“Without even realizing it, the Zerg's territory has grown quite large.”
With the mountains of the city states region and the final stretch of the coastline now under total control, the area currently held by the Zerg was staggeringly vast.
It included the entire Kingdom of Clear, the underwater depths of Clearwillow Lake, the city states region, over two thousand kilometers of plains and mountains stretching from the west of the Glowing Forest to the west of the city states region—with an average north-south width of three hundred kilometers—and the primitive tribe island.
Calculations showed that, excluding the water bodies, the total land area had reached nearly twice the size of the original Kingdom of Clear.
With this new island under her control, Xia Jin's active front lines were essentially reduced to just two locations.
The primary front was the underwater battlefield.
The secondary front was the expansion along the edges of the Border Forest.
Nearly four million units of standard energy were poured into the underwater battlefield every day, all of which were used to produce Swimmers, along with some Floating Hive Bugs for fire support.
This actually crowded out a large portion of the Zerg's reproductive capacity on land.
However, the rate of acquiring standard energy underwater was indeed faster, so opening this battlefield resulted in a very stable harvest of resources.
On land, besides basic drone reproduction, the Swarm began to prioritize the production of high-cost, low-quantity units such as nydus worms, ultralisks, mutalisks, and primal brain bugs.
The growth in the number of zerglings actually slowed down because they were being displaced by the former.
This caused the growth rate of the Swarm's scale to slow, but it did not affect their combat power.
With the Swarm's current capabilities, if they were to produce those Tier 1 zerglings, they could churn out hundreds of thousands or even millions in a single day, but that was pointless.
Weak insects had no value other than being sent to their deaths.
Quality was vital.
The strength of the Zerg did not rely solely on an endless swarm; it also relied on their quality.
Imagine if the enemy didn't just have numbers, but every single piece of cannon fodder was stronger than your own elite troops—what kind of experience would that be?
So, while advancing on two fronts, what was Xia Jin doing?
She was researching new Zerg species and gathering intelligence.
Regarding intelligence, just this morning, one of her projections—accompanied by several elf bugs whose ears had been modified to look human—took a more serious tour of Kelu's cities.
An industrial revolution.
That was her true impression of this country.
The Empire was exporting its outdated technology here.
Magic was a miraculous thing; it could be used to create various magic arrays, each with a unique function. By charging them with crystals, these functions could be put to great use.
Take a magic cannon, for example.
In appearance, it looked very similar to the artillery on Earth.
It had parameters like caliber and barrel length, sighting equipment, and even rifling inside the barrel.
When fired, the magic crystals themselves, coordinated with charging and release arrays, could produce an effect similar to propellant, launching the shell out of the barrel. The explosive charge inside the shell also contained magic crystals.
Coordinated with a detonation array, it could produce a staggering explosion. An impact array could enhance its power. A fire element array could increase the explosion's temperature, and a wind element haste magic array could increase the muzzle velocity and flight speed, which indirectly increased range and armor-piercing capability.
While scouting for information this time, Xia Jin learned that Kelu had recently imported a new magic array technology. When combined with sophisticated mechanisms, it could greatly increase the stability of the cannons. The effects included reduced recoil, increased range, and a faster rate of fire.
A 150mm cannon could achieve a range of ten kilometers.
The most absurd part was that the newly produced shells, in addition to using stronger metal for the casing, had improved structures that could compress more magic crystals, bringing the weight of a single shell up to eighty pounds.
Furthermore, Kelu had imported a special type of launch tube from the Empire that fired a shell capable of emitting exhaust flames. These shells could fly steadily all the way, possessing extreme range and devastating power.
When Xia Jin spent some money to pull strings and visited an exhibition hall, she finally saw these rumored devices with her own eyes.
“Aren't these just rockets?”
The rockets before her weren't particularly large, but they were twelve centimeters in diameter and 1.2 meters long, with a range of ten kilometers. They only required a single launch tube to fire.
Seeing this, Xia Jin fell into a deep silence.
She could already imagine the scene of the Swarm facing a sky full of artillery fire when they attacked the enemy.
The spread of magic and technology wasn't the same; breaking through to a new level was difficult, but once the technology existed, it could be popularized very quickly.
Besides, the products exported by the Empire were most likely obsolete. She estimated that the Empire's own weapons were already far more advanced than what she was seeing now.
“That's fine. It makes things more challenging.”
Xia Jin let out a breath.
She wasn't worried at all; on the contrary, she became interested in the upcoming war.
In addition to military magic products, daily necessities were also being imported into Kelu in large quantities.
For example, ice machines using ice magic arrays and magic crystals allowed people to eat delicious ice cream in the sweltering summer and experience the joy of something akin to air-conditioned rooms.
There were also magic temperature-controlled clothing, magic motor vehicles, airships, and so on.
Behind the development of such technology, one could see many shadows of the military industry.
Xia Jin even saw reports in the local newspapers about cooperation for importing larger ships.
The Empire was importing massive amounts of grain, minerals, and other resources from this country and exporting large, magic-reinforced iron-clad ships starting at a hundred meters in length.
If these were equipped with larger-caliber main guns, their combat power would already rival battleships from the World War II era.
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