Chapter 276 276 New Members?



Most of the local witches followed the pair out to the street, where a large military transport truck was parked on the side of the road, loaded with gear and the five sacrificial witches, as well as an escort of soldiers on horses.

Wolfe noticed that this truck was converted to run on electricity, which the officers could easily recharge, instead of the diesel fuel that the mundane army units used. He would have to talk to their newly acquired magical engineer about converting some of the ones that they had captured. The Den didn't exactly have a large stockpile of fuel for the vehicles that they had stolen.

Blowing up the tankers was too much fun.

Wolfe really looked at the prisoners, then sighed. They were all underage. None of them had even awakened an aura yet, though some had good potential. Sure, they were anti-authority rebels, but they really hadn't ever stood a chance.

Each of the five held two thick textbooks full of schematics for magical items, which would prove to be the most valuable thing that anyone had come up with so far.

With Second Rank Witches, it wasn't really hard to create the various bits for the devices without a factory, and creating the inscriptions was even easier. So, as long as they didn't need large numbers of the item, the books would let them make all the things that they were lacking.

Well, most of them. Wolfe doubted that they could come up with a television set, much less movies to watch on it, but he could acquire those later if the witches got sick of reading and could find a way to keep the mana in the air from corrupting the video feed.

It was a common occurrence when there were too many spells active in an area, and one of the ways that the slums detected Coven patrols was with a high-gain television antenna and the distortions on an unused channel when an active spell passed nearby.

Wolfe had never been a big television person. People-watching was more fun, and as a bike courier, he had gotten to see a lot of interesting people every day.

The prisoners looked nervous as Wolfe walked out in all his Demonic glory, looking dapper in his tailored black suit and out of place among the simply dressed locals.

He gave the prisoners a wink and turned to the truck with [Detect Hidden] at maximum sensitivity.

"One thousand units, half weapons, half armour. I see that you brought all bows. That's an interesting choice." Wolfe remarked.

"We have plenty of magical swords, but I was told that you specialized in powerful ranged attack magic." The Colonel replied.

"That's fair enough. I have just the spell for them." Wolfe replied with a smirk.

Normally the bows had a simple attack spell like [Flame Arrow] on them, and the arrows were made with magic in advance. But that was annoying, and the Witches spent a lot of their free time making more arrows, in Wolfe's experience.

Coupled with the threat of running out of them if there was a prolonged fight, Wolfe decided that an inscription to create the arrows as the bow was drawn was more appropriate. If they didn't need the enchantment, they could leave it inactive and use regular arrows, so it was really no loss to add it.

[Paper Airplane Combat] to let the arrows track, [Wind Arrow] to create the actual arrow, and [Wind Blades] for damage. All wind magic, all easy to use, and all able to be activated separately from the other elements of the Array if necessary. He wasn't particularly skilled with Air magic compared to Unholy or Lightning, but he wasn't any worse than the witches were, so they should be impressed with the weapons.

The witches couldn't complain about that, and he hadn't used anything that would arouse suspicion, like [Demonic Flames], which were impossible to put out without deactivating the spell, or [Agility], which would increase the physical speed of the user and make them a target for intelligent enemies.I think you should take a look at

He did the bows first, in batches of a hundred, and then considered what to do with the armour. That was the important one for the soldiers, so making it less expensive to keep up all the time was more important than increasing efficiency.

His highest affinity was Unholy. It was the only one that the Inheritance called him [Adept] at using, so it would be the best choice for armour. He could make a budget armour spell that would be equivalent to what the witches were using right now but at one-fifth the mana cost.

Wolfe looked for a witch in the crowd who had barely activated her aura and found one teenager who hadn't gone to the academy yet. She would leave in the next few weeks, so it was the perfect time for her to demonstrate for him.

"You, the one waiting for a ride to the Academy, can you activate this?" Wolfe asked and then inscribed the [Unholy Armor] on her dress.

She scrunched her face for a second, and the dress turned from light blue to jet black and gained both stockings and tight sleeves under the short loose ones.

"Perfect. If the weakest of newly awakened witches can make it activate, it should be mana efficient enough for general usage." Wolfe gloated and then began inscribing it on the armour.

"If she can use it, doesn't that mean it's very weak, though?" The Colonel asked, concerned that she hadn't set enough details in the deal.

Wolfe reached to the Colonel's waist and took out her dagger, then whipped it at the witch in the armour he created. The blade stopped dead when it touched her clothing, then gently fell to the ground without leaving a mark on the soft cloth dress.

"I think it should be fine. I am a Rank Four Demon. I can make armour spells more efficient without losing any defensive capability. At one-fifth the mana of a regular spell, it shouldn't be an issue for most units to keep the spell active for their entire patrol."

The young witch was staring at Wolfe in shock.

"You threw a knife at me."

"You're wearing armour." He reminded her.

"What if I flinched, or it hit my hands or face or something?" She stammered.

"They're actually protected. Look closely, and there is a thin film of mana over them. It's just very light gray, so it doesn't impede your vision. You can keep the inscription on the dress. I hope it's one you like."

If the dress was one that she only wore because she was doing laundry or something, it would be a bit awkward. Who wants their least favourite article of clothing to be the one they need to wear when they are in danger?

It would be like making short shorts and a floral shirt his armour outfit. The level of power would be irrelevant compared to how ridiculous he looked.