BXBX NOVEL Chapter 151 - First Shot
Chapter 151: First Shot
“Lord Ancestor is always like this. He will always be able to think of some incredible-sounding words even though we don’t understand the meaning of the words.” Rebecca had a pleased expression as though she was praising herself and said, “If you have an opinion, it is purely envy. You will never be as incredible as Lord Ancestor.”
Amber instantly raised her brows and commented, “No matter how incredible your ancestor is, I am the one that dug him out!”
When Gawain saw that the duo were about to deviate from the topic, he immediately stood in between them and said, “Shut your mouths! We are here for proper business!”
That giant silver comedian had been floating without uttering any sound and observing by the side. When the two ‘female humans’ had finally quieted down, he spoke unhurriedly, “Then let’s talk about the ‘heat-ray gun’… It isn’t a problem for me to process the components, but the blueprints have to be prepared first. If the structure is simple, you can just explain it to me here, but it is best to have actual references.”
“We have already handcrafted the main component. Right now, we need to research on how to make a stable assembly and how to mold an ‘outer shell’ that is suitable for humans to use.” As Gawain spoke, he took out the magic capacitor’s base plate, magic storage crystals, Scorching Ray’s base plate, and also a few original schematics. “Egg Egg, take a look at these. Let me tell you the principle of the heat-ray gun…”
The giant silver comedian instantly let out a buzzing voice, “Why are you also calling me Egg Egg?!”
“Don’t mind it, don’t mind it. Just change it to Boss Egg in your mind. Let’s discuss the rune trigger’s position first…”
The concept of the heat-ray gun didn’t just appear in Gawain’s mind one or two days ago. In fact, when the crystal grenades appeared, he had been thinking of a second kind of weapon that the soldiers could all be equipped with.
The crystal grenades were explosives meant for throwing. It had great firepower, and the structure was very simple. After the basic lathe machine was constructed, it had already started as a small-scale mass production. Byron was currently familiarizing the soldiers with this new type of ‘magical tool’. But the restrictions of the crystal grenades were very obvious: the throwing range was limited to a person’s arm strength; it was very difficult to hit the target accurately; a huge motion was required when tossing it; a longer preparation time; and also the delayed explosion after throwing it…
It was evident that the soldiers required another Beyonder weapon to compensate for the flaws of the crystal grenades, and it was best for it to be a long-range weapon. This world’s sword and saber skills were already sufficiently developed.
Firearms were the most suitable things that Gawain could think of, but it was something that was hard to achieve in this world.
Without the use of gunpowder or the use of steam power, it was extremely hard to launch pellets at high speed. Gawain had already attempted different methods to instantly create high temperatures and high pressure but had minimal results. He had also put his thoughts to using ‘magic’ like launching the pellets with the repulsion magic circle, but he quickly realized that with the current craftsmanship, it was hard to compress and carve the repulsion magic circle at the end of the gun barrel. Furthermore, if it was truly compressed to such a small size, the amount of thrust created by the repulsion magic circle wouldn’t be enough to give lethal power to the pellets.
He had also considered using the convenience of magic to create the ‘railgun’ in advance; he could make use of the powerful magnetic field generated by wind-earth fusion runes to create the acceleration rail to launch the pellets, but he quickly realized that he was lacking an ‘electric circuit control’ that could respond fast enough to rapidly switch on and off each of the rune combinations. The traditional rune triggers were operated by mechanisms, and it was extremely hard for large quantities of rune combinations to conduct sequential switching on and off during the acceleration process of the pellet. Furthermore, to make a rune arrangement that was similar to the clock circuit… Regretfully, Gawain still didn’t have any idea.
Due to the differences in the laws of physics, there were many of the Earth’s impossible technologies that could be easily achieved in this world. But at the same time, there were many easily achieved things on Earth that were impossible in this world.
As for this world’s traditional bows and crossbows, Gawain didn’t think to conduct any magical modifications to them. No matter how the bows and crossbows were modified, it was hard to concurrently achieve a huge number of requests, like low prices, mass production, rapid-fire ability, consecutive shots, low training requirements, and great efficiency.
Perhaps when magical industrialization’s technology had reached a certain degree, traditional bows and crossbows would then come into Gawain’s sight again. But for now, it was still not feasible.
After hard work and multiple attempts, while Gawain was touching his hairline, he had a sudden inspiration and realized something.
‘Why must the gun shoot bullets?!’
The moment he realized this was the moment when Rebecca hopped and ran towards him. If he was a little blunter, it was a hopping Fireball launcher…
At that moment, he had a realization and knew what his thoughts were being restricted to. Be it the method to launch the pellets or the use of magic, he was restricting himself with the principles back on Earth. Since this world had all sorts of powerful spells, why couldn’t he just set ‘bullets’ aside and study these spells instead?
After collecting and sorting out various fundamental spells, the one that entered his mind was the Fireball launcher… no, Scorching Ray.
When the base plate of Scorching Ray was constructed, he had to contest with the experiences he already had in his mind again.
What form did the new weapon need?
The group sat around a workstation that was created through machining, while Nicholas Egg floated at the opposite side of the workstation. The base plates, crystals, and blueprints were all placed on the table. When looking at these things, Gawain felt that the ‘classic firearm model’ wouldn’t be feasible here.
These were palm-sized, hexagonal metallic plates. They didn’t have any gun barrel, magazines, or bolts. As compared to classic firearm models, these were more suited to be assembled into a disk-shaped thing.
