novellk Chapter 98 Magic and Machinery
Chapter 98 Magic and Machinery
A bucket of cold water was poured over it.
Da Niu and Wang Liang looked at each other in bewilderment.
They're just players who excel at fighting, only knowing how to level up by defeating monsters; they have no idea about machining precision or airtightness. Without high-precision sealed cylinders and power sources, the machines they create are just piles of scrap metal.
The industrialization of Treasure Island seems to be temporarily put on hold.
Just as Elliott was feeling dejected, a goose that had come down from the group to join in the fun went over to him.
These past few days, Goose has been running errands between the Magic Forest and the abandoned city. Influenced by his mentor Hans, he has gained a completely new understanding of the underlying logic of this world.
The goose ignored the gears; instead, it fixed its gaze on a recess in the center of the base, encased in a thick metal shell. It pulled out a rag and vigorously wiped the area.
The black mud fell away, revealing a dull-colored rhomboid crystal and a complex loop engraved on a metal plate around it.
"Young foreigner, you've fallen into a common misconception." The goose stared at the loops, understanding dawning on its eyes.
Elliott was stunned: "What do you mean?"
"This is a magical world. Before the Great Cataclysm, Treasure Island had already gone astray in its technological development." The goose pointed at the crystal. "This thing doesn't need to burn coal or use the cylinders of an internal combustion engine to provide pressure."
The goose gestured its way along the grooves.
"Look at this air intake channel; there are no exhaust vents at all, which means it doesn't produce any exhaust gases. There are also no fuel lines."
"This should be called a magic circuit. This machine uses some kind of magic crystal as its energy source. Through a magic array engraved on the base, it directly converts magic into torque to drive the gears."
To prove his guess, the goose placed his palm on the dull crystal. Although he was only a novice mage with negligible magical power, he still tried to infuse it with the energy.
As magic was poured in, a faint blue light flickered inside the crystal. Following the intricate metal engravings, the light flowed across the base like water.
Before long, the heavy drive shaft covered in rust made a hard clicking sound and visibly rotated half a millimeter.
The right path is to blend science and magic!
After hearing the goose's explanation and witnessing firsthand how the massive machine could turn without any fuel, Elliott was stunned for a long time.
He clutched his head with both hands and let out an incredulous gasp.
"OMG! Magic! It turned the steel!"
He was so excited he was incoherent, and grabbed the goose by the shoulder. He squeezed so hard the goose winced.
"This is incredible! But it's fantastic! I don't need to deal with the sealed cylinder anymore! I'll hammer in the gears and the outer casing. You mages can do the heart! Let's work together!"
The new players, including the pirate with the imperial hook, watched in awe.
"Wow, this game is incredibly well-modified. The depth of its setting is unfathomable; they've even managed to stitch the dynamics together with magic circles, and the logic is perfectly consistent!"
The biggest dead end of industrialization was thus broken by magical technology.
Seeing Elliott's manic state, the players knew that this piece of junk could definitely be exchanged for a large amount of Maple Leaf Coins.
The pirate with the imperial hook gritted his teeth, turned around and called to his men.
"Brothers, there must be more remnant parts behind this rock layer! While we have the strength today, let's keep blasting downwards and break through this isolation wall! Let's make a lot more money!"
A generous reward often brings good fortune, and a dozen crudely made iron pickaxes were swung at the same time.
They located the weakest joints in the rock strata, drove wooden wedges into them, and then tapped them in little by little. This is a relatively ancient method of cracking the rock, and it is a hundred times more effective than randomly hammering.
They began to carry out high-intensity destruction along the rock wall recesses where the base had just been dug out.
About half an hour later.
The once-hard stone wall was now covered with spiderweb-like cracks. The pirate with the imperial hook raised a large iron hammer and smashed it down hard at the center point.
With a loud bang, the entire thick rock wall collapsed completely.
A large amount of rubble rolled down and crashed into the abyss ahead, with faint echoes only coming after a long while.
A huge gap was carved through the end of the ant hole.
Just as the newlyweds were about to cheer, a gust of cold wind, carrying a strong smell of blood, rushed in through the gap and extinguished the kerosene lamps in the front row.
The temperature dropped sharply in a short period of time, and many freshmen wearing only thin white T-shirts couldn't help but shiver.
The surroundings were eerily quiet.
Before long, a dozen scarlet eyes lit up one by one in the depths of the darkness.
This time it's not a zombie mushroom.
However, the situation was clearly worse, as it was caused by the Fire Cyclops that only appeared in the ant caves on the outskirts of the Forest City.
Their bodies resemble giant fleshy balls with two legs, and they are nearly two meters long.
The rough, yellow skin was covered with cracks resembling dried lava, and a single, bloodshot eye occupied most of the body. Below the eye, a gaping maw burst open, filled with razor-sharp teeth.
These monsters have no forelimbs; their massive bodies are supported entirely by two thick, reverse-jointed hind limbs and sharp toenails.
In the darkness, a dozen or so elongated pupils could be seen faintly, staring intently at the direction of the gap.
The new players in the front row began to tremble as they gripped their pickaxes. A monster of this size was definitely not something they, in their white T-shirts and as level one novices, could possibly contend with.
A real sense of fear shot up my spine and straight to the back of my head.
Some newbies with low tolerance for puddles even instinctively took several steps back and stepped into a puddle.
Da Niu and Wang Liang immediately drew their weapons, shouting for the newcomers to retreat, preparing for an inevitable annihilation.
"Raise your shields! Stand against the wall! Newcomers, retreat!" Da Niu raised his heavy wooden shield and braced himself against the narrowest part of the passage. He was prepared to be resurrected again.
Faced with a horde of monsters of this caliber, these two newly promoted warriors were no match for them.
However, the anticipated killing did not occur.
The dozen or so Fire-Poison Eye Beasts burst through the gap, completely ignoring the players who were right in front of them. They let out chilling, shrill screams, like stray dogs, pushing and trampling each other as they frantically fled towards the surface of the abandoned city.
A foul wind, carrying the scent of sulfur and rotting flesh, swept over the bull's head.
The largest of the fire-poison-eyed beasts even stumbled and fell as it passed by the big bull, tumbling and crawling as it continued to flee for its life.
The hard outer layer scraped against the stone wall, leaving a series of sparks and a large, shocking area of burn marks and sticky blood.
Even after these behemoths had completely disappeared, the mining area still hadn't recovered.
All that remained on the scene was the players' lingering fear. Even the most boisterous pirate with the imperial hook was now frozen in place, his palms sweating profusely.
Da Niu, holding a torch, slowly walked toward the dark gap that had been chiseled open.
The stench left behind by the Fire-Poisonous Beast when it fled was still fermenting in the air. By the light of the fire, he could see the pool of blood on the ground.
That was the blood of the Fire-Eyed Beasts, these social monsters known for their ferocity and savagery. When they ran past, their spherical bodies were torn open, the muscles on their backs were completely ripped apart, and even the single eye of one of them had been cleaved in half by some kind of sharp weapon. They weren't hunting for food; they were fleeing for their lives.
Looking deeper into the dark crack, a very faint low-frequency humming sound was slowly rising from the deepest part of the Forest City.