Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 277 - 276: Weaknesses and Inspiration

In the eyes of many, the development of the Cecil territory is already considered a miracle—even the administrators of the Cecil territory themselves are inevitably thinking this way. Indeed, compared to most noble territories of this era, the Cecil territory has surpassed common sense in every aspect, whether it is in the construction of civil welfare or military power changes. However, Gawain never thought so.

The imaginary enemy in Gawain’s mind was never those mediocre frontier aristocrats, nor even the long-established powers in the royal capital. From the day he inherited the memories of Gawain Cecil, from the day he became aware of the existence of the chaotic wave, his imaginary enemies have been things beyond the current human strength, and to face these enemies, the power he currently holds is far from enough.

"Those monsters have intelligence," Aunt Heidi spoke as soon as Gawain’s words fell, "Although their thinking ability doesn’t seem very strong, they clearly have a certain level of cognitive ability—they can assess the situation on the battlefield, judge the attack range of a catapult and charge up for an attack in a safe zone, they can even command ’armies’—if their command ability improves a little more, we wouldn’t have won so easily."

Amber, sitting on the other side of Gawain, couldn’t help but say, "I didn’t detect any intelligence in them during my reconnaissance."

"This means that their intelligence is not well-developed, or their behavior patterns differ from humans," Gawain was not surprised by this, "Aberrations are a kind of creature with clear targets, and this attribute does not change. So, before encountering an attack target, even aberrations with intelligence won’t do anything extra, which makes them appear no different from other monsters before launching an attack. But after this incident, we at least gained some experience."

"Moreover, a problem was exposed in this battle," Gawain continued, "When dealing with those large creatures, the attack capability of ordinary soldiers is clearly insufficient, and the catapults... the hit rate is too low."

In the latter half of the battle, three gigantic monsters crossed the middle section of the battlefield, which was already within the range of the heat-ray guns, but the scorching rays that were effective against ordinary aberrations showed firepower limitations when facing those enormous monsters—they had difficulty penetrating the enemy’s body, and even if they did, the small damage area made it hard to harm those monsters that were like small houses. Those mutated monsters seemed to realize this quickly, so they dared to stop swaggeringly in front of the city gate and gather strength to prepare an attack—to be honest, if not for Rebecca’s final super large fireball, it would have been dangerous if those three large aberrations managed to unleash black lightning.

As for the crystal grenades used as individual sidearms... their power could pose some threat to the gigantic monsters, but the attack range is insufficient on one hand, and the physical exertion on soldiers is another drawback. Additionally, the delayed explosion of crystal grenades, combined with their slow flight speed, makes the effect really unfavorable against giant monsters that already possess a certain intelligence.

As it turns out, only the crystal bombs thrown by the catapults could easily eliminate those huge monsters, but the weaknesses of the catapults were too obvious—they have poor hit rates, narrow shooting ranges, slow reloading that greatly exhausts the soldiers’ stamina (although mechanical power could solve this), and before using crystal bombs as ammunition, they didn’t even have decent power. It can be said that making this completely mismatched piece of equipment appear on Cecil’s South City Wall was entirely due to the helplessness of insufficient technical conditions.

And the above shortcomings are just the parts Byron and others can understand. In fact, Gawain knows that the disadvantages of catapults go far beyond these—they are entirely incapable of "armor penetration," and whether it’s rocks or bombs thrown, as long as there is no ability to shoot directly, it becomes difficult to achieve results when facing solid city walls. Throwing bombs over the city walls into the enemy’s city sounds wonderful, but as long as the city walls of traditional aristocratic castles can stand for a day, the form of war will not change.

Although Gawain’s ultimate imaginary enemy is the chaotic wave and its associated disasters, he knows clearly that before facing the forces of nature, he must first confront the secular powers of this world. Given the current unstable situation on the continent, he must first create weapons that can stand against traditional fortresses.

Otherwise, his Cecil territory might not survive to the day it can confront the chaotic wave.

"A catapult capable of hurling crystal bombs is already the most powerful weapon I have seen," Sir Philip couldn’t help but say after hearing Gawain’s words, "unless... we can manufacture a new weapon as easy to operate as heat-ray guns, but on a much larger scale."

In a world where powder-driven weapons have never appeared, it is difficult for Gawain to explain the concept of "artillery" to others, but he can describe the characteristics of artillery, and upon hearing his description, everyone fell into contemplation.

Aunt Heidi was the first to break the silence: "The key issue is to launch the ’shell’ in a straight line at a very high speed. We have already created powerful shells, but we have no way to ’launch’ them, is that what you mean?"

