Witch Troupe and the Undead

"Finished?" Black Crow was somewhat confused. That's it? What about the magic traps? The triggering devices? The magic circle? Although those cookie figures and the ropes that slithered like venomous snakes were indeed magical, they were completely different from the effect he wanted.

"Hmm~!" The witch nodded, indicating that she had finished. If the other party requested a magical trap that could blow up an entire town or forest, she could make it, even faster and simpler. However, once the trap was activated, the witch could only guarantee that it wouldn't affect herself; the impact on her companions was uncertain.

"This~" The little witch took out two more crystals from her bag and handed them to Black Crow and Alessina respectively. "You can use these to enhance your magic." Alessina looked troubled, as she was a complete Muggle when it came to magic.

"Just crush it with force," Livia was forced to add another explanation.

"Alright, now we'll split into three groups. Princess Livia has already set up some simple roadblocks and defenses for us. Miss Vilandella, as a dragon with the best eyesight, you'll go up to the tower. And Miss Natalia, too." This arrangement is because Vilandella can fly, and Natalia, as a wizard, has a better field of vision from a higher vantage point.

"Miss Leslie, how much ammunition do you have left?"

"As for arrows, they're basically unlimited on Miss's territory, but as for ammunition... there's only a small bag left." Machine guns are fun for a while, but supplies are a nightmare. Leslie checked her backpack; she only had a small bag of ammunition, about fifty rounds, which would be used up in two shots.

"Then go to the second floor of the Chamber of Commerce, that's the intersection." The crossfire from the tower is enough to block the entire street. Because of the existence of magic in this world, the locals are not completely ignorant of the tactics of the battlefield with firearms. This is also why Roach's magic crossbow quickly transitioned to the style of World War I as soon as it was created.

“Congel, Sylvie, you and I will guard the station. Miss Alessina, Scarface, and Firefly, the three of you will guard the church hall.”

The area is spacious, with a narrow entrance and small stained-glass windows that make it difficult for someone to flank and ambush you. It is an excellent sniping position and a very good pre-set battlefield for Alessina, who uses the Greatsword of the Unrivaled.

“Black Crow, are you really not considering studying at the Imperial Officer Academy? If you ask me, half of the military commanders are not as good as you.”

“How do you know I haven’t been there?” Black Raven looked at Rhine and narrowed his eyes. “I’m just a commoner,” he added.

This also means that, regardless of whether he is in the empire or other countries, no matter how outstanding he is in the army or how many merits he makes, he can only ever be a second lieutenant, and this rank can only be given to him as compensation on the day he retires. The actual position with military power can only be up to warrant officer – only nobles, or at least knights, can be promoted to real officers.

(This was the case before World War II, and even during World War II, it was rare for mid- to high-ranking German officers to be purely civilians; at the very least, they had to be citizens with some assets.)

"What about the first floor of the Chamber of Commerce?"

“If we can’t hold it, we’ll have to give up. Wild Sparrow, Miss Lulua, you two are free to act. Also, Wild Sparrow, you need to take care of the second floor and the surrounding houses and set up a quick escape route so that Miss Leslie can evacuate immediately if the enemy breaches the first floor.”

"Squib, collect all the alchemical bombs and set them up on the first floor of the Chamber of Commerce. Detonate them as soon as Miss Leslie leaves."

The first floor of the Chamber of Commerce is an exchange, with doors on three sides, or rather, there are no walls at all. It is a superstructure supported by a series of stone archways. However, these archways are now blocked by crates and wooden debris brought in by thieves. This method of blocking is not reliable, which means that guarding the first floor means facing enemies from all sides.

When the enemy has an overwhelming numerical advantage, it is extremely difficult to avoid heavy casualties.

"Bone Whistle, go to that watchtower over there. You know what to do," Black Crow assigned the task to the last person. "Alright, everyone, except for the person just assigned, everyone else go and collect various supplies. Although this town is abandoned, there must still be some useful things left behind. Prioritize collecting what the two masters need."

