Chapter 297
"Master Higgins, are you willing to help me?" Xiao Yu asked.
Higgins replied: “You should be at ease as there are so many materials in here. I won"t mind helping you because of those arrogant p.r.i.c.ks. I have brought two apprentices so it will take a bit of time to produce some magical items.. However, all of those items will be same as having 10 fourth-rank mages by your side.. I wouldn"t be called Higgins if I can"t accomplish this.”
It was clear that Higgins wanted to stay in Lion city and make experiments using Xiao Yu"s materials. At the same time he was volunteering to refine magical items for Xiao Yu to show his own value too.
“Awesome! Master Higgins I"ll get a room for you and your apprentices.. Do you want more helpers? I can find few reliable ones…” Xiao Yu grinned.
Higgins was a bit perplexed: “Its not that I look down on others but finding suitable helpers for alchemists is quite hard. Do you have talents in here?" Higgins was aware of value of an alchemist more than anyone. It was quite hard to find suitable helpers for himself. He had recruited lots of apprentices but expelled most of them.
Xiao Yu smiled: “I don"t have apprentice alchemists but I can find reliable helpers… Master Higgins, what do you know of goblins?”
“Goblin?” Higgins raised his eyebrows when he heard the word. He had been refining for a long time and knew about the development and history of alchemy. In fact, the goblin engineering was part of alchemy too. He was aware of the long lost civilization too. However, after thousands of years the goblin race had degenerated into small thieves.
Xiao Yu was able to see through Higgins"s concerns: “I will send a few goblins to help you out. You can use them if they are of help to you or just send them away if you aren"t satisfied with their performance. They don"t have any knowledge in alchemy but they are quite delicate and hard-working. They will be of help to you in allocating proportions for potions or making instruments and so on."
Higgins pondered for a moment: “Alright.. Send them and I"ll see if they can help me out.. To tell the truth me and my two apprentices wouldn"t be so fast in production of magical items on our own.. ”
Xiao Yu nodded. He went out to find Foror and left Higgins to choose materials.
Xiao Yu had made Foror study and experiment on goblin engineering. As a result, Foror was fiddling, researching and experimenting on many things. However, he had yet to invent anything. The Goblin engineering was on top level but it took a lot of time to reproduce the drawings from the book. At the moment, Foror was producing basic screws, bolts and other parts for the initial phase. Moreover, they were working on mechanical puppets that were brought by Xiao Yu. They had a working sample in their hands and they were studying the model. At the same time they were trying to modify the puppets so that they could bring out their own version for the battlefield. Both Xiao Yu and Foror were aware that the mechanical puppet was a killing machine that could roam right and lef tin the battlefield. Xiao Yu knew how to resolve the conductivity problem which was the shortcoming of the mechanical puppet.
Master Higgins looked with disdain towards the goblins when Xiao Yu led them to his workshop. These goblins were no different from ordinary slaves in his eyes. However, he was surprised to find out that they were quite excellent and capable helpers for any alchemist. The first and foremost quality the goblins had was their hard-working nature. They were former slaves and their status was quite low in the continent. As a result, they worked without complaints or resentment towards Higgins. Higgins would shout at them once in a while but didn"t hit them which made them think of Higgins as a good master. Secondly, Foror had picked up number of goblins and had began to impart knowledge upon them. As a result, they were familiar with basic devices and didn"t act like noobs. Thirdly, the goblins were as clever as Xiao Yu had described them. They worked smartly and much precise than Higgins"s own apprentices. The goblins had almost no errors during their work. Higgins had his mouth left open for a while as he looked at a race which was described as despicable and low lives.
There were potions and things which had high requirements. A lit bit of error would lead to a huge problem or failure. However, the goblins were on spot on any job given by Higgins. Once in a while they would do some kind of mistake but after a scolding from Higgins they would never repeat the same mistake again. It could be said that the goblins were born to work for and as alchemists. It took two days to set up an alchemy room. The understanding between Higgins and goblins got much better during those two days.
Higgins looked at the pile of materials on the side and looked at the goblins afterwards. He believed that with the help of these goblins the magical items would be ready on time. Actually, it wasn"t difficult to produce lots of magical items. The problem was that Higgins didn"t have much help by his side. However, now the goblins were helping him out like skilled apprentices. At the moment, all he had to do was to guide these goblins to do the main jobs while he would work on key places to ma.s.s produce the items.
“We have to produce Magical Explosive Arrows now… We got lots of Necromancer"s Essence, bones of many beasts… We need to produce at least 1000 of them which would be more than enough to deal with enemy"s magicians…” Higgins was planning to produce Magical Explosive Arrows for now to help out Xiao Yu at initial phase of the war. The army of the Kennedy family was stationed about 20 miles away from the Lion city. They didn"t hurry to attack at the moment because they were aware that Xiao Yu had returned back. At first, they had rushed towards the Lion city because they believed that Xiao Yu was still on the way back. They were planning to make a sneak attack on the city. However, they didn"t expect that Xiao Yu would be able to return so soon. At the end, they knew that they wouldn"t be able to make a sneak attack so they decided not to make any rush moves. They were waiting at the moment for all of their siege equipment brought to the site so that they could take Lion city in one move.