Chapter 152 — The Shooting Test

"The effective range is only between two hundred and three hundred meters—below that of a standard scorching ray, and below the theoretical value of that array base plate," Hedy said after the round of tests, bringing the records before Gao Yang. "The cause may be improper adjustment of the quartz rod, or poor magic conduction efficiency between the scorching ray rune plate and the mana capacitor; these can be improved through craftsmanship. There is also the matter of accuracy: within fifty meters the accuracy is still passable, but beyond fifty meters it drops off sharply, and past one hundred meters even someone like Amber—with half-elf blood and prior sleeve-crossbow training—has a miss rate of three in four. If that figure were applied to ordinary soldiers... it would be absolutely worse."

Rebecca scratched her hair and said bluntly: "But it still shoots straighter than you do, Auntie—ow, ow, ow!"

Watching the silly doe get her ear twisted by Hedy, Gao Yang's expression did not change in the slightest: "Accuracy is also a matter of manufacturing craftsmanship. The assembly of the Nichole egg is very precise, but the scorching ray base plate was hand-made by Rebecca and the others—since we only wanted to verify whether the newly designed rune set would work, we did not put much effort into selecting the quartz rod."

With that, he glanced again at the armguard on Amber's arm: "And it still lacks a sight. We can mount a simple aiming structure between the ray's emission port and the middle of the armguard; that should greatly improve accuracy."

Gao Yang explained the concept of the so-called sight, and Amber's eyes lit up at once: "Oh, oh! This is a good thing! With this, it'll be even simpler for soldiers to train with it!"

Though they were discussing the question of accuracy, the thermal ray gun's precision had in fact already exceeded Gao Yang's expectations.

In his original view, a ranged weapon of such a shape—hard to aim, without even a basic sight—would have been quite good with a precise range of a dozen or so meters, but the facts had surpassed his predictions.

On one hand, this was because the thermal ray gun was not a solid-projectile weapon and its operation involved almost no mechanical movement; thus it had virtually no recoil, and there was no need to worry about barrel wobble or receiver instability affecting accuracy—one only needed a steady hand to ensure precision. On the other hand, it was because the people of this world were simply different from Earthlings in physique and innate gifts.

Amber's half-elf blood gave her an inborn proficiency with all manner of ranged weapons, and even ordinary people without elf blood surpassed Earthlings in every parameter of physical constitution (think of the nobility's average lifespan of over a hundred years, and those "ordinary soldiers" who could charge in heavy armor swinging greatswords). These advantages probably persisted in the use of ranged weapons as well—though this last point would need testing with ordinary soldiers to confirm.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Rebecca was already grimacing under Hedy's hand: "Are you really not going to come save me?!"

Gao Yang looked with mingled laughter and exasperation at the girl who had been disciplined for her bluntness, stepped in to rescue her, then nodded to Amber: "Continue the tests. This time, let's see how sustained fire affects performance."

Sustained-fire testing was a relatively lengthy process, so Gao Yang did not keep watching. Instead, he walked over to the two knights, Philip and Byron, who stood to one side.

The two knights were watching the proving ground with rapt attention, and the expressions on their faces were plainly somewhat complex.

"What are you thinking about?" Gao Yang came to their side and asked mildly.

"This is truly an incredible weapon," Byron said, his tone carrying genuine admiration. "Incredible... that magic can be released in this way—the source of the magic power and the control of it both handled by the weapon itself, entirely unrelated to the user's gifts. Whoever operates it need only know how to pull the rune trigger..."

"Admiration is not all, is it?" Gao Yang glanced at him with a half-smile.

"...True," Byron glanced at Gao Yang and finally nodded as if conceding, "and a little disappointed too."

"Oh?"

"Back in the day, it took me two years to learn Aura Protection, and then three more to learn Danger Sense, and those were only two-level knight skills," Byron shook his head. "Now a recruit who's trained for a few days can casually fire off a scorching ray."

Philip also sighed softly, his tone full of feeling. "I was faster than you—the two skills together took me half a year."

Byron: "...Can't you sigh about something else?"

"I told you, the times are changing," Gao Yang cut in, interrupting the comedy duo. "This kind of change is inevitable. You have to accept it."

Byron was taken aback for a moment, then looked at the testing ground with a bitter smile. "One day, will that thing be able to unleash a Finger of Death?"

Gao Yang was silent for a moment. "Perhaps it will."

"...Then it seems the day Emberfall City collapses isn't far off either."

Meanwhile, on the other side, Amber moved her arms a little—they had grown somewhat tired from being raised for so long—and then once again lifted the thermal ray gun and pulled the runic trigger.

There seemed to be a faint trace of heat at the front of the ray gun, but this time no beam was fired.

"Old Zongzi! This thing won't work anymore!"