BXBX NOVEL Chapter 153 - Combat Field Pack and Modularity
Chapter 153: Combat Field Pack and Modularity
When the words ‘old dumpling’ was said, Gawain didn’t really react, but Heidi did. The Cecil territory’s chief supervisor glared and swung her magic staff while concentrated killing aura was emitted.
Amber had shivered and immediately reacted. When she saw Heidi, she started to talk back, “Who are you trying to intimidate? If you are capable, then try hitting my face with an Ice Arrow…”
Immediately after, Heidi’s staff made one round and sent Amber flying by seven or eight meters…
Who said that a Mage could only use Ice Arrows and Large Fireballs? Which of the Cecil Clan’s Mages didn’t know how to use the 36 Styles of ‘Rest in Peace’ Staff? Amber still didn’t have much experience on going against the members of the Cecil Clan. If she knew that Heidi and Rebecca’s staffs had fullers, she wouldn’t have dared to jump into a fight like this…
“You insulted my spells and also insulted my clan’s ancestor!” Heidi was truly angry this time and had wielded her staff vigorously. Since her elder brother passed away, as a senior, she didn’t have a choice but to help the unorthodox Rebecca handle the clan’s businesses. She rarely had the chance to exhibit her skills like this, but all of the Cecil Clan’s members knew that when the elegant Madam Heidi was angry, she could use her staff as a war hammer. “Don’t think that I can’t do anything just because my magic cannot hit you. Look at how I…”
Amber was yelling while getting chased, but it was fortunate that Gawain had already reacted and quickly ran over to stop the farce. “Stop, stop, stop. Calm down, calm down. Heidi, you should know that this fellow’s mouth doesn’t have a lid. Amber, you are truly something. When you are about to get a beating, you should remember to first take off the heat-ray gun. It is a prototype that we have painstakingly created. What if it was damaged?”
Amber: “…”
Heidi glared at Amber before lowering her head to Gawain. “Ancestor, you should really teach this fellow some manners. She is very disrespectful to you.”
“Sigh, I shouldn’t have taught you people the words ‘old dumpling[1]’.” Gawain sighed before turning to look at the vambrace on Amber’s arm and asked, “We should take a look at this thing first. Why did it suddenly stop functioning?”
Amber fiddled with the heat-ray gun and aimed at the target before pulling the trigger again. This time, a scorching ray of light shot out from the vambrace and hit the target.
Amber frowned and said, “It seems like it’s working again?”
Subsequently, she shot a few more times. The heat-ray gun malfunctioned again after three shots.
“I roughly understand what is going on.” Gawain nodded before beckoning and calling out to the giant silver emoji who was floating by the side. “Nicholas Egg, can you help to remove this part of the outer shell?”
The reason was quickly identified.
The magic capacitor wasn’t able to charge faster than the consumption of the consecutive shots, and all the magic within the magic storage crystals were exhausted.
The ‘magic capacitor’ that Gawain designed was essentially charging constantly and automatically. It was an energy device with a slow and steady charging speed. The charging speed was constant and so was the capacity. Originally it was to allow the low-consumption Honeycomb Magic Web unit to temporarily store magic within the crystals; it could then supply magic to high-consumption magic circles. However, if these high-consumption magic circles had to be constantly operated, the energy consumption would definitely exceed the charging speed of the crystals.
When the heat-ray gun executed consecutive shots, the magic capacitor would definitely be exhausted, and the user would have to wait for the magic to be charged up before using it again.
“So this is the reason.” After seeing the magic storage crystals on the magic capacitor that were already grayish, Heidi nodded and said, “It is understandable as regular magical tools are also like this. There is a limit for consecutive releases of magic, and once the magic is exhausted, it would need to be replenished. It seems like it is the same for the heat-ray gun.”
“This is definitely not acceptable!” Gawain shook his head sternly.
Rebecca had a blank expression as she asked, “Why is it not acceptable? Aren’t all magical tools like this?”
“Those are traditional magical tools, like rings that can only release six Fireballs in a day, or talismans that can only activate shields for three times a day. I want to say that those flaws have to be eliminated.” Gawain shook his head and said, “On the battlefield, the person whose weapon is damaged first shall die first. It is the same for the magic storage for the heat-ray gun. Therefore, we need to think of a method for them to have a longer combat period.”
Sir Byron who rushed over to take a look had also nodded and agreed. “On the battlefield, the enemies aren’t going to wait a few hours for you to allow your magic capacitor to slowly recharge.”
“We have found the first thing to improve.” Gawain’s train of thought was opened up, and he had found his familiar rhythm again. He looked at Heidi, Rebecca, and also Jenni who stood behind the duo and said, “Do you know the greatest difference between this brand new ‘magic equipment’ and traditional magical tools?”
Jenni: “The low cost?”
Heidi: “Convenience of use?”
Rebecca: “Extremely cool name!”
“The difference is that once traditional magical tools’ magic is exhausted, they would either have to slowly wait for it to recover or find a Mage to inject magic into it. As for this thing that we created…” Gawain casually pulled out the crystal in the magic capacitor’s slots and put in another magic storage crystal that Gawain normally played with as a collection walnut. “During emergency situations, we can refresh the spellcasting power at any time… Eh? Why can’t I put it in?”
