"I agree with Sir Axel's decision. We should set off to rescue them before dawn instead of now, when the sun's about to set."
After Axel confided in the girls, Arianne replied in affirmation.
"Setting off now would only risk not just them, but even our lives. It wouldn't be much of a rescue if the rescuers suffered casualties instead."
"That's true..."
Axel, seeing that the other four were nodding in assent, finalized his decision. "Then, let's proceed as planned. Tomorrow, before the sun rises, Arianne and I will save them."
Of course, this decision was something that Axel himself proposed mid-reporting earlier. After all, his fighting skills couldn't really be called great. If the refugees ended up as something like fugitives, then he'd only have a small chance of coming out victorious in an exchange.
Although this put the other four at risk, with the crossbow and the barricades protecting them, they should be able to handle minor dangers.
"Please leave the camp to us, Sir Axel.""We'll definitely protect Lady Eve and the camp!""I-I'll do my best...!"
Of course, they understood the dangers themselves. But more than simply keeping their lives, they were still concerned for others' lives.
'They truly are people who are worthy of standing above others,' Axel thought, smiling thinly.
A creed of helping others as long as they could. Something praiseworthy... but dangerous at the same time. After all, spreading their resources thin just to cater to more survivors is the thinking of someone who has no sense of self-preservation.
Still, Axel would go with it.
It's not because he was a good Samaritan who wanted to help others, or a pushover, but simply because of his quest—the reward in particular.
"Then, with that decided, I'll go and fix the walls for a bit."
With their talks over, it was time for Axel to continue his work. Since the materials from Witcheria hadn't arrived just yet, he had some time to waste. Thus, his idea of "wasting" time was... making a bigger wall around the camp!
Currently, their camp is roughly 34 meters in diameter.
It wasn't small, but not too big either.
However, knowing that ten more people would join them soon, it was far from enough—unless they all wanted to sleep cuddled together. Thus, not only upgrading the walls, Axel decided to expand their area quite a bit at the same time!
He carefully measured his steps and stopped about 50 paces from the campfire. After reaching the 50th step, he then set a stake at that point below his feet.
Then, he turned ninety degrees to the right and walked another 50 paces, marking it again. He did this a few more times until he marked a square, each side being two sections measured exactly 50 paces each—roughly 80 meters long.
"Good. This should be enough for marking." He nodded to himself, satisfied.
After that, he began to place his hand forward and carefully manipulated his inventory using his mind. A moment later, a large stone block appeared before him, shedding a dark shadow over him.
It was the "Stone Wall" piece that he crafted while talking with the girls!
Although he did read its description, he was quite surprised at how big it ended up being. The wall was roughly 2 meters long and 3 meters tall, about 2.5 meters thick at the bottom and narrower at 1.5 meters at the top.
The shape was made with balance in mind, with the flat side facing outward and the "sloped" side facing inward, making it hard for the wall to topple over. Well, a piece of wall weighing 30 tons would definitely be hard to push back anyway.
Just placing it on the ground made it sink a few inches deep from its weight alone, adding to the wall's stability.
But Axel wasn't done with just one.
He continued moving, placing one wall piece after another until he fully completed the square wall structure. All of these 160 wall pieces—weighing 4,800 tons in all—made him spend a total of 1 million Colts. It was quite a large expense, but a worthwhile one considering it's for their security.
"Next is..."
After he finished setting the walls, he then began placing ladders strategically.
On each wall face, three wooden ladders were set at even intervals. This way, everyone could go up or down anytime they needed to.
Finally, to complete the quest, he set up the ballista on top of the wall. He installed one of them on each corner, allowing up to four "bowmen" to clean up zombies—or even Giant Zombies—effectively.
Of course, he didn't forget to leave a large pile of 1,000 wooden bolts right below each corner, allowing faster reload times and easier access to ammunition.
"A-Amazing...""The camp turned into a fortress in no time!""With this level of defenses, even a few Giant Zombies together would find it hard to invade, for sure."
The girls, who watched Axel do his "magic," were all left nearly speechless by the sight of it. But if they had one complaint, it would be...
"This thing is missing gates... how do we get in or out of the camp?" Eve mentioned as she tilted her head cutely.
Axel, hearing her innocent question, smiled and answered. "Well, we can just put a wooden ladder on the other side during the morning so that we can climb up or down when needed," he explained.
"The extra ladder is leaning against the battlement, so it's accessible for those inside and on top of the wall, but inaccessible to those outside below the wall."
"I see..."
Of course, this wasn't initially what he intended.
He actually wanted to add a gate with a portcullis. However, he noticed that the portcullis alone cost a total of 5 million Colts. He was in the mood to spend, but that much expense was way beyond his tolerance!
Thus, this was what he thought of as an alternative—and, adversely, made it so that their encampment would be hard to invade even for smarter enemies... other humans, for example.
Though since it was just 3 meters tall, they could still reach the edge of the crenel if they stood on another's shoulders.
'Well, not like we'd be having human invaders anyway.' Axel shrugged.
Anyway, after setting up the walls, Axel taught the girls how to use the ballista.
Since it was the same in structure as the crossbow, it didn't take them long to adapt what they already learned from Arianne. The only difference was the size of the bolts. If the crossbows had a foot-long bolt, the ballista had a meter-long one—three times longer and heavier!
Of course, there's the problem of loading the string again.
Given its length of over two meters, its string draw strength was about 1,100 pounds (500 kg)—something that normal women wouldn't be able to pull, no matter how hard they tried.
But the version of ballista Axel bought was one equipped with a crank-powered loader—different from the lever loader of the crossbow. A circular ratchet disk with an eccentric rotating handle on one side allowed even one with low strength to set the bow efficiently, slowly but surely.
In short, this ballista could be used even when you're alone!
Perfect for defensive battles!