on this, I want both of you to start taking immediate action to retrain the forces. Kuroz, I want you to request the Engineer regiments to build facilities like dojos, combat halls and obstacle courses. I want to introduced swordsmanship, archery, spear-man ship, martial, mixed martial arts and introduce various training.

Tolle, I want you to find suitable professionals form among our troops to lead these areas. We need to serious start embedding these skills into our combat. This is also necessary for us to integrate into the societies of this world. Our weapons are other worldly, and if known various powers may try to make use of us. I want us to not become pawns any further]

[Yes, Commander]

Both Kuroz and Tolle and give a resolute look at Ryu as they stand to salute and walk out of the command room.

As they left, Ryu, slumped back into the couch he was seated on. He was still pensive.

Ryu lifting his right arm over his face. It was the arm that was dislodge and almost lost after the encounter with the demon. Ryu only survived the battle because, the demons underestimated him. Because of the self-defense training he had undergone back at his family home on earth. Ryu as unskilled he was, we had built up some strength and endurance from the training. This and his berserk state of mind and AI’ assistance allowed Ryu to survive through his first ordeal.

[Fuu..]

A self-depreciative smile floated on Ryu’s face.

Thin up to here, Ryu gets off the couch as he places the documents on his desk and walks out of his office. With a sharp look of resolution and ambition, Ryu walks out of the command center, heading out to the construction site for the utilities.

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After several hours of outdoor inspections, Ryu return to the command center. Having finished summoning the requested items for the utilities and for the building of the training facilities, Ryu was exhausted from the use of his magic.

To further monitor the progress across the base he arrived at the communique center for an inspection. There are twelve soldiers manning the communique center as he enters. Three overseeing supervisors salute Ryu upon his arrival.

[How are things progressing? Anything to report?]

Ryu inquires as he returns the salute.

[Nothing as of now Commander. All is proceeding as on schedule. Following the lists of instructions from Lieutenant Colonel Kuroz, all of the projects are scheduled to complete within three days from today. Daily targets are being reached]

The most senior soldier reports to Ryu. The soldier is female, with carrot like orange-ish hair. Intrigued by her unusual hair, Ryu inquired and found out her name. Shaira Ashaheen was her name. She was of Persian descent, and her rank was that of a sergeant. She introduced her assistants Tarith and Lumens, two men who were also of Persona descent.

Ryu also inquired if the setup of the communique room was sufficient, as he observed the machinery and layout of the room.

Shaira, reported that further expansion of the communication center was needed. As more operations are expected, simultaneous communication with several groups, both inside and out would be necessary. She requested for a twice the increase in scale in anticipation for the future.

Ryu accepts are requests, mentioning that changes to layout and arrangements can be seen to after current projects were over.

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Finishing his inspection, he returns to his office. There he runs into both Kuroz and Tolle, who were waiting for his return.

The three of them, sit down to go over the revisions of the plans.

Ryu makes it clear that he targets the expedition to Ishbaala after two weeks. He highlights the need for better understanding the world so that they can better prepare and cope. Ryu also requests Tolle to schedule training for himself, in swordsmanship and for strength and endurance training to further develop himself. Ryu mentions the need for having skills to register as an adventurer in the guild in Ishbaala.

Ryu shares his idea of limiting modern weapons and carrying rudimentary weapons and armor with them on horseback. Stressing ever more, the need to be unassuming and ordinary, Ryu asks Tolle to create three groups to go with them on the expedition. One will focus on mercantile and research, whereas the other two focus on combat and exploration.

Tolle, proposes inclusion of weight training into the training plans. This is as Ryu, mentioned the use of rudimentary armor.

Kuroz also proposes the creation of a platoon of blacksmiths to handle the refining and repairs of armor and weapons that will be distributed to the soldiers. Ryu, mentions that weapons had already been arranged for in a stores in central compound. Ryu had summoned thousands of weapons of each type earlier today in preparation for distribution. He left it to Kuroz to distribute and records the distribution of weapons.

The three of them, finish the meeting after little more than two hours discussing the detailed plans for the next several weeks. Ending the meeting they went their spate ways, calling it a night.

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Starting the following day, the base which had stabilized its deployment, began the retraining of troops for the use of rudimentary weapons and armor.

Many of the soldiers were perplexed by the arrangements, however Tolle quickly asserted and explained the reasons for the retraining. Having already selected appropriate trainers, the trainings were scheduled to encompass sixteen hours in a day.

Ryu also had a ranch for horseback riding summoned. Primarily planned for himself, it was found that many of the soldiers need to be trained to ride horses and it was quickly expanded. Ryu also quickly summoned thousands of horses for use by soldiers. The horses were counted as his support, as no trained cavalry was summoned this time.

Several days went by as everyone on base trained their skills and strengths. During the course of training, several solders got injured, whereas others developed unique skills. Under heavy competition, the days passed on, until the morning of the eighteenth days came.

On this day, Ryu with Tolle and his group of twenty-two and two more platoons of twenty-five each, departed from the base on horseback towards the Ishbaala Kingdom. The journey was to take at least four days to arrive at the border outpost, and a further five days to arrive at the town marked on the maps assembled. The map is made from the cumulative knowledge Ryu had gained from the demons, guide and reconnaissance.

For this journey, they set out with wagons for supplies and monster parts for trading. The target of the journey is to make contact and slowly establish themselves in this new world. With expectations and fervor, the groups depart out of base at the crack of dawn to make best use of time and leading the group, Ryu had a smile and sparkling eyes as he departed on his first journey, in this fantasy world, to an elven country.