Chapter 1064: Swirling Demon Metal and the Abnormality of Wizard Apprentices
The situation faced by the Union Society is not very favorable.
If my view of equipment is that it is an optional tool, then equipment for the Union Society is a weapon that can determine the direction of war!
“Everyone, we have received some very unfavorable news to share with you.”
Cleveland, as a representative of the Zero Special Operations Sequence, also represents the will of Teaching Assistant Xiao Han. The position of the Zero Special Operations Sequence on Blood Slave Peninsula cannot be shaken by anyone.
As long as this special operations sequence remains on Blood Slave Peninsula, no academy dares to claim it back from the Witch Academy in the name of expelling invaders.
Currently, the Witch Academy is mainly focused on bridging the geographical divide between the Witch World and Blood Slave Peninsula.
This matter has been discussed for a long time, but unfortunately, they have still not taken it down.
Though on the map, it looks like a complex area dominated by Blood Clan affiliated academies, actually confronting it feels akin to facing the pressure of three top academies directly.
The key is that the Union Society cannot cut off the avenues through which those top academies secretly provide assistance in this region!
Continuous supplies of weapons or other materials smooth out the gap in combat strength and means between the Witch Academy and those smaller academies.
They have the intention to replicate the earlier overwhelming campaign against Dayrock Academy, but to prevent a second large-scale blood sacrifice incident, they have abandoned this reckless plan.
After all, no one can bear the potential missteps in command.
Blood sacrifice is merely a formality; no one knows what other methods they have waiting for them.
Now, the Union Society is not holding a large-scale meeting, but rather a temporary small meeting convened by representatives of the core Guardian Group, with only a dozen members present.
Everyone watches Cleveland take out a cut piece of metal, quietly waiting for the announcement of this bad news.
“This metal is referred to as Swirling Demon Metal by those lower Blood Clans, an extraordinary alloy formed through a special combination, and there are many variant alloys. Its effects are to absorb and gather magic power, creating two very targeted effects against us witches on the battlefield.”
“One effect is that spells based on magic power will be greatly weakened by protective gear forged from this metal. The other is… weapons forged from this metal hitting us will significantly reduce our control over the magic source, and even if we try to overcome this influence forcibly, casting spells from spellbooks will also carry the risk of failure. If a casting fails, the resulting magic backlash could cause secondary damage.”
Once Cleveland finishes speaking, the faces of the crowd darken somewhat, but there are no other emotional changes, as they had already learned about this “disgusting” thing before the meeting convened.
In the past, they had no idea such a targeted metal existed.
And now, it just so glimmeringly appears before them.
If this isn’t targeting, who would believe it?
However, it isn’t unexpected; extraordinary materials like this are not only targeted at magic power but also many other metals can counter elemental extraordinary powers. This Demon Metal is simply more specifically aimed at them witches.
From an academic perspective, this can be categorized as extraordinary energy resistant metal.
However, as Cleveland continues, many people’s expressions tighten: “According to battlefield feedback, weapons made from this metal have little effect on students with the Self-Generated Magic Physique talent, though their spellcasting will still be weakened by such equipment.”
After this statement, the vast majority of people only feel more envious of this talent, but the acquisition of such talent has already been controlled by the Witch Academy.
Yet they fail to consider that since it cannot affect students with Self-Generated Magic talent, this metal’s impact seems not to directly affect the magic source but rather the Earth Vein locks that carry the magic source for each individual.
For them, it seems the same.
However, this news also implies: the extraordinary mentors of other academies have already influenced the combat of the academies.
After all, to influence single-point magic absorption and resistance and deliberately affect the Earth Vein locks is not something students can study.
You can say materials science is based on luck, but a student’s luck cannot possibly be this good.
In the face of such equipment, unless there is a powerful physical blow from spells, otherwise, it would be really difficult for ordinary spells to severely damage the enemy.
After all, not every student has spells that expend massive amounts of magic power; even spells with a hundred points of consumption are trump cards for ordinary students.
Thus, this form of equipment greatly weakens the threat level of witches.
On the battlefield, the lethality of transmutation spells is undoubtedly suspect; changing battle strategies entails great risk, not to mention other types of spells are not absolutely unaffected either.
After some discussions, the consensus among the group is actually quite unified.
Since it effectively counters magic-focused strategies, they should switch to different methods. After all, there is no need for them to stubbornly engage on the enemy’s terms.
Magic sources and spellbooks are merely the easily accessible powers and means within the Witch Academy, but that does not mean they are the only powers available.
Whether alchemical equipment, potions, or other techniques like magic arrays, they can also work without the intervention of magic power.
However, these methods are seen as last resorts; many are still optimistic about… the enormous destructive equipment mounted on witch warships!
Since there is pure power that can cut through, why bother overcomplicating?
That is the thought of most.
“By the way, how is the progress on the magic-infused cannon proposed by the Spell Research Society? Can it ignore the weakening limit of those equipment?” Someone proactively inquires.
Then many look towards the representative of the Union Society’s extraordinary academic department—after all, they are responsible for the development of witch warships and large-scale destructive weapons, and the Union Society has spent a fair amount of money on this academic research, recalling it feels somewhat painful.
“From a theoretical perspective, the magic-infused cannon would make those guys feel like ants: their magic-infused equipment would be as fragile as their bodies. However…”
“But what?”
“However, the processes of development, testing, and implementation all require time. Crafting weapons is not about shaping clay,” the representative of the extraordinary academic department retorted.
After all, they endured building a floating warship from scratch according to designs provided by the mentor within a few months; now they are required to deliver a finished product in such a short time? Do they really think their technical department is omnipotent?!
“Then how long at the earliest? You have to give us some kind of timeline.”
