Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 279 - 278: Soldrin’s Inspiration

Kamel looked unexpectedly at the bone fragment Tiel handed over, remaining silent for a long time. Seeing this, Tiel smiled slightly and waved her hand indifferently, ”No need to thank me, actually I’m not interested in your fleeting empires and kingdoms. Helping you is just a simple gesture.”

”No, I was curious if you usually store things in your stomach?”

Tiel: ”...Yes, is there a problem?”

”No... there’s no real issue, it’s just my limited perspective,” Kamel, with an expression equivalent to 140 lumens, put the bone fragment away, ”Still, I appreciate your help, Miss Tiel. But why did you bring back such a bone fragment?”

”Actually, I originally intended to taste the saltiness, but then I realized consuming such a humanoid creature was too extreme, so I just picked up a piece of bone as a souvenir—but didn’t expect this thing to decompose so quickly, even inside my stomach,” Tiel wagged her tail-tip, ”I was going to find a deserted place to spit it out, but if you need it, you can have it.”

Kamel’s expression darkened (in a literal sense), suddenly feeling a bit reluctant to accept the sample—although Tiel said she brought it back as a collectible, the process sounded like something half-digested...

Moreover, he had to thank Tiel for this thing...

The sea demon lady had no idea what Kamel was thinking; she merely felt relieved to have finished this troublesome matter, her desire to sleep outweighed everything else. After a big yawn, the sea caterpillar left the Administrative Office, swaying as it went.

Gawain returned to his study, unsurprised to find Soldrin waiting inside, while Betty stood nearby holding a big teapot, seemingly having been there a long time.

”We discussed post-war production,” Gawain, upon entering, casually rubbed Betty’s head before letting the young maid rest next door, then sat behind his desk, ”I actually wanted to call you over as well.”

Soldrin shook his head calmly, ”Better not, my current identity isn’t truly part of the Cecil Clan’s retainers. As a Typhon Commander and a prisoner of war at present, it’s not appropriate to attend your meetings.”

”You always adhere too strictly to principles on matters that don’t even affect the big picture,” Gawain glanced at him helplessly, ”Even I, as the leader, have no issue, yet you insist on it.”

”Elves typically are like that; we are originally a very principled race,” Soldrin laughed, ”You’ve dealt with elves so much, you should have been accustomed to our adherence to principles.”

Had he not mentioned it, Gawain wouldn’t have thought of a certain defiant, provocatively unprincipled pointy-eared girl, ”...Not all elves are like that, just look at Amber, perhaps her bloodline isn’t genuine.”

Hearing Amber’s name, Soldrin looked equally helpless. That half-elf always caused trouble around the territory, leaving a deep impression on the High-Ranked Ranger, ”Miss Amber, indeed, she’s half silver elf, yet her manner really makes one question how influential that half of her blood truly is... maybe it’s related to her other half-bloodline.”

”Sure, only the good traits derive from your silver elf lineage, while any little flaws must be the mixed blood,” Gawain glanced at Soldrin, but he didn’t take it seriously, merely jokingly brushed off the topic, ”But enough about that, what’s your opinion on the recent battle?”

”About your troops, or about those monsters?”

Gawain lightly tapped on the desk, ”Both.”

Soldrin chuckled, ”Honestly, your army took me by surprise. I had noticed before that their equipment was peculiar, and their training wasn’t conventional, but I never imagined their combat ability and tactics would be like that. Is this the result of your 700 years of ’soul travel’? Some knowledge from... Lost Time-Space or an alien civilization?”

”More or less,” Gawain said casually, ”And this unit is not yet fully formed. Whether in terms of weapons and equipment or training, they fall short of my target.”

”It shows, for example, those crystal bombs you hurl with the Catapult,” Soldrin, with his insights and vision from crossing the Gondor wasteland 700 years ago as a High-Ranked Ranger from the Silver Empire, immediately noticed the coordination issues in the Cecil defenses, ”Tremendous power but clear shortcomings, using a primitive Catapult to throw ’bombs’ was a measure of desperation, right?”

Gawain acknowledged Soldrin’s statement with a wry smile, ”Precisely, and we discussed in today’s meeting how to resolve this issue. Honestly, I urgently need a kind of high-power, high-accuracy, long-range weapon that’s easy to deploy and move. Humans are at a disadvantage against aberrations; we must compensate with powerful gear.”

”High power, precision, range, and flexible deployment, your requirements aren’t low,” Soldrin scratched his fake hair, ”To be honest, seeing you guys hurling something called a ’crystal bomb’ with the Catapult was heartbreaking—such potent magical devices, yet most exploded on open ground—I honestly wished I could add a Blessing of Wind to every bomb, then shoot them with more precise weapons like an Elf Crossbow Cannon, at least it wouldn’t be that wasteful...”

Soldrin casually mentioned it, but something suddenly clicked in Gawain’s mind: adding an enchanted structure to the cannonball?! How did he not think of this before?!

