Chapter 138: The Silver-Tier Archer

Victor, clad in silver-white armor, moved through the woods with breathtaking speed, darting back and forth in a blur of motion. As he neared a massive tree that required two men to encircle, he placed his hands lightly against the trunk. He seemed to lose all weight, drifting effortlessly upward until, within a few breaths, he stood upon a branch over ten meters high. Behind him, three iron hemlock trees, each as thick as a man’s leg, snapped with a sharp crack and crashed to the ground.

Taking a deep breath, Victor reached back to unhook his cyan-white short bow, drew a matching arrow from the quiver slung across his back, and pulled the string taut.

*Hum, hum, hum.* The bowstring vibrated, and three cyan-white arrows streaked out, vanishing in an instant. With a sharp whistle, Victor leaped across the canopy, streams of light continuously erupting from his fingertips.

Seconds later, Victor landed before an iron oak. Eight arrows were embedded deep into the hard, dense trunk, arranged in a perfect circle. He lifted his visor, his chest heaving as he slowly caught his breath; the results of the test were beyond satisfactory—they were a delightful surprise.

The dual-silver leather armor crafted by Busso was not only magnificent and aesthetically pleasing but also remarkably tough and lightweight. Its defensive capabilities, derived primarily from the hide of a dire bear, effectively resisted bludgeoning and slashing attacks. With the addition of thorium, the armor’s protection had been elevated to a new level, even compensating for its previous weakness against piercing strikes.

Weighing only 22 kilograms, the armor was well within Victor’s physical capacity to bear. Every joint moved with complete fluidity, devoid of any stiffness. The mithril etchings also granted it elemental affinity. Wearing it did not limit or weaken his "Wind-Walk" effect; his movement speed was only slightly reduced—a natural consequence of the armor being heavier than standard leather. Yet, such a minor drawback was negligible compared to the defensive advantage comparable to a dire bear.

The only regret was that the dual-silver armor was far too conspicuous. As an extraordinary archer who specialized in stealth, Victor had no desire to expose himself to his enemies. Busso had offered two solutions: he could create dyes to color the armor, or he could harvest the blood of the "hidden spiders" from the Great Swamp to concoct a potion that would grant the armor chameleon-like properties. Victor chose the second option, marveling once again at the "black technology" of the Alchemical Empire.

His two dual-silver short swords were peerlessly sharp. Surrounded by wind elements, they sliced through 25-centimeter-thick iron hemlocks as if cutting through butter, meeting no resistance. After practicing the "Hidden Bull Secret Form," Victor’s physique had reached a score of 10, with a notable increase in explosive power. Combined with his diligent study of Sword Saint combat techniques, his "Wind-Walk" ability had fundamentally improved. If he were to face the old ogre again, Victor was fully confident he could deal it a grievous wound with these blades. This also meant Victor could now inflict lethal damage on knights in melee combat—provided, of course, that the knight was not wearing armor.

Victor had no desire to engage knights in close combat; he had better options. Master Edwin had once described how High Elf archers could strike targets from 400 meters away, rivaling Wind-attribute Great Knights. Today, Victor finally experienced it for himself.

The fact that the dual-silver short bow would not break was one thing, but its elemental affinity also increased his rate of fire; in his Wind-Walk state, Victor could loose two arrows per second, and the dual-silver arrows extended the reach of his surrounding breeze to 20 meters. As he moved along the treetops over three hundred meters away, shooting on the move, the power of each arrow surpassed that of a crossbow, approaching that of a military heavy siege crossbow. Military heavy crossbows were said to threaten Bronze Knights—if, naturally, the knight was neither wearing armor nor holding a shield.

In short, given Victor’s current speed, fire rate, and precision, even a Bronze Knight in heavy armor and wielding a tower shield would struggle to escape being shot down. If Victor were to use a thorium heavy crossbow, even a Silver Knight would be in mortal danger. Thus, Victor’s combat power had fully reached the Silver tier. This was the effect of dual-silver equipment, and such gear could continue to be produced.

Thinking of the thousand alchemy militiamen he would soon have, all equipped with thorium leather armor and weapons, Victor was filled with anticipation. He strolled over to the iron oak and reached out to pull the arrows from the trunk. After several failed attempts, his expression darkened, and he shouted, "Renault! Get over here and chop down this damn tree for me!"

A day later, Victor entered the Alchemy Tower.

"King. I’ve returned." Victor connected to the Tower Spirit in his consciousness.

"Welcome back, My Lord!"

The familiar voice rang in his mind, and a smile spread across Victor’s face. "King, report the status of the Alchemy Tower."

"My Lord, the current Soul Fire limit of the Alchemy Tower is 7,850, with 1,858 remaining. Reserve funds are 88,523 gold sols. We have 429 Spirit Monkey Militiamen, 6 Hidden Bull Militiamen, 187 Alchemy Auxiliaries, 38 Alchemy War Hounds, and 70 Alchemy Ravens."

"Very good." Victor nodded in satisfaction and added, "I need to adjust the production sequence. Once the current Spirit Monkey Militiamen are finished, produce 20 Alchemy War Hounds and 50 Alchemy Ravens first. Then, produce units in the following order: 2 Hidden Bull Militiamen, 1 Spirit Monkey Militiaman, and 1 Forge-specialized Auxiliary, indefinitely."

