I Pioneered Scientific Magic

Chapter 258: Count Joyce Fled in Fear Overnight

After the meeting, the members of the parliament left the Sky Realm with heavy hearts.

Lynn, after getting acquainted with several grand wizards, inquired about Greinreel's preparedness for war.

Over these months, the council had summoned and trained a legion of 20,000 soldiers.

Compared to the Empire and the Church, this force seemed insufficient. With the limited population in the wizard territory, totaling only six to seven hundred thousand subjects, they couldn't employ the tactic of overwhelming numbers like their adversaries. They had to rely on quality over quantity.

However, even the quality was somewhat of a wishful thinking since these legions lacked significant combat experience.

Apart from that, the magical beasts bred by the alchemist wizards might also prove somewhat useful.

Then came the trump cards of the wizards: the crystal cannons and the golems!

Firstly, the crystal cannon operated by compressing the magical energy stored within a crystal and launching it in its most basic form.

Simple but effective!

The power of an average crystal cannon was roughly equivalent to a third-tier spell, while the advanced ones could be likened to fourth-tier magic.

Despite the disparity of just one tier in magic, the power increased by more than tenfold!

However, the cost of the advanced crystal cannons was exorbitant. Each shot required a crystal the size of a fist, meaning hundreds of magic gold coins were needed for a single blast.

Lynn had previously had the fortune to experience and control these specialized alchemical weapons, giving him a rough estimate of their power.

In terms of sheer destructive capability, they surpassed the cannons produced in workshops by a considerable margin. However, they were costly to manufacture, had limited attack range, and their effectiveness diminished beyond five hundred meters.

Because the wizarding lands hadn't faced any wars previously, combined with the complexity of their production, even with both types of crystal cannons, they only had a hundred in total. Most were stationed around Greinreel City and the vicinity of the magic stone mines.

But it was all a façade. It wasn't until the council started preparing for war that they realized, due to lack of maintenance or even being sold off, only a pitiful fifty cannons remained usable.

As the president of the Alchemy Association, Victorio, known as the "Creator of Magic Constructs," was furious. The association underwent a thorough reorganization internally.

Next were the golems, even more precious than the crystal cannons. They were all crafted from robust mithril, forming unique magical rune circuits inside, with a portion of consciousness projected into the golems by psychic wizards to control them.

After piecing together contributions from various schools, they managed to barely assemble seventy golems. The Psychic Academy would dispatch corresponding personnel to assist in battle.

Hearing this news, Lynn couldn't help but sigh. It seemed that due to the prolonged peace, these wizards had never seriously considered the prospect of war. If the Church suddenly attacked, the entire wizarding realm wouldn't likely be able to muster even half its strength.

"Lord Lynn, Master Raphael mentioned that the Iyeta Sect developed a new weapon called the 'firearm,' which is much more potent than a crossbow, easily penetrating armor and even the 'Mage Shields.' Is that true?" Sanchez inquired curiously.

They had all read the report submitted by Raphael, clearly stating it as a weapon capable of posing a threat to wizards, trained or otherwise.

"That's correct," Lynn nodded.

"So, what's the price for these?" Sanchez continued. He was in charge of training the newly recruited twenty thousand troops and naturally cared deeply about these new weapons.

"Two magical gold coins per firearm!" Lynn pondered for a while before speaking, offering a price neither too high nor too low.

The production cost alone for a single firearm was about fifteen magic silver coins. Considering labor and transportation costs, it needed to be doubled. However, Lynn wasn't asking for an exorbitant price. Facing the unknown Church, everyone had to give their all...

And compared to the firearm itself, the ongoing sales of ammunition were where the real profit lay...

Given the price offered by Lynn, Sanchez promptly purchased ten thousand firearms without hesitation.

Now, Lynn faced a dilemma. "The production capacity of the firearm workshops is still quite limited. How about this? I can provide you with two thousand matchlock guns for now. They are sufficient for routine training; they don't need to be highly accurate, just functional. We'll replenish them slowly later on!"

The firearm workshops in Iyeta had recently expanded several times. They could currently produce around three thousand firearms per month. With the workers' growing proficiency, the output could further increase. However, assembling ten thousand firearms in a short time wasn't an easy task.

As for technological leaks, that was an inevitable occurrence. Lynn wasn't particularly concerned; Darren and others were already studying how to reproduce matchlock guns.

By the time someone managed to replicate matchlock guns, those might have become obsolete.

After finalizing the sale of firearms, Lynn and Sanchez shifted their discussion to the training issues of the army.

Sanchez, being born in the wizarding lands, was entirely clueless about legion training. However, with collective efforts, they managed to devise some methods, such as coordinating them with wizard magic and simulating confrontations between two armies.

Lynn had more direct means. For the firearm units, discipline was the foremost priority, followed by battlefield adaptability. They needed to learn how to face enemy charges or even arrow storms calmly, standing firm, maintaining composure, and efficiently performing actions like cleaning the barrels, loading ammunition, aiming, and firing.

Thus, he had the idle wizards in Iyeta capture some magical beasts and organize the firearm units into small teams for combat.

These monsters were no less intimidating than a battlefield. Facing a fiery lion charging towards them, those who could still manage to reload, aim, and shoot were deemed qualified firearm operators!

"This method is quite good!" Sanchez admired. With wizards overseeing, there wouldn't be significant issues. He immediately decided to implement this on a larger scale.

Unbeknownst to the recruits training outside Greinreel City, their nightmares were about to begin!

While the wizarding lands were urgently preparing for war, the movement for freeing mine slaves in the Hadralata Kingdom was gaining momentum.

Starting from the small Barony of Elvus, within less than a month, Radel had swept through nearly one-seventh of the Hadralata Kingdom's territory, organizing a force of over ten thousand people!

Count Joyce was so frightened that he fled overnight, transmitting this shocking news to the capital of Hadralata Kingdom...

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