"Exactly, and I have considered the repulsion magic circle," Gawain nodded, "However, the repulsion magic circle lacks explosiveness and has difficulty imparting sufficient initial speed to the projectiles. Using something like an acceleration track, setting numerous suitably angled repulsion points along the acceleration path of the projectile for continuous acceleration is theoretically feasible, but I roughly calculated that even with the current most efficient repulsion substrate and the best spacing, this acceleration track needs to be dozens of meters long to give the projectile enough lethality and range, otherwise, it might as well be a catapult."

At this moment, Kamel, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke: "Must it be a physical ’projectile’?"

Gawain raised an eyebrow, a tone of expectation in his voice: "Do you have another idea? Another idea would be even better; a physical projectile is just one approach. Any idea is welcome as long as it solves the problem."

"During the times of Gondor, we had a weapon known as the Arcane Pulser, which compressed powerful arcane energy into a containment device and then released it directionally—a great force," Kamel said, "Its essence is somewhat akin to a massive arcane bullet once."

Gawain couldn’t help but frown: "Arcane Pulser... to be honest, I know about this, but you should also be aware that the Arcane Pulser is powered by the magic from the Well of Deep Blue—its ammunition is pure magic crystals, storing pure magic from the Well of Deep Blue in the crystals. Each shot results in a crystal being scrapped, which is something that simply can’t be achieved in this era."

"Yes, the Well of Deep Blue—its pure and powerful magic is our greatest limitation," Kamel acknowledged Gawain’s point, "but today I saw something that might... partially resolve this issue."

Everyone present immediately cast their curious glances at Kamel, and Amber couldn’t help but ask, "What is it?"

Kamel raised his arm, and The Sculpture Hand formed, bringing over a pile of unimpressive-looking metal devices placed not far away.

Gawain leaned in for a look and was startled to see it was a series of connected rune triggers, resembling a belt-like strange device, with some vague-use rune structures that were clearly modified privately. He was momentarily stunned upon seeing it, but quickly realized: "Isn’t this the thing that Rebecca was wearing back then?"

Amber also looked at Kamel with surprise: "Wow, so you also have the habit of pocketing things?"

Kamel flickered several times, annoyed at Amber’s remark, before helplessly explaining: "This was left on the city wall when you took Rebecca away, remember?"

"...Seems like that really happened."

Gawain interrupted the conversation between Kamel and Amber: "In any case, what is this thing?"

Tiel, who was lazily coiled under the table but had been listening with perked ears, suddenly emerged from beneath the table. She pointed at the pile of metal with the tip of her tail: "Rebecca said this is an amplifier, that’s all I know."

With that said, the sea demon shrank back again—earnestly curling herself up into a ball like a hibernating snake.

"According to my judgment, this is actually a bunch of Magic Field Receivers and some modifications for load balancing," Kamel spread out the pile of metal, "Miss Rebecca’s idea seems very simple—because individual magic reserves are limited, she connected herself to the entire Magic Web through Magic Field Receivers, intending for the entire Magic Web to serve as her magic reserve, and to use the Magic Web for spellcasting... the end result we all saw, she successfully created an unprecedented huge fireball, proving this idea’s viability."

"It’s just that her idea has a limit, which is the ’human’ itself. Human limitations restricted her performance, so after one big fireball she fainted, however... machines and steel do not fear such things, or even if machines and steel cannot withstand such pressure, they can be mass-produced and consumed."

"Therefore, as long as we install these amplifiers on a certain special weapon, we can recreate the glory of the Arcane Pulser."

Gawain couldn’t help but widen his eyes: "You mean, the Magic Web... no, the magical power field can act as the ’Arcane Pulser’s’ energy source?"

"No, I’m not planning to replicate an ’Arcane Pulser,’" Kamel denied, "The Well of Deep Blue is non-replicable, and the Arcane Pulser based on Deep Blue magic is also non-replicable. I only drew inspiration from this amplifier and today’s super fireball... if we can manipulate sufficiently strong energy, then redistribute this energy in a reasonable way, and in the process, break free from the mindset constraints of ’personal talent,’ we don’t really need to be limited by specific spells or so-called ’skills.’ Just like today’s fireball... is it really still a ’Fireball Technique’?"

To speak from the heart, that thing has really surpassed the concept of a fireball, and Gawain felt that if this trend continues, Rebecca might really intend to create a sun...

"Pure magic gathering together is a very formidable force in itself, the ’Arcane Pulser’ of yore was based on this idea, so based on the same concept, extracting energy from the Magic Web and converging it for attack purposes might also be feasible. Moreover, unlike the Well of Deep Blue, which, once lost, cannot be replicated, the Magic Web is something completely under human control."