Chapter 63

Every mage who wishes to advance must have their own Magic Method Laboratory.

Either to verify the wisdom of the ancients, or to explore new knowledge.

Luosen is both a lord and a mage, and besides being young and strong, he naturally will not stand still.

Moreover, he has a lord-specific demand for his experimental center.

That is, the production capacity of artifact forging, as large as possible.

The original site of the castle dungeon.

Selena covered her nose with a handkerchief dabbed with perfume, watching Luosen drag wooden crates filled with supplies into the dungeon, looking puzzled.

"Dear, you're a lord; why would you choose such a dirty place to build a Magic Method Laboratory?"

"Because it needs to be secret."

"Huh?"

Selena half-understood: "Are you planning to secretly research a new formula for Transmutation Alchemy here?"

Luosen shook his head, moving the last wooden crate into the dungeon corridor via the secret passage, while the corridor already held over fifty crates.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead: "Madam, this dungeon is still too small and not secret enough, so I need to borrow your magical power to remodel it properly."

That is naturally a small problem.

Soon, the two connected their minds via the Soul Bridge.

Luosen, using the master-level transformation energy condensed by Selena, carefully modified the existing dungeon foundation.

About fifteen minutes later, Selena had expended half of her magical power, and the dungeon swept away its dark, foul, terrifying appearance, becoming neat, bright, and exquisite.

Selena removed the handkerchief and sniffed the air: "Mm~ it doesn't smell anymore, just a hint of earth."

Luosen smiled faintly: "Because I turned the entire surface soil layer down to the deepest layer."

Now, this secret Magic Method Laboratory is about 400+ square meters and over 3 meters high.

The thick soil layer is a natural keeper of secrecy, and the walls will be inscribed with various runes that shield against energy fluctuations; Luosen can thus conduct all kinds of magical activities here in secret, without fear of being discovered.

Holding a hammer and a crowbar, he began carefully dismantling the wooden crates filled with supplies.

Selena also helped Luosen with the Mage Hand.

"Dear, tell me about the upcoming magic plan?"

"This laboratory will be divided into three parts."

As he spoke, Luosen opened a wooden crate, inside which was a high-precision scale.

He carefully placed the scale onto a nearby stone platform.

"The first part is, of course, a traditional Magic Method Laboratory; fifty square meters will suffice."

"The second part will be a rapid artifact-forging center, taking up about half of the remaining space."

Selena didn't catch it at first: "Rapid what?"

Luosen explained in detail: "Rapid artifact-forging center."

"I'm still a bit unclear."

Luosen explained carefully: "I will create a batch of artisan puppets and have these puppets assist me in large-scale, high-quality artifact-forging work."

"The current primary task is to create a batch of humanoid combat puppets and disguise them as Black-Iron Guard."

Selena felt dazed: "Using combat puppets to disguise as Black-Iron Guard? I thought it was using sheep to disguise."

The matter of the Black-Iron Guard had been discussed by them back in Shire County; its purpose was to counterbalance the elite warriors borrowed from the count.

But Selena hadn't expected Luosen to do this.

Suddenly, she thought of something and immediately asked: "Dear, you wouldn't still be proficient in puppet art, would you?"

Luosen paused his crate-disassembly work, lifted his head, and grinned at his wife.

"Madam, you guessed correctly."

"I am first proficient in transformation technique, second in puppet art. Combining transformation technique with puppet art allows me to create combat puppets that are externally indistinguishable from real ones."

Selena thought the idea was splendid: "Oh~ truly a genius idea, wait!"

She also recalled an incident: at the Blue Whale Mansion that night, she had twice felt that Luosen was somewhat abnormal.

After that, for a long time she didn't think much about it, but she never forgot the incident.

At this moment, hearing Luosen's words, a flash of light went through her mind, and she finally began to understand.

"That night at the Blue Whale Mansion, you had me go first, then you rushed out of the mansion—but the one who rushed out wasn't you, it was the combat puppet you built,"

Luosen grinned: "Madam, you finally figured it out."

Revealing to Selena the existence of Puppet No. 2 was the result of his careful deliberation.

First, Selena is trustworthy enough, and their interests are already completely bound together.

Second, Selena is his bedmate, hard to keep secrets from; it's better to disclose part of it to her, so that when needed, he can also receive her assistance.

Selena was indeed greatly astonished: "Puppet art can actually be this precise?"

"Actually, it's still not precise enough; there remains a difference from a real person, which you, madam, have already experienced."

Selena nodded repeatedly: "Indeed, there is a slight stiffness, but one must sense it carefully, and moreover must be very familiar with the person themselves to feel that something is off."

"If we imitate the Black-Iron Guard with this level of precision, there's no need to worry about being exposed!"

She was quite excited; after turning around in place a few times, she suddenly thought of a new question: "So can these black-cloth puppets fight?"

"Of course they can."

"How strong can they be?"

"With my current level, aided by your master-level magical power, madam, I can create puppets whose strength rivals that of high-ranking professionals."

Selena grew even more astonished: "This is already very impressive; then, at most how many can be made?"

If one could forge an army of puppets composed of high-ranking professionals, wouldn't that be capable of sweeping the world?! Luosen, seeing his wife's bright eyes, knew she was being blindly optimistic.

