Kang De's Focused Magic Energy Armor-Piercing Warhead
As the bowstring twanged, the arrow shot through the air, leaving a trail of blazing fire before striking the Eagle Gate Silver Armor serving as the target—one of the standard Elven armors.
A flash of light appeared, and a ball of flame exploded with a deafening roar. The intense heat burned and melted the arrow, which shattered instantly. However, the light armor had already been pierced by the scorching jet of fire.
Hong San put down his longbow, went over to inspect it, and said, "Ten arrows can pierce four times, and that's the strongest part of the defense. If you hit the head, face, or limbs where the defense is weaker, the effect will be even better."
He turned his head and said, "According to the experts sent by the city lord, the Eagle Gate Silver Armor is the standard armor of the elven light cavalry. Its protective power surpasses that of the spirit vine woven wooden armor of the archer soldiers, and its performance is not far from that of the mountain mist chainmail of the arrayed infantry, since the latter has a shield... But compared to the armor of heavy infantry, it is far inferior."
Kang De nodded and put the arrows back into the quiver. These arrows were all shrouded in a crimson color, clearly imbued with the power of Flame.
He said, "To deal with the armor of heavy infantry, you can use javelins. Ultimately, these things are meant to arm an elite force, enabling them to unleash a powerful attack in a moment of crisis... In other words, they can only be used to ensure the explosive firepower of this force."
Hong San walked over to Kang De, picked up an arrow and examined it carefully, then asked, "Sir, if you have this skill, why don't you strengthen the soldiers' main weapons? These arrows and javelins are used once and then gone. If it were spears and greatswords, at least we could continuously increase our combat effectiveness."
Kang De shook his head and said, "That's too much trouble, and I have limited energy. Let's do this first."
He asked Leona to send someone to the city hall to obtain two sets of elven armor and representative weapons of the city's defense forces from the mayor, and began to study the issue of enchanting.
After all, in a battle of this scale, he cannot change the overall situation of the battlefield with his personal bravery alone. To defend the city, it is necessary to increase strategic strength. In this case, the cheat code of Extraction enchantment can play an important role, which can improve the combat effectiveness of a unit.
These days, he has accumulated quite a few Magic Creature, all of which he found, borrowed, or fell from the sky. The uses of some of the enchanted equipment are not discernible, but others are quite obvious and can be used directly in combat, giving weapons higher-level performance—sharpness, armor penetration, freezing, and so on.
After careful consideration, he finally set his sights on one of the enchantments— Roar of the Crimson Flame.
The reason is simple: Flame Element to obtain.
Roar of the Crimson Flame is a high-level enchantment derived from the Crimson Blood Flame Edge Short Sword. Its Element array is complex and overlapping, with five layers. After Kang De drew this array using CAD tools, he attempted to reverse-engineer the principles and rules of this enchantment array, and he actually succeeded. After simplification and stripping, he successfully derived a brand-new version of the Flame enchantment from the Element array of Roar of the Crimson Flame.
Compared to Roar of the Crimson Flame, this enchantment is less powerful, but correspondingly, the Element array is much simpler, making it easier and less prone to failure. It can also grant a weapon a significant Flame enchantment enhancement—if an entire elite team were equipped with this enchanted weapon, it could probably increase their combat power by at least 20% to 30%.
Kang De named this enchantment "Blazing Flame".
Just as he was ambitiously preparing to upgrade the artillery of an elite city defense force, he immediately encountered the fatal problem that comes with transitioning from a conceptual product to mass production.
Although the array diagram has been greatly simplified, the workload is still considerable.
Kang De was, after all, just a human being. When faced with repetitive tasks requiring intense concentration, he lacked perseverance and was quite inefficient...
Thinking of this, he missed his Iron Son even more. The good boy had excellent grades, was down-to-earth, capable, multitasking, and extremely productive.
Besides production efficiency, enchanting also depends on the material of the equipment. If the material is of poor quality, it cannot withstand overly powerful enchantments. The skill of perfectly blending the strength of the enchantment with the physical properties of the material is something that a good alchemist should master.
--Kang De, being a self-taught scholar, naturally wouldn't understand.
He would just start carving without thinking twice.
This means that while weapons will be greatly enhanced, they will also have a potential problem with their lifespan. Imagine, during a city battle, brave human soldiers wielding Blazing Flame weapons fight fiercely and are invincible, but after a while, the sword just breaks on its own—that would be too frustrating.
Therefore, considering the issues of weapon strength and production efficiency, Kang De, after weighing the pros and cons, reluctantly adopted a more brutal and ruthless approach.
