Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

“ You’re saying this is… a church? ”

Hunter stared blankly at the massive city wall before him—more than twenty meters tall—then at the towering main body of the church, over a hundred meters high, looming like a mountain. Fortresses stretched out in clusters, forming a continuous wall of bastions.

This… this was a church?

Wasn’t this exactly what the never-falling Morrier Fortress in the Corridor of Despair looked like?

Your Church was located in the Storm Ocean at the very edge of the world—yet this fortress complex, even if placed on the Empire’s frontline battlefield, would not fall short in the slightest. It could make even the Church’s own armies feel despair… and yet this existed on an island?

Was Castel’s environment truly that dangerous?

He had to admit—those two members of the Holy Guard did have reasonable concerns. Fortunately, he had mentally prepared himself beforehand. Otherwise, seeing a fortress of such size, he might really have been frightened to the core.

Following the two out of the train station and approaching the bastion, Hunter’s expression grew increasingly grave.

As an expert in siege warfare, he could understand many aspects of this fortress’s design.

Almost all the fortress fronts were completely sealed, with even the firing holes being extremely small. Yet the walls were extraordinarily thick—if one looked closely, one could see many parts had been repaired.

These were fortifications built for extremely high-intensity battlefields. They practically couldn’t conduct sorties; they could only defend from within.

And most of the damaged walls were on the front-facing, wide-contact surfaces. Those walls had clearly been damaged in real battles.

But as he walked closer, his eyelids twitched uncontrollably.

The thickest parts of these walls were more than ten meters thick, and the average thickness was over five meters. What could possibly shake such massive walls?

Examining the repair marks carefully, he saw that many were savage cracks gouged into the stone. Based on the direction of the cracks, he could easily determine the center point and the size of the impact surface.

Whatever struck these walls… had a diameter of nearly ten meters??

Hunter’s hands began trembling.

Even the largest battering ram, with a steel-reinforced ramhead, could never leave marks one-tenth as terrifying as these. What kind of enemy had these churches fought?

Walls more than twenty meters tall, completely sealed bastions, such brutal and tragic scars…

Had this place once been a battlefield of the gods?

Hunter stepped back several paces and again stared at the colossal fortress complex.

If it were him—how would he even begin to capture such fortifications?

Each bastion was pressed tightly against the next, yet with no surface-level connections. There must have been underground tunnels linking them. All the firing holes were funnel-shaped—firing outward from within was easy, but firing inward from outside was almost impossible.

The forward jutting bastions were immensely thick, their surfaces riddled with holes. Enemy armies must have rammed into them, only to be brutally sliced apart into segments by the stone walls, then divided and annihilated by the dense network of walls and towers behind.

No weaknesses.

This fortress complex had no weaknesses.

If one had to name a flaw—it would simply be that building fortifications of such specifications required an astronomical cost. Just finding the stone would take ages.

Such a miracle required the wisest ruler, the wealthiest treasury, and master builders of the highest skill, gathered together to create it!

Hunter could not suppress his trembling—this was exactly the fortress he dreamed of: the most perfect, the most impregnable citadel, an Eternal City that would never fall in the mortal world!

“It’s… beautiful.”

He collapsed to his knees, trembling, and caressed the solid stone wall with quivering hands.

The two members of the Holy Guard hurried after him, startled, unsure if they should restrain him.

“What’s wrong with him? He hasn’t even seen the Stellar Furnace yet—why is he like this already?”

“Doesn’t look dangerous. Just seems overly excited. Doesn’t look insane… yet.”

The two muttered from the side, but the kneeling Hunter suddenly froze.

Then he slowly stood up, disbelief in his eyes, pressing his face against the wall as he examined it with trembling hands.

“Impossible… this is impossible… unless—”

He glanced around, picked up a nearby stone block, and suddenly smashed it against the wall!

Bang!

Everyone nearby turned to look. The Holy Guard could no longer stay calm:

“Hey! Look all you want, but don’t smash the walls! And look—you even smeared mud on it!”

Hunter snapped his head around, roaring hoarsely:

“What is this material?! What material?! Tell me!!”

“Uh… this section should be made with… No. 7 concrete…”

“Concrete!? What is concrete? Why can it be smeared like cement yet remain this strong? This is impossible—this is impossible!”

“What’s impossible about it? You saw it yourself. You smashed it with a stone and all you left was mud. That’s just how things made in Castel are.”

“Hey, keep your voice down. Don’t agitate him.”

The other member of the Holy Guard tried to calm his companion, then looked toward Hunter—and nearly jumped in fright.

Hunter stood there blankly, like an idiot, muttering under his breath.

The stone he had held was already on the ground. His eyes flickered rapidly—clearly calculating something.

A long time passed—long enough for the two Holy Guards to consider restraining him—before Hunter exhaled deeply. His gaze slowly sharpened.

“Let’s go. I’ll go with you. Take me to meet… that great Lord. You may not understand—this is a world-shaking invention! With such miraculous material, combined with the knowledge in my mind, I can definitely create something—something that can change the world!”

“Uh… change it how?”

The Holy Guard scratched his head. Concrete—what could it really change?

Blood Harbor had been using it for more than half a year already. It was great for building fortifications, sure, but they hadn’t encountered any enemy capable of even reaching Castel’s fortifications…

Still, building housing also counted as changing the world. Many slum dwellers in Blood Harbor now lived in resettlement housing. Low-grade concrete wasn’t expensive either—and with Castel’s level of industrialization, building homes cost almost nothing.

So that was it—the Northern scholar cared about the commonfolk.

Such ideals were indeed admirable.

Hunter didn’t notice their shifting expressions. He was clearly still elated, even smiling uncontrollably as he strode toward the city gate.

“This concrete will completely change the structure of castles and defensive fortifications. It will completely transform the nature of war! Using it on an island like Castel is a waste. The mainland battlefields are where it should truly shine!”

“As for here… you could even use it to free yourselves from the Sea God!”

Hunter could tell these men had no loyalty to the Church of the Sea God—they were clearly being controlled. He could use this as leverage to negotiate with Master Hughes!

The two members of the Holy Guard exchanged confused looks, scratching their heads as they followed.

“Let’s hope we don’t ‘free’ ourselves from the Sea God… Without the Sea God, what would Castel even burn for fuel?”