Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 152: Shooting Test

There were tools and equipment in this world that could release magic, but those were life-saving or support-type magical tools that Mages would bring along habitually. Examples would be various types of talismans that could release protective spells or rings and books that could allow a faster spellcast. But all these tools had two traits: firstly, only a ‘Beyonder’ with magic could use them; secondly, they were so expensive that minor noble clans would flinch.

A magic ring that could release a class 2 attack spell would cost half the annual income of a knight in the Plains of the Holy Spirits. — Because that ring would need to be forged with adamantite and mithril. Moreover, it required a high-ranking mage to inject magic and temper it before it could be used.

For the heat-ray gun… its most expensive component would be the quartz pillar which was the gathering crystal, and it cost less than a silver coin. With the cheap supply of crystal ores from Tanzan Town, the cost could be lowered even more.

What kind of manpower was required to create the heat-ray gun? The initial design of the runes and the manufacturing of the original base plate required the involvement of mages and runemasters. After the blueprint was fixed, it would only need a rumbling machine, a few individuals responsible for filling the magic-conducting materials in the cavities of the magic circles, and proficient workers to finish the final assembly. Even though the size was much bigger than those exquisite magic rings and magic talismans, they could be created in overwhelming numbers.

Furthermore, the condition to use the heat-ray gun was very low. There wasn’t a need to specially train professional soldiers as even slightly trained ordinary people could use it.

After understanding everything, Jenni looked at the heat-ray gun with eyes that didn’t contain pride and delight; there were also traces of unease.

This was the first time she was involved in the ‘inventions and creations of Cecil specialty’. She didn’t know what this weapon would bring to the world, nor did she dare to think about it.

“Lord Ancestor, are you preparing to issue this weapon to every soldier?” Rebecca was a young lady with an extremely high ability to accept things. She reacted quickly and looked at Gawain with sparkling eyes. “If those soldiers have this weapon… Why do they even need to practice the close combat skills for?”

Gawain originally wanted to say that when long-ranged weapons appeared, the era for close combat weapons would go into decline. But he quickly recalled that this world existed with all sorts of Beyonder powers, and all the so-called cold weapons and hot weapons would be blended together after the involvement of Beyonder powers. Therefore, Gawain changed his words at the last moment. “Regular weapons must still be preserved. Injecting magic into blades and armor for mass production will be the next step. But in my view, the heat-ray gun will become the soldiers’ main attacking method, while the melee weapons will slowly become their secondary weapons.”

Rebecca gesticulated happily and said, “We can equip the heat-ray gun on the left arm, while the right hand will still be using the blades. When the enemy is far away, they can use Scorching Ray, and when the enemy gets near, they can draw their swords and slash… The outer shell of the ray gun can be thicker and will be able to be used to block in close combat!”

When Gawain thought about the concept, he suddenly felt that Rebecca’s concept was rather cool, but he didn’t understand something. This young lady was a Mage; why was she able to instantly think of such close-combat theory?

No matter what, it seemed like the Cecil combatants’ style of combat was going to turn around drastically. It was unknown if the two Knights, Byron and Philip, would be able to adapt to such changes…

For a weapon to become practical, it must not solely rely on the prototype’s test result, especially when the heat-ray gun was also a brand new thing to Gawain. He had only successfully fired the first shot, but in order to guarantee its stable functionality during combat, many more shots must be fired.

Gawain kept the prototype vambrace and looked at everyone. “It still needs much more testing. We will start tomorrow morning, and the venue will be at the northeastern testing ground.

The northeastern testing ground was the large barren land near the riverbank. Since the testing of the explosive power of the Rebecca Crystals, that section had been designated as the official military testing area. The crystal grenades were also tested there. Actually, Gawain truly couldn’t suppress his excitement and wanted to find a place to randomly make things go ‘boom’ everywhere; however, it truly wouldn’t be good timing to conduct such tests during nighttime. Right now, the territory was still unable to construct a large-scale, indoor weapons testing ground for night operation; therefore, all tests could only be conducted on the next day.

On the next day, Gawain had gotten up from bed very early.

As compared to yesterday night’s first shot where there were only a few individuals, today’s official test appeared to be particularly strict and serious. Rebecca had mentioned to Heidi about the heat-ray gun, while Heidi immediately called for Byron and Philip, the two military supervisors. At the same time, she had picked two steadfast and reliable soldiers from the Combat Corps to guard the vicinity and to prevent any unrelated personnel from coming close. She had also set up targets in the testing ground at various distances to test the weapon’s range, accuracy, and other data. Finally, she called for the Druid, Pittman, to respond to any accidental injuries caused by the weapon and to provide emergency treatment.

From all these arrangements, Gawain could evidently determine something:

His eldest granddaughter was gradually learning the concept of ‘science and systemization’ that he had been teaching…

Gawain originally prepared to test the weapon himself, but after Amber blabbed by his ear for 10 minutes, he decided to give her the chance.

Of course, this decision wasn’t entirely because of Amber’s blabbing that was truly annoying; more importantly, it was due to the fact that Amber was a Rogue who had used the sleeve arrow before. Furthermore, she was quite proficient in using it and had a certain level of experience for such fixed, long-range weapons on the arm. It was obvious that she should be the one wielding the weapon.

Seeing how Amber wore the heat-ray gun on her arm and seeing how she professionally adjusted the straps to ensure the stability, Rebecca who didn’t obtain the chance to wield the weapon couldn’t help but feel jealous and nagged, “You better take it easy and don’t hit yourself. This thing is much heavier than your sleeve arrow!”

