Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 253 - 252: Melting Sword and the Patrol Squad

Initially, Gawain chose to seek Byron’s opinion on weapon improvement plans because he valued the mercenary experience of this middle-aged knight from his early years.

Unlike aristocratic knights or mages who rise through the ranks with formal training, mercenaries often lack comprehensive training conditions and good inheritance standards. However, they have their own ways to make up for their shortcomings—their rich combat experience and ability to adapt to situations are what they rely on to survive by the skin of their teeth. A mercenary needs to understand various combat environments, know the strengths and weaknesses of various weapons, and be clear about how to solve crises in different environments, so they can survive for a long time—Byron meets this criterion completely.

Sir Philip is indeed a strong and talented knight, but his knowledge is too rigid and old-fashioned. Faced with the rapidly evolving Cecil military equipment and new combat concepts, it is impressive enough that he can keep up without falling behind. Expecting him to make any groundbreaking ideas based on traditional weaponry is probably harder than forcing Amber to walk through a door...

Sir Byron summarized the characteristics of the current Cecil Clan warriors and found the route for improving the melee equipment needed by the soldiers, both of which seemed quite appealing to Gawain.

”The mechanical sword concept draws inspiration from the increasingly widespread application of the Magic-Powered Engine on the territory,” Sir Byron began to explain his idea. ”Those engines are immensely powerful, so much so that even a professional knight in full armor would be seriously injured or killed if hit by a machine’s rotor. That’s why rune craftsmen are considering applying machine power to swords—they are thinking of installing a small repulsion mechanism in the hilt to either vibrate the blade or drive a serrated structure, allowing it to easily tear through enemy armor.”

”The Melting Sword concept, on the other hand, abandons mechanical structures and continues to find a path from effects similar to ’enchanting.’ A rune craftsman proposed adding a Flame Rune Array to the blade and using a Magic Capacitor for power. These runes could allow the blade to reach a very high temperature—we could cast the blade using purple steel, which is highly resistant to heat. Once the steel is heated with fire-based runes, it is no longer a magic effect, and the enemy’s magic resistance is ineffective against it. The extremely high-temperature purple steel blade can easily destroy most conventional metal armor currently in the world or cause significant damage to relatively sophisticated magic robes and Mage Protective Shields. Against unarmored or lightly armored enemies, its damage is even more lethal.”

”Of course, compared to mechanically-driven serrations, the destruction efficiency of a high-temperature blade may be slightly lower. And if you encounter those wealthy enemies covered in Mithril and Adamantite armor, there’s no solution either—but then again, if you really encounter armor made of Mithril and Adamantite, even the mechanical sword has no solution...”

Gawain’s mind was now filled with chainsaw swords and plasma blades flying around...

He had to make a great effort to suppress the fancy ideas bouncing around in his mind while maintaining the dignity of the Ancient Ancestor Jiaguan on his face. After carefully considering both plans, he rejected one of them: ”The mechanical sword is not feasible.”

”Uh... we haven’t even discussed the outcome yet...” Byron was stunned for a moment, not expecting Gawain to quickly reject what seemed like the most promising of the two valuable plans. ”Why do you think the mechanical sword is not feasible?”

”The mechanical structure is too complex, has poor stability, is difficult to maintain, is costly, and not easy to mass-produce. Moreover, the current repulsion mechanisms still have relatively large mechanical vibrations, which would affect the soldiers’ usage,” Gawain shook his head and said, ”Don’t forget my initial reminder: only a weapon that can be mass-produced is a good weapon, and I have to add this: equipment that can withstand harsh environments is good equipment. Unfortunately, the mechanical sword does not satisfy either of these points... at least at our current technological level.”

”Swords are meant to frequently collide with opponents’ weapons or armor. In continuous collisions, the gears and linkage in the hilt can easily malfunction, and after all—movable serrated structures mean more fragility and wear. Even if we don’t consider the cost of mass-producing this, it would break its teeth just sawing through armor on the battlefield a few times, so what practicality does it have?”

Byron was stunned for a moment, finally realizing the huge problem within: ”Yeah! I didn’t even think of that...”

However, Gawain didn’t think this was Byron’s fault—his experience was indeed vast, but when new magic-power industrial technology was mixed into matters, his judgment could also falter—he only saw the immense power of the Magic-Powered Engine but didn’t understand how the precise components within the machine operated.

Honestly, rejecting the mechanical sword concept also made Gawain somewhat regretful—after all, an engine-driven spinning chainsaw sword is a romantic notion for men. Yet with the current industrial foundation, pulling off something like this in battle would more likely cause chaos...

However, compared to the mechanical sword with obvious drawbacks, the Melting Sword’s concept seems quite feasible.

