Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 177 The invention that changed the course of the war

"He...how did you guys make him look like this?"

Harvey stared at the demon captive who was thrown on the experimental table in front of him, with all his limbs cut off, looking like a "human stick", and asked in confusion.

Egno took off the protective gloves made of rubber fruit and explained with a smile, "Sir, the strengthening potion you prepared has restored his vitality. It seems to be more effective than the ones he usually uses. It has caused him to go into a fighting frenzy several times, and he almost broke the lock and injured my assistant..."

He casually pointed at the man's severed limbs. "So I can only deal with the most aggressive parts briefly. But don't worry, the hemostasis and suturing measures are done very well, and it won't affect your subsequent experiments..."

Harvey covered his face speechlessly. What Egno called simple treatment and elimination of aggressiveness was to directly cut it into a "human stick" to ensure that the demon prisoner did not die.

"Then how did his face and skin become like this?" Except for his eyes which still maintained their normal red color, the skin on his entire face and body seemed to have been corroded and dissolved by strong acid, solidifying and tangling into a paste, which looked extremely terrifying.

"Well... As you know, the evil orc tribe retreated to the ice field after the spring. The patrol team often went out, but they couldn't capture evil orc test subjects for me to test the medicine... I figured you wouldn't need him for additional potion experiments later, so..."

Egno still felt somewhat guilty about taking his lord's experimental subject, but seeing his fanatical attitude towards potion experiments, Harvey felt that he might dare to do it again next time.

Asdalen quickly spoke up to help Egno, the avid potion experimenter. "Sir, during the recent raid on the mining area, many of our soldiers suffered severe burns on their faces and bodies from the fireballs of the demonic beasts. Egno is currently experimenting with a... uh, potion that can help the skin heal and grow again..."

Harvey nodded in understanding, but couldn't help but jokingly remarked, "It seems the potion did help the skin heal and grow, but it didn't restore its original appearance. Egno, I don't want soldiers to discover they're permanently disfigured after their burns heal. This would seriously affect their competitiveness in the marriage market."

After saying that, he and Asdalen laughed heartily without mercy.

……

After Egno hurried away with a look of shame on his face, Harvey regained his composure and instructed Asdaron, "This is the only demon captive sent by the Federation. We must use him with care and try to obtain as complete weapons testing data as possible."

Asdalen nodded to show that he understood. In fact, long before Harvey published the paper anonymously, they had simultaneously started the research on energy weapons that were completely aimed at the demon soldiers.

Harvey named it in advance - anti-magic energy weapon!
The inspiration came from the final conclusion drawn from the live control experiment. Since the demons directly absorb pure magic energy to enhance and strengthen themselves, the energy-absorbing beetles that naturally have the ability to absorb magic energy are naturally the original natural enemies that can restrain the abundant magic energy in their bodies.

The natural magical biological characteristic of the energy-absorbing beetles is to indiscriminately absorb all substances rich in magic energy that they detect, whether it is the magic stones of various grades thrown by Harvey, or the natural magic crystal veins buried deep underground in the territory castle.

Even if Reiner and Asdalen accidentally strayed too close to the beetles, they would be able to keenly sense the magical energy fluctuations emanating from their alchemical bodies, quickly swarming around to absorb their energy, nearly causing the two alchemicals to lose their lives. The crafting of the magic gun requires mature energy-absorbing beetles. At this stage, they no longer crave mana, but instead continuously release pure energy from their bodies after reproducing and laying eggs. This is also a key characteristic of the magic gun.

However, the energy-absorbing talent of the young beetles is completely consistent with the attack characteristics of the weapon Harvey envisioned. If the beetle soul at this stage is transferred into an alchemical weapon in the same way as making a magic gun, it will undoubtedly be possible to obtain an anti-magic energy weapon that does not release energy beams but can quickly absorb magic energy.

After the territory achieved industrial mass production of magic guns, Harvey arranged to move the beetle nests from the upper level of the laboratory to the natural mineral veins underground. This would maximize the supply of magic energy needed by the beetles on a daily basis. Those huge numbers of magic stone crystal pillars rich in massive magic energy were the most natural beetle feed.

Moreover, the natural mineral veins underground are surrounded by hard rocks, so the beetles, which can only dig holes in the soil, have no chance to escape. They only need to arrange miniature wolf spiders equipped with energy isolation arrays to take care of these gentle and harmless magical insects.

The last time he went underground to inspect the beetle breeding situation, Harvey remembered that after these insects gained freedom of magical feed, their reproduction speed increased rapidly, and now their population has expanded to tens of thousands.

"Of all these beetles, one-third are mature. We can use some of the larvae to create anti-magic weapons. This won't affect the production of magic guns at all..."

Of course, the prerequisite is that this kind of anti-magic weapon is proven to be mass-produced in their experiments. If the manufacturing cost is too high, it may not be possible to achieve large-scale popularization, even if the Federation comes forward to inject capital.

After all, magic weapons can be exported and sold, but the energy-absorbing beetles, which are the core raw materials for the development of the territory's magic technology, must never be leaked at will!
……

Nourishing~
Harvey held up a metal stick with silver inscriptions engraved all over it, and pressed the mechanism underneath the stick towards the left shoulder of the demon "human stick" tied to the wooden frame.

A ball of blood immediately burst out from the right shoulder of the demon experimental subject, but the shoulder did not shatter directly like it would be if it was hit by a magic gun. Instead, it was blocked by the hard scales on the body surface, and only a tearing wound was blown out.

"See, it's really hard for the magic gun to cause direct penetrating damage to their scale-covered bodies..." Harvey said with a light cough, perfectly concealing the fact that he was a very poor marksman.

Asdalen walked directly to the side of the demon test subject and observed that the part of the body torn by the magic stone ammunition was actually beginning to carbonize and shrink inside the wound that was originally bleeding profusely. The muscles, blood vessels and skin of the entire right arm also became shrunken and stiff.

"The magic stone ammunition fired from the weapon transformed from the juvenile beetle, upon entering the opponent's body, actually directly absorbed the abundant magic energy originally contained in the body, causing the injured part to show a state that only occurs after the drug is cut off..."

Asdalen took a pair of pointed pliers, reached into the subject's wound and took out the magic stone bullet that was embedded in the shoulder blade. He found that the original pure white and translucent color of the bullet had turned into a light blue crystal state.

Anti-magic energy weapons can indeed cause targeted damage to demon soldiers who have used enhanced potions!

(End of this chapter)