359: Chapter 351 Half of the territory has fallen

When Damu followed Zhang Mu into the training area of "The World," his team members were getting familiar with the new magic guidance sniper rifles.

Zhang Mu briefly introduced what upgrades had been made to the new sniper rifle.

The improvements this time were significant; not only were all the Cores replaced with higher-grade ones, but the overall structure was also optimized.

Damu was pleasantly surprised.

The experience of being crushed by a Saint-level expert previously had left him feeling quite dejected, so he quickly grabbed a sniper rifle to test it.

The result was a huge disappointment.

All along, Geoffrey had never stopped developing firearms, adhering to the principle that they should be usable even by those with ordinary constitutions; thus, even though the firearms had been upgraded many times, Damu had always been able to utilize all their functions.

However, after firing several shots this time, he was stunned to find that the sniper rifle's Core could not reach a 100% charge no matter what.

This meant he could not unleash the sniper rifle's maximum firepower.

Without waiting for him to ask, Zhang Mu walked over and explained with a smile.

Considering the current dire state of the war, in order to raise the upper limit of the magic guidance sniper rifle's power, Geoffrey had to make certain compromises—he had raised the threshold for using the sniper rifle.

The threshold was actually not high; as long as one became a Magic Apprentice and mastered the three basic foundations of magic, they could use it with ease.

But among the twenty-one members of the three Special Operations Squads, not a single one was a Professional, let alone a magician.

Thus, this "not very high" threshold became an impassable chasm for them.

Damu leaned the rifle against the rack with little interest, muttering, "Then we might as well use the old ones."

Zhang Mu's face darkened: "What, did that Saint-level not beat you hard enough? Do you have no ambition?"

"But Lord Marshal, we..." Damu turned to glance at his team members, "We are all adults. Isn't it said that once you're an adult, you can no longer practice a Meditation Method?"

"Who told you that?"

"The Professionals from the disbanded legions said so."

"Hmm..." Zhang Mu pondered with his hands behind his back for a long while before snapping out of it, "Theoretically, that's correct, but the reality is that the efficiency of practicing a Meditation Method after becoming an adult is extremely low,"

"So low that it requires an enormous amount of resources to see any results."

"Heh, what a coincidence. The one thing I don't lack is cultivation resources."

The team members and Damu looked at each other and asked tentatively, "Does the Marshal mean for us to practice a Meditation Method?"

"It's a necessity."

"I've asked Geoffrey; if the magic guidance sniper rifle is upgraded once more, even if he installs protective devices, you would be shaken to death by the surging magic power."

Damu opened his mouth to say something, but Zhang Mu waved his hand: "Alright, enough talk. I'll bring the potions tomorrow; you all must become Magic Apprentices as soon as possible."

"Until then, the squad's assassination operations will be suspended."

After saying that, Zhang Mu used the exit located in the Royal Capital and left "The World."

Landing outside the Royal Capital, he immediately rushed to the palace and found Avril, who was handling government affairs.

Seeing him arrive, Avril's icy-blue eyebrows arched: "Is everything settled at the front?"

"Yes, but you're going to be busy on your end too."

Avril put down the fountain pen Zhang Mu had given her: "I thought there was a logistics problem. What is it?"

"It's like this." Zhang Mu pulled up a wooden chair and sat next to her. "Haven't we either killed or driven off all the Church Divine Officials? There isn't a single Light Element Mage left in Lake,"

"I plan to train a batch."

"Training them now..." Avril rested her chin on her right hand, looking at the ceiling as she pondered for a moment. "Isn't it a bit too late?"

"And I recall that only Divine Officials can understand the meaning of the words in the Church's light-attribute magic books?"

"Also, before those Divine Officials fled, they burned many magic books; we only managed to salvage a few."

"You want to train many Light Element Mages... if that many people use those few magic books to learn one by one, I'm afraid the magic script will disappear before the first few people even finish learning."

"Ha, that's simple. I'll solve it."

"How will you solve it?"

Zhang Mu felt that explaining would be too much trouble, so he took his Mobile Phone out of his Storage Pouch, opened the camera function, aimed the lens at Avril, and pressed the shutter.

"Mm?" Startled by the flash, Avril blinked, wondering why she hadn't sensed any magic fluctuations.

"Here." Zhang Mu turned the phone around, the screen facing her. "Take a look."

"Eh?" Avril took the phone in surprise, looking at the "lifelike" version of herself on the screen. "Is this... a shadow recording crystal?"

"No, that's not right. It feels different from a shadow recording crystal."

"It has nothing to do with shadow recording crystals." Zhang Mu took the phone back, randomly took a magic book from his inventory, and photographed one of the pages.

"Look."

