Chapter 173: Strange Cannon
“Astral Plane, Traveler’s Respite…” Illyas murmured.
Just moments ago, the two were still fretting over this minor grievance, but a Traveler’s Badge pulled their perspectives to the distant and utterly mysterious Astral Plane, the vast leap inspiring a humbling awe, making the conflict before them suddenly lose its weight worth worrying over.
“Have you been there?” Anse asked doubtfully.
“No, I want to go.” Illyas’s gaze was distant. “Ever since I started learning plane knowledge from my mother, I’ve always wanted to try plane travel. Mother said it’s not difficult—Candlekeep, Waterdeep, and the Mage Guild all have such plane teleportation arrays.
But ensuring your own safety during plane travel is not easy. Planes are filled with all sorts of unknown dangers; even legendary powerhouses might not emerge unscathed.”
“Yeah, you might have the ability to go out, but not necessarily to come back.” Anse agreed.
For instance, the Astral Plane between the Outer Planes and the Material Plane looks like an endless silent silver void, but it’s actually full of dangers. Travelers might encounter astral creatures, astral sea pirates, corpses of gods, astral pools, the Void, psychic storms…
Travelers in the Astral Plane propel themselves with thoughts, possessing flight speed equivalent to five times their Intelligence Attribute Score, and can levitate.
With just a thought, a traveler can know the most direct path to their destination. However, they cannot know the duration or dangers of the journey; they can only sense the direction.
Therefore, astral travel is generally done on magic ships, just like spaceships.
“When are you going?” Illyas was very perceptive and immediately guessed Anse’s intentions. She rolled up her sleeve, revealing a delicate armguard on her wrist with a wrist pouch attached.
“After repelling the Amn people.” Anse had planned it out already.
It wasn’t suitable to leave for too long in the current situation; if he returned to find the castle breached, he’d regret it endlessly.
“Fair enough.” Illyas pulled the buckle on the wrist pouch, surprisingly opening a one-foot-diameter black hole, then aimed it at the bed sheet. A massive amount of gemstones poured out like flowing water, in all colors.
Seconds later, Illyas stopped, and the bed was piled high with gemstones—at least a thousand of them—dazzling brilliantly under the light.
Anse’s eyes widened; there were no inferior gemstones inside. The lowest were red gold amber and amethyst, casually piled together without even a box.
This pile was worth at least 100,000 gold coins!
Illyas then took out a silver box, opened it, and placed it on top of the gemstone pile. Inside were three pale blue polyhedrons—two small, one large—with galaxy-like light bands flowing within.
“These are star diamonds, also called astral gemstones or astral crystals. They’re very rare; even the small ones are worth 10,000 gold coins. If the value of common gemstones doesn’t match, you can use these for the transaction.”
As she spoke, she reached out to stroke Anse’s cheek, frowning slightly and feigning distress: “You won’t make me lose money, will you? This is all I have.”
“Old noble families are just rich, huh.” Anse held her and kissed her hard. “I’ll try my best. If I lose money, you can repay it in flesh.”
“Heh, as long as you remember me for a few more years.” Illyas’s tone was wistful; she always felt this man was like an ungraspable bubble, as if he might vanish from her world at any moment.
She got up and left: “Don’t wander off; rest early.”
She didn’t care how Anse spent the money and didn’t want to interfere—better if he lost it all.
“Ah, you’re not resting with me?”
“Heh…”
Bang—the door slammed shut.
Anse shook his head helplessly; he still hadn’t figured out this female sorcerer’s temperament.
He collected all the gemstones into the dragonhide pouch, immediately feeling much more secure. If roughly compared horizontally, the purchasing power of 100,000 gold coins was probably higher than tens of millions of RMB from his previous life—a proper fortune.
Even if Traveler’s Respite was a top-tier club, the spending couldn’t be too outrageous; this money should bring back some specialties from other planes.
——
When golden sunlight bathed the wilderness, the six Amn Barracks had packed up their tents, soldiers formed into phalanxes, advancing along the gentle slope toward Jacqueline Castle.
The castle guards immediately rang the alarm bell, everyone on high alert.
Thump, thump, thump—the ground trembled slightly, the surrounding fruit trees rustling.
Over a dozen strangely shaped constructs crawled or ran past the phalanx, charging toward the castle gate, moving swiftly and leaving a series of deep tracks.
Around them were dozens of professionals, divided into multiple small teams trailing behind the constructs, their gazes fixed on the city wall.
In the rear, Derik swept back his messy hair, put on his iron helmet, and said gruffly: “Are these guys reliable? They look pretty weak.”
Bahamund gave him a cold glance and said flatly: “Reliable or not, we fight this one battle. If the city is breached, launch the general assault; if not, withdraw.”
“Withdraw?” Derik grinned, revealing a pair of sharp canines. “Our mission is to take Dulag within two weeks. We’ve gathered so many advanced professionals this time—running off after getting pelted with a few stones, how do we explain that back home?”
“Headquarters sent word: plans have changed.”
“What happened?”
“That’s not for you to ask about.”
Derik’s face darkened, but he couldn’t vent. If it was high-level classified intelligence, he really couldn’t pry—it might violate military law.
“Prepare for combat. It’s time for you to serve the kingdom.” Bahamund waved his hand, his voice icy.
“Yes…” No one dared slack off, all heading straight for the city gate.
At Jacqueline Castle, Anse hurried to the city wall, looking at the mechanical bodies charging below, his gaze sharpening.
Illyas landed beside him on a flying carpet, her hair disheveled: “This is the magic cannon turret you mentioned?”
“Probably.” Anse replied.
Those mechanical bodies were oddly shaped—some like animals, some like humans, clearly bionic, but most had cannon barrels.
“Why aren’t they night attacking? Why choose a daytime assault?” Illyas’s eyes showed doubt.
“Who knows? Maybe they’re afraid of nighttime stone throws and tar barrels.” Anse pondered.
Daytime armies were easier to control; if they encountered another air raid at night, without knowing the enemy situation or able to contact superiors promptly, the Amn soldiers might directly rout and flee.
Soon, those magic cannon turrets closed to two or three hundred meters.
The dice spun slightly and popped out info on the first turret:
【Force Field Crossbow Cannon, Construct, Level 10 Magic Cannon】
‘This thing has levels? Does it level up like Gundam?’ His knowledge of mechanists wasn’t extensive.
But since it “manufactures” magic cannons, it couldn’t be as rigid as spells; there should be a manufacturing process involving magic, allowing constant upgrades and iterations.
“It’s definitely a magic cannon turret; destructive power should be considerable.” He quickly informed Illyas.
“What about range?” Illyas cut to the key point.
Jacqueline Castle’s outer city wall was twenty-three meters high, with no moat in front of the gate—just a gentle slope. If the enemy’s range was long enough, they’d be sitting ducks.
“Base range should be 120 feet, actually a bit farther in practice, but far less than cannons.” Anse speculated.
Magic cannon turrets were essentially magical items that fired spells; the mechanist had to control them from within tens of meters—others couldn’t use them.
“Then it’s still…”
“Boom—”
A massive roar interrupted her. An especially tall eight-legged mechanical fired from two hundred meters away. A solid iron ball streaked through the air at high speed, slamming into the metal gate with a boom, leaving a deep dent.
“Solid iron ball, no smoke or fire?” Anse was shocked.
