Chapter 415 - 404: The Birth Pangs of a New Era
Eight more months passed.
「Cybertron. Main Control Room.」
Allen stood before a massive holographic map of the kingdom as Jarvis delivered the semi-annual summary.
[Phase One of the Civilization Transformation Plan: Semi-Annual Kingdom Observation Report.]
[Regarding production: All thirty-four mining sites are now operational. Of these, twenty-one core veins have reached 72% of their designed peak capacity. The total national monthly ore output is equivalent to approximately 9.1 million standard Low-Level Magic Stones. As per our agreement, Commander, your monthly share of the revenue is 4.55 million Low-Level Magic Stones.]
Allen’s account balance once again surpassed the eighty-million mark.
This single month’s income already surpassed the total revenue he had been able to acquire during the latter stages of his command over the entire warzone of the Molten Iron Mountain Range Plane.
The resources of an entire continent, even with only the most basic extraction methods, were on a scale far beyond what a single warzone could offer.
[Regarding the industrial system: Six ’Standardized Alchemy Workshops’ have been completed and are now operational in the Royal Capital and the five major towns. Current primary production includes: Magic Lamps, simple energy storage crystals, Alchemy Farming Tools, Rune-powered refrigerators, and other consumer products.]
These "foolproof" alchemical products, manufactured by the kingdom using blueprints provided by Allen, caused a massive stir among the general populace the moment they were released.
Magic Lamps lit up the nights of Golden Stone City, making them as bright as day for the first time and ending the era where the rich relied on expensive Magic Crystals while commoners had to make do with oil torches.
Although the simple energy storage crystals could only store weak Magic Power, they allowed ordinary families to use some low-power alchemical gadgets, greatly improving their quality of life.
Furthermore, the Alchemy Farming Tools boosted this year’s autumn harvest yield by nearly twenty percent, all without increasing the amount of cultivated land.
Each alchemical product silently heralded the coming of a new age. Though their prices remained steep, they were no longer exclusive to the nobility; some wealthier commoners could now afford them if they saved up.
[Social Observation: A significant division has appeared in the attitudes of the noble class. The ’reformist’ faction is actively adopting the new technology. Meanwhile, the ’conservative’ faction, led by Duke Dorne, has repeatedly voiced opposition in the council, yet his family’s private purchases of alchemy products rank in the top three.]
[Additionally, we detected seven noble families attempting to bypass the Crown to place orders directly with Cybertron. All have been rejected.]
Allen chuckled inwardly.
’Their mouths say no, but their bodies are far more honest.’
The body is always more honest than the mouth.
[Regarding education: The first class of five thousand students from the Aiselan Kingdom’s ’Accelerated Academy for Alchemical Artisans’ has graduated. Upon assessment, one thousand two hundred and twenty-seven have met the ’Junior Alchemical Artisan’ standard, qualifying them to independently operate and maintain the basic equipment of the standardized workshops.]
The number wasn’t high, but it signified that for the first time, the Aiselan Kingdom had its own organized technical class composed of individuals who were not Spirit Mages.
The seeds of knowledge had been sown.
"Jarvis, send Prince William the next phase of the plan."
"Yes, Commander."
...
「Royal Palace. Council Hall.」
Prince William’s breathing grew rapid as he looked at the new plan that popped up on his communicator.
’The Spirit Communication Tower project!’
’This was the vital national asset his father, the King, and all the reformist nobles had been eagerly awaiting.’
’Lord Allen was finally willing to release this technology!’
As he carefully read the details of the plan, the excitement on his face gradually gave way to a solemn expression.
Allen had broken down the thirty-meter-high base of the Spirit Communication Tower into one thousand five hundred and forty-seven standardized components.
The blueprints were extremely detailed. The dimensions, materials, and production process for every single component were clearly specified.
And in theory, all of these components could be produced in the existing six Alchemy Workshops.
Ultimately, the kingdom’s artisans would be responsible for assembling the bases at their designated locations.
As for the core component—a fist-sized, encrypted communication module—it would be manufactured independently by Cybertron, with Allen personally handling the final installation and calibration.