"This is..." Avril's dreamlike icy-blue pupils constricted as she stared intently at the page of magic script on the screen.

"I have plenty of ways to record magic script. By the way, taking photos with a phone is too tedious; I'll bring a printer over tomorrow."

"What is a printer?"

"You'll know when I bring it."

"Oh." Avril nodded, then prepared to stand up. "Then I'll go select those with light-attribute talent immediately..."

"No rush." Zhang Mu pressed her shoulder. "Is there any news from Teacher?"

Avril's expression darkened: "I call Teacher with the crystal every day, but... I've never received a response."

"Don't worry too much. Once we deal with the coalition, we'll go rescue Teacher together."

She sighed: "After the coalition, there's still the Kingdom. Even if we defeat the Kingdom, the distant Empire will surely launch an expedition against Lake. Whether... whether we can even hold out is unknown."

What Avril worried about was that Lake wouldn't even last until the day the Empire launched its expedition.

Recently, city lords from various regions had reported that large numbers of their subjects were fleeing; this situation became more severe the closer a city was to the border.

For example, in Keton City, the Soldiers and the townspeople had all fled together, which was why there was the eerie sight of the city being empty when the coalition arrived.

Of course, the subsequent cities weren't empty because everyone fled, but because Zhang Mu had moved the people away.

If things continued to deteriorate, Avril felt that Lake would collapse on its own without needing an enemy invasion.

Zhang Mu smiled: "Launch an expedition against Lake?"

"They won't need to; I'll go find them."

Avril looked up sharply, her mouth opening as if to speak but then hesitating, finally saying: "Junior... those weapons you invented are indeed very powerful, but relying on them to defeat the Empire..."

"The Empire has Gods Blessing, and the top-tier Imperial Divine Officials are at the Epic rank."

"Those weapons of mine..." Zhang Mu bared his teeth. "What you've seen is only the tip of the iceberg."

If he only relied on light weapons like firearms, Zhang Mu wouldn't be arrogant enough to talk about attacking the Empire; the Empires of the Saul Continent had real power.

But the confidence behind his words came from the extremely flourishing heavy weaponry developed on Blue Star.

Of course, pure heavy weaponry would find it difficult to threaten High-tier Professionals.

Not long ago, Zhang Mu had given Geoffrey samples of various heavy weapons, instructing him to develop the magic guidance series as soon as possible.

Based on the current progress, by the time Zhang Mu clashed with the Empire, the Empire's opponents would no longer be "bullets" or "shells," but magic guidance machine guns firing hundreds of Fireball Spells per minute, magic tanks blasting high-level magic, and so on.

"When the time comes, I'll give those Empires a big gift." Zhang Mu imagined the scene of magic tanks roaring across the Saul Continent.

Avril gazed at Zhang Mu for a long while before revealing a breathtakingly beautiful smile: "I believe in you, Junior."

After that, the two stopped chatting. Avril set about organizing the selection of talents, while Zhang Mu rushed back to Keton City.

The coalition was about to go mad; he couldn't leave the front line.

...

Keton City.

The Third Army's Legion Commander stood on the city wall, watching the coalition Soldiers retreating like a receding tide, and let out a heavy breath.

This was the fifth wave of charges they had repelled.

The coalition seemed to have lost its mind, frantically attacking Keton City regardless of casualties.

The Legion Commander could understand what the coalition was so anxious about.

As the gateway to Lake's eastern border, Keton City was the only passage for the coalition to reach the central region of Lake.

If they didn't take Keton City, the coalition could only take detours through the small paths on either side.

For a massive legion to march through narrow paths would undoubtedly be seeking its own death.

In fact, the coalition shouldn't have been blocked by a single Keton City for so long; they had six Saint-level experts accompanying the expedition. If they just sent one out, Keton City's defenses would be like paper, easily pierced.

However, after the solitary Ak was miserably captured half a month ago, the remaining five Saint-levels didn't dare show their faces randomly, fearing an ambush.

Novak was the coalition commander in name, and in fact, he did have full command over the coalition, but the Saint-levels were different; they weren't people he could just order around, he could only negotiate with them.

Facing the Third Army holding Keton City, Novak had no choice but to press on with the attack.

After witnessing the howitzers wipe out three hundred thousand Soldiers, the Third Army Soldiers' morale was high and their resolve was incredibly firm. Facing wave after wave of coalition charges, they held the city walls tenaciously, preventing the enemy from advancing an inch.

Novak was frantic, but he could only continue the offensive, ordering various countries to send more legions while comforting himself in his heart.

Once we take Keton City and reach the plains, my Mutated Rhino-Ox Cavalry Regiment will vent all the frustration accumulated during this time.

Under the coalition's all-out assault, the Third Army suffered serious casualties and was forced to retreat.

