Soon, Flora, wearing a bird-mask, and the Sisters received the first task from the Lord.
Many people were excited to finally contribute their strength to the new messenger of the Goddess, the great Lord.
However, at the moment of receiving the task, Flora grabbed the hand of the Secretary who had come to issue the task and asked, “I’m sorry, Your Excellency the Secretary, I need to confirm, is the task issued by the Lord really this? A bunch of… math problems?”
To be precise, it was about constructing a second-tier fire magic spell model and related research.
“Yes, Lady Saintess, do not underestimate these math problems; they all concern the future of the territory. This is the Lord’s original words—he said they must be treated carefully, and every number and coordinate needs to be verified at least twice.”
The Secretary politely answered Flora’s question.
Flora looked at the thick stack of math papers in her hand, doubting whether she had really been saved or if all of this was just a last-ditch illusion before death.
Although it was through a mask, the Secretary could see Flora’s confusion and simply said, “The Lord said that if you have any questions, you can find the Lord directly, and he will answer you.”
Unable to understand why she had to do math problems, Flora took the papers to the territory’s laboratory. After explaining her purpose to the knight at the door, she located Lind inside.
“Lord, please forgive my rudeness; I just don’t quite understand why our task is to do math problems, instead of healing, saving people, or spreading your fame.”
Lind, seeing Flora’s inquiry, was not in a hurry to answer her question but began to introduce her to the magic triggers and arcane arrays, which made Flora a bit anxious.
This was the biggest secret of the territory, but it was explained without reservation to Flora, who had just arrived in the territory a few days ago.
After all, as someone closely related to the protagonist, Lind chose to trust her completely.
After briefly explaining the principles of the arcane array and magic triggers, Lind started to tell Flora about the laboratory.
“In fact, during the previous review, both Reina and I felt that our victory in this battle was largely due to luck. Although the grenades have a great power with a range of only thirty meters, they cannot serve as the main weapon going forward.”
While speaking, Lind gently touched the cannon in the laboratory and continued, “So we need to continue updating our weapons; we should not only allow our soldiers to fight against the Demon Clan that uses bloodline magic but also be capable of contending with mid to low-tier professionals.”
Flora’s first reaction was to think Lind was crazy. The technology mentioned and the displayed weapon were already quite outrageous. To think that he wanted to ensure that ordinary soldiers could contend with mid to low-tier professionals?
This was… amazing!
Did it mean that with these weapons, even the Sisters, as a support profession, could go to the battlefield?
Flora’s hands trembled with excitement. She once thought that as a support professional, she could only live her life in the rear, at most serving as a battlefield medic. She never imagined she would have the opportunity to personally slay demons in the future.
Lind approached a device that looked like an oversized firearm; this was a prototype of future weapons created hastily by Lysha and Reina.
He pulled the trigger below the weapon, and the large firearm connected to a magic stone emitted a blazing beam, shooting directly at a distant piece of armor.
Smoke immediately rose from the armor.
This was a second-tier fire magic, or rather a revised version of the second-tier fire magic, representing a new type of magic.
It essentially altered the firing angle and force, increasing the stability of the molten fire ray.
This power could not be compared to the ordinary bloodline magic of demons, but it could not be fired in succession yet because they could not handle the overheating issue of the barrel, and it was just too large—almost comparable to the large artillery that required two people to operate during the late Qing Dynasty.
However, since it was a prototype, there was still plenty of room for improvement. As long as it could succeed, it could solve the problem where ordinary kinetic weapons found it difficult to damage fully armored knights.
After discussing in detail with Reina, Lind discovered that the knights’ enchantment focus primarily aimed at impact reduction because there were not many spell-casting professionals on the actual battlefield.
Aside from the Anju Kingdom in the south having an established mage unit, the mainstream on the battlefield was still knight melee combat. Therefore, armor enchantments generally tended to reduce impact, meaning the current mainstream focus for knights was on resilience and physical resistance, rather than specifically stacking magic resistance.
After all, what might be frightening bloodline magic to ordinary people was mostly just minor tricks and difficult to inflict effective damage on elite knights.
This meant that as long as the weapon capable of firing molten fire rays could be successfully developed, it would essentially counter all current mainstream enchantments.
“This is really insane.”
Flora exclaimed. It was the first time she felt that a weapon used for killing could also be so aesthetically pleasing.
Not knowing what Flora was thinking, Lind added, “So your task is to optimize the spell structure of the molten fire ray. I will send Lysha to liaise with you to compress the arcane array of the molten fire ray’s spell structure to the utmost.”
Lind patted the flintlock firearm on the table next to them. “It should be able to fit into a weapon of this size.”
There is a very large margin for optimization with such low-tier spells, but no one would specifically optimize this kind of magic. Or to say, the construction of spell models is generally quite free-form, and since everyone’s casting habits are different, most spell models have not been studied to their fullest, and no one has proposed a standard spell model.
“Can it be done?”
In fact, Lind himself wasn’t sure. After all, the arcane arrays currently used in the territory mainly prioritize being functional; as long as they work, there isn’t much emphasis on optimization.
It’s like when running all projects on a 4090; everyone doesn’t need to consider optimization issues, even wanting to crank up ray tracing to the max. But for new projects, if you tell them to run smoothly on a 1060 or even a 960, it would be hard to believe.
Moreover, there wasn’t a formally trained developer in the territory, which led Lind to have very low expectations. As long as it could be carried by a single soldier, even if it ended up being the size of a mortar, Lind could accept it.
Thinking back to the backgrounds of the researchers in Graywhite Territory:
The leader, Lysha, is entirely self-taught, having learned a lot from her father and the Rune Association. She herself is not a professional and knows nothing about traditional magic, focusing instead on niche areas.
Isha, the most reliable among them, has only completed the three-year curriculum at the Royal Capital’s academy. Her fundamentals might be the most solid, but she is essentially a fresh graduate, and currently cannot use divine magic (though she might be able to use the Grand Meteor Spell).
Reina likely has the strongest overall ability, and her thinking is the most active. She is very abstract; every time she speaks, she references this and that, and many arcane arrays can only be analyzed by Reina and cannot be taught to others.
As for Lind himself, his biggest role is probably because he spends every day with Reina, allowing him to understand her thinking to some extent, occasionally translating what Reina really means, as well as providing research ideas, though he has never seriously studied magic.
The remaining ones are a group of disillusioned rune artisans discarded like garbage by the Royal Capital and the Lars Family, making it entirely a motley crew.
“It’s worth trying. This is just a second-tier magic; the spell model and theory are not complex.”
Flora nodded. Compared to the research team in Graywhite Territory, the Sisters with formal training from the Church were much more reliable.
“Then I can rest easy. If you need any materials, you can contact me directly.”
Lind, lightly nodding, felt somewhat relieved that Flora did not, like Lauri, think that seeing these weapons meant an immediate rebellion. He didn’t notice Flora’s fervent gaze beneath her mask.
Flora indeed did not think about rebellion; the great Apostle of the Goddess was destined for her position, so how could it be called rebellion?
The beliefs of the old era could no longer reconcile with the current contradictions. The people of today needed a new belief. Perhaps even Flora herself had not noticed that, after experiencing a series of traumatic events, she was gradually becoming extreme.
