Chapter 144

The northeastern coast of White Sturgeon Island.

Luosen lay lazily on an undeveloped white-sand beach, with a large crate of chilled bitter wheat beer beside him.

Bitter winter wheat is unpleasant to eat, but when brewed into beer it has a unique flavor that leaves a lasting aftertaste, especially when chilled, making it an excellent summer drink.

Luosen held a large mug of wheat beer, paired with specially prepared snacks like smoked fish jerky and fried aromatic beans, enjoying the moist, cool sea breeze, the sand and azure water, feeling quite content.

But he certainly wasn't here to enjoy himself.

Above the sea before him, two female demons were performing various high-difficulty flight maneuvers.

They would sometimes swoop down at high speed, sometimes make sharp turns at large angles, sometimes climb at steep ascent angles, displaying extremely superb flight skills.

When the two women focused on flying, Luosen carefully collected their magical fluctuations, the airflow disturbances around them, and their fine wind-control techniques.

In short, he would gather any data related to flight and transmit it to Laifu to train arcane flight techniques in another world.

Of course, this mechanical and tedious data collection only needed initial parameter setup; the rest could be left to Laifu.

Luosen's actual attention was, in fact, on Crescent Castle more than thirty li away.

He was observing various intelligence gathered by the Island Intelligence Bureau through the eyes of Puppet No. 2.

First key intelligence.

'Aaron supports Dawn City with large quantities of weaponry, including a batch of large-caliber rune cannons and various new-model individual flame staffs.'

'The Storm Fleet is urgently refitting warships, training artillery mages, and is expected to gain combat capability in about three months.'

The intelligence also specially noted the parameters of two new weapons.

'Rune cannon: caliber 15 cm, maximum range 2.5 km, uses fragmentation explosive shells, one round of reloading takes 10 minutes. Total aid exceeds 500.'

This is somewhat stronger than the island's current strongest cannon, and the quantity is also quite large.

'Individual flame staff: powered by flame charging, can release a rapid-fire fireball technique, with a maximum range of at least 300 meters, quantity at least 10,000.'

Its performance is somewhat inferior to that of the lightning crossbow, but charging is much simpler, and the quantity is equally huge! Moreover, this support was squeezed out from the gaps under dual pressure from Kao and the Radiant Empire.

Aaron's massive production capacity for arcane constructs is evident from this.

Luosen silently sighed: 'What a colossal giant.'

If Aaron weren't a burden and fully supported the Duke of Dawn, Luosen really wouldn't dare to act so boldly.

Now look at the rune cannon.

If combat capability is formed in three months, even if mounted on sailing warships, it would be sufficient to pose a certain threat to Black Stone warships.

Of course, Black Stone warships can rely on their great speed and maneuverability to make most of the enemy's attacks miss.

But the enemy has many warships and plenty of cannons; if they really start swinging wildly, there is still a chance to hit the warships.

Luosen sighed again: 'As long as the weapon generation gap isn't too large, quantity can make up for quality.'

What White Sturgeon Island currently lacks most is scale, while the opponent's greatest advantage is precisely scale.

He continued to read the second piece of intelligence, which turned out to be the battle reports of both north and south.

'The Southern Alliance is assembling; its main force is the Dawn Legion, numbering thirty thousand. With an average of five thousand troops from each of the fifteen counties, the combined forces exceed one hundred thousand.'

'At the current pace, they will have completed their mobilization and marched north in three months.'

'A force of one hundred thousand— that's really not few.'

After three months of mobilization, it is clear they are waiting for the navy to achieve a combined land-sea assault.

Similarly, three months later White Sturgeon Island's second batch of warships will be launched and formed into a fleet; despite full effort to expand the shipyards, only eight can be launched, making a total of thirteen.

The number is still too few; if a naval artillery battle truly occurs, losses are likely.

The northern counties are naturally also building an alliance, and Luosen also has detailed data on hand.

'The ten northern counties, each contributing an average of seven thousand soldiers.'

'Besides traditional weapons, they possess a total of five thousand lightning crossbows of various types. Horse-drawn two-wheeled small-caliber rune cannons number six hundred, with three thousand shells.'

Naturally, these new weapons are all supplied by White Sturgeon Island, and they also form the confidence that allows the northern marquis to dare oppose the Southern Alliance.

But these weapons have already been provided by White Sturgeon Island with all its might.

First, the assembly line of the arcane factory is not yet perfected, and there are too few skilled arcane technicians and workers.

Second, the entire industrial chain is incomplete, so the final output is always limited by this or that intermediate material.

With the opening of new routes, this will be greatly alleviated, but for now trying to match Aaron's production capacity is still beyond reach.

Looking at the comparative data of both sides and also at Weilan's topographic map, Luosen fixed his gaze on the location where the northern and southern legions would first clash.

