After the Musical House players were frozen and given to Yang Zhi’s Black Armor Soldiers, the central leadership, as well as heroes of the Twin Dragon Island, were gathered in the conference hall.
“Based on Master’s reconnaissance on Magma Island, we’re generally faced with three problems to deal with the Magma Monsters!”
After everybody sat down, Su Nongying, who was wearing wireless headphones, cut to the chase without wasting any time.
“Firstly, while the Magma Monsters were one of the ten species near our original settlement, they were wiped out by the Eagle Men, and we don’t know much about their weaknesses.
“Secondly, the Magma Monsters can launch magma cannonballs to more than five kilometers away. Those cannonballs are very powerful. Once our island gets too close to theirs, it will be hard for us to defend ourselves!
“Thirdly, the environment that the Magma Monsters live in is too harsh for human beings. Both the magma and the poisonous smoke will make it hard for us to march on.”
Su Nongying turned on the 3D projector before her, casting out a picture of the Magma Island taken by the Mirage Cloud Mirror from the sky.
Most of the areas on the island were dark red. Because of the rising yellow smoke, it was impossible to see the Magma Monsters clearly.
“I failed to gather enough information on the Magma Monsters from the forum. The Confederation Office doesn’t have detailed intelligence on them either.
“They’re probably as rare as the Metal Men, so not many other settlements have run into them.”
Elder Meng, who had been responsible for searching the forum over these days, frowned slightly.
“I was able to learn something from a few native kids. Every Magma Monster’s original body is just a ‘Fire Core’ that’s the size of a fist. It can emit high heat and melt the rocks around into magma.
“The Extraordinary Magma Monsters can launch remote attacks by gathering cannonballs. Because their cores are always hidden in magma, it’s hard to kill them with physical attacks, but the area attacks such as music can deal a lot of damage to the Magma Monsters!”
Shang Yan spoke.
Actually, that was also the reason why the Musical House was able to resist the Magma Monsters, which even the Twin Dragon Island found tricky, for half a month.
“Music? Do you mean that those aliens are susceptible to ‘soundwaves’ or the mental power that’s embedded in them?” asked Guo Wei.
“Yes, I think it has more to do with mental power.”
“The Eagle Men finished off the Magma Monsters at the beginning probably because their ‘Battle Aura’, which was a combination of mental power and inner strength, worked on the Magma Monsters too!”
“It was as much a mental attack as music is,” Li Qing opened his mouth and said.
Li Qing knew that so well because he had also practiced Battle Aura recently apart from Yan Qing.
Battle Aura was a method to combine mental power and inner strength and didn’t conflict with martial arts training. Also, as “spoils of war” for destroying the Eagle Men’s settlement, it was available to anyone on the Twin Dragon Island!
“A lot of Wind Bones that were made of the bones of the fish and monsters in the sea have been accumulated in the Eagle Men’s settlement. They can accommodate ‘Battle Aura’. The Equipment Division can craft them into weapons as fast as we can,” Tang Long opened his mouth and said.
The participation of the third batch of players had further increased the number of blacksmith apprentices in the fort.
In fact, not just the blacksmiths, because many Elite and Quasi-Commander native craftsmen had been summoned recently, there were professionals in many industries and subdivided ones in the fort at this moment.
“Alright, if those Wind Bones are made into cannonballs, Chief Ling, will it be possible for us to suppress the Magma Monsters in terms of firepower?”
Ji Ye looked at Ling Zhen who was responsible for the Firearm Division.
“We can suppress them from a distance between ten to five kilometers.
“Thanks to the Fire Oil Refinement Technology we acquired from the Snake Monkeys’ settlement, the range of the heavy cannons we made based on the technologies from SkyNet is as good as the enemy’s. The range will be doubled if we use the Wind Bone Cannonballs.”
As an Excellent hero, Ling Zhen was the only early arrival who hadn’t reached Extraordinary Rank-8 yet.
It was partly due to his lack of aptitudes in martial arts, and partly because he had been devoted to firearm studies, trying to learn modern military knowledge from SkyNet.
He had changed so much that he almost spoke like a player at this moment.
“However, according to Ms. Shang, every Extraordinary Magma Monster can turn into a ‘cannon’.
“Therefore, our cannons cannot compare to theirs in terms of number. We’ll be suppressed by them when we’re within five kilometers from them.
“Also, the Magma Monsters’ ‘cores’ are hidden in the magma and cannot be locked onto… If we’re too far away, the precision of our cannonballs won’t be good enough, and we won’t be able to deal much damage.”
What Ling Zhen said made a lot of people’s expressions turn serious.
“So, we will have to count on a head-on battle!”
Su Nongying frowned.
“However, how can we approach the Magma Monsters if they’re covered by heavy firepower?”
They had figured out the enemy’s weakness.
However, it was rather difficult to deal with those cannons!
“Since we have advantages at the distance between ten to five kilometers, we might as well launch attacks in that period!
“We can try alluring the Magma Monsters to the shore. Then, we’ll march underwater and launch a raid after we land on the shore.
