Last Ruler Of The Empty Throne-Chapter 72: Old man

Jon wore his clothes after he stepped out of the bathroom, and before long, he was out of the building. This time, he didn’t try to sneak around. Even though it was so late at night, nobody questioned his movements.

Reaching the familiar garage that had been transformed into a blacksmith workshop, he reached out to open the door.

WHAAAM

As he opened the door, he noticed a big difference from the previous time he came. It was no exaggeration to say the place was ten times hotter. The heat was tingling his skin so much, it made him wonder what type of fire could be this hot.

But even with all that, he walked in with a slight smile, "Nice, it looks better."

Before he even took ten steps forward, a voice reached him.

"You’re here, leader." The old man, who now looked younger, bowed a little to Jon.

"Bahh, old man, you don’t have to." Jon was trying to dissuade him from greeting like that, but the old man insisted and said,

"No, thanks to you, my problems have been solved," he explained. "And honestly, the former leader was among the reasons I was like that, so when I—I saw—" he couldn’t continue his words.

What he saw Jon do that day was still something that haunted him till now, and he wasn’t even the one Jon’s wrath was directed at. He still shivered remembering that day.

"I see... You know, among the friends I had who died, one had a twin sister. And she almost got raped. If I wasn’t strong enough or had it not been for luck, she would have been—" He too couldn’t finish his words, and they trailed off. The old man could sympathize, so Jon didn’t have to finish.

"But everything is good now. Anyways, why is it so hot?" He pointed at the room, changing the topic.

"I kept the fire burning," the old man said with a light smile.

"Oh, I see. Well, let’s start." Jon nodded in understanding at the old man’s new mentality.

"But we have a problem."

"What?" Jon’s brow furrowed at what he was hearing.

"Yes, we don’t have any materials. The materials I have cannot affect the monsters now roaming around," the old man explained and pointed outside.

"Oh, that was it? Don’t worry." With light relief, he waved his hand, and the scales of the monsters he had been gathering for a while fell out of his watch.

And after about five minutes of pouring out, he nudged his head at the old man. "Will these be enough?"

"Huh?" The old man staggered back in shock. "W-Where did—no, how?" He couldn’t understand the phenomenon he was seeing. He even started overthinking about it. ’He also has mysterious items that can store items?’ It wasn’t strange that Jon was being misunderstood. Which leader didn’t have secrets?

"I didn’t know which ones were of good quality, so I just brought them all." He pointed at the corpses, especially emphasizing the beetles’ bodies.

"Hmm..." The old man snapped out of his surprise and began checking the corpses. "They certainly feel different from the normal ones." What he meant by normal things was obviously before the fall.

"They are enough and of good quality." The old man nodded in satisfaction and continued,

"Then let’s begin."

And thus began the ten-day-long period of learning.

...

As Jon had already said, Jenny and Cynthia were in charge, and their days without Jon were spent like this:

Day 1

In the morning, the new ideas that had been brought up were made effective.

The evolvers were grouped, with their leaders being the highest level among them. They were to go out of the camp to scout for survivors, food items, or bring information about potential threats or opportunities.

And since it was the first day of implementation, the two groups were mobilized. The first took on the task previously stated, and the second group moved together with the survivors who volunteered to be workers. All the unnecessarily large number of maids in the mansions were also recruited to help. Their task was to collect all the carcasses of the monsters they had killed during the two-day training.

Jenny created large containers to help them since she was in charge of the process.

All the policemen were mobilized with the equipment that was still functioning to thoroughly check the surroundings.

Cynthia’s and Jenny’s attitudes took a sharp turn from their usual. It was surprising that even Jenny could show a strict and serious self during these times. And Cynthia’s eyes literally turned cold in front of them, it was similar to when Jon first met her, reserved and strict with orders.

And with Laura and Alexa assisting, they were able to take rests at short intervals. Among all the people working, there was the camp manager, Nancy.

Her workforce had multiplied by five. They included survivors who volunteered or with knowledge in business, management, and accounting. However, it still seemed inefficient.

Before the evolvers left for the day, they had to record their possessions to avoid lying or theft when they returned with the cores and orbs. It was the best they could afford at the moment.

