It felt so good to be close to the witch!

After breaking through to the Gold level, Roy absorbed and transformed the energy from the [Infinite Desire], resulting in a qualitative leap in his control over it.

In the past, even if it was just to help someone break through to the Bronze level, he would never have been able to do what he is doing now, helping five people at the same time.

A wisp of battle qi entered their bodies, and within seconds, the skin of the five formal knights showed signs of cracking. Their bodies trembled violently, but even in such pain, they did not utter a sound.

Shanica came up behind the five people and helped them stabilize their condition.

……

Two hours later.

Looking at the five formal knights—no, they should now be called Black Stone Knights—who were sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed and whose battle aura was emanating from their bodies, Roy's eyes were full of smiles.

The breakthrough was a great success, and all five of them were promoted to "Bronze One-Star".

It must be said that these seasoned knights, who were trapped at the peak of the formal knighthood, all had pretty good willpower. Although the intense pain made them cry out in pain later on, they gritted their teeth and persevered to the end, without letting their consciousness fall into a coma.

Without disturbing the five Black Stone Knights who were practicing their breathing techniques and mastering their battle aura, Roy walked to the side, took the black tea that Shanika handed him, and sipped it while pondering silently.

Although the five Black Stone Knights successfully advanced to Bronze, due to the assistance of "external forces," their proficiency and control over battle aura are essentially inferior to those Bronze Knights who advanced through their own efforts. In other words, their strength will be slightly weaker than the other Bronze Knights, and they will need to put in more effort than others if they want to advance further on the path of knighthood.

But no matter what, it's better than not being able to break through to the Bronze rank, isn't it?

Without Roy's assistance, if these official knights were allowed to attempt breakthroughs on their own, Roy estimated that it would be incredibly lucky if even one of these twenty official knights succeeded.

As for the issue of weak combat strength... if one can't defeat them, two will do, right? If two still can't defeat them, then let's have five of them gang up on us!

Quality is not enough, quantity is needed.

After mastering their battle aura, the five Black Stone Knights experienced a dramatic change in strength. Protected by their battle aura, they could move freely even in the harshest winter, as long as they were careful not to exhaust all their battle aura.

Even if one is promoted to Bronze, or even a weaker Bronze, one is still an extraordinary knight. Whether it is combat power or adaptability to harsh environments, it far surpasses that of ordinary people.

Finally, we have a small team of our own... Once the remaining fifteen official knights are promoted to bronze, we can start building an intelligence network.

Roy thought to himself silently.

In this era and in this empire, the transmission of intelligence was extremely inconvenient. Located in Blackstone Territory, apart from his own small territory, Roy was completely "blind" to information about the outside world, the overall situation of the empire, and so on.

This is very deadly.

Information is extremely important.

Including Roy's previous life on Earth, modern warfare is essentially an information war.

If you can obtain intelligence about the enemy, you can make sufficient preparations and be able to handle the situation with ease once a conflict occurs.

Previously, Blackrock Territory was the epicenter of the conflict. In order to survive, Roy could only do everything he could to become stronger, and he had no time to develop his territory, let alone build an intelligence network. Now, with the buffer of winter, he finally has enough time.

About half an hour later, the five Black Stone Knights had completed their initial familiarization with battle aura and followed Roy back to the training ground.

The fifteen official knights felt the oppressive aura emanating from the five Black Stone Knights, and intense envy appeared in their eyes.

...It's true, Lord Roy was right. They all broke through to the Bronze level and became Extraordinary Knights!

This made the fifteen official knights wish they could complete the adaptive adjustments to their breathing techniques right now.

After encouraging the knights, Roy handed over the next training plan to Red and left.

He still has many things to deal with.

This includes learning the breathing techniques, dealing with the mechanical witch Toni, and helping Shanica and Lilia break through their limits.

It's around 2 PM now. According to Shanica, her magic is at its most soothing during the transition from day to night, around dawn or dusk, which is the best time to break through to the Grand rank.

The best time for Lilia to break through is midnight.

There are still about four hours until Shanica's breakthrough. During this time, Roy plans to have a "good talk" with the mechanical witch Tonine.

Back in the courtyard, after the Black Stone Knight left, several witches emerged from the hidden place.

Meanwhile, the mechanical witch Toni, under a tree in the corner of the courtyard, looked up blankly at the bird's nest on the branch above.

Through Lilia, Roy learned that in the past few days, the mechanical witch Toni was either observing various small animals or gazing at the sky alone.

It's like an abandoned machine that has lost its instructions and doesn't know what to do.

Roy's undisguised footsteps startled Toni, who was in a daze. She turned her head and looked at Roy, who had stopped two meters in front of her. She tilted her head slightly, a look of doubt in her eyes.

"Miss Tonigne, I'll call you that for now."

Roy smiled and said:

"So many days have passed, you must know your current situation and know that I have not lied to you."

Toni pursed her lips.

These past few days have made her feel like she's in paradise.

The reduction in pollution significantly lessened her physical and mental suffering. The blue skies and white clouds she hadn't seen in over a decade, and the lively, vibrant animals, were like a dream come true.

