Chapter 70: The World's Greatest Trump Card in the Power Struggle! (13)

Zzz~~~zzzz~~~~

Chit~~chit~~~

Crack! Crack!

Seven days later, in the lord's secret Magic Method Laboratory, an S-shaped circular assembly line appeared, with a row of oddly shaped artisan puppets standing on both sides of the line.

Accompanied by various strange sounds, the assembly line slowly rotated, strands of lightning leapt and flowed across the line like Elves.

On both sides of the assembly line, the oddly shaped artisan puppets operated at an almost frantic speed, so fast that afterimages began to appear.

Yet this speed still maintained extreme precision.

It exuded a strange aesthetic of orderly precision.

At the very start of the assembly line were only a few simple component assemblies, but the farther along, the assemblies became increasingly complex.

All the way to the end of the line, a roughly shaped humanoid puppet suddenly emerged.

These humanoid puppets, once they touched the ground, could walk and speak; at a glance, they seemed like living people.

They automatically walked to Luosen.

Luosen had been waiting for them.

He borrowed his wife Selena's condensed four-ring transformation energy to finely reshape the roughly formed humanoid puppet and stabilize the transformation effect.

After this beautification process, the roughly shaped magic puppet became a genuine Black-Iron Guard.

The Black-Iron Guard wore a matte-finished hardened mithril mask on its face, a silver-patterned obsidian-black hooded leather armor underneath, an obsidian-black rune-etched leather coat over it, obsidian-black leather pants studded with weapon straps, and long steel-soled combat boots fastened with matte metal buckles.

Additionally, a large golden sun emblem embroidered with dark gold thread was sewn onto the back of the leather coat, indicating its noble status as a guard of the Adrian family.

Its neck, chest, and belt also bore exquisite hardened mithril artifacts; a rune-etched dagger in the left hand and an elegantly rustic carved hardened mithril staff in the right.

These details show that this individual is not only a Black-Iron Guard but also a senior commander among the Iron Guards!

Its style is cold and fierce, embodying the Duke's personal guard's formidable aura to the fullest.

An ordinary person meeting its stare would have their heart shatter; even a battle-hardened warrior would feel a chill.

"This is the fiftieth Black-Iron Guard, the last finished product of the first batch, and also the most outstanding one."

Luosen's voice was soft, carrying a hint of strange tenderness.

Selena beside him noticed that his gaze toward the puppet contained a trace of affection, like a father looking at his most outstanding child.

She was a bit puzzled: "It sounds impressive?"

Luosen nodded lightly.

"I used the finest available materials, fully calibrated mature artisan puppets, and my latest accumulated puppet‑making experience, pouring them all into it."

In terms of raw materials, it naturally cannot compare to Sage Levin, but regarding technological advancement and the completeness of the Puppet Core, it surpasses Levin by a wide margin, reflecting Luosen's latest puppet‑crafting level.

At this moment, his heart was filled with the joy of flaunting his proud achievement to fellow mages.

Because in Dawn City, even if he created something superb and flashy, it could only be admired by himself.

He walked to the side of the puppet and continued the introduction.

"According to the Puppet Core's settings, it is a high‑grade 20‑star battle mage named Akali, mastering Arcane, Psychic, Force, and Lightning spell schools, with particular mastery of Lightning spells."

Luosen defined this Iron Guard commander's identity as such.

Selena circled the puppet Akali once and said, "Huh, it's a female mage?"

Luosen shrugged, "Since it's the lady's personal guard, using a female battle mage for close protection seems reasonable, right?"

Selena nodded, "That makes sense."

She reached out and pinched the soft flesh area on the Black-Iron Guard's chest, "Why is it so hard?"

"It's a conforming armor forged from hardened mithril, makes sense, right?"

"Reasonable."

Selena continued inspecting and then discovered the female mage's figure was exceptionally good, even perfect, making her a bit envious.

"Since she's a warrior, she should look sturdy and robust; why make the waist so thin and the hips so large?"

"I changed it on the fly, sorry madam; if you don't like it, I can adjust again."

"Never mind, that's fine; I hope no brute falls in love with her. Huh~ did you also give her a excretory organ?"

"A warrior without normal life functions would raise suspicion, so when needed they can perform normal eating, drinking, and excretion, even personal desire, dispelling doubts of onlookers."

"Alright, that's quite refined, but how's their combat ability?"