'Mmm~ If fighting really breaks out, Shire County will become the battlefield first.'

Weilan's terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast; the transition zone between mountains and plains is exactly Shire County.

If the Southern Alliance captures Shire County and controls the mouth of the Silver Gold River, it would be tantamount to seizing the throat of the Northern Alliance.

It would cut off the northern counties' main trade routes with the outside world, and using it as a foothold, they could advance step by step northward, driving the northern counties entirely into the sea.

The northern counties naturally understand this, so they will defend Shire to the death.

'If north and south go to war, the decisive battle should occur in the Dragon Roar Valley in the southern part of Shire County.'

Luosen had once passed through Dragon Roar Valley in person, making a detailed record of its terrain, which now resides in Laifu's database.

He called up the terrain, observed it carefully, and drew a conclusion.

'If a major battle erupts here, it will surely be an extraordinarily brutal meat grinder. With the current weaponry of both sides, tens of thousands of horrifying casualties could occur on the first day.'

'If this battle were fought that way, Weilan would surely be gravely weakened, so it must absolutely not be fought.'

How to prevent it?

Luosen has already prepared three trump cards.

One of them is already ready; it just awaits the right moment to be played.

The other two are still being coalesced, but three months is enough time.

'Whoosh~~ whoosh~~'

The girls flew until exhausted, their magic nearly depleted, they flapped their wings and slowly landed beside Luosen, returning to human form.

They were Nafieluoniya and Laerte lisi, mother and daughter.

To fly better, the two women wore no clothes; after returning to human form, they were too lazy to put any on.

Anyway, it's summer, and this is a deserted beach; aside from Luosen, the female demon true king, there were no other men present.

The two women leisurely walked up to Luosen, who had already poured two cups of chilled beer: "Ladies, you've worked hard~~"

"Plop~plop~"

The two women sat left and right of Luosen on the beach; the fine, sparkling sand stuck to the sweat on their skin, evenly adhering to their smooth, jade‑like skin, like glutinous rice balls coated with white sesame.

"Luosen, we've been flying every day for almost three months—do you understand it yet?"

Nafieluoniya took a big gulp of beer, sighed contentedly, then picked up the dried fish and ate it.

Luosen laughed: "The ladies' flight technique is exquisitely subtle, their mastery of the wind practically flawless—I naturally learned slowly." "But after watching this long, I've pretty much got it."

Since he brought Nafieluoniya back to White Sturgeon Island, nearly three months have passed; each day he had the two women fly for over an hour, already collecting a huge amount of flight data.

Laifu's flight-related abilities have been trained to an extremely high level.

His grasp of wind magic naturally reached a near‑perfect level as well.

Compared to Nafieluoniya he might still be a bit lacking, but compared to Laerte lisi he's already stronger by a margin.

After Laerte lisi downed her beer in one gulp, she snuggled into Luosen's embrace, tracing circles on his chest with her fingers.

"Luosen, are you really sure you can create a flight magic device?"

"Of course, I already have a very mature concept, and the two ladies have taught me so much. Lili, stop fussing."

He brushed aside Laerte lisi's hand that kept moving down, grabbed a handful of white sand, and used Transformation Technique to shape it into the form of a fixed‑wing aircraft.

Of course, it's not a jet plane, nor a propeller plane, but a rune‑crafted aircraft that directly harnesses the wind.

"I plan to design the flight magic device like this, able to carry two people—one solely responsible for flying, the other for operating weapons."

"It looks weird; it should be able to fly, but it will surely be unwieldy."

Nafieluoniya tapped Luosen's calf with her pearl‑like toes, even trying to pull his leg hair, making him dodge repeatedly; when he could no longer evade, he simply clamped her feet tightly.

"It's indeed unwieldy, but because of its fixed shape, we can push its flight speed very high."

"Moreover, with high‑strength transparent materials including the mage's cockpit, it can fly very high without worrying about the effects of high‑speed turbulent airflow."

"Finally, I added a combustion chamber for specially formulated fuel that can convert a large amount of fire‑power through a transmutation array into wind‑power, greatly increasing endurance."

This final step demands superb skill in transforming and controlling the wind.

This was an ability Luosen previously lacked, but now he possesses it.

Nafieluoniya still didn't quite grasp: "Mastering the wind requires very long practice; if you build a rune aircraft, you'd probably need extensive training before a mage could skillfully pilot it."

Luosen smiled: "Not at all—any intermediate mage can handle it. If any sisters are willing to pilot it, I'd be very welcome."

Speaking, he quickly warned Laerte lisi in front of him: "Don't get sand in there, it hurts."

Once it happened by accident, and it was uncomfortable for a while.

Laerte lisi giggled, condensed a pure water technique to carefully wash off the sand stuck to her body, then raised a question.

