Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 123: Crystal Grenade

There was nothing worth hesitating about the Tanzan Town operation from the very start.

All kinds of signs indicated that the claws of the Oblivion Association had indeed entered the town, and Gawain, who had long gained an understanding of this dark sect, did not let any naive thoughts of ‘it hadn’t spread to their side, so he could rest easy’ grow. He knew the ideology of this dark sect — everything will die; regardless of whichever race and whatever thing, all would ultimately see the day of perishing. And the so-called vigor and vitality were merely the paths and lights used to lead them towards death. They used twisted theories to explain the original nature ideologies of the druids and viewed death as the ultimate goal of life. On this point, they were even more extreme and insane than those notorious undead factions.

They believed that the undead were also ‘alive’ and that the undead too should die; even the death gods that the undead factions worshipped should die. The extremity of their ideas could even give the other heretical cults a good scare.

No one knew how the druid sect that originally worshiped life and nature had split up and degenerated to form such a dark organization. However, there was no doubt about one thing. Once the Oblivion Association started to work, it would certainly cause inconceivable panic and deaths.

Tanzan Town was truly too close to the new Cecil territory. If those lunatics were really planning on creating an epidemic in the town and using Tanzan Town as a ‘spell material’ to conduct some evil rite, if there was even a little leeway, the new Cecil territory located downstream of the White River would become the second sacrifice.

However, the Cecil territory had yet to have the ability to directly dispatch a contingent of troops to Tanzan Town to solve the problem right now. — In fact, Gawain wasn’t intending on doing so either. At the moment, while the situation was still unknown, he decided to go scout with two or three other skilled people.

The feudal lord personally going into a dangerous situation, this wasn’t a wise plan. But there was no choice; the high-end combat force on hand that Gawain could employ was too little. In the situation where intermediate heretic cult believers could be present in Tanzan Town, he had to take the field.

The explosion incident that happened at the pier did not spread through the camp thanks to Gawain’s timely lockdown of the news. Everything in the territory was operating normally. The steelworks was smelting and casting; the brick-kiln yard was baking bricks, and the ‘cement’ furnaces continued their production of explosive crystals. The newly arrived serfs and slaves were relieving the fatigue from their journey in their new tents and were learning, with feelings of surprise and confusion, the new order and new laws of this land.

Meanwhile, Gawain was ready to leave for Tanzan Town.

He brought Sir Philip and Amber as well as Pittman, who was more familiar with druid spells, while the territory would be temporarily left to the attendance of Heidi and Rebecca. Although the territory had been expanded by a lot and they had added a large amount of population, a grade-three mage and a grade-three fireball launcher, together with a hundred combat soldiers, were enough to control and protect the rear. Even if they really were to meet with an emergency situation, there was also the metal-ball alien that they could get help from.

Though Nicholas Egg’s personality appeared to be a little cowardly, in reality, his combat ability was tiptop. As long as there were enough metals around, he could even perform Return of a Million Swords 1. And if there was really no way out, he could also fly up and give the invaders a Descent of Justice 1. Thus, Gawain was very at ease with regard to his home.

By the White River, Gawain’s gang of four were each checking their personal belongings as well as the conditions of the horses. They were going to ride fast to Tanzan Town; this was slightly faster than going upstream by ship, and on the way, they could take cover themselves in the forest if they encountered any situation so as to avoid alerting the heretic cult believers.

Heidi saw them off by the riverbank. She appeared to be rather anxious and uneasy. “Ancestor, please make sure to stay safe. Heretic cult believers are strange and merciless in their conduct. You must not come to harm by their cunning plots.”

Sir Philip who stood beside Gawain immediately patted his breastplate, full of substantive fighting spirit. “Please rest assured! I swear by a knight’s honor to pledge my life to safeguard the Duke’s safety!”

“Come on, it’s not like you can beat me.” Gawain glanced at this young man who let his hot-bloodedness get to his head at every occasion. “Moreover, a one-track minded personality like yours is the kind we fear the most when dealing with heretic cult believers. An honest man gets fooled most easily. Do you know that?”

Sir Philip thought for a moment. “Lord is right. I still have shortcomings. I still need more experience.”

Gawain felt that this rascal didn’t understand what he meant at all…

At this point, Heidi frowned and turned to look in the direction of the camp. “Say, why isn’t Rebecca coming?”

Amber who was leaning against a horse and idly fiddling with her dagger lifted her head upon hearing her. “She said she prepared something for us and told us to wait. But if we continue to wait, I fear the heretic cult believers will have already settled down in Tanzan Town.”

There was strong resentment in her tone, but her main resentment was still due to being dragged to fight the heretic cult believers head-on. This made the Miss Half-Elf who was always cowardly and full of crap rather displeased.

Though Gawain had explained several times that the task of fighting them head-on was left for himself, Amber and the others only needed to provide support…

And not long after Amber’s voice fell, Rebecca’s voice happened to sound from afar. “Lord Ancestor! Lord Ancestor! I’m coming! I’m coming!”

Gawain looked over, following the voice, and saw a grade-three fireball launcher dashing over from the distance. Rebecca held her iron staff in one hand and gripped a bag that looked rather heavy in the other; her entire run on jerking and bouncing steps.

