Chapter 448: Promotion to the Ninth Ring
In addition to the strong combat effectiveness of Harland's army, another important reason why Richard was able to achieve brilliant military exploits in the past was that the army of the Kingdom of Grant pinned down most of the enemies, allowing Richard to gain an advantage in one direction and break the balance of the war.
If it weren't for the Kingdom of Grant to withstand the enemy's million-strong army, the Dukedom of Harland alone would have been submerged in the tide of the million-strong army of Delon, East Coast, and Ryan. Without several victories in the war, the Territory of Harland would not have been able to develop to its current level.
In a short period of time, the Territory of Harland did not develop an absolute advantage, and Richard still needed to support the stability of the Kingdom of Grant and let this shield temporarily block the enemy for himself.
Shortly after Sutton was promoted to Legend, according to the attribute panel prompt, Richard found that his experience value had reached the extreme of the eighth ring, and it was impossible to transform and improve his mental power by continuing to meditate.
In late August, Richard prepared to retreat to break through the bottleneck. In order to increase the probability of a breakthrough, Richard went to the magic well with the highest magic concentration.
The Harland Mage Association now has many magic wells, but the one with the most magic power is the Mage Tower at the bottom of the Snow Scenery Lake. The magic power here is very abundant and can supply thousands of magicians to meditate at the same time.
This kind of large magic well is extremely rare in the magic countries in the southwest and is the core of large magic organizations. The Holy Glorious Empire has only three large magic wells in 30 million square kilometers of land.
Harland Territory has more than one million square kilometers of land and has many magic wells. It is located in an area with abundant magic energy. This area is very suitable for the development of magic civilization.
Richard has been in this world for more than 20 years and has greatly affected the development of the Dawn Plane. For more than 20 years, a powerful dukedom has been established, which can already affect the political stability of the Eastern Kingdom of the Central Continent in the Dawn Plane.
In terms of magic civilization alone, Richard has promoted the invention of magic steam engines, magic crystal charging technology, sound control conversion rune technology, fighting spirit conversion magic technology, medical magic technology, magic crystal cannons, and magic airships. Once the technology spreads, it will greatly promote the development of magic civilization in the Dawn Plane.
The most critical core, the Harland Territory Mage Association has a clear understanding of elements and magic particles. Over the years, more than 50 elements have been discovered, and three special magic particles have been found.
This basic understanding of the microscopic world, once transformed into magic technology, will also greatly promote the world.
Today, the level of magic civilization in Harland Territory has surpassed the Holy Glorious Empire and the Southwest Magic Kingdom. Although it is relatively small in scale and far less powerful than the Holy Glorious Empire and the Southwest Magic Kingdom, in terms of advancement, Harland Territory is indeed ranked first.
In the Mage Tower at the bottom of the Crystal Lake, Richard began to try to construct a nine-ring spell template. Richard's mental power reached 60 points, and his own magic knowledge had accumulated to a certain level. When he was promoted to the ninth ring, he was very stable.
After only a dozen days of seclusion, Richard successfully broke through the bottleneck and mastered the first nine-ring spell, the Gate to the Other World.
The gate to another world can connect two worlds. When Richard followed Mavila, Senna and others to block the plane channel, he saw this spell with his own eyes. After learning magic for more than 20 years, Richard has gradually grown to a level second only to Senna.
After being promoted to the ninth ring, Richard's mental power increased to 64 points, and his magic power was converted to 1536 points. This magic strength is already a few points higher than that of a legendary first-level magician. Compared with legendary knights, there is no comparison. Legendary knights such as Sylph and Sutton have only 300 points of magic power, which is equivalent to the level of ordinary eighth-ring mages.
However, some eighth-ring mages have taken some potions that increase mental power and magic power. Their mental power often exceeds 30 points, awakening their powerful spellcasting talents, and their spell ability is a few points stronger than that of legendary knights.
Although legendary knights have spell abilities, they ultimately rely on the power of the flesh and fighting spirit to win. From the perspective of physical and fighting spirit power, legendary knights can compete with legendary warriors. With a strong body, explosive destructive fighting spirit, and strong spell power, a legendary knight can defeat three to five legendary warriors and decide the outcome of a battle to a certain extent.
Only when you reach the legendary knight level can you truly enter the upper level of the Dawn Plane. Even in the Holy Glorious Empire, a legendary knight who is willing to swear allegiance can basically create an earldom.
