Super Magician: The Magic Network Collapsed Again at the Start

Chapter 169 Heavenly Fire
"Do you know where there are more loose rocks?" Anser looked into the distance and spotted several undulating hills.

"The closest ones are Firestone Mountain to the northeast and Gravel Slope to the east. The stones on Firestone Mountain are quite large, making them difficult to mine. Gravel Slope is full of small stones..." Elise pointed out the two locations to him one by one.

Anser observed the stones through his binoculars and decided to prepare some of both types.

Due to factors such as line of sight, wind force, and the shape of the stones, it is difficult to aim at a target when throwing stones from a height of hundreds of meters. The only option is to hit the target in a scattering manner, which relies heavily on luck.

Large rocks are heavy and destructive, but their attack density is too low.

The main attack force is still small stones, which are densely scattered and cover a large enough area. Even a stone the size of a date can be fatal, and a stone the size of a fist can dent and deform plate armor, making it incredibly lethal.

In his previous life, Anser had seen an experiment on objects falling from a height. An egg falling from the 18th floor, about 50 meters high, could fracture a skull, causing brain damage or even death.

Toril's gravity is similar to Earth's; exchanging an egg for a stone would inevitably result in far greater destructive power.

"Do you have any kerosene?" he asked Elise.

Elise thought for a moment: "The castle should have pine resin, butter, whale oil, vegetable oil, candles, and incandescent glue."

"These are too expensive. Do you have the kind of smelly lamp oil that ordinary people use at home?"

"There shouldn't be many, that stuff is poisonous."

Anser said helplessly, "I'll ask the Federation to help prepare some."

The "stinky lamp oil" he mentioned is actually coal tar, which locals also call black oil or tar. It was originally obtained through the dry distillation of wood and can be used as fuel, waterproofing and anti-corrosion coatings, and some people also use it to disinfect wounds.

Later, an alchemist from Waterdeep learned how to make coal tar from bituminous coal, opened a factory, and began large-scale production, which greatly reduced costs.

However, although coal tar is not expensive, it has an extremely unpleasant smell and toxic fumes, so only poor people would use it as lamp oil.

Anser teleported Finn and Greyhawk out, instructing them to cooperate with Elise in monitoring the Ammun's movements.

He then flew from high altitude to the Drag Union, arranged for Graham to help purchase a large amount of tar, and then rushed to Firestone Mountain, hiding on the other side of the mountain to start collecting stones.

The sky was clear and blue today, and the Ammun could see his movements, but they didn't react in any particular way and continued to build their camp.

Anser felt that the other side should not be able to guess his plan for the time being, since if the number of stones was not enough, it would indeed be difficult to threaten them.

He quickened his pace and acted as soon as possible, lest things change.

The stones of Firestone Mountain are blackish-red and hard, making them indeed difficult to mine. However, he possesses the magic of shaping clay, so it won't be too strenuous for him.

Large stones can be directly stored in Holleigh, while stones less than a foot in diameter are bundled into large bags with canvas before being stored inside.

Because items need to be marked to be stored in the extradimensional space, a maximum of 200 items are allowed. Small stones are too fragmented and inconvenient to retrieve without being packed up.

After mining dozens of bags of stones, he flew to the scree slope, where the stones didn't need mining; they were all gravel, and there weren't many stones the size of a human head.

He simply informed Blatt to bring a group of people out to help collect the debris, packing it into large sacks or canvas.

Dozens of people worked for three hours to pack more than 300 bags of gravel. Each bag weighed between 200 and 300 kilograms, and at least 100 kilograms. All of them were small gravel, mostly between one or two centimeters and more than ten centimeters in diameter.

Having run out of packing tools and stuffed the dragon-skin bags full, he sent Blatt and the others back and hurried to the Federation headquarters to retrieve the tar.

Graham purchased two hundred barrels in the name of the Federation, each weighing fifty pounds, for a total of over four hundred gold coins. The price was a bit high, but with sea routes cut off, it was good enough that someone was willing to sell.

Anser allowed Graham to continue the acquisition, and after delivering the tar to Holrewyn, he hurriedly returned to Jacquelineburg.

Elise hadn't left the city walls. Seeing him return, she immediately went to greet him: "How much have you prepared?"

“Nearly four hundred bags of stones, all sizes, and the quantity… must be at least tens of thousands of them,” Anser estimated. “There are also two hundred barrels of tar.”

