After resting for more than ten minutes after the meal, Aurelio and Gloria were ready to set out.
Gloria was eager to head to Ventona to rejoin the main army. At her request, after weighing the options, the three of them chose a shortcut.
The so-called shortcut required passing through a cave. The terrain in this area was complex. If one wasn't a local, it would be inevitable to take some detours in the forest. The location of that cave was even more hidden. It would be impossible to discover it without someone to guide the way. Elvin informed the two of them about these situations and also said that he had the need to go to Ventona for shopping, which finally convinced them to accept his guidance.
After clarifying the route, the old man fetched his lighter firearm, slung it over his shoulder, and walked out the door. He had lived in this forest for a long time and was quite familiar with the situation in the forest. Except for the recently emerged giant spider, there were few dangerous beasts in this area. On their way, they might at most encounter a few wolves, and a small firearm would be sufficient to deal with them.
He stood at the door, took the firearm off his shoulder, and rested the butt on the ground. He took out a lead bullet from the small pouch on his waist and held it in his mouth. Then, he added priming powder to the priming pan, poured gunpowder from the small bottle on his waist into the muzzle, inserted the bullet into the barrel, removed the ramrod from under the barrel to tamp down the ammunition, lit the slow match, blew gently to make it smolder, and fixed the slow match on the slow match holder. It was a series of complicated steps.
Aurelio had been observing carefully from the side. He didn't take out his pocket watch to time it but just made an estimate. The result of the estimate matched what he had expected yesterday. It took about thirty-five seconds. Elvin was a skilled musketeer and didn't make any mistakes during the entire loading process, but it still took this long. This was the initial loading, skipping steps like cleaning gunpowder residue. Undoubtedly, the interval between two shots would surely exceed forty seconds.
Forty seconds was really too long. Even for infantry, they could rush over eighty paces in this time. However, large countries like Saphinia, Liberia, or Catalis had their own ways to make up for this. As long as they armed tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of musketeers and arranged them in multiple rows to fire alternately, it would be enough to 弥补 the defect.
The benefits of such large countries couldn't be enjoyed by the sparsely populated Serencia at all. In Serencia City and its surrounding areas, there were only more than 300,000 people. Adding the nobles' fiefdoms on the periphery and the free cities under the control of Serencia, there were no more than 1.5 million people. Although there were overseas colonies, the residents there might be counted on as sailors, but it would be too much to send them to the battlefield of land warfare.
Serencia was indeed wealthy, but the lack of manpower was the biggest weakness of the republic. Moreover, with the expansion of the demons, the situation of Serencia would surely become more difficult.
Thirty years ago, in the fierce battle on Basilica Island, humans did deal a heavy blow to the demons. The westward march of the demons was forced to slow down for a while. However, just as the demons said, "You've only cut off our branches. As long as the roots and trunks remain, new branches will grow again next spring." No one could know when spring would suddenly arrive.
Thinking of these, Aurelio felt a faint soreness in his shoulders, as if he was carrying a heavy burden. He hadn't felt how heavy his backpack was before.
He thought, "From now on, all countries will further expand the application of firearms. By then, where will the magicians and knights have a foothold? The disadvantages of Serencia will eventually expand. By then, how will we face the pressure from both sides on land? Before that, we must come up with ways to improve the situation."
"Hey, don't be in a daze! Let's go!" Gloria shouted at him.
"Sorry." Aurelio apologized and followed behind the two, continuing his thoughts.
In recent years, he had always been worried about the decline of Serencia. Since his teacher disappeared, this pessimism had become more and more serious. After being able to freely arrange his time, he often walked to the seaside of Serencia. He would hold one or two books and sit there for the whole day until the afterglow of the setting sun completely disappeared from the mirror-like calm sea.
Compared to the content of the books, what attracted his attention more were the ships entering and leaving the port. He would repeatedly look up and scan anxiously. He stared at the sailboats being towed in and out of the port by small boats and the galleys carefully rowing with their sails furled, counting their numbers. He used a charcoal stick to count on a notebook and was afraid that the number, compared to the result of the last count, would decrease even a little.
"I'm really crazy." Discovering that his thoughts were starting to spread out uncontrollably, Aurelio mocked himself in his heart. By the time he came to his senses, they had already stood at the entrance of the cave.
"Passing through this cave, we'll be out of the forest." Elvin said, "It's quite dark inside, but there's nothing dangerous. There are only bats. Once they're illuminated by a torch, they'll fly around everywhere, which is really annoying."
"Then let's go in quickly!" Gloria urged.
Elvin nodded, lit a torch, and walked into the cave first. Aurelio also stopped his thoughts and walked side by side with the female knight, following the old man into the cave.
As soon as he walked into the cave, Aurelio felt his throat itch. Whenever he was in a damp and dim place, he would feel discomfort in his throat. He covered his mouth and coughed a few times, and the coughing sound echoed repeatedly in the cave and became quite loud.
There was indeed nothing special in the cave, not even the bats that the old man had mentioned. Although Aurelio thought it was strange, because his throat was so uncomfortable, he really didn't want to open his mouth to ask.
As they went deeper into the cave, Aurelio felt that the discomfort in his throat was gradually intensifying. He had to clear his throat from time to time. Gloria would sometimes say a few words to him, but he usually only gave simple responses.
After walking into the cave for about ten minutes, the torch in Elvin's hand suddenly went out. At the same time, the slow match on his shoulder-mounted firearm also went out.
Obviously, the air here was extremely humid. Elvin tried several times to strike the flint, but not only could he not relight the torch, he couldn't even produce any sparks. "This is really strange. I've walked this path dozens of times and have never seen this situation."
Gloria sighed and said, "It'll be troublesome if we can't see the way."
"Yeah. We're now a bit away from both ends of the cave. I don't know what to do."
Suddenly, a glowing sphere rose in the darkness, hovering seven feet above the ground and projecting a cold blue-white light in all directions. It was extremely bright. When it suddenly appeared, Elvin and Gloria couldn't open their eyes. The area illuminated by this light sphere was five or six times wider than that of a torch.
"Magic is really convenient." Elvin laughed.
After adapting to the brightness of the light sphere, Gloria also turned to the maker of the light source and said, "You know this magic. Why didn't you use it earlier?"
Aurelio didn't answer. He just narrowed his eyes and shrugged gently. He really didn't want to talk. The itchy feeling in his throat was getting worse and worse, and now it felt like it was on fire. The symptom was somewhat like the dry throat feeling in the early stage of a cold, but ten times stronger.
He didn't want to use this spell to illuminate unless it was absolutely necessary. The brightness of this magic light source depended on the level of the caster. A mage with a little more skill could create a very dazzling light. This had been criticized a lot, but no one was willing to make any improvements to this spell because it really wasn't important. Mages either chose not to use it or had to endure it.
He raised his hand to pinch the skin on his throat and rubbed it gently. At this time, he saw a blue water-like object falling from the top of the cave. He was about to open his mouth to warn, but he couldn't help but cough.
The object fell quickly and hit the female knight on the back.