Screw the array diagrams, Extraction the Flame Element and infuse it directly.
That is, the barbaric enchanting method that Kang De used when he first gained the ability to Extraction on the Holy Seal Archipelago... Now it seems that the Parrot's mockery back then might have been mocking this very point.
This brutal infusion method has significant drawbacks; it can completely destroy the internal structure of the Magic Creature, to the point that it will explode and shatter upon violent impact.
The only advantage is that it's effortless; after Extraction the Element, you just pour it in.
However, it has proven to be extremely advantageous in the current situation.
First, after deciding to use this enchanting method, Kang De changed the enchantment target from main combat weapons such as guns and swords to ranged projectiles such as javelins and arrows. Since they were disposable items anyway, there was no need to consider the issue of lifespan and material strength; he didn't care what happened.
This actually turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
For example, a Flame arrow infused with Element, after being fired, hits the enemy's armor, causing a violent collision, structural collapse, arrow shattering, and the arrowhead flying away.
At the same time, the Flame Element concentrated inside the arrow suddenly exploded, melting the metal arrow and propelling it towards the enemy again. The distance between the ejected arrow and the armor was enough to accelerate the liquid metal, creating an effect similar to a metal jet, instantly doubling its armor-piercing capability.
Just like Hong San's attempt, four out of ten arrows were able to penetrate the most solid part.
This is truly a pleasant surprise.
He had tried enchanting bullets this way before, but without achieving such good results. Thinking about it carefully, it might be due to issues with size and structure, or some other reason... Furthermore, the strength of a bullet is far superior to that of an arrow shaft.
Thinking of this, Kang De took out the arrow again and examined it closely.
Of the ten arrows, four were powerful enough to pierce the Eagle Gate Silver Armor, a success rate of forty percent; the rest failed. He felt this was not a matter of probability.
Ten arrows, though infused with the same savage Element, are not identical. Differences in materials, craftsmanship, slight variations in weight, and even the distribution and penetration of the chaotic Flame Element may determine whether an arrow can ultimately pierce the armor.
He jotted down the idea in his notebook.
Perhaps through extensive experimentation, testing, learning, and deduction, he can create a completely new and stable special enchantment—"Kang De's Focused Magic Energy Armor-Piercing Warhead."
But now there's no time for that kind of slow, in-depth study.
Let's start mass production first; improvements can wait. The current version is usable anyway.
After Kang De put down the arrow, he picked up the javelin beside him, weighed it in his hand, and then smiled.
Perhaps he could also come up with a new enchantment like "Kang De's Tail-Stabilized Ejector Armor-Piercing Warhead".
Just then, Hong San, standing to the side, suddenly spoke with a grave expression, "Master."
Kang De snapped out of his reverie, looked up, and said, "Huh?"
The Cathayan hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "It would be better if you kept this ability a secret, or at least partially secret."
Hong San gripped the arrow shaft and slowly said, "Otherwise, if someone with ulterior motives found out, you could easily make a whole bundle of arrows even more deadly by simply setting it on fire..."
Kang De was taken aback at first, then chuckled and said, "It's not easy. Although this method of injecting everything at once is relatively time-saving and labor-saving, it still consumes mental energy, and doing too much of it will give you a headache."
That's still scary.
Hong San's gaze was shrewd and experienced, and without realizing it, he had become less secretive. "In my opinion, you've only recently learned this skill, haven't you? You've only scratched the surface. With your talent and ability, this skill will only grow stronger in the future... It's better to keep it hidden for now."
Kang De twirled the javelin in his hand. "Hmm, that makes sense. I'll keep that in mind."
But deep down, I still had some reservations.
After all, he was an Earthling, a China, while the other party was just from another world, Cathayan.
Some ideas and concepts cannot be conceived by mere talent. From Hong San's perspective, the first priority in this kind of enchanting skill is to conceal one's shortcomings and then master it to perfection.
Kang De's idea was... to find a way to mass-produce them, making them as plentiful as cabbages.
What he should really hide isn't his enchanting skills.
He picked up the entire quiver and handed it to Hong San: "I still need to study how to strengthen the javelins. It's a confidential matter, so I'll trouble you to take these arrows to Nick and demonstrate them to him. He'll come... Time is of the essence; we need to be fully prepared before the elves' next siege."
At this point, Kang De asked, "Is everything alright? Otherwise, I'll go."
Hong San smiled and said, "It's alright... I also want to talk to him in person. After all, the mayor's intentions are still unclear, and I want to figure out what he's thinking."
Kang De said, "I had the same thought, which is why I wanted you to go... but I'm afraid you might still harbor resentment and not want to see him, or you might mess things up, which wouldn't be good."