“I need a few people to help move the furnaces back from the smelting workshop,” Rhein said. “Whether it’s repairing weapons, reinforcing roadblocks, or modifying and repairing vehicle engines, we need metal. There should be quite a bit of ore or scrap metal here.”

"What about this horse?" Natalia asked, pointing to the black horse slowly emerging from the livestock wagon.

"A horse? Where did this horse come from?" Black Crow looked puzzled, as did his thief. "It seems the horse was already here when we got on the carriage."

"Really..." With such a huge mess, how come the horse wasn't affected at all? However, having a strong and sturdy horse here seems to be a good thing, since having a horse means increased mobility.

"Don't worry about it, let it move freely." Roach glanced at it and let the old horse move on its own. It was already dark, so it could move freely to scatter the people behind it. However, the black horse had a big problem: its ability to locate enemies.

It's not that its target acquisition ability is poor, but rather that it's too good. Neither Livia nor Roch dared to let it kill targets at will. Otherwise, by daybreak, news of a demon massacre in the central province of the empire would probably appear.

The Empire, or rather the human faction, is not without powerful figures. Old Ma is only a sub-lord. Without the authority of a true Hell Lord, it is difficult to ensure that the news will not leak out.

After all, many strong humans might not be able to defeat him, but escaping would be no problem for them. Once this news gets out, combined with his physical characteristics and the timing... then Roach and his group will have to find a way to kill Black Raven and Rhine's entire group.

That was clearly not something the little witch would do. "Don't run around!" Livia said seriously to the old horse, raising her staff as a threat. The black horse immediately trembled and obediently stopped. He was ready to go out and wreak havoc... But it didn't matter, a little treat would be delivered to his door soon.

It slowly walked into the bushes outside the railway tracks, nibbling on the tender leaves. "This horse..."

"Don't worry too much, this horse is at least better than you." Roach was telling the truth. Black Raven was not weak. Someone who could go toe-to-toe with an elite warrior like Alessina could not be too bad. However, compared to the old horse, he was still no match.

"Hopefully, those people from the Floros family haven't brought in any powerful figures." That's the purpose of having Old Ma stay on the periphery. If any powerful experts appear, it can come to the rescue in an emergency. At least if someone is entangled, its kill rate is still quite high.

The maintenance workshop. The outer shell of the train's locomotive had already been dismantled by Scarface and the others, revealing the magically powered mechanical components on the side. Roach gave Livia a gesture, and the machines disassembled themselves. With the help of countless screwdrivers and wrenches that started working automatically, the entire mechanical compartment was dismantled.

Heavy steel gears rolled across the track, their transmission components swirling wildly in the air. "We're going to transform this power unit into the core of the annihilation reactor. Do you remember the previous sample structure?"

“Yes!” Livia nodded emphatically.

"Rhein, I need six or more steel road wheels. Do you have a way to do that?"

“We should be able to use the base wheels of these cranes,” Rhein nodded. “If we don’t expect them to be used for a long time, I can also build a batch of spare iron wheels.”

"Okay, let's do it that way." It's not that difficult to convert the bionic mechanical feet into the wheel drive of a normal train locomotive, because some of the mechanical components of the mechanical feet can be shared, and the parts that cannot be shared can be temporarily forged by Rhein.

With the help of magic, both stress release and rapid melting can be accomplished, it's just that the required "magical level" is a little bit high.

The structure of the traditional train system is much simpler than the intricate, clock-like structure inside the locomotive that Roach disassembled. He could even drive the locomotive using only steam power, but that would take too long to warm up.

Moreover, his understanding of steam locomotives on Earth was only a rough overview, roughly equivalent to the level of popular science information found in museum exhibits.

However, in another world, if the drama isn't enough, magic can make up for it. After all, the principle isn't that difficult; it's just about converting magical power into mechanical power and then making the wheels spin in a circular motion. Moreover, considering the existence of enchanting technology, this can save a lot of transmission and necessary mechanical components.

