Chapter 276: Weaknesses and Inspirations

To many, the development of the Cecil Domain was nothing short of a miracle—even its own administrators sometimes found themselves thinking that way. Indeed, compared to most noble domains of this era, Cecil had surpassed all expectations in every aspect, from improving the livelihoods of its people to strengthening its military forces. Yet, Gawain never saw it that way.

His imagined enemy was never the mediocre frontier nobles, nor the long-established powers in the capital. From the day he inherited Gawain Cecil’s memories, from the moment he learned of the existence of the magical cataclysm, his true adversaries were forces far beyond the current reach of humanity. And facing those enemies, the power he commanded was still woefully insufficient.

“They have intelligence,” Hetty spoke up as soon as Gawain finished, “Though their thinking isn’t very advanced, they clearly possess some level of cognition—they assess the battlefield, judge the range of our catapults, and hold their attacks until they’re safely out of harm’s way. They can even command their ‘troops.’ If their command skills improve any further, we wouldn’t have won so easily.”

Amber, sitting on Gawain’s other side, couldn’t help but interject, “I didn’t detect any intelligence when I scouted them.”

“That just means their intelligence isn’t fully developed, or their behavior patterns differ from humans,” Gawain said without surprise. “Aberrations are goal-driven creatures—that won’t change. So before they identify a target, even those with some intelligence won’t waste energy on unnecessary actions. That’s why they seem no different from other monsters before launching an attack. But this battle has at least given us some valuable experience.”

“Also, we exposed a problem during this fight,” Gawain continued. “When dealing with those big brutes, ordinary soldiers’ attacks were clearly insufficient, and the catapults… their accuracy was too poor.”

In the latter half of the battle, three giant aberrations crossed the midline of the battlefield, entering the effective range of the thermal ray guns. While the scorching beams were effective against regular aberrations, they revealed a glaring weakness against these massive creatures—they struggled to penetrate their thick hides, and even when they did, the small area of effect barely harmed these monsters that resembled small houses. The mutated beasts quickly realized this, which is why they brazenly stopped in front of the city gates, gathering strength for an assault. Honestly, if it weren’t for Rebecca’s final, massive fireball, it could have been very dangerous if those three large aberrations had unleashed their black lightning.

As for the crystallized grenades used as secondary weapons by individual soldiers—their power posed some threat to the giants, but their short range was a major drawback, and the physical toll on soldiers was another. Plus, the grenades had delayed explosions and slow flight speeds, making them ineffective against these somewhat intelligent giants.

In fact, only the crystallized bombs launched by catapults could easily take down those giants. But the catapults themselves had glaring flaws—their accuracy was terrible, range limited, loading slow, and they drained soldiers’ stamina (though this could be mitigated with mechanical power). Before switching to crystallized bombs as ammunition, their firepower was pitiful. Honestly, having such an awkwardly mismatched weapon on the southern walls of Cecil was a desperate compromise born of technical limitations.

And these were just the flaws Byron and the others could understand. Gawain knew the catapults’ shortcomings ran deeper—they could only lob projectiles, lacking any armor-piercing capability. Whether throwing stones or bombs, without direct-fire ability, they were ineffective against sturdy city walls. The idea of tossing bombs over the walls into enemy cities sounded great, but as long as traditional noble castles’ walls stood firm, the nature of warfare wouldn’t change.

Though Gawain’s ultimate enemy was the magical cataclysm and its related disasters, he understood that before facing nature’s wrath, he first had to contend with the worldly powers of this world. Given the continent’s unstable situation, he had to develop weapons capable of breaching traditional fortresses.

Otherwise, the Cecil Domain might not survive long enough to confront the cataclysm.

“The catapult that hurls crystallized bombs is the most powerful weapon I’ve seen so far,” Knight Philip said upon hearing Gawain’s words. “Unless… we can create a new weapon, as easy to operate as the thermal ray gun but on a much larger scale.”

In a world where gunpowder-propelled weapons had never appeared, Gawain found it hard to explain the concept of “cannons” to others. But he could describe their characteristics, and after hearing his explanation, everyone fell into deep thought.