"Network 1,320 Spirit Communication Towers across the entire kingdom within four years."
This was the timeline Allen had set.
William clenched his fists, a fire burning in his eyes. ’Four years! In just four years, the Aiselan Kingdom will have a real-time communications network spanning the entire kingdom!’
For a vast kingdom plagued by Beast Tides, the strategic value was immeasurable.
He immediately distributed the blueprints to the six workshops and issued the order for trial production.
However, three days later, the quality inspection report for the first batch of trial components instantly extinguished William’s enthusiasm.
As he looked at the numbers on the report, his vision momentarily went black.
’A pass rate of... only forty percent?!’
The parts failed for various reasons: dimensions were out of tolerance, material strength was substandard, or the etching on the Rune Circuits had flaws barely visible to the naked eye.
The artisans had given it their all, treating every piece of steel with the care one would give a work of art, but the results were still abysmal.
Just as William was at his wit’s end, preparing to bite the bullet and report to Allen, a new document was sent from Cybertron.
The *Quality Defect Analysis Report* and the *Standardized Process Improvement Manual*.
The three-hundred-page document used precise language and diagrams to identify the problem with every single substandard component, providing a step-by-step improvement plan for each.
A single line from Allen was appended to the end of the document.
"All substandard items are to be melted down and remade. The standards will not be lowered in the slightest."
A cold sweat broke out on William’s back as he stared at the line of text.
’He finally understood. Lord Allen didn’t want their ’best effort’; he demanded an absolute, uncompromising ’result’.’
This wasn’t just a production task; it was compulsory education.
With the steady influx of ore and the gradual flourishing of commerce, the kingdom’s depleted coffers were finally being replenished.
King Alexander gave his approval, and another grand project, the Alchemy Highway, was officially launched.
The first experimental section, stretching one hundred and twenty kilometers, would connect Golden Stone City to the westernmost defense sector.
The highway consisted of a reinforced, rammed-earth roadbed and alchemical guide rails. Once operational, alchemical vehicles modified from Factory Servant Golems would be able to increase transport speeds from thirty kilometers per day by oxcart to one hundred and fifty kilometers per day.
During those eight months, two small-scale Heart Eater raids occurred, just as anticipated.
In previous years, these two attacks would have put an entire defense sector on high alert and resulted in hundreds of casualties. Now, however, they failed to even trigger an alarm in the Royal Capital.
The two standard Golem Legions stationed on the front lines eliminated the threat completely within half an hour, using nothing but long-range fire support from the Purgatory Platforms.
The soldiers of the Royal Army watched the entire engagement without suffering a single casualty.
The soldiers’ initial shock had long since given way to casual acceptance. Now, whenever the Golem Legions opened fire, they would even bring out stools to watch as if it were a grand fireworks show, muttering, "Looks like the Golem masters are on the job again."
War, it seemed, was becoming something that no longer concerned them.
「At the same time, in the deepest reaches of Cybertron.」
Allen took the first mass-produced core communication module for the Spirit Communication Towers from the automated production line.
It was a cube, only the size of a fist, its casing forged from a dark purple meteoric iron that seemed to devour all surrounding light. Not a single Rune was visible on its surface, yet it exuded an air of innate, perfect precision.
He gently placed it on the test bench and connected it to the network.
"Jarvis, run a performance test."
[Test initiated... Signal transmission is stable...]
[Report: Maximum lossless transmission distance: 260.7 kilometers. Signal attenuation rate: 0.28%. Multi-band anti-jamming capability exceeds design specifications by 17.3%. It can simultaneously support the communication needs of 500,000 users.]
Allen nodded in satisfaction. ’Alchemical products really deliver on performance. A single tower can cover an entire city.’
He picked up the cube, his gaze seeming to pierce its outer shell, observing the intricate Rune Array within as it emitted a faint pulse at a specific frequency.
This was not just a communication device.
When one thousand three hundred and twenty of these nodes were spread across the mountains, plains, and cities of the entire Aiselan continent over the next five years...
When they were woven into an impenetrable, omnipresent network...
...the massive-scale proving ground required for his second Core Witchcraft, the Allen Network, would truly be complete.