Chapter 178 Summons
AI Model: gemini-2.5-flash
Back at the castle, Walter was waiting for him in the hall, handing him a list.
"My Lord, these are the materials needed to construct the barrier."
Roger took the list and scanned it.
Aside from mithril, which he had heard of, the other dozen or so materials listed were completely unfamiliar.
Not a single one was a metal or mineral he knew from Earth.
These names were full of otherworldly flair, clearly unique to this world and rare materials imbued with magical energy.
"Mr. Walter, are you sure these things exist?"
"Of course, I guarantee with my honor that these materials do exist and are indispensable for constructing a barrier capable of carrying the power of 'Frost Ice Soul'. While difficult to obtain through ordinary channels, we should be able to gather them if we leverage our connections with the Magic Association."
Roger pondered if he could substitute them with ordinary materials, but Walter seemed to read his mind and shook his head with a serious expression.
"My Lord, I know what you are thinking. But please forgive my directness, substituting with ordinary materials is absolutely impossible."
Seeing his certainty, Roger could only abandon the idea of cutting corners.
He glanced at the list again and put it in his pocket.
"I understand. Mr. Walter, please begin the design and preliminary preparations for the barrier. I will figure out the materials."
Just as Walter was about to leave, Finger rushed in to request an audience.
Finger, jogging into the hall, didn't even bother with etiquette, holding a freshly cooled glass bottle in his hand, his voice trembling with excitement.
"My Lord! My Lord! Look! Stirring really works! The bubbles in the glass are much fewer!"
Although the glass bottle in Finger's hand was far from perfect, compared to the previous products riddled with dense bubbles, the internal flaws were indeed significantly reduced, and the transparency had improved.
"That's great!"
Roger took the still-warm glass bottle and examined it carefully.
With this quality, although it was still far from the level of industrial glass on Earth, its transparency far exceeded the bubbly glass currently available on the continent.
It was enough to drive those mages troubled by the purity of experimental apparatuses mad!
"Finger, everyone in the glass workshop will have their salaries tripled this month!"
Finger was dizzy from the sudden generous reward, his face flushed with excitement.
Recalling his days at the glass workshop in Valencia Imperial Capital, where the steward would frequently deduct his salary for various absurd reasons, Finger felt a pang in his nose and his eyes grew warm.
"Thank you, My Lord! I will definitely lead the workshop to produce even better glass!"
After sending off the overjoyed Finger, Roger handed the glass bottle in his hand to Walter, with a hint of barely concealed pride in his tone.
"Mr. Walter, what do you think of this quality? Our bargaining chips with the Magic Association have just gotten a bit heavier."
Walter took the glass, his face also filled with shock.
"Unbelievable..."
His fingertips gently brushed the smooth glass surface.
"Just this transparency alone is enough to make those mages pursuing precise observations flock to it. If it could also be made into various standardized experimental apparatuses..."
He turned to Roger, his eyes glinting with excitement.
"My Lord, with paper and glass, you indeed have enough leverage. I believe the Magic Association will be very happy to do business with you."
"They might be dissatisfied with you harboring exiles, but in the face of tangible benefits, this dissatisfaction can be completely set aside. Especially when such benefits concern the research efficiency of all mages."
Roger nodded; Walter's thoughts perfectly aligned with his own.
The essence of business is exchange, and he held two hard currencies that mages could not replace.
He couldn't help but sigh in his heart; he hadn't even been back in the territory for a day, and he already had to prepare for another "business trip."
If long-distance communication could be achieved, there would be no need for such constant back and forth.
Roger rubbed his temples, deeply feeling the frustration of inconvenient information transfer.
"Mr. Walter, I heard there's a type of magical communication crystal that can perform long-distance communication?"
Walter nodded. "Indeed. Does My Lord wish to establish long-distance communication? This requires both communicating parties to have matching magical communication arrays. Not to mention the cost of building the magic array, the magic power consumption to maintain its operation is also not a small sum. Communicating for one second probably consumes magic consumables worth 100,000 crystal coins."
100,000 crystal coins per second?!
Roger nearly choked on his own saliva, instantly abandoning the idea of using magical communication.
Forget 100,000 per second; even at half price, he wouldn't want to use it.
He had been contemplating the telegraph.
However, while power generation and receiving devices weren't an issue, he couldn't figure out how to manufacture stable and reliable signal transmission devices.
This world lacked an electronic industry foundation, and many components commonplace on Earth became insurmountable technological gaps here.
He sighed in frustration, temporarily suppressing this overly advanced idea.
He remembered that before the advent of the telegraph, carrier pigeons and relay stations were the mainstream for information transfer.
He immediately went to find Morris, a mage who specialized in magical creatures. Perhaps he could cultivate "carrier pigeons" that could fly faster, farther, and more intelligently.
Arriving at Morris's laboratory, he saw him muttering to a peculiar-looking creature.
The creature generally had the outline of a dog, but on its back, it had a pair of wings covered in downy feathers.
What the hell is this thing?
Roger watched the "flying dog" flapping its wings, trying to escape Morris's grasp, his mouth twitching slightly.
This thing looked both comical and eerie.
Morris saw Roger arrive and excitedly introduced it. "My Lord! You've come at the perfect time! Look at my new creation, the Winged Dog!"
It really is a dog!
Roger was somewhat speechless.
The Lie-Eating Warbler could discern lies, which was very useful, but this Winged Dog... did he expect it to fly up to chase rabbits?
"Mr. Morris, what is this thing for?"
Roger looked at the still-flapping Winged Dog, genuinely unable to think of any practical value for this bizarre creation beyond its novelty.
Morris, however, was beaming with pride, as if showcasing a peerless work of art.
"My Lord, don't you think it perfectly combines the loyalty of canines with the soaring ability of birds? Think about it, ordinary hounds tracking prey have to detour around cliffs and rivers. But my Winged Dog can ignore terrain and track directly from the air!"
As Roger listened to Morris's description, his speechlessness gradually gave way to a hint of interest.
This thing, it seemed, could be used on the battlefield?
If the Winged Dog's tracking target were changed from wild beasts to enemy scouts, messengers, or even small units... they could conduct continuous and covert surveillance from the air, reporting the enemy's every move in real-time.
This was simply a dream come true for battlefield reconnaissance!
"Mr. Morris, can you make it speak? Or, in some way, transmit the sights it sees back?"