Hong San shook his head and said, "Times have their order, and matters have their priorities. Although I resent him for forcibly summoning the Heaven and Earth Society defend the city, squandering our lives so easily, the dead are gone, and the living still face the Elven army's advance. Right now, the most important thing is to defend the city... We can talk about other things later."
Kang De looked at him and said calmly, "You still care about those people from the Heaven and Earth Society and want to protect them."
Hong San's eyes changed slightly, then he said with a grin, "No, what I really want to protect is you, sir."
Kang De kicked out, Hong San caught the quiver without dodging. However, when Kang De's kick landed, Hong San immediately withdrew his force, only lightly touching the side.
He waved his hand and said, "Disgusting, get lost."
Hong San's smile faded, and he bowed deeply. "Sir, I know you despise those people from the Heaven and Earth Society, but when you spoke with Mayor Nick, you still wanted to speak up for them, didn't you—even though the mayor spoke first. I know you did this entirely out of consideration for my feelings... I really don't know how to thank you enough."
Despite saying that, he did not kneel down and kowtow this time.
Without waiting for Kang De's reply, he ran off in a flash.
Kang De stood still for a moment, then snorted and began fiddling with the javelin in his hand.
As dusk approached, the city lights began to twinkle.
After nightfall, the earth was deep and dark. In ancient times, night meant safety, and wars usually did not occur. This was not because everyone was a good boy who slept on time, but because of the lack of nutrition in ancient times. Many soldiers suffered from night blindness and could not see clearly, so how could they fight a war?
Only night raids launched by highly respected generals leading small, disciplined, and well-nourished troops have become famous examples, sometimes even determining the success or failure of a war.
... But the situation in another world is different from that on Earth.
Firstly, elves originated from the forest, eating both vegetarian and meat dishes with great culinary skills, so they have no problem with night blindness. Secondly, their training and discipline are extremely high, and if all else fails, they have magic to create light—it's a piece of cake for them. Therefore, Valentan's situation becomes even more dangerous after nightfall.
Mayor Nick is personally overseeing security matters after nightfall, managing everything from food and sentry posts to emergency response measures, big and small, keeping him extremely busy.
But when Hong San found him and demonstrated the enchanted arrow, Nick immediately handed over his military duties to his brother and other generals, and rushed to the Vidal Chamber of Commerce.
Upon meeting Kang De, he went straight to the point and asked, "How many?"
Kang De replied, "Asking your entire city's archers to water the city is out of the question, but equipping an elite projectile unit with that force for a burst of firepower to suppress the enemy and reverse the crisis is feasible... There's also a spear-throwing version, which is still being tested."
Nick took a deep breath and grasped Kang De's hands. "Just tell me what you need. I'll give you a warrant and send a steward to serve you directly. Everything you need can be obtained from the city's treasury! If it's not in the treasury, just tell me!"
Kang De nodded and said, "I'll write up a list. You can send someone to contact me. Manufacturing these things is very mentally taxing. If you have any related potions or equipment, send them over as soon as possible. I'll try my best to manufacture enough arrows and javelins before the next battle. How to allocate and use them is up to you."
"Also, I called you here because there's something important I want to tell you."
Nick said in a deep voice, "You speak."
A hint of worry, mixed with anticipation, flickered in Kang De's eyes. He said, "My companions might come in the next couple of days. If they do, your men must cooperate fully with me to let it into the city—I can tell you clearly, it's very important, not only to me but also to you. In fact, whether we can better defend this city depends on it."
Nick looked into Kang De's eyes. "A person?"
Even a tool is still a person.
Kang De said, "That's right."
--It's just a bit big.
The mayor then said, "I understand, one person can manage."
Kang De smiled.
If I had Iron Son, the speed of crafting enchanted items would be much faster. I really miss it.
But where is it now? Or rather, has it received a radio signal?
Why haven't they arrived yet?
Under the cover of night, Humvee gallops across the open field, its headlights casting beams of light that dispel the darkness.
Several large, burly green leather trucks were hanging from the rear of the vehicle, and one was also lying on the roof.
The Autobots's deep voice rang out. "Kan Fantian, you'd better make sure all the time you've wasted has been worth it. I should be reunited with my father right now."
Braving the night's howling wind, Greenie's voice was filled with high spirits. "Don't worry, we never lie! We're going to help the Big Mek kill people, so we need helpers! The more helpers we have, the more awesome we can be at killing elves! The more awesome we can be at helping the Big Mek!"
"Just trust me, Little Mek!"
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PS1: It's a little early today, time for bed.