He mercilessly interrupted her daydream: "At least for now, a puppet army is unrealistic, and it's also not a good thing."

Seeing Selena puzzled, he explained in detail.

"First, the puppets I used that night were so precise because I was secretly using the 'Soul Bridge' to remote‑control them at all times." "If they operated independently, not only would their humanoid precision drop greatly, but combat responsiveness would also plummet, and there would be many flaws."

"Once those flaws are discovered and specifically targeted, the puppet army painstakingly built with enormous effort would become utterly useless."

Selena also had a rudimentary understanding of puppet arts, knowing Luosen's words were correct.

"Any other drawbacks?"

Luosen nodded: "Second, the charging issue."

"You know, the essence of a puppet is merely a movable magical artifact; all its power comes from the mage. To build a puppet army and keep it operational, you need enough charging mages."

"Obviously, we don't have that many charging mages."

The flame that had just risen in Selena's heart was completely extinguished by Luosen.

She pouted and complained: "Oh~ my dear husband, couldn't you let me be happy a little longer~"

Luosen pulled out a flame salt shaker, hearing her words he smiled and said: "Madam, the bad news is over; let me tell you some good news."

Selena blinked her big eyes, looking like a curious baby.

Luosen smiled: "I've thought of a way to substitute part of the function of charging mages."

Selena gasped again: "Ah?"

Without waiting for her to ask, Luosen explained in detail.

"Kao's Storm Sage Barolop said, magic comes from the magic ring drawing from primordial creative force. Because of its creative attribute, it can be transformed into all types of magical energy."

"The sage also said, different magical energies have high and low status, just as people have nobles and commoners."

"The sage further said, the Arcane law system containing Transformation Technique and Food Creation, the Spiritual law system containing Puppet Art and Spiritual Whisper, and the Mystic system are naturally superior to the Light, Electric, Wind, etc. systems."

"The reason is, Arcane and Spiritual energies can almost only be created by mages, making them very rare. Whereas the later systems' magical energy condenses naturally in the world and exists in countless amounts."

Selena didn't understand: "Yeah, then what?"

Luosen smiled: "Then I discovered a method to convert large amounts of lightning power without using magic, and a way to store that lightning."

Selena was greatly shocked: "You're not deceiving me?"

In nature's cloud layers, free‑floating lightning power can often be seen, and many mad mages have tried to capture lightning from the clouds.

But this is extremely dangerous; so far no one has truly succeeded.

Now her own husband saying this, she felt both astonished and afraid.

Luosen shook his head: "Have I ever deceived you on magical matters, madam?"

"Mmm... seems not."

Selena felt her heartbeat slightly quicken.

"It's safe enough, it won't turn a person into charcoal, right?"

"Correct, it's safe enough, even gentle. Therefore I call it 'tamed lightning.'"

Earthlings have already mastered lightning to the extreme, and this world additionally has magic, a strange power that can assist in controlling lightning, reducing the difficulty by an order of magnitude.

So, it's genuine taming.

Selena felt her breathing become a bit rapid, due to excitement.

Admittedly, lightning power is considered lowly in the magical system, yet its destructive power is quite astonishing.

If we could truly obtain a massive amount of lightning power, at least on the battlefield we could gain a huge advantage.

She clenched a pair of pure white fists and spun excitedly on the spot twice.

"So, the third part of the laboratory is a lightning container?"

"Exactly."

"How large can the capacity be?"

"With current materials, it can hold the lightning energy produced when fifty Master‑peak mages exert their full power to convert it."

"Truly huge!"

Selena was almost drunk from hearing: "What power do you plan to convert into lightning, and roughly how fast is the conversion speed?"

"For now, I plan to convert light power. With our current material quantity, on clear days we should be able to convert the power of twenty Arcane Masters per day."

"."

After a moment of silence, Selena immediately said: "Dear, let's get to work right away!"

Luosen had been waiting for those words: "As you wish, madam."

He began arranging the concrete plan.

"First we'll make the lightning container, then based on that we'll continue to craft artisan puppets."

"You might not understand, but believe me, raw lightning power is extremely volatile, but once tamed it becomes very, very useful, etc."

While they were speaking, the Detect Guard set up around Crescent City transmitted more information.

The Forest Spirit night‑raiding force that had just come up empty at the Sturgeon Dock turned around and silently approached Crescent City again.

After overhearing a few sentences of their conversation, Luosen grinned.

"Unwilling to give up after coming up empty, do you want to sneak into Crescent City and slaughter a batch of guards to vent your frustration?"

"Perfect, I'll use you to establish my prestige!"

Thus he furrowed his brow: "Madam, I feel something is off."

"What's wrong?" Selena sensed nothing.

Luosen didn't answer, clasped his hands, quickly performed a divination hand seal, and after several seconds he said in a solemn voice: "It seems there is danger, likely a Forest Spirit night raid."

Selena startled, a bit flustered: "What should we do?"

She had grown up in comfort all her life and had never faced such danger. After all, the foreign Forest Spirits do not recognize her as a human princess.

Luosen immediately comforted: "Madam, don't worry, we're very safe here, just continue."

"Outside matters, I will have my combat puppet go out to handle them."

(End of chapter)