The fourth is Sylvie.
When facing this witch, Roland always felt a little uncomfortable. It wasn't because Nightingale told her that she lied too much. In modern society, apart from relatives and close friends, few people would speak out, all kinds of special effects were added. Touted and rumored, he has long been accustomed to it.
He just felt that he had a feeling that he had nowhere to hide in front of her, and what was worse, he knew that this was not an illusion, but that the other party's ability was just like that. Disregarding the vision of obstacles, as long as she thinks, the clothes on her body are equal to nothing. Roland sighed secretly why he didn't have such ability, and involuntarily changed his sitting position and raised Erlang's legs.
In terms of appearance, she can be regarded as the most unique of the five witches: she has long green hair that falls straight to her shoulders, and slender eyebrows, which are visible under the bangs. Especially her amber eyes, which are so transparent that they have almost no depth, reflecting all the light like a mirror. After looking at it for a long time, Roland always felt that a red mark would suddenly appear inside.
Sylvie's ability is very easy to understand. She can see behind all the scenes around her body, and her vision can penetrate obstacles. The depth of penetration depends on her thoughts. In addition, she also has a branch ability similar to Nightingale: you can see the convergence and dissipation of magic power.
This made Roland a little surprised. If the branch ability can be so close, what about the main ability? He asked Sylvie this question, but the latter hesitated and said that among the hundreds of witches in Sleeping Island, no one with the same ability had ever been found, and Nightingale's light pinch on the left side verified the truth.
Probably because there are too few samples, Roland thought.
The last witch to appear is Candle.
Like Anna, she celebrated her coming-of-age day last year during the Demon Moon. When she was a minor, her ability could only act on lighting objects such as candles, lamp oil, and torches. After adulthood, her magic power was stabilized, and the effect was greatly enhanced. She could maintain the original characteristics of the objects she touched for a period of time, such as ice cubes. After casting, it will not melt under the sun, and it still emits bursts of cold air.
This ability seems incredible at first glance, and it can achieve many things that cannot be done by conventional means, but after several rounds of testing, Roland found that it is not as perfect as he imagined. First of all, it is a kind of enchantment ability, which requires direct contact with the target. This limitation makes it difficult for candlelight to solidify some high-temperature objects.
So he tried in vain to get a drop of molten steel that would remain incandescent forever, and his plan to continuously provide heat for the blast furnace went bankrupt. Except for Anna, no one dared to touch the thousand-degree thing with their hands. And if it becomes a thin piece of wire, the candle can hold the other end for enchanting, but this raises another problem.
That is, the farther the solidification state of the object is from the normal state, the greater the consumption of mana, and the shorter the lasting effect.
Roland verified this with ice cubes. After the ice cubes of the same size were solidified, one was placed on the hot ground and the other was thrown into the water basin. The former only lasted for half an hour and then melted quickly, while the latter lowered the water temperature to The ice cold also maintained its original shape.
That means it's only going to be worse if you switch to red-hot wire or steel bars.
Finally, size is also a factor that restricts the ability of Candle Fire. Like Hummingbird and Mystery Moon, the larger the size of the cast object, the more magic power it will consume. According to Nightingale's observation, her own magic power is at the middle and lower levels, like a golden mist, and a strong cyclone has not yet formed.
But even so, this seemingly introverted girl is still Roland's biggest gain. In the field of industrial production, the state of solidified objects is completely invaluable, and the key lies in the word "normal". Affected by various factors such as heating and cooling, friction, and force, the metal will fatigue and the structure will deform. He doesn't need drill bits that get hot from friction, or gears that wear out over time. If a machine's key parts can always be in good shape, it means it can always operate at maximum efficiency and precision.
In other words, glowing fire can effectively improve the mechanical strength of inferior metals.
…
Back at the castle office, Roland reviewed the recorded abilities again, and then began to plan their future work.
"How is it," Nightingale stuck her head out of the fog, "is there a favorite among the five witches?"
"It's not bad," Roland replied casually.
"What! You like both?"
He glared at the man, who stuck out his tongue and walked away with a piece of dried fish in his mouth.
Obviously, at present, the most useful ones are the lotus and the candle.
With the ability to transform the terrain, he can easily build a new earth wall outside the city wall. In order to save materials and speed up the construction period, he chose the pass closest to the foot of the north slope and the Chishui River. It can be completed before the arrival of the Devil's Moon, but it also limits the scope of the town's expansion to the west. As the population continues to grow, it will be a matter of time before this wilderness and hidden forest will be developed.
The new earth wall will extend to the outer edge of the Hidden Forest while encompassing a forest, which will nearly double the size of the town. As for the elongated defense line, it can be solved by expanding the source of troops and artificially guiding the attacking direction of the evil beasts. In any case, compared to the previous year's wooden spears and front-loaded flintlock guns, the firepower projection capability of the First Army has undergone earth-shaking changes, and defensive measures such as forts and bastions can also be used by the new city wall. completed together.
In addition, he also planned to let Lian open a passage in the southern mountains, so that Border Town could go directly to the shoal. In this way, the town has a natural harbor and trade with the fjord is easier. Considering the amount of magic power required to transform the rock formations, the project could take months.
Candlelight's job is to cooperate with Anna and Lucia to create a new generation of machine tools for the production of firearms and other mechanical equipment. If it goes well, Anna can also be freed from the boring processing and production.
Sylvie's mission is very clear, mainly to explore the northern slope of the mine and the hidden forest. According to those miners, there are more than 100 natural caves in the North Slope Mine, and no one knows where they eventually lead. Today, there are only twenty ores mined and cleared out, and several kinds of ores have already been discovered. Roland is very curious about how credible the rumors of the so-called monstrosities' nests are. Now that he has the ability to see through the witch, he wants to fully explore the Beipo mining area, draw a detailed map, and let Lian coordinate with him to adjust the terrain to improve the mining efficiency.
As for the honey, Roland didn't have too many ideas, just to strengthen his information transmission ability in the era of no radio. He needs a large number of well-trained birds to use as carrier pigeons. He doesn't require them to be as smart as Maisie, as long as he can get the information into his hands as soon as possible. (., Your support is my biggest motivation.)