The fourth was Sylvie.
Roland always felt a bit uneasy when facing this witch, not because Nightingale said she lied too much. In modern society, apart from family and close friends, few people spoke frankly. He was already accustomed to all kinds of exaggerated praise and rumors.
He just felt that he had nowhere to hide in front of her. What was worse, he knew it wasn't just a feeling, but rather a natural ability of hers. Unobstructed vision, as long as she wanted, his clothes might as well be non-existent. While sighing inwardly why he didn't have such an ability, Roland unconsciously changed his posture and crossed his legs.
In terms of appearance, she was the most unique of the five witches: a head of emerald green hair falling straight to her shoulders, slender eyebrows, vaguely visible under her bangs. Especially her amber eyes, so transparent that they seemed to have no depth, reflecting all the light like a mirror. Looking at them for too long, Roland always felt that a red mark would suddenly pop out from within.
Sylvie's ability was easy to understand. She could see all the scenes within her surroundings, even what was behind them, and her vision could penetrate obstacles, the depth depending on her thoughts. In addition, she had a branch ability similar to Nightingale: she could see the gathering and dissipation of magic power.
This made Roland a little surprised. If branch abilities could be so close, what about the main abilities? He asked Sylvie this question, and she hesitated before saying that among the hundreds of witches on Sleeping Island, no two were found with the same ability. Nightingale's gentle pinch on his left side confirmed this statement as true.
Probably the sample size is too small, Roland thought.
The last witch to appear was Candlelight.
Like Anna, she welcomed her coming-of-age day during the previous Months of the Demons. Before adulthood, her ability could only affect lighting objects such as candles, lamp oil, and torches. After her magic power stabilized in adulthood, the effect was greatly enhanced, and she could maintain the original characteristics of the objects she touched for a period of time. For example, after being cast on an ice cube, it would not melt even in the sun, but still emit a burst of cold air.
This ability seemed incredible at first glance, allowing her to do many things that conventional means couldn't. However, after several rounds of testing, Roland found that it was not as perfect as imagined. First of all, it was a kind of enchantment ability, requiring direct contact with the target. This restriction made it difficult for Candlelight to solidify some high-temperature objects.
Therefore, his plan to obtain a drop of molten steel that would remain in an incandescent state forever, providing a continuous heat source for the blast furnace, went bankrupt. Apart from Anna, no one dared to touch something that was thousands of degrees hot. However, if it were turned into a thin iron wire, Candlelight could hold the other end and enchant it, but this raised another problem.
That is, the further the solidified state of an object is from its normal state, the greater the magic power consumed and the shorter the duration of the effect.
Roland verified this with ice cubes. After solidification, one ice cube of the same size was placed on the scorching ground, and the other was thrown into a basin of water. The former only lasted for half an hour before quickly melting, while the latter lowered the water temperature to icy cold and still maintained its original shape.
This meant that if it were replaced with a red-hot iron wire or steel bar, the effect would only be worse.
Finally, volume was also a factor restricting Candlelight's ability. Like Hummingbird and Moon, the larger the object being cast on, the more magic power it consumed. According to Nightingale's observation, her own magic power was at a medium to low level, like a cloud of golden mist that had not yet formed a dense vortex.
But even so, this seemingly introverted girl was still Roland's greatest gain. In the field of industrial production, solidifying the state of an object could be called priceless, and the key lies in the word "normal". Affected by factors such as heating, cooling, friction, and force, metals fatigue and structures deform. He didn't need drill bits that became scorching hot due to friction, nor did he need gears that gradually wore out. If the key parts of a machine could always maintain their normal state, it meant that it could always operate at maximum efficiency and highest precision.
In other words, Candlelight could effectively improve the mechanical strength of inferior metals.
……
Back in the castle office, Roland reviewed the recorded abilities again, and then
Began to plan their future work.
"How is it," Nightingale poked her head out of the mist, "are there any witches you particularly like among these five?"
"They're all pretty good," Roland replied casually.
"What! You like them all?"
He glared at her, and she stuck out her tongue and walked away, munching on a piece of dried fish.
Obviously, the most useful at the moment are Lotus and Candlelight.
With the ability to transform terrain, he could easily build a new earthen wall outside the city walls. In order to save materials and speed up the construction period, the original rubble and cement wall was built at the narrowest point between the foot of the North Slope and the Redwater River. Although this allowed him to complete the project before the Months of the Demons arrived, it also restricted the town's westward expansion. As the population continued to grow, developing this wilderness and the Misty Forest was only a matter of time.
The new earthen wall would extend to the outer edge of the Misty Forest, while enclosing a forest, so the town would have almost twice the area. As for the lengthened defense line, it could be solved by expanding the source of troops and artificially guiding the direction of the demonic beasts' attack. In any case, compared to the wooden pole spears and front-loading flintlocks of the previous year, the First Army's firepower projection capability had undergone earth-shattering changes, and defensive measures such as turrets and bastions could also be completed together with the new city wall.
In addition, he also planned to have Lotus open a passage in the southern mountains so that Border Town could directly reach the Shoal. In this way, the town would have a natural harbor, and trade with the fjord would be more convenient. Considering the huge consumption of magic power to transform the rock layer, this project may take several months.
Candlelight's job was to cooperate with Anna and Lucia to create a new generation of machine tools for the production of firearms and other mechanical equipment. If all goes well, Anna can also be freed from the tedious and boring processing and production.
Sylvie's task was very clear, mainly to explore the North Slope mines and the Misty Forest. According to the miners, there were more than a hundred natural caves in the North Slope mines, and no one knew where they would eventually lead. Only twenty or so passages have been mined and cleared so far, and several kinds of ores have been found. Roland was very curious about how credible the rumors of ancient monster nests were. Now that he had a witch with the ability to see through, he wanted to explore the North Slope mining area completely, draw a detailed map, and by the way, let Lotus cooperate to adjust the terrain to improve mining efficiency.
As for Honey, Roland didn't have too many ideas, just to strengthen his ability to transmit information in an era without radio. He needed a large number of well-trained birds to be used as carrier pigeons, not requiring them to be as smart as Maisie, as long as they could get the information to him as soon as possible.