Chapter 371 — Suojilin's Order
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
"In actual combat, I discovered one thing: traditional spellcraft has its limits. An individual's talent, the battlefield environment, the caster's physical condition—too many factors can influence a spell's effect. But arcane armaments are different... so long as you still have the strength to pull the trigger, they will unfailingly deliver power you can trust... and against which there is no defense," a solemn look came over Suojilin's face. "That is what the crystal grenade taught me..."
Nikoxidan was taken aback for a moment, then could not help asking, "So what exactly are you trying to say?"
"What I am saying is... those things that blow up as soon as you pull a ring or press a button—they are all wonderful!" A radiant smile broke across Suojilin's face. "Under any circumstances they will faithfully accomplish your objective. I hope every soldier of the Steel Rangers can be equipped with such loyal weapons... Let me put it plainly: the magic-crystal railgun—how small can the smallest one be made?"
Nikoxidan was stunned for several seconds before he reacted. "What?!"
"I have seen the earliest version of the 'Justice'-type magic-crystal railgun, and I have also seen the lightweight 'Persuader'-type accelerator cannon," Suojilin said. "'The Persuader' is barely one-fifth the size of 'Justice'; it can be hauled along by a horse cart, yet they say it can still batter down city walls. According to Miss Rebecca, the acceleration track can in fact be shrunk even further. If an energy-storage crystal supplies the power, the heavy overload device and the focusing base can also be omitted. She once described to me a scheme for reducing the accelerator cannon's weight to the extreme, and I believe that scheme is feasible..."
Nikoxidan listened blankly as Suojilin finished, and only after a long while managed to speak. "...Just now you said you wanted to lighten the armor, and I thought you meant to set the Steel Rangers on a lightweight path... and now you say you want them to carry miniature magic-crystal railguns?! Do you realize that even if that thing is lightened further, it is still a hefty piece of hardware?"
"I must emphasize two points. First, the Steel Rangers will not carry every weapon on every mission. I want to design for them an 'armory' containing multiple kinds of weapons, this armory to be shared by the entire Ranger corps. According to the needs of the mission, each soldier will carry different equipment; the miniaturized magic-crystal railgun is only one of their backup weapons. Second, light armor and heavy weapons are not contradictory. In the Silver Empire, the elven ranger guard has a kind of heavy javelin thrower whose weapon is a heavy, single-use throwing spear. They are lightly armored soldiers; to carry the spears and to move freely when throwing, their upper bodies wear only leather chest guards—yet they are the most dangerous hunters in the forest. I hope the Steel Rangers can achieve that same effect."
"...All right, all right, all right. In any case, you know this field well. I will look up the people at the Arcane Technology Research Institute and we will study it together," Nikoxidan said, convinced, while recording Suojilin's requirements. "Then, besides the light individual railgun, what else do you need?"
"A tactical eyepiece with a detection-distortion effect. I know this has already been made, only it has not yet been issued to the troops. I would like to try it out first."
"Done."
"A small-type blade weapon that is easy to carry and nimble to swing. I have the design drawing for this—it is an elven short blade—but I hope you can modify it into something like the fusion-cutter sword. The fusion-cutter sword can be miniaturized, can it not?"
"Somewhat difficult, but we can take up the challenge. It may come at the cost of reduced continuous-use time."