Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 372 - 371: Soldrin’s Order

Soldrin was not an expert in magic guide technology, nor did he really understand how Gawain’s machines and mass-produced arrays operated. But he was at least an experienced warrior and a well-traveled adventurer—he could see the tremendous advantages and vast prospects of these unprecedented and incredible magic-infused technologies, and could broadly imagine the sorts of environments in which these weapons could be used. That was enough.

Of course, Soldrin himself knew that the judgments made based on his past experience would likely still be insufficient. The power of the new-style weapons was too immense, and their concepts too advanced. In the Cecil territory, the idea of "enabling every ordinary person to unleash world-destroying magic power" was a crazed yet real tendency. Thus, the High-ranked Ranger Sir himself was also uncertain to what extent those armaments would ultimately develop, but there was one thing he was sure about—he knew what he wanted.

"The leader has ordered me to train a Steel Cavalry, a brand new type of troop, and has also assigned me the task of designing new weapons and testing new tactics. You know, this is a very challenging task," Soldrin said with a smile—because of the ever-humorous smile on Mr. Nicholas Egg’s face, every conversation partner could not help but smile, "So I have some rather... forward-thinking ideas. We might find a quiet place to discuss those design schemes in detail."

"Of course, we can go to the Mechanical Manufacturing Facility," Nicholas Egg buzzed, rising into the air, "Hmm... the Craftsman Hall has too many people, let’s go to my office."

Nicholas Egg’s office was right next to the Craftsman Hall. It’s both his office and his usual residence. Apart from Rebecca and Gawain, few people went to visit this room—outsiders probably found it hard to imagine how a sphere with a diameter of 1.3 meters lived or rested. Soldrin was equally curious, and upon entering this cylindrical room, he saw many rather peculiar... items.

He saw many metal columns of varying heights arranged around the room, and some mirror-like metal plates embedded in the walls. The room lacked the beds and furniture human beings needed but had a circular platform in the center, ideal for Nicholas to rest on. Adjacent to the platform, Soldrin also noticed a three-tiered shelf full of various metal artworks, but their appearance was indeed bizarre. Some looked like intricately structured sails, others were interlocking rings, and some were twisted metal lumps. Soldrin believed that even the most outstanding art connoisseur would find it hard to discern the significance of these items.

"Did you make all these?" He curiously eyed the floating metal sphere ahead, "These... decorations?"

"Made those from leftover materials during spare time," Nicholas Egg buzzed, "My memory is fragmented, but sometimes vague impressions do pop up. Gawain suggested I turn those images into models to preserve them. It might help me remember something. Of course, this method hasn’t produced any results so far, but creating these little items is still quite interesting. I guess these things were objects I frequently interacted with back then, leaving such deep impressions on my Ring-shaped Polarizer—oh, that’s my memory organ. But enough about that, let’s talk about your ideas."

Soldrin’s attention immediately shifted away from the room full of "artworks." He lightly coughed and said, "First, about the current armor used by Cecil warriors—as far as I know, their magic-conducting armor has a layer of ’lining’ with various magic symbols drawn on it, right?"

"Correct. The original version of the magic-conducting armor had symbols directly engraved on the metal armor, but this often led to failure when the armor suffered impacts and vibrated, and it wasn’t conducive to upgrades or replacements. Therefore, we later added a tactical lining inside the armor, made from durable leather," Nicholas Egg explained while effortlessly picking out an iron ingot from a pile of nearby metal. The metal floated between him and Soldrin, rapidly changing shape like a liquid, and within moments, it formed the standard armor worn by current Cecil Clan warriors. Additionally, the different parts of the armor separated and were displayed in front of Soldrin. "This part—this is where the tactical lining is.

"Tactical lining is much like padded or leather armor worn inside steel armor, but its primary function is to carry symbols, so its coverage and protective power are lower than those of leather armor—this is also to reduce costs," Nicholas Egg continued, "Currently, the symbols integrated into the tactical lining mainly include the Weight-Reduction spell to lessen the burden of the armor on the soldier; inferior Elemental Protection to enhance the soldier’s resistance to low-level magic; and the Wind Shield, which can resist certain levels of external attacks and repel toxic environments. In addition, we’ve set high-temperature and low-temperature resistant symbols, although they’re inferior, they’re sufficient to allow soldiers to survive longer in many extreme environments."

Looking at this set of armor that could almost transform any ordinary person into a low-power Transcendent, Soldrin marveled and couldn’t help but ask curiously: "Do all these things rely on the combat field pack for energy?"

"Indeed, inside the combat field pack is a high-powered magic capacitor, and in addition to charging the weapon crystals, excess energy is supplied to this set of armor," Nicholas Egg oscillated up and down a little, "The biggest energy-consuming unit inside the armor is the Weight-Reduction spell, but it’s also the most crucial part—without it, the soldiers’ physical energy consumption would increase multiply."