A legendary knight who is unwilling to swear allegiance can also become the owner of a super-large mercenary group and be won over by major forces.
Bolton, Sylph's husband, is such a person.
The Thornblood Mercenary Group slaughtered the entire family of Count Casare, and was able to carry out public activities in the Holy Glorious Empire, withstand the huge pressure from the official, and confront Count Casare's in-laws and allies head-on, relying on the two legendary mercenary leaders Ron and Bolton.
Now Harland County has two legendary knights. Because William has taken the legendary ability fruit, his combat power has exceeded that of ordinary legendary warriors and can be used as half a legendary knight. The top-level combat power, Harland Territory has been the leader in the nearby countries.
In addition to the three legends, Harland Territory also has six ninth-level professionals, Sophia, Richard, Jennings, Soros, Terrason, and Rand. Although Bernie is not serving in the territory, he will obey Richard's orders at critical moments.
After the Five-Nation War ended last year, the four major participating countries signed a short-term peace contract. However, this contract was not signed by a heavyweight, and the cost of tearing up the contract was relatively low. Although the short-term peace contract was only signed for five years, Richard estimated that after a year or two of rest, the four major participating countries would still go to war.
Unless both sides can separate the winners and losers, there will be a chance to rest and recuperate, and stop fighting.
If the Kingdom of Grant wins this battle again, it will gain hegemony over the eastern part of the Central Continent, just like the Kingdom of Delong a thousand years ago.
Three months after Richard successfully promoted to the ninth ring, his sister Wendy also followed suit and successfully promoted to the eighth ring.
During this period, there was constant good news from the Mage Association of Harland Territory. Anne and Capeson were promoted to the sixth ring, and Bella, Barica, and Roentgen were promoted to the fifth ring. On the contrary, Butler, who had been promoted the fastest before, gradually slowed down his promotion because of the incomplete meditation method, which took time to deduce.
Time passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye it was December of the 3276th year of the Dawn Calendar.
In December, the second railway across the Eagle Mountains in Harland Territory was finally completed.
The section from the Twin Star Castle to the King's Castle was connected, and it was connected to other railway lines.
From the Twin Star Castle to the King's Castle, Eagle Castle, Malte Castle, William Castle, Hurricane Castle, the Eighth, Tenth and Third Stations completed the loop.
This railway line formed a complete railway network in the Eagle Mountains, spanning the Eagle Mountains from north to south, with a distance of more than 1,400 kilometers and a total investment of 3.4 million gold coins.
3.4 million gold coins piled up can fill dozens of rooms.
In order to build this railway, Harland took seven years and mobilized a large number of contract slaves, engineers and magic construction personnel. More than 200,000 people participated in the construction of the railway.
After the Eastern Loop of the Eagle Mountains was completed, Richard went directly to the Minister of Railways Clement.
"After the Eastern Loop Line was opened to traffic, the efficiency of transportation from the southern part of the Eagle Mountains to the northern part has greatly increased. In order to commend those who have made contributions to the construction of the railway and to inspire people's confidence in the Harland Territory, I propose to hold a large-scale opening ceremony. You can find some representatives from the railway department. I will personally issue them medals, and the best people will also be commended.
We all know that the railway is the core of the development of the territory. After the Eastern Loop Line of the Eagle Mountains was completed, the Prilan area was truly under our control. With sufficient logistical support, we can control the land and defeat the orcs.
I know in my heart that although the railway department did not directly participate in the war, it has made contributions like the army. Moreover, in order to build this railway, many people in the railway department were killed and injured.
I have also seen your efforts. Today I will tell you the bottom line. The railway department will issue a total of 20 great merits in this celebration to reward your merits.
But I also ask you to give half of the credit to to the scientific research department, and the remaining half will be distributed to the grassroots.
The management department can only get three major merits, of which you can get one major merit,
but you have to stand firm for me and select the most unquestionable candidate, so that I can find out that someone has embezzled the credit and directly hold you accountable.
Clement is also a veteran, and you should know that the best way to maintain the morale of the army is to reward and punish fairly. Since you are the Minister of Railways, you should be brave enough to take responsibility when you should take responsibility. If there is anything, just come to me for judgment. As your old superior, I am not a foolish person.
