Pillar of Yita

To enable the Ranger to achieve automated navigation, you only need to design its general patrol routes and then adjust the air nozzle directions accordingly. Although it involves a series of internal commands, for the ’Device of the Stars’ of the Earth Origin Crystal Base, recording these commands is trivial.

Fang Hong designed three automated navigation routes for the Ranger—surrounding the target in a 360-degree flight pattern with versions for distances of 100 meters and 250 meters, corresponding to the maximum and effective range of the Sunflame Ray, respectively.

The last navigation route is a Z-shaped evasive path, along with multiple route variations of the above three automated navigation paths. All these commands were managed by a ’Device of the Stars’ the size of a fist.

If this were used in the old Closed Loop Device, the total weight of the Closed Loop Device at this point would be equal to the Ranger itself.

Then there are the automation commands for take-off, landing, charging, targeting, and short-range evasive maneuvers, among others. Although each of these commands is not complex by itself, combined they are numerous. Fang Hong used almost a thousand layers of arrays to record them all.

However, the improvements made to the ’Device of the Stars’ for the Earth Origin Crystal Base proved powerful, as all the commands combined resulted in a Closed Loop Device not exceeding the size of a soccer ball.

Once the control laws were established, Fang Hong placed the Closed Loop Device recording them at the Ranger’s head, connecting it to the visual crystal and adding protective armor and cooling arrays. From the outside, it looked just like a knight’s helmet with feathered adornments.

Viewed from the front, the armor on either side of the elongated crystal pupils has a certain inclination, resembling sloped armor. The chest armor also follows the same principle, with its top edge forming a triangle when seen from the front. It is entirely painted silver, with a lance in the right hand, and a shield in the left hand, majestic in appearance.

Despite the lower half being the chassis of a Carrier, it has undergone some battlefield modifications: adding side panels and skirts for protecting the Guy Generator, and unlike harbor-use machinery Carriers, the Ranger, although an air combat construct, still requires landing capability, thus dual-leg walking mechanisms were added.

Yet, not being a primary land combat construct, the dual-leg walking mechanisms are extremely simple, consisting only of a pair of triangular brackets, with a row of wind element nozzles added from top to bottom.

Generally speaking, when the Ranger is standing, it appears as a Silver Knight holding a great shield and a lance. When flying, its center of gravity leans slightly forward, giving it a streamlined look, as if the knight is in the midst of an assault.

However, that great shield is basically just for show, as the Device of the Stars cannot achieve true autonomous consciousness. The operator still needs to issue commands to switch the Ranger from one ’state’ to another ’state.’

For instance, for navigation, returning, evasive maneuvers, or even firing and opening the shield, it cannot do any of these autonomously. However, during this process, the operator’s commands are greatly simplified, no longer requiring the consumption of calculative power for precise operations.

Due to its inability to autonomously respond to battlefield changes, Fang Hong pondered for a long time but couldn’t figure out how that great shield should function, eventually deciding to hang it on the Ranger as a somewhat better-than-nothing defense measure.

What if it just happens to block an attack coming from the front?

It’s essentially external armor that can be discarded at any time.

Even after all parts are added, the Ranger Knight’s self-weight is only just over 300 kilograms, still a considerable distance from half a ton.

In fact, this construct is far from refined.

Fang Hong didn’t spend much effort designing and building it—most of the blueprints were ready-made, and the modifications he made could only be described as crude—basically, combining the Shield Bearer and Carrier forcefully together, plus a Velocity Particle Lance.

The lance’s arrays stacked to achieve the Sunflame Ray could be considered Fang Hong’s only original design, but even then, it’s not an innovative creation, as the Magic Guided Conductor exists to achieve various magical effects.

As for the internal power supply and cooling arrays, these could be directly replicated, with core crystal designs also ready-made. Creating a very ordinary, Guy Generator-powered, Sunflame Ray-using Magic Guided Construct doesn’t require any special crystalline configuration.

However, this aligns with Fang Hong’s expectations for the ’Ranger.’

It is, after all, a construct designed to cooperate with the Dragon Hunters, who are his only core construct at the moment. Considering the Dragon Hunters as his trusted aide on the battlefield, the Ranger precisely fits its name.

They are merely light cavalry striking from the battlefield.

Relying on low calculative power consumption, relying on groups, and winning by numbers.

But that doesn’t mean the Ranger is cheap—

In fact, Fang Hong’s problem is that while the rest of the Ranger uses crude manufacturing methods to cut costs wherever possible, for parts like the Carrier chassis and the Level 15 construct Shield Bearer’s upper body, which are dirt cheap for them now, the issue lies within the Ranger’s core.

The core that controls its ’self-action’—the Closed Loop Device or the Device of the Stars—must be constructed upon a base of Primordial Crystal Stone to function. Even the cheapest Earth Origin Crystal commands a hefty price.

Moreover, Earth Origin Crystals require processing before being usable, involving as many as seventeen types of magic solutions for purification, with slicing and etching processes fraught with waste rate issues, further driving up costs.

For instance, with his current skills and knowledge, Fang Hong couldn’t use a more efficient Solution No. 21, meaning he had to use Solutions No. 4, No. 7, and the No. 9 in hand to achieve the same effect in a roundabout way.

The additional solution costs were astronomical.

Although Fang Hong had long known that Alchemy burns money, reaching Level 22 deepened this understanding even further.

Thus, knowledge is strength, and skill levels equate to money.

Listening to the pouring rain outside, looking at the purple solution on the shelf, Fang Hong was a bit helpless, thinking he likely couldn’t drive costs down any further.

But just then, he suddenly heard a faint noise from behind. Turning around, he unexpectedly found it wasn’t Hilveld but an unanticipated visitor.

The girl named Beiji had inadvertently knocked over a crystal sample he had placed next to a cabinet, causing it to roll to a corner by the wall. She lifted her head, holding her breath and looking at him, appearing somewhat anxious.

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