After the fight with the necromancer and her undead underlings was concluded, Mormon eventually rejoiced with the trio later on with the carriage and the Zar-Bros as they rested and recuperated for a while on the new clearing that Xin made with her overcharged light spell before they continued to travel on the road in the night through the jungle once again.
The fight with the old necromancer today was quite enlightening to Xin, as she has to think up new strategies and tactics to fight with her fellow magicians in the future since she has learned from the duel with the old witch that even if she has more mana and powerful spells, that doesn't mean she can just dominate the entire fight by only spamming spells at her opponent.
Fortunately, she has someone who is not only very experienced but also knowledgeable and very eager to teach her about how to fight with the other magician with magic.
"Well, there's nothing complicated but also complex at the same time about magic duels." Mormon said slowly to Xin with a relaxing expression while she was receiving a head massage from the Pro-Maid, whose lap she was placing her chin on in the seat of the carriage.
"From my experience of fighting with other magicians, everything just narrowed down to resource management, basically: what you have and what your opponent has, what you can use to exhaust your opponent's resources first, and what you are willing to lose to achieve that result..." The goblin girl sighed contently from the massage while she was explaining as Xin hummed and nodded her head along next to the goblin girl and the Pro-Maid.
"You already have a huge advantage over most magicians with how much your mana capacity is, so what you need is just some spells to force your opponent to be immobile or cost them a lot of their resources with your spells until they are left with nothing!" Mormon said with a smirk as she propped her chin up and looked at the half-elf with a wise elderly gaze in her big blue eyes.
"I see, what you're saying is quite generalized and simple, but I do indeed understand what you are trying to say, Mormon." Xin smiles slightly at the displeased and pouty look the goblin girl gives her after she hears what Xin just said. The half-elf just made her sound like an obvious fool who says obvious things, even though the goblin girl just shares her century of wisdom.
"Hehe, don't be mad; your battle philosophy is intriguing, but what I seek is tactical knowledge and strategy for various situations and opponents that you had utilized before in your pre-soul transfer era. I need the proven methods in dealing with other magicians as reference after all." Xin hid her smile with her hand while explaining exactly what she wants to learn as Mormon huffed and complained about an impatient youngster and what not under her breath.
"Ehh, fine, first just try to bind your opponent with sand or dust with some kind of wind magic..." Mormon then begins to teach Xin about the tactic and strategy that she had used before she became a goblin, but the more Xin hears, the more she feels amazed at how dirty and vicious this ancient magician was.
'So scummy...' Xin thought with a deadpan expression after hearing how the goblin girl once used her opponent's pet cat as a living shield or how she harassed her opponent with super itchy and stinky bombs in a guerrilla warfare that drove her opponents to off themselves.
At the same time on the other side of the seat, Zarba is talking with Nadia, who is maintaining her greatsword as she sharpens the blade with a whetstone on the floor, while around her are the pieces of her armor that she already cleaned and placed neatly on the floor on top of a blanket. She could have left them to the Pro-Maids, but she wants to do it herself to kill time today.
"Well, I hope you will be more receptive towards proper armor from now on after it literally saved your skin from acid." Zarba smiles as he looks at the muscular woman in front of him, like he's trying to coax a stubborn child.
"Hmph, fine, I'll wear them even if it's stuffy!" Nadia purses her lips as she glances at Zarba's face before she rolls her eyes.
"Hahaha, I'll buy you custom-made armor as soon as I can then." Zarba laughs, as he can imagine how stuffy her large breasts were pressed inside the armor.
Zarba then leaned back on the soft backrest as he scratched the stubble on his chin. He feels like the fight is starting to get bigger and bigger the more he encounters his enemies.
'What next, a coalition of mercenaries and assassins?' He thought sarcastically while not noticing that he himself was just raising a flag like a true protagonist.
'And the SSS also doesn't give me any quest this time either...' Zarba feels it's odd that the system didn't give him a quest for this fight even though the enemies are more difficult than the rest that they had faced so far.
And like it's waiting for him to question it, the SSS' notification pop-up suddenly appears in the upper corner of his vision.
"Hmm?" Zarba got intrigued and opened the notification to see what it was about.
÷×÷×÷
[ System Alert! ]
—The system has been upgraded to the 1.1 version!
—Commander Unit function unlocked!
—2 assignable slots for commander unit available!
—Unit Reloading function unlocked!
—100 units of reloading available every 1 minute!
