So heres the link to my new work. do rate and comment on it to tell me how you like it. One Of A Kind
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The taverns and bars located near the wall were jammed pack with people the night of the attack. Everybody was in a celebratory mood as the booze flowed like a river. Adventurers, craftsmen, guards and nobles alike, they were all in an exceedingly ecstatic mood as loud roars of laughter flooded out of the various institutes onto the streets. Nobody slept that night as they all cheered for their unexpected victory.
Rumours spread like wildfire under these circumstances. News were exaggerated to give more impact as the valour, courage and deeds of many brave men and women became ever more glorious with each mouth they passed. Naturally, the hottest topic was the hottest new arrival in Mayheir city – the blood maiden. Some say she was an unprecedented genius magus, casting godly spells no one has ever seen before. Others disagreed, saying she was a courageous swordsman, capable destroying an entire wave of enemies, raise the earth, cleave mountains and split oceans with a single swing of her famous indestructible blood sword. One thing everyone agreed though, was that without her, the city was sure to have met its demise today.
In the meantime however, the person who was the talk of the town was nowhere near the city. She, along with her birdman accomplice and a small grey fox were standing in a forest clearing, where no one would spot them. Facing them was a couple. An elf, and a human. This was the ideal time to meet up to discuss each of their findings, and plan their next step.
“Good job my baby. Now you are the talk of the town. I’m sure you’ll be recognised wherever you go within the city,” Isana beamed as she hurriedly hugged her dearest daughter. It had been almost a month since she had seen or talked to her baby and while she enjoyed a little quiet time with her husband, it still hurt on the inside.
“Well done Kina. You completed your tasks splendidly. Do you want me to inspect your sword for any damages?” Kiefer asked, stepping up to his daughter who was taller than him, pointing to the giant sword that is stuck in the ground.
“Damages? Why? I haven’t used it much since I came to the city. I’ve only used it to chop some trees, but I doubt wood is going to have any effect on the blade,” Kina replied, with a confused but amused look on her face.
“What do you mean you haven’t used it? We clearly saw you fighting against the wave of metal spiders with your sword earlier today. Come let me see if it has any scratches or chips,” Kiefer rebutted, confused as well. There was no reason for his daughter to hide anything from him. Both Isana and he clearly saw her wielding the blade against the wave during the day.
“Ahaha, I think you probably mistook someone else for your daughter,” Rose laughed, interrupting the family conversation. “She only used magic today. Maybe there is someone out there who admires her and was trying to imitate her?”
“That’s odd…” Isana mumbled, clearly remembering what she saw. A Titan’s memory was not something so unreliable. They are said to have near eidetic memory, being able to remember events that transpired millions of years ago. Maybe there was truly someone who had mimicked their daughter so well they mistook them for her.
“Anyways…” Kina spoke up to cut the awkward silence short. “There is definitely something odd about today’s attack. You’ve seen the city’s defence methods. It’s practically non-existent. We’ve ventured deep into the woods and discovered that the force that attacked today, was merely a small percentage of what they have lying in wait for us.”
“If that’s what you are saying, does that mean the demons could wipe out the city at any time, but have chosen not to? They have let the city win each and every attack so far on purpose? But why do that?” Kiefer wondered out loud.
“Yes, that’s what we think is most likely happening. Today we saw but a few broodmothers emerge from the forest after defeating the first wave. But when we checked it out earlier, there were hundreds to thousands of broodmothers surrounding the perimeter of the city.” Rose explained.
“Ok. And what’s the combat ability of the broodmothers like? Are you able to handle them yourselves?” Isana asked, concerned about the sheer size of the enemy’s army.
“Oh they are nothing to worry about. They are weak. They adopt the concept of quantity over quality, so a wide AoE spell would handle them easily,” Kina shrugged.
“Ok. So then, that’ll be easy. We just need to stir up the hornet’s nest and see where it leads us to. Since you are already well known for your combat abilities, Kina and Rose, you will be in charge of wrecking the demon’s plans. They have laid siege on the city and you need to destroy it. The bigger the mess you make, the better. It’ll throw their plans into the air. Even better, do it without anyone knowing. As long as the enemy leaders know it’s you that is being a torn in their sides, that’ll be sufficient. Meanwhile, Sana and I will do some low-key investigations within the city. We need to know who came up with this weak-ass defence scheme.” Kiefer immediately organised his thoughts and assigned everyone their tasks.
“Oh, and dad,” Kina suddenly remembered something. “I’m raising a private army of sorts. I need you to do some modification to the gauss cannon from the jets. Can you do it? It’s back in my mansion.”
“You have a mansion?” Isana asked in a surprised tone.
“Do you need me to do it or are you just lacking the materials to do the modification? I want to avoid being seen with you if possible,” Kiefer reconfirmed her request.
“Umm, a little of both actually. It’ll be faster if you do it since you are already an expert on modifying weaponry. Plus, No one goes into the shed where I store the weapon, so I can just teleport you directly inside and you can work there without being seen.” Kina explained.
