“Alright! You've been put into groups. Work together and practice maneuvering the black turtles now.”
It takes around 8 to 10 people to operate a turtle while on the ground, which makes me miss Shikki even more. He could operate one by himself… With time, we could possibly cut the number of operators down to 3 or 4… No one will ever be able to understand the black turtles like he did. He might have even been beyond me with his skilled control of the automaton… The groups were split up, with the creation of the dozen turtles, we need to split the ones experienced with operating them into different groups.
We need to have them experienced with operating these before the war. They'll be used as transport and if the operators mess up, they could slow the group down or cause harm to those inside or on top of the automaton. That is why we are doing these training exercises. The black turtles weren't meant for land operations. They are far easier to operate while on the sea. The dozen black turtles I made for the pirates might take a single skilled operator to pilot while the mana cost for piloting it would be severely reduced as well. If each turtle can hold 50 people comfortably, our traveling force will only be about half of this army.
The entire pirate force is heading towards the shores of the north west continent. With Darkclaw leading them, they wont need much help from us. I honestly don't think any of the pirates actually respect me. If Darkclaw needs help, he's meant to send for it… Knowing him though… I'm not sure he would even ask for help if he needed it… That is why I need to be especially careful with their traveling time. Once they get close to the shores, I'll start dropping in on him from time to time to make sure he didn't throw his troops at an enemy recklessly.
I don't expect him to do that though. He is a good leader… Perhaps having the lives of his comrades in his hands will help shape him into a better one. Many of my pets are good in that way but none have really spread their wings quite like Darkclaw has… Perhaps, in the future, they'll all be leading different armies like this.
I watch over the new black turtle crews… Some of the healers were needed to boost the amount of mages that each group had… I really need to find more mage troops… Perhaps a faerie race will eventually join us. I haven't really thought about trying to make allies… The only ones I've made contact with were the ones who needed my help or could help me in some way. If I could pick, I would like to get some elves as troops… Maybe some more trolls or even a few gnomes or beast races would go a long way with learning new things.
I need to continue learning… That is what my class is named off of. The moment I stop focusing on that is the moment I die. I've made a special totem that guides me towards skills, classes and jobs. I've been so busy I haven't gotten much use out of it… After it guided me to the vikings I sort of stayed away from using it. When I have used it, it didn't give me any good readings or send me anywhere. I need to keep it on my person from now on. It could have been used to check and see if people have something they can teach me.
I've been thinking… Thinking of a way to make it so that no one has to power the black turtles. I work on ideas… Spend days planning some inventions that could potentially change the entire structure of the world… I stop sleeping… Stop eating… I spend every second trying to figure out how to make this work… Every time I learn something I use it to improve everything else I am working on before getting stuck again. After a week of staying awake for this, I am finally done! I fall asleep onto some of my new inventions from sheer exhaustion.
I wake up and realize I crushed what I was working on. Thankfully it was only the idea that had taken a long time to create. After spending an hour working on fixing everything, I am finished. I call for a meeting of all my generals first. I want to gauge their reactions before I tell everyone else about it… It might not be as amazing as I think it is. I wait until the majority of my generals are all gathered before I start to speak.
“I've gathered you all here for a demonstration of new inventions I had been working on for the past week. I think these will change the way we fight, it might also change the way people live.”
I pull off the cloth that was covering the inventions. Everyone can now see it. It is just a mana canister… Or that is what it would appear to be. The lid is comprised of a piece of gold that runs down into the water. Everyone looks at it confused… I've spent an entire week making something that looks like things we use on a daily basis. It is no surprise that they are confused though. I explain what I had actually done.
“This isn't a normal mana canister. Normally, it would take a person a very long time to fill this with mana. The person would have to devote a good portion of his day to make a single one of these. Then, once it was used it would need to be recharged the same way. Not anymore! With this, it will continuously pull in mana from it's surroundings to recharge itself. I've decided on the name “mana battery” for it. With this, even those without mana can use skills or items that would normally require mana.”
Many of my generals still don't understand why this is such a breakthrough… I'll show them with a little presentation I've made for this meeting. Pulling out Gobber's old sword, one that wouldn't take much mana to use but the effect is instantly noticeable. With the sword spinning and becoming almost more of a drill than a sword. His drill rapier has been replaced since then with a more modified design. This is one of the first versions of the weapon he currently uses.
“Now, in order to use this, it would take a person time to charge the mana canister. Then they would have to use their own mana to spark the process of starting the mana canister by pushing the engineering gears that would normally take manual labor to move. Now… There were several hurdles I had to get over to make this work.”
I have the sword in my hand now… Placing my hand on the new attachment I added to this version.
“Now… If someone with no mana were to try and start this, they would have no luck at doing so. But… With this new ignition switch, it will be possible for even non magic users to start the drill sword.”
I flip the switch. A piece of a mana crystal comes down, scrapping against another mana crystal. The size of these crystals is very small. The fact that I don't know how to make mana crystals could be a problem in the future using this method. For now, I can possibly make another 100 or so of these switches with what I have left. It only helps those who can't use mana to activate these items. Making it unnecessary for any class that uses mana.
“The next challenge was the most difficult… How to make it self recharge. I tried many things… You cannot enchant anything with a passive… I would have liked to enchant it with elemental absorption but it proved to be impossible… I tried many things… Many ways to get around this rule for enchanting… It wasn't meant to be… I had to find another way around it because of this.”