Hetty was the first to break the silence. “The key problem is launching the ‘projectile’ at extremely high speed in a straight line. We’ve made powerful ammunition, but we can’t ‘fire’ it properly. Is that what you mean?”

“Exactly. I’ve considered repulsion arrays,” Gawain nodded. “But repulsion arrays lack explosive force and can’t give the projectile enough initial velocity. Using something like an acceleration track with multiple repulsion points arranged at precise angles to continuously speed up the projectile is theoretically possible. But from my rough calculations, even with the most efficient repulsion plates and optimal spacing, the acceleration track would need to be tens of meters long to give the projectile enough power and range. Otherwise, it’s no better than a catapult.”

After a long silence, Kamail suddenly spoke up. “Does it have to be a physical ‘projectile’?”

Gawain raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “You have another idea? That would be even better. Physical projectiles are just one approach. Any solution that works is welcome.”

“During the Gondor era, we had a weapon called the Arcane Pulsar,” Kamail explained. “It compressed immense arcane energy within a focusing device and then released it directionally—its power was tremendous. Essentially, it was like a massive arcane missile.”

Gawain frowned. “The Arcane Pulsar… I know of it, but you also know it was powered by the Deep Blue Mana Wells—the ammunition was pure mana crystals containing concentrated energy from those wells. Each shot consumed a crystal, which is impossible to replicate in this era.”

“Yes, the Deep Blue Wells—their pure, potent mana is our greatest limitation,” Kamail admitted. “But today I saw something that might… partially solve this problem.”

Everyone’s curiosity immediately focused on Kamail. Amber couldn’t help but ask, “What is it?”

Kamail raised his arm, and a sculpted mana hand formed, picking up a pile of unremarkable metal devices nearby.

Gawain leaned in for a closer look and was surprised to see a series of rune plates connected like a belt, with some rune structures clearly modified privately. He paused for a moment, then realized, “Isn’t this the thing Rebecca was wearing?”

Amber looked at Kamail in surprise. “Wow, so you have a habit of ‘borrowing’ stuff too?”

Kamail shot Amber a glare that made her flicker a few times before she reluctantly explained, “This was left on the city wall when you took Rebecca away. Forgot about it?”

“…Seems so.”

Gawain cut off their banter. “Anyway, what exactly is this?”

Tyr, who had been lazily curled under the table but listening intently, suddenly popped out and pointed her tail at the pile of metal plates. “Rebecca said it’s an amplifier. That’s all I know.”

Then the sea witch curled back up like a hibernating snake, tucking herself into a neat ball again.

“From what I can tell, these are mana field receivers, along with some modifications to balance the load,” Kamail spread out the plates. “Rebecca’s idea was simple—since an individual’s mana reserves are limited, she connected herself to the entire mana network through these receivers, intending to use the network as her mana reservoir and cast spells through it. The result? We all saw it—she successfully created an unprecedentedly massive fireball, proving the concept works.

“But there’s a limit: the human body. It restricts her potential. After casting that huge fireball, she passed out. However… machines and steel don’t have those limits. Or even if they can’t withstand the pressure, they can be mass-produced and consumed.

“So, if we install these amplifiers on a specific weapon, we could recreate the glory of the Arcane Pulsar.”

Gawain’s eyes widened. “You mean the mana network… no, the mana field could serve as the energy source for an ‘Arcane Pulsar’?”

“No, I don’t intend to replicate the Arcane Pulsar,” Kamail said firmly. “The Deep Blue Wells can’t be duplicated, and neither can the arcane pulsars powered by their mana. I’m just inspired by these amplifiers and today’s massive fireball. If we can control sufficiently powerful energy and redistribute it properly—discarding the mental shackles of ‘personal talent’—we wouldn’t be limited by specific spells or so-called ‘skills.’ Like that fireball today… was it really just a ‘fireball’ spell?”

Honestly, that thing had already transcended the concept of a fireball. At this rate, Gawain half expected Rebecca to conjure a sun next.

“Pure mana gathered together is a formidable force. The Arcane Pulsar was based on this idea. So, by extracting energy from the mana network and concentrating it for attack, it might be feasible. And unlike the irreplaceable Deep Blue Wells, the mana network is entirely under human control.”

(End of chapter)