Necromancer, but with Pre-Collapse Civilization Chapter 41

Moros was quite dissatisfied with the current long-range war machines of the undead legion – the ballistae.

After practical testing during a series of battles in the Purge Demiplane, he had gained a deep understanding of the true performance of the Ashan World's rune ballistae.

These war machines, which were sold at exorbitant prices in the graveyard cities, even exceeding the cost of a spectral dragon, performed no better than a 12-pound M1857 Napoleon cannon.

Despite their excellent mobility and accuracy, when compared to the artillery equipped by the regular army of the Mu Continent, or even modern artillery from other nations of the previous civilization, the performance of the rune ballistae was extremely backward.

It was simply a matter of having no other choice; otherwise, Moros would not have been willing to keep the rune ballistae in the combat sequence of the undead legion.

Even though Moros possessed an impressive [Attack] attribute of 20 and a [Knowledge] attribute of 21, which boosted the damage of the rune ballistae to a respectable 82-123, their significant disadvantage in range compared to modern artillery greatly reduced their practicality.

More importantly, only one rune ballista could receive the attribute bonuses from Moros himself; the rest of the rune ballistae had their damage capped at a basic level of 2-3.

Therefore, when he had the opportunity to acquire modern artillery, specifically the 155MM heavy cannons that were standard issue on the Mu Continent, Moros naturally accepted the "friendship" offered by the Fuyuan City elites without hesitation.

After clearly expressing his satisfaction with the gift, Moros stepped into the slowly rotating, ethereal blue demiplane passage.

As Moros disappeared, the ethereal blue vortex also slowly closed, and the demiplane passage was sealed once more.

If not for the fact that the six 155MM howitzers had vanished without a trace, everything that had just happened might have seemed like a mere illusion.

Disregarding how the handover personnel would report to the Fuyuan City elites, Moros put aside his distractions and ordered the skeleton archers to board the towing vehicles, dragging the newly acquired six 155MM howitzers outside the graveyard city.

His objective was to attempt to have undead soldiers operate these heavy artillery pieces.

Since the necromancers of the past could use [Necromancy] to create skeleton archers capable of driving trucks, it was only natural that Moros, with his more profound research in the field of [Necromancy], could implant the memories of operating these standard heavy cannons into the soul fires of the skeleton archers.

That's right, skeleton archers, not plague zombies.

When Moros first attempted to have plague zombies operate the artillery towing vehicles, he quickly realized it was not a wise choice.

The stiff fingers and sluggish minds of the plague zombies made them incapable of handling the task, unable to properly drive the towing vehicles to haul the artillery.

It was no wonder that after countless years of development in the Ashan World, even with the many weaknesses of skeleton soldiers – being fragile, having low health, and limited development potential – they remained the undead mages' most favored undead troops. Their nimble limbs and ability to follow orders were indeed unmatched by other undead creatures.

With this thought, Moros dismissed the dazed plague zombies and instead summoned an equal number of skeleton archers, imbuing them with the relevant knowledge.

Soon, thirty-six skeleton archers appeared with the six 155MM howitzers on a vast plain far from the graveyard city.

In addition to the six skeleton archers serving as towing vehicle drivers, the remaining thirty skeleton archers quickly deployed the towed 155MM howitzers into combat readiness.

Each group of skeleton artillerymen consisted of five skeleton archers, who served as the gun commander, aiming and observation specialist, emergency repairman, gunner, and ammunition loader, respectively, ensuring the efficient operation of the artillery.

Once all six heavy howitzers were ready, Moros began the training of the first batch of artillerymen in the graveyard territory.

Given the nature of the undead, once the initial training was completed, Moros could copy the memories of the skeleton archers through [Necromancy], thereby mass-producing his own skeleton artillery units.

As for the source of the 155MM howitzers to be equipped for the skeleton artillerymen, Moros was not worried.

With the [Blacksmith] at his disposal, Moros would not be held hostage by the Fuyuan City elites.

Reality was not a game; the [Blacksmith], as a magical building, certainly wouldn't be limited to manufacturing only the four standard war machines from the game.

In fact, besides rune ballistae, the [Blacksmith] also offered many other war machines for sale, such as small catapults and siege towers.

However, compared to rune ballistae, the practicality of these war machines was even worse.

The reason for this was not difficult to understand.

Ultimately, the Ashan World was a world of magic, where long-range attacks primarily relied on spells, and the power of a mage corps was something no war machine could match.

Only smaller factions lacking the capital to establish mage corps would view war machines like rune ballistae as substitutes.

In such a context, the war machines of the Ashan World naturally could not compare to those of the pre-Collapse civilization that Moros belonged to.