“We acquired a Golden Coral after we defeated the Ghostship. If we squash it into powder and ask everybody to take it, we’ll all be able to breathe in the water!
“After we get on the shore, we can resist the magma fireballs with the Mahogany Shields, like we did in the battle against the Eagle Men.”
Ruan Xiaoer, who had returned from the Mirage Dragon Warship, spoke as the only representative of the navy at the meeting.
Although the mahogany was wood, it was highly resistant to fire and could automatically repair itself after being destroyed.
Because of its excellent features and usages, the Twin Dragon Island had accelerated the growth of a lot of mahogany over these days, enough to equip five hundred people with Mahogany Shields.
They finally had a solution to the second problem.
However, the third problem regarding the environment was the trickiest one!
How could they fight a head-on battle when the whole place teemed with magma and poisonous smoke?
“Master, the Eagle Men destroyed three alien groups at the beginning, namely the Sand Monsters, the Mushroom Monsters, and the Magma Monsters. Is there anything special about the order?”
Elder Zhou, who was seated next to Elder Meng, suddenly opened his mouth.
“Are you implying that the Eagle Men might have taken advantage of the resources from the other two alien groups to defeat the Magma Monsters who were in a most favorable environment?”
Qin Yueyu winked.
“Yes, the main resources of the Mushroom Monsters were all kinds of fungi. While the Deluding Gas made from those fungi can cause hallucinations, I don’t think it will work on the Magma Monsters, whose life form is too special. Also, the magma area is so hot that even the double-refined poisons will be burnt and neutralized before they could even hurt the Magma Monsters.
“However, we can try to create an antidote to the sulfur and poisonous smoke.”
Shang Yan suggested.
As An Daoquan’s disciple, and having learned medicine from Reverend Yideng on the Battlefield of Providence, Shang Yan was much better a doctor than she had been. She could speak on behalf of the Medical Division of the fort while An Daoquan was busy treating the green-dressed pipa woman and others.
“I think the sand in the Sand Monsters’ settlement will be useful.
“That sand will absorb water and expand into rocks when it meets any. When it meets fire, it will quickly absorb the heat and turn into ‘fire crystals’ which are as hard as diamonds.”
Elder Jiao, who was responsible for the technologies, followed and suggested.
“Won’t it be easy to annihilate the Magma Monsters if Master or Mr. Gongsun rides the clouds and drop such sand into the magma from the sky?”
Mister Bug’s eyes glittered as he thought of an idea.
“How can it be so simple?
“Such sand is an Extraordinary resource. Even if its generation can be accelerated by the power of providence, the Sand Monsters’ territory was still too small. Also, we used a lot of the sand to build houses for the newcomers. We don’t have much in storage at this moment.
“The Magma Monsters’ territory is at least twenty times as large as the Sand Monsters’. It’s impossible to win the battle just with the sand.”
Elder Jiao pointed at the map of the Magma Island on the 3D projector in front of Su Nongying.
Two-third of the island had been covered by magma, and it was continuously spreading towards the Musical House that was newly occupied!
“We can make use of the seawater!
“The Mirage Dragon Warship is made of the Mirage Dragon bones and has the ability to control water currents. Master can also control water with his Flood Dragon Bloodline.
“With the help of Ms. Nie and Ms. Chu’s performance of the Melody of the Rising Tide, we should be able to direct seawater onto the shore and extinguish the magma.”
Ruan Xiaoer opened his mouth again.
“Like how the Golden Mount Temple was drowned… It will be a very splendid scene!”
Everybody thought of a classic story[1].
“I have made a breakthrough in the Five Thunder Heavenly Spirit Technique. With the help of Fellow Daoist Lin, I can create a storm in an area. Together with General Zhao’s Snow Spear, we can even invoke a massive snowfall… We should be able to blow off the poisonous smoke and freeze the magma with rain and snow…” Gongsun Sheng, who had advanced into Extraordinary Rank-8, also opened his mouth and said.
“On the other hand, the Sea Stones yielded in the Mirage Monsters’ territory have been partly accumulated.
“Since the Magma Monsters live in magma, they probably won’t be adapted to the sea environment. Every battle participant can carry a Sea Stone and activate when approaching the enemy to restrain them,” Ruan Xiaoer suggested again.
Ji Ye nodded. “That’s a great idea. Well, I’ll personally test if the Sea Stone is effective a moment later. If it does work, it will probably serve as our fatal technique against the Magma Monsters.”
When the Twin Dragon Island moved, the water within a certain range moved along with it.
So, the resource point of Sea Stones still existed.
“I bought a Fire Shield Stone from the City of Humans…
“Master, didn’t you acquire a Red Dragon Shield after destroying the Ghostship? It may be more resistant to fire than the Mahogany Shield is!”
All kinds of suggestions were proposed in the conference hall, and their feasibility was discussed.
Very soon, a battle plan against the Magma Monsters was settled. The solutions to cope with emergencies were come up with too.
After that, Su Nongying reported the last matter.
“In the end, we still have to discuss the Musical House settlement.
“Chief Ruan has already accepted the Musical House’s guqin ship and got a list of items on it.”
[1] [Annotation text missing]