Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 181 Corpse
Eastern Test Site.

A small room was packed with people. Everyone had a serious look on their face, but no one spoke. There was no other furniture in the room except the wooden table in the middle. Hughes looked at the people gathered around the table and broke the silence.

"Ash, you go first, start with what happened recently."

Ash glanced at the corpse on the table and nodded.

"The spread of the pollution snakes has suddenly accelerated recently, and the sea urchin monsters are also expanding their range. I used to go into the sea to find their locations, but now I have to constantly avoid them."

"How many sea urchin monsters are there around here?"

"There are at least ten of them, and they're only near the island. I can't get away from the island now. There are so many of them in the nearby waters. I can see them soon after entering the water. Their speed of advancement is far beyond our imagination."

"Where's the fishman?"

"I've never seen a murloc. Every time I see that sea urchin monster, I stay away from it. The murloc's range of activity should be smaller than theirs. If it weren't for what happened today, I would have thought that the murlocs had all disappeared."

Zeus nodded. The severity of the situation exceeded his worst expectations. According to his observations and calculations, it would take a month for these pollution snakes to advance to the vicinity of Castel. By then, the island should have been filled with various fortifications and fortresses.

But now, those polluted snakes seemed to have their own consciousness, staring at Caster, and they approached this side first. Ash discovered this before when he was still able to go out.

"Chloe, Oona, Alexi, how is the church renovation going?"

The three of them exchanged a glance, and Chloe cleared her throat and spoke first, "The Guardian Inscription has been remodeled. The energy source, the central furnace, located beneath the church has been cast, but installation has not yet begun. Once it's installed, it can be put into use directly, if all goes well."

"Oona, you're responsible for installing the furnace, right? How long will it take?"

"At most, three days. The furnace has been placed, but the cooling system is not yet complete. We can try running it at low power. If the heat accumulation is not serious, it won't be a big problem."

"Okay, let's try it out first. We'll go over there later to see if the Guardian Inscription can work properly. Chloe, please arrange for some help."

"No problem." Chloe nodded, and a moth flew out from her sleeve.

Hughes watched the moth flutter its wings in silence, then turned to look at Alexi: "How far has the church's perimeter expanded?"

Alexei's face was bitter. "We've just finished the most basic renovations. The main body of the church has been expanded. It's much larger than before, and we can expand it outwards. But we've just started, and the time is too short. We originally expected it to be completed in a month."

The renovation of the church was divided into three parts. The first was to demolish the old church, which is now the part where the Candlelight Club is built.

Then comes the construction of the new church, which will cover an area dozens of times larger than the previous one and will consist of multiple buildings. It will be the future core area of Castel, and Hughes will gradually move important industries into the church for protection.

The final step was the construction of outer fortifications and bastions, which together formed the "walls" of the new church. Once this step was completed, the entire island of Castel fell under the church's jurisdiction. The church, densely packed with fortifications, covering the entire island would crush even the most powerful enemy. This was Hughes' greatest confidence in facing war.

But now, even the second step has not been completed, and the enemy has already arrived on the island. Zeus looked at the corpse on the table and bit his lower lip.

"How much has been completed? I remember some of the construction started at the same time as the church."

"Basically, not much. Besides the church itself, two factories have been built in the industrial area, and the rest of the area hasn't started yet. As for the outer fortifications, only a few towers near the core area have been completed."

Hughes recalled Castel's map. According to its current level of completion, once a war breaks out, almost the entire periphery of the island will be lost, and even the factories will be outside the protection range.

"Prioritize the Eastern Test Site. This is Castel's core industry. The steel mill and nitroglycerin production line are all here. We absolutely cannot lose this place!"

Alexi lowered his head and thought for a moment, then spoke with some difficulty: "This will take at least a week. It takes time for the cement to solidify, and this is without enemy interference."

"The Banshees will help you. They are more efficient at turning fossils into mud. Prioritize completing the fortifications here. As for the enemy..."

Hughes turned to look at a shorter man in the crowd and said, "Erwin, tell me what happened."

Erwin has messy brown hair and a red nose. He is an islander from Castel. He was selected when recruiting soldiers some time ago. Due to his good performance and participation in advanced classes, he was the first one among the first 50 people to become a team leader.

"Yes, my lord, I was patrolling the island with a team that day." Erwin recalled and recounted the story.

Since the preparations for war began, the Banshees basically stopped performing patrol missions. Zeus needed their ability to turn rocks into mud more, so most of them were transferred to Una to help, leaving only a small team to respond quickly and deal with emergencies.

It was under such circumstances that Erwin took over the patrol mission on the outskirts of the island. Several high towers on the island had been built. They could sound the alarm on the spot if they encountered any emergency, and the guards left on the tower would report it quickly.

That was why their patrol team was not too panicked when they encountered the murlocs on the beach.

Hughes had long ago revealed the existence of sea urchins, merfolk, etc. to the islanders of Castel, so Erwin roughly knew the combat effectiveness of these monsters: they were much stronger than humans, but not very fast. This was the data obtained by the Banshee in the water. The webbed feet between the merfolk's claws meant that they were more suitable for fighting in the water.

There were six people in the patrol team. Since they were patrolling the most dangerous outer section of the road, their equipment was still very good. All six of them were wearing armor and had long and short weapons. Three of them carried bows and arrows.

There was only one merman, and it was carefully hiding behind the reef, looking curiously at the island.

This place is too close to the sea. Once support arrives, the mermen will definitely be able to escape back into the sea. Therefore, after discussing it, the six of them made a bold decision.

They want to keep the murlocs here.

(End of this chapter)