Chapter 150 - Heat-Ray Gun (1/2)

Rebecca and Jenni were called over very quickly. They even brought a bulging bag of things; that was probably some of their ‘results’.

Upon seeing Gawain, Rebecca scooted over immediately. However, just as Gawain had expected, this girl did so to inquire about interesting happenings. “Lord Ancestor! Lord Ancestor! What did you all find in the remnants? Why did Aunt Heidi look so solemn when she came back, and Sir Byron too…”

“Cough cough.” Gawain coughed rather awkwardly and then patted Rebecca’s head. “Things are very complicated. I will tell you about it when there’s a chance, but don’t ask about it for the time being. Let’s take a look at your results first.”

Rebecca was an especially straightforward girl, but another good thing was that it was especially easy to divert her attention —— one just had to speak of a topic that she was interested in. Hearing Gawain, she instantly beamed with a smile and then started pulling out the items inside the bag with Jenni. “Yes, yes, yes. Look at these. We’ve designed the rune combinations! Let me tell you, rune logic is a really miraculous thing. Although all the runes were calculated on paper, as long as we combine them strictly according to the formulas and rules, the effect was bound to be the same as the calculated result…”

Gawain saw Rebecca take out several scrolls as well as a metal plate that was already carved with runes. His eyes brightened at once. “You two have already created the finished product?”

“A test subject.” Rebecca scratched her hair a little embarrassedly. “Because we really couldn’t resist the temptation to test and see the final effect, so we approached Egg Egg and asked for an interchangeable base plate. The two of us busied for half the afternoon and hand-carved a prototype.”

Gawain’s gaze landed on those blueprints then. He saw runes and patterns of lines that were many times more complicated than the magic web unit, but all the runes and connecting lines were even simpler and more concise than the conventional magic circle. It was a drawing style entirely different from traditional rules for drawing magic circles —— all the useless structures had been simplified; not one bit of ornamental patterns was left. Precise mathematical calculation had every rune arranged in just the right spot, and the energy ratio between all the runes had reached a perfect balance. It was exactly because of such extreme rationality that despite this magic circle having close to double the amount of effective runes than the usual ‘Scorching Ray’ magic circle, its impression instead appeared to be even more crisp and direct than a conventional magic circle.

And after this rune formation that was unusually aesthetic was carved on an interchangeable base plate that was pressed into shape through a one-time stamping by a machine, it even gave Gawain an illusion of industrial art.

Gawain picked up that interchangeable base plate. It was only the size of a palm and made of pure copper that was extremely cheap. Inside the notches of the runes, quartz sand powder and hardened blood-tree resin with a dim glow could be seen. —— No expensive materials were used, nor were there fancy carving techniques. Gawain could almost be sure that it would be extremely effortless to make such magic circles into industrial mass-produced products.

“You carved this?” He lifted his head and looked towards Jenni who was standing at the side.

Jenni quickly straightened up and nodded most respectfully. “Yes, Lord.”

Gawain laughed. “Very good… Has it been tested?”

“Yes,” Rebecca said delightedly. “It was tested using the energy supply from the Magic Web! Look, there’s a groove beside the fire rune above the sharp corner. That is where scorching rays would be released!”

Gawain looked at the interchangeable base plate. Above one of the corners of this hexagonal base plate, the final energy flushing point that was the fire rune could be seen. From the middle of the rune to the top of the base plate, a unique groove could be seen. A small section of quartz column was packed in the groove. If the magic circle was activated, scorching rays would be launched along this groove, as well as the quartz column in the groove. —— Its effective range was up to three to four hundred meters, and if a quartz column of higher grade was used, or the rune was further strengthened, its effective range still had room for improvement.

“The problem is that this thing can only be used within range of the Magic Web.” Rebecca puffed her cheeks. “Because this plate itself is unable to produce magical power, if it were to be used in a place without the Magic Web, we would have to use magic storage crystals to provide energy for it or hand it to a Mage to use it. But having a Mage use it would be rather pointless.”

Her implied meaning was that not every Mage only had one mastered skill of throwing fireballs like she did. Coming out with a scorching ray was as easy as spraying water for them; they wouldn’t need this at all…

Gawain smiled and brought out from under the desk, the ‘Magic Capacitor’ that he had been researching this whole time and that only needed to be assembled.

“I’d thought of this problem long ago, and I’ve already found a solution.”

“What is this?” Rebecca looked at the new interchangeable base plate that Gawain brought out in curiosity, and recognized the rune combination on it at one glance. “This is… Magic Web’s fundamental unit? You’re saying to use such fundamental units to supply energy to the scorching-ray magic circle? It won’t work. I’ve tried it before. The amount of energy produced by Magic Web’s fundamental unit isn’t enough at all. Four fundamental units stacked together won’t even do. It must be a large magic web…”

“But that might not be the case if these magic storage crystals are added in.” Gawain pointed at those cheap magic storage crystals on the desk and then gathered everything into the bag. “There’s no time to lose. We’ll go to the Mechanical Manufacturing Facility right now and get Nicholas Egg to help assemble these things!”

“Sure, sure!” Rebecca instantly leaped up with joy; then she tugged on Jenni who was still a little dazed and headed out. “Let’s go, let’s go! Getting Egg Egg to help is the fastest way!”

And before Gawain stood up, the nearby air suddenly contorted. Amber who’d been pretending to be absent the entire time but had actually been secretly watching throughout finally couldn’t contain herself and jumped out. “I’ll go too, I’ll go too!”

Rebecca was startled by this rascal who suddenly appeared. She shot a big fireball flying over with a casual raise of her hand. “Wah!”

If it weren’t for Gawain’s speedy reaction, dispersing the big fireball with a smack of his palm, he probably wouldn’t have been able to stay in the tent that night…