Chương 75: Chapter 74 - Sweat Pays.

Her back slumped against the table leg, her head rolling back. [System Notifications!] [System Notifications!] FINE, I'LL READ THEM, FINE, FINE High Administrator (lvl 15 > 16) (2/4 tokens) Manufactorium (lvl 3 > 5) (0/2 tokens) Heat Resistance (lvl 6 > 15) (0/2 tokens) Shellwright (lvl 11 > 17) (1/2 tokens) Ordnance-smith (lvl 1 > 8) (0/2 tokens) Lord of Fire (lvl 1 > 3) (0/2 tokens) What in the blazes, both high administrator and manufactorium? As well?

I suppose I did just order an entire factory, refinery, and mine be set up but still… Even with the leech ring dragging me down, my skills surge forward. This was just the first round, with the worst materials in a building that's already falling apart… What about when I have a real forge and capped crafting skills? Tianshiang better watch the fuck out. WAIT, do I have a soft set? Cannon Arm (lvl 8) (0/2 tokens) Form a cannon with one arm, launching flux shells at high velocity in the direction of your palm.

This skill counts as an artillery piece for the purposes of any skill. 20 flux per shell cost. Overuse will cause damage to the appendage. For every level, increase explosive yield by 1%, reduce overheat by 5%, and increase breach depth by 3%. OVERHEAT, the damage is classified as overheat… Heat Resistance (lvl 15) (0/2 tokens) For every level, gain 1% resistance to damage inflicted by heat. This should nullify the overheat… it just says "Heat" that should work on this too.

Which means my overheat should be reduced by 15%, and if I reach 100% heat resistance, I should not suffer at all. Soft-set. Nice.

"See something nice?" Dorrick loomed over her, setting his hammer down on the work bench. Another bucket of water crashed onto her, sizzling off moments later.

"Prepare to test the cannon with a standard shell, we will do one blasting powder shell, one blue and one red mushroom shells" Nythera popped the shells out of Boxy, allowing the two to roll out from under her cloak. The lumberjack muscle team streamed in and took the shells to the platform. Nythera hobbled out after them, grabbing at the cracked stone walls for support, before collapsing on the outside, where her new beautiful ordnance, barrel and platform merged into one, waited.

Three men carefully listed the first shell, the red mushroom shell, up to the top of the barrel, climbing metal stairs on either side. The blasting charge was directly loaded first, carefully slid down with the fuse-rope. Then the shell, with four hands navigating the rear into the barrel, the platform creaking under the weight. THUD She winced. The shell hit the blasting charge and somehow did not detonate. Another bucket of water found Nythera, sizzling off, but with a significant delay.

"Where should we bring the cannon, Milady? It's going to be hard with the charge and shell loaded, but with enough muscle, it can be moved" Dorrick asked.

"Nowhere, we test fire it here. The arc of the shell should have it go well past any people or buildings. Aim it at the mountains over there so we can see the impact site" Nythera pointed.

"Here? Very well" Dorrick asked in shock.

"If we hit a building, it ain't on my head" he grumbled.

"Miss Nythera? Are you in here?" Delita's voice could be heard from the forge behind.

"FIRE!" she yelled. They lit the fuse reluctantly. Half of the muscle fled from the open-roof building, taking cover nearby. Nythera waited, against the wall, just behind the cannon. Another bucket of water was dumped on her. Now she was waiting, drenched.

"Cut it out with the water!" She yelled as the runner fled. Sparks flew and rope-ash dripped as the heat flew up the fuse. One of the men flinched when it reached the cusp of the barrel, darting out of the building for cover.

"Just how much blasting powder did you put in those charges?" Dorrick asked.

"Enough" she answered.

"Hello? Wow it's hot in here, Oh here you are!" Delita exclaimed as he came out the door from the forge, sweating profusely. Dorrick winced, backing up several paces to the corner. Nythera sat, having already accepted her fate.

"What are you doing back here? Wow, that is one big cannon, shall we bring it to an acceptable testing area?" Delita bowed. Fire roared, a shockwave resonating up through the metal. Fire blasted out the front as the shell was sent into the sky. The platform groaned, metal connectors snapping under the force. A hole was blown straight through the metal, blasting fire at the walls. Delita screamed. Fuck, this needs some work yet. I suppose the shell didn't explode in the barrel at least.

