What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Some time later, in the wasteland south of the Oz region, Leon arrived beneath a massive boulder serving as a landmark with his men and horses, and found Johnny's people already waiting there.

“Could you have come any later?” Johnny complained with his arms folded.

“There are still at least three hours before the agreed time and that's considered late?” Leon didn't take out his pocket watch, instead glancing at the position of the sun.

It was still morning, while the agreed trading time was noon. He and Johnny had agreed to meet here an hour early first.

Not long ago, Dorothy had sent someone to deliver a secret letter to Allende Island, specifying the time and location of the trade, as well as the goods and payment both sides were to prepare. The sealing wax on the letter bore a lion-head imprint, and it was signed Wizard of Oz.

After receiving the secret letter, Leon began preparing the gold for the transaction and quickly contacted Johnny.

“I sent people to scout the trading location two days ago, and I stationed people at this rendezvous point too.” Johnny pointed at the tent not far away, then began mocking Leon as usual, “With how little sense of urgency you have, be careful you don't get ambushed one day and die like a stray dog.”

“Since you handle things so thoroughly, what do I have to worry about?” Leon replied.

That said, Johnny's methods were still worth learning from in Leon's view. Having once been the commander of a knight order and later led a gang, Johnny definitely had more combat experience than he did.

Leon dismounted and walked toward Johnny while drawing a gun from his waist.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Johnny frowned at Leon.

“Weren't you interested in my custom-made gun last time?” Leon mysteriously showed Johnny the handgun in his hand.

Johnny examined it. The handgun Leon had brought this time looked somewhat similar to the revolving flintlock pistol from last time, still retaining the cylinder structure, but the overall design looked much simpler.

Leon raised a hand and snapped his fingers. His subordinates carried a scarecrow down from the wagon to serve as a target and set it up not far away.

Leon adjusted the revolver in his hand. After everyone else moved aside, he aimed at the scarecrow and fired a shot, the cylinder rotating as he pulled the trigger, then he fired another shot.

Johnny showed a trace of surprise, then watched Leon fire another shot, followed by a third, a fourth……

After Leon fired all six rounds in the cylinder, he didn't stop. He opened the cylinder and dumped out all the cartridge cases, then swiftly loaded the prepared fixed ammunition one after another. Johnny keenly noticed that the ammunition Leon used was clearly different from their conventional bullets.

Leon finished reloading in only a short moment, clicked the cylinder back into place, adjusted it, then once again aimed at the target and fired repeatedly.

After emptying the gun this time, Leon turned around and admired the dumbfounded expressions on Johnny and his subordinates.

After obtaining the Church's priming explosive formula from Weiss, the craftsmen Leon had hired conducted several experiments and successfully improved a primer and gunpowder suitable for fixed ammunition, then adopted brass cartridge cases, ultimately making them usable in the revolver Leon knew.

Although funds had become somewhat tight this year from paying Johnny's compensation and Dorothy's payment for goods, Leon still took out a large sum of money to reward the craftsmen who completed these designs.

However, after facilitating this revolutionary breakthrough in firearms technology, Leon didn't feel any change in the power of his Supreme God's Blessing. He didn't know whether it was because the invention couldn't be entirely credited to him.

Johnny quickly regained his serious expression: “Where did you get this?”

At present, the repeating firearms equipped by his troops that could barely achieve successive fire were all double-barreled flintlocks. They could only fire two consecutive shots, and fundamentally couldn't shorten the loading time. The probability of making mistakes during loading was higher, accidents were more likely, so single-shot flintlocks still made up the majority of their equipment.

The handgun Leon used before only required a simple adjustment to fire the next bullet, while this time, he only needed to keep pulling the trigger continuously.

As a military commander, Johnny could naturally tell that this was an epoch-making weapon. This change in ammunition could completely alter the way handguns and rifles were used, and even change military tactics.

“I hired people to develop it, it's just that the range and accuracy are still a bit lacking, there's still room for improvement.” Leon ejected the cartridge cases and handed the gun to Johnny, beginning to explain how to use the gun and ammunition.

After listening, Johnny repeatedly examined the gun and ammunition with a deep frown, then suspiciously looked Leon over. He knew very well that this absolutely wasn't something that could be made just by hiring a few people.

Leon saw Johnny's suspicion and explained: “The Church actually accumulated the corresponding technologies a long time ago, it's just that the Church doesn't encourage firearms research. I merely obtained those technologies and had people integrate them.”

“Merely?” Johnny raised an eyebrow.

He wasn't a technician, but even he understood that integrating so many technologies to produce a finished product with a qualitative leap wasn't something an ordinary person could accomplish in a short time. It required a systematic concept.

Leon merely shrugged this time.

Seeing that Leon had no intention of explaining further, Johnny didn't continue pressing. At least Leon seemed willing to share the weapons made from these new technologies with him.