It’s the limitation of thought, the limitation of thought—he had always been pondering over the ”cannon” structure from planet Earth’s perspective, trying hard to seek solutions from the so-called ”firing mechanism,” but neglected that in this magical world, the cannonball itself could also be seen as a target for enchantment...

Gawain suddenly slapped his forehead. He realized that even if he didn’t fall into the trap of the ”firing mechanism,” he should have been inspired by other examples: aren’t missiles on Earth a kind of self-powered weapon? Why didn’t he think of implementing a similar effect on the cannonballs when creating this alternate world version? Even if they couldn’t make the cannonball fly by itself, reducing its weight and adding wind-type magic symbols could solve the problem of insufficient thrust of the Repulsion magic circle or the overly long acceleration track.

He carefully thought about what exactly was limiting his mindset and finally gradually understood the problem: it was the so-called ”steps of technological development.”

Even though he had realized more than once that magic in this world had its conveniences in many places and had marveled at how this world achieved with magic many things that were still considered science fiction on Earth, he still couldn’t help using past experiences to apply to current facts when thinking about some problems—deep down he felt that missiles were an advanced entity over cannons, that they came after cannons, so before solving the cannon problem, he didn’t even think he could skip this step and directly draw inspiration from missiles or rockets...

It’s like nobody would think of letting someone practice swimming before learning to walk—but try telling that to a sea demon?

Some sea demons, even at tens of thousands of years old, still can’t walk upright, and once they got on land, all they could do was scoot—but once they hit the water, a single koi flick could speed up to 60 knots; how can you argue with that...

Similarly, in a world where the path of magic development prevails, rockets are indeed simpler than cannonballs—just like how the Cecil engineers were using laser welding before the soldering iron was even invented...

As a torrent of self-reflections and inventive inspirations flooded Gawain’s mind, Soldrin, sitting across from him, looked perplexed. Seeing Gawain suddenly start hitting his own head, he couldn’t help but say, ”I was just talking casually, you don’t need to get so worked up...”

”No, it’s not your fault. I just got some ideas, ahem,” Gawain snapped back to his senses somewhat awkwardly, coughed twice, and brought the topic back on track, ”Let’s continue discussing the main business. What do you think about the new type of enemies that appeared in this battle?”

”Among those monsters, there were mutated individuals with intelligence that hadn’t been seen in seven hundred years, which is quite unexpected,” Soldrin nodded, ”when we traversed the Gondor wasteland back then, it took more than a year, during which we dealt with countless aberrations, but never found any subspecies among them. However, to be honest, with the unusual environment of the Gondor wasteland, it’s not abnormal for those monsters to experience some mutations after being trapped there for seven hundred years—I am more concerned about how significant their ’intelligence awakening’ is, how many monsters mutated, how many possess higher intelligence, and what their level of organization is...”

As he spoke, the High-Ranked Ranger furrowed his brows, ”Chaotic yet mindless monsters are easier to deal with, no matter how powerful they are, but the smart ones... I am worried they might pose a threat to the great walls.”

Gawain’s expression grew serious, ”Do you think they are the ones damaging the great walls?”

”As long as they have awakened intelligence, they cannot be indifferent to the great walls, which serve as a barrier to trap them, and breaking free from constraint is an inherent instinct of all intelligent beings,” Soldrin nodded, ”They can naturally utilize the vast chaotic energy in the Gondor wasteland. If they know how to harness this energy and purposely target the destruction of the sentinel towers, then the great walls would indeed be in jeopardy. The sentinel towers, while sturdy and equipped with numerous defense mechanisms, are designed to handle the insane energy ravages and mindless wandering monsters in the wasteland. When faced with an organized and orderly attack, the sentinel towers would encounter significant problems.”

Gawain slowly nodded, then looked at Soldrin, ”I understand, so you should be saying your goodbyes to me.”

”That’s right,” Soldrin stood up, ”We have a lot to discuss, but the hidden threats to the great walls can no longer be delayed, I must set out immediately to warn my kinsfolk and understand the situation with the great barrier—now that the territory has been restored to safety, it is also time for me to leave.”

Gawain didn’t intend to keep this High-Ranked Ranger any longer, especially considering the other was already planning to leave before, only staying longer due to the sudden monster attack, and that he would surely return afterward. However, Gawain couldn’t help but ask before Soldrin left, ”Even if you’re confident... how exactly do you plan to breach the Typhon border blockade?”

”A great Ranger is often also a great infiltrator,” Soldrin smiled confidently, ”Did you forget how I blended through the barbarian front lines back then and set half of their camp ablaze?”

Gawain gave it some thought and then looked aghast, ”You’re planning to disguise again?”

”I really don’t understand why you’re always so surprised...”

Gawain: ”...Actually, I feel like taking off the wig is more effective than turning into Soldrin, not to mention the Typhon Empire, even I might not recognize you...”

”No!!”