"Are there any artisans with us?" William didn't answer her or anyone and asked another question out of the blue.
Others might get confused, but his guild vices weren't. These old friends of his knew exactly what this was like, how acting this weird meant.
It was something that William constantly showed when he ever got a crazy idea to do. And that made them have hope reignited inside their hearts.
[We didn't bring anyone, but we have lots of masters who know a thing or two about forging] Stark paused, [But why? Do you want to build something?]
"I want to make catapults, the more the merrier," William didn't explain much, "spread the word, anyone who knows how to forge must be gathered around. Also gather all of the flexible natured ores, and lots of special wood as well."
[Are we going to hit that academy from far away? That won't do!] one of the leaders said, and his comment got the approval of many, [the maximum reach of any catapult is ten kilometre at most. And that academy lies tens of kilometres away from any side. We can't do it from here!]
"We won't throw hits at the academy," William smiled, "we are going to fly."
[...]
Weird silence prevailed, as no one could understand how William's mind worked. The latter didn't mind that, as he knew this idea was crazy, but it was also feasible.
There was a certain risk in doing it, but that didn't matter. "Gather up all the wind-based masters, provide them with enough potions to replenish their spirit power for ten times at least. And let me know when you gather everyone."
William left everyone to do what he asked for. Despite being puzzled with what he asked them to do, they had no other choice in front of themselves but to do it.
[Are we really going to fly?!!] as the leaders went to do what he asked for, Lara couldn't help but ask in doubt.
[Don't try to understand him] Sara sighed, [He is always like this, coming up with all the crazy ideas]
"Yet I always execute them, right?" William laughed when he heard what Sara said.
[That's what makes it worthy to follow you] Lang said it as if it was something bad to follow William on normal days or something.
"Let's just hope it will work," William paused before adding, "while everyone is going their part, I need you to send people to test the outside again."
[Again?!] this time, most of his friends exclaimed in bewilderment.
"I didn't finish my words," William laughed, "I want to test how far exactly that toxin lies. Send people over and keep tracking them carefully. Make them stop before the places others fell dead at and try to assume how far it is from your places."
[Ok…] they got what William wanted to do. He wanted to assess the distance between them and danger. William couldn't tell how truly thick this toxic layer was. But at least he'd give it a breadth of a couple kilometres or something.
Knowing the distance roughly would help in deciding what he should do next. He planned to modify the current design of catapults, add more strings here and there, and add more to its throwing range.
The leaders were right before, the maximum range of catapults was at ten kilometres at best. But with a few tweaks here and there, modifying the general design, these war machines wouldn't just throw things further away, they'd also send a much larger cargo as well.
"I need to think of a way to throw more people with each round…" William wanted to send the army outside as fast as possible. He didn't like being here with all of them, didn't like having such dead weight on his shoulders.
The moment he'd send them all away, he'd be finally freed.
William stood on the ground, held his sword and started drawing on the ground. No one came near him, but many watched him using their spirit sense.
William was drawing complicated blueprints of different designs of the catapults, in addition to something else.
Watching him didn't help any of them to get what he was doing. William was drawing things over, then covered the drawings again with dirt before redrawing again.
He kept going on like this for hours. During which, he contacted Ibra, Sara, Berry, and Lara from time to time to check on the progress of different tasks.
The ones the guild vices sent managed to assess the distance towards the toxin area. The distance was from six up to eighth kilometres from all sides. And that meant he had to make catapults able to throw people for distances beyond twelve kilometres just to be safe.
William didn't believe the monster thought about such a way out when it planned everything here. Masters flying in the air wasn't something that anyone could do. It was something only existing in the outer world, not here.
They gathered up lots of masters who knew a thing or two about forging. William didn't reach the final design of his catapults, so he had to put them on hold while thinking about the right way to do it.
"Just depending on the expulsive power of the catapults won't be safe… It's better to add something else to ensure more masters will get out safely from here…"
He wiped out what he was drawing and started to make something that looked like a cloak or something. He took roughly one hour to refine his idea into something easy to be done, without the need of lots of materials, experienced artisans, or lots of time.
"Here is what you are going to do. First gather up all the cloaks anyone had, enough to cover the needs of everyone here. Then…"
William started to relay his orders and stressed over the need to do this task fast during the next few hours. He then returned to modify the designs of the catapults, while others started working on his idea.
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