Chapter 61: Chapter 51: The War Begins: Fear of Insufficient Firepower

’Should I make a deal with an Evil God? Or find some knowledge to speed up Shushu’s intellectual development...’

After a moment’s thought, Isaac abandoned the idea.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t find a suitable Outer God. While his sister’s library held no such thing, there were plenty in Lake Town. As long as one had money, many things could be bought, especially this kind of knowledge that people deliberately circulated.

And getting to Lake Town would be simple. With the pumpkin carriage, a round trip to the nearest Forest Land would only take a day, which was more than enough time.

Isaac was worried the Outer God’s methods would be problematic. If his Shushu ended up being driven insane, it would be a total disaster.

After all, Shushu was Isaac’s first, and held great sentimental value.

So in the end, Isaac just flicked Shushu on the head, turned back to his desk, and continued his research. ’It’s fine if it’s a little dumb,’ he thought. ’I don’t really need Shushu’s combat prowess right now anyway.’

Just like that, time slipped by amid active preparations for war.

During this time, aside from advancing his various research projects, Isaac also found time to attend a Mad Witch gathering, and then...

He returned in disappointment...

Aside from two people dying, it was basically no different than before. The same people were trading the same things, and were still unable to sell them...

Even the Witch Isaac had taken an interest in failed to offer anything that caught his eye, presenting only a few conventional formulas for making Demonic Puppets.

As for those, the current Isaac had no shortage. For one, the field of Alchemy Demonic Puppets was quite abstruse, and his studies had hit a wall. For another, Cheryl herself was a Grand Wizard specializing in Alchemy Demonic Puppets.

Though her specialization was slightly different—she mainly researched purely mechanical Demonic Puppets—she was still a Grand Wizard on the verge of becoming a High-level Mage. Her foundation was incredibly deep, giving Isaac more than enough to learn.

Fortunately, Isaac had plenty of research projects on his hands at the moment—so many that he was on the verge of being overwhelmed—so the lack of new findings was no great loss.

And so, half a month flew by. On this day, all the high-ranking members of Solomon Fortress stopped their work. With grave expressions, they ascended the ramparts to look upon the phalanx of at least eight thousand Black Orcs arrayed outside!

"Eight thousand..." Isaac’s expression was grim. That was three thousand more than they had estimated.

’The Black Orcs have gone mad!’

Eight thousand Demonized Black Orcs would require the sacrifice of at least sixteen thousand of their own kind!

At least!

Because individuals are all different—some weaker, some stronger—there was bound to be some fluctuation.

But regardless, sacrificing so many was a tremendous loss for the Black Orcs, even if they were to win this battle and break through completely...

"How are the preparations?" Looking out at the Black Orc army, Gaia fell silent for a moment before turning to Cheryl.

Isaac had already reported his decision to stop researching Magic for Extracting Evil Energy. As for Barbara, she was a Witch who relied on raw talent; in terms of academic knowledge, she couldn’t even compare to Isaac. That meant that for the past weeks, Cheryl was the only one truly researching the matter.

"Not ideal," Cheryl said, shaking her head. "The Magic Model is too simple, leaving little room for optimization. With the Mage Tower, we can weaken the average combat strength of these eight thousand, but not for long. We had too little time to prepare. The Mage Tower’s capacity for Evil Energy is limited, and they’ll quickly replenish whatever we manage to extract."

"But I have an idea. It’s risky, but instead of Extracting Evil Energy, what if we injected them with it? We could accelerate their Demonization! The moment we do that, however, we’ll have to abandon the fortress. And we would likely become pariahs to our family and the Empire!"

"Mutual destruction, then?" Gaia sighed.

He understood Cheryl’s thinking. Demons are an incredibly difficult race to control. Even within the Demons’ own rigid hierarchy, there’s no guarantee that the lower ranks won’t rebel. How could those High Priests possibly maintain control?

Therefore, by further accelerating the Black Orcs’ Demonization, they would spiral out of control, turning into a pack of rabid, uncontrollable beasts.

But this would not only amplify the Half-Orcs’ destructive urges, it would very likely open an Abyssal Passage, allowing more Demons to pour into this world. If that happened...

Forget Solomon’s Domain; the very survival of the Empire would be thrown into question.

Therefore, such an act was absolutely out of the question!

After silently shaking his head and rejecting Cheryl’s insane idea, Gaia asked no more questions. He had been monitoring everyone’s progress during this time. As expected, Caesar had successfully broken through to become a High-level Knight. His Authority was a bit on the weak side—just an Elemental Authority like Master of Thunder—but at least he wasn’t at the very bottom of the High-level Knight ranks. His luck was decent.

Unfortunately, just as they had also anticipated, Barry failed to break through to High-level Knight, though his strength had indeed increased significantly.

Then there were Isaac and Barbara. They had submitted some progress reports on their research, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of them, so he had no idea how prepared they were. Still, he figured they had done their best. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Just as the leaders were on the ramparts gazing at the army outside, countless roars echoed as fluorescent green fireballs of Evil Energy rained down on the fortress like a meteor shower!

An Arcane Radiance flashed in Cheryl’s hand, and an ornate Magic Staff taller than she was materialized. The Amethyst floating above it spun gently, and the Mage Tower behind the fortress immediately shot a beam of light toward the sky.

A moment later, a pale blue Magic Barrier enveloped the entire fortress, deflecting all the Evil Energy fireballs!

TING~

Then, with another light tap from Cheryl, the Amethyst spun a second time, and an astonishing scene unfolded!

Countless Magic Arrays suddenly unfolded in the sky above the fortress. The runes on the Mage Tower lit up in unison as a terrifying torrent of Magic Power surged forth, converging into the dense web of arrays in the sky!

The next moment...

A multicolored meteor shower appeared...

It was a volley of Magical Beams, each with a different elemental attribute!

A torrent of Magical Beams rained down upon the Black Orc army!

Every single Magical Beam possessed the power to instantly kill a Great Knight!

Isaac watched this scene in utter shock. ’Is this the power of a Mage? Is this the might of Solomon Fortress? Is this the strength of a Mage Tower?’

At that moment, the immense might of the Mage Tower was seared into Isaac’s mind, shattering the pride he held in his own Secret Technique: Infinite Beast Tide!

’I need to get a Mage Tower!’

The decision was instantly planted in Isaac’s mind like a Heart Demon. Firepower is king!

However, even as he marveled at the Mage Tower’s shocking firepower, a sliver of doubt crept into Isaac’s mind.

Namely...

’If the fortress possesses such immense power, why were they so worried about this invasion?’