A line of power suit walked out of the warehouse. A BC-79 strapped on their back. It was easy to modify the original weapon, but it still took a bit of time. And it was worth it. The BC-79 was armed with 20 MM ammunition. It was usually used for defense turret or tank hunter airplane. It had high penetration and velocity making it the deadliest long-ranged weapon he currently had.

But that wasn't all. The soldiers reached to their waist and brandished a long, slim, slightly curved sword out of its sheath. The wavy pattern on the blade gleamed under the sun. The sword had no cross-guard. And the grip was large enough for it to be wielded with two hands.

Its appearance was deceiving because it wasn't a lightsword. Each blade weighed around 200 KG. The steel to made them was a mix of the heaviest, strongest, and sharpest materials they could find. The cost wasn't cheap. Ten of these sword matched the cost of making one power suit. And that was considering only Hax could built these suits.

One of the blacksmith stood beside Hax. He was the leader of the team and designed the sword personally.

"Do you like the sword, sir?"

"I love it. You've done a good job."

"Naturally, sir. I cannot waste such a good material. Normally it is impossible to give such a slim sword much weight, but Blaucium is extremely heavy. Sadly, it is very easy to break it. That is why I covered it with Oracle Silver, these metal is very strong that it took hours to heat. But the most important material is the Edgeskin. Taken from a level-2 magic creature, Phantomedge, their skin were sharp enough to make a cultivator bleed just by touching it. And I found a suitable name for it—Doom Sword

"That sword cost a lot," Hax said.

"I know, but it's worth it, sir."

Hax scoffed. "What's your name?"

"My name is Rolim, sir."

Hax nodded. "If your weapon proved to be effective in battle. I will keep relying on you. All the resources will be yours to use."

"I thank you, sir."

Four hundred power suit strode to the shooting field. Dozens of muscled men with Weler-150, and manufacturing bots lifted a bunch of large metal statue and put them in the field.

This would be the practice target.

His men hadn't used to the armor yet. It would be bad if they make a mistake in battle.

The soldiers approached the metal statue with a Doom Sword in hand. The sword was kind of weird where it turned into blood red for a moment then returned to its normal color. The wavy pattern seemed moving too. It wasn't a magic weapon, but it might as well.

Raising their sword, the soldiers slashed the statue and Hax didn't hear any sound of metal against metal, it was just the sound of the wind, brushing against the blade.

But the statues fell in half. The lower body was still standing, it didn't even receive any force. The cut was so smooth that a mirror might hide from shame.

"Good. This is a good sword. The cost truly justified its quality. The norms are very creative. If not for their weak body, they can wield these sword and rebel against the cultivator without any technology."

But were these sword better than a magical sword?

He doubt it. A magical sword was created by a runesmith. They were blacksmith cultivators that could imbue weapons with magic. In fact, the army had a lot of magic weapons in storage. They got it from the battle against the Royal Army, but no one could use it properly without having a spiritual energy. It was heavy too, though not as heavy as the Doom Sword.

That meant magical weapons didn't rely on their sharpness or weight, rather they rely on their magical property.

After the soldiers were satisfied with their close-range weapons, they took out their primary weapons and fired upon their target. This one was nasty.

A loud blare of sound reverberated. Metal against metal, gunpowder exploded inside the barrel. Everyone closed their ears, Hax followed. But the sound still thumped his heart, and for a moment he thought the ground was shaking.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

The weapon was much stronger than he had expected. One reason might be because the refined gunpowder that he created for the ammunition. It required more materials to make it, but the result spoke for itself.

"Stop!" Balmar shouted inside the power armor. He was the leader of the Man Hunter, So of course, Hax should give the man a suit.

After they stopped shooting, the people nearby clapped. They shook their heads in amazement by the display of power. They started cheering and shouting that they could win the battle. That there was no chance for the norm to lose.

The holes in the statues were enough to fit in four bottle of beers. The statue was made out of iron, imagine if a human was the target.

Death was certain.

Like a blooming flower, a new hope arose from inside their hearts. It was beautiful, yet fragile. A single hand could tear it apart, and all their dreams would be crushed.

The power they had now was merely an illusion that was sustained by one thing—him. Without Hax, all of this wouldn't be possible.

And they knew. The people turned towards him. Becoming even more amazed, they praised his intellect and wisdom.

"Sir, you're the best."

"I will give my life for you, sir."

"With sir Hax on our side, we can takeover the kingdom!"

