Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 172 The Magic of the Bowstring in Return of Friendship
Inside the banquet hall of the city lord's mansion, the atmosphere grew increasingly lively as the elves' gifts were gradually displayed.

That afternoon, an emergency supplement to the HanHai bi-monthly magazine was freshly printed, with a huge black headline prominently displayed on the front page.

The three regions join hands to promote peaceful development and complement each other's resources to forge stability and prosperity.

The following is a partial summary:

[News Report] — Recently, Elder Ysera Brightwing of the Silvermoon Forest and Princess Flowing Frost of Skyfrost City visited together. Under the auspices of Lord Chen Mo of the Vast Ocean, the three parties held a cordial and friendly exchange in the Vast Ocean Territory Council Hall.

The two visiting leaders highly praised the positive and crucial role played by the Han Hai Territory in maintaining overall stability and promoting regional prosperity. During their visit, they also commended the Han Hai Territory's remarkable achievements in building vibrant oases in the desert.

……

During the dialogue, City Lord Chen Mo emphasized that Han Hai Territory has always adhered to the principles of "openness, inclusiveness, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation" and is committed to becoming a key link connecting various civilizations.

In the future, Hanhailing will continue to actively promote regional resource exchange, technology exchange and defense cooperation to jointly enhance the region's sustainable development capabilities.

……

Following the meeting, the leaders of the three parties jointly issued the "Joint Declaration on Friendly Cooperation in the Hanhai Region." According to the agreement, the three parties will carry out in-depth cooperation in four major areas: ecological protection, trade connectivity, cultural exchanges, and emergency response.

This agreement also marks the first time that forces from the North and South have reached a systematic consensus on cooperation, setting a new example for the coexistence and governance of multiple ethnic groups.

Barabara...

To be honest, even the elven elder Ysera, with her long history and extensive experience, was still quite intrigued by the Sea Territory's seemingly contradictory cooperation plan.

In Isela Mingyi's words, the most amazing thing about this rhetoric is that it seems to be all abstract words, without any strong binding terms, and whether or not to cooperate is entirely voluntary.

There will be no psychological pressure on any party when signing this declaration.

However, if both sides are truly willing to cooperate, the cooperative projects associated with this declaration can be explored and expanded indefinitely.

The more Ysera thought about it, the more interesting it became. It seemed like it hadn't said anything, but it actually contained everything.

For example, that meaningful "emergency response".

If we can respond to emergencies when orcs come, then we can naturally respond to emergencies when other forces come. Even if internal problems occur, can we ask our partners to provide flexible "emergency responses"?
This leaves a huge space for imagination and maneuvering for all parties involved.

"It's amazing how the same person can be so naive in personal relationships and so adept at handling territorial affairs!"

At this moment, Chen Mo was in an excellent mood.

The gifts given by the elves were not only valuable in themselves, but more importantly, because of the different backgrounds and values ​​of the two worlds, these things were of unparalleled importance to Dongxia.

The same pill might only heal a bleeding wound for a professional in the Starry World, but on Earth it could bring someone back to life and heal flesh and bones.

The thought that sending this pile of medicines back would give his family some more indestructible pillars of the nation made Chen Mo's smile even brighter.

"Elder Ysera, your gift makes me feel deeply humbled."

Chen Mo raised a glass of rice wine made from seawater rice and distilled, and drank it all in one gulp.

Good heavens, the lord actually drank alcohol on his own initiative.

The lord's officials almost lost control of their expressions... You see, even at the victory banquet after defeating the orcs, the lord only drank plain water with a little alcohol on the bottle opening.

The officials of the territory followed suit, raising their glasses and offering enthusiastic greetings, further warming the atmosphere of the banquet.

Isela Mingyi smiled slightly, gently swirled the clear liquid in her glass, and sniffed it.

"A very unique brewing method, full of sunshine and... a sense of power."

"It feels exactly the same as the feeling I got from the Vast Ocean Territory!"

That's a very insightful statement. If it weren't for the fact that the other party's status was so high, Chen Mo would have been willing to offer an exorbitant price to have them become the chief executive at Hanhai.

I used to think Helan was exceptionally intelligent and capable, but now that he's in front of others, he's really nothing special...

"Elder, your insight is truly remarkable." Chen Mo put down his wine glass and said generously, "In our battle against the orcs, we used some special weapons that we brought in from beyond the realm. I am very happy to share them with you all, my sincere friends."