"In terms of combat power alone, it's quite strong; its biggest advantage isn't the number of spells, but its rapid reaction speed, far faster than a human."

"In all martial arts, speed is invincible."

"No matter how many tricks you have, I'm still faster; whatever monsters appear, a single move suffices. Does she need you to remote‑control her?"

"Basically not needed."

"I equipped her with an almost complete Puppet Core."

"In combat, she can act entirely autonomously. Also, because the mask and clothing conceal almost all body details, there's no worry about facial flaws."

Levin and Puppet No. 2 require Luosen's remote control and consume massive computing power, primarily to manage the puppets' facial micro‑expressions.

Human perception of facial expressions is highly sensitive, so 'real‑time facial realism' is essentially a computing black hole.

"Sounds like there are no drawbacks."

"There are, and they're unavoidable."

Luosen walked to the combat puppet, lifted the leather armor, and pressed his finger slightly into the navel opening.

"Although I use as much Lightning energy as possible, Arcane energy, Psychic energy, and the spirit energy dedicated to puppet control must all be charged from here."

"Each is small alone, but fifty together become a considerable burden."

Filling fifty advanced puppets at once requires the consumption of five channels of mana from an Arcane Master like Selena.

In other words, Selena would need five days of effort to complete this.

And if not used after being fully charged, the power in the lattice will also slowly leak away, lasting at most three months.

Selena suddenly got a headache: "Can we just use Lightning Power instead, removing both arcane and mental power, leaving only puppet spiritual power?"

Luosen shrugged: "Madam, this proposal is excellent; I also already have some ideas for a solution, but I haven't succeeded yet."

"Dear, I sincerely hope you succeed soon."

At that moment, because the final puppet was successfully crafted, the powerful production line came to a complete halt, and the frenzied-working artisan puppets on both sides also fell silent.

Selena glanced, then glanced again, and felt it was most unpleasant.

"Such powerful artisan puppets, just stopped like this—what a pity!"

Anyway, Lightning Power comes from sunlight, so there's no reason not to use it.

Luosen felt the same, but he also had to point out a fact to Selena.

"Madam, the supplies purchased from Shire County have basically been exhausted."

"Ah~ supplies~"

Xiao Hai Dao, Xiao Hai Dao—the greatest advantage is being isolated from the world, a natural fortress.

The biggest drawback is that the place is small, the population is few, and resources are also scarce.

Luosen wasn't idle either.

He walked up to the production line and began to fine-tune the artisan puppets.

"Although we can't produce large items, we can still produce some small ones."

"Alonso has been busy with weapon forging these days to the point of smoking his hands; it's perfect to take over his work so he can focus on exploring new knowledge for us."

In Luosen's view, Alonso, Weige, Kao the mages, and future recruited outstanding mages' greatest role is to help him create and invent things that don't exist in the world, rather than having their hands tied by boring, monotonous repetitive labor.

Let the artisan puppets handle the repetitive work.

Currently, Weige's potion-making is something Luosen can't help with, but Alonso's weapon-forging work is exactly the strength of the puppet production line.

As long as we set the operating parameters for the artisan puppets according to the forging manual and charge them with various energies, the number of magical items they produce in a day will exceed what Alonso can make in a month, and the quality will be very stable.

If we raise the craftsmanship requirements to an extremely high level, the final product will be exquisitely fine and highly competitive in the market.

Since most of the manufacturing process is powered by the Lightning House, the mana consumption is less than one-tenth of that of a normal artisan puppet, and there is still huge room for optimization later.

Such extremely low mana consumption means the demand for mana-charging mages, and even for the territorial population, is far lower than that of a traditional lord.

Such extremely high production efficiency means there is potential for explosive, astonishing output capacity.

As long as we solve the resource shortage problem, we can explosively boost production! And this is the trump card that allows even a tiny island lord like Luosen to dare harbor hegemonic ambitions! Of course, for now everything is just beginning.

"Madam, the Black-Iron Guard is ready; let's find an opportunity to have them appear."

"But how should they appear?"

Selena asked, tilting her head.

Luosen thought it cute, so he leaned close to her jade-white cheek and whispered softly for a while.

Selena felt her cheek itch from the whisper, instinctively shrank her neck to avoid it, but soon she willingly moved in, rubbing cheeks with her husband.

She also listened attentively to her husband's plan, her eyes growing brighter.

"Dear~~~ your idea is truly great; it will surely scare the rebels so much they won't be able to sleep!"

(End of chapter)