“One month…”
Before the academic department representative could complete her statement, she was directly interrupted: “Impossible! One month? Do you know what comes after one month? By then, the high school entrance exams for this year will almost be over; do you understand?!”
“Exactly! It takes months to build a floating warship; is it really going to take so long to equip it with weapons?” Others promptly echoed the query.
“Do you even know how fast one month is? Don’t bring up those floating warships that take months to build; they just look like imposing floating iron coffins! If you don’t understand the technology, come and see if you can make it with your hands!”
After being retorted a few times, the representative of the academic department became agitated and, with a sense of superiority in intelligence and knowledge, directly retorted.
“Calm down! They were just disgusted by those guys’ methods. Our enemies are always those top academies and the hundred-academy alliance, not ourselves.”
Once a proactive mediator stepped in, the meeting quickly returned to normal.
And they swiftly moved on to the next agenda.
That was about the secret of Blood Slave Peninsula.
Due to the blood sacrifice incident on Blood Slave Peninsula, nearly one-third of its cities became ghost towns, devoid of any trace of human life.
The stationed battle sequences soon united with local families to conduct a cleanup here.
In this cleanup, many buried secret areas were quickly discovered.
Unlike the Witch Academy’s penchant for developing various spaces, such as curtain spaces, folding spaces, and overlapping spaces of various types, other extraordinary races lack the foundation for students to use such high-end methods.
Thus, expanding spaces either resembles angels supervising floating islands in the sky or digging and developing underground areas.
So, many underground facilities were discovered within Blood Slave Peninsula.
And along the nodes of the blood sacrifice ceremony, remarkably quick ground buildings were found.
Among these, the enormous space beneath Blood Slave Academy stood out the most.
The operating sequence did not engage in trade in these areas; triggering some uncontrollable aftermath would purely be seeking death.
Hence, they could only send teams for flexible exploration; even if encountering some irresistible force, they could rescue them through preparedness, or bring them back for revival.
Currently, they have discovered large underground air conditioning facilities—stations, and the number of small and medium-sized underground facilities has reached 134, and this is not even the final number.”
Many were slightly taken aback by this number. This was not the first time they had heard this news. The last meeting mentioned this only when the known underground facilities had barely surpassed two digits; now it had gone straight to three digits!
Initially, they received reports from the bakery side indicating that sequence information had been shared, and one must say, the internal situation was indeed surprising to them.
Because a vast area had been found underground housing “unknown creatures”!
But it can be confirmed that they resemble humanoids, with considerable differences in their limbs from humans, completely hairless, including their heads, presenting a sickly pale appearance, and their bodies swollen and enormous.
They resent light.
When discovered, these creatures were living comfortably underground, seemingly because the underground facilities used special materials to isolate the effects of the blood sacrifice.
Furthermore, these underground facilities also preserved many surviving students from the Blood Slave Academy. Upon capture, they readily confessed.
These “monsters” are all former graduates of the Blood Slave Academy, having completely regressed to blood slaves with only instinct.
That’s right… this form is the purest blood slave in the eyes of the Blood Clan.
A blood-producing machine that knows nothing but to supply blood!
If it were just this, they would still merely despise the Blood Clan academy without taking it this seriously; at most, there would be slight disagreements on how to deal with these blood slaves.
But they encountered Wizard Apprentices here!
Ultimately, these Wizard Apprentices destroyed the place and successfully escaped.
This operation undoubtedly proves that the Wizard Academy actively intervened in Blood Slave Peninsula, and did so secretly.
However, the Wizard Academy refuses to acknowledge this.
Moreover, the Union Society is not yet prepared to declare war on the top academies, so this situation can only continue in a stalemate.
Thus, the Zero Special Editing Operations Sequence is on Blood Slave Peninsula, using these special underground facilities as bait, continuously lying in wait for Wizard Apprentices.
However, many more underground facilities were found to have already been destroyed by the Wizard Apprentices.
And now, according to Cleveland, such places have been discovered to be 134!
Yet they still cannot determine why wizards are so intent on destroying these underground facilities.
Are they afraid that materials like Blood Crystals might fall into the hands of the Witch Academy?
Please… things like Blood Crystals have already developed a backlash within the academy after knowing what they are. How could the Witch Academy possibly want them?
They wouldn’t fetch much money anyway, and it would ruin their reputation.
However, to say they’re acting irresponsibly… that too makes no sense.
At present, the Zero Special Editing Operations Sequence is only sending exploration teams to the extremely large underground facilities beneath the Blood Slave Academy and allowing the wizards to destroy the other smaller ones.
Even if Wizard Apprentices do not destroy these places, they will have to, after all, their moral conscience does not permit such things to happen before them.
Leaving behind the largest underground facility to figure out what they intend to accomplish will suffice.
“By the way, what does the academy say about this matter?”
“We vaguely mentioned this, but the academy seems unwilling to interfere with our actions, allowing us to observe and see if we can directly destroy all without mercy.”
“In my opinion, there’s no need to make a big deal out of this; regardless of their obsession, destroying all is the solution.” Someone suggested.
“Yingfu, your suggestion is better left unsaid. Those wizards must be risking something to push forward these underground facilities; there’s definitely a secret beneath. What if… we ask Teaching Assistant Xiao Tao for help? See if she’s interested in this matter, and then we can decide.”
The representative who proposed this looked towards Cleveland, seemingly waiting for a response from her.
“Do we have to trouble Xiao Tao?…” Cleveland furrowed her brow, contemplating whether to go through with this.
“I can test the waters to gauge Xiao Tao’s thoughts on this matter.” Cleveland did not immediately respond.
She prepared to organize some recent affairs before reporting to Xiao Tao. Although this was her initiative’s periodic summary, she believed it would be better to have an excuse than to approach her directly.