“You don’t have to worry okay?” Amber rebuked, “Back when I was training with the sleeve arrow, my wrist was fitted with a lump of metal, and it was heavier than this thing!”

After flaunting, the half-elf thief had finished adjusting the equipment and nodded to Heidi who was responsible for writing the data. Amber then lifted her arm and aimed at the first target.

When the rune trigger was activated by the metallic wire, the magic capacitor’s magic instantly transmuted into the Scorching Ray magic circle’s energy. It was accompanied by a light sound before the scorching ray of light struck at the first target that was a few dozen meters away.

The wooden target that wore armor had been instantly pierced through.

Heidi quickly recorded the data while Amber started to aim at the second target…

“The effective range is merely around two hundred meters to three hundred meters, lower than Scorching Ray’s standard and also lower than the theoretical value of the magic circle’s base plate.” After a round of testing, Heidi brought the data to Gawain and said, “The main problem might be due to the adjustment of the quartz pillar position or the inefficient magic conduction between the Scorching Ray base plate and the magic capacitor. All these can be improved using craftsmanship. Accuracy is another problem. Accuracy within 50 meters was still good, but accuracy would drop drastically after 50 meters. At 100 meters, even Amber who has the half-elf bloodline and is proficient with the sleeve arrow would have a 75% chance of missing the target. If this data is extrapolated on regular soldiers… it will definitely be worse.”

Rebecca scratched her head and spoke candidly, “But it is still more accurate than Aunt— Pain, pain, pain!”

Seeing the foolish girl getting pinched on the ear by Heidi, Gawain didn’t have a change in expression and said, “Accuracy can also be improved with craftsmanship. Nicholas Egg’s assembly is very precise, but the Scorching Ray base plate was handcrafted by Rebecca and others. With the objective to test if the newly designed rune combination would work, they didn’t put too much effect when picking the quartz pillar.”

While speaking, he took another glance at the vambrace on Amber’s arm and said, “Moreover, it is still lacking a sight. A simple targeting accessory can be added between the vambrace and the muzzle. It should greatly increase the accuracy.”

After Gawain explained the concept of a sight, Amber’s eyes immediately lit up. “Oh, oh! That is a great thing! This way, it will be much easier to train the soldiers!”

They might be discussing accuracy problems, but in fact, the accuracy of the heat-ray gun had already exceeded Gawain’s expectations.

In his initial opinion, such a model wouldn’t be easy to aim. A long-ranged weapon without even a basic sight would be rather praiseworthy if the accuracy was over a dozen meters. However, the data had exceeded his expectations.

One factor was because the heat-ray gun wasn’t a weapon with live ammunition, and the entire shooting process didn’t have any mechanical operations, eliminating almost all recoil. There also wasn’t a need to worry about the gun barrel trembling or the instability of the receiver affecting the accuracy. In order to maintain accuracy, one simply had to ensure that the arm was steady. Another factor was the quality of the physical body and the talents that people possessed in this world were different from people on Earth.

Amber’s half-elf bloodline allowed her to be innately proficient with all sorts of long-ranged weapons. Even if it was a regular person without the elven bloodline, their physical qualities would still be superior to people on Earth (Think about those nobles who lived an average lifespan of 100 years and those ‘regular soldiers’ who could wear heavy armor and wield giant swords while charging). Those superior qualities might carry over to long-ranged weapons, but of course, it could only be verified after the regular soldiers did the tests.

On the other hand, Rebecca was already grimacing under the hand of Heidi and said, “Aren’t any of you going to save me?!”

Gawain didn’t know to laugh or cry when he took a glance at the young lady who was punished because she was being candid. He saved her before nodding to Amber. “Continue the test. This time, see if consecutive shots will affect the performance.”

Consecutive shots would be a relatively long testing process, so Gawain didn’t continue observing and walked towards the two Knights, Byron and Philip.

The two Knights were fully concentrated on the testing ground, and they had rather complicated expressions.

“What are you thinking?” Gawain walked towards them and asked.

“This is truly an incredible weapon.” Byron’s tone was indeed filled with admiration. “Incredible…! Magic can actually be released in such a method. Be it the source of magic or the control of magic, it is all done by the weapon itself. It is unrelated to the user’s innate talent, and the user simply has to pull the rune trigger…”

“It isn’t just admiration, right?” Gawain looked at Byron with a smile that didn’t look like a smile.

“…Indeed.” Byron looked at Gawain and finally nodded with admittance. “I am feeling a sense of loss.”

“Oh?”

“Back then, I spent two years to learn Aura Protection and spent another three years to learn Danger Detection. Furthermore, those are just Grade 2 Knight skills.” Byron shook his head and said, “Right now, new soldiers will only need to train a few days and will be able to release Scorching Ray.”

Philip also sighed and lamented. “I was faster than you and learned those two skills within half a year.”

Byron: “…Can you be a little more sensitive to others?”

“I have mentioned that the times are changing.” Gawain interrupted the duo and said, “Such change is necessary, and you two will have to accept it.”

Byron startled for a moment before smiling bitterly at the testing ground. “Will there be a day when that thing can release the finger of death?”

Gawain was silent for a moment before he replied, “Perhaps.”

“…It seems like the day of the City of Thousand Towers’ collapse isn’t too far away.”

On the other side, Amber exercised her arm for a moment as it was rather tiring to lift her arm up for a long period of time. Immediately after, she lifted the heat-ray gun again and pulled the rune trigger.

The ray gun generated a small heat energy, but no heat ray was shot out this time.

“Old dumpling! This thing can’t be used anymore!”