Rebecca explained very seriously, “…Lord Ancestor, previously, you didn’t mention that the crystal in the magic capacitor would need to be switched out. Therefore, when Egg Egg assembled them, he had made the slots for one-time usage. When you pulled out the crystal, the base had already deformed.”
Heidi quickly followed up. “Of course, the slots can be adjusted again, and it is a small problem. It is more important for Ancestor to speak of your idea!”
Gawain: “…”
Gawain had already forgotten the last time he had been successful when trying to act cool.
He quickly overlooked the awkwardness and put on a serious face while getting back to the main topic. “Heidi, record down this modification suggestion. Leave a convenient opening in the magic capacitor to allow soldiers to quickly switch out the exhausted crystal during battle. This way, during low-intensity or short battles, the heat-ray gun’s magic capacitor could be used for the entire battle, but during emergencies, the soldiers could still rely on external energy sources to continue the battle.”
Heidi recorded the suggestion but immediately frowned. “Ancestor, the magic capacitor that you designed was originally meant to solve the problem of the low output of the magic web unit and also the magic storage period of inferior crystals. But if the soldiers have to switch crystals in combat, how will their ‘spare crystals’ maintain the magic? Could it be that they have to use expensive and superior magic storage crystals as spare crystals?”
“That would defeat the purpose.” Gawain smiled and shook his head. “The mass production of low-grade magic storage crystals is the true treasure of the military army. You mentioned that the magic in low-grade crystals would disperse over time during the combat. This means that we simply need to design something for the soldiers to carry that wouldn’t allow the magic to disperse, right?”
Gawain merely gave a slight advice, and Rebecca’s brain had already started to revolve rapidly and generated an idea within a few seconds with a ding. “We can design a larger ‘capacitor’ that is similar to the magic capacitor, like a box that is assembled with many magic web units. Its function will be to store the crystals and to slowly recharge the crystals. It should fit about eight to ten spare crystals, and as long as the base plate is made thinner, the weight wouldn’t exceed the spare blades that soldiers normally carry. They simply have to bring one or two fewer spare blades, and they would be able to carry a storage box like this.”
Sir Byron, who wasn’t really interested in the heat-ray gun, had been attracted by this discussion. He couldn’t help but continue to elaborate on Rebecca’s idea. “This way, the magic storage crystals that the soldiers carry along will not disperse energy and would be constantly recharged. When they switch out the exhausted crystals and put them back in the storage box, the exhausted crystals would fully recharge during combat. In an extended battle, an additional recharged crystal might actually save their lives!”
“A combat field pack that goes along with the heat-ray gun…” Gawain smiled and looked at Rebecca. “This thing’s principle is very simple, but you need to reduce the weight of the magic web unit and to ensure that the recharging efficiency doesn’t decrease too. I will leave the design to you.”
Rebecca stomped her staff on the ground and spoke with a pleased and upward-looking face, “Don’t worry, Lord Ancestor! I am very good at this! I will finish it in a few days!”
Her imposing manner felt like she was planning to carry a giant hammer to charge into the battlefield for a massacre…
“Apart from that, we still need to enhance the heat-ray gun’s ‘interchangeability’ and ‘ability to expand’.” Gawain nodded as an indication for Heidi to continue recording while speaking to Nicholas Egg. “Let the mechanical manufacturing facility split the heat-ray gun into separate parts that can be mass produced. My requirement is for most of the components to be easily disassembled and interchangeable, for each component to have low processing difficulty and be durable, especially for the Scorching Ray’s base plate. If possible, we should standardize the magic conductor between the connections of base plates, allowing it to be assembled freely. It also means that the heat-ray gun can now be fitted with the Scorching Ray magic circle, but it will also be able to fit in other general base plates and turn into other weapons, or even defensive tools or work tools. I shall call this ‘modularity’.”
Heidi involuntarily stopped her pen as she widened her eyes slightly. Modularity was a word that she had heard Gawain mentioning a few times, but it was only now that she finally realized what it could achieve.
As the discussion of the heat-ray gun and the combat field pack was gradually getting fixed, a foreigner stepped into the western side of the new Cecil territory.
It was a robust man with a strong sense of existence.
He had light brown short hair. The top of his hair was lacking in care and was messy, while his beard seemed to be badly shaved. It was obvious that he wasn’t very meticulous when shaving as there were beard stubbles of uneven length left at the chin. His face looked like he had gone through hardships as his face had lost all luster but still had unswerving determination. In his deep eye sockets were a pair of eyes that had brilliance unlike the commoners of this era.
As compared to his face, the thing that was more eye-catching was this man’s state and clothes.
He was covered in dust but looked very energetic. He was wearing a priest’s attire belonging to the Church of Holy Light, but that priest robe was very obviously shabby. His waist had a bible tied to it, and his chest had a sacred crest. He looked like a cleric, but his robust stature made him look more like a warrior.
He was so robust that it looked as though he could punch evil cult followers to death. He was walking on a path of rocks on the Cecil territory; his shoes were already ruined beyond recognition after the long journey. He wiped the sweat on his forehead and lowered his head to look at the document in his hand:
The committee sends The Lord’s loyal servant, Cleric Wright Awiken, to leave for the southern borders, propagate the teachings of The Lord, and spread the way of the Holy Light.
[1] Dumpling – in the web series Candle in the Tomb, dumpling is a code word for corpse