Overwhelming Firepower

While trying to create a device that would allow the cards to produce illusions, they ended up creating several other things instead.

That was not unusual when Robert Duskwell was involved. In fact, Durik quickly learned that when Robert said the word experiment, it usually meant that something would either explode, melt, smoke, scream, or do all four at the same time.

At least, the device they created was supposed to create an illusion. Robert placed a card into the slot. It was a simple Summon Card showing a small horned rabbit.

Mireya, Durik, and the other dwarves quickly backed away. They had all worked with Robert before, and most of the time, during experimentation, especially in the beginning, things tend to end with something happening.

Robert, on the other hand, looked completely confident. ”Why are all of you standing so far away?”

Durik crossed his arms. ”Lad, every dwarf knows when a mine is about to collapse.”

Robert scoffed. ”This is not a mine. This is a carefully designed experimental device.”

Durik shrugged his shoulders. ”If you say so, lad.”

Robert clicked his tongue. ”Fine, you cowards who can’t even sacrifice this much for the future.”

Robert placed his hand near the mana crystal attached to the side of the device. The card in the slot glowed faintly. The painted horned rabbit on the card shimmered, and the runes carved into the metal plate lit up one by one.

Robert’s eyes were shining. ”Prototype one, first activation.”

Mana flowed into the device. For a brief moment, everything seemed to work. Then the device started to heat up.

The edge of the wooden table had indeed begun to smoke. A thin line of fire crawled along the side, and the mana crystal attached to the device pulsed dangerously.

Robert excitedly touched the device, but then he felt a surge of mana. Robert quickly activated a barrier spell.

A translucent barrier appeared in front of Robert just as the device released a violent burst of force.

Bang!

A small shockwave erupted from the metal plate and slammed into Robert’s barrier. The wooden table cracked beneath the pressure, and the smoking edge finally caught fire. It had a similar effect to the iron sphere Lucen created years ago.

Durik stared at the broken table, then at the smoking device, then at Robert, whose eyes were shining so brightly that it made the dwarf feel uneasy.

”It’s a failure,” Mireya was the first to speak.

”There’s no such thing as failure in moving forward to the future. There was no failure here; in fact, I seem to have seen something worthwhile.” Robert spoke with his manic tone.

One of the dwarves hurriedly tossed a bucket of water onto the burning edge of the table. Steam rose with a hiss.

Robert crouched in front of the smoking device, his fingers hovering above the rune plate as if he were looking at a newborn creature. His eyes moved from the cracked table to the mana crystal, then to the card still sitting inside the slot.

”Hmm, the mana did not simply disperse. It condensed, pushed outward, and released force in one direction. The explosion itself was strong, but the debris added to the damage. This is similar to the Iron Spheres Lucen made.”

Robert’s eyes shifted to the cracked table, the scorched metal plate, and the card sitting inside the slot.

”This might become something interesting. The explosion was not caused simply by gathered energy. It was caused when something struck the unstable mana flow.”

Robert’s smile slowly widened. The illusion device had failed, but the failure had revealed another path.

If the gathered mana reacted to impact, then the device only needed to be infused with mana once, and then all it needed to do was wait.

Robert could already imagine using this as a trap similar to the ambush cards in the card game. This item could be placed in key locations, hidden in the ground, placed on certain parts of a castle, and when something jolts the device, it explodes.

Unlike the iron spheres that explode at a certain time, this one needs an outside force to explode, meaning you can place them in advance, creating an even more powerful explosion.

Robert’s breathing quickened. The more he thought about it, the more possibilities appeared in his mind.

A narrow mountain pass.

A castle gate.

A frozen road where cavalry would charge.

A monster wave rushing toward a defensive line.

If such devices were buried ahead of time, then the enemy would not even know they had entered a killing field until the ground itself answered them.

’Lucen would surely love this explosive new device.’ Robert thought to himself. ”We’ll pause with creating the illusion device. I think we need to improve on this and show it to Lucen first.”

