My dear witch, please turn evil according to the script!

Chapter 270 At this moment, waiting for nightfall.

Wind King Barrier.

Roland initially tried to add this skill to his circuit and make it his permanent effect because he had his eye on the most prominent effect of the Wind King's Barrier.

hide!

As a shady character who enjoys backstabbing, Roland felt that his stealth skills, which combined the strengths of both Flam and Cellina, still had room for improvement.

Even if it doesn't, having one more effect is still good.

Moreover, once you've mastered it, you can even cosplay as a real "Knight King," attaching the Wind King's Barrier to your weapon, making it difficult for enemies to determine what weapon you're wielding.

In close combat, the inability to judge the length of a weapon can still be quite effective in battle.

Not to mention, the Wind King Barrier also has an attack move called the Wind King Iron Hammer, which is quite powerful. You can unleash a wave from time to time to make up for the lack of a small skill that a true mage should have.

Of course, Roland still encountered difficulties when designing the runes.

If he hadn't suddenly realized that the essence of the Wind King's Barrier was the manipulation, compression, and release of the flow of "wind," he really wouldn't have been able to figure out how to recreate the effect using a rune set that was as concise as possible.

And then he succeeded.

A distorted version of the Wind King's Barrier was in his hands, limited by the form of runes.

Essentially, the effect of this set of runes is to manipulate the flow of air, then collect, compress, and further control the wind element.

For example, wrapping or exploding compressed wind elements all at once.

In reality, this skill, like the Moon Spirit Elixir which was modified by Toran and enhanced by the Silenced Sword, has little to do with its name anymore.

At least in the official version, the Wind King Barrier only has a hidden weapon and a Wind King Hammer that can only be used once. After use, even the effect of the hidden weapon will disappear.

However, the version modified by Master Luo is essentially a wind elemental magic.

Even during the inscription process, he completed the linkage of the first three sets of runes.

The effects of increasing, decreasing, and amplifying magic power are now linked to the Wind King's Barrier.

This allows him to compress and collect wind elemental power more quickly. Through this rune set, Roland can either throw simple wind blades outwards or gather air currents to form a wind elemental shield to block damage.

As for how good the effect will be, that depends on how much magic Roland outputs.

Wind Blade, along with Fireball and Frostbolt, is one of the essential introductory spells for novice mages. It shares the same characteristics as the other two spells.

That means the greater the effort exerted, the greater the damage.

Their structure is not sophisticated enough, and their effects are not powerful enough... but they are the most commonly used spells.

This applies to battles of any tier.

The same principle applies to various elemental shields.

In this way, it has all the necessary functions: functionality, lethality, and protection.

As Roland had predicted, the rune inscription was successful this time as well.

Russell was no longer surprised this time.

Having switched personalities, she always wears an unreliable, cheerful expression, no matter what happens.

Seeing that Roland had completed the experiment in less than half an hour without any unexpected problems, Russell chuckled and said, "Wow, that's really impressive."

"Although I had expected it, seeing it with my own eyes was still an eye-opener."

"Alright, then... take a half-hour break, and then we'll discuss whether there's any room for improvement in your brilliant ideas."

"As for this circuit model, put it in this storage box. If everything goes smoothly, we can start implanting it tomorrow."

Roland nodded, placed the circuit model into the storage box Russell had brought out, then walked into the laboratory where the defenses had been deactivated, and lay down on another recliner that Kalia had made for him to rest with his eyes closed.

Although he looked relaxed, Roland was still somewhat tired after performing so many rune inscriptions.

It's good to take a short rest now.

Of course, even though he was resting, Roland's mind couldn't stop.

Perhaps it was the peaceful life he had enjoyed for a month that revitalized him, and he began to think about the tasks that had suddenly appeared.

The second phase of the mission that has begun looks like a lot of trouble.

Even the simplest task of destroying the prototype of the Demon King's Hand felt more complicated than it seemed.

Moreover, this phase of the mission seems to have a lot of objectives.

There are five of them!
And each one is heavier than the last!

Objective 1: Prevent the war between the Federation of Nations and the newly formed Hearst Empire.

It sounds like a very important mission.

What's most interesting about this mission is that the opponent in this war is not just the Kingdom of Platia, but the entire Federation of Nations!

What exactly happened that could make these countries, which are usually on the verge of fighting each other to the death, unite to fight the Empire?
What were the signs of an impending war?
Roland was still completely unaware.

In the past month, apart from the letters between Iluvia and Cellina, Roland has not obtained much intelligence from the outside world.

Firstly, it was unnecessary, and secondly, Roland really didn't want to know these things.

But now it seems I might need to find some ways to gather intelligence.

The second objective is to break the Demon King's control over the high-ranking officials of the Federation of Nations.

Well, Roland now knows what the reason for the war might be, and even why those countries have united.

But his third objective made him fall into deep thought again.

What does it mean to assist a demon ally you deem reliable in unifying the demon forces?
It seems that the royal court is not united, and perhaps the royal court has not been able to reach a consensus on the matter of controlling the high-ranking officials of the various federations to launch a war against the empire.

