Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 869 - 862: Crumbling Blockage

Chapter 869: Chapter 862: Crumbling Blockage

Baiyue drew out the bullet head, and on the hard slate, a conical bullet hole was now visible, about two centimeters deep, with radial cracks surrounding it.

Luo’er, with a look of shock on his face, stepped forward and couldn’t help but touch the bullet hole. He wouldn’t have believed that the stone slab before his eyes was not merely disguised as mud if he hadn’t touched it himself.

He had heard Wang Xu, Li Si, and others mention Kedal metal before. The substance had greatly shaken the upper echelons of the military and, ultimately, led to the signing of subsequent treaties.

At that time, Luo’er knew that Kedal metal had incredible armor-piercing capabilities, but he never had a clear concept of just how powerful it was. Baiyue’s demonstration of the metal’s potency had greatly amazed him, even as a Wood Elf hybrid.

The so-called fragmentation resistance is actually a physical concept proposed by the Otherworld research departments, suggesting that when Kedal metal closely contacts an object, it causes the internal structure of the object to continuously fracture and decompose, significantly reducing the resistance as the Kedal metal penetrates the object.

More specifically, Kedal metal can affect and even interfere with the atomic structure of the target material, preventing it from forming a stable structure, hence allowing the Kedal metal to infiltrate it.

While in contact with the object, Kedal metal also undergoes self-tightening, becoming even harder and more capable of penetrating the target.

To the current standards of hardness measurement on Earth, Kedal metal renders them meaningless, as it can easily penetrate even the hardest diamond, achieving an almost invincible status in terms of penetration.

It is also due to the unique properties of this metal that its mining difficulty is extremely high. In fact, Kedal metal can be found in the Namijiya Mountain Range, but to this date, only the Wood Elves have mastered the ability to mine and forge Kedal metal.

Because of the fragmentation resistance of Kedal metal, traditional mining methods are ineffective. It requires the fusion of several specific metals to form an alloy and then to manufacture alloy saws in order to cut the Kedal metal from the ore deposits.

Kedal metal withstands impact but not cutting, similar to a non-Newtonian fluid. In layman’s terms, it is soft to the touch but hard in practice. As long as a special saw is used to cut at a certain frequency, the fragmentation resistance won’t be triggered.

Additionally, Kedal metal does not tolerate high temperatures. When the temperature exceeds one thousand degrees Celsius, its fragmentation resistance diminishes significantly, allowing metal tools to be used for forging.

Of course, when Kedal metal serves as a bullet, since the temperature of the bullet head when fired generally does not exceed one thousand degrees Celsius and the high temperature is but momentary, it theoretically should not affect the fragmentation resistance of Kedal metal.

However, this is only in theory. The actual performance of Kedal metal bullets can only be known after the Advance Team has used them. Currently, the Otherworld Weapons Research Center has only tested these bullets in the laboratory.

If the bolts fired by the Aud Empire were made of Kedal metal, then that would explain the hole in the wall. The presence of fragmentation resistance means that even if these bolts contain less kinetic energy than artillery shells, they can easily create holes in the walls.

As for Eve’s claim that a single bolt pierced through the wall, Luo’er thought it might not just be a tale. Perhaps the Aud Empire’s army was indeed planning to use this weapon to break through the Snow Elves’ fortifications.

The reason why they didn’t produce arrows to kill the approaching enemy but instead made bolts to attack the defenses is mainly related to the peculiar conditions of the Otherworld.

In the Otherworld, magic is mainstream and its status unshakable, hence most battles throughout history have always involved magic, even more so in defense.

The armies of the Otherworld, as long as they are relatively elite, are equipped with a certain proportion of Rune Protection equipment. This equipment relies on the magical effects generated by runes to achieve protection and falls under the category of magic defense.

As Kedal metal falls under the category of physical attacks, its fragmentation resistance only works on ordinary armor. For armor engraved with runes, relying on magical defense, Kedal metal essentially has no effect.

That is also why Kedal metal is not popular in the Otherworld. The only reason the Aud Empire’s army would equip such metal bolts, as far as one can speculate, must be to attack defensive fortifications.

Because arrows made of Kedal metal were even less effective against enemies equipped with Rune Armor than the large-caliber bullets of Earthlings.

The bullets could penetrate Rune Armor with their immense kinetic energy, whereas Kedal metal arrows depended mainly on their breaking resistance, a type of physical attack that was utterly ineffective against magic defense.

As such, Kedal metal might usher in a new era on Earth, but in the Otherworld, it could remain largely disregarded.

Moreover, given the extreme difficulty of mining, Luo’er estimated that aside from Earthlings and Wood Elves, it was unlikely that anyone would take an interest in this metal.

The fortress walls stretched from the base of one mountain to the other, crossing the river in between. Most of the walls were already in ruins, with only a few sections still standing, all covered in heavy snow.

The main gates of the fortress were on the eastern bank, but they had been completely destroyed by the Aud people during the war over a thousand years ago.

At that time, the Snow Domain was still relatively warm, and even in winter, the river did not freeze, preventing the Aud people from crossing the ice to attack the fortress. They had to go to great lengths to procure Kedal metal from the south to assault it.

Luo’er had always thought the Snow Elves were forgetting their pain once the wounds had healed, having been subjugated and brutally ruled by the Aud people for over a hundred years. Yet after the Aud withdrew, they had not rebuilt the North Territory fortress, relying instead on the Little Ice Age to fend off invasions, which always seemed to Luo’er like a stroke of luck.

Now that he was standing in front of the fortress himself, Luo’er began to understand why the Snow Elves were reluctant to rebuild it.

To rebuild the fortress, they would have to consider the Ebia River, which froze over every winter. Unless they could cut the river off completely with their walls, constructing the fortress would be meaningless. If the Aud attacked in winter, they could simply cross the ice into the fortress, making its existence pointless.

That was why the Snow Elves chose not to expend the effort to rebuild the fortress after the Aud withdrew, preferring to leave their fate to winter instead.

Because they knew that winter was the season of the Snow Elves, but the doom of the Aud. No matter how cruel the Aud were, if they could just survive until winter, then the Snow Elves would gain the ultimate victory.

"I never imagined that there would be so many grudges within the Elf Race, even to the point of abetting tyranny," Luo’er shrugged and couldn’t help but comment as he looked at the broken walls.

"All things considered, whether it’s the Wood Elves, the Snow Elves, or the Night Elves of Xia Yue Island, they’re all fundamentally the same, each harboring deep hostility toward the other two types," Eve said, staring at the walls.

"So it’s the so-called ’those who are not of our kind, must have a different heart,’ huh?" Luo’er helplessly shook his head and couldn’t resist criticizing the narrow racial views.

"What are you saying?" Eve turned around to look at him, evidently not understanding the Chinese he was speaking.

"It’s nothing," Luo’er said nonchalantly, shaking his head before curiously asking Eve, "By the way, what do you think of the weather now? Do you feel cold?"

"Of course I feel cold," Eve answered as though it were obvious, "Although I’m a half-blood Snow Elf, I’m still human, not made of snow. This kind of weather would be too much even for a true Snow Elf, let alone someone of mixed heritage like me."

As she spoke, Eve looked down at her hands, her entire body clothed in thick and warm garments and hats, and her hands were also wrapped in a layer of warm gloves.

These items were trivial for the headquarters, but for Eve, they were still quite astonishing. She was very grateful to this organization from the Otherworld for providing her with substantial care.

Across the icy surface in the distance, the cold wind ceaselessly swept by, mingling with a sky full of snowflakes. Luo’er knew that as long as the weather persisted, they wouldn’t be able to set off on their journey for the whole day.