Just like the rock grom that Livia summons, it has no bones, muscles, or mechanical structure, so how do its stone arms and legs move?

Similarly, the same applies to this walking vehicle. The shoulders of the six mechanical feet are simply bearings used to fix them to the vehicle body. The feet are driven by the rune array inside the mechanical feet and the magic transmission system at the connection. In other words, the movement of these mechanical feet does not come from the mechanical energy transmission inside the vehicle body, but rather it "moves on its own".

The steel frame and mechanical components simply transmit the power of this self-moving mechanical leg to the front of the vehicle, thus pulling the vehicle forward; essentially, it works the same way as a golem. Now, Roach needs to make the wheels move on their own, which requires utilizing the relatively unexplored advancements in the research of "dynamic elemental magic."

“Leave the redrawing of the runes to me, and you, Jasmine, will handle the creation aspects of the magical structure.” Dwarves have a significant advantage in this area. “You, Livia, will handle the enchanting and the disassembly of the mechanical bodies. Rhine will be responsible for repairing the mechanical parts and patching up the carriage armor.”

Roach quickly assigned tasks to the project, and Livia and the two dwarves immediately got to work. The little witch seemed quite interested in this kind of thing, operating the heavy, huge parts that required more than a dozen workers to move and moving the entire forged metal block. From time to time, she also needed to operate the arcane flames in the furnace to help Rhine melt the metal.

When she was making armor and weapons for Roach, Livia had already learned some forging knowledge. Now she is also learning some mechanical knowledge. Unfortunately, no one has a systematic textbook for her to learn this part. She can only wait until she gets to the capital and see if there is anything in the library that interests her.

Because the analysis of the prototype of the magic annihilation reactor that Roach created was not yet complete, and the prototype itself was missing many parts due to damage, he had to further simplify the annihilation reactor to achieve higher resistance to fluctuations. As for the problem of not being able to balance elemental output...

Roach used a common Earthling approach: as long as it didn't explode on the spot, it could be considered a stable output. Unstable elemental output was considered a periodic shockwave, or a piston structure could be used to turn this unstable output into a stable output.

“We lack spiritual water materials and the essence of water, so we cannot successfully annihilate the flame magic into neutral magic. We also lack the turbid liquid of Miscanthus sinensis, so we cannot turn the spiritual water into a magic sublimation liquid. At the same time, the principle of this annihilation furnace is not difficult, but the difficulty lies in the control of various details. After all, if we are even slightly off, excess flame magic will be released.” That is the blue-green ion wind with a temperature of 6500 degrees Celsius blowing out, burning everyone around the furnace to ashes.

“So, we don’t need to copy it exactly,” Roach said to Livia. “Any kind of power that doesn’t explode on the spot is a good power. But in this process, I need your help to provide some… well, alchemical support.”

"For example?" Livia tilted her head, a look of curiosity appearing in her emerald eyes.

"For example, there's a magic circle that can hold excess fire magic, a magic circle that can convert ice crystals into water element magic, and improvements to the furnace body, because we don't have any ready-made phlogiston fuel blocks on hand, so we have to use coal and broken magic crystals to convert them into arcane flames."

To put it bluntly, the current methods produce flames with too low a temperature, making it difficult to generate and convert enough fire elemental magic. The witch needs to provide an effective artificial pressure boosting solution.

"The other thing is drawing blueprints..." Roach looked at the little witch with anticipation, while the latter showed a somewhat embarrassed expression. She didn't know how to draw mechanical engineering drawings, but now only a rough schematic diagram was needed. There was no need to be demanding about the precision of the machining, because Roach's long-dormant great undertaking would be completed after this locomotive was finished.

[The Tech Guru: For any mechanical equipment you manufacture and operate, a certain degree of mechanical error and precision issues can be ignored, and the problem of substandard materials can be ignored as long as the material difference is within ±5%—"As long as I keep thinking, the road will continue to extend."]

[Note: Mechanical devices created using this talent will produce a reverse effect when used by others.]

