When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#356 - Fireball Crossbow and Pre-Battle Preparation

July 5th, Jiuliu City was still fighting arduously.

Jinhe Township, in the bay twelve miles northeast of Black Mountain, dozens of cargo ships and merchant ships were lined up to dock at this narrow temporary pier.

The elders riding small wooden rafts darted between the tall sailing ships, their faces red as they cursed out various obscenities, directing the cargo ships to give way or hurry forward.

In the shallows beside the lake bay, several small wooden rafts salvaged boxes floating in the water, with two merchant ships colliding and tilting beside them.

On the hills west of the bay, nearly a hundred soaking wet Guards cultivator gathered around a bonfire, drying their sweat- and fish-smelling clothes, shoes, and socks.

The stench accompanying the humid hot wind made every Guardian Army soldier transporting supplies on the pier couldn't help but cover their noses with handkerchiefs.

Even Horne couldn't help but pinch his nose.

This place was originally a smuggling dock for the Secret Society, disguised as a small fishing village.

Standing beside the cellar, Horne clearly saw the Guardian Army soldiers carrying boxes of forbidden alchemical potions and materials out and openly hawking them by the pier.

Anyway, as long as you find the Holy Father Society to spend money to buy a Holy Son certified stamp, it is not a contraband, because it has been blessed by the Holy Son.

For these alchemical items, merchants vividly named them baptismal products.

As for who the original owner of these contraband items was, Horne couldn't care less, if you ask, then they were confiscated.

"Your Majesty, the Third Guards Regiment has also disembarked." Todd, the commander of the Third Guards Regiment, approached and gave Horne a helmet-raising salute.

"Good, your regiment will follow the Black Hat Fifth Regiment Commander Brühne's guidance and go to the designated camp area to garrison." Horne turned his head and beckoned to Brühne, who was standing woodenly to the side, "Big guy, take him there."

In the previous Battle of Montcrus, due to the commander Momri's poor command, he has been demoted to deputy commander, and the commander is now Brühne, who is trusted by the Holy See.

"After your regiment is fully in place, the deputy commander will be responsible for garrisoning, and the formal commander will go directly to the central army camp for a meeting."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After confirming that the camp arrangements were correct, Horne finally had the opportunity to rest, but he remembered Molmon's previous request.

Taking out a list from his arms, and asking people to extract items according to the list from the pier's "baptismal products", Horne rode his horse towards the wizards' camp.

From the bay to the camp was only four or five hundred meters, and Horne arrived in just over three minutes.

As soon as he dismounted and picked up the box filled with alchemical materials, he saw Molmon, who was repairing the fireball crossbow, put down his hammer and jogged over.

Standing half a meter away from Horne, Molmon's eyes were unusually enthusiastic.

Horne was unnerved by his fiery gaze: "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing, nothing." Saying that, Molmon didn't intend to take back his fiery gaze at all.

It wasn't that he had any thoughts about Horne, but he had never seen such a rare male witch, so he naturally wanted to take a closer look.

After observing these past few days, Molmon gradually understood everything about the Salvation Army.

What Holy Father Society, what Messianic heresy natural magic, isn't this just a wizard legion with a shell on it?

The so-called Saint Favored Ones' statement makes some sense to ordinary people who don't understand the magic system.

But for Molmon and others who are familiar with the supernatural, it's just nonsense.

This witch disease, this mana, this alchemy, Molmon can identify it as pure wizardry at a glance.

But as he got closer to the Saint Favored Ones and the clockwork guns, he became a little suspicious.

The witch disease has almost no distortion or fatal symptoms, has a huge amount of mana but no spells, and there are a frightening number of them.

He still remembered the Secret Society's Heavenly Maiden City assembly ten years ago, according to the rules, each Secret Society counted the number of wizards.

The results showed that the most densely populated Black Snake Bay, the total number of Secret Society wizards was only a little over ten thousand.

Even with those outside the Secret Society system, it is estimated that there are less than fifteen thousand people.

But there are nearly two thousand "wizards" in this camp!

The most terrifying thing is that there are thousands of wizards in Jeanne d'Arc and Autumn Dusk Island.

A mere Langsand County has produced a wizard legion close to one-fifth of the total number of wizards in Black Snake Bay.

And this number is still rising, he saw with his own eyes that the Guards Regiment added thirty more the day before yesterday.

It's only been half a year.

What the Joan Party failed to do, this male witch has done.

If the descendants of these wizards can inherit this huge mana, even if it is only halved, ten years will be enough to double the number of wizards.

Molmon finally understood why the Joan Party and the White Mountain Hermitage wanted to cover up Horne's true situation in every possible way, and even sent the great wizard Pasrik to protect him closely.

If the Red Copper Fortress hadn't been blocked, he would have wanted to carry Horne to Black Snake Bay and protect him to the death.

Horne originally wanted to hand the box filled with alchemical materials to Molmon himself, but remembering Molmon's gaze just now, he instructed the guards beside him to hand it over.

"What are you going to do with these things?"

"We have some inherited gadgets." Squatting down, Molmon opened the box and rummaged through the alchemical materials, "It just so happens that we can make a few alchemical props to strengthen the fireball technique."

"Oh, is that so." Horne said without emotion.

Ever since he discovered that the fireball technique was not as powerful as he had imagined, he had a grudge against the fireball technique dislike.

Even if the staff was installed on a small catapult, it couldn't be thrown far, because the wind pressure increased as the speed increased, and it would actually blow the fireball away.

Under Molmon's guidance, Horne built a small catapult according to the Black Snake Bay fireball crossbow he mentioned, and barely increased the range to 150 meters.

But compared to manual throwing, the fireball crossbow's hit rate is too low.

Helpless, Horne had to call the White Mountain Hermitage's astrologer to do on-site divination to barely improve the hit rate and deviation.

Anyway, since only 8 fireballs can be fired at most, the astrologer's long casting time is forgivable.

Looking at the two-meter-wide trebuchet, Horne wouldn't call this crude thing a wizard cannon.

At least until the Red Dragon Breath recipe is obtained, the concept of the wizard cannon can only remain in conception.

A range of 150 meters and a range of 1500 meters, even if the power is the same, are different concepts.

"Ah, I have one more thing I want to trouble you with." Seeing Horne turn around to leave, Molmon immediately stood up and stopped him.

"What is it?"

"Can you allocate some alchemists... I mean, Holy Mechanical Priests, to help me build some holy artifacts."

"Of course, Holy Mechanical Priests and Saint Favored Ones will come to you after dinner."

After confirming the situation of the fireball crossbow group, looking at the sky, Horne went to the camp again without stopping.

Just as he arrived, he could see the last legion commander, Rudylo, lifting the curtain door and walking into the canvas tent.

Following Rudylo into the tent, six Black Hat legion commanders and two Guards legion commanders were sitting around a round table.

Except for the Second and Fourth Guards Corps guarding Jeanne d'Arc, the Salvation Army can be said to be out in full force.

Horne sat directly at the head position, without much nonsense, flattened the map and opened his mouth: "Lord Pasrik sent a message, you probably all know the specific situation."

Picking up the pottery cup on the table, Horne placed it on the north side of Black Mountain on the map: "This is Black Mountain Fortress."

His index finger swiping across the crude Black Mountain on the map, Horne raised his head: "The Sand Sculpture Knight is expected to arrive at Black Mountain Fortress, north of Black Mountain, within three days, and what we have to do..."

Slamming the ink bottle heavily on the southwest side of Black Mountain, Horne straightened up: "Is to completely annihilate the Sand Sculpture Knight Niedersal and his main force here."