8 - Churchill Crocodile

"There is… A house in New Orleans, they call the rising sun and it's been the ruin of many a poor boy and God I know I am one…"

Merlin sang a song as the Puma drove into the basecamp, even though it was quiet Jane managed to hear the lyrics clearly, her concentration broke and she looked over at the Puma that had just arrived and felt a pang of loneliness once she saw Merlin's distance gaze

'That's right, he's a wanderer… Alone in a new world'

She quickly stabbed the sword into the ground and reached her hand out towards Merlin before she lowered it again, she wanted to pity him for a moment, the next she felt terrible

'Merlin doesn't need pity right now… He needs help… I must get back in shape so I can help him…'

Merlin walked over and saw the troubled look on Jane's face and asked

"What's wrong?"

Jane erased her worried look and quickly changed the subject

"Nothing, how was today's hunt?"

"...Good, and I completed a quest too"

Jane didn't know what he referred to by a quest, still, she smiled and congratulated him

"Well done… Merlin, I was thinking…"

"What?"

"Do you want to join me in my training?"

Merlin thought for a moment and just as he was about to dismiss her idea he felt a chill down his spine

'That's right… I've been relying too much on the tanks… I need to be able to survive in this world without them too…'

Merlin remembered his grandfather's words 'When one asks for help one has to be humble and straightforward' and bowed deeply before he spoke

"If you would train me I would be very grateful"

Jane was a little flustered by his show of sincerity and quickly spoke

"N-No it's me that's grateful if you haven't saved me from that Centaur village I would have died a painful death, giving you some pointers is the least I could do"

Merlin straightened his back and nodded with a smile as he asked

"When do we start?"

Jane also showed a smile

"Tomorrow morning so rest well tonight"

"Got it"

The next morning arrived and Merlin stretched as he exited the Puma he had spent the night inside before he gave a salute to the android whose seat he had been sleeping in, the android that stood outside the tank didn't return the salute it simple returned its seat inside the tank in an orderly fashion, Merlin sighed before he looked over at the other Puma where Jane evidently was still sleeping as the android still stood outside the tank and waited for her to emerge, he sighed before he decided to do some basic stretches before she woke up, he sat down on the cold grass, as the sun had yet to burn off the morning dew his pants get a little wet, Merlin didn't mind it though and stretched his legs in front of him before he leaned forwards and grabbed his feet with his hands and silently counted

'1...3...5...7….9...12, there…'

Just as Merlin finished stretching his body did Jane emerge from the inside of the tank she had been sleeping inside, Merlin greeted her as she attempted to straighten out her long red hair

"Good morning Jane"

Jane moved some hair away from her face as she showed a smile and greeted him back

"Good morning… I can sense that you are ready to train, so let's get started…"

The two of them started on basic stamina training by jogging around the perimeter of the camp a few tens of times before Jane taught Merlin how to hold a blade and the basics of wielding such a weapon, after that Merlin did some practice swings with the sword Jane had looted from the Centaur village, then Jane nodded and spoke

"That's all for today, though we're going to be doing the same thing tomorrow morning"

Merlin nodded as he spoke

"That's good to hear, well then I'll go hunting now… I'll see you later tonight, oh here's some MRE's for the day"

"Thanks, Merlin… Have a safe trip"

Merlin nodded and climbed onto a Puma that quickly drove off along with a rather big convoy consisting of the other Puma's

[Ding! The second quest for the incomplete crocodile blueprint started!

Raid the forest goblin village

Time limit: 10:00:00]

The second quest brought Merlin up north along the edge of the forest where he found something troubling, the quest objective was inside the forest, about 100 meters in

"Well… I am going to need Berta for this one…"

Merlin metally called the Tiger 1 from the camp and while it was in route he set up positions for when the goblins would come running out of the forest, about half an hour later Berta arrived, and so Merlin started the operation at once, Betra's 88mm gun pointed into the woods with an armor-piercing shell loaded, after firing about 20 shells there was movement from inside the forest and sure enough a group of goblins charged out into the open field and was promptly moved down by the Puma's machine guns, then came another wave, and another, this continued for about half an hour before the pop-up emerged

[Ding! Quest complete, craft crocodile blueprint now?]

"Yes!"

[Ding! Crocodile blueprint complete]

"So, how do I use it?"

[Ding! Using blueprints requires points, each blueprint can be used on a summoned tank and will convert it to a specialized type of tank, view crocodile blueprint now?]

"Yes!"

[Crocodile blueprint: Allows conversion of M4 Shermans and Churchill MK. VII tanks to their crocodile variants

Use cost: 50 points

Cooldown: 20 seconds]

"Nice… Time to burn some lumber, system, how many points do I have?"

[Ding! User has 528 points available]

"If I remember correctly an M4 Sherman is 297 points, how much is a Churchill MK. VII tank?"

[Ding! 260 points]

"Hmm… Anyway, I need to collect the cores here first…"

Merlin quickly got to work collecting the magic beast cores that were still inside the forest goblin carcasses, as he worked with the bayonet his tank commander jacket once again absorbed some 'coldness' from the carcasses…

Merlin returned to the camp in the evening, he went directly to the spring and washed his hands clean of blood before he asked the system again

"How many points do I have?"

[Ding! User has 617 points available]

"Good…"

Merlin walked out to the edge of the camp and spoke

"Purchase a Churchill MK. VII"

[Ding! 260 points consumed, 357 remaining]

In front of Merlin, a tank materialized. It was a whopping 7 and a half meters long and 3.25 meters wide, and 2 and a half meters tall, this was the infantry support tank Churchill MK. VII, the first thing one would notice was that this tank had long tracks that extended past the chassis, the tracks were also rather high with over half of the 2 and a half meter height being the tracks, this was due to the fact that this tank was designed to fight in conditions like that of world war 1 with the long tracks having been designed to be able to pass across shooting trenches, the tank also had a rather hurried design phase as it was rushed to be built to prepare for a possible German invasion during the 2nd world war, it was only after several versions that the Churchill became the metal beast that Merlin heard from his grandfather when he was younger

"What… Is that?"

Merlin looked over his shoulder and saw Jane that looked at the new tank with slight fear, he showed a smile before he spoke

"That is our ticket to civilization, well it will be in a second… Apply the Crocodile blueprint to the Churchill MK. VII"

[Ding! Applying blueprint… Complete]

The Churchill changed a little with the blueprint being implemented, the most notable change was the trailer behind the tank that was filled to the brink with flamer fuel, the front hull-mounted machine gun was also changed, it had been replaced with a flamethrower

"And how is that going to get us to the other side of the forest of death?"

"By removing the forest"

Jane looked confused, Merlin sighed and climbed up onto the Churchill Crocodile and held out his hand to Jane that took it and climbed up on it before the two of them sat down on top of the turret, then Merlin commanded Churchill Crocodile to move a few hundred meters north where it pointed the front end of the chassis towards the forest… And then Merlin spoke

"Only you can prevent forest fires"

"What?"

"Fire the flamethrower!"

With a roar, the flamethrower began spewing a long line of fire towards the forest instantly setting it alight, Merlin laughed like a villain while Jane looked on with slight horror on her face as the forest burned

"See it's easy, we, um, remove the forest"