I start this one… It needs to be started with the same ignition switch that would activate it to start the process of this mana battery. With the spark hitting the outside lid of the canister. The gold piece hanging into the water now starts to faintly glow a slight blue color. As if to signify that it is now active. The water that had started to dissipate in light as the mana was drained to use the drill rapier starts to actively glow again. I begin to explain how it was made.
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“The gold is enchanted with mana leech from the necromancer… Strengthened while in lich form… The mana is naturally drawn from the environment once the spell is activated. The inside of this mana canister is different… It has gold flakes inside it to increase the speed at which it charges and the total amount it can charge… This is so powerful that it can pull the life out of the surrounding environment if it isn't regulated… So we have to limit the use of these as they could hurt those around from prolonged exposure.”
The whirl that had faded from the weapon now starts again… Slowly at first, then as time goes by it continues to gain speed… Soon enough it is putting out the same capacity of a regular mana canister… Then even more, spinning at an increased rate. It finally caps at 120% of what a normal mana canister can do. I look at every ones faces… Some show sheer shock at what I just explained. Some show confusion still, as if what I just explained was too difficult… Or they didn't actually care about this new development… I start to explain what this means for our army.
“This means that if we go into battle… These batteries can be used to make automatons run indefinitely. They can't be used as an explosive element as it would destroy the mechanism that would charge it and also expel the expensive gold flakes out of the water. Other than that, they can be used as a renewable resource for future projects.”
I pull off the second sheet of cloth covering a few more ideas that I would like to eventually add the mana batteries too. On a cart that was being covered is several inventions… First is the cart itself. It is has a set of engineering gears on the back that when a mana battery is added will propel itself forward at a slight speed. Even just adding it to an extremely heavy wagon would help ease the burden of the animals pulling it… For light loads you wouldn't need an animal. I call this new invention a cartomaton.
I pull out a drill like object next. It is my version of an excavation drill that the miners will now use to expand the mines even further… The biggest problem is that the work in the mines is very physical. Using these drills will cut that strenuous activity down. Even just adding a few might double the speed they could mine at. I just called these automated drills.
An automaton lies on the cart with an exposed chest the size of one of the mana batteries. Eventually… I would like to go back and rework my other ones. The biggest problem then would be the giant explosive target that would literally be an obvious weak spot on any automaton that it would be placed in… Even during this presentation I'm finding flaws that need to be fixed… Someone who wouldn't mind sacrificing his automatons wouldn't see the automatons exploding as a weak point… I do.
The final device is what I had developed this for in the first place… Or the several items that all work towards the same thing for the army… Weapons… New weapons are splayed across the cartomaton… Some with a similar look to other weapons I've made… Others with a huge change in look. I start to go over each new invention with my generals all eagerly listening. Even the ones who didn't care about the other inventions are now excited at the sight of new weapons.
2 new cannon like weapons are now set on the table. One being very small, while the other is a similar size to that of a walking stick. The smaller one is much wider… Several barrels are all attached to each other. I pick up the smaller weapon and start to explain how to use this.
“This weapon uses scrolls to attack.”
I fire the weapon at a wall. The first shot is a flare, the mechanism rotates and the next barrel comes into play. Firing again, this time it is an ice bolt. Firing 3 more times, each with a different element. Lightning first, then water, then wind. There is a single barrel left. I cut my hand and point the gun at it. Firing the healing scroll now, the ignition switch triggering and activating it. My hand is healed, leaving a tiny scar that will soon completely heal over by the minuscule size of the wound. They all look impressed… Until I explain what the usage of these will be.
“Each of my generals… As well as any caster will be given one of these weapons. I've decided to call them scroll revolvers as the barrel revolve up into position as the weapon expels the scroll. And yes, you can use 2 at once.”
I pick up the 2 other revolvers that were laying on the cart. Firing all 6 shots of each, one containing flare scrolls while the other contained wind. They amplified the effects of each other as I fired them together. I pull out the next weapon. The big long weapon, putting a stock on the end as shooting it without one was very difficult to do with any accuracy. Pointing at the wall and firing… I leave a big indentation as the shot rings out. The sound is far worse in this contained area and I see some of my generals wince as the shot was fired… I'll have to make some adjustments for the sound as it could be a problem eventually.
“These will be standard issue for each of our soldiers… A single shot and a single reload shot is all they will need with this weapon. It is to be used before the battle, before going into close range to help weaken the defensive lines of the enemies if they decide to use them. If they don't rush forwards after the shot… The men can reload this weapon and fire again… The name of this was very difficult… I was going to go with both hands gun, gun shot maybe even hands cannon… I decided on firearm as the weapon is about length of my arm and the blue fire the mana canister produces when it is used.”
I open up the firearm and turn it over so the expended mana canister cartridge is expelled… It is still very big compared to the revolver… The width of the barrel is about twice as big as each one of the revolver… To get accurate shots from further away the barrel has to be longer… And heavier than the revolvers are. I still need to completely perfect it but the heavier weight is something my troops are trained to deal with…
I quickly reload the weapon and prepare it for another shot in case it is needed to be fired again. Every firearm should always be loaded and ready to shoot at a moments notice. That way, if the enemy gets the drop on us… We can easily kill them before they have a chance to react. BOOM!!! As I place the gun back down on the cart is miss-fires into the wall… The suddenness of it firing scares a few of my generals and even myself...
Maybe I should put something on there to prevent that from happening… I think maybe making safety a bigger part of these weapons would be better than how quickly they can be used… A split second decision could end the life of an ally as quickly as an enemy if this mishap were to happen more often… I'll have to rework them slightly because of this…
The group looks very excited about the new weapons… I still have more inventions to show but... I decide to stop the show of the new inventions and let them go practice using these for now.