Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 560 Sentinel's Diary
For the Ice Sea Base, which is thousands of miles away from Spark City, the natural law of the changing seasons almost does not exist here.

On the boundless sea of ice, there is only extreme cold day after day and gusts of biting icy wind that blow on time in the morning and evening.

"Captain! Captain! Tell us more about the battle you fought against the Knights of the Church in the old royal capital!" Several young-looking recruits had just finished their daily patrol mission and rushed into the Ice Fortress sentry post to surround him.

"Yes, yes, yes! And there was the Fengyuan City raid! I heard that Duke Ralph's elite cavalry regiment engaged you in a bloody battle in the streets, and was ultimately wiped out!"

"Have you personally killed those Judgment Knights who possess extraordinary powers? Just how powerful are they? Are they comparable to the Bloodline Warriors of the Special Operations Battalion?"

"He's definitely not as good as Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vaughn. I saw him grab a demonic orc's neck with one hand, and the next moment, the beastman was miserably reduced to dust."

Benny was wiping the new magic gun in his hand out of boredom, and he didn't even bother to look at these new recruits who had just grown their hair. This Ice Castle Outpost, eighty miles away from the Ice Sea Exploration Base, was a ground warning fortification specially set up by the Northern Army Ice Sea Garrison Corps. It was responsible for detecting the daily movements of the Demon Lizardman No. 2 Floating Island at the "No. 13 Sea Mouth".

The entire ice castle was dug directly out of the solid ice layer. Two-thirds of the building was buried underground, leaving only observation ports open on all four sides. If the snow was not cleared regularly... not to mention the Lizardmen, even the reconnaissance airships that rumbled over their heads every day would find it difficult to detect its existence.

A combat team of more than 50 people is stationed in an independent ice castle outpost. They are regularly contacted by airships through alchemical communicators, and corresponding supplies are delivered simultaneously... Except for returning to the ice sea base for rest every 30 days, the rest of the time they eat, drink, defecate and urinate in the ice castle.

There are more than ten ice castle outposts like this one set up around the Demon Lizardmen's No. 2 floating island, quietly surrounding the Demon Lizardmen's main battle fort and cooperating with the air forces to keep a close eye on all the movements of the enemy.

When Benny had just led his team here, he had thought that the mission he had received would be to frequently engage in small-scale guerrilla warfare with the Demon Lizardmen. Before setting off, he had even arranged for a suicide note and the military pay to be deposited in the bank... Who knew that the enemy on the No. 2 floating island had been hiding in it, and even when the reconnaissance airship approached them only a few miles away and deliberately exposed itself to lure them, the enemy remained unmoved.

So the rest of the days turned into boring garrison work, sending people out every day to clear the snow around, repeatedly maintaining guns and weapons, and chatting with the new recruits under his command.

Holding the polished barrel against his eyes and glancing at it, Benny said to the new recruits indifferently, "All you do is listen to stories. Have you done your daily routine maintenance? I've told you countless times that just polishing the outside is useless. The barrel, magazine, and firing port all need to be cleaned repeatedly, or you'll get killed when you need to fire in real combat because of a jammed bullet!"

The new magic guns distributed by the military are indeed much more powerful than the old models. After the pure magic bullets were added with the dragon flame powder mixture, their firing speed and range have been greatly improved...but the disadvantages are also obvious. After the dragon flame powder burns violently in the barrel, it will always leave a layer of charred and greasy impurities attached. If it is not cleaned in time after a battle, it will gradually affect the shooting accuracy over time. In serious cases, it may even cause the bullet to jam, resulting in a situation where the trigger is pulled but the shot is fired in vain.

Turning his head, he saw a new soldier using the magic stone issued to him to activate the alchemical heating furnace. He then secretly took out the paste in the iron box and repeatedly applied it on his military rations.

"You bastard! That stuff is a medicinal grease you put on your face and hands to prevent frostbite, not something you use as butter for bread!"

The recruit's fingers trembled, and he dropped his compressed rations on the ground in fear. He said with a bitter face, "Boss, butter is frozen harder than stone. Medicinal oil can be applied to lips and eyelids, and it won't kill you if you eat it."

A small alchemical heating furnace was enough to keep the bunker of over 100 square meters warm, but there was no way for the soldiers to cook hot food. They had to chew dry compressed wheat cakes and eat frozen canned meat all day long, making these recruits who had just been transferred from the reserve and were used to a life of luxury miserable.

Benny rolled his eyes again, forced to choose to turn a blind eye.

"Where did we leave off yesterday?" "When you were still a trainee soldier, you went to the River Valley Outpost to participate in actual combat exercises under the command of Captain Wayne!"

Benny suddenly realized it, and reassembled the disassembled gun parts with ease, muttering, "Yes, I remember now."

After successfully graduating from the recruit camp under Captain Wayne, he was immediately assigned to the regular battalion headquarters and participated in the raid on Fengyuan City... That was his first time on the battlefield in the true sense, serving as an assistant observer under Captain Newman, who had now been promoted to battalion commander.

Afterwards, he followed the troops to Jinhui City and faced the Church's Judgment Legion head-on outside the city walls of the old royal capital, defeating them in one fell swoop and completely shattering the Holy See's attempt to control the domestic situation in Saint Valen.

Benny still can't forget that extremely bloody battle. The extraordinary knights of the "Spear of Light" Judgment Legion were simply vulnerable in front of His Majesty's army. The fully armored Bloodline Knights were shot and fell off their horses one after another, and the scene of their futile struggle in the dense rain of bullets is still fresh in his memory.

In that battle, he was promoted to squad leader because he accurately killed six enemies and was transferred to the Ice Sea Base to command a 50-man reconnaissance garrison team.

War is always bloody and cruel... But Benny believes that rather than killing those internal enemies who are also human beings, he is more looking forward to the future battles with alien enemies. The new magic gun in his hand has not been fired for a long time. He wonders if those twisted and hideous monsters will bleed the same bright red blood as them after being hit by bullets.

"Boss! Another reconnaissance airship is passing overhead! Should we get in touch with them?"

The soldier in charge of operating the alchemical communicator pointed to the sky above his head and asked excitedly... The garrison work at the Ice Castle Outpost is really too boring. The only channel for them to get in touch with the outside world, apart from the regular instructions from the base headquarters, is to have a brief chat with the occasional passing reconnaissance airship.

"Don't meddle in other people's business. They're also on patrol. If you contact them rashly and cause them to be unhappy, they might complain to us when they get back."

Another veteran laughed and said, "The soldiers in the airship squadron are all quite kind. They're probably more bored than us flying back and forth on patrol every day."

After all, the No. 2 floating island dozens of miles away was lifeless, no different from an iron turtle shell, and even the shadow of the magic lizardmen moving around outside could not be seen.

Benny hesitated for a moment and was about to agree... when he suddenly felt that the sound coming from above his head was a little strange.

Why is this airship flying so low today? It's rumbling like it's about to land on the ground!
Something is wrong!
"Hurry up and grab your weapons and get out! They look like they're going to land directly!"

He quickly turned around, picked up the telescope and looked out from the observation port. All he could see was still a sea of white, but in a trance, several black spots seemed to appear in his vision, standing out particularly against the gloomy and foggy sky.

"Something's happening in the sky! The reconnaissance airship is under attack!"

(End of this chapter)