Chapter 272
Chapter 272 “What the hell is this thing?!”
Refining a Bone Dragon was no simple matter, and disassembling and reassembling two sets together are even harder. Though Gandalf himself was quite anxious to study the elf blood, fortunately this old man couldn’t resist the urge to meddle with such fine working materials. In the end, Gandalf couldn’t bring himself to move those old legs of his and obediently stayed to join in with the fiddling of the dragon bones.
It’s just that Du Wei’s original idea of taking advantage of Green Hat backfired on him. Without mercy or remorse, Gandalf sternly refuted Du Wei’s suggestion of working together on the construction project. Instead, Gandalf made it clear he will only give pointers while sitting on the side line and that Du Wei will need to rely on himself to figure out which goes where.
“I’m already so old, how many years do you think I have to live? I’ll leave the heavy labor stuff to you youngsters. Besides, this is the perfect opportunity to teach you this stuff bit by bit. Different types of undead creatures, their uses, their refining process, and how to distinguish their proficiency; I will take this opportunity to teach them all to you. Don’t get lazy here now, get moving!”
Saddest part of all, other magicians usually had a few apprentices to help with such drudgery. And him? Du Wei can only painfully bust his balls lifting and pushing the giant bones back and forth while being reprimanded by the old fart. Every day, his body would become deathly tired by sun down.
At the very least during the breaks the old man would teach him how to distinguish the bones from: their weight, origin, hardness, shape, pattern, and the type of dragon they were from.
Not only that, the old man even took the chance to teach him the various properties of each species. From their special skills, to their importance within the dragon race and so on and so on, the old man left nothing out.
Although our little Duke became exhausted every day, it didn’t hinder his learning. Fortunately fate was kind to him and gifted him with a clever brain, matching that with his strong personality, it only took four days for him to memorize the information.
At last, in order to test Du Wei, Gandalf did something that made Du Wei want to vomit blood: summoning a giant gust of wind, the old man scattered the completed set of dragon bones into a pile of mess. Unreal, unbelievable! Du Wei spent six days to piece the two skeletons together and this old fart destroyed his effort in one wave of his hand!
“Okay, your last lesson. Using the knowledge I taught you in the past few days and your own judgment, I want you to reassemble the bones into a single two headed dragon…. Boy, don’t think you can do it by only relying on your memory. During the lessons I intentionally gave you some wrong details, so if you simply piece the bones together to the way they were, you fail! Kid, don’t think being my apprentice will be simple! I don’t keep lazy people around me so hop to it. You need to judge and analyze what is right and what is wrong on your own. If you can figure out which part of the stuff that I taught you are wrong, I’ll give you another reward.” Though Du Wei didn’t say anything in return, his stomach was already boiling at this point after suffering so much in the past few days.
Like the other Gandalf, this Green Hat had one skill exactly the same as his other half: both are good at puppet manipulation.
That year in the frozen forest, the kind Gandalf would on occasion control Du Wei to slap himself! And now this Green Hat had the same blasted habit of doing the same thing! Although the days of adventuring were long past him, Du Wei still had no ability to resist this torturous punishment.
If he were to ever be lazy during the day or even show any sign of annoyance, Green Hat would bluntly shoot a green light out. Instantly, Du Wei would lose control of his body and ruthlessly slap himself on the face. Du Wei really wanted to swear. Why does both the good Gandalf and the bad Gandalf have the same habit of slapping him? Does his face make people want to slap him?
After Gandalf gave his instructions, the old fart left with an ear piercing laugh that radiated in Du Wei’s eardrum.
Crossing his legs on the floor, Du Wei didn’t hurry to begin the job. Instead, he racked his brains in an effort to locate the misleading information taught to him by Green Hat.
Like that for the entire night, Du Wei would on occasion scratch his head and fiddle with the bones. Although he’s a magician that can replenish his spirit easily through meditation, Du Wei’s brain eventually caved in and he fell asleep on the ground.
But this sleep weren’t for naught! In his dream, an idea suddenly came to him. So, from his slumbering pose, Du Wei jumped up without indication and shouted: “I got it! I got it!!!!”
After ditching Du Wei inside the laboratory, Gandalf didn’t leave like predicted. Instead, he sat himself outside the house: “Good apprentice, I’m not deliberately torturing you, but only through this method will you truly keep the knowledge in your heart. In the future, you will be able to flexibly use it to your advantage; otherwise, you are nothing more than a powerful book reader.”
These few days could be considered their first interaction together. Towards Du Wei’s ingenuity, Gandalf got nothing to complain about. Sure, his apprentice Joanna could pick up any spell far faster than this kid by large margins, but the concepts and questions brought up by this brat literally made his jaw drop.
Gradually, the evaluation of Du Wei has somewhat exceeded Joanna in this old man’s heart.
Just that… Can he really pass the test by only using the knowledge he gained in only a few days? Gandalf speculates: this kid may learn fast, but to truly master the skill of building a bone dragon, it will take another seven to eight days of teaching….. Even if the time frame goes as high as fifteen to sixteen days, it’s still within his expectation.
But Gandalf didn’t leave despite the long wait ahead of him. All he did was sit outside the laboratory in the broad daylight and wait for Du Wei to come out.