After retreating dozens of miles from Keton City, Zhang Mu brought them back to the rear to recuperate. Meanwhile, Domit ordered the Second, Fifth, and Seventh Armies to dig trenches at certain intervals across the plains, determined to drag the coalition into a quagmire and make them pay a heavy price for every step forward.

So, when Novak led his army through Keton City and prepared to send out his cavalry with arrogant laughter, what he saw were trenches covering the wilderness.

Trench warfare was a vintage tactic from The World War II era on Blue Star, but it was appearing for the first time on the Saul Continent.

Initially, Novak didn't care, thinking to himself: Could a series of deep ditches about two meters wide be harder to attack than high city walls?

As it turned out, it was indeed no easier than dealing with city walls.

The Lake Soldiers had set up a firepower net with no blind spots in the trenches. Relying on the supplies Zhang Mu transported from Blue Star and the production capacity of the Armory in "The World," they hardly had to worry about running out of ammunition.

Plus, with the Griffin Knights serving temporarily as a transport team, they didn't even need to worry about the machine guns cooling down; if they were damaged by high heat, they just replaced them.

Just like that, Novak, who had just painstakingly overcome the pass and thought spring had arrived, once again encountered a bitter winter.

The heavy armor worn by ordinary Soldiers was fragile before bullets. High-tier Professionals, however, could rely on their Magic Shields to endure the impact or use their extraordinary physiques to dodge and charge toward the positions.

However, once the distance closed, even a High-level Magician's shield couldn't withstand the terrifying fire rate of a gatling.

After losing a large number of High-level Magicians, Novak helplessly ordered the magicians to retreat and then used the inefficient method of having High-level Knights dodge bullets to break through the positions, followed by ordinary Soldiers.

Fortunately, although the advance was slow, it wasn't like at Keton City where they were firmly blocked in place.

Moreover, the coalition had brought many Church Divine Officials; as long as the ordinary Soldiers weren't killed on the spot, they could be saved. Thus, while there were losses, they weren't crippling.

The Lake side, however, lacked an effective medical system.

Some might find it strange: since Lake's gods had all left, couldn't they send doctors to treat the Soldiers?

Slow healing is better than none, right?

Unfortunately, there was no "doctor" class on the Saul Continent; treating illnesses relied entirely on Divine Officials.

Zhang Mu was already training people urgently and trying to establish a wartime medical system similar to Blue Star's.

Progress was decent, but the scale was still some distance from being ready for use; it needed time.

Consequently, the attrition in the three legions was extremely serious; once a Soldier was wounded and retired, there was almost no possibility of them returning to the battlefield.

This dire situation would only improve once the Light Element Mage team took shape.

As one side's strength waxed and the other's waned, although the coalition's advance was very slow, they were ultimately making steady progress.

When half of the trenches in the plains had been cleared, Novak, frustrated by the slow pace, couldn't help but send High-tier Professionals to the front lines to destroy the positions.

Upon discovering that the mysterious squad that had previously ambushed the main camp had not appeared, nor were there any Saint-levels coming, Novak was overjoyed and deployed most of his High-tier Professionals to quickly level the positions.

The pressure on the defensive lines of the three legions suddenly surged.

Bullets couldn't break the defenses of High-tier Professionals; Magisters could withstand the impact of bullets and fly over the trenches to drop high-level magic on the ground.

The three legions were still using ordinary weapons and were powerless against magic, being wiped out in large numbers.

Domit realized that the coalition had sensed the Special Operations Squad was temporarily unable to fight, so he immediately ordered the Second and Fifth legions to retreat entirely, with the Seventh Army covering the rear.

Watching the Lake Soldiers fighting to the death in the trenches to block the coalition, Novak was very confused.

He thought to himself that Lake's downfall was already certain, so what was the point of their loyalty to Lake?

Brando guessed what he was puzzled about and explained that these Soldiers Zhang Mu had selected were all non-Professionals.

The combat power of ordinary people was indeed worlds apart from that of Professionals, but the advantage was that their faith in the gods was practically non-existent.

In reality, the reason Lake's Soldiers were risking their lives went beyond that; there was also the "military merit peerage system" implemented by Zhang Mu.

In the eyes of the Lake Soldiers, they had been given a chance to rise into the noble class.

For ordinary commoners, it was inevitable that they would risk their lives for such a chance.

Of course, the desperate struggle of ordinary people could not block the coalition's path.

As the coalition's High-tier Professionals rampaged on the front lines, all the positions in the plains were cleared out.

At this point, half of Lake's territory had fallen into enemy hands.

Afterward, Novak was in no hurry to continue the offensive; he built outposts extensively across the plains, intending to take complete control of this region while waiting for reinforcements from the rear.