It’s not uncommon to use runes for heating purposes; in alchemical factories, reaction flasks are currently heated using fire-based runes. However, ordinary fire-based rune heating devices can only generate temperatures of a few hundred degrees Celsius and cannot melt metals. But Rebecca has been working on improving fire-based magic circles recently—she’s attempting to simplify the common trap-type Array ”Blazing Land” into a universal magic circle, and applying the simplified circle in steel mills to change the existing practice of using firewood and charcoal in forge furnaces, and it’s said to be nearing success.

Evidently, the rune craftsmen thought of using fire-based runes to create high-temperature blades upon learning this news.

”Consider the Melting Sword more thoroughly, it’s a good direction,” Gawain returned the blueprints to Byron. As he watched Byron put away the blueprints, he suddenly asked, seemingly casually, ”By the way, I noticed that the planned weapon category in the scheme is a single-handed sword?”

”Oh, right, single-handed sword,” Byron nodded as he rolled up the blueprint, ”The soldiers now have the Forcefield Shield module installed in their magic transmission terminal, which means they have a shield available at all times on the battlefield. So, wielding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other during close combat is the most effective stance. Recently, Sir Philip has already started training in this aspect.”

Beside them, Sir Philip, who had been quietly observing Gawain and Byron as they studied the blueprint, finally broke the silence. He nodded, ”I’ve been training soldiers in combat using the Forcefield Shield and an ordinary single-handed sword — the Forcefield Shield has no weight and doesn’t obstruct vision like a normal shield does, so the content of combat training must be reconsidered.”

Gawain nodded in satisfaction after hearing this — once again, the outsider had actively discovered the traits of new technology, and it seemed there were many things he didn’t need to worry about excessively...

Meanwhile, in the southeast of the territory, within the Dark Mountain Range, a team of fully armed Cecil Clan warriors was on patrol along the mountain path.

Under normal circumstances, the depths of the Dark Mountain Range are not patrolled, partly because of a lack of manpower, and partly due to the difficulty in navigating the wild, primitive forest, making it challenging to arrange outposts. So besides setting up several fixed watchposts to monitor the direction of the Gondor wasteland and prevent another attack from the aberrations, Gawain hadn’t stationed more patrol teams in the mountains.

But recently, several new patrol routes had been established in the mountains.

This is because Holme raw ore had begun to be mined.

With the help of Rebecca Crystals, even the winter season doesn’t affect the progress of the new mines. The area where the Holme raw ore was discovered has now become an open-pit mining site. After several instances of crystals collapsing mountains, large veins of raw ore were exposed. A large number of miners and soldiers have been dispatched to the newly opened open-pit mine, setting up bases around the mining site. To prevent threats from mountain beasts and magical creatures to the mine, several new patrol routes were established around the mine.

In this freezing weather, patrolling the Dark Mountain Range is a tough task, but the soldiers steadfastly stick to their routes. They are clad in recently standardized and mass-produced Chaos Magic Armor, equipped with a general-use military magic transmission terminal, and remain fully focused and vigilant on their patrol, leaving no room for negligence.

This is not only because Gawain consistently promotes ”soldier discipline,” deeply ingraining it into their minds, but also because the new recruits of the Combat Corps are all selected from the common people. Even after enlisting, they must serve in the construction army, contributing to the territory’s development without being discharged. Alongside the various housing and land division policies Gawain has consistently advocated, the soldiers of the Cecil Clan have regarded protecting the territory and the civilians as a given from the outset.

They have personally built the territory, earned their homes and land through labor and military merit, and their friends and relatives are all laborers in the fields, mines, and factories. Their personal interests, as well as the safety of their loved ones, friends, and homeland, are entirely tied to their ability to fulfill their duties, setting them apart from other aristocratic private armies.

The Patrol Team Leader walked at the front of the group, alert to the movements along the mountain path. Despite the icy wind of winter blowing through, the cold did not affect his actions — the armor produced from the military factory was magically protected, with the Wind Shield and heat-resistant runes helping him withstand the chill in these mountains, while the helmet’s solidified secondary clarity spell kept his mind sharp and focused on long patrol duty.

As a veteran who survived from the old Cecil territory, he felt immensely satisfied and secure with his current equipment.

”Stay alert and keep the Forcefield Shield at the ready,” the leader reminded the soldiers behind him, ”Be careful not to be attacked by magical creatures!”

Patrolling in the Dark Mountain Range requires constant vigilance. Since the Forcefield Shield was issued, soldiers have made it a basic rule to have the shield on standby at all times. This is because there are always some magical creatures in the mountains that are unafraid of humans and even possess simple intelligence, ready to attack. A lack of timely response in such situations could be dangerous. Just a few days ago, an unfortunate fellow forgot to activate his shield and was injured by a venomous magical creature. If it weren’t for the inexpensive potions by the Cecil Clan, with regular soldiers carrying several bottles of alchemical potions, that unfortunate fellow might have died.

The patrol team leader still couldn’t help but remind his soldiers, who were good at their jobs.

And just as the soldiers responded, a hint of caution crossed the patrol team leader’s mind.

There is danger nearby...