The mood inside Gandalf should roughly equate to a parent waiting for their child to finish their entrance exam. Yes, a parent waiting for their child, that’s about right.
(In china, the entrance exam after highschool is a really big deal that will decide what university a person can apply for)
Magicians don’t need sleep for they can rejuvenate their strength from meditation, so, two days straight, Gandalf waited and waited. Finally, on the third day of waiting, Du Wei quietly came out of the laboratory.
Slightly opening a line in his eye, Gandalf sighed: “How come you came out so early? Is there a question you want to ask me?”
Du Wei smiles triumphantly and ran over to Gandalf, “Teacher…. I finished it.”
“Finished…… !! “Gandalf jumped up like he just stepped on a nail.
Then the old man’s face sank: “What trickery are you playing now! I’m telling you, this matter is no joke! If you are lazy, you will never master anything in the future!”
Finished? Only three days and he finished it? No way will he believe his words!
Du Wei spreads his hand out and smiled: “Teacher, you will know once you go inside and have a look. I’m not lying.”
Fluttering inside, a thought suddenly struck Gandalf on the head.
Can it be?
My apprentice is a genius among geniuses?
Overwhelmed with excitement, Gandalf’s body instantly disappeared with a gust of wind and shot straight into the laboratory. Meanwhile, Du Wei relaxingly followed from the back.
Plowing through the door, the first thing to come into his sight was a gigantic monster stretching more than thirty meters in length. Blanking out for a good while, the color on Gandalf’s face began to change. From red to black, from black to purple, from purple to green, all kinds of color began to fluctuate as the veins pop on his forehead.
Waiting a long time, this old man finally turned around and abruptly roared at Du Wei, “Blasted kid! What kind of nonsense is this thing!!!”
The monster before the two was nowhere close to being a two headed dragon.
Indeed there are two heads on this thing, but, but….. One head’s in the front and the others on the butt!!!
And the shape of this thing was absolutely nowhere close to being a dragon! Let’s not mention the slightest form of a dragon, nowhere in the sky, the earth, the sea, or any living creatures for that matter came close to looking like this monster!!
Pieced together into a long oval shape with pointed ends, this structure was more like…..
Okay fine!
The monster in front wasn’t a bone dragon, it’s a structure constructed out of dragon bones!
A SHIP!!!!
A BLOODY SHIP!!!@!!!!
Or more accurately, it’s a flying ship because the wings from the dragons were installed on the underside of the boat. What’s more, the part that caused Gandalf to rage even harder was the mast! Wasting the precious thigh bones, this blasted kid used it for the ship’s mast!!
Trembling down to his fingers, Gandalf stared right at Du Wei: “You! What did you show me?!”
“Flying dragon…” Du Wei only managed these two words before he felt the murderous gaze from Gandalf. Hurrying to explain, he didn’t even dare to breathe: “It’s a flying dragon battleship!”
“What fly, what Dragon, what battleship?! What nonsense are you spouting?!” Gandalf scolds without holding back.
Du Wei sighed and carefully took two steps backward: “Teacher, please listen to my explanation.”
Then coughing once, Du Wei ran over to the “battleship” and began to loudly make his argument.
“Teacher, I thought about it. If simply building a bone dragon, even stronger, it’s merely a pet used to brawl with a single enemy. With my strength, do I need to fear anyone if they are alone? To me, a single bone dragon doesn’t mean much, with or without one. But this thing… kekeke, this thing is way more amazing!”
Pointing to the hull, “You see, this hull is pieced together with the dragon bones. Although it’s not sealed tight, I’m not using it to drift at sea anyways! As long as a person can stand on top and not fall through, that’s more than enough. According to my rough estimation, using its wings and some wind enhancement spells inscribed by me, the speed of this ship carrying several hundred powerful knights coupled with arbalests….. Hohoho….” Du Wei then points to the bow and stern where the two heads were located: “These two heads, I placed them back and front because I intend to use them as my main cannon! A dragon’s breath isn’t some normal flame that can be repelled by just anyone, perfect as a LONG RANGE ASSAULT WEAPON!” Du Wei laughs like he has truly lost it at this point.
Also pointing to the mast above: “You see, I also considered the propulsion problem. Although the energy of a Bone dragon is very strong, but even that has a limit. Only relying on its wing and some wind inscriptions to move will be too draining. So, I copied the logic of a regular ship and placed a mast on it. Using the powerful winds in the sky, the ship will get a major boost!”
Finally, Du Wei summed everything up: “Can carry people, can fire from afar with its main cannon and long range arbalests. If too close, I can send out my elite knights to combat any invaders. Such a thing far exceeds some bone dragon, don’t you think so? Teacher, imagine this battleship facing an army consisting of a hundred thousand solders. While the enemy is stuck on the ground with no way to hit me, my forces can freely zoom through the air and rain down arrows and flames from above at my foe. I can already see the slaughter fest in my head!”
But the most important reason was intentionally left out by Du Wei.
This dragon battleship was the true incarnation of what Du Wei considered a real air force!
Or rather, this was more like an aerial fortress!
In this world with nearly no aerial combat forces, this thing definitely equates to a super weapon of this era, the nuclear bomb of the middle ages!!