In their absence, they had to watch over the progress of the working survivors inside the camp. There was the dismantling of the monster carcasses, cutting them into pieces, separating the bones and scales. What made this fall easier was the usefulness of the monsters’ carcasses. The bones and scales were used to fortify the walls and were placed around the floor to slow down movement in the case of an invasion. They also had to take care of the supplies in the camp’s store, food, meat, clothing, and other necessities, and last but not least, they were the camp’s treasury. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Upon the return of the evolvers, rewards were given to those who fulfilled their quotas and to people who performed extraordinarily. Records of the areas covered were taken, noting changes the evolvers experienced while scouting.

They had to prepare an estimate of how long they could survive with what they had, including an estimate of the number of survivors they would be expecting, excluding additions to the supplies by the end of the day. It was the best way to expect disappointment and prepare for contingencies.

Nancy was so talented in managing that the far older people who also volunteered worked under her within the first hour of meeting. Nancy overworked herself to the point her ’Instant Calculation’ forcibly evolved, but it wasn’t ’Brilliant Mind’ like Jon’s.

It was called ’Problem Thinker and Solver.’ She could think and solve problems faster, and it helped her work more efficiently. And as expected, when they all came back in the evening, there was a lot to do.

As expected, the evolvers were able to find survivors and supplies during their scout. The survivors were either stuck in offices or at homes. Unfortunately, none were found outside or on the road. And as usual, zombies and monsters dropped orbs and cores.

To reduce more work, they brought along the monsters they could and left the rest for the survivors who would come for the cleanup.

Just in day one, the volunteers and the whole of the second group were able to clear the forest of carcasses, boosting their food reserves.

At the end of the day, the main point in the report Nancy made was:

"A food factory has been discovered."

Day 2

An interchange was made. The first group followed the workers to the factory to retrieve anything valuable. It turned out to be a factory that manufactured and packed foods, making almost everything valuable. After emptying the stores, the items were placed in the vehicles in the factory and brought back to the camp.

Then the second group went for the scouting this time. The second group was generally weaker than the first, so Jenny, Alexa, and Laura went with them.

In the camp, Cynthia introduced another job. They were called the recording team, and their job was to describe the different monsters they had fought and their characteristics. Since they couldn’t always be there, the squad leaders had to memorize them. Upon seeing new monsters, the records would be updated.

As for the survivors they had saved, they were fed and told the rules, with emphasis on rape and molestation.

After comforting them for a while, they were told to choose an occupation if they wanted to, and they readily agreed. Only people who had faced the raw terror of the apocalypse would refuse an opportunity like that.

There wasn’t much change in Nancy’s activities from Day 1.

So, in the meeting they had later that evening, Nancy’s main report was:

"We got about 5 tons of monster meat from yesterday. We successfully retrieved the factory, and the new survivors have settled down, but we lost 25 evolvers to possibly a first realm monster."

Their faces darkened. There had not been many deaths since the start of their plans. Though deaths were inevitable, experiencing them wasn’t palatable, and it wouldn’t be the last. But warnings like this could help them be more careful and avoid dangerous areas.

Since they had been scouting and exploring, a rough map was drawn by those who had skills related to it. Slowly and surely, they would understand this new world.

The leaders of the squads began visiting the makeshift library to read about the ’Application of Mana’ Jon had left for them.

Day 3

This time, not so many people went out of the camp, unlike the previous days. The scheduled group went for their scouting, and some from the non-scheduled group decided to go for their personal level-ups.

As for the workers in the camp, they began scaling off the monsters they had brought from the forest.

This time, Nancy did something different. She requested that the blood of the monsters be stored. Jon hadn’t told her anything about it, but she was smart enough to know it looked important. The blood didn’t smell like she knew; what else did she need?

During the evening of Day 3, Nancy said:

"We have successfully cleared the 5 km around our camp. We need to be careful as we go further; we don’t know what might happen or what hidden dangers exist."

As planned, they had cleared the monsters in the area where Jon had fought the beetles and spiders, so now they would need a strong person to lead the scout.

Day 4

Today was a bit different from the first three.

Upon deciding to push forward beyond the 5 km mark, and since they didn’t know what could happen, Alexa was dispatched as the leader of the team. Following her were the pair of talented archers. Nobody knew if they were together, but they surely liked each other’s company.

With them, Alexa led a group of thirty evolvers out of the marked area.

Alexa spread her senses and narrowed them to focus only on her front. Then her vision expanded beyond her limits. And at the edge of her senses, she felt something.

"Hmm...?" As she made that sound, the people behind her tensed and prepared for any emergency.

But what they didn’t know was that it wasn’t a monster she saw.

No—it was other people.

"What are they doing?" Alexa narrowed her eyes and moved to approach them.