÷×÷×÷
'Oh, a system upgrade...!' Zarba was genuinely surprised, as he never thought that his system could do this. While he is seeking more details from the system, he learns that the SSS has gained two more functions after the upgrade, and he wants to know what they can do exactly.
First, the Commander Unit function—it's a special role that he could assign to any summoned unit as a very noticeable text "Commander" with an arrowhead pointing down at the assigned unit's head that only the system user can see will appear above the said unit that the user made a commander.
As a commander unit, the assigned unit will gain some sentient and intelligent boosts, not that much mind you, making them able to act independently but only limited to leading the other summoned units in a battle or a task that was assigned by the system user that requires coordination with the other summoned units, helping reduce the user's difficulty in micromanaging all of the summons.
And the user can also link their mind with the commander unit to share their vision and hearing no matter the distance, but how effectively the commander unit can lead the other units is directly linked to their intelligence attribute and leadership skill.
'This is exactly what I needed.' Zarba smirked, as with the existence of the commander units, he now could effectively lead a large army of his summons without having to depend on Xin's clairvoyance spell to see his entire army and delay in commanding them.
Next is the Unit Reloading function; it's the ability to replenish all of the summoned unit's equipment and ammunition instantly no matter the distance. It could potentially help the system user out significantly when they have to defend their position or in siege warfare.
With this reloading function, the summons with ranged weapons could last longer without the system user having to dismiss them and replace them with a new unit every time they ran out of ammunition.
'Good rewards indeed...' Zarba feels satisfied that even if the system didn't give him a quest for the new unit template, he is still becoming stronger as a summoner with the commander unit and the unit reloading, which would have been very helpful in the future battle.
"I'm now only lacking a true cavalry unit, a hero unit, and some kind of siege weapon, huh?" Zarba mused as he imagined his summoned army with all kinds of soldiers available to counter whatever the enemy army could throw at him.
'Heh, maybe the system will give me a flying unit in the future...' Zarba thought wishfully, as the flying unit would eliminate all of his trouble traveling around the world in one go...
÷×÷×÷
Time passes quickly, and two days later, after traveling on the carriage without stopping, Zarba and his group finally leave the yellowish flora of the Great Zasa jungle behind them without encountering any hostility and enter a great plain as their carriage moves along the road with a battalion of Zar-Bros on the illusion-enchanted skeleton horses escorting them as usual.
The morning weather was nice, and the air carried the scent of wildflowers as Xin looked out of the carriage window, her droopy amber eyes idly scanning the vast expanse of grasslands seemingly stretching endlessly under the pale blue sky with a wine glass in her hand, while Mormon snoozed peacefully with an empty wine bottle in her arms on the seat between Xin and the resting Zarba, who was crossing his arms as he dozed off.
Nadia, meanwhile, rode atop one of the skeleton horses outside alongside the Zar-Bros, her purple eyes keeping on the road that led to the horizon ahead.
"Hey, there's a group of people on the road ahead!" Suddenly Nadia spotted the people on the road in the distance before she alerted the people in the carriage with a loud voice.
"What now..." With Nadia's notification, Xin and Zarba awoke from their relaxed state as they looked out of the windows and narrowed their eyes at the dusty road in the distance, where one of the wagons was parked on the side of the road while leaning heavily to one side; its right rear wheel seemed to have broken.
Beside the wagon, a woman in a golden embroidered grape-colored silk shirt and turban was pacing around the wreckage like an agitated duck, waving her arms and yelling at the two mercenaries who were attempting—and failing—to lever the wagon up with their hands.
"They seem to be just travelers or a merchant..." Zarba mumbled as he could see that one of the wagons was filled with barrels and various goods.
"Come on, you guys can do it! Use your back! Hey, don't give up!" When their group got closer to the people attempting to fix their broken wagon, they could hear the voice of the woman who is probably the merchant still yelling at the two mercenaries whose faces tell them that they are about to give up any second now.
When the merchant group noticed the incoming Zarba's group coming towards them, they instantly became alert as they saw a heavy escort that accompanied a luxury carriage.
"Get back!" The two mercenaries immediately stop lifting the wagon and push the woman back towards another undamaged wagon while they watch Zarba's group approaching with a visibly tense demeanor.
As the luxury carriage stopped beside the wagons with Zarba looking at them through the window, he couldn't help but say "that phrase" to them.
"You can't park there, guys!" He said with a strangely infuriating smile.
"Fuck off!" The woman also couldn't help but respond back to him by reflex...