If this is a beautiful dream, then she doesn't want to wake up.

“What do you need me to do, Roy… sir?” After a few seconds of silence, Tonière spoke in her mechanical, indifferent female voice.

Having experienced the evils of the world and known the cruelty of people's hearts, she understood one principle very well.

There is never help without a reason in this world.

Even the love that parents have for their children is like this.

Not to mention that she and Roy were just strangers who met by chance.

As for lust at first sight... Although her appearance was not bad, Toni didn't think any normal human being would be interested in a "lump of iron" like her.

In other words, the reason she was saved and appeared in this "paradise" was because she possessed what the young man opposite her—Lord Roy Tulumbel, the ruler of this region—needed.

That's what she thought, and that's what she said.

If she has anything that the other person needs, Tonigne doesn't mind giving it to them.

“Very good.” Roy was very satisfied with Tonianne’s “sensibility”: “I need you to tell me everything you know about the Cole Empire’s magical technology.”

"Also, please demonstrate and introduce your talents and abilities."

Roy was very interested in both magical technology and Toni's innate abilities.

The former goes without saying, but as for the latter, although Roy knew that her talent was "metal control," he didn't know exactly what kind of control method it was.

"I'll first demonstrate my innate abilities and then give a simple explanation in conjunction with magical machinery. There's too much to cover in a short time." Toni didn't refuse Roy's conditions at all.

She was not a secondary personality created by the control chip. She felt no psychological burden for leaking the secrets of the Cole Empire; on the contrary, she was filled with the pleasure of revenge.

She wanted to destroy this country, to ruin her family, to kill her relatives and friends, and to bring her endless suffering.

Roy stepped back to a distance, giving Shanica room to maneuver.

The other witches also looked on curiously.

They were very curious about the combination of metal control and the magical energy technology of the Kolei Empire, which they had never seen before.

Under everyone's gaze, Toni raised her bandaged hand towards the sky. The next moment, as a pale golden light appeared, the white bandages on her arm came undone, revealing a delicate and complex mechanical arm made of silver-white metal.

"Crack!"

With a crisp sound, Toni's hand disappeared, transforming into a dark, gaping cannon hole.

Under the influence of magic, five grooves on the side of her mechanical forearm and arm lit up one by one, as if the modules had been fully charged.

next moment.

With a loud bang, a metal cannonball shot into the air and exploded violently when it reached a height of several hundred meters.

Roy's eyes widened slightly at the sight before him.

Good heavens, this is... artillery?!

Mechanical hand cannon!

In that split second, Tonière used her metal manipulation ability to transform the shape of her hand and used her own magic as energy to unleash this attack.

Roy made a rough estimate.

Before he had even broken through to the Gold level, if he had taken this hit head-on, he would probably have been seriously injured, if not killed.

Firearms and artillery shells are different; their destructive power is on completely different levels.

Firearms are primarily used to attack small creatures, while artillery shells are used to destroy buildings or large fortifications.

"Tonnie, without the metal in your body, can you control the metals in nature?"

Roy asked with some curiosity.

“Yes.” Toni’s voice remained indifferent: “However, the metal in my body is made of a high-strength special alloy. The weapon is temporarily made from metal factors in the environment, and its performance cannot compare with it.”

"My talent is not yet sufficient to precisely control the proportions of each metal to construct a high-strength alloy."

She lowered her hand, making it perpendicular to her body, and the next moment, with the flow of magic, a jet-black metal longsword materialized in her hand from above.

Roy stepped forward, took the metal longsword, and flicked it on the blade.

Judging from the metallic hum and feedback, Roy determined that the quality of this longsword was no worse than the standard longswords produced in Iron Mountain Territory.

It's important to understand that Toninet's weapon was merely a temporary creation of basic metal elements found in the Blackrock Territory environment, while weapons from Iron Mountain Territory not only used black ore, which is much rarer than ordinary iron ore, but also underwent countless forgings by blacksmiths.

The difference between the two is obvious.

Roy couldn't help but have an idea pop into his mind: if Tonnie used black ore as raw material to manufacture a large number of armors and weapons, wouldn't the combat power of his knights increase dramatically?

Weapons and armor are both important components of a knight's combat power.

Even Roy, without his longsword, would be much less powerful if he relied solely on his fists.

Although a Gold-ranked warrior can project their battle aura outwards, a knight's strongest attack is still a concentrated strike condensed onto a physical weapon.

To be honest, once he reached the Gold rank, the longsword Roy used before could no longer keep up with his pace.

He didn't expect the longsword in his hand to be of high quality, but at the very least, it had to be able to withstand his strength and have enough toughness and sharpness.

Roy had originally planned to make do with the "rare" knight's sword left behind by the old lord of Blackrock Territory.

Now it seems that it is no longer necessary.

With Tonière around, as long as the raw materials are provided, she can quickly manufacture weapons and armor of excellent quality!

-

(Tomorrow is Saturday, I'll try my best to update more frequently!)