Overwhelming Firepower

The meeting with the King discussing the possibility of war against not only the Kingdom of Inevir, but also against the Rocton Empire lasted for a few days.

It might not happen, but since the possibility existed, they always need to be on guard.

Once they were done with the talks, it was just a few days away from the start of the school semester.

Robert quickly tried to look for Principal Aldren to force himself to be an instructor. Lysette left as well to inform her Father of what was transpiring.

Alone right now, Lucen was going to head back to the Thornehart estate when one of the communication orbs he carries started glowing.

He had several communication orbs with him, which should have been a bit inconvenient, but Durik helped improve the trenchcoat Lucen and the members of Thornfang use.

It now had a spatial pocket that allowed storage of around six meters. The problem was getting the item he needed from said spatial pocket, which takes a while to get.

’Can’t they create a communication orb that acts like a smartphone?’

Lucen sighed as he reached into the spatial pocket of his trench coat. The sensation of searching through the pocket was rather strange.

It was not like putting his hand into a normal pocket. It felt like reaching into a small empty room where objects floated in place. After a few seconds, Lucen finally pulled out the glowing communication orb.

Lucen, who had taken out the communication orb, also took out a mana stone to activate the communication orb since his own mana cannot be used for activation.

Mireya’s figure appeared before Lucen, who was now standing atop the rooftops. Despite being twenty like Lucen, she, with her doll-like face, made her look younger. She possessed a beauty that would easily draw envy.

”It has been some time, Lucen.” Her voice had become rather seductive, which was similar to her mother’s voice.

”To what do I owe the pleasure?” Lucen asked while showing a smile.

”Remember the thing you wanted me and the grey tower mages to create. We have succeeded in creating it.”

The second Lucen heard those words, his eyes opened wide as excitement quickly filled his expression. This was something he had been waiting for.

”You mean you guys were able to create it! You were able to create a video camera!” Lucen showed a bright smile in his excitement.

”I don’t know what a video camera is, but, yes. A communication orb that does not merely transmit an image in real time, but stores the image and sound inside a prepared mana crystal. Once mana is supplied, the stored scene can be replayed.”

When he heard those words, Lucen became even more excited. ”Where are you right now?! Tell me, I’ll go there!”

”Grey Tower’s third workshop, but there is no need for you to rush. You can at any time when you’re free,” Mireya responded calmly.

”Of course, I’m going there now!”

Lucen ended the conversation as he created two handguns and imbued the fire attribute into the bullets. Lucen jumped upward and propelled himself forward by firing the handguns behind him.

***

It didn’t take Lucen long to arrive at the grey tower and immediately run towards the third workshop.

A few apprentices who saw him rush past quickly stepped aside. At this point, most of the people in the Grey Tower already knew who Lucen was.

Even if they did not know him personally, the sight of silver hair, ruby eyes, and a black trench coat was more than enough to identify him.

”Third workshop, third workshop-” Lucen muttered as he moved through the hallway.

The moment he saw the large metal door marked with the number three, he opened it without hesitation.

Inside the workshop, several Grey Tower mages were gathered around a large table. At the center of the table was something that looked like a communication orb, but it had been placed within a metal frame covered in delicate runes. Beside it was a prepared mana crystal that glowed faintly.

Mireya stood beside the device. She then looked at Lucen, who had just arrived. ”That was rather quick.”

”That doesn’t matter, so that’s the video camera?” Lucen asked as he looked at the item on the table.

”Once again, I don’t know what that is. This item is called an image recorder orb,” Mireya replied.

”Well, the name I used sounds better, and is much shorter to say.”

Mireya stared at Lucen for a few seconds before tilting her head slightly. ”Video camera,” she repeated.

”Yes,” Lucen responded while giving a nod.

”Image recorder orb is more accurate.”

”But, video camera is easier to say.”

”But then how can they know what the purpose of the item is?”

”They’ll learn, trust me, or you can call it video orb.”

Mireya thought about it seriously for a moment before nodding. ”We can discuss the name later.”

”Well, I know you guys were the ones who created this thing, but I was the one who financed the entire project, so getting to name it should be something I could do. And I want to name it Video Orb.”

Mireya looked at Lucen for a few seconds, then looked at the modified communication orb on the table. ”Fine then, we shall call it that.”

