Release that Witch

After winter arrived, the snow seemed to subside considerably.

Roland was humming a tune as he read through the three manuscripts on his table.

They were, separately, the plan for the trial and production of the latest type of ammunition, the blueprint for the latest generation of small weapons, and the construction plan for the Spellcaster Tower.

The former two manuscripts were ideas which he had conceived for a long time. Now that he could make use of Agatha’s abilities to freeze and control temperature, the town’s nitric acid output increased manyfold. The problem regarding the stability of the mass production of nitroglycerin had also been solved, and therefore, all of the conditions for the manufacture of double base propellants were fundamentally provided.

Even though Roland knew that this type of propellant was created by dissolving nitrocotton in nitroglycerin, and eventually obtaining a viscous jelly that could be sliced or granulated, he still required an alchemist to test and find out the mixture ratios involved.

Fortunately, Kyle Sichi was already very experienced in conducting both quantitative and qualitative experiments. If this task was given to him, the results should be obtainable in one or two weeks.

Since Roland was already trying to produce a brand new propellant, naturally, the development of a new type of light weapon was also on the agenda.

Compared with blackfire gunpowder, which required the use of a large-caliber revolving rifle, only a small amount of a double base propellant was necessary to achieve an equivalent lethality. Therefore, based on firepower and cost-to-performance ratio, it was definitely better to switch from rifles to light-caliber automatic weapons.

Of course, the specific parameters were to be further determined according to the results of Anna’s processing.

Roland drank a mouthful of hot tea and placed the third manuscript in front of him. This was what excited him the most at present.

Compared to the other plans, the contents of this document looked very discordant. At Agatha’s request, he planned to build a Spellcaster Tower beside the Witch House and use it for the research and manufacturing of sigils.

He imagined a lofty Magic Tower standing high among the masses of chimneys and factories. It felt simply... too cool and fancy.

Roland started laughing uncontrollably.

Nightingale, who was at one side busy gnawing on dried fish, looked at Roland contemptuously. ”Are sigils really so interesting? The witches’ kingdom possessed many sigils, yet still lost to the demons.”

”But there’re some very interesting things inside.” The prince took a thick book out of a drawer. It was a sigil collection that was translated from the experimental notes left behind by the Quest Society. It recorded all of the formulas discovered by the Quest Society over more than 200 years.

To him, this was a completely new territory.

After Agatha had completed the translation, Roland spent most of his nighttimes reading the book. As he read about the uses and composite lists of the magic stones, He felt as if he was assembling runewords. Probably, when the Chief Alchemist first received the book of Elementary Chemistry, he carried similar excitement as he studied the different chemical formulas.

”Knowledge that’s new always seems especially attractive, even if it’s only basics.”

”For example?” Nightingale leant over to Roland.

”Like this.” Roland pointed to a sentence in the book. ”The ancient witches called this the Sigil of Listening. It is used for long-distance communication, and, like the Sigil of Tracking, it’ll remain effective even if it’s separated into parts.” He shifted his pointing finger downwards. ”The materials are very simple. All you need is a piece of Echo Stone and a piece of Marking Stone.”

According to the book’s description, the effective range of this sigil was dozens of miles. Although it could not compare to the mobile phones of later ages, which were supported by many signal towers and satellites, it could still suffice as a walkie-talkie.

”Is it?” Nightingale glanced at the page and then pulled Roland’s finger towards the page on the right. ”However, it’s written here that ’Echo Stones come from Fearsome Demons, and Marking Stones are commonly seen in Devil’s Town.’ How are you going to obtain these two magic stones?”

”No, we already have the materials,” Roland said zealously. ”The piece of red crystal which Lightning found in the ruins was an Echo Stone. As for the Marking Stone, it’s one of the composite materials of the Sigil of Tracking—Tilly has brought along a few of this, and they simply have to be disassembled.”

”Even if Agatha is able to create it, you’ll only be able to obtain one Sigil of Listening.”

”Just let her try. Anyway, when we fight demons in the future, we’ll acquire more and more Magic Stones.” It was too bad that, previously, there weren’t the conditions for research on new applications of magic power. Now that Roland had the technical support of Agatha, he was not about to let go of these resources which cost nearly nothing.

”Alright.” Nightingale shrugged. ”As for the Sigil of God’s Will, what magic stones does it require?”

”This... I remember seeing it on the last page.” Roland flipped to the final page of the book. ”By the way, how was the result of your fighting capacity test?”

Nightingale flinched for a while and then uttered a single word. ”Secret!”

She seemed to have been frustrated by Anna.

”Found it, over here.” Roland pouted his lips. ”The four required magic stones are all written as unknown... probably, out of confidentiality considerations, the Quest Society didn’t record them in the written form. However, according to Agatha, these magic stones mostly come from the Senior Demons, and therefore, even if they were written down, no one would be able to obtain them.”

”And yet you display such a precious object openly in the hall.” Nightingale groaned. ”If the Transcendents find out, they’ll be so angry at you that they’ll even come back to life.”

”Because it’s nothing precious, probably... as precious as a few dozen kilograms of TNT.” Roland laughed but did not reply.

...

This time, he waited until Agatha had completed her production of acid for the day before he called her into the office.

”Have a look at the Spellcaster Tower that I’ve designed for you.” Roland held up his sketch. ”The basement is a warehouse, and there are three storeys above ground. They are, separately, the apprentice lab, the tower master’s lab, and the office.”

”Wait... why is it called the Spellcaster Tower?” Agatha frowned. ”All I want is a chemical lab like Sir Kyle’s, except a little more spacious and bright. It’ll be very troublesome to build a tower like this. In Taquila, towers were built only because the land area of the city was small. You have lots of open space here.”

”That’s not fashionable already!” Roland shouted in his heart. ”Anyway, the problems regarding the construction aren’t difficult to solve. Aside from the facilities that I have stated, do you have other demands?”

”No.” Agatha raised her hands. ”If you insist.”

”Great.” Roland placed the sketch down and started talking about the idea he thought of in the morning. ”Can you complete the sigil production alone?”

”No, I can’t.” Agatha shook her head. ”Although sigils are created by linking magic stones, the materials required to transmit magic power are very complicated. Most importantly, it requires the blood of demons.”

The prince was stunned. ”What?”

”You didn’t hear wrongly. And it has to be fresh blood.” She said solemnly. ”When the Quest Society was figuring out the nature of magic power, it conducted thousands of experiments and eventually proved that the flesh and blood of witches, demons and demonic beasts are completely different in nature, and their functions are also remarkably different.”

”The flesh and blood of...witches?” Roland received a shock when he suddenly realized the meaning behind these words. He asked impulsively, ”What are their functions?”

”To create God’s Punishment Army,” Agatha said stoically.