Chapter 242 - A Giant Ballista
Chapter 242 A Giant Ballista
“Has anyone mentioned how generous you are, Bernie?” Abel praised when Bernie handed the items over to him. Truth be told, Bernie was very generous to Abel. Since he was using a portal bag to carry the stuff he was giving to Abel, he basically just gave away an extra portal bag.
Bernie said proudly, “It’s okay, Master Abel! We dwarves, well, let’s say… We are not short on magic items. Portal bags being one of them, of course.”
Abel replied with a smile. He then scanned inside the portal bag with his power of Will. The inside of this bag was packed with the stuff he requested. There were ten pounds of meteorite iron, ten pounds of hematite ore, and all the other spaces were filled with beginners’ fire magic stones.
It wasn’t like Abel hadn’t seen a beginner’s fire magic stone before. That being said, it was the first time that he had seen so many at once. In fact, gemstones were piling up so much that they were shaped into a giant cube inside the bag.
“About the giant ballista, you asked,” Bernie continued, “I’ve told some of my men to move them outside. I will have some men to place it on White Cloud’s back if you don’t mind.”
“Bernie, there’s way too much stuff in here!” Abel exclaimed as he looked deeper into the portal bag.
Bernie laughed, “You can’t have a successful forge every single time, Master Abel. Didn’t you know that?” I didn’t want you to worry about wasting materials, so I had ten times the amount of everything that you were looking for.”
To humans, or to a majority of the dwarf population, the stuff inside the portal was extremely valuable to them. To the Goff family, however, it was like picking a feather out of a goose. For the amount of stock they had in just Moon Guardian City alone, they could easily take out ten times the amount of material Abel was asking.
“And what is this?” Abel asked, then took out a thick book from the portal bag. It had a huge and hard front cover, with the pages inside made of soft sheep wool. The title of it was (An Introduction to Making Magic Staff).
Bernie replied, “You have agreed to my request, Master Abel, and I think that you are a trustworthy man. If you forgive me, I’ve made the bold decision to hand my reward to you before you finish your mission.”
“Be honest with me, Bernie. You’ll be in a lot of trouble for doing this, won’t you?” Abel asked. Bernie was one of the few dwarven friends that he had. He didn’t want to do anything that would be troublesome to him.
“Thank you for your concern, Master Abel, but I think I’ll manage just fine. You see, with the position that I am in, I think it’s fair that I’m allowed to make my own decisions. Since the deal we’ve just made was consensual, hence genuine, there won’t be a lot of people who are going to challenge it.”
Bernie added with a laugh, “Of course, if you would treat your old friend here with some more rum, I’ll be a happy little dwarf.”
“Rum.” When Bernie said the word, he sounded like an old drunkard despite being so young. Abel couldn’t help but laugh at such
irony.
“You are my friend, Bernie!” Abel laughed as well, “Don’t add the title “master” in front of my name. Just call me Abel! Also, friends don’t trade their liquors, do they? I’m perfectly happy to share the wines that I have!”
After saying that, Abel took out a huge barrel of rum from his kong kong spiritual beast bag. There were about 100 pounds of rum inside, which made the wooden container bang really loudly when it dropped on the floor.
Like a koala, Bernie jumped and hugged onto the barrel that was just as tall as him. While he didn’t open, his facial expression looked drunk already. It took a while for him to go back to normal.
“As you wish, Abel,” Bernie grunted as he continued to hug onto the barrel, “I’ll refer to you by your name when we’re alone. However, I will still call you “Master Abel” when we are in public. As you know, the Blacksmith Union is very much respected by the dwarves. I don’t want to risk offending anyone.”
Abel went off by himself at noon. Whilst riding on top of White Cloud’s back, he decided to test out the newly stationed ballista, which was in the frontmost spot of his seats.
Because of how big the ballista was, the dwarves had to reconstruct the whole carriage that was used for riding on top of White Cloud. After taking out all the old seats, they replaced them with light steel frames, which were much more durable and lighter in weight. They then covered the frame with rhinoceros skins, which were excellent for defending against arrows. On the inside, they added a soft layer of newborn sheep hide, which made the whole structure not just practical, but also pleasing to the eye.
Sometimes, a ballista would be a called a ballista “bed,” or a ballista “cannon.” It was one of the few ways an ordinary person could kill a knight or even a wizard. Because of how expensive it was, not a lot of people could get their hands on one of them.