”Alright, now that’s over and done with, how about you show me how it works?”

Mireya nodded and gestured toward one of the Grey Tower mages standing near the table.

The mage was a young man with tired eyes and ink stains on his fingers. He stepped forward while holding a thin rectangular mana crystal, about the size of a small book.

”This is what we call a storage crystal,” Mireya explained. ”A normal communication orb can only transmit an image and sound through a linked mana signal. The image disappears the moment the connection ends.”

Lucen nodded. That much he already understood. Mireya continued her explanation.

”To solve that problem, we needed something that could hold the image instead of merely passing it along.”

She took the rectangular mana crystal from the mage and placed it into a small slot beneath the modified communication orb. The runes on the metal frame lit up one by one.

”First, the orb captures the light and sound in front of it. Then the frame converts those into mana patterns. Those patterns are then etched into the storage crystal in sequence.”

”Like frames,” Lucen muttered.

Mireya looked at him. ”Frames?”

Lucen shook his head and spoke. ”Never mind. Continue.” Mireya didn’t press on with Lucen’s comment and continued her explanation.

”The difficulty was not recording a single image. That was simple enough. The difficult part was recording many images continuously while also keeping the sound connected to the proper moment.”

One of the Grey Tower mages sighed as he recalled the previous failures. ”The first few attempts were terrible. The image moved, but the sound came several seconds late.”

Another mage added, ”In one test, Lady Mireya raised her hand, but the sound of her speaking happened after she had already left the recording.”

”That sounds rather annoying,” Lucen commented.

”That it was,” Mireya answered. She then placed her hand lightly on top of the metal frame surrounding the orb.

”Eventually, we realized that the problem was not the storage crystal itself. It was the order in which the mana patterns were being etched. The image and sound were being stored separately, so even if both were successfully recorded, they would not always match when replayed.”

Lucen’s eyes brightened. ”So you needed to make sure the image and sound were stored at the same time.”

”Yes,” Mireya replied with a small nod. ”Or at least close enough that the difference would not be noticeable.”

One of the Grey Tower mages pointed toward the runes carved along the inner side of the frame.

”These runes divide the recorded information into small sections. Each section contains both the image and sound from a very short moment.”

Lucen leaned closer, his excitement growing stronger. ’They really did it. They basically created video frames using mana.’

”Now allow me to show you how it works. You either use your own mana or use a mana stone to activate. It takes several seconds before it fully activates. Place the stone in the middle of the area you want to record, and the stone will record the images and sound of the surrounding area in three hundred sixty degrees. As for the range, as long as the image is reflected in the video orb, it will be recorded. To deactivate it, you just need to touch the orb.”

Mireya placed the orb in the middle of the room and activated it using her own mana. After several seconds, the orb shone a little, and after another few seconds, Mireya touched the orb to deactivate it.

Mireya then picked up the video orb and removed the storage crystal from the slot beneath it. Unlike before, when the crystal had been clear, faint streams of light now moved inside it.

”This contains the recorded scene.”

Lucen leaned closer. ”So how do we play it?”

Mireya placed the storage crystal into a second slot on the opposite side of the frame. ”This is the replay slot. The recording slot etches the mana patterns into the crystal. The replay slot reads those patterns and releases them again as light and sound.”

She then did as she explained, and the video of what happened in the workshop when they were recording overlapped with the current workshop. It looked like they had dopplegangers in the room.

Lucen touched his recorded self, and like a ghost, his hand passed through. He closed his eyes, and the sound was coming from the right positions; it was like the room had surround sound speakers.

Lucen was once again amazed by the sight. He was already thinking about how to improve this thing and use it for entertainment. First, he needed them to make it so they could focus on specific scenes and not everything in the area.

This was far more advanced than anything in his past life. It can make you feel like you’re actually there.

If he had watched a movie in his past life using this item, it would be the dream, like what people thought 3-D movies would be like, truly immersive.

Lucen watched the overlapping figures move, the recorded selves speaking and acting as if time itself had been captured and preserved.

This was not simply a recording. It was stepping into a memory. A slow smile spread across his face as countless ideas formed in his mind, stories, performances, entire worlds that could be experienced rather than merely seen.

’This is going to be fun to play with.’