In the distance, she pulled on Precision-Sight and watched as a fiery crater was burned into the mountainside, a wave of flame rippled through the woods, incinerating the undergrowth. Ok so as expected, the red shrooms bring fire. I'll refrain from testing mushroom shells anymore, they are too small for this barrel and I think it caused the burst in the barrel. Dorrick looked terrified, he prayed to Kronan in the corner.

"Dorrick, triple plate that breach spot, and lets get more reinforcement on the platform. I saw three other locations where spurts of flame came out, those all need more plating" Nythera ordered, trying to pull herself up.

"Understood, MEN GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE NOW, WE GOT WORK TO DO" Dorrick leaned back and bellowed into the sky. Only two of his workteam of eight had remained. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"I didn't realize you were already testing shells, and here of all places. I guess if they go that far it shouldn't be a problem, but is this thing safe" Delita's eyes kept flicking back to the ordnance, every time his frown deepened.

"Yeah, we have no time to move this thing just for testing and the range is far enough it should do nothing more than surprise people" Nythera turned to address the workers "Let's get this patched up and ready for the next test shot." The blast charge had to be scraped out of the bottom with a metalmancer, coaxing the metal out bit by bit.

"Are there no more metalmancers? If we have to do this every time, I'm going to need you on the ship" Nythera said. With greying hairs in his otherwise blackbeard, the aging man spoke "I've got two apprentice boys, they are delving your dungeons now, but it takes time, Metalmancer isn't technically a profession, its a class, Milady" He said, pulling yet another piece out of the barrel.

"I would be happy to serve aboard your ship" he bowed his head.

"Good, we would be more than happy to have you" Nythera handed him something, tucking it into his fist "A payment for your services here, and out on the seas" He opened his hand discretely.

"Milady, I can't this is too much, what could-""I won't hear another word of it, you'll be aboard my ship serving a role no one else can. If you feel yourself unworthy of it, give it to your apprentices" Nythera jumped down off the platform. One upgrade token to pay for his services, and help secure our island's very scarce supply of metalmancers? Maybe I should have given him three. Plates were pounded onto the barrel, one after another, metal merged into one with flux.

The next shell, a pure blasting powder type, was loaded in. This time all the men except Dorrick left the clearing, the metalmancer peeked out from behind the door. Let's do a little experiment with this one. This time, Nythera lit the fuse herself, dragging flux into her finger tips until they burned, she pinched the end and rubbed. And fire started. That is surprisingly easy, for a very basic cantrip it's not bad. Nythera strode confidently to her place behind the cannon, watching with folded arms.

Image is important, if I start running from my own cannons, what kind of leader am I? Besides we triple plated that breach spot and all the other holes, it should be fine… Right? The sparks reached the top and the wait began, with no visual indicator of where the fire was, Dorrick and Nythera tensed. Fire blossomed, shell rocketing forth from the barrel with enough force to jolt the reinforced platform. Up the shell arced, deep into the dimmed sky above.

The firing arc takes far longer than Aether Cannon to actually land, I should keep that in consideration when deploying this weapon. Can any mages intercept these shells? A ball of rolling fire expanded from the site, the trees were pushed to the ground or burnt to a crisp in the blink of an eye. Great white smoke billowed up into the fire. POP A strange sensation passed over her ears as lizigeons flew squawking out of trees, in the mountains and as far as Waketown they took to the sky in a flurry.

That'll do for testing, two out of two. I'm beginning to worry anymore and we won't have a mountainside to look at anymore. Nythera yanked open the forge door "Delita, get me a ship, I need this cannon in Grandport by tomorrow. A barge should be able to haul this thing down with the morning flow""Yes, of course milady, we have several barges in port, though I suspect it'll take some time to move that contraption down to the docks" Delita crawled out from under the workbench where he had been cowering.

"Milady, I'll need a few minutes to reinforce it again, the platform bucked too much for me to be content with it. After that how would you like it moved? it's dark and I'm worried the men will trip with it." Dorrick pulled out some of the excess plates.

"Delita, get a barge ready for the morning, we move at first light" Nythera snapped an order.

"Yes, of course milady" Delita bowed and scampered off. Dorrick was already melding on a plate to the side of the barrel.

"What went wrong with the cannon?" Nythera asked.

"The metal here began to fold, The blasting charges have too much force. If we had a runescribe this would be far simpler" Dorrick took a tube of rolled metal and forced it deep into the platform's structure. Nythera sat down against the wall, pulling her cloak over her. She drifted off to the sound of light hammerwork. … By morning a crew of lumberjacks were moving the cannon and platform as one piece down to the dockyards.