Hax simply smiled, not letting the praise getting into his heart. Praise were merely words. So did insults. They were nothing but a sound wave under the atmosphere or digital data displayed as letters on the screen.

A power armor approached him. It opened the helmet, showing Balmar's face. "Sir, this suit is awesome."

"I know," Hax said. "I'm the one who made them."

"I believe we are ready to strike, sir. In fact, even with only four hundred power suit. I believe we can take over the Nefarious Sword."

"I'm not willing to take such risk. Now, because of how special this armor is, I want to make a new units called the Prime Soldiers. The member of this unit will all wear the power suit, and their primary task is to reinforce the main army."

"Why don't we make them as our main army, sir?"

"We can't. The Prime Soldiers is an elite unit in our army. The resources it takes to create one set of armor is enough to feed ten family for an entire generation. This is why I want the best soldiers you have. Test them, train them, and torture them! I want them to stay sane in the worst situation possible. Throw them in the furnace, drown them in the ocean, and starve them in the wasteland. I can give you a list of my ideas if you want to."

Balmar was terrified. "No, sir. I will train them as you asked."

Hax nodded. "Good."

Balmar saluted and left.

Gorre strode towards him and watched as Balmar went. "You forgot to say to dehydrate them in a desert."

"We don't have a desert in this kingdom."

"I see. Anyway, have you noticed that there's less and less people dying these days."

"What are you talking about?"

"Cultivators can be rough on the norm sometimes."

"The norms have my weapons. It's natural that the cultivators don't dare to mess with them again."

"Maybe you're right."

"Hax!" Bodin waved and ran towards him. "You won't believe what I'm about to say?"

"What?"

"Someone in other kingdoms can make a gun, just like yours. The design are a bit different but it's basically the same. A small metal ball came out of the tube and it is pushed by the explosion of the gunpowder. It's amazing how similar his work compared to yours."

"Is it more powerful than mine?"

"Sadly, no. It's very weak. The range is worse than a crossbow, and it can't penetrate an armor like your pistol did. I showed him your pistol and he was really surprised. He begged for your other weapons, so I just gave it to him."

That surprised him a bit. According to Bodin, there were many kingdom in this continent but norm generally couldn't travel outside the kingdom because there were many magic beast. Only cultivators could protect themselves against these beast, and even so, the chance of dying was still high.

This was why the norm couldn't share their knowledge to other people in another kingdom. If it was possible for them to communicate with each other, they would develop their own weapon without Hax.

Exception might exist. If the kingdom was very near, then it was possible for the norm to travel there.

"That's good. Did you manage to recruit him?" Hax asked.

"Actually," Bodin said. "He begged me to bring him here. He's currently in the carriage. I'll bring him here."

Bodin ran back to the carriage and dragged a man trying to fix his tie and suit.

"Hello, sir. My name is Adam. And I admire your works." He reached for a handshake.

His hand showed burn mark all over. It seemed to recover long ago, but the scar were clear to see.

Adam pulled his hand back. "Sorry to let you see such a hand, sir."

Hax grabbed his hand and shake it. "This is a hand of a true craftsman, Adam. You don't need to be ashame of it."

Adam smiled. "Thank you, sir."

"Do you know what you're going to do here?"

"Yes, Bodin told me in the carriage. I am expected to learn from you and help you in your scienvicik research? I'm not sure, but it's vicik something.

"It's called science."

"And our occupation is called scientifian," Gorre said.

"It's actually scientist. Try not to take any of his words seriously."

"That hurts."

Hax tapped his shoulder. "Go for a rest now. Gorre here can help you with your accommodation."

"I can help too." Ratha appeared out of nowhere. "I'm the senior here."

"Who teach you about seniority?" Bodin asked.

"The chef. He said I should be in charge since I'm Hax's first student."

"What about me?" Gorre asked. "I'm the oldest."

"Seniority first," Ratha said.

"I think age speak louder, kid."

"That's not what the chef said."

"I'm older than your chef."

"Stop!" Hax said. "No one is in charge. All of you are my students and will be treated equally. Those who can apply their knowledge will receive resource for their own experiment, and if your invention proved to be useful, you will receive more resources. Do you understand?"

"Can we collaborate with each other?" Adam asked.

"Yes, you can."

Adam turned to the other two. "We should work with each other. Tell me what both of you can do?"

"I can make plastic."

"I can make pancakes."

Adam turned speechless. He turned to Hax.

"Yeah, they're pretty useless for now," Hax replied.