In other words, even flawless equipment can develop errors, and equipment made with qualified materials may have a defect rate of plus or minus 5%. Put simply, if Roach, with his "Great Technique Master" talent activated, creates a normal, precise mechanical device, it will have a higher probability of malfunctioning or becoming unusable if it falls into someone else's hands. If the device contains energy materials, it will most likely explode.

"This dogcoin system is finally starting to have a little bit of presence." Compared to the talent and skill effects that were completely invisible before, the talent provided by this advanced version of [Great Achievement] is clearly starting to have an effect.

“Master Roach, I don’t really want to question you, but isn’t your design a bit too simplistic?”

As the most easily altered form of magic, the attributeless etheric magic can be transformed into "kinetic elemental magic" through a "kinetic energy array" to make the wheels move. Alternatively, one could simply add kinetic energy and momentum to the front of the vehicle, making it move on its own.

Do you know magic?

“I don’t understand.” “Then the technical details here are beyond your comprehension,” Roach said seriously. But Livia, who actually understood magic, was also completely confused. However, because she was used to being expressionless, her little face showed almost no clue.

"In short, you can think of it as a super-large-scale archery technique, and the front of the vehicle is the arrow." Rhine understood, but the little witch was even more confused. How could this be an archery technique? Moreover, even she would find it very difficult to drive the front of the vehicle with an arrow.

Although her magical rank was high, her age made it difficult to achieve the same effect with her efforts. After all, she had clearly stated that it would be very tiring when she stitched Roach's soul and flesh together—although most arcane mages simply couldn't do such a thing.

God the hell sews the soul back together, God the hell uses "essence of the soul" to create "jade threads" to forcibly bind the soul to the body to avoid death—is this something a human can do?

As for kneading soul fragments into a refined soul essence, it's not impossible with a bunch of prerequisite magic circles, rituals, and conditions, but it's absolutely impossible to knead it into a lump of soul fire with just a couple of quick hand movements like Livia. Not to mention the wondrous technique of adding soul essence fragments to cookies and candies to bring sugar figurines to life.

"Anyway, we'll explain later. Right now, we need to get this thing made."

"Hmm!" The little witch gave up on getting an explanation immediately, and figured she might understand it gradually during the making process.

[PS]

"Please note this row of exquisite gears on the wall. They are made from the molten parts of the pocket watches of thirty-four suffocating miners. Whenever the council convenes, the gears turn and recite 'efficiency is a virtue.'"

On the left is a memorial wreath donated by a nobleman—the silver thread on it has been identified as coming from the deceased's last unpaid wages.

Chapter 200 Why is your skin green?

Whether it was due to the effect of that talent or not, when modifying the front of the car, Roach, faced with the annihilation furnace that always had errors and the fire and water elemental magic that always overflowed, chose the method that would make his skin turn green.

"Is this... all right?" Livia floated up four cylindrical metal containers, shaped like AAA batteries. One side of the containers was covered with intricate runes, arranged in pairs, and the other side had two pairs of crystal-like magic conduction contacts.

Beyond these two batteries was a crucible-like device connected to a bizarre, centipede-like metal structure.

"Okay, that's fine."

“But…” Livia’s mouth opened slightly. Although she had indeed given the two containers special treatment and enchantment, and had also used alchemy to create a bunch of strange but simple components, she still couldn’t figure out how Roach was going to deal with the problem of magic overflow.

"The container will be full very soon."

“That’s the effect we want,” Roach nodded. Relying on this simple magic furnace to drive the already inefficient element converter—which has a low symbol compatibility rate—and then drive the wheels to move the carriage, while feasible, the speed wouldn’t be very fast.

Therefore, he had to think of another way, and as mentioned before, this method was something only a big, green guy could come up with. The need for high speed was always when being chased, which meant that he needed to accelerate and reach high speed for a short time, while also killing enemies who were getting close to the train.

So he integrated all the functions into one big red button. As long as the attribute-less etheric mist pipe connected to the front of the car is full, it means that the overflowing opposing magic has filled the two containers and affected the operation of the magic furnace itself.