After all, in the Ashan World, intelligent individuals pursued magic, while those who studied war machines were naturally inferior to the former.

Returning to the main topic, although the existing war machine templates in the [Blacksmith] had varying degrees of shortcomings in practicality, as long as there were physical samples, the [Blacksmith] could analyze and replicate these war machine templates by consuming resources.

This meant that once Moros obtained the template for the 155MM howitzer, he could directly purchase physical copies from the blacksmith by paying Ashan gold coins.

However, compared to the rune ballistae that could accept Moros's attribute bonuses, these howitzers purchased from the [Blacksmith] would only possess basic damage.

Of course, [War Machines] could still normally enhance these war machines purchased from the [Blacksmith].

With the experience of operating rune ballistae, Moros's training of skeleton artillerymen, although encountering some bumps, was progressing steadily overall.

After more than half a day of effort, the skeleton artillery crew operating the howitzers finally fired their first shell.

Although the shell's landing point deviated from the intended target by several hundred meters, it was undoubtedly a milestone achievement.

There was no need to elaborate on the subsequent training; after firing over a hundred shells, the skeleton artillerymen finally gained actual combat capability.

After copying the memories of these skeleton artillerymen through [Necromancy], Moros ordered them to drag the howitzers back to the graveyard territory for analysis.

As Moros had anticipated, after spending 180,000 Ashan gold coins, the [Blacksmith] successfully analyzed the war machine template for the 155MM howitzer.

[Mu Continent Standard 155MM Howitzer]

[Health: 1500]

[Base Damage: 100-150]

[Range: 75KM]

[Ammunition: 60]

[Price: 18000]

Browsing the product description of the latest item listed in the [Blacksmith], Moros placed an order for three artillery companies (18 units) without hesitation.

After instilling the necessary memories into the Skeleton Archers assigned to operate these howitzers, Moros now possessed a well-equipped 155MM Howitzer battalion.

Chapter 69: Command Ability and Spell Learning

Compared to the Mu Continent's military, which could drown the First Herrscher - Herrscher of Reason with the firepower of conventional armies, the firepower of a 155MM Howitzer battalion was insignificant.

However, in the absence of practical combat testing, Moros was cautious about equipping such expensive war machines on a large scale.

In Moros's eyes, although the standard 155MM Howitzers used by the Mu Continent's regular army far surpassed their counterparts from his previous life, their combat effectiveness was still insufficient compared to the new artillery modified by Collapse Energy.

As a Necromancer, Moros knew well that investing in war machines that were behind the times was not a wise move.

Moreover, the Undead Legion currently lacked effective long-range attack methods, primarily because his exploration in the magical domain was not yet deep enough.

If he were a true Legendary caster now, then Legendary spells would be the most powerful long-range attack method.

Given that the 155MM Howitzers played only a transitional role in the Undead Legion's combat sequence, Moros naturally would not equip them on a large scale.

After ordering the newly formed Skeleton artillerymen to take the 155MM Howitzer battalion out of the Graveyard city for training, Moros began to ponder how this war machine, newly added to the [Blacksmith]'s product list, could coordinate with the Undead troops.

Although Moros had never set foot in a military academy in this life or the previous one, this did not mean he knew nothing about commanding Undead troops.

As the iconic force of the Graveyard faction, the operational command of the Undead Legion had been studied in-depth within the Graveyard faction.

While Necromancers were slightly inferior to Death Knights in the actual command and enhancement of legions, in terms of theory, Necromancers were by no means inferior to the servants they created.

For this reason, the Mage Guild had accumulated a vast amount of knowledge and techniques on how to precisely command the Undead Legion.

By deeply studying this command knowledge, Moros had become qualified in commanding the Undead Legion.

Of course, this was by the standards of a Necromancer.

In the eyes of a genuine Death Knight of the Graveyard faction, Moros's current command level could only be considered that of an ordinary student.

He could deploy troops in an orderly fashion according to textbook instructions, preventing the Undead troops from rushing forward like a disorganized mob, but that was about it.

Without the aid of battle spells, this level of command ability was comparable to that of an ordinary noble officer in the [Greyhound Duchy].

As the duchy with the weakest military strength among the eight great duchies of the Ashan World, the command level of ordinary noble officers in the [Greyhound Duchy] was, to put it mildly, understood by those who understood.

They could handle suppressing bandits or clearing out monster troops in the wild, but expecting their commanded armies to achieve anything significant on the brutal battlefields between factions was pure wishful thinking.

However, reality offered no "what ifs." With the power of magic, even if Moros's command ability was limited to this, it was sufficient to serve as a competent commander in the Graveyard faction.

It was just that this level of command ability was clearly insufficient to support the design of complex tactics.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Moros decided to abandon his initial idea of fully integrating the 155MM Howitzer battalion into the Undead Legion.