Soldrin gave it some thought and said, "If we forego this steel armor, or just keep the lightweight plates, while also reducing the number of crystals carried, could we also reduce the weight of the combat field pack?"

"...Theoretically, that’s correct," Nicholas Egg pondered, "But this would greatly reduce protection..."

"We could substitute by adding Stone Skin Runes on the lining—though its effect would be weaker than the sturdy steel armor forged in the Cecil territory, it can provide soldiers with protection against ordinary lightweight sword strikes. Additionally, as Stone Skin Runes are a kind of basic magic circle, their energy consumption is far lesser than formal spells like Weight-Reduction," Soldrin expressed his thoughts, "According to my concept, Steel Cavalry is not a troop that should confront enemies head-on. Even if forced to storm the enemy, we would leave immediately after one strike—so better save the weight of the armor and combat field pack for other uses."

"Understood, I’ll consider the scheme," Nicholas Egg said while replicating the items Soldrin needed using another metal ingot, "Besides this?"

"Regarding weapons, apart from equipping with heat-ray guns and force field shields on the magic transmission terminal, I hope the Steel Cavalry can have some more powerful offensive weapons..." Soldrin said, as he couldn’t help but recall the dangerous encounter at the Typhon Borderline last winter, thinking of the mysterious Oblivion Cultist and his battle with them.

"In real combat, I discovered one thing, and that is traditional spell skills have their limits. Personal talent, battlefield environment, and the caster’s physical condition—there are too many factors that can affect the effect of a spell, but magic infantry is different... as long as you have the strength to pull the trigger, it will definitely exert a reliable power... and it’s impossible to defend against," Soldrin wore a serious expression, "That’s what the crystal grenade taught me..."

Nicholas Egg paused for a moment and couldn’t help but ask, "So, what exactly are you trying to say?"

"What I want to say is... those things that explode with just a pull of a ring or press of a button, they’re amazing!" Soldrin’s face broke into a bright smile, "They faithfully achieve your goals in any situation. I hope every soldier of the Steel Cavalry can use these loyal weapons... let me be blunt, the magic crystal railgun, how small can it be made?"

Nicholas Egg was stunned for a few seconds before he responded, "What?!"

"I’ve seen the initial version of the ’Justice-I’ magic crystal railgun and also the lightweight ’Persuader-I’ acceleration gun," said Soldrin. "’Persuader’ is almost one-fifth the size of ’Justice,’ capable of being pulled by a carriage, but it’s said to still topple city walls—as per Miss Rebecca’s statement, the acceleration rail can actually be further miniaturized, and if powered by storage crystals, the heavy overload devices and energy bases can be omitted. She once told me a plan to extremely lighten the acceleration railgun, and I think this plan is feasible..."

Nicholas Egg listened dumbfoundedly until Soldrin finished, then spoke after a while, "...so, you just said you wanted to reduce the armor weight, and I thought you were going with a lightweight approach for the Steel Cavalry... and now you’re saying you want them to carry small magic crystal railguns?! Do you know that even when lightened, that thing is quite big?"

"I must emphasize two points: firstly, Steel Cavalry does not have to carry all weapons in every mission. I want to design a ’weapon arsenal’ for them, used collectively by the entire Cavalry Troop. Depending on the mission requirements, each soldier will carry different equipment. The miniaturized magic crystal railgun is just one of their backup weapons; secondly, lightweight armor and heavy weapons are not contradictory. In the Silver Empire, the Elf Patrol Guards have a type of heavy javelin thrower whose weapons are heavy disposable javelins. They are lightly armored soldiers, and to carry the javelin and facilitate throwing, their upper bodies sometimes only have leather chest armor—but they are the most dangerous hunters in the forest. I hope the Steel Cavalry can achieve a similar effect."

"...Alright, alright, you clearly know your field, I’ll consult the people at the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute," Nicholas Egg was persuaded while recording Soldrin’s requirements, saying, "Other than lightweight single-soldier railguns, what else do you need?"

"Tactical scopes with detection distortion effects—I know they’ve already been developed, just not listed yet. I hope to try them out first."

"Alright."

"A kind of small blade that’s easy to carry and wield, I have a design, it’s an Elf Short Dagger—but I hope you can modify it into a Melting Sword. Can the Melting Sword be miniaturized?"

"A bit challenging, but I can give it a try. It might come at the cost of reduced continuous usage time."

"Acceptable. Additionally, I hope to increase the soldiers’ grenade carrying capacity, preferably with additional grenade slots on their armor—but without affecting mobility."

"...I figured... speaking of which, do all elves have this combat style?"

"Not really," Soldrin shrugged dismissively, "None of them have my insight."

Saint Nicholas Egg: "..."