Overwhelming Firepower

A few months went by, and the stories about the recent monster waves had died down, and things went back to normal.

It was different in Ironhold. Harry Nidouhi, one of the best playwrights in the Capital and owner of the Theater group that played the first The Man of a Thousand Quests, which Lucen wrote, headed to Ironhold and was now living there alongside his theater group.

The very second they arrived, Harry went to look for Lucen, who at the time was experimenting with Robert, which then resulted in a fight. Ever since then, Robert and Harry continued to argue about what Lucen should do.

***

”How can you make a child with such talents do this kind of work?” Harry spoke while pointing at Lucen, who was mixing a rather putrid-smelling mixture.

”Huh? First off, I never made Lucen do any of this. He was the one who started doing it on his own. Secondly, what do you mean by this kind of work? This isn’t work, this is discovery, this is learning, this is joy itself!” Robert responded with such passion in his voice.

”Joy?!” Harry pinched his nose as the stench hit him. ”What kind of sadistic joy can you find from stirring up that rancid-smelling thing?”

”You fool, who knows only words! That’s the smell of progress!”

Lucen quietly stirred the bubbling flask, the mixture hissing and giving off an acrid tang. His brows furrowed slightly as he tuned out the heated argument between Robert and Harry, focusing instead on the precise movements of his hands and the tiny bursts of steam that escaped from the flask.

Harry had been in Ironhold for months now, dressed in his usual plain tunic and trousers, blending easily with the townsfolk.

From the moment he arrived, he’d tried to convince Lucen to write a new play, arguing that a talent like his was far too valuable to waste amid experiments and fumes of alchemy.

Of course, Robert did not stay quiet when he heard that and started challenging Harry using his words. After that, the two had been at it for months, neither wanting to back down.

***

In these few months, despite the noise, the two geniuses of their own field made. Lucen, who now had intermediate gun knowledge, started building a hand-cranked Gatling gun.

Unfortunately, despite having the knowledge of how to make it, the skill needed to make it was not available. The current skill of the blacksmiths of Ironhold was good, but not enough to make the parts he needed.

This was why he had sent Harlik, Mark, and Renz to go and look for any dwarves they could find that could be in Norvaegard or in a nearby kingdom.

So while waiting for the dwarves to be found, the current prototype of the hand-cranked Gatling gun was rather bulky and fired slower than he wanted to, but it was still a great improvement from the Arquebus: Thunderspears.

Still, unlike the arquebuses, the hand-cranked Gatling gun was more like the Thunderspears, which could not be carried around by a single person and needed to stay in a single position as they fired.

Lucen wanted to make bolt-action rifles to replace the arquebuses. Unfortunately, the same problem occurred. It wasn’t a perfect bolt-action rifle.

It was better than the arquebus, but it wasn’t perfect and had jamming issues. There was also the creation of the bullets needed, which were different from the simple round balls they used to make.

The old arquebuses used simple round balls, easy to make, easy to fire. You just melted lead, poured it into a mold, then packed the gunpowder directly into the barrel before dropping the ball in. Crude, but it worked.

The bolt-action rifles were different. They needed longer, pointed bullets, small lead cylinders with a tapering head and a hollow base.

Unlike the old metal balls, these bullets had to be part of a single cartridge, with the gunpowder sealed behind the bullet inside a casing. This allowed a soldier to simply load and fire without measuring powder each time.

It made them faster to use, but far harder to make. Each cartridge had to be airtight, perfectly shaped, and strong enough to contain the explosion. Even a tiny imperfection, a rough mold or uneven seal, could cause a misfire or jam.

So for now, the creation of the new guns was put on hold until they could find a way to make the cartridges properly.

***

The other thing Lucen was excited about was the fact that he now had knowledge about steam-related inventions, due to he advancement of the Gun Knowledge skill to intermediate.

Since there were guns that used steam power, the skill had to teach him about steam-related inventions. Which meant he now had even more knowledge about the steam engine.

Now he could finally start the idea of making a train in this fantasy world. Still, he knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but he was excited nonetheless.

The second, he explained the principles of the steam engine to Robert and showed him how steam can move objects. Robert had his mind blown.

Lucen showed Robert an object that looked like a pot with two L-shaped rods sticking out of the pot and pointing in different directions.

Lucen then put water into the pot and closed it. He then hung the pot above a small flame, which heated the pot. Steam started coming out of the L-shaped rods, making the pot spin.

Robert watched in awe as the pot began to spin, the jets of steam hissing sharply from both sides. ”It moves... By itself.”

Lucen nodded. ”Steam expands when heated. Those pipes let it escape, and that escaping force pushes the pot in the opposite direction. It’s a simple motion, steam turned into movement.”

”That’s incredible! I understand, this is another great leap forward! With this kind of thing, we might be able to make horseless carriages, or even ships without oars or sails.”

When Lucen heard what Robert said, he couldn’t help but admire the other party’s intelligence. He was able to think about such things just after explaining what steam could do.

Lucen couldn’t help but admire Robert’s quick thinking. ”Exactly. Though... Making it move something as big as a carriage will take more than just this spinning pot.”

Robert’s eyes were still fixed on the rotating pot, as though staring at a miracle. ”We need something like a blacksmith’s forge to create such heat and steam... But if we do that, it won’t fit in a carriage... Hm, wait, maybe we just need to build a bigger carriage. So that not only can it carry something like a blacksmith’s forge, it can carry a lot more things.”

Lucen really couldn’t help but admire Robert’s intelligence and imagination. Even without him saying it, Robert was practically describing a train.

”Yes, but unfortunately, with our current level of craftsmanship, we won’t be able to create such a thing. It would be better if we had a dwarf, the best craftsmen on the continent.”

When Robert heard what Lucen said, he felt a little disappointed. Robert slumped back into his chair, his hair slightly disheveled from all the excitement. ”So, we’re halted again by craftsmanship... Just like with your guns.”

Lucen and Robert continued their experiments, the room filled with the hiss of boiling water, the smell of heated metal, and the occasional sharp tang of oil.

Robert’s eyes glimmered with excitement, reflecting the flickering flames beneath their makeshift steam devices, each test accompanied by the sharp whistle of escaping vapor.

After a while, Lucen stopped experimenting with steam since he already knew what he could do with it. On the other hand, Robert was entranced by the new knowledge and tried other things.

***

Since most of his projects were at a standstill, Lucen decided to take up Harry’s offer to write a new play, but he was thinking about what kind of play he should write about.

Maybe he could use one of the Grimm’s fairy tales or something from Greek Myth, or maybe something from Norse Myth, since there are a lot of similarities between Norvaegard’s culture and the Vikings’ culture.

He could also stick to literary masterpieces, like something Shakespeare wrote, or he could just copy a bit of the anime he liked and rewrite it to fit this world’s thinking. There were many things he could write about, so which one should he choose?