The territory has clear politics, and you, as a senior civil servant, can also enjoy the dividends. If the territory falls behind in the competition, your future will become bleak. Because other nobles have a lot of their own people, the great nobles are very concerned about blood when hiring people. If they are not their own people, they will not be reused at all. "
Clement left the Duke's Mansion and began to summon the middle and senior management of the railway department.
The construction of the Eastern Ring Line of the Eagle Mountains took seven years. During these seven years, Clement had almost no vacation and spent most of his time at the construction sites along the railway. During this period, he even had no time to take care of his wife and family.
The section he was responsible for naturally knew who had made contributions to the construction of the railway, and of course he could choose the most undisputed person. However, Clement was only responsible for 400 kilometers of this railway, and the remaining 1,000 kilometers could only be found by other leaders of the Ministry of Railways.
In order to complete the task assigned by Richard, Clement could only summon the backbone of the railway department constantly, and go to the grassroots from time to time to find grassroots cadres and workers of the Ministry of Railways, let everyone vote democratically, draw up a list based on the opinions of the comprehensive management department, and then publicly declare and select the most suitable person.
This time, Richard spent a lot of money to reward the Ministry of Railways, and rewarded the Ministry of Railways with 20 great merits, which added up to two baronies.
Although the role played by the railway department far exceeded the two baronies, the inheritance of the Dawn Plane was to confer titles for military merits. This time, Richard once again violated tradition and acted on his own by giving the Ministry of Railways 20 great merits. Only a territory founder like Richard, who has extremely high prestige, can break the tradition and make meritorious contributions to the people in the railway department.
According to Richard's request, half of the twenty merits received by the railway department were given to the scientific research department.
The railway department's technical research institute is large in scale, with metallurgical departments, mechanical manufacturing departments, and scientific principle research departments. The total number of people exceeds more than 300, including six magicians, more than 30 magic apprentices, hundreds of middle school students, and the remaining 200 are excellent technicians. Each of them graduated from elementary school and has a high level of knowledge in the Harland territory.
Although there are many people in the research department, in scientific research, sometimes one person can be used by 10,000 people.
The reason why the railway in the Harland territory has developed so fast is that in addition to Richard's high-level guidance, Bonova has played a very critical role.
Bonova's magic aptitude is very ordinary. He has only reached the third ring after studying magic for 20 years. He has no talent in magic configuration research. According to common sense, he is a mediocre person among magicians. However, Bonova is very talented in mechanical manufacturing, advanced mathematics, and inventions. He is the Harland version of Stephenson and Edison.
In just ten years, the steam locomotive was successfully built under the leadership of Bonova, and it has been constantly innovating for ten years. He successfully designed three types of steam locomotives, namely Dragon I, Dragon II, and Dragon III, with a continuous reduction in failure rate and continuous improvement in efficiency.
Bonova also played a key role in the construction of the magic steam locomotive.
Although the railway department is not only about locomotive manufacturing, but also has vehicle dispatching, steel metallurgy, road structure analysis, tunnel planning, route survey and other departments, Bonova still won five major merits.
Bonova is Lost's son and is considered the second heir to Lost's title. Seeing that their magician son was so promising, Lost and his eldest son Zuo En decided to take out the three great merits and six medium merits they had accumulated, and concentrate the merits together. The Lost family was very close to the second hereditary title.
Lost was originally from the Kingdom of Ryan. He was defeated and became a slave more than 20 years ago. After being purchased by Richard, he served Harland. Over the years, he not only struggled to become a hereditary noble, but also promoted his own rank to Silver Knight. His eldest son Zuo En is more talented than Lost. Although he has not awakened the knight bloodline, he has been promoted to a sixth-level warrior before he is 40 years old. He served as the captain of the Second Legion and accumulated some merits.
The two generations of father and son worked together and had the opportunity to take down three baronial territories and lay a solid foundation for future generations.
Bonova got half of the merits, and the remaining five great merits were actually shared by more than a hundred people. Those with less merits could only get one or two small merits. Technicians who played a major role in the development of the railway department may get five or six medium merits. But there is no scientist who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Bonova and take charge of a single task.
The merits of the scientific research department were relatively concentrated, while the merits of the railway construction frontline department and the management department were relatively scattered. Only Clement was approved by Richard and was awarded a major merit. Constantine, another deputy minister of the railway department, was only awarded a medium merit.