Chapter 1021 River Network
The truth was that Leonel wasn't the only one who felt that keeping the ecosystem of this world intact was important. Even on Earth, much of the concrete jungle had been replaced with large swaths of forest and natural ecosystems.
If they destroyed the natural environment of Earth, much of what it meant for them to come from talented worlds would be destroyed. After all, only by allowing Earth to grow in its natural state would the resources they were so looking forward to grow into maturity.
The same could be said for EarthX1. It was just that they had barely gotten Earth to its current balanced state, they hadn't had time to worry about other worlds, not to mention the fact that EarthX1 had only recently entered Earth's Fold of Reality so there wasn't anything they could have done earlier.
On such a time crunch, they could only take the most forceful approach. But, Leonel had other ideas.
"This is a unique environment. If we want to take advantage of it, whatever we build must first take it into consideration so we can maximize this effect. Do you know what the advantage of this planet is, Minister Hamon?"
Minister Hamon blinked before shaking his head. "Please enlighten me, Prince."
"It's its rivers. The river networks of EarthX1 connect to every location on this planet. At its slowest, these river networks still move at hundreds of kilometers an hour. Its fastest rivers move within the thousands of kilometers an hour range…"
Leonel did a rough estimate of speed based on the discharge rate of the rivers. The speed he provided wasn't actually the speed of the river, but was rather what he estimated the speed of a boat on said river would be.
"This is what our advantage is. If this network of rivers is used efficiently, even in an infancy state, it would only take at most two or three hours to send reinforcements to a particular location. Once the network is mature, half an hour to an hour would be all that's necessary for reinforcements to reach any location."
Leonel wasn't a fool. Earth simply didn't have the Force Crafters necessary to make a wide network of teleportation stations. In fact, Leonel didn't believe that the enemy would either. Space Affinities were extremely rare and Force Crafters that understood how to apply such principles to Force Arts were even rarer.
This particular teleportation station was likely bought from a Force Crafter Guild and was definitely the best the Milky Way had to offer, and yet it could only move 100 people at a time. This wasn't nearly enough for a large scale war.
In addition, the fact that Earth could only buy one even for an important A-Order planet like this one, despite the wealth it had currently, spoke volumes.
On top of this, even though Leonel could build this network, he simply didn't have the time. And, even if he forced himself to find the time anyway, what would happen while he was away? What would happen when the enemy wisely targeted and destroyed these teleportation stations? Even if they managed to protect the teleportation stations, who would upkeep their maintenance?
Leonel knew that he couldn't stretch himself too far. So, he decided to kill multiple birds with a single stone.
He would create a network that could be easily maintained without him while also protecting the ecosystem of EarthX1.
Minister Hamon's gaze glowed, understanding much of Leonel's thought process without Leonel speaking aloud. Leonel was essentially pushing for simple Crafts that could be forged by even weaker Black Grade Crafters. It was technology that even 21st Century Earth would have had, let alone 25th Century Earth.
If the rivers were used as the propulsion system, all they needed to worry about was aerodynamics and ensuring that material of the boats were strong enough to withstand the high speeds. That was it. Minister Hamon could imagine that if this was executed properly, Earth would claim a decisive advantage on this world and it was one the enemy wouldn't easily be able to claw back.
However, Minister Hamon had one scruple…
"I only have a single concern, if Prince doesn't mind hearing out this old man."
"Please speak." Leonel responded without hesitation. "You don't have to hold back your opinions around me, I'll take them all into consideration."
Minister Hamon sighed another breath of relief before nodding.
"Right. Though EarthX1's ecosystem is thriving, there's a lot of danger as well. The animal kingdom tends to be quite poisonous and many of them have evolved to have excellent camouflage abilities. This was why we thought it safer to clear away the land for the sake of building a base.
"Beyond this, any creature that can survive the harsh rapid waters of the river is most definitely powerful to an extreme. I don't believe that these rivers won't have any dangers at all, in fact, they might have the greatest dangers…
"Does Prince have a solution?"
Leonel nodded. He had considered this problem as well. Protecting nature always sounded like a beautiful idea, but the issue was that nature didn't always appreciate your kindness. The river creatures would, especially, be an obstacle, especially as they continued to birth more and more talented creatures under Earth's influence.
Luckily, Leonel had a solution.
"Beasts can become very intelligent as they rise through the Dimensions, but there are two problems they will face. For one, this world isn't as talented as Earth just yet so most of the creatures will still be at a Fourth Dimensional level. In fact, they're likely struggling to adapt to suddenly being thrust into a Fifth Dimensional Fold of Reality as we speak, which is probably why you have yet to suffer any attacks.
"The second thing to consider is that though they might grow more intelligence, they will still lack the plasticity and flexibility of thought that humans have. The best counter to these beasts is right in front of us."
Leonel suddenly took out a rainbow colored Beast Crystal he had gotten from the rainbow island-sized piranha. He had planned to sell it to Jessica, but hadn't gotten around to it just yet.
"What beasts fear most is other beasts, especially beasts more powerful and more talented than they are. I have plans to create a shroud for the network of Boats and Floating Forts we'll create.
"The first layer of defense will be these Beast Crystals. Normal creatures won't dare to get close to them as they can't yet match up to Earth's beasts.
"The second layer of defense will be concealment. Invalids aren't as intelligent as normal beasts and rather than being off put by powerful creatures, they'll surge toward them in hopes of evolving. This will be our second defense.
"As for the details, just leave it up to me."
Leonel took a few steps out and entered the forest. Not far away, a small sized river—at least by the metrics of this planet—lay at a width of a few hundred meters.
With a light toss, the Segmented Cube left Leonel's hand. Just before it landed in the waters, its jigsaw pieces moved and morphed, connected by a large array of motes of light.
With a splash, it landed, having become a large yacht.