Chapter 87 — A Miracle Even Mortals Could Join

Under the command and guidance of the two knights, the warriors and common folk of the Cecil settlement were at last stirred into action.

Word that the aberrations were coming had already spread through the entire camp, but under Gao Yang's deliberate guidance and insinuation, the panic and pressure this news produced had been temporarily suppressed—or rather, diverted. The spoils they had brought back earlier and the name of Gao Yang Cecil played a decisive role in this.

And on this point, what pleased Gao Yang most was that, at least so far, no deserters had appeared in the camp.

The serfs and commoners might be ignorant, but they were not stupid. So long as they were made to understand that this was a savage land far from civilized society, that beyond the camp lay nothing but towering mountains and primeval forest, and that monsters roamed among those mountains—that to flee to the relatively safe town of Tanzan would take at least three or four days' travel, and that with the aberrations already close, running out would only mean dying faster—then those who thought of fleeing would naturally weigh their own lives.

Gao Yang had specifically had Heddy stress this point to the settlers.

So despite their faint terror, despite the memory of the blazing inferno that had consumed Cecil Territory months ago and the boundless horde of monsters still squatting in their minds, the people still mustered their courage. They had heard that the hero lord from seven hundred years ago had a way to deal with the aberrations, and they saw Heddy and Rebecca confidently directing the soldiers in their preparations—and so they, too, gained a little confidence of their own.

And the tasks assigned to them were another source of that confidence.

In the furnace district they fired the "slag" that was said to serve as weapons, built treadle traps, carved and finished runes—work that even illiterate commoners could do well. And while they worked, soldiers stood nearby constantly emphasizing that these things could be used against the monsters. So the laborers began to feel that this "ancient duke" must truly be capable, and they threw themselves into their work with redoubled effort.

And in truth, even the soldiers responsible for "reading out" the instructions were not at all certain what these things were for. They simply followed orders, shouting to the working commoners the very words they had heard from Gao Yang.

"Crystal shards go on the bottom layer, then the stone slab carved with the formation on top! If a slab's broken, come here and swap it for a new one!"

"Finished pieces go over here!"

"Remember to check whether the crystal's lit—an unlit crystal's no use, come here and exchange it!"

"Everything you're making is a weapon, made specially to kill monsters—this is Duke Gao Yang's order! He's the bane of those freaks!"

Gao Yang led Rebecca and Heddy across the open ground northeast of the camp. This stretch of clear space was devoted entirely to the making of "art." Gao Yang had originally intended to name the place the Louvre or something of the sort, to signify its identity as a treasure house of the arts, but no one understood the reference, so he had to let it go.

He bent down to inspect the objects neatly stacked at the tallymen's feet: wooden containers half a foot square and less than two inches tall, packed inside with Rebecca crystal granules, and atop the crystals, slabs of black stone carved with detonation formations.

But these components alone could not set off these magic-version "landmines." They still required runic triggers to activate them.

This final step could not be entrusted to commoners or serfs. Given the risk of accidental detonation, the installation of the runic triggers was left for last: the wooden boxes would be buried in the open ground at the mountain pass southwest of the camp, and only at the moment of burial would soldiers and specialized trap artisans assemble the runic triggers onto the formations.

The runic trigger was a fairly simple structure. As the "trigger mechanism," a paired set of runes was separated by a thin stone plate, with a wooden board layered above. When the board was stepped on, the stone plate shattered, the two runes came into contact, completing the runic circuit—which then activated the detonation formation and finally set off the explosion.

This was the otherworld version of a landmine. Though its technical details were utterly different from its distant cousins on Earth, the underlying idea shared common ground. It was plainly at odds with the chivalric spirit of this age—but Heddy and Rebecca's assessment of it was: chivalry be damned, this thing looks awesome!

And in a world where supernatural power existed, the "landmine" had one especially convenient feature: there was no need to worry about the problem of "laying mines is a joy, clearing them is a funeral." Heddy would leave her own magical imprint on every detonation formation. This "mage trick," which did not even count as a first-tier spell, ensured that every mine could be swiftly located; after the battle, every undetonated mine could be found and cleared with ease.

Of course, the number of magical imprints Heddy alone could sustain was limited—but for this battle, her imprints were more than sufficient.

After inspecting the work here, Gao Yang handed the camp's defenses over to the two family knights and Rebecca, while he himself took Heddy to the Dark Mountains.

On a cliff face north of the mountain, even more "Rebecca crystals" had been placed.

In fact, most of the crystals the camp had accumulated over these days had been transported here. To ensure a rockfall of sufficient scale, Gao Yang dared not be stingy in the slightest with the "yield."

Earlier, with the help of Heddy's Evocation Hand, Feather Fall, and other spells, workers and supplies had long since been brought into position. Using simple ropes and scaffolding, the stonemasons had already chiseled a series of recesses into the cliff face and packed large quantities of crystal granules into the recesses and the existing cracks in the rock—but the task of drawing the detonation formations could only be left to Heddy herself.

Heddy, only third-tier, could not yet use mid-tier mage skills like Flight, and could not even sustain the low-tier Levitation for long. So she could only stand on the ground, using Evocation Hand together with Telekinesis to draw the detonation formations on the cliff, while observing and adjusting through a Mage's Eye. This kind of precise control was actually beyond the ability of a low-tier mage—but fortunately, besides being a low-tier mage, Heddy was also a formally converted believer of the "Goddess of Magic." Before beginning her work she prayed to the Goddess of Magic and received a brief blessing, and only thus was she able to carry the task through.

To ensure this oversized detonation formation would function properly, Gao Yang had spared no expense this time. From the mountain treasury he had taken large quantities of prefabricated powdered mithril and amethyst dust, combined them with alchemical reagents compounded by Pei Yun, and turned them into the most expensive "paint" in history. Heddy could "paint" these magic-conducting materials directly onto the cliff face, which spared a great deal of carving and inlay work—and thus saved time.

And right now, what was most precious was time.

As Heddy painted those enormous lines and runes into place one after another, Amber's figure emerged from the shadows of the nearby trees. With a tense expression, she drew close to Gao Yang and whispered, "Those monsters are very close now—half a day at most."

"I know. I figured it was about time," Gao Yang said with a slight nod. "Are they coming along the expected route?"