"my pleasure!"

Elves are immortal beings, and Princess Liushuang is half...a quarter elf, so they both have some immortal genes. Only Chen Mo is not, at least not yet.

Therefore, Chen Mo felt that he was the one who should seize every second.

The midday banquet had just ended when Lord Chen led his guests to the Han Hai shooting range.

This area was originally a relatively solid Gobi desert. After simple leveling and reinforcement, various targets of different distances and heights were erected here.

Rough wooden stakes, straw figures and wooden figures draped in old leather armor or iron plates, standard breastplates and light armor from the continent, and even a few repaired shield wagons and light leather-covered carriages that Skyfrost City had captured from the Green Pine Kingdom's army.

After a brief opening, the weapons demonstration began.

First up is the standard rifle squad from the Han Hai Territory.

When the dull, continuous gunfire rang out, and the bullets easily tore through the wooden and leather targets not far away, sending fragments flying, the elves' faces showed obvious surprise.

After carefully examining the target, an elven warrior gave it a very high rating:
"Not bad, very fast rate of fire, the power is a little weak, but it is enough to kill a basic professional. With this weapon, you should be able to strike opponents one or two levels higher!"

"It's especially effective against mounts that aren't fully armored and don't know how to dodge!"

Next, Han Hailing demonstrated the use of a general-purpose machine gun, a light sniper rifle, a rifle grenade, and a hand grenade at the firing range. The elves smiled, admired, and whispered among themselves.

Princess Liushuang from Skyfrost City and her entourage had already seen firearms in actual combat, so it was normal for them to remain calm. However, the elves' reaction was noticeably overly polite.

Well, there was none of the shock that Lord Chen Mo had expected. In fact, Chen Mo even sensed a faint hint of indifference.

This was clearly somewhat unexpected.

Just as Chen Mo was feeling somewhat puzzled and even a little embarrassed, Helan quietly walked to the lord's side and whispered a report in Xia language:

"The elves discussed among themselves, saying that this weapon was too noisy and had a violent aura, making it unsuitable for use in the mountains and forests. It would easily reveal their presence, start wildfires, and disturb the spirits of nature..."

Well, Heran knows some Elvish, so the territory's professionals are still somewhat useful after all.

It turns out the issue wasn't the weapon's power, but rather a difference in aesthetics and philosophies.

Chen Mo's mind raced, and he ordered his guards to retrieve a melee weapon from the armory. The centaur squad opened the outer seal, revealing a uniquely shaped weapon to everyone.

This is a compound bow.

Most people's first reaction to seeing a compound bow is that it's a messy, somewhat bulky bow that doesn't look good.

It's not that it's ugly, it's just that it's not good-looking.

It is far removed from the smooth and graceful curves of the elven longbow, and also unlike any known bow and crossbow design on the continent. Its main structure is filled with a somewhat crowded mechanical feel.

The bow body is painted in a matte black finish, with only key areas accented with a cold, hard metallic color.
The bow of the alloy bow is like the folded wings of a raptor, with a complex and precise pulley system on both sides at the top, and a scope mount and release mechanism in the center.

The bowstring is made of several strands of high-strength composite fibers with a special luster, tightly twisted together and tautly connected between the pulleys.

In terms of melee weapons, Dongxia didn't have anything significantly superior to Fanxing, except for its brute force approach using materials. The composite bow, however, was one of the few weapons that stood out.

By using two eccentric wheels in the pulley system, and relying on the power transmission between the main string and the secondary string, a wonderful effect can be achieved: normal force is applied when drawing the bow, but only a little force is needed to maintain the bow's position.

For example, it might take 100 kilograms of force to draw the bow at the beginning, but once you've drawn the bowstring to its full length, you only need about 10 kilograms of force to maintain the fully drawn bow.

For the magic archers on the continent, this characteristic is a revolution.

As a magic archer, one can naturally add magical elements to one's arrows. These magical effects on external objects are usually manifested in two ways.

One is front-end enchanting, and the other is real-time guidance.

Pre-enchanting refers to pre-applying magical effects to bows and arrows.

This is a bit tricky. All the magical effects in the Starry World rely on spell models and arrays constructed from various materials. Enchanting a slender bow is already quite difficult, so attaching a magic array to an arrow is asking too much of a question.

