Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 191 Living Shield Machine

Under Harvey's command, everyone worked hard at the scene of the city wall collapse accident for a while before they towed this huge macrophagic worm back to the large laboratory of the territory medical hospital using a tow truck team composed of more than a dozen alchemical camels.

Harvey's castle's underground laboratory couldn't fit this huge, fat creature. Even if the door of the laboratory and the walls on both sides were demolished, there would be no way for its front body, which was even bigger than a war beast, to pass through smoothly.

The disgusting pile of vomit covered with thick mucus was also shoveled up by the medical staff, put into wooden barrels and taken back, including the amber mineral coffin that sealed the vague human figure.

Harvey felt he had figured out the whole story. He patted Asdalen's shoulder and said soothingly, "I suspect you lost consciousness accidentally, and then were swallowed by a macrophagous worm while devouring a mineral. For some reason, it wasn't digested... or rather, it wasn't excreted from the body, and then reacted with some strange mineral in its stomach..."

Asdalen was silent for a moment, then continued, "Just like the prey swallowed by a giant python, the bones, hair, and other substances that cannot be digested and excreted will turn into something called food pills and be vomited out..."

Reiner also noticed his companion's low mood and quickly said to cheer him up, "Haha, this bug is really interesting. It can digest the hardest ores, but a living flesh and blood like you will cause indigestion after entering its stomach..."

Harvey felt that this was probably one of the reasons why the macrophages eventually became extinct. The single food source caused the digestive system to become very picky. Once foreign objects that could not be regurgitated were swallowed by mistake, amber substances like stones would directly form in the stomach. If they existed in the body for a long time and blocked the digestive system, the lifespan would probably be shortened.

Moreover, the insect's mental state and emotions were unusually stable. Even after being knocked unconscious and stabbed again when it woke up, and then being tied up and dragged around, and after drinking a large amount of medicine and vomiting violently, it did not seem to have any intense reaction.

At most, it would howl a few times with its big mouth without sharp teeth, or try to twist its huge and clumsy body to roll over. After trying to escape without success, it would become very quiet. Apart from the bulging abdomen and the obvious breathing, there was no other movement.

……

After placing the macrophage worms in the medical institute's laboratory, Egno began to direct his assistants to sort out the disgusting stomach contents, rinse them clean, and arrange them on the laboratory table.

"This is ordinary limestone, partially dissolved and digested...it's probably not the worm's main feeding target."

"Granite? Tsk, it's completely indigestible. It must have been swallowed by mistake. It will be regurgitated or excreted after a while."

"Huh? This black ore used in castle construction is, I suspect, obsidian. It's also in a semi-digested state. My lord, don't worry too much. It's probably not the worms' main food target..."

Egno used tweezers to pick up some stomach contents that had melted into mud, repeatedly used reagents to restore and compare them, and finally figured out the mineral diet of the macrophage worm.

It turns out that it is mainly composed of gypsum ore and hematite, and some chalcopyrite and limestone can also be digested.

Harvey frowned and said, "If there's more than one giant worm in this area of Pioneer Territory, then wouldn't my territory's mines be easily plundered by them?"

Egno smiled and said, "My lord, isn't this perfect? If other worms really exist, we won't have to expend so much energy drilling to find the location of the rich mines. This creature makes quite a noise, yet it's not aggressive. It's like a natural ore hound... uh, an oversized one."

Back when he was in the Elven Kingdom, he'd heard that the ancient High Elves were skilled at driving and tracking these subterranean creatures, following their movements to explore for rare mineral deposits buried deep underground. After hearing the hybrid elf's suggestion, Harvey had an idea. He immediately turned to discuss with Asdalen and Reiner, "Besides the current mass production plan for magic guns and bullets, does the Magic Arms Factory have any additional production tasks?"

Reiner pulled out a work manual and flipped through it. "The army has been fully equipped with magic guns. Aside from the magic bullet production line, which remains operational, all other alchemical beast production lines are in a semi-shutdown state."

After all, these mechanical alchemical creations, after they are put into use, require more daily maintenance and occasional factory repairs. Once the number reaches a certain scale, there is no need to continue to increase production. On the one hand, the material cost is not cheap, and on the other hand, the number of living creatures' souls that need to be transformed is limited.

Take the wolf spider beast, which has the largest number of them, for example. Within a radius of more than 100 miles around its territory, it is difficult for hunting teams to capture groups of adult gray wolves. In order to avoid the extinction of a small population of this creature, Harvey ordered a temporary suspension of hunting early on to allow them to recuperate and restore their population.

The population of monkeys and jungle chimpanzees, the two main species of working alchemy beasts, has also been greatly reduced. Hunting teams sometimes even need to risk crossing the river valley outpost and entering the ice field area to search for their traces.

Only docile animals such as the northern wild cattle, camels, and reindeer required for the transformation of agricultural alchemical beasts can be raised through large-scale grazing within the territory to supply alchemical transformation.

Taking this into consideration, Harvey instructed Reiner, "Stop all alchemical beast production lines at the military factory. Aside from the magic bullets, gather and store all other alchemical materials."

Reiner asked doubtfully, "Sir, are you going to free up manpower and materials to make some other alchemical instruments?"

Harvey asked Egno to bring a larger piece of white paper, spread it on the laboratory table and began to draw with a quill pen.

"Right now, I only have a preliminary idea, and I need to discuss it with the new alchemist, Mr. Chris..."

As he spoke, he drew quickly, and with just a few strokes he sketched out a simple diagram of a strangely shaped alchemical device.

"This... this length, wow! It's like a giant python! My lord, you are not planning to transform this giant phagocyte worm into... an alchemical creature, are you?"

Reiner and Asdalen exclaimed in unison. As assistants who had followed Harvey in conducting a large number of alchemical biological transformation experiments, they could see at a glance the transformation goal that Harvey wanted to implement.

Egno leaned over and whispered, "A macrophagous worm is dozens of meters long. Can such a massive creature really be used for transformation experiments? How many alchemical materials would it take to create a suitable soul carrier for it?"

Harvey excitedly picked up the sketch and explained with a smile, "Given the current metal ore production in the territory, the production of alchemical materials and carriers shouldn't be a problem at all."

Moreover, some enchanted metals and precision alchemical parts can be purchased and imported into the territory through the relationship with the Exploration Society. There are large-scale teleportation arrays to provide plane transportation services, so there is no need to worry about the long distance.

After all, what he wanted to transform and manufacture was a living tunnel boring machine that was loaded with the soul of a macrophagous worm, had powerful drilling and excavation capabilities, and could accurately explore minerals!

(End of this chapter)