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

“Only this one?” Johnny asked.

“This thing is still pretty expensive at present. If we want mass production, it'd be better to improve the manufacturing process first. The craftsmen have made two so far, this one is a gift, and I have another custom-made one here.”

Leon pulled out another custom handgun with an astonishingly large size and caliber. After transforming into a werewolf, his hands would also grow larger, so the guns he had used before were all somewhat small for him.

“With ammunition like this, rifles can also be improved, mass-produce it as soon as possible. I think we can start studying tactical arrangements suited to these new weapons from scratch.” Johnny said.

“Then can you help me train troops, Johnny?” Leon took the opportunity to raise the request he had long wanted to make.

“You already have so many things for me to handle, I don't have time.” Johnny paused, “I'll transfer someone from my men and lend him to you, but you have to make your people listen to him if you want the training to work.”

“Speaking of which, the Count used to have quite a few superhumans under him, and you have several in your troops as well. Do you have technology for cultivating superhumans like the Church, or do you have channels to buy over apostates?” Leon asked.

He was now developing the combat strength of his troops with all his effort. Aside from improving the quality of personnel and weapons, if conditions allowed, he still wanted to possess his own superhuman troops like the Count had.

“You're pretty greedy……” Johnny frowned, then moved closer to Leon and lowered his voice, “The Church's method of cultivating superhumans actually isn't some amazing technology, they've just monopolized the Holy Lands where divine veins are concentrated, hasn't that Saintess of yours told you?”

“I have heard about that.” Leon nodded.

Weiss had once explained to him that the source of the Four Gods' Blessing powers was like some kind of mineral buried beneath this continent, forming a distribution similar to mineral veins. It could be excavated from certain concentrated locations, then injected into a person through ritual.

During the Blessing ritual Leon experienced, the statue that injected Blessing power into him had been connected to a divine vein. This process was very similar to witches receiving Blessings in areas where dungeon magical power existed.

Within the doctrine that the gods were dead, divine veins were believed to be the remains left behind by the gods, so some people also called them Holy Remains.

After hearing about this, Leon had actually been very concerned about one point, divine veins were buried underground, which sounded extremely similar to dungeons containing Moylai's power.

There was also the Southeastern Archdiocese, originally the capital of Ireland, where the largest dungeon in recorded history had once appeared after being summoned by the Earth Mother Goddess priests of Ireland. It was eventually sealed by Saint Astarte, and afterward suddenly became a Holy Land capable of cultivating Blessed.

“Then did she tell you that places where divine veins are concentrated can yield materials for sacred relics?” Johnny asked again.

Leon nodded again.

Holy Lands where divine veins were concentrated were said to produce certain minerals possessing miraculous powers, including legendary metals and gemstones imbued with divine power. These were likewise controlled by the Church and used to manufacture sacred relics.

Leon had also seen some sacred relics with special powers, such as the insignia Bishop Beckett used and the Magic Mirror Weiss invented. All of them were made from those materials.

“Actually, if you possess enough sacred relic materials, you can temporarily substitute for a divine vein and allow someone to complete the ritual.” Johnny said.

“Aren't those things controlled by the Church?” Leon asked.

If one had the ability to steal sacred relic materials from a Holy Land, then theoretically, one could also simply go to the Holy Land and directly use the power of the divine vein to complete the ritual.

“That obviously means someone inside the Church is selling those things on the side, you can't even figure that out?” Johnny grinned.

“Something like that can happen inside the Church too? The only people with enough authority to traffic that kind of thing are probably cardinals, right?” Leon raised an eyebrow.

“If they can tolerate Mustang and people like you selling mana everywhere, is secretly selling a little sacred relic material really that serious?” Johnny asked in return.

“So among the cardinals, someone was selling sacred relic materials to the Count, allowing him to cultivate superhumans himself to serve him?” Leon said.

“That's right, though that's not the whole story. Some were simply retired people. Mustang used to be a Knight Commander, and already had his own people from his time in the military. The ones on my side are basically subordinates who survived alongside me in the past.

There are also apostates who can be bought over. Every year, people inside the Church commit crimes and flee. If you have connections in the Holy Order of Discipline, you can know in advance who is about to be investigated, then make deals with those people, provide them shelter, and have them change identities to work for you.” Johnny said.

“Can you introduce me to those connections?” Leon asked.

“I can tell you the names of several cardinals connected to Mustang, but your profit rate still isn't enough. Their appetites are huge, your current output isn't sufficient. Fortunately, Stuart's side is willing to leave you alone for now, so the Church won't do anything to you temporarily.” Johnny said, glancing at the freight wagons Leon had brought, “You brought that gold?”

Leon nodded.

“First figure out how to deal with the excess mana, otherwise you're essentially just spending money to maintain your relationship with the Witch Assembly.” Johnny said, “It's about time, we should go meet that goat woman again.”