My Kingdom Building Done Right!
Chapter 263: Reverse Engineer Success
After informing everyone of the impending monster stampede, Leone moved on to the next agenda item by sharing his plan with those gathered in the room.
"I hate to say this, but I don’t think any of you can return to your tribes before the monsters enter the Borderlands," Leone said calmly. "So I have a suggestion. I hope that you stay and join us as we make our stand. In the meantime, Great Uncle will hurry back to warn the other tribes about the monster stampede."
Godwin and Hagen pondered Leone’s proposal. If Gundar could really warn their tribes of the incoming danger, they could stay at the Aslan Tribe with some peace of mind.
As for Malik, he was confident that the Sandreaver Tribe would not suffer from the monster stampede since they lived "under" the desert.
Their tribe’s location was not easily accessible. Only those who knew the secret paths leading to their domain could get there, and monsters weren’t among them.
"Also, I believe all of you have seen it," Leone stated. "The defenses of the Aslan Tribe are nothing to scoff at. If there is a place where we can survive this calamity, it will be none other than here."
Hearing his words, Hagen and Malik had no choice but to nod in agreement. They had seen how the prized siege weapons of the Darkmane Tribe failed to break the walls that stood before them.
"Very well," Hagen replied. "I agree with this plan."
Malik nodded. "We’ll stay and defend this place."
After hearing their reply, Leone shifted his attention to the great shaman beside him.
"Great Uncle, please have the other tribes head back here inside the fortress," Leone stated. "But don’t tell the Darkmane Tribe about what we’ve discussed here. I still need to get my hands on their Fire Catapults. They might help us tip the battle in our favor."
"Understood." Gundar nodded. "Do you still have anything else to add before I go?"
"There’s one last thing..." Leone glanced at the young lady, who told him about the news of the monster stampede. "Yuni has also discovered that the monster army seems to be led by people."
""What?!"" Godwin, Hagen, and Malik exclaimed at the same time.
However, the young man still had one more surprise to tell them.
Leone smiled wryly. "And these people in question seem to be connected with the riders whom we believe to be from the Bonegnash Tribe."
Hagen and Malik remembered their talk with Leone about the unknown riders.
"Impossible..." Hagen muttered. "How could they?!"
"Is it really impossible?" Godwin, who was still wearing his disguise, spoke up. "I wouldn’t put it past Osteon to do something as crazy as this."
Malik remained silent. Even so, he was beginning to think that the Chieftain of the Bonegnash Tribe could indeed do something like this.
’Fortunately, you listened to your instincts, Leone,’ Daedalus said. ’If you hadn’t asked Yuni to investigate, we might have been caught off guard by this unforeseen calamity.’
Gundar frowned, but he didn’t make any comments. After all, all of this was still speculation, at least for now.
However, he still said something very important.
"If you get the chance to capture those men, keep them alive and await my return," Gundar declared. "I will personally pry the truth from their lips."
After saying those words, he left the room to tell the tribes outside the walls to head back to the Aslan Tribe’s fortress.
An hour later, the Warclaw, Grimhowl, Sandreaver, Redmaw, Ironhide, and Grimfang Tribe returned inside the fortress.
The Darkmane Tribe had also moved their Fire Catapults until they were only two hundred meters away from the defensive walls of the Aslan Tribe.
Seeing that they were following the terms of their ceasefire agreement, Leone decided to share with them the news of what was about to happen.
However, he first made sure to take two of the Fire Catapults inside their fortress.
Daedalus stored them immediately within its pages and started to reverse engineer them.
By doing so, Leone didn’t need to buy the blueprint of the Fire Catapult, which would save him a lot of BP.
When Gundar returned, he encouraged Leone to share the news with the Darkmane Tribe as well.
"I know that you and Troy hate each other, but now is not the time to fight one another," Gundar said. "You’re still young, so you still haven’t experienced a monster stampede. Let me tell you this. Even with everyone here, fighting together, it will not be an easy battle. Especially if the Monster King makes its appearance."
"I understand, Great Uncle," Leone replied. "Please tell the Darkmane Tribe about the monster stampede. Though if they don’t believe you, there is nothing I can do about it."
"If they don’t believe me, I don’t really mind if they die." Gundar scoffed. "I won’t waste my time convincing fools."
Leone watched as the great shaman flew toward the Darkmane Tribe to tell them about the news of the monster stampede.
After giving them a warning, Gundar no longer hesitated and flew toward the south. He needed to warn the other high-ranking tribes about the threat headed their way.
Naturally, Troy, Jafar, and their commanders believed the Great Shaman. It felt like the last puzzle piece that answered why the Aslan Tribe suddenly changed their stance during the war.
Instead of making unreasonable requests, they simply asked to be compensated while also having them surrender their Fire Catapults.
"That brat!" Troy smashed the table with his fist out of frustration.
"My Chieftain, if this news is really true, we are in great danger," Jafar said in a serious tone. "We must leave. Otherwise, we won’t be able to defend against the monster stampede."
"Where should we go then?" Troy asked back. "Return to the tribe? That’s impossible. Even if we leave now, we don’t have enough food and water to make the trip back. No matter how I look at it, the only thing we can do now is to hide behind the walls of the Aslan Tribe if we want to survive!"
Everyone in the meeting room understood that there was no way Leone would agree to something like this. At most, they would be allowed to stay as close to the defensive walls as possible.
Troy paced back and forth as he tried to come up with other ways to overcome the situation.
Jafar and the Elders also made some proposals here and there, but none of them were feasible.
In the end, Troy could only heave a deep sigh before ordering everyone to prepare to head to the Aslan Tribe to negotiate.
Meanwhile, back in the Aslan Tribe, Daedalus had finally succeeded in reverse engineering the Fire Catapults.
"Leone, I’ve done it," Daedalus replied. "Aside from reverse engineering the Fire Catapult, I also added my own modifications so they’re easier to use. If you want, we can start mass producing them now."
"How many can we make?" Leone asked. "Do we have enough resources?"
"We have plenty of wood and iron ore," Daedalus replied. "But if you’re talking about how many we can make with the resources we currently have, we can make three hundred Fire Catapults."
"T-Three hundred?!" Leone looked at the grimoire in disbelief. "That many?"
"Yes," Daedalus replied. "And we only need two shamans to operate each one. With the Orcs and the allied tribes with us, we can probably have a hundred operational Fire Catapults to deal with the monster stampede when they arrive at our doorstep."
Although they couldn’t use all three hundred Fire Catapults due to the lack of shamans, a hundred was still enough to greatly boost their defenses.
The grimoire even said that since the Fire Catapults he would create were modified, the destructive force it could project was at least twice that of the Darkmane Tribe’s Fire Catapults.
The key factor here actually came from the Sand Steel of the Sandreaver Tribe.
By mixing them with iron ore and using the forging method that Daedalus had reverse engineered from the dagger Malik had given them, the Fire Catapults could create their own powerful flames through rune magic.
Leone still didn’t understand how rune magic worked, but that was not important right now.
Instead, what was important was that their defenses would receive an upgrade thanks to their new siege weapons, which might just tip the balance of the upcoming battle in their favor.