It took longer than Roland had expected to bury the black gunpowder and the detonator, mainly because it was very troublesome to transport barrels of gunpowder to the predetermined location outside the city wall. The knee-high snow made it difficult for the carriages to move. Every time they encountered demonic beasts, the transportation had to be interrupted. Even with the help of Lotus, it took nearly a week to finish the arrangements.
In order to ensure the best detonation effect, all the gunpowder in the buried area was detonated by electric detonators. The latter's principle was very simple. As there was no need to consider carrying and storing, it was basically composed of a small section of sealed copper pipe and two wires. The copper pipe was filled with collodion, and the wires were connected with thin copper wires to form a short circuit. When an electric current passed through, the copper wires would burn and fuse, and at the same time, the surrounding collodion would be detonated.
All the lead wires were sunk into the ground through Lotus. The depth of nearly five meters ensured that the wires would not be affected by ground artillery or demonic beasts even without the protection of a casing. In the end, all the wires converged into the control panel on the city wall. To detonate the gunpowder in a certain area, they only needed to shake the corresponding hand-operated generator.
Therefore, there was only one preparation left for the maneuver — live targets.
"Ahem, in this demonic beast hunting operation, friendship comes first, competition comes second, and safety comes first. Don't leave the monitoring area of Leaf. Do you understand?"
Standing on the city wall, Roland looked at the "contestants" lined up in front of him.
For the sake of fairness and to reduce Leaf's burden, there were three groups of six witches participating in the competition. They were Ashes and Andrea from Sleeping Island, Lightning and Maggie from Neverwinter, and Phyllis and Agatha from Taquila.
Originally, he wanted Iffy and Annie to form a team representing the Kingdom of Wolfheart. However, Iffy was unwilling to participate in the hunt, and the other witches in the Kingdom of Wolfheart had no combat ability, so he had to give up.
"Understood!" The witches answered in unison, especially Andrea Quinn, who seemed to be full of energy. Since tasting the Chaos Drink, the noble witch from the head of the three families in the Kingdom of Dawn had been completely addicted to the unique taste of the Fire Dragon Wine. She even hoped to exchange a month's Chaos Drink for the remaining half a jar of Fire Dragon Wine.
To this, Roland's answer was that if he could get first place, it was not impossible.
"The rules are very simple. The time limit is one day. Whoever can catch the most demonic beasts will be the winner. However, they must be locked in a cage for it to count." He pointed to the iron cage at the bottom of the city wall. "Also, if anyone leaves Leaf's monitoring area, the team will be disqualified. In that case, the hunt begins now! "
"Oh!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Lightning and Maggie took the lead and flew towards the Concealing Forest, leaving the other two teams to trudge on foot.
"Who do you think will win?" After all three teams had left the city wall, Tilly asked with a smile.
In her smile, Roland always felt that there was a trace of a different meaning. "Well … I guess it should be Lightning and Maggie. Their abilities are indeed not the strongest, but they have to put the demonic beasts in a cage to count the points. Therefore, those who are faster will undoubtedly have an advantage. "
"Why don't we make a bet, brother?" She raised the corner of her mouth and said, "I guess the Sleeping Island Group will be the winner."
"Andrea and Ashes?" Roland pondered. Of these two, one was a professional long-range combat witch, and the other was an Extraordinary. There was no doubt about their strength. However, it was easy for them to annihilate the enemies, but it was much more difficult to capture them. If they wanted to smoothly transport the demonic beasts back, they had to beat every demonic beast half to death, which would take far more energy than directly killing the target. It would be difficult for them to get first place.
It seemed to be a business that was sure to be profitable.
"Okay, what's the bet?"
"If I win, well … in the future, I hope that half of the income from selling Chaos Drinks can be used to reward the witches who have made outstanding contributions to the development of the city."
Evelyn herself was from Sleeping Island, and this would help attract more witches, so it was not a bad thing. In fact, even if she did not mention it, Roland had a similar plan.
"No problem. But what if you lose?"
"I'll live in Neverwinter from now on. What do you think?"
Roland was slightly startled. He tilted his head to look at Tilly, but found that she did not seem to be joking. "Really?"
"Of course." Tilly's eyes showed a hint of slyness. "But you may not necessarily win. If you don't believe me, just wait and see."
"I think so too," Nightingale whispered in his ear in the mist. "I forgot to tell you just now … Andrea's magic power has condensed."
*****
"125 meters ahead on the left, a wild boar demonic beast is approaching you."
The tree trunk swayed and shook off strings of snow. The rustling sound of branches and holly leaves formed Leaf's unique tone — in this way, Leaf could monitor the whole scene and talk to everyone at the same time.
"Uh … how far is 125 meters?" Andrea was still not used to Roland's new measurement unit. She frowned and pondered. "One meter is two steps … then 125 meters is …"
"Don't count." Ashes rolled her eyes and took off the "Ashes' Messenger" on her back. "I can already hear its footsteps."
A moment later, a black figure appeared in the dense forest. It was the demonic wild boar. It was about the size of an adult and its grayish-brown tusks were almost as thick as an arm.
"Don't attack. We have to catch it alive." Andrea whistled at the demonic beast. "Come to me!"
"Hiss — hiss —" The wild boar spat out clouds of white gas. It stared at the blonde witch with a pair of scarlet eyes and rushed straight at her. If an ordinary hunter were to encounter such a scene, he would definitely not have any thoughts of confronting it head-on. He would either quickly climb up the nearest tree or wait for an opportunity to escape. As for whether he could survive the fangs and trampling of the demonic beasts, that was another matter entirely.
But Andrea did not move. She did not even take off her beloved rifle from her back. Instead, she stretched out her hands and spread her index fingers and thumbs to form a rhombus circle. Through the center of the circle, the wild boar was less than ten steps away from her. She could almost see its dripping saliva and its shiny mane.
"Bang." She whispered.
A strong airflow suddenly burst out from her palms. At the same time, there was a roar like an explosion. The wild boar seemed to hit an invisible wall and its whole body was thrown into the air. The snow under its feet was swept away by the airflow, stirring up dense white fog. The huge body of the demonic beast flipped over twice and fell heavily to the ground. It did not even have the time to scream. Its mouth was already foaming with blood, and its limbs were twitching.
This was Andrea's new ability. By observing the difference between bows and guns, as well as Princess Tilly's forced study, she understood the direction of her evolution. Since both of them gave energy to arrows or pellets, why couldn't she directly use magic to provide the energy needed for shooting? During the more than two weeks of sailing, she gradually mastered this new fighting skill.
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