“Ahaha. So you want to lock your father up inside a small shed and have him work for you for free? Like some child labourer working in inhumane conditions?” Isana chuckled from the side, stifling her laughter as best as she could.
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“Well.. it’s not like he can’t leave. He can always teleport out anytime he wants…” Kina pouted, lowering her head and facing the ground in embarrassment.
“Fine. Just tell me what you want done. I’ll see what I can do,” Kiefer sighed. She was his daughter and as a father, it would be improper to reject her requests. Besides, it wasn’t an impossible request and she did admit to being inferior to him, which doesn’t come easily, so he let it slide.
With that said, Kina teleported Rose and Kiefer to the mansion while Isana returned to her quiet inn to rest for the night. There were plenty of things to consider and the most pressing issue seems to be that there might be spies within the city. Kiefer may not have mentioned it out loud, but he had already informed her of his suspicions telepathically.
What he said had made sense. Since the demon army had yet to destroy the city, it can only mean that they are waiting for something that is crucial for them within the city. And the only way to confirm the time to overrun the city would be of there were spies within the city informing the leader of the demon army of the city’s current status. The problem though, was the vast diversity of races within the city. A demon could easily blend in and even her mana pulse would not be able to tell their mana signatures apart from the rest of the non-demon folk.
Kiefer in the meantime, was staring at the gauss cannon laid out on the workshop bench inside a dimly lit shed. Next to the cannon were plenty of raw materials which he had taken out from his PD. However, he had to first lay down a large high-elf rune around the shed to eliminate all noise that came from within. Next was a rune which emitted a thin film of violently vibrating mana particles, which would disrupt with a person’s mana and cause any one crossing the line to feel nauseated. Finally, he could begin working on his new toy.
He hadn’t embarked on a project as big as this since designing and building Icarus. Kina had explained the key points that needed to be changed to the gun. The cannon needed a new power source and a sturdier chassis to withstand impact. It needed shock absorbers to reduce recoil as well as a heat shield to protect the wielder from burning himself every time a round fires. Finally, he needed to modify the cannon to give it some kind of aiming attachment, like iron sights or a scope.
Looking at all the components, Kiefer couldn’t help but sigh and wish Rashael was here to help. Things would go so much faster with that bird around and he missed the days when they tried to outdo each other. One modification after another was laid in place as the originally dull looking gauss cannon was now riddled with runes that were either engraved onto its surface or added on with mithril.
To solve the power problem was relatively easy. All Kiefer had to do was to add a mana storage unit made from moon stone, attach a rune to convert mana into electricity, and then connect it to the overhanging power cables where Kina had plucked the cannon from the jet. Next was the lining of the barrel with a thin layer of orihalcom with runes inscribed on the interior to execute a simple frost spell each time mana is channelled from the mana bank to power a shot. With this, the easier tasks were settled by dawn.
Next was the construction of a variable magnification scope. For the lens, Kiefer used the rare crystals he obtained from Feir. They were almost transparent and could change their density based on the mana surging through them. With this, made simple lens out of the crystals and experimented with the quantity of mana and how much the lens diffracted light for a day to finally come up with a chart of results.
The rest was relatively simple since he merely needed to use mithril wires to channel mana from the mana bank to a variable controller located near the trigger, which then leads to the lenses within the scope. The end result was a scope capable of magnifying 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 times. The tricky part though, was adjusting the lenses within the scope to move to set distances with each setting to ensure a crisp image.
Finally, the toughest part was modifying the cannon to accommodate the recoil from firing projectiles at supersonic speed. Because the railgun fashion of the gauss cannon uses electricity to propel ferromagnetic projectiles, the recoil was much lesser compared to gunpowder filled cartridges from ancient rifles. However, given how far the rounds travelled, even the slightest recoil would still make a big difference in where the round landed.
Since Kina mentioned that this cannon was going to be fired while held like a traditional rifle by a half giant, Kiefer decided to create a vest that included a shoulder brace, a waist belt and a foothold out of orihalcom and gravitite. The cannon would be secured to the shoulder brace which is connected to the waist belt and then extends down to a custom made foothold which has spiked soles that digs into the ground. Upon firing, mana is channelled into the entire vest, causing it to stiffen into a solid frame, turning it into a temporary turret stand, which supplied the required stability.
Of course, he did not stop there. Taking a look at the projectiles used by the cannon, Kiefer decided to modify them, coating the tips with orihalcom to give it extra armour piercing capabilities. To add to that, Kiefer also added an extension to the barrel. The extension was 60 cm long and cylindrical in shape with a rune carved on the interior every 20cm. When supplied with mana, this generates an acceleration rune at each interval, stacking a total of 4 acceleration runes, which will increase the muzzle velocity by 600 times.
By the time all the modifications were done, Kiefer finally teleported back to his room in the inn to take a break. It had been an exhausting 3 days, but he was quite satisfied with his work. While he still had to return to modify more of the ammunition, what he had done for now was sufficient. All that’s left is for Kina to give it to the tiger half giant to try it out and then make minor adjustments.