Even if the minority prevails over the majority and the resolution is passed, those in the opposition may not have given up their struggle.

It looks like my life is about to get chaotic again.

However, compared to those strange cultists and evil gods, the demon race—enemies that are visible, tangible, and easily killed—is far more friendly. As for Target Four and Target Five, they are both related to the prototype.

Objective four is the clearest: eliminate the seven escaped prototypes and the familiars they created. That should be easy.

But objective five is somewhat intriguing.

The prerequisite for this mission objective was that Roland first had to gather the remnants of the Demon King's souls, and then choose to eliminate or fuse them.

Could it be that the time has really come to resurrect the Demon King and turn him into a friendly unit?

For some reason, Roland shuddered as he recalled what he had experienced in Isfar.

He has some trouble dealing with women like the Demon King.

The offensiveness was a bit too strong.

And it's unclear whether she was just teasing or serious.

Let's forget about it for now. Although there's been a lot of information about the prototype's appearance lately, I haven't actually run into it myself.

Let's talk about it after I've actually finished building all the prototypes.

Although the Spear of the Boundary is incredibly powerful, it's the type that ignores defense and inflicts true damage.

However, the prototypes themselves also possess spatial magic, so it remains to be seen whether they can counter Roland.

Furthermore, judging from the fact that Iluvia didn't leave behind any prototypes when she launched a long-range spatial attack using the Royal Capital Formation last time, these big black guys can dodge and won't just stand there taking damage.

Roland sighed, feeling like he suddenly had six more troublesome things to deal with.

While he could use magic to counter the prototypes, forcing them into repeated sit-ups before taking them down with a single Piercing Spear, this only applied in a one-on-one situation. And even then, it wasn't guaranteed to succeed.

Even with his natural advantage, Roland did not let his guard down.

However... I still have a section of enhancement that I haven't completed.

Once the magic circuit is implanted, and I advance to the transcendent realm, I will be able to freely control the blessing, and then everything will be settled.

Anyway, with himself and Kalia teamed up, they were confident in their ability to escape, if nothing else.

"If this idea can be realized through runes, then the chances of success will be even higher."

"'The world'... It's indeed quite difficult to conceptually define itself in this way, and there's no suitable rune set that can achieve it."

"Then what if..."

Roland began to consider the possible means and methods to realize his conjecture.

Although his posture on the recliner was somewhat languid and relaxed, the furrowed brow and the fine beads of sweat on his forehead proved that Roland had begun to overclock his brain, searching his knowledge base and unleashing his imagination.

Perhaps because this idea was about runes, the Rune King's Badge was activated with a hidden function. In any case, a seemingly inexplicable but actually feasible method appeared in Roland's mind.

"Have it!"

"The path! It's the path! Professor Russell!"

As Roland shouted, Russell, who was still busy packing and preparing materials, looked at Roland in surprise: "What's wrong? Your little girlfriend is finally pregnant?"

"What?! I mean I have an idea!"

In his excitement, Roland didn't even bother to criticize Russell's behavior much. Instead, he eagerly shared his thoughts, afraid that he might forget them if he spoke too slowly.

"I mean the path in the Alchemy Tree! Path thirty-two!"

"world!"

"Partial symbolic closure!"

"If we could..."

Roland began to state his conjectures one by one, but Russell's expression had already turned thoughtful.

After Roland clarified the concept of "world", Russell, as an alchemist, knew Roland's intention.

Astrology.

Although they may not necessarily participate in the process of alchemy, astrology and the astrological divination derived from it are closely related to alchemy.

Even now, alchemists have not found a strong correlation between astrology and alchemy.

But the fact is, if you perform alchemy according to the appropriate celestial configuration, the success rate will be significantly higher.

Moreover, celestial phenomena are not an uncommon concept in the magical world today.

The Star Ring Law ritual used to ascend to the extraordinary is itself derived from the art of astrological divination.

Although Roland didn't say it explicitly, she already understood his thoughts.

Because it is indeed feasible.

"Are you trying to bypass the ritual of the Law of the Star Rings and anchor your conceptual body onto the astral blueprint first?"

“If that’s really the case…then the astral blueprint that you’re anchored to can be conceptually considered your ‘body,’ and the astral plane itself is also a ‘world’ concept that is independent of the mortal world.”

"Even just anchoring the concept can benefit your subsequent extraordinary advancement ceremony... Ha, that's quite a wild idea."

"But in that case, your guess is not impossible."

"Time... I never thought that one day, humans would be able to venture into this field, even if this little understanding is not even enough to be considered literate."

Even in his unconventional persona, Russell still showed utmost seriousness and admiration: "Based on this association alone, I admit you can skip the basics of alchemy."

"As for the method of anchoring, I'll think of that."

"I also provided the materials."

"To do this, the materials are not easy to find. Fortunately, I still have some in stock."

"Now, let's wait for night to fall."

(End of this chapter)