Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 570 Energy Barrage
Looking at Mr. Magic Shield with an expression of disbelief, Harvey was a little amused... The magic research path of traditional spellcasters in the past thousands of years had solidified their original outstanding wisdom and thoughts to a certain extent. At certain moments, they could not even be compared with himself, a time traveler who had only received a general education for more than ten years.

In short, they have mastered the depth of vision of the mysterious and extraordinary world, but they are unable to break away from the rules and broaden the breadth of their thinking.

Harvey didn't intend to explain too much about this. Seeing is believing... He gave a look to Tommy, who was already prepared and rubbing his hands.

Tommy immediately understood and turned to face the huge obsidian target dozens of meters away from the experimental workshop. The stainless steel target surface hung high on the boulder was painted with a striking red mark, which was just right for verifying the power of the weapon without considering the shooting range.

Following the order, the captain of the guards pulled the trigger without hesitation, and a dazzling beam of white light burst out from the barrel and shot straight towards the steel target not far away.

The thought "the firing speed is not that fast" just flashed through Fadun's mind, and the next moment the thick beam of light immediately disintegrated and turned into countless tiny light spots, like a huge fishing net woven in the air in an instant, covering the target with a diameter of several meters directly like splashing water.

The instantaneous burst of light from the contact between magic and metal made everyone close their eyes and avoid it. In their ears came a sound no less than that of a magic machine gun firing... Fadun knew that it was probably the sound of the steel target breaking and disintegrating.

When he looked up and opened his eyes, sure enough... the pure steel target, which was as thick as a finger, was covered by the energy of the beam weapon, and spider-web-like cracks appeared on its surface. It could not withstand its own weight and peeled off from the wall directly.

"This... this is how energy weapons attack?"

Harvey nodded, a look of slight dissatisfaction on his face. "The diffusion area is still not large enough, and the range of the attack is not optimistic... We need to continue to adjust the weapon's energy core model."

If it weren't for the sake of confidentiality, it would have been better to conduct the test firing in a wider outdoor space, at least to simultaneously demonstrate its strike range of nearly 500 meters.

"This is just the firing effect of a single weapon. If fully equipped on a floating airship, with its weight of less than 30 kilograms, it would be enough for a reconnaissance team consisting of three airships to form a dense anti-aircraft fire network."

This kind of firepower coverage depends entirely on the shooting angle. As long as the person responsible for operating the weapon is not blind, it is basically impossible for enemy targets with the ability to fly to avoid the attack.

What surprised Harvey the most was that this pure energy beam had no entity, and there was no problem of ballistic drop during the shooting process. It could almost cover whatever it was aimed at, like pouring water.

Chris quickly took the opportunity to add, "We've also been developing a set of beam sights... to assist spellcasters with less advanced shooting skills, allowing them to use the sights to guide their weapons' firing direction."

But from the recent weapon tests, it was found that this was obviously redundant... In Harvey's eyes, this thing was no different from a shotgun blast into the enemy's mouth. It didn't require too much precise positioning, and the killing coverage was wide enough.

Fadun recovered from his shock and asked, "Since it's a weapon designed to be mounted on the airship, why does it need an energy storage box to be carried on the back?"

"Of course it's for dual-use in the air!" Chris waved his hand and patiently explained, "During aerial combat, the beam weapon's energy pipeline is directly connected to the airship's fuel tank, which effectively consumes the airship's liquid fuel."

However, if it is necessary to make an emergency landing on the ground to fight, the direct connection needs to be changed to a portable one, and an energy storage box needs to be used to carry liquid magic energy for mobile combat.

"The main gun and the energy storage tank weigh a total of thirty kilograms. For bloodline warriors with enhanced physiques or elite mortal soldiers who have undergone specialized weight-bearing training, this might not be too much of a burden..." Harvey patted Shield's shoulder helplessly and sighed, "But for spellcasters who haven't undergone any physical transformation, especially mid- to low-level research mages, it's probably too much to bear." Therefore, beam weapons will only be installed on airships in the future, while ground-based air defense forces will use a separate set of portable models...

In this regard, Harvey didn't mind the identity gap between spellcasters and ordinary soldiers at all. In his opinion, as long as the correct weapons were used on the correct "combat arms", satisfactory combat results would be achieved. It didn't matter whether the cat was black or white... as long as it could catch mice, it was a good cat.

……

After finishing the test firing of the new weapon, Harvey and Fadun parted ways directly, and Chris then led the group of Federation allies to continue visiting the alchemy laboratory.

He then headed directly to the Academy of Magical Sciences with a small entourage.

Dean Arturo was waiting early in the lobby on the first floor of the main building, leading a group of members of the Academy of Sciences to welcome his arrival.

"Mr. Arturo, have we made any clear progress or results in establishing contact with the Southern Sea Tribe?"

Harvey asked impatiently before entering the reception room.

Arturo bowed and slowly replied, "Your Majesty, the members of the Academy's Central Plains Necromancer Cult and the Lambert family arrived in the southern seas half a month ago, using the Harro Chamber of Commerce's cargo ship to sail... They should have successfully entered the Sea Clan's territory by now."

In order to facilitate this cooperation, the Academy of Sciences sent ten "academicians" to use their existing good relationship with the sea people to seek something for Harvey that was only occasionally mentioned in a few magic books and documents.

Map of the abyss.

It is rumored that the sea tribe in the southern seas were originally born in the western storm sea bordering the Evil Moon Mountains... Among these "coral people", who are closely related to humans, there are also sea priests who can control and release water element magic. The most important part of the sea priest's promotion ceremony is to travel thousands of miles from the southern seas, through the dark river system densely distributed in the southern abyss, and return to the tribe's birthplace to greet their own promotion in the center of the storm.

Driven by ancient traditions like the migration of "sturgeons" for thousands of years, each coral archipelago settlement has a sea chart that belongs to its own tribe, and either shares the same diving route with other tribes or opens up a brand new route independently.

If they could be collected together, Harvey would have direct control over the distribution of underground waterways in the entire southern region. At least 90% of the underground rivers and lakes could be directly included in the monitoring and warning range - it would be extremely easy for a living shield machine to vertically drill through hundreds of meters of crustal rock layers.

No expression could be seen through Arturo's alchemical body, but Harvey could clearly tell from his hesitant tone that things were not going smoothly.

"Over the past few decades, the several coral tribes that have formed cooperative relationships with the Esoteric Cult and the Lambert family could be negotiated, perhaps offering some urgently needed supplies, or some rare elemental magic and spellcasting materials... But those settlements in the outer seas would probably be difficult to convince easily. They have almost never interacted with humans in the past."

(End of this chapter)