Without the necessary parts, a ballista could not fire over a range farther from 500 meters. If an enemy was within its 500-meter range, whether it be a knight fully armored in his own combat qi, or a wizard guarding himself with ice seal magic, instant death was pretty much guaranteed. If the arrows were replaced with magic-immune materials (extremely rare, of course), even intermediate or advanced wizards would have a lot of trouble to protect themselves.
The ballista was also referred to as the “fort guarding bow,” which was for no other reasons than how heavy it was. Only a large creature like White Cloud could carry something like this.
Again, White Cloud was a top tier sky sparrow. While most sky sparrows would stay away from carrying any weapons on their backs, White Cloud would do far more than just being a carrying tool at the backline of a battlefield.
The direction Abel was heading for was northwest of the Moon Guardian City, where the Duchy of Koror and the Earth-Dividing Mountain Range met. The mountains were a lot tougher than the areas guarded by the Moon Guardian City. There were a lot of wild beasts and poisonous things over there. While humans would find it hard to survive there, that’s where the deurgars decided to build their homes.
Abel tried to pick up everything that he knew about the deurgars. They were a branch of the dwarven race. According to the myths, they were banished by the other dwarves and had grey skin and no hair because of the curses that they had.
If Abel had to guess, the deurgars behaved the way they did was because of the evil powers they got in contact with. In other words, they were transformed into what they currently were. Not only were they violent and cruel on a general basis, but they were also completely off from engaging in any sort of productive activity.
Instead of growing their own crops, or sewing their own clothes, the deurgars would pillage for everything that they needed for their livelihood. Because of how good they were at hiding in dark, cold caverns (they live in caves for the most part, actually), they became the largest robbers of both humans and dwarves.
The scariest part was actually how they could eat almost everything. They could hunt or pick up any plants that they could find. If they needed to or wanted to, they could even eat humans and dwarves.
That summed up everything Abel knew about the deurgars. After hearing it from Loraine, he knew for the first time how scary they were. Their entire kind existed because of how savage they were. They were worse than the orcs, even. At least the orcs would farm their own things and work for food, not just steal off everything from everyone around them.
This was one of the reasons that Abel agreed to help out Bernie. For getting the resources and skills that he wanted, he just needed to kill a few robbers who, really, should’ve had it coming a long time ago. That being said, he wasn’t not going to feel sorry for killing the deurgars. He’s perfectly willing to trade their lives for a sufficient amount of meteorite iron, which he could use to make even more super exploding balls.
After accepting Bernie’s request in the morning, Abel went back into the dark world right afterward. Whilst inside the dark world, he used the ground inferno to make another 10 super exploding balls. After he was done, he would add metal covers to them so the explosions would be more lethal. Soon, the number of explosives he had was more than enough to blow up another magic tower at another duchy.
As Abel had enough spare time during his flight on top of White Cloud, he took the time to read the guide on how to craft magic staff. After he was done reading, he learned that there were two ways to making a magic staff:
One, with a certain special material as the main body of the staff, the souls of top tier spiritual beasts could be sealed inside to gain any ability that these creatures might possess.
Two, Abel could use magic metals to craft the main body of the staff. He could place a crystal core that belonged to a powerful spiritual beast on the top of the staff and use rune circles to activate whatever spells that were inside the crystal core.
Of course, both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. For the first method, the soul of the top tier spiritual beast had to be collected within a minute after it was killed. Such a method was not very likely to succeed, and the level of magic that could be generated was completely based on luck.
On a good note, since the mana for activating spell was from the person who was wielding the staff, the staff’s effect could be combined to the wielder’s own techniques. For example, if it was a fire element spiritual beast that was used to make the staff, and Abel was casting a fire element spell, the resulting effect would be enhanced overall.
If Abel was making his magic staff with a crystal core of a powerful spiritual beast, he would have no way to supply his own mana into the staff directly. This was because the staff would be powered by the crystal core placed in it, and not by the person wielding it. While Abel wouldn’t have to constantly power the staff with his own mana, the quality of the staff would completely depend on the level that the crystal core was at. If the crystal core was at a certain level, then only magic of the same level could be cast. If Abel wanted to cast a spell beyond the level of the crystal core, he would have to either wait for the crystal core to recharge itself after he was done, or he would have to charge up the crystal core with his own mana.