Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 272 Improved and Alchemized Depth Charges

Suddenly, hundreds and thousands of transparent spirits rose from the sea where the ghost ship wreckage had been and rushed toward the Princess.

This immediately surprised everyone on the ship, except for Richard and Stephanie, who were familiar with spirits, who remained calm.

Although there are many of these spirits, each one is not very strong. In other words, most of these spirits were just ordinary people in their previous lives.

As these spirits approached, the people on the ship could clearly see their appearance.

There were merchants dressed in silk, sailors in sailor suits, women in skirts, and old men with canes.

But these people all looked pleased, with slight smiles on their faces.

These spirits quickly circled the people on the Princess once before soaring into the sky.

"Master, these must be people who were slaughtered by the ghost ship, right? This time we defeated the ghost ship and released the souls trapped on it. They seem to be expressing their gratitude!" Stephania's clear voice rang out.

Richard nodded. This world was indeed ruthless, a world where the strong prey on the weak. Among these enormous spirits, he saw far too many unarmed women and children.

Even so, the pirates on the ghost ship still did not let them go when they encountered them.

Captain Barrorick and his crew, after hearing Stephena's words, realized that these numerous spirits were people killed by the pirates on the ghost ship.

Because the Princess defeated the Ghost Ship, the souls that had been imprisoned by the Ghost Ship for an unknown period of time were finally released.

This also confirms the legends of the sea!

It is said that the souls of those killed by the ghost ship will never find peace and will be imprisoned by the ghost ship, becoming puppets that enhance its power.

Now, before leaving this world, these liberated souls flew over and circled the Princess once to express their gratitude.

This strange sight amazed the sailors!

It seems they've gained another topic of conversation.

-

the next day.

With some free time, Richard finally had a chance to carefully examine the cannons on the Princess.

These cannons are heroes!

If it weren't for them, the Princess wouldn't have been able to defeat the Ghost Ship, and Richard wouldn't have been able to kill Sariddin, that shark monster.

The Queen's guns came in three different calibers: 12 lb, 18 lb, and 24 lb.

Obviously, the larger the caliber, the stronger the firepower!

Richard looked at the bronze cannon barrel, which was over a meter long. He did not practice any metal-related magical arts, so he could not immediately change the cannon's caliber.

At the same time, he thought carefully and realized that if the caliber of the cannons were adjusted, the corresponding ammunition specifications would also need to be adjusted accordingly. Such a systematic project could not be completed by him alone on the Queen.

Therefore, Richard had no choice but to settle for second best and first study the gunpowder technology of the world's artillery.

If the gunpowder formula is not optimal, he can directly find the optimal ratio by relying on the panel!

Coincidentally, the two main ingredients of gunpowder in this world are also sulfur and charcoal, while the other is a plant powder called ammonia grass.

Richard inquired with Barolorick and learned that this ammonia grass was a plant that wizards had created through various hybridizations. Initially, no one cared about the ammonia grass that was circulating.

Pure roadside weeds, completely ignored by everyone.

But later a blacksmith discovered its powder, and when mixed with sulfur and sawdust, it became incredibly powerful, instantly transforming from an unwanted weed into a rare commodity!

It was soon planted on a large scale and is now a military-controlled material with strict import and export controls!

Currently, almost all the kingdoms and duchies in the commercial alliance use a standardized gunpowder formula: 6 grams of ammonia powder, 1 gram of sulfur, and 3 grams of charcoal.

Richard took some raw materials and returned to his cabin.

[Host detected preparing gunpowder. Did/did you consume energy to gain inspiration for gunpowder preparation?]

After a moment's thought, Richard dragged the slider to 1000 and selected "Yes!"

It's not that he's unwilling to spend more energy, but rather that he's simply looking for the optimal ratio, which doesn't require using too many energy points.

In an instant, Richard found himself in a dreamlike space, as if his soul had left his body. This time, the space was also a ship's cabin.

The first step was purification. Richard first gently crushed a plant of ammonia grass with a wooden pestle, then added 100 ml of distilled water to dilute it, filtered it, drained it, and removed impurities. Soon he obtained turbid ammonia oil.