Of course, Gawain could forcefully use the firearms on Earth as a reference to make a strange-shaped shell because he knew that the classic model was a result of countless years of testing in actual combat. The handle was for convenience to wield the firearm, and the long gun barrel was to point and aim. But the problem was…
After considering the practicality of the Scorching Ray base plate and the energy supply efficiency, the muzzle of the gun would probably be as big as the palm-sized metallic plate. The entire gun’s center of gravity would be facing forward; let alone aiming with it, it would be more reliable to use it as a war hammer…
After considering that the next generations of this weapon might be shooting out ice arrows or lightning spheres — or even to use it to release thunderstorms, summons, shields, etc. — then it was totally unnecessary to fix the weapon’s shape as a classic firearm model from Earth.
Gawain looked at the metallic base plates and tried his best to eliminate all related iterations of ‘gun’ in his mind and told himself repeatedly, ‘This is a magical tool, this is a magical tool…’
After hypnotizing himself for some time, he picked up those base plates and put them around his arm and said, “Let’s assemble these to a vambrace?”
Rebecca tried her best to imagine it and suddenly shook Gawain’s arm happily and said, “It sounds very awesome! I have been thinking of turning these plates into the shape of a staff and never thought of that!”
Amber curled her lips and said, “Tsk, what’s so incredible? I thought of that too. Didn’t the rogue’s sleeve arrow have the same form? I simply didn’t say it in time…”
It was rare that Rebecca’s brain had actually frozen and was surpassed by Amber…
Nicholas Egg was in a ball of confusion as he asked, “What is a sleeve arrow? And what is going on with assembling it on the vambrace? Also, what kind of structure and principle are you people talking about? Why don’t I understand anything until now…?”
Gawain looked at the metal-ball alien with bizarre eyes and suddenly realized this metallic ball’s greatest shortcoming. It was fine for him to create components according to the blueprint, but if it involved human-body engineering, this fellow was 100% unprepared. He was a ball; how could he possibly know the usage of arms?!
But this wasn’t important. Gawain asked someone to look for a vambrace, and while he imagined and drew it on the blueprint, he explained to Nicholas Egg, “Just like this, by putting the Scorching Ray base plate on the front and the magic capacitor at the back, then connecting it with the copper solvent as magic guidance… The rune trigger’s control can be a metal wire that extends out from the side of the vambrace and is triggered by the thumb. Of course, to avoid any accidental trigger, it must also have a safety device that is similar to the crystal grenades. We can put it between the magic capacitor and the Scorching Ray base plate. It should be the safest…”
“Simple, simple.” Nicholas Egg hovered up and down while asking, “Is there any other request?”
Amber commented by the side, “Don’t make the vambrace a whole piece. It is best that the lower half can have adjustable tightness.”
Gawain looked at Amber with a surprised look while the latter rolled her eyes. “Don’t think that I am ignorant and incompetent… At the very least, I have used the sleeve arrow.”
“Alright, alright, your suggestion is indeed useful.” Gawain didn’t know to laugh or cry as he replied before nodding to Nicholas Egg. “It will be like this for now. The priority is to make a sample first to see if it works and then carry out a practical test to know where else to improve.”
Nicholas Egg emitted a low buzzing sound. All the nearby metal parts and the two different base plates on the table floated while Nicholas Egg said, “Just wait to see what I can do! I will be done shortly!”
The metal-ball alien was telling the truth and had completed it quickly. With a low requirement of precision and with only a few components that required some processing, the metal parts and base plates were molded and assembled together in less than a minute.
It was an unassuming and rather ‘unwieldy’ vambrace, especially in the eyes of a traditional person.
In order to stuff the base plate into the protective shell and to leave a space for the rune trigger, the assembled ‘heat-ray gun’ was more than twice the size of ordinary vambraces. Its top part was bulging and had an ellipsoid shape, while there was an opening left at the front portion. Underneath the opening, there was a small section of the metallic protective plate that extended out, and the protective plate was actually the ‘safety’ device. Once it was tucked back inside, the flow of magic would be severed, and the user’s hand would be able to move freely without causing the heat-ray gun to fire. Once the protective plate was pulled out, the heat-ray gun would enter an ‘armed’ state, and the user’s hand would be restricted so that the hand couldn’t turn around. This way, no one would be carelessly pierced by the scorching ray of light…
As it was an experimental product that was just assembled, its shape wasn’t elegant, but Gawain was still rather excited as he equipped this unwieldy vambrace and adjusted the tightness.
He then pulled out the safety device at the front of the vambrace and put the metallic trigger on his thumb before pointing the vambrace to the ground ahead.
Nicholas Egg turned slightly and shifted a piece of gray metal to the place that Gawain was aiming at.
“How many soldiers do we have on the territory?” Gawain aimed and asked Rebecca.
Rebecca pondered before replying, “The new soldiers have yet to end their training camp yet. Apart from the two knights and if we only consider the soldiers of the Combat Corps… 106.”
Gawain pulled the trigger that was accompanied by a light pfff sound. A scorching ray of light shot out from the vambrace and struck the metal on the ground. Due to the magic, a small explosion caused the metal to tumble continuously, leaving behind a trail of sparks and metal shards.
When the metal stopped rolling, the surface of the metal was red, and a deep pit was melted into it.
“Then, we have 106 Grade-2 Beyonders who can execute Scorching Ray.”