Chapter 691 — The Nodes of Survival
Blade of Dawn · Page 4 of 4
Chief Egg Nikxi grumbled a few words in some vexation; the metal parts floating around him slowly settled to the ground, and as he drifted down from the round platform, he instructed his assistant beside him: "Don't touch anything here. I'll be back to continue."
Leaving the bustling workshop, Chief Egg Nikxi came to the quiet communications room. The arcane-net terminal glimmered faintly at the center of the room, and the figure of Longwind Fortress Commander Ma Qi was surfacing on the holographic projection.
Seeing this commander who had been hounding him about his order, the Iron Sphere took the initiative to greet him: "Oh, Ma Qi, the Iron Throne is already repaired, but it must wait until the railway is laid before it can roll to your side."
"I know. I'm not here to hurry you about the Iron Throne," the fortress commander in the holographic projection said with a smile. "I'm here to place a new order with you."
"An order?" The massive metal sphere bobbed in midair. "What order?"
"An order for a batch of magitech armor and combat packs, along with matching meltcutter swords and magitech terminals. Delivery within five days."
"Oh, that doesn't sound like much trouble. How many do you need?"
"Seven or eight thousand sets, maybe. If possible, ten or twenty thousand wouldn't be out of the—"
Niguxi Dan's whole body shuddered, nearly dropping to the ground on the spot: "Mother of—this sphere could just do a vertical takeoff and drop right on your skull, you know! You got bored staring at the Typhons and decided to come mess with this ball, huh?!"
"I wasn't finished," Ma Qi hurriedly cut in. "I want them 'custom-made.'"
"Custom-made? Custom how?"
"From what I know, the most complicated and time-consuming steps in making magitech armor and its matching magitech armaments should be inscribing the runes and setting the crystals. That's correct, isn't it?"
"Hmm... more or less," Niguxi Dan said, calming down from his earlier fit of horror. Realizing that the fortress commander across from him was not joking, he too began to think it over seriously. "There's also the adjustment and testing of the calibration structure. And for magitech terminals, assembling the internal movable mechanical structures is another time-consuming step—that part is still done by hand."
"Then what if you only make the shells? No runes, no crystal settings, no internal mechanical structures at all..."
"Then it's just stamped metal plate!"
Ma Qi, a smile on his face, nodded vigorously. "It can even be simpler than that. Pressed sheet iron in one piece would do. Factory seconds with flaws that are due to be melted down would do. Even if the quality is so bad it can only be held together with wire, I'll take it."
"...What are you up to?" Niguxi Dan asked, utterly baffled—though the face on his surface remained as comical as ever. "Wait, has your superior approved this order?"
"I've already submitted the application up the chain. You should receive word before this evening. As for what I'm up to..." Ma Qi smiled faintly. "I intend to hold the mighty pass with a host of thousands upon thousands of troops..."