Thinking of other possible uses of cameras, I make a 190 degree camera mounted on a 30cm stick that transmits the image at a 4000 x 4000 resolution via radio. Each pixel will have 5 'bytes' to represent the typical R,G,B, infrared and mana intensity. Although it was hard to define each color, I succeeded by calculating the intensity of many small EM radiation spectrums and representing it using my system. As I will transmit this information via radio waves, I have to digitise all of this information and encode this information in such a way that minimizes errors due to radio transmission. After that is done, I setup the screen and now I have remote view camera. As my objective was to build an early warning system, I can cross out the most important part now, but now I have to write the software that will analyse the given video stream and decide if an alarm should sound. I decide to put this off for later. Right now I want to create a high caliber gun for stronger enemies.

If my current gun is best described as a light weapon designed for close range combat (10-200m) and has good burst fire of 12 rounds in about 6 seconds while having no sustained fire capabilities with low stopping power. What I want to create is a weapon designed for long range that can kill an armored rank 2 mage with one shot. In other words I want to build a high caliber sniper rifle or an anti-material rifle (AMR). I decide that the bullet diameter will be 2cm, the total length will 6 cm, first 3cm of a cylinder then 3cm with a slightly rounded cone. Each bullet will be enchanted to strengthen atomic bonds which will lower the fragility somewhat and improve armor penetration. I will not change bullet material and use carbon again to make diamond bullets, like the diamond shot of my current gun. The barrel will follow the same construction method as my current pistol but its length will be 60cm with no muzzle break and a barrel thickness of 1 cm.

The barrel itself weighs similarly to my pistol. For the method of propulsion I will use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The combustion chamber will be made the same way as the barrel but with 20% more thickness in the walls and holes for the fuel injectors. Between the combustion chamber and bullet inserter there is a flow smoother to remove unwanted turbulence. After a few days of gathering carbon, experimenting with the bullet inserter and making the gun itself I am finally finished. A few experiments with the blast chamber were needed to find an optimal fuel mixture, an amount that is safely under the pressure needed for the blast chamber to explode. I make and enchant 10 bullets manually, I put 5 into a magazine and load up the gun, now I wonder when will I be able to field test this beauty. The overall mass is almost 5 kg, compared to modern anti-material rifles it is very light but for some reason I have little doubt that it will outperform a .50 cal anti-material rifle in stopping power thanks to its mostly magical nature. To make the weapon actually useable at the ranges I want of +300m I attach a bipod and 10x magnification scope enchanted with my combat overlay. The resulting gun length is 80 cm with the stock folded away, packing up the gun in my backpack has the barrel sticking out but otherwise it is an acceptable method of transportation.

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Setting aside the matter of my new AMR, my progress on the physical aspect of fighting is pretty much non existent, at least I see it that way. I am still beaten up but now I know how to cover myself better to minimize the beating. Kate has been in a more non talkative mood than usual and has barely said any words since we returned, while Aelynthi mostly ignores me. I think Aelynthi does not even concentrate on my intent when I try to talk to her... They do talk between themselves in a language that does not sound like elvish, most likely about magic.

Returning to the matter of my combat strength I decide to make a copy of my current pistol and a sword. Mostly because I have no melee combat capability and my pistol can not sustain fire while my sniper rifle is obviously not made for cqc. Thinking of different options for a sword, I go with a 20cm handle and a 80cm long blade with a core of carbon nanotube weaved textile and then covered by graphene, the sword edge is the edge of 2 graphene sheets that come together, with thousands of layers before we reach the CNTW. A simple enchantment for atomic bond strength, self repair and it is done. A blade that is extremely durable and has an edge thickness measured in nanometers. I love magic! The sword weight is about 2 kilograms, the performance is fantasy like, out of the surrounding materials the only thing that can somewhat resist being cut is enchanted CNTW textile and enchanted diamond but when applying force nothing I know can stop it, I have not gotten the opportunity to try dragon scales because asking Kate for some may not be such a good idea.

I return to my older project, the alarm and cameras. I create a 5cm ball which will be the core that receives the video feeds and will decide whether to sound an alarm or not. I modify the cameras to send an image of the surroundings every 0.5 seconds as constant transmission, digitalization and encoding of the video consumes a noticeable amount of power and I do not need a high frequency for the alarm to be functional. I enchant the core to support up to 20 video feeds, mark up to 50 individuals as a source of heat and non ambient mana, scan for new sources of heat and new sources of non ambient mana every 0.5 seconds, if found new source then raise alarm. I do not add motion detection as that would require a higher frame rate and a much more complex process. This security system has a weight similar to my 2 pistols and does not take up much volume in my backpack, it's really just a bundle of sticks and a 5cm diameter ball. I did make a 5cm x 15cm monitor that can be mounted on my arm to check video streams when I wish to, especially useful if the alarm sounds. Another thing that I added, just in case, is a low mana alarm which transmits to the core from each of the cameras and the core itself has such an alarm even if it is unlikely such a thing is needed due to the low mana usage of the artifacts as they easily keep themselves charged on ambient mana. The last thing was a lost signal alarm that sounds when one of the cameras stops sending its feed. Before leaving this project and starting on my next one I fix another weakness by adding a seismic activity sensor on each camera stick, with the appropriate reaction from the core. This perimeter security system can easily have a functional radius of 50 meters which I think is good enough for its job.