The shells were rolled gently behind the cannon, workers grimacing at every bump as if expecting them to detonate. Nythera stood by the forge with Delita. She traced one crack after another in the stone walls. The heat was too much for this building, the forge itself has dozens like this. And next time we'll probably burn it a lot hotter…

"Delita, for now triple the thickness of these walls and mend and reinforce the forge. If you can get a runescribe up here to do work on it, that would be better." Nythera stuck a finger in the biggest crack she had found, one that nearly took down a wall.

"I'll try, but getting the runescribes up and out of Grandport is not easy, they are too comfortable down there." Delita chuckled nervously.

"Work with Noah, I can't have a forge that cracks every time I use it." Nythera strode down to the docks, explicitly avoiding the clearing areas where she had spotted Ren days ago. The cannon, platform and all, sat on their largest barge, pushing it deep into the water. The team of ten that had moved it, clearly exhausted. If they had tried my Sea Empress, I think it would have sank. The barge pushed off from shore, careful to avoid anything remotely shallow until they could get onto deeper waters.

I need a name for that cannon.

"So, milady, do you require anything else?" Delita asked, eyes flicking to and fro.

"No, I should be good to head down to Grandport, just make sure you get the refinery, mine, and tool factory up soon. Is there something wrong here?" Nythera asked.

"Oh nothing at all, we just suddenly had a massive deficit of necessary labor, nothing wrong at all" Delita chuckled nervously.

"I'll be gone soon enough, you're doing good work up here, keep it up and I might have another project for you after this one" Delita nodded profusely several times "Of course, well, I'm off to manage the new farms, got to make sure they are setting up the fields properly" Delita darted off with newly found energy. That ought to get him moving, but I've got to build at least another town or two on Myrraval once Waketown is up and running. If he can organize workers and plot out new towns? Perfect.

Nythera's Sea Empress was untied moments later and in the air shortly after. She slumped against the back railing, letting the jets carry them forward "If only I could fly around wherever I wanted for a while, ignore responsibility. But no, that thing has to pay" She caressed the damage section, her fingers could tell where the original material met the repairs. A flock of Lizigeons flew up to greet her, with a flick of her wrist the jet force jumped, leaving them in the distance.

She dallied, taking time to slowly swerve into port. Upon landing, she happily waltzed up to her new favorite errand boy.

"Lawrence, I need you to do something for me. Several things really. Nothing major." Nythera smiled.

"What do you want this time? I know you're the Queen of Myrraval, but I ain't no errand boy, don't try to turn me into another Leo. I'm twice as old, twice as busy, and half as chatty" Lawrence whined.

"I need you to get me two ships, I know you only got a few, but I'm lending the council one of my flying ships, so two regular ones should be a fair price, and I'll give them back when I'm done" Nythera's eyes watched for any sign of discontent. There was a lot of discontent.

"I'll ask, best I can do, but two ships, probably not fishing dinghies, so two of our merchant ships. That's a tall ask, for how long?" Lawrence spat into the harbor.

"Just a few days, a week at most""Fine, that should be doable, but they won't be happy. You better bring them a big catch" Lawrence signed off on a piece of parchment shoved in front of him without so much as a glance.

"Next, I need you to get Aldric, send a runner telling him I want to meet him, here in Grandport" Nythera watched as a fishing ship dumped the morning catch onto the dock, workers scrambling with still-live fish.

"Aldric? That fucker just left a few days ago, he won't be happy being called back so quick. I'll send your message, it'll take a few days to get there and a few days for him to here though" Lawrence turned to the dock workers.

"You fuckers, if I see a single fish fall back in the water, you're working triple shift" he bellowed.

"Is that all?" Lawrence asked.

"Yes, though if you could keep an eye out for crew willing to go monster hunting on those two ships in a few days, that would also be ideal. Also where is Lance?" she brushed dirt off the back of her cloak.

"Lance is busy as fuck, that Mancers-union is no joke, but if he's not there, he's at Marco's complaining about it" Lawrence said.

"Very well, I'll leave you to it" Nythera nodded and as soon as Lawrence was out of sight, bolted down the alleys. I could really use some booze, I've had enough surprises for a while. If he isn't there… I'll just drink till he shows up.

"Milady, bless your passing, may I have a word?" she pivoted on a spark to find the priest of Veymur in orange smiling at her. Shit.