After entering winter, the heavy snow subsided quite a bit.

Roland hummed a little tune, surveying the three manuscripts on the table.

They were the new type of ammunition trial production and production plan, the new generation of light weapons finalization plan, and the Mage Tower construction project.

The first two were products he had been contemplating for a long time. Now, with Agatha's frozen temperature control, the town's nitric acid production had greatly increased, and the stability of large-scale production of nitroglycerin had also been resolved, basically meeting the conditions for manufacturing double-base propellant.

Although he knew that this type of propellant involved dissolving nitrocellulose into nitroglycerin to obtain a viscous, gelatinous substance that could be sliced or granulated, the specific ratio still needed to be experimented with slowly by the alchemists.

Fortunately, Kaimo Strale was now very skilled in quantitative and qualitative testing. If this task was entrusted to him, he should be able to get results within a week or two.

Since a completely new propellant was to be produced, the development of new light weapons naturally had to be put on the agenda.

Compared with the large-caliber revolver used with black gunpowder, double-base propellant required only a small amount to achieve equivalent lethality. Therefore, considering the overall power and cost-effectiveness, it was inevitable that the new rifle would be converted to a small-caliber automatic weapon.

Of course, its specific parameters would need to be further determined based on Anna's processing results.

Roland took a sip of hot tea and placed the third manuscript in front of him—this was also what he was most interested in at the moment.

Compared to the plans he had made before, the content of this document seemed extremely discordant—at Agatha's request, he planned to build a Mage Tower on the other side of the Witch Building, for the research and manufacture of sigils.

Just imagine, amidst a forest of chimneys and factories, interspersed with a towering magic tower, the feeling was simply... extremely fashionable.

Roland couldn't help but laugh.

Nightingale, who was gnawing on dried fish beside him, rolled his eyes. "Are sigils that interesting? The Witch Kingdom possessed many sigils, but ultimately still lost to the devils."

"But there are also some very interesting things inside," the prince took out a thick-skinned book from the drawer—it was a sigil encyclopedia translated from the experiment notes left by the Seekers Society, which recorded all the formulas obtained by the Seekers Society over two hundred years.

For him, this was completely a new continent.

After Agatha finished translating it, Roland spent almost the entire night on this book, looking at the dazzling array of magic stone uses and combination lists, it was like assembling Rune Words. Perhaps when the chief alchemist received , he was also holding such an excited and thrilled mood to read those chemical formulas.

For knowledge never seen before, even if it's just a glimpse, it seems exceptionally tempting.

"For example?" Nightingale leaned over.

"Like this," Roland pointed to a line on the page, "The ancient witches called it the Listening Sigil, which can be used for long-distance communication, similar to the Tracking Sigil. Once made, they can produce effects even when separated." He moved his finger down, "The materials are also simple, requiring only an Echo Stone and a Marker Stone."

According to the description on the book, the effective distance of this sigil was up to dozens of miles. Although it could not compare with mobile phones supported by signal towers and satellites all over the place in later generations, it was enough to be used as a short-range walkie-talkie.

"Is that so?" Nightingale leaned in to take a look, reached out and pushed away his finger, and pointed to the right page, "But it says here, 'Echo Stones come from Dread Demons, Marker Stones are commonly found in devil camps,' how are you going to get these two types of magic stones?"

"No, we already have the materials," Roland said with great interest, "The red crystal that Lightning found in the Stone Tower Ruins is an Echo Stone. As for the Marker Stone, it is also a component of the Tracking Sigil—Tilly is carrying several sets of such sigils, you can just disassemble one."

"Even if Agatha can make it, you can only get one Listening Sigil at most."

"Just let her try her hand, anyway, there will definitely be more and more magic stones after fighting the devils in the future." In the past, there were no conditions to study magic application,

Now with Agatha's technical support, he would definitely not let go of this almost free resource.

"Okay," Nightingale shrugged, "Then what about the Providence Sigil, what kind of magic stones does it need?"

"This... I remember it's on the last page," Roland flipped to the last page, "By the way, what was the result of your combat power test?"

Nightingale suddenly choked, and after a moment, she spat out two words, "Secret!"

Uh, was she hit by Anna?

"Found it, here," he pursed his lips, "All four magic stones required are written as unknown... probably the Seekers Society did not record them in written form for confidentiality reasons. However, according to Agatha, these magic stones are mostly from high-level devils, even if they were written down, probably not many people could get them."

"And then you put such precious things in the hall in a grand manner," Nightingale snorted, "If those beyond Transcendence knew, they would probably be angered to life by you."

Because it's not precious at all, probably... equivalent to a few dozen kilograms of t.n.t., Roland smiled and did not answer.

...

This time, he waited until Agatha had finished a day's work of acid production before calling her to the office.

"This is the Mage Tower I designed for you, see if it's okay," Roland held up the sketch, "The basement is a warehouse, and there are a total of three floors above, which are the apprentice's experiment room, the tower master's experiment room, and the office."

"Wait... why call it a Mage Tower?" Agatha frowned, "I just want a chemistry lab like Mr. Kaimo's, just a little more spacious and transparent. And such stone towers are very troublesome to build, right? Taquila had to make it into a tower shape because the city area was small, you have a lot of open space here."

That wouldn't be fashionable! Roland shouted in his heart. "In short, the construction problem is not difficult to solve. Apart from the above functional areas, do you have any other requirements?"

"No," she spread her hands, "If you insist."

"Very good," Roland put down the sketch and then recounted his thoughts from the morning, "Can you complete the sigil production alone?"

"No," Agatha shook her head, "Although the sigil is the connection of magic stones, the materials that conduct magic power are very complex, and most importantly, it needs the blood of devils."

The prince couldn't help but be stunned, "What?"

"You heard right, it must be fresh devil's blood," she said solemnly, "When exploring the essence of magic power, the Seekers Society conducted tens of thousands of experiments and finally proved that the flesh and blood properties of witches, devils, and demonic beasts are vastly different, and the effects they can achieve are also completely different."

"Witches'... flesh and blood?" Roland was startled, he suddenly realized the meaning behind these words, and couldn't help but ask, "What effects can they achieve?"

"Making God's Punishment Army." Agatha said expressionlessly.