The second step is drying. A plate is placed on a vessel similar to an alcohol lamp, and Richard gently pours in cloudy ammonia oil. Under the heat of the flame, the moisture begins to evaporate.

However, Richard discovered that the ammonia plant powder obtained by drying using the method suggested by Barlowic still contained many ineffective components.

But that's not the focus this time.

Richard plans to first complete the optimal ratio calculation.

Because it was a dream, Richard kept trying to optimize and experiment, and he had a rough formula for gunpowder in his memory, so the experiment progressed very quickly.

The sounds of ping-pong balls exploding in various sizes echoed endlessly in the dream space!

"boom!"

Its power has actually weakened!

Richard shook his head.

After hundreds of tests, Richard has optimized the ratio to single digits. The current ratio of ammonia powder, sulfur, and charcoal has been optimized by Richard to 75:10:15.

It can be said that this is very close to the optimal ratio.

In other words, with a precision of single digits, it is already the optimal ratio.

"boom!"

Sure enough, Richard was very satisfied with this final explosion in the dream; it was the strongest explosion so far.

Based on the current proportions, the new gunpowder formula can directly increase the explosive power by 23%.

Richard thought about it and realized that further optimization at the decimal level was completely unnecessary, because the quality of the material itself would fluctuate.

Richard then used the optimal ratio of gunpowder to test fire the cannons on the Queen!

The five most experienced gunners fired 10 shots in succession.

The test launch results shocked everyone around, including Captain Barolorick and others.

Unexpectedly, in just one day, this wizard Richard optimized the gunpowder formula, directly increasing the cannon's lethality by about 10% to 15%.

The increased explosive power of gunpowder not only increased the initial velocity of artillery projectiles but also increased their range!

Therefore, this lethality is a comprehensive result after taking these factors into account.

Richard thought about it and decided that after returning to the Loras Peninsula from this voyage, he would hand it over to Mera's father, Earl Norris, so that he could sell it and maximize his profits.

After all, a maritime power would certainly be willing to pay a considerable price to purchase this formula.

-

A month later.

The Sea God Cult has been silent since its last defeat. It's possible that the other side couldn't find the Princess's whereabouts, or it could be for other reasons.

Meanwhile, Richard and Stephena were chatting with Barrolick in the captain's cabin.

Long ocean voyages can make one somewhat weary of the sea's unchanging deep blue color.

"Lord Richard, we are now more than halfway through our voyage. In about a month, we will arrive at Basellus Island," Captain Barolorick said, pointing to the nautical chart.

"Another month?" Stephania, standing to the side, was immediately discouraged.

"Haha, Miss Stephana, are you getting a little bored with the long voyages at sea?" Captain Barrolick couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, it would be better if some sea monsters came so we could fight them!" Stephania said with a laugh.

Just seconds after Stephena finished speaking, the Princess suddenly jolted and sank about ten centimeters.

This immediately caused everyone on the ship to lose their balance!

"Oh no!" Captain Barolorick's expression changed instantly. "My lords, we've encountered a sea monster!"

Clearly, the weather outside is fine, so the problem must be on the seabed.

The Queen is currently in the deep sea, so it's unlikely to be a reef. What could cause the Queen to shake so violently must be a large marine creature, such as a sea monster!

"Master, I..." Stephania turned pale instantly.

She had only made a joke, but it came true in just a few seconds.

Seeing Stephanie's expression, Richard couldn't help but shake his head and laugh, "You really are a jinx! It's too accurate! Remember not to say anything carelessly next time."

As they spoke, the two quickly went up to the deck.

The sailors were frantically peering into the sea from both sides of the ship, trying to figure out what kind of monster they had encountered, but they clearly found nothing!

Currently, we can only confirm that the attack came from the seabed, but we have no idea what kind of creature it was.

Richard thought for a moment and came up with an idea.

He chanted a spell, and the next second, a pale green inverted pentagram magic circle instantly lit up on the deck in front of Richard, summoning four skeleton archers.

Richard pointed to the sides of the ship, and four skeleton archers instantly split into two groups of two each, arriving at the ship's side.