"You're so quick!" Elise exclaimed in surprise. "When are we going to make our move?"

"Right away!" Anser opened his pocket watch; it was already past five in the afternoon.

The Ammu people's camp was set up, six in total, distributed around the foot of the mountain, with simple wooden gates, and squads of warriors patrolling back and forth.

Smoke rose from the camp, indicating that cooking was underway. At this time, the enemy was gathered together, and the effect of hurling stones was second only to that at night.

Moreover, he was worried that the Ammun might be plotting something at night, so he decided to strike first and do it openly in broad daylight.

“Come on.” Elise beckoned him to sit on the flying carpet.

Anser sat on the flying carpet, the wind whistling in his ears, and the two of them rose rapidly, soon reaching an altitude of four or five hundred meters.

"How can I cooperate with you?" Elise hovered above a campsite, her eyes filled with excitement.

"Let's locate it first." Anser took out several stones of different sizes, casually threw them down, and watched them fall rapidly, eventually crashing into the soil of the wilderness.

Elise understood immediately, manipulating the flying carpet to adjust its position.

“The first wave is crucial. If I scatter gravel, you control the flying carpet to move slowly, trying to cover the entire camp. If I throw oil barrels or tar-soaked stone bundles, you detonate them with fire arrows to scatter them…” Anser instructed.

“Understood.” Elise replied seriously.

Anser stood up, waved his teleportation staff, and teleported out a large bag of rubble. The flying carpet sank, but then stabilized.

The stones are dense; more than 200 kilograms of gravel only made up a small bag, a little over half a meter in diameter.

His hands transformed into dragon claws, tearing open the thick canvas with one claw, then grabbing one side forcefully, lifting and flinging it outwards, throwing the entire bag of stones down in a single second.

At this moment, the flying carpet was still moving.

Anser immediately teleported a hundred-pound bucket of tar and threw it down, chasing after the rubble.

"call out--"

A flaming arrow caught up with the oil drum and instantly blasted it apart. The black oil burst into flames, like a torrent of fire falling from the sky, carrying pieces of burning rocks as it crashed down toward the camp below.

Due to the height, the force of the explosion, and the force of the scattering, the stones become more dispersed closer to the ground.

Anser ignored those things and quickly scattered buckets of tar and bags of stones down the ground, so fast that Elise's fire arrows couldn't keep up. He quickly helped by throwing a few spell bursts, which also helped to break up some of the stones.

Meanwhile, the camp below was in complete chaos. Dozens of barrels of oil turned into streaks of fire falling from the sky, igniting wherever they landed and burning for a long time, consuming tents, soldiers, the gate, and grain carts...

Half the camp was filled with smoke, and the pungent black smoke drifted in the wind, obstructing visibility and making it impossible to open one's eyes.

Those soldiers who managed to escape also faced falling rocks from the sky. By the time they heard the whistling sound, it was too late to dodge. Running was useless, and not running seemed to be an option as well. Their fate was left to luck.

[Target dead, gain 7 combat experience]

[Target dead, gain 12 combat experience]

A series of combat prompts flashed through Anser's mind, intermittently but continuously.

Soldiers are all military-trained and generally stronger than civilians, with most having combat experience points above ten. However, because it is cooperative combat, if someone is burned or crushed to death, they can only receive a portion of the experience.

The soldiers in the camp scattered and fled. Anser felt it would be a waste of resources to throw them away again, so he waved his hand and said, "Let's go to another camp."

"It works well." Elise smiled and rode her flying carpet straight to the nearby camp.

In reality, the hit rate of falling rocks was extremely low, and the number of soldiers burned to death was not as many as imagined, but the coverage area was wide, the damage to a large amount of supplies was significant, and the chaos and the blow to morale were even more important.

Next, the two used the same trick again, flying over and throwing things around, not giving the Ammun much time to react.

However, they had not yet finished attacking the fourth camp. They had almost run out of stones and tar, and Anser was exhausted, covered in sweat, and his back and hands were sore.

This is no easy task!
The battle was a resounding success, with thick smoke billowing from several camps, corpses everywhere, and numerous wounded who received no medical treatment.

The soldiers all ran into the wilderness, found a corner to hide in, shields over their heads, filled with fear and unease.

Most of the soldiers were experiencing an air raid for the first time and felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

(End of this chapter)