When the reinforcements from the Vast Ocean Territory used firepower to launch long-range attacks on the orcs outside the city, the magic arrays with additional effects were all placed in front of the cannon muzzles and could not be directly loaded onto the cannonballs.

This method of weapon enchantment amplification is fine for artillery with wide-area attacks, but for bows and arrows that rely on absolute accuracy, even a slight deviation in trajectory means the shot is wasted.

Therefore, in most cases, the magical effects that a magic archer adds to their arrows are better than the effects of real-time channeling. In this environment, the effortless design of the compound bow is simply tailor-made for magic archers.

The mercenaries from the territory were the first to demonstrate.

At first, the elves saw it as just an ordinary archery performance, but the arrows were launched with considerable force, making a loud whistling sound and flying fast, piercing through the armor at the tip.

It is only slightly inferior to the Elven Longbow.

However, after the translator from the territory carefully explained the characteristics of the bow, the elven archers could no longer remain still.

A tall, slender elven man stepped forward. He was the captain of the guard in the delegation, named Loma Windrunner. He quickly bowed to Ysera and Chen Mo, and then said, "Your Excellency, your weapon is truly impressive."

"Would you allow us to try it out ourselves? To experience the wonders of this... weapon?"

After receiving permission, Captain Loma took the longbow, took out a light green velvet cloth from his side, and carefully wiped the bow from top to bottom.

The mercenary's face immediately fell after the test shot.

Seeing the displeasure on some of Chen Mo's side, Ysera calmly explained in the common language of Qiyue: "For an archer, any speck of dust or sand on the bow can affect his aim, so it was not an intentional offense."

"I will present this gentleman with a fine elven longbow later as a token of my apology."

Chen Mo glanced at Helan without making a sound.

Look at Elder Silvermoon, the elf. His observation, his reaction, his manner of being a person... his demeanor as an elf. Can't you learn a thing or two?

Over there, Loma Wind Chaser was already preparing to begin the first round of bow testing.

Loma served as the guard of the Redwood Highlands for a long time, handling numerous transactions and being one of the elves who frequently interacted with the outside world.

Loma remained deeply wary of the deceptive tactics employed by both humans and dwarfs.

For example, the complete iron armor used as a target had actually been baked by magical ice and fire many times, making it even crisper than a pine cone in winter. It would shatter into pieces at the slightest touch, highlighting the weapon's incredible power.

For example, some magical effects are sealed inside a sample, and then several layers of disguise are added to create an outstanding effect.

For a considerable period of time, the elves were tricked every year, but each time it was a different story.

I've finally learned it.

Loma not only inspected the composite bow from start to finish, but also personally rearranged the target, hung various light and heavy armors brought by the elves on the target stand, and then drew the bow and nocked an arrow.

At first, Loma felt very uncomfortable.

This discomfort stems from the strange design of the compound bow, where the arrow is not positioned at the center of the bow. Even though it's only a slight displacement, it still feels very unsettling to an elf who has always used a balanced bow.

However, once the curtain was drawn, Loma clearly sensed that the people of the Vast Ocean Territory were not lying.

I can keep the bow fully drawn with almost no effort.

He even paused for a full half minute before beginning to channel the magic into the tiny arrow.

[Whispers of the Forest], [Breath of the Wind], [Dance of Thorns], [Triple Shadow], [Armor Piercing Edge], [Precise Hit], [Light and Agile Trajectory Change]...

Beside the archer, a faint blue wind could be seen moving at high speed, as if forming a small vortex of airflow.

After a pause of about thirty seconds, the arrowheads gleamed faintly, and the elven Wind Chaser archer released the bowstring.

The arrow leaves the bowstring.

To everyone else, the arrow seemed to flash for a moment as it was released, then vanished into thin air, only to reappear close to its first target.

It flashed again, drawing a faint arc through the air as the arrow gracefully bypassed, or rather, leaped over, the first target, and accurately struck a set of elven armor at the rear.

The moment the arrow pierced the armor, a piercing shriek seemed to echo through the air. The next instant, dense green vines sprouted and spread wildly from the point of impact, covering the entire suit of armor in the blink of an eye.

Some vines even deftly slipped into the gaps in the armor, twisting and turning inside. Keen-eyed professionals could even spot the dense clusters of sharp thorns on the vines.

Many viewers felt a chill run down their spines.

If I were to get shot...

Where will these vines go?
(End of this chapter)