Pillar of Yita

After replacing the crystal, the bullets need to be upgraded, changing the original low-power lead bullets to the standard bullets of the Type Seven Lion Handgun.

The attack power instantly rose from the original 22-31 to 47-63, more than doubling.

It can be said that from the original level of only being able to harm unarmored, unprotected targets, it has been enhanced to the level where it can penetrate several millimeters of steel plate within its effective range (sixty feet).

Of course, Eteliria is not Earth.

On Earth, most people are unarmored targets, but in Eteliria, the protection level of a Level fourteen or so Heavy Armored Knight (the average level of ordinary guards) is roughly equivalent to the level of primary bulletproof plates on Earth.

At this level of penetration damage, it has little effect on such targets, relying mainly on quantity for victory.

However, the upgraded combat system is much better than the original ’squirt gun’. Moreover, protection means like a Magic Shield don’t usually reduce damage, so higher attack power will penetrate magic shields faster when attacking spellcasters.

After magnifying the Clockwork Fairy’s ’machine cannon’, Fang Hong abandoned the cumbersome but simple revolving cylinder structure — switching to a more complex magazine-fed structure. For balance, he designed the magazine as a ring with built-in springs encircling the loader — with space in the middle for inserting air-cooled heat sinks.

This system is much more complex than the original structure, but its advantage is in being lightweight, reducing the weight by a third compared to the revolving cylinder in the first proposal, with the entire ’machine cannon’ weighing less than three tower pounds, approximately 1.5 kilograms.

Moreover, the ammo capacity reached fourteen rounds, doubling the original; the only downside is the occasional jam in the feeder.

Nonetheless, the magnified ’machine cannon’ itself still weighs several times more than the original system.

This means that the platform’s load-bearing needs optimization and upgrades.

The simplest way is to upgrade the power system.

Therefore, using the design philosophy of adding water when there’s more dough and adding dough when there’s more water, Fang Hong crudely upgraded the original two pairs of flapping wings of the Clockwork Fairy to four pairs, and the Main Core Crystal was upgraded from the original Emerald Bird II to the (Grey) Emerald Bird αAE model.

This crystal was not originally intended for flexible constructs of the Clockwork Fairy’s level; it is used in larger constructs like the Annihilator-type flight constructs. Hence, to accommodate this Main Core Crystal, the crystal compartment was also enlarged by one size.

Correspondingly, a larger cooling system and more complex gyroscopic balance system were required.

Generally, after completing the design, the new ’platform’ looks one size larger than before — the original palm-sized Clockwork Fairy can no longer be held steadily in one hand. But the craftsman’s design is far from just a simple enlargement; considering factors such as wind resistance and structure strength, Fang Hong redesigned the shape of the ’platform’ one more time.

The completed Combat Fairy actually resembles the ’Black Star’ he saw in the Hall of Thousand Doors, but he further elongated the fairy’s shell, making it look more like a silver-white shuttle from the side.

The silver luster results from Fang Hong plating a layer of mithril on the surface to enhance the Clockwork Fairy’s affinity with the Wind Element and Ether Magic Power.

When it flies, its three pairs of thin wing-like feathers spread out, looking like a silver fairy.

The speed is not only not slower than the original Clockwork Fairy, but it’s one-third faster, although its maneuverability dropped by one level: from perfect to excellent.

For ordinary craftsmen, the handling might experience a drastic decline, but for Fang Hong, it’s no trouble at all — he can control even more complex things, it’s just a matter of providing more calculative power.

Which he doesn’t lack —

Fang Hong actually had this idea early on.

After the battle in the Hall of Thousand Doors, he realized that the spherical shape of the Clockwork Fairy is not the best aerodynamic structure for flying — in fact, apart from having certain advantages in maneuverability in narrow spaces, it is quite mediocre and inefficient.

Due to the forward position of the Visual Crystal, the Clockwork Fairy doesn’t fly as people imagine, freely in all directions, but always has one direction facing forward, so the ’spherical shape’ hasn’t fulfilled the imagined function.

The Black Stars in the Hall of Thousand Doors made him aware of this point.

The parameters of the magnified Clockwork Fairy were all within Fang Hong’s expectations — its power can exactly bear its self-weight without hindering maneuverability, speed, and controllability.

Even with increased weight and enhanced power systems, shooting in flight is more stable, no longer swaying left and right, and gets precise without relying on lineup firing at a certain distance.

It can be said to be perfect.

He locked himself in his studio for a whole week until the morning of the eighth day before this new generation ’platform’ was officially completed.

As the first light of dawn rose from the horizon, the sunlight passing through the blinds of Mr. Greyrock’s studio and falling on his desk, Fang Hong was carefully placing this first trial piece on the desk, rubbing his sore eyes, examined it carefully for a moment.