Stephania, standing to the side, watched this scene with confusion and said, "Master, why did you summon archers? The monster is at the bottom of the ship, so we can't attack it now."

"You'll see when you see it!" Richard smiled mysteriously.

After saying that, he continued to cast a rare level zero spell – Necropolis.

Suddenly, four small "screens" appeared in Richard's field of vision, as if "surveillance" had been turned on, showing the sea outside the ship's sides.

"Thump!!"

Under Richard's command, the four skeleton archers immediately jumped into the sea.

Captain Barrolick looked at Richard with surprise, thinking to himself, "To be honest, even I could handle these normal-sized skeleton archers. I don't know why Richard sent these weak skeleton archers to sea."

The orc Otombo, who had been resting in the lower cabins, and his group of melee fighters also went up to the deck to prepare for the sea monster's attack.

When they saw that Richard had summoned four weak skeleton archers instead of the massive abomination to go into the sea, they were completely bewildered!

They couldn't understand it. These few skeleton archers were probably no match for the enormous sea monster.

Let alone defeating the opponent!

A few seconds later, Richard saw different details from four different angles on the "surveillance camera".

One of the skeleton archers had barely jumped into the sea when it was grabbed by a tentacle and immediately crushed!

This caused Richard a slight sting in his mind, but at least he could see the enemy's appearance clearly.

"Is it another giant squid or some kind of octopus?"

But Richard soon realized something was wrong.

Because the overall appearance of these tentacles is very strange, they are thin at the top and thick at the bottom, and the surface of the tentacles is rough. The surface of the tentacles seems to have large black spheres, which look very much like human eyeballs.

At this moment, the other skeleton archers also relayed what they had seen to Richard!

"This is... a starfish with a hundred eyes??"

Richard had also learned a lot about sea monsters during this time, and he immediately identified which kind of unfamiliar marine creature had attacked the Princess.

I never expected it to be a starfish with a hundred eyes!

"Captain Barolorick, it's the Hundred-Eyed Starfish! Everyone who is not involved, please leave the deck to prevent them from using mind control abilities."

"What? It's actually a hundred-eyed starfish?" Barrorick's expression changed, and at the same time, he was extremely surprised that Richard was able to find out the identity of the monster at the bottom of the ship so quickly.

But he did not doubt what Richard said and immediately began to issue instructions!

"Gunners and sailors who are not determined enough, get down to deck!! Quick! It's a starfish!!" Captain Barrolick roared.

At this point, Stephanie realized that Richard had sent his informants.

The master sent the skeleton archers into the sea to find out who the enemy was, so that he could make targeted arrangements.

The Hundred-Eyed Starfish has five thick, soft tentacles, and its tentacles and main body are covered with black eyes of various sizes. It possesses a peculiar mental ability to control living beings.

In addition to the eyeballs, the main body also has large suction cups with amazing suction power!

It seems that the other party has firmly attached the suction cup to the bottom of the Princess and intends to drag it into the sea. However, the Princess has too large a displacement and the starfish cannot move it in one go, so they are stuck here.

The effects of the level zero spell, "Undead Vision," were immediately apparent, allowing Richard to instantly assess the enemy's strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise, Richard would have faced an unknown foe, significantly increasing the difficulty of the battle.

Now that they knew who the enemy was, Richard turned to Captain Barrorick and said, "Prepare the alchemical depth charges!!"

This is the product of Richard's casual research over the course of a month.

"Thump!!"

Three large, brown wooden barrels of red wine, which had been prepared in advance, were thrown into the water.

These barrels were buoyant, but Richard placed a large amount of modified gunpowder inside, mixed with Fire Dance Star and Silver Moon Dust, making their weight slightly exceed their buoyancy.

Therefore, if thrown into the ocean, it will slowly sink!

In addition, Richard's mental shock acted as a kind of delayed fuse.

"Boom boom boom!"

With three loud explosions, the starfish under the ship let out a piercing scream!

Unable to withstand the terrifying damage from the depth charges, a giant starfish, more than ten meters in diameter, suddenly crawled up from the bottom of the ship.

(End of this chapter)