"Luosen, flying is difficult; the faster you go, the harder it gets."

Luosen nodded in agreement: "Indeed it's difficult. Hmm~"

But Laerte lisi blocked his mouth, so he switched to using a group Spiritual Whisper.

"But I am also skilled in Puppet Art; I will create a flight puppet to assist the mage with most flight control actions."

"A flight puppet? What a great idea!"

Nafieluoniya instantly felt curious; seeing her daughter clinging to Luosen and refusing to let go, she couldn't help but scold.

"Lili~ take the steamed bun from Luosen's mouth so he can speak properly!"

"Okay, Mom." Laerte lisi did as told with a sullen face.

Nafieluoniya said: "Puppet Art is an ancestral skill of the Iron‑Dragon clan, so your puppet magic must be formidable."

Luosen laughed: "Nafieluoniya, if you want to learn, I can teach you."

Nafieluoniya's eyes lit up: "Of course I want to learn, but I've heard Puppet Art consumes a lot of magic. If we make a flight puppet, wouldn't that add extra magic drain?"

That would conflict with the original goal of saving magic.

Luosen nodded: "It will increase some, but not much. Besides, I've actually designed two models of flight magic devices."

"One model includes a flight puppet, intended for powerful mages; its advantages are easy control, ability to perform various high‑difficulty flight maneuvers, and high top speed."

"The other model lacks the puppet, its propulsion changed to a propeller like that of the Black Stone warship; its top speed is much lower, flight is clumsy, but the advantage is low magic demand—even a low‑level mage can operate it for a long time."

The first model is a world‑unique magic‑technique aircraft, counting as an advanced second‑generation craft.

The second model is very close to an Earth‑like fixed‑wing propeller plane, a basic first‑generation craft.

In terms of aerial combat capability, the former naturally outclasses the latter.

"Such a device must be hard to make, right? And surely expensive?"

Nafieluoniya has been studying human knowledge at the Magic Method Center recently, earnestly, and already understands cost, manufacturing difficulty, and other considerations.

Luosen shook his head: "It depends on the situation. Those who master the flight secret can make anything fly; those who don't will crash no matter how they build it."

"Just like when the demon clan first learned to fly."

This involves fine control of aerodynamics and wind‑force, a huge threshold.

Luosen previously couldn't do it, but now he has learned it from the two demon queens.

Because the threshold is so huge, and the three kingdoms of the White Continent have not yet heard of related research, once he builds the aircraft he can maintain a long‑term equipment lead.

"As for cost, it's not high at all—far less than a Black Stone warship. After all, a flight magic device is much smaller in volume than a warship, consuming far fewer materials."

Nafieluoniya understood, nodded in agreement.

"What you say is also right—kids have to fall dozens or even hundreds of times to learn to fly, but once they've learned, they'll never forget; no matter how they fly, they won't fall."

Seeing her daughter constantly clinging to Luosen and refusing to let go annoyed her so much that she felt grass growing in her heart, but there was only one spot, so she could only wait there anxiously.

Rosen Ziran felt it, laughed heartily, and activated the Transformation Technique.

Instantly, thunder rumbled repeatedly on the beach, continuing for about half an hour before stopping.

Why only about half an hour? Because Luosen switched to a larger-caliber, faster-firing high-speed heavy cannon, making the barrage even more fierce.

By the time everything had calmed down, it was already past three in the afternoon.

With a little time left, Luosen planned to first visit the aircraft research institute hidden among the mountains.

As for aircraft, without powerful weaponry their actual power is indeed limited, but they can still generate tremendous psychological deterrence against ground forces.

Because in this era, aircraft are assassins that can come and go freely, easily capable of decapitating strikes.

Therefore, once the island produces rune-etched aircraft, it doesn't take many—just a single squad—to gain a huge strategic advantage.

This is also his second trump card for ending the war.

But because the island lacked relevant talent, although Luosen had the idea of building aircraft early on and secretly established the research institute early, the investment was not high, and for a long time it remained a state of making gradual progress bit by bit.

But after accumulating effort for over half a year, they also achieved considerable results.

Currently, he serves concurrently as director of the Aircraft Research Institute, overseeing about 100 artifact artificers and 200 craftsmen from various fields.

These people can utilize the island's existing resources, cooperate with Luosen, and turn his concepts into actual products as quickly as possible.

I had thought that upon arriving at the research institute I could get busy right away, but as soon as I reached the secret stone cavern in the mountains, I received an encrypted message.

Sent via a secret channel from the island's intelligence bureau to Luosen's lightning wristband, the decryption method is known only to Luosen, and the content reads: "Are you the Baron of White Sturgeon Island?"

Luosen looked at the cipher, inwardly sighing: "Ah~ I guess my identity can't stay hidden from the start."

(End of chapter)