Chapter 273 part 1
Chapter 273 “The newest contribution of QQ” (Part one)
Although Green hat started off being very annoyed by Du Wei’s “nonsense”, but after listening to the explanation, most of his old temper subsided for he found some logic in this “product”.
There are still many minor defects around, but overall, the structure basically took advantage of the various aspects of each bone segment and utilized it to its fullest.
Of course, in Du Wei’s heart, his main intention was to position this aerial battleship to something akin to an “aircraft carrier”. In his mind, there are still many places for improvement like increasing the load limit from a few hundred people.
His preliminary plan was this: use the Decepticon squadron as the main combat force aboard this warship. This way around, the ship can use its main cannon for long range auxiliary attacks and the Decepticon squadron can fight alongside the ship. Also, he can equip the ship with some other siege weapons like arbalests or catapults if needed. As for ammunition, this problem was even easier to solve. Bring one or two storage bags full of gunpowder and that should be enough to supply any mission.
But nothing was perfect. His Decepticon squadron may be the first aerial combat force on the continent, but their arsenal was too limited and unilateral.
And then there’s this battleship, there’s a great flaw too.
Strictly speaking, Du Wei may have designed this ship using the “aircraft carrier” concept as its blueprint, but it’s far inferior to the real thing from his previous life. Even if you include the battle strength of the Decepticon squadron, it’s still not up to par.
The biggest flaw lies in: This dragon ship, plus the Decepticon Squadron, can only attack enemies on the ground with hardly any means of air-to-air combat!
The main power of the Decepticon squadron lies in their bombs. Although the dragon ship has its head to shoot out dragon flames, but…. Those balls of fire are too slow! If the opponent was capable of fast movement in the air, this large warship will get pummeled.
Escort … Escort!
Du Wei knows, even large air cargo planes, if without the proper escort, are nothing more than big target boards.
But, luck’s on his side. In this world, there’s no other aerial force to compete with him for now. The only weapon that’s likely to hit his troops in the air are crossbows, but that has its limit too and could easily be dodged with high altitude.
But…… What about the future?
There’s the dragon race in the north! If by the odd chance they encountered a dragon… Dragons being the lord of the air, then……
There are also those exiled races from the legends. It’s highly unlikely there are no races capable of flight in that group.
Okay fine, let’s think about something more common. In the southern marshes, there’s a monster that lives in packs: the Griffins.
This type of gregarious monster has the ability to fly and fight in the air. Even towards this enemy without any serious combat ability, his warship becomes almost obsolete.
Right now… The warship claims to be an aircraft carrier, but in actuality, it’s merely a giant bomber carrying a bunch of smaller bombers.
Du Wei may be dissatisfied inside, but he had to admit, doing this much was already quite a lot. After all, he’s only one person and not a god; he can’t have everything his way.
Thinking up to here, Du Wei’s mind suddenly came up with something.
Those magic cannons atop of the defense wall in the capital…..
This idea only lasted a second before he dismissed it. The manufacturing process of those things had long been lost and he has no confidence in replicating a set. If the empire was capable of pumping out magic cannons… Then why the heck would the empire stress over a bunch of natives in the prairie?!
If mechanical weapons appear, then the era of cavalry will come to an end.
Du Wei’s very certain of this fact.
(note: From many aspects, magicians can in many cases take on the role of mechanical weapons. The only problem lies with how scarce this group of people was, meaning the era of mechanical weapons hasn’t really started yet.)
“Fine then …” Only after a long time did Gandalf relent with a long sigh: “Until I can prove this thing is a total waste, let’s do this….” Though he didn’t object, there’s a clear hint of worry in his voice: “For such a test, we might be wasting the precious soul of a gold dragon. If the product fails, we won’t be able to extract the soul back out of the finished product.”
Du Wei took the initiative to take out his own black magic crystal ball. Handing it over with a smile: “Teacher, there’s a lot of dead spirits in this thing. They aren’t mine. I got them from that dumb Tartaglia after he died.”
One glance and Gandalf was already gasping at the thing in his hand: “So much!”
A grand magician’s lifelong collection of dead spirits wasn’t to be taken lightly. Even though Du Wei only collected forty to fifty percent of the total volume, it’s quite a lot already!
“With this much, it should be enough to refine a bone dragon right?” Du Wei laughs very affectionately: “If not enough, teacher, please make a contribution. You’re not a dark magician anyways; leaving some dead spirits in your bag won’t do you any good. Why not benefit me, your adorable apprentice here?”
In the next two days, Gandalf began to teach Du Wei the methods of refining the dragon soul. Though this old man wasn’t a dark magician himself, but as a magister, his method definitely ranked among the best.
“Before refining a soul, the first thing would of course be to erase its will. Without its ego, the remaining soul will be much easier to command when you turn it into your pet. I won’t be able to help you on this part for you must do it using your own magic and bond the soul to your spirit.”
Subsequently, Gandalf helped Du Wei inscribe a magic circle around the laboratory for the ritual: inlaid with magic crystals at the top and inscribed with magic runes on its body, the dozen of pillars placed around the circle will be the catalyst for invoking the spell.
Finally, the last step was to place the crystal ball confining the soul of the dragon in the middle of the circle.
“Remember, you will experience some discomfort from being drained of energy. But since you have the rainbow colored ring to act as a reserve, this shouldn’t be a problem. I will also be on the side to help.”
Afterwards, Gandalf began to chant the necessary spell to invoke the magic circle. Following the primitive words coming out of his old tongue, bursts of faint black smoke began to seep through the floor and slowly, a condensed cloud of dark energy that looked like a blob of black liquid formed in the air. From it, a tumbling angry roar howled out.
Then finally, the contour of a dragon’s head faintly emerged. Facing Du Wei, the soul growled: “Despicable human, you dare imprison the soul of the great Dragon race! You are….”
Gandalf didn’t even let him finish before interrupting the poor guy: “Despicable? Grandpa here beat you fair and square. What else do you have to say?”
Then he pointed to the dragon ship behind him with a smile: “Can you sense it?”
The Dragon Soul turned his sight around and stared for a long moment. Suddenly, the head roared with great anger: “Human! You defiled my body! The body of I, a gold dragon, turned into this blaspheme. I will…”
At this part, the soul roared and came charging down at Du Wei.
Unfortunately, the dragon soul only managed to move a few paces before the crystal pillar on the ground stopped him. Triggered by the attempt to flee, a curtain of light shot out from the crystals and sent the Second Prince bouncing back like he had hit a wall. Not willing to give up, the dragon soul continues to collide against this wall of light, but in the end, his repeated efforts were for naught.
Howling even louder, the dragon soul became angrier and angrier, but Du Wei could distinctly hear the helplessness and despair in that voice.