Apart from engaging in artillery duels with the regular armies of the previous civilization, he would simply treat them as oversized Rune Ballistas!

As the saying goes, "A moment of laziness brings boundless freedom," and with this decision made, Moros instantly felt the burden on his shoulders lighten considerably.

After all, his foundation lay in his Graveyard territory and the magical knowledge stored in the Mage Guild.

The addition of technological creations like the Howitzer battalion undoubtedly enhanced the strength of the Undead Legion, but they were not indispensable.

However, while Moros could adopt a laissez-faire attitude towards the 155MM Howitzer battalion and treat them as large Rune Ballistas, he would never be negligent when it came to magic, which was his foundation.

Moros was acutely aware of how desperate the future of his era was.

To protect those he cared about amidst the final cataclysm that would end the world, Quasi-Legendary Tier strength was far from enough.

Furthermore, with Moros's level of intellect, he naturally understood the principle of "dragons do not associate with snakes."

To be worthy of exceptional individuals like Elysia, Eden, and Vill-V, Moros believed he needed sufficiently profound magical cultivation.

Mage Guild, Library.

Moros sat quietly at the table, his left hand gently resting on the surface, while his right hand was focused on flipping through a spell manuscript detailing the third-tier Dark Magic spell, [Confusion].

[Confusion]: Causes the target unit to forget what they should be doing on the battlefield. Some will forget about ranged attacks and counterattacks.

This spell was quite useful in warfare, but because the battle spells granted by the Mage Guild were completely random, Moros, unfortunately, had not obtained this spell during his upgrades to the Mage Guild.

If Moros wished to officially add [Confusion] to his spellbook, he would have to follow the normal spell learning process, investing time and effort to deeply study and master this third-tier Dark Magic.

This was not an easy task.

Taking [Confusion], which Moros was currently studying, as an example.

The spell manuscript recording this battle spell was not much thinner than the renowned, hefty tome, the "Encyclopedia Britannica."

According to the spell manuscript, the spell model for [Confusion] contained over 300 main spell links, with each link having no less than 5 spell nodes.

In addition to these, Moros also needed to learn and master the corresponding spell node construction methods, the drawing of magical runes, and the variations in spell incantations.

Even for Moros, who was at the Quasi-Legendary Tier, simply memorizing this related knowledge would take several days.

However, remembering the knowledge was only the first step; understanding it and transforming it into an actual battle spell would require even more time.

Even though Moros's life level had already advanced to the Legendary Tier, it would still take him at least one to two months to truly master this third-tier Dark Magic.

This was even with him having reached a cooperation with the powers that be in Fuyuan City, securing ample resources to support him.

If the cooperation hadn't been established yet, due to a lack of resources that could be freely used for spell experiments, Moros's time to learn this level of campaign spell would likely have doubled.

But there was no alternative. Moros knew that such a spell learning process was indispensable if he wanted to become a qualified spellcaster.

If he relied solely on the Hero Panel to increase his hero level, setting aside the terrifying experience required for later stages, the Hero Panel itself had its limits.

The Hero Panel provided by the Graveyard City only went up to level 40. To break through this bottleneck, Moros could only rely on himself.

Therefore, even if his head was spinning from studying, Moros could only sit at his desk, painstakingly poring over the spell notes spread before him.

Chapter 70: Trivial Matters and Signs of Collapse's Arrival

Just as Moros was struggling with the Level 3 Dark Magic, "Mind Control," Eden was also embarking on her path to becoming a legendary superstar.

Holding the brilliant stage of XX Entertainment Company, gifted by Moros, Eden's starting point had already far surpassed her past self in the original history, who only managed to have her ban lifted through the "Celestial Charity Concert."

Even in the predicament of being banned, she had tenaciously forged her own artistic path. Now, with a better beginning, Eden's road would undoubtedly be even more glorious and brilliant.

In just a few months, Eden had already made a name for herself in the classical music scene, earning widespread acclaim.

Even with the full support of XX Entertainment Company, this achievement was by no means easy.

After all, in this internet era, the taste of keyboard warriors is always incredibly high.

Talent that could impress them was enough to prove Eden's extraordinary achievements on the path of classical music.

It is worth mentioning that compared to her artistic journey in the original history, the troubles Eden was currently facing had actually been greatly reduced.

This was easy to understand.

With Eden's captivating beauty, it was natural for her to attract the covetous gazes of countless powerful figures.

For this reason, they would create artificial obstacles, attempting to force Eden to yield.

Although with Eden's talent and abilities, these powerful figures' schemes would ultimately fail, it was undeniable that these disturbances would indeed slow her pace on the road to becoming a superstar.