Durik sighed and then smiled as he already expected to hear Robert say those words. Mireya looked at the ruined device, then at Robert, then back at the device again.

”Fine, but once we’re done with that. We continue with the original plan.”

Robert nodded his head as he continued thinking of how to make this thing better before showing it to Lucen.

Robert took the scorched metal plate, removed the damaged card from the slot, and began drawing new lines on a sheet of paper. His pen moved quickly, almost violently, as if his thoughts were chasing one another faster than his hand could follow.

Robert removed everything that was useless to what he wanted to achieve. He just needed something barely strong enough to contain a certain amount of mana, and using the same rune engravings, he would hold that mana and, when hit by an outside force, explode.

Since the original design of the device created that effect, he decided to strip the unneeded parts and replace them with other things to create a stronger exploding force.

The more Robert worked, the more excited he became. Durik and Mireya, who were looking at the design he was drawing, were giving feedback and advice to help make it better.

Surprisingly, Robert Duskwell listened to what they were saying and added a few things as they spoke.

Robert did not usually listen when he was in this state. Most of the time, he simply moved forward like a runaway cart going downhill. The fact that he was actually accepting advice would surprise many who knew him before.

Still, after meeting with Lucen, Robert understood that there were some ideas that others had made that were useful. Durik was a master smith and was one of the best in rune engraving. Mireya was a genius mage and knew many things like Robert.

Taking advice from them was the right thing to do to quickly weed out the inefficiencies in the device they were making.

After a few more adjustments, the design no longer resembled the device meant to create illusions. It had become smaller, flatter, and simpler. There were fewer rune lines, fewer unnecessary parts, and a much more direct purpose.

Robert’s group was able to create this new device within a few hours.

Robert stared at the new design with satisfaction. ”This is good enough to test.”

Robert headed out of the workshop, imbued the device with his mana, then placed it on the ground. Robert then threw a stone at the device.

The device heated up and, after three seconds, exploded even more powerfully than the original explosion. Seeing this, instead of looking satisfied, Robert frowned.

”The reaction time is too slow. The explosion needs to happen instantaneously to have any effect in battle.”

Durik looked at the smoking patch of ground, then back at Robert. ”Even with the delay, it would have a great effect against a massive force if we place a lot of it. Still, I understand your point, lad. The other crazy lad does like things happening exactly when he wants them to.”

Robert nodded, but his eyes were still fixed on the smoking ground. ”Three seconds is too long.”

Mireya walked towards the device and saw that it had blown up spectacularly, leaving only fragments of it behind. ”We need to change the item we use to store mana. We can’t use mana crystals; they’re rather sturdy and might be the reason for the delay.”

Robert’s frown disappeared. ”Oh... That makes sense.” Robert nodded his head as he continued to mumble to himself. ”The mana crystal is too robust. It resists breaking even when the flow becomes unstable.”

He immediately turned around and rushed back into the workshop. Durik followed behind him, muttering under his breath, while Mireya continued staring at the fragments scattered across the ground.

A short while later, Robert returned with several different mana-storing materials. Even though mana crystals were considered the best way to store mana, using alchemy, Robert was able to create something similar but of greatly lesser quality.

He created these things to make the Grey Tower Mages look bad, but in the end, despite not wanting to admit it, he failed to do so.

Normally, these items were considered failures since using them on devices like the mana lamps would only last a day and break, but seeing as the point of this new device was to break apart, then these items were the best fit.

Changing the mana crystals to his own failed creation, Robert did the test again. This time, the effect he wanted happened. The second the device was hit, it exploded. Despite the success, Robert was still not satisfied.

”Using those failed products did cut the delay of the explosion, but the stored mana won’t last long. So the device would need someone to imbue the device with mana every day. Not to mention the risk of it exploding while doing so.”

Robert stared at the device fragments, then slowly smiled again. ”Well, I guess that is the joy of experimentation. You continue forward until you get it right.”