"Production tasks updated," King replied, then asked in his consciousness, "My Lord, may I know why you are adjusting the production sequence?"

"I need alchemy units with brute strength," Victor sighed.

The small fortress Victor had ordered built was not meant to be only six meters high; that was simply its current height. According to Busso’s description, the small fortress would cover an area of 25 *mu*, extending 12 meters underground and 35 meters above, with 2-meter-thick brick walls capable of resisting medium-sized catapults. However, building such a fortress on a 400-meter-high hill was no easy task, and the primary issue was a lack of transport capacity.

Victor had 38 war hounds: two were with Nelson, six were guarding the secret base, and the remaining 30 were tasked with pulling carts to transport supplies. Since the war hounds had to continuously transport thorium and mithril ore to the distant mountains, only a few Spirit Monkey Militiamen were left to haul clay and finished stone bricks, which greatly slowed construction. After all, the physique of the Spirit Monkey Militiamen was significantly inferior to that of the war hounds.

Furthermore, Busso had told Victor that the construction-specialized auxiliaries were sufficient. Under the guidance of the auxiliaries, the militiamen could complete the construction work. However, the militiamen were not suited for forging weapons, especially the complex process of making chainmail, which relied solely on the forging-proficient auxiliaries.

After deliberation, Victor decided to adjust the structure of his alchemy units. On one hand, this would accelerate the fortress construction; on the other, it would prepare for the development of the mountainous region, including clearing out predatory beasts, mining and transporting various ores, and building secret roads. The powerful Hidden Bull Militiamen were clearly better suited for this manual labor than the Spirit Monkey Militiamen.

"By the way, I have an idea regarding how the Ant-men provide resources to the Alchemy Tower," Victor said to King.

"The Kingdom of Gambis suffered heavy losses in this ant plague; its military power has been crippled, crops have been destroyed, and for the next few years, the kingdom’s tax revenue will decline sharply. They will also have to invest massive funds to defend against the next ant invasion. If all these losses were converted into gold sols, it would amount to over three million.

"I once compared the law-power used to manufacture alchemy units to 'Fortune.' If the Kingdom of Gambis’s fortune has been diminished, it is because the Ant-men plundered it, and yet a portion of that fortune flowed into the Alchemy Tower. If this guess is correct, it means the Ant-men have not escaped the Alchemy Tower’s system."

King replied, "My Lord, your hypothesis is over 90% accurate. I have noticed that as time passes, the resources added to the Alchemy Tower with each instance have increased, from the initial 7,853 gold sols to the current 13,478. The greater the damage the Ant-men cause to the human kingdom, the more resources they provide. As you said, the Ant-men are plundering the fortune of the human kingdom. Therefore, their production model remains within the manufacturing rules of the Alchemy Tower."

Victor fell silent for a moment before asking, "King, I want to know what the Soul Fire limit is for a Military Alchemy Tower."

"Generally, it is six times that of a Logistics Alchemy Tower," King replied.

Victor calculated quickly. The Logistics Alchemy Tower’s limit was 5,000 points, so six times would be 30,000. One Ant-man leader’s Soul Fire was 30 points; there should be 1,000 Ant-man leaders, and each leader controlled over 300 ants. The total number of Ant-men would be no less than 300,000.

"300,000 pests that can infinitely regenerate by constantly plundering the fortune of other races—that is truly despair-inducing. No wonder they could destroy the Demi-human Empire. Under this model of plunder and regeneration, the Ant-men would eventually destroy the entire world. Unfortunately for them, they encountered a rebooted Alchemy Tower. As long as the Ant-men dare to come, destruction will be their ultimate fate," Victor sneered.

Victor had discussed the Ant-man problem with Sylvia. If the Ant-men attacked the Centaur Hills again before the fortress was completed, Sylvia would reveal their weakness. At that point, human powerhouses would naturally hunt down the Ant-man leaders, and once their Soul Fire was absorbed by the Alchemy Tower, the Ant-men would naturally go extinct.

"My Lord, that is theoretically true. However, once the Alchemy Tower is shut down, it cannot absorb the Soul Fire of the Ant-men," King noted.

Victor frowned. "Can the Ant-men shut down the Alchemy Tower?"

"The probability is very low. Those without authorization cannot exert any form of influence on the Rune Crystal, and that includes alchemical creatures," King responded.

"Then that’s settled; there’s nothing to worry about. Unless an authorized user personally leads an Ant-man army to attack. If there really were such a person, I would mobilize the high-end military power of the human kingdoms to carry out a decapitation strike. It is said that the Radiant Knights are extremely powerful, with nine legendary Paladins," Victor said triumphantly.

"My Lord, what I meant to say is, if you die, the Alchemy Tower will also shut down," King reminded him.

"Damn it! So the Ant-men want to kill me most of all!" Victor was jolted with shock. After a moment of thought, his eyes grew sharp, and he ordered, "King, increase the production of Alchemy War Hounds to 50. I am going to hunt down the Ant-man leaders retreating from here!"