She ran like this at one go to Gawain and then stopped beside him, panting heavily. “Sor… Sorry… I made you wait for all this while…”

“If we continued to wait, that bunch of heretic cult believers would have given birth to children in Tanzan Town!” Amber glared with arms akimbo. “What exactly were you fussing with?”

“I prepared something that might come in handy for all of you.” Rebecca barely managed to catch her breath before opening the big bag in her hands and bringing the items out. “I originally planned on submitting them to Lord Ancestor as the results of an experiment, but I didn’t expect something like this to occur. It just so happens that we need a field test…”

The bag was opened, and several curious gazes landed on the items that Rebecca brought out — they were uniformly sized, neat metal cases.

Made using the most common iron, their forms were extremely well-defined; the size of one was slightly bigger than a cigarette case in Gawain’s impression. A protruding piece of metal could be seen on the side of the case, seeming to be an iron strip inserted inside the case, whereas there was a raised structure on the top of the case that looked like it could be pressed down.

Gawain seemed to be reminded of something, but he still didn’t dare to be sure of it. “This is…”

“Didn’t you tell me to think about how to delay detonations using the rune trigger?” Rebecca rattled on. “Actually, I’d already designed it, but the structure was very intricate. It wasn’t easy to make, especially in large amounts. But now that there is help—”

Gawain realized what she wanted to say before she had finished. “Nicholas Egg helped to work on these?”

“Mm, mm, Egg Egg made them!” Rebecca nodded fervently. “I gave him the blueprints. He then made them all in a short while. If we had a little more time, he could have made a huge pile.”

Blueprints… A huge pile…

Gawain looked at the metal object in his hand. It was so perfect, so structured. The orderly lines and level surfaces even carried the unique aesthetics of Earth’s industrial products. Moreover, there wasn’t the slightest difference between the forms of every single one of them. If they had been left to ordinary blacksmiths or even rune craftsmen, how long would it have taken for them to produce these?

That metal-ball alien was indeed a hacker.

His race was indeed a group of hackers.

So long as the fundamental blueprint design was complete and with a supply of basic raw materials, Nicholas Egg was able to turn a blueprint into a product at the speed of light. If he were to be given two hundred metal-ball aliens, why would he think of achieving an industrial foundation? — He’d directly leap into the space age, alright?

However, Gawain quickly repressed the urge to ridicule like mad. He questioned Rebecca curiously, “How exactly did you manage the delay?”

“Gears, a clockwork spring, and connecting rods.” Rebecca seemed to have long expected Gawain to ask about them, so she even specially prepared the unassembled delay mechanism. “Look, it’s this one. Very simple.”

Gawain bowed his head for a look and was stunned. A stable and reliable reduction gear and escapement…

So this doofus was actually the one who had transmigrated!

Heidi’s expression was abnormally odd. “How do you have these… things in your mind?”

“The mechanical structure of the Magic Powered Engine that Lord Ancestor designed and when he told me about all kinds of principles of mechanics — I learned them conscientiously!” Rebecca batted her eyes, looking innocent. “Besides, I’ve always really liked these mechanisms and structures. Aunt, it’s not like you didn’t know.”

Yeah, because she couldn’t grasp other spells, she worked hard to study all sorts of magic mechanisms, attempting to use mechanics to make up for her regret in spells. Heidi remembered clearly even till now that when Rebecca’s peers were busy drawing castles, flowers, knights, and princes on paper, how Rebecca had covered a wall in her bedroom with drawings of levers and driving wheels — as well as how she was chased and scurried all over the castle.

Gawain did not have the time now to study the silly dear… clever dear’s brain circuits. Instead, he asked the most critical question, “How’s the reliability?”

“I already did several rounds of tests in different environments, including in high temperatures, in water, and throwing them to the ground. They were not affected at all. At the least, it will not explode in advance. This metal strip at the side is the safety lock. — You can only use it after pulling it out. — Then, press on this small lump on top. It will begin to tick away inside and explode after five seconds. In the situation where the safety lock isn’t pulled out, unless you drop it from a height of tens of meters and the angle of the fall is perfect, it absolutely will not explode. This is because the rune trigger will be jammed on the safety lock. It will not come into contact with the detonation magic circle inside the shell at all.”

When faced with such a Rebecca, Gawain could only twitch the corner of his lips. “…I’ll praise you properly when we get back.”

Then, carrying the experimental weapon ‘crystal grenade’ that had just completed its product trial and had yet to experience a field test, Gawain and company left the riverbank of the White River, disappearing from the sights of Heidi and Rebecca on fast horses.

And only until the group disappeared did Rebecca cautiously peep at Heidi. “Aunt, Lord Ancestor wasn’t being sarcastic with what he said earlier, was he?”

“Why would it be sarcasm?” Heidi was stupefied in the moment.

Rebecca scratched her hair. “Don’t you always say to me ‘I’ll teach you a proper lesson when we get home’ in the past?”

Heidi faltered; she could not help but smile and rub Rebecca’s hair. “Of course it’s not sarcasm. We were all too narrow-minded in the past, such that we weren’t able to see your talent.”

“…This isn’t sarcasm too?”

“Of course not.”