At this point, there are two options. First, pull the whistle to spray out the high concentration of dangerous energy from the newly added exhaust pipe, which will damage the surrounding environment while also reducing the pressure on the furnace.

Second, press that big red button, and the magic inside will be transmitted to this simple and crude device, which will allow the little witch to be reinforced and strengthened as much as possible, and firmly fixed in the crucible device on both sides of the front of the car. After that, it will be the time that those big green guys like the most.

With a bang, it ignites, and then the magical impact explosion generated by the magical conflict will spray a large amount of steam or super-high temperature flames toward the two wings, forming an angle of about 10 to 12 degrees with the vehicle body. It will not damage the carriage, but it is enough to propel the front of the vehicle to accelerate instantly and either burn any approaching enemies to ashes or scald them into cooked flesh.

As for whether it's steam or flames being emitted, that's unknown. It depends on which type of magic prevails during the reaction. Anyway, Roach doesn't make any adjustments. He wanted to make precise adjustments to minimize fuel waste, but in the end, he found that even using the [Great Skill Master] talent wasn't enough to reduce the error to the point where he could accurately emit flames or steam, so he simply ignored it.

In any case, both types can provide sufficient instantaneous propulsion. As for the brutal destruction caused by this propulsion, that's left to the "Great Skill Master" talent, which provides a certain degree of protection against part errors and material mechanical properties.

However, this makes the title of "Explosion Sage" a sure thing. Before, it was just about making big and loud explosions, but now it has clearly evolved beyond destruction and started to use explosions for other purposes. It has evolved explosions from the monotonous and boring field of pure destruction to the field of construction and assistance. The title of "Explosion Sage" should be well-deserved.

While modifying the magic furnace, Rhine also worked with the little witch to modify the design of the front of the vehicle. Half of the flamboyant double-headed unicorn statue was melted down to provide the magic furnace with necessary materials such as mithril.

With the help of the little witch, the remaining half was transformed into a relief on the front of the carriage, changing from a proud and upright posture to a charging posture with its head down. A sharp horn extends forward from the front of the carriage, and Rhine added an obstacle removal device below the horse's head.

Basically, all you need to do is activate the device that Roach mentioned can rapidly increase train speed, and you can break through any roadblock on the railway, unless the other side dismantles the tracks.

While the maintenance workshop was bustling with activity, the pursuers disguised as patrolmen finally arrived at the outskirts of the town, and their numbers were much greater than Black Crow and his men had anticipated.

"Looks like they've come out in full force," Black Crow said, standing atop the tallest clock tower in town, watching the crowds approaching from three directions.

The side of the station facing the forest can be ignored; the supposedly exceptionally strong black horse is right there. The reason Roach didn't let the old horse go out to hunt was because he was afraid that if the demon chased them too far, this side would be ambushed.

Even though Old Ma claimed that no one could escape its pursuit in the dark, it also admitted that even as a great demon, in this world, if it did not reveal its full true form and thus be discovered by the Church and the strong among humans, it would indeed be impossible to kill all enemies in an instant.

Cutting them down one by one doesn't guarantee that no one will escape and crash into the town or escape alive. Of course, the premise of escaping alive is that Old Ma doesn't reveal the true form of the Great Demon and directly wipes out the nearby towns and the fleeing guys.

Therefore, the Dark Horse's job is to intercept the strongest among the potential pursuers and block the weakest link, because if they attack from the side of the forest and railway, they only need to cross the station building to reach the locomotive workshop.

However, the pursuers did not intend to launch a large-scale attack from this side, because while the forest hindered Black Crow and his men's observation and defense, it also increased the pursuers' coordination and mobility.

Moreover, the monsters in the forest are not so easy to deal with. When their main force came, they were attacked by a lot of "bloodhounds" on the way. These creatures, which are all blood red and whose tissues can liquefy on their own, are completely different in danger at night from during the day, especially when they are ambushed.

