Chapter 710: Elimination and Innovation
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
In retrospect of what happened in the morning, Roland still felt incredulous.
How could an ordinary time traveler suddenly become the Chosen One? Should he recite some poems now to express his surprise?
When he woke up in the early morning and Agatha reported the observation to him, he thought there was something wrong with his ears. Since the witches all confirmed this, he decided to agree with them for the time being. Meanwhile, he knew the Taquila survivor would certainly not expect this result, so he invited her to visit him during his afternoon nap, as a way to strengthen the trust and credibility between them.
He probably grew calmer since he became a king, or he was simply lazy… anyway, after lying on the bench in the office and reading a few pages of Advanced Mathematics, he fell asleep easily. When he was awakened, the first scene he saw was Nightingale pulling out her pistol and Phyllis falling down unconscious.
However, Roland did not believe that the so-called “Chosen One” was really chosen by the deities. It was just because the Taquila survivors had devoted too much hope to what they had found so that they regarded the witch who could activate it as their savior.
Undoubtedly, what they found in the ruins must be extraordinary, for it made the Three Chiefs of the Union oppose each other in times of the tremendous disaster. However, he doubted whether it possessed power comparable to the deities and could destroy the demons in one fell swoop. After all, if it was really as powerful as the creation of the deities, how could its creator quietly disappear in the underground maze?
Of course, he had to communicate further with the survivors for more details.
And the fact that his dream could be observed indirectly proved his assumption. The Dream World was indeed not entirely created by his consciousness. Its profuse details were far beyond the capacity of his brain. Someone else created the world based on the abundant material he provided.
He had assumed that the witches were the terminals of magic power transforming. Now it seemed that there was a barrier between the terminal and the magic power. This barrier caused the amazing changes of the magic power. It was like a mysterious black box which carried out the orders of the witches. In other words, the realization of the witches’ ability was similar to his Dream World. The only difference was that he did not have the magic power to visualize it.
It reminded Roland of the relationship between the wizards and the Magic Net. The wizards could connect with the Magic Net through gestures, incantation, and reagents so as to acquire the power they needed. Comparing the barrier with the Magic Net, he could see lots of similarities between them.
After he defeated Zero, he unexpectedly gained access to the barrier, but nothing more. The complexity of the orders was probably determined by the difficulty of visualization, rather than the strength and usage of the ability. On the contrary, the closer the abilities were to the essence of the magic power, the easier its transformation would be. For example, the direct conversion of the magic power into light and heat was certainly much easier than creating things, but its power was absolutely earth-shaking.
This was also one of the major reasons why Roland was full of interest of the ruins. The beams of light presented by the Five-Colors Stone was a special means to “send orders” in his opinion. An artificial thing was used to replace the witches and forge orders… the study of the magic power reached a level beyond that of the Union. Besides the divine titles such as “the Chosen One” and the instrument of Divine retribution, it might mean the seeds of new technology.
This alone was enough to prompt him to communicate with the Taquila witches.
Considering the fact that “the Chosen One is actually a common person” might give a heavy blow to their confidence in the fight against the demons, Roland decided to invite Phyllis to visit the forces of the new era before going into further negotiations .
In order to achieve a better “persuasive” effect, he summoned Iron Axe to his office.
“How is the situation of the demonic beasts recently?”
“Your Majesty, there are just scattered demonic beasts. They can be easily solved by the patrol team on the city walls.” The man of Sand Nation replied after a standard military salute.
“Well, I intend to stage a cannon exercise in the city wall area soon. It needs to be impressive, yet also minimize waste.”
The commander-in-chief of the First Army pondered for a while and asked, “Are you saying… a false one?”
Roland could not help laughing. It seemed that Iron Axe had more and more knowledge of the gunpowder now. He said, “To be more accurate, it needed to be half true and half false. When you display accurate shooting, use real bullets; when displaying fire coverage, use embedded black powder. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Iron Axe nodded immediately.
Empty ammunition was commonly used in exercises, for it was not necessary to waste the precious howitzers just to impress the audience. The embedded explosives ignited by electric wires could also create a shocking effect or even a better one.
Roland briefly outlined the idea in his mind. “I hope the final explosion is dramatic enough. For that you can prepare more black gunpowder.”
“Your Majesty, this may affect the operation of the artillery battalion…”
Roland shook his head and said, “It doesn’t matter. In fact, I intend to phase out the black powder weapons, such as the 12-pound field artillery, which is no longer suitable for the fight in the future.”
Its heavy barrel, slow launch speed, and small power of the solid balls had restricted its further usage. The battle under Coldwind Ridge fully demonstrated the limited lethality of the field artillery, especially in the face of dispersed-attacking and quick-moving enemies. Most of the soldiers of God’s Punishment Army were killed by machine guns and Longsong Cannons, while only about 100 unlucky ones were smashed by the iron solid balls.
In addition, it was so difficult to transport the cannons that they could not be used to coordinate with the infantry attack or urban warfare, which further restrained its usage. The revolving rifles could still be used for a while. After all, the gunpowder consumption of the bullets was much smaller; even if they used half of all the bullets, it would not have much effect on the total stock of the gunpowder.
With the help of the Dream World, Roland’s new chemical reform plan was already in preparation. The steady increase in the production of double base gunpowder had enabled him to eliminate the black powder weapons.
Iron Axe’s eyes brightened and he said, “Have you designed a new alternative weapon?”
Roland smiled and took a piece of paper out of the drawer and spread it on the desk. He explained, “It’s a type of rigging-angle cannon which can shoot at short distance or long distance. It can be disassembled to be carried by several people, and has excellent power. It’s also easy to manufacture and operate. What do you think of it?”
Iron Axe bent down to carefully read the drawing for a while before he said, ‘Er… I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I can only figure out its appearance… it looks like an iron pipe, but can it really launch shells with such a thin wall?”
“Of course, the key is the specific shell. However, it’s still much easier to manufacture than a 152mm howitzer.”
“Does the new weapon have a name?”
“You can call it a mortar,” Roland replied.
