Chapter 743
The Bardi Empire's capital city had a long and ancient history .
Looking down at the city from above, compared to the last time that I was here almost a decade ago, this city was now several times larger than last time .
No, to be more accurate, the capital city had added several new districts with different functions, along with several new satellite cities .
The most obvious part was the wide-open northern part of the capital city . This location had previously been a mountain range .
The mountain cliffs had been completely hollowed out . Super long palaces had been constructed on top . Dragons were often sighted flying in and out from these palaces . This was Bardi Dragon City, which had only been established recently .
Underneath the Bardi Dragon City was a new arena constructed out of white stone . Knights were dueling each other in this arena in order to improve their skills, as well as to show off their prowess to the dragons .
Thanks to the Bardi Emperor and the Dragon City leaders' combined efforts, as well as due to pressure from the outside, the dragons had slowly abandoned their past pride, and no longer viewed fighting together alongside human knights as something so humiliating .
And nowadays, neither the knight nor the dragon needed to be of high level to pose a threat . Due to the invention of countless new equipment, many young dragons would choose to pair with a knight who had such new equipment . In fact, most dragons viewed such knights as nothing more than operators of the newest equipment .
Three years ago, due to the invention of the newest magical cannon, Scorpion 2, along with the invention of mid-sized mana batteries, dragons were now commonly equipped with multiple heavy magic cannons . They were truly becoming the rulers of the sky .
These dragons already had a new nickname, and it even seemed that they could become a new standard troop type—magic armor dragons .
The new district in the capital's west was a place for technicians, engineers, and mages to live .
Even though the Bardi Empire had a long tradition of using dragon knights as their ace troop type, the Bardi Empire actually unhesitatingly focused on developing magical engineering after it noticed how important this new technology was .
The Bardi Empire invested a tremendous amount of resources, wealth, personnel, and equipment into developing magical engineering . Most importantly of all, Bardi had enough of a large population so that plenty of people were willing to learn how to use all of the newly imported magical engineering equipment as well as learn the concepts of magical engineering from teachers invited to come over . The Bardi Empire was well on its way to becoming ever more powerful under Dragon Knight Emperor Halent's leadership .
Actually, all of this was quite easy to understand . Halent had simply paid lots of money to us as we were allies in order to purchase our technology and hire talented individuals . He then issued an order that the scholars in his kingdom change to studying magical engineering, followed by investing in the researchers who showed potential . Even if results might not be immediate, the researchers would be more than happy to voluntarily study in such a research environment . This would then cause new talent to be interested in the magical engineering profession due to the available benefits . The Bardi Empire would then benefit from such a policy in 10 or 20 years down the road .
But unlike Auland, which also focused heavily on developing magical engineering, Bardi focused more on developing smaller magical equipment as well as practical equipment for warfare, while Auland focused more on developing heavy ships and tanks .
The only thing their research had in common was the focus on practical combat .
Magical engineering engines, portable mid-sized mana batteries, practical heavy artillery and cannons, magically engineered armor, and so on were viewed by other countries as unimportant technologies, but Bardi and Auland viewed them as tremendously important research .
About the magic armor dragons that I'd mentioned earlier, they would typically carry large or mid-sized mana batteries to act as mobile mana storage . They would also usually be wearing several hundred pieces of magic armor equipment, combined with anywhere from four to 20 of the newest magic cannons . They were armed to the teeth . It was far too easy for them to fight five enemies of the same power level alone .
This was a secret weapon that had only shown itself recently in the past few months while fighting against the undead army in Bardi . These magic armor dragons had achieved astonishing combat results and attracted countless attention .
Only then did the world discover that the Bardi Empire, which was thought of as slow and traditional, had actually advanced very far with the new technology of magical engineering .
According to Emperor Halent's New Year's speech that he gave this year, magic armor dragons was now even a new standardized troop type that could be mass-produced . Currently, there were 312 magic armor dragons in all of Bardi .
Magic armor dragons had excellent defense, attack power, and ability to fight extremely long battles . The dragons' stats had been massively buffed by magical engineering technology .
The magic armor's defenses neutralized all ordinary liches' attack spells . The dragons' powerful physical bodies along with overwhelming magic cannon attack power allowed them to rule the skies and slaughter as they pleased .
Practical combat also proved just how scary and powerful dragons were after being combined with magical engineering .
The fairies assessed this new troop type to be Legend rank in strength . This meant that this was a frightening squadron with all members having Legend rank or above in combat strength . On paper, this would already be the strongest squadron in the entire world .
Of course, there were downsides as well . A tremendous amount of resources and money would have to be spent on this new troop type . It was said that Emperor Halent was already so poor that he had begun selling off his personal items and was eating plain food .
Also, most of the dragons who wore all the magic armor and magic cannons were younger dragons . Older dragons, especially Immemorial Dragons and older, would still rely on their physical bodies for true power . Moreover, magical engineering technology still wasn't of much use in fights against top-level individuals .
Additionally, the magic armor dragons were rather slow due to wearing far too much heavy equipment, even if they would also be assisted by floating engines . In fact, if the floating engines were turned off or were damaged… it was likely that the magic armor dragons would fall out of the sky .
\"No, that wouldn't happen . It's in our guidebooks . In such a situation, just immediately take off all the equipment and throw it to the ground . Emperor Halent said that 'If the equipment is destroyed, we can make more, but humans and dragons are irreplaceable' . \"
Right when I entered Bardi's borders, two of the newest magic armor dragons arrived with a diplomat, who must have overheard me accidentally saying my own thoughts out loud . It was evident that Bardi had known beforehand of my arrival .
This diplomat was a middle-aged man named Stere Zhou . He had previously acted as Bardi's ambassador to the Mist Kingdom, so I had met him before . Halent had indeed put thought into this by sending him to meet me .
Bardi's method tossing away all the valuable equipment and preserving humans and dragons first was in a way yet more proof of how rich the Bardi Empire really was .
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