Besides the bloodhounds, there were also sea urchins that had appeared here at some unknown time. These timid and harmless monsters would also attack them. Although they did not cause any harm, they made the pursuers realize that if they continued to advance recklessly through the forest, they would soon attract something more dangerous.

Even the most powerful monsters around here are only considered threat level. For an excellent adventure team, it would be relatively easy to deal with no more than three of them with just three to five people. However... this also means that it requires consuming combat resources such as stamina, energy, and items, while wasting the most crucial resource at this moment: time.

"At least 200 people. Besides the cavalry and the knights we encountered earlier, there are dozens of guys of unknown origin. They're dressed like ordinary adventurers, but they're all wearing armor under their cloaks." Bone Whistle has already retreated; staying on the outer perimeter any longer would be suicidal.

Have you discovered any spellcasters or similar professions?

“No, they all dressed exactly the same, and I didn’t find any particularly obvious spellcasters, and…” Bone Whistle hesitated for a moment, “their weapons were also the kind commonly found on the black market, without any obvious markings or personal characteristics.”

Many powerful individuals and organizations possess unique skills and corresponding equipment. For example, the Shadow Raven Thieves' Shark Tooth Dagger has a mechanism, while the Thunderbird Knights' Enchanted Hand Half-Sword and Liquid Alchemy Bombs are readily available.

"It's watertight..." With such a setup, even if someone accidentally sees it, it's hard to notice anything amiss. Even if some people realize something's wrong, they can't figure out the origins and purpose of this group.

"Chief, they're hiding inside the town. The carriages are parked on the tracks, but we can't see the locomotive. It seems the locomotive has malfunctioned and is being repaired. They're trying to use the terrain to buy time." While Black Crow and his men were observing the enemy, the enemy was also observing them.

"Hmph~ This is troublesome." The information on the little girl with light blonde hair has been updated again. After all, more information is slowly being transmitted from Rock Tower County and Lywood County. The information they have is still from when Roach and his team dealt with Deathwhisper Fortress.

Meanwhile, only some early information has been transmitted from the Lost Capital. The information about the magic pump and the one-time-use secret source cannon has only just arrived. This makes the "leader" in charge of the entire plan very troublesome. He hopes that the other side has not brought any dangerous tools or disassembled magical devices. Otherwise, launching an attack here will come at a very high cost.

"Let the vultures go up first. These scavengers' lives aren't worth much." He was referring to the dozens of guys dressed as adventurers in smocks. Scavengers were a group of guys notorious among adventurers. They would follow some adventure teams, but they wouldn't venture into the ruins. Instead, they would choose to ambush the teams when they left.

Usually by this time, the adventure team has almost exhausted its resources, spells, and items. Even in a relatively smooth adventure, a considerable amount of potions and stamina have been consumed.

If the other party dies inside the ruins, that would be even better. Enter the ruins immediately, before the monsters recover their numbers and the mechanisms reset, and take the spoils and the dead's belongings. Just like those scavengers, they will never cross the area where the adventurers fell and continue forward, but will spread the word to lure the next wave of unlucky ones.

Furthermore, if they encounter someone with good equipment, these people will deliberately lure monsters or trigger mechanisms to kill them.

Even the leader and the knights found these scavengers extremely distasteful, but since they were assistants sent from above, they could only grit their teeth and bear it. However, judging from the tone of their probes, these scavengers were not highly regarded.

"I don't think these vultures will be so obedient..." After all, if they had the courage to attack, they wouldn't be in this line of work.

"Yes, because according to our intelligence, there is only a small group of wounded people in the town. For these goblin-like guys, a small number means they have used up their spells and items. A group of wounded people is the same kind of enemy they usually deal with."

"What if they... what if they suspect that I'll be silenced after I get the stuff?"

"No," the leader said, because these scavengers knew they wouldn't be silenced. The person who orchestrated all this needed a scapegoat, and these scavengers and rats who ate carrion were least afraid of being scapegoats.