Demons were becoming more numerous, while we were dwindling in numbers. The Holy City of Taqila had fallen, and we fled in all directions. We crossed mountains and rivers, escaping as far as possible from the Gates of Hell. But next time, where could we possibly run to?

"What do you think?" In his office, Roland closed the Book of Transfiguration and asked Wendy.

"If that knight remembers correctly, then this is a truly remarkable coincidence," Wendy pondered for a moment. "The contents of the treasure map match the notes recorded in the ancient texts. It can be said that it proves from the side that the Church once built cities deep in the wilderness to resist the demons. And the location marked on the map may be the defensive towers, outposts, warehouses, or other facilities they built."

"You mean... it's not a real treasure map?"

"Of course, the Church is not a band of robbers or pirates. They don't need to hide their treasures and leave a map for future generations."

Roland nodded. "That's true. So... this is actually a map?"

"Most likely. Although it's not clear why the Church didn't record this period of history, I think there must be more than one ruin buried in the Eastern Region's forest," Wendy analyzed. "If the facility marked on this location is just a building above ground, it would be difficult for anything to remain after hundreds of years. But if it has a basement or a storage warehouse, it could very well be another underground ruin. Through it, we may be able to find some clues."

"What clues?"

"Why did the Church hide the existence of demons? Why did they resist demons, but remain so tight-lipped about it?" She paused, her voice dropping a little. "And... why did they hunt witches as demons?"

Roland didn't know how to comfort her, so he remained silent for a moment before slowly saying, "It's a pity that we don't know how accurate his drawing is. According to him, the original drawing was so neat that it didn't look like it was drawn by hand."

"How about letting Nightingale take a trip to the knight's residence?"

"Not appropriate," Roland rejected. "A family that can pass down a treasure map for hundreds of years might have a vault filled with God's Stone of Retaliation and traps. Let's talk about this later." He gestured with his fingers to the side length of the triangle. "Anyway, we can't reach that place right now. If we consider this point at the foot of the North Slope as the mining area, the location of the six-pointed star is at least fifty kilometers away from us, which is about the distance from Border Town to Longsong Stronghold. Except for Lightning, who can arrive within a day, everyone else has to walk for two or three days. What if they encounter demons on the way... I don't want anything to happen to you."

"You can let Lightning scout the woodland from the air first, maybe she can find something," Wendy suggested.

"That's a feasible plan." Roland stood up. "I'll talk to her when she gets back. Now I need to go to the North Slope Mine. You prepare the teaching materials you'll need for class. If you need to make multiple copies, find Soraya. We have to continue teaching them tonight."

Roland combined the enlightenment education he received in elementary school with the court education of the Fourth Prince and instilled it into Wendy, including classification memory, phonetic writing, and memorizing phrases. With these, he believed that she would become a good teacher.

"Yes, Your Highness," Wendy saluted.

The burning workshop in the backyard of the North Slope Mine was now more than twice as large as before. There were also two unfilled holes on the ground, where the twelve-pound cannon blanks were cast. When Roland arrived at the backyard, Anna was practicing her new ability, with two finished products that looked like steel pipes on the table.

He casually picked up one and looked at it. The steel pipe was completely hunyuan. The surface of the part without pores was smooth and flat, and the round hole in the middle was the same as the outer wall. Aiming at the sunlight, he could see a straight high-light area. Roland used his fingernails to tap the wall thickness at both ends and found that they were basically the same.

Roland praised, "How did you make this?"

"Look," Anna picked up a newly cut steel rod and placed it flat in her hand. A thin black line was inserted from the end until it completely penetrated the rod, then rotated around the center, and the hole was completed.

Amazing ability, he thought. Using high-heat magic lines to cut objects, while controlling the precision, Anna was sufficient to push the town's industrial products to a new level by herself. He suppressed his excitement and said, "Let's do some basic tests first."

The basic tests included the range of ability, the intensity of ability, and the duration.

Nightingale also appeared from the mist, and she was responsible for observing the changes in Anna's body's magic power.

The results showed that, in addition to the significant increase in the intensity and duration of the ability, the range of the black flame was still within five meters, and it could only be precisely controlled within three meters.

At the same time, it was still a summoning-type ability. God's Stone of Retaliation could dispel the black flame effect, or when Anna commanded the black flame to enter the range of the God's Stone of Retaliation, it would suddenly disappear.

It seems that unless she evolves to be able to use magic directly, she can't get around this hurdle. Roland thought.

However, Anna's new ability still had earth-shattering significance. Using black flames to make industrial mother machines, and then producing various machine tools, the level of mechanical processing could be considered to have a rapid climb.

However, industrialized mass production was still not something that one person could complete. For example, the kiln that Karl built on the side of the North Slope Mountain had now completed one. After being put into use, it was found that it was okay to burn clay bricks, but the temperature for burning cement was always not up to standard, so that the cement needed by Border Town still had to be produced by Anna. Fortunately, after adulthood, she could complete the calcination even without staying in a dusty room.

Roland didn't have no way to solve the problem of the furnace temperature not rising. For example, he could use a steam engine for blowing air to increase the furnace temperature, and then set up a waste gas circulation channel to increase the utilization of dissipated heat energy. But the production of steam engines also couldn't do without Anna. From the casting of key parts to welding, she had to complete it all by herself.

It could be said that the current industrial products of Border Town were all based on Anna's ability. Once she was gone, the so-called industrial development was nothing but a castle in the air.

During the Months of Demons, everything Roland did was for emergency purposes. Now that the threat of the evil beasts no longer existed, and Longsong Stronghold had provided a large amount of population and funds, he naturally had to start changing this situation.

Start with the basics first.

He asked Anna to cut out a steel sheet two fingers wide and about one millimeter thick, and then picked out the previously made standard centimeter-long iron ruler, took a small distance as the fixed length of the black line, and repeatedly arranged it until ten segments of black lines were roughly equal to the standard centimeter length. Then he let the black line climb onto the steel sheet and ablate a series of vertical marks. Under the control of the black line, the distance between each vertical mark was almost completely equal.

Roland planned to start with the ruler first, and make a batch of original samples of various measuring tools, and at the same time unify weights and measures. These standard units would also be written into specifications and manuals and added to the upcoming universal education.