CH 171

Chapter 171 – Prototype Magic Gun

“…Hmm, I see. This is very well thought out.”

I looked over the instruction manual for the prototype magic gun and said with honest admiration. This prototype magic gun was made by craftsmen from this world using only the technology of this world, referring to the bolt-action rifle and front-loading musket gun I had provided for research.

First of all, the bullet loading system is a front-loading type. In other words, it is a type of gun where the bullets are inserted through the muzzle, and the bullets are loaded by pushing them in with a stick. Because of its structure, it is naturally a single-shot type.

If it were a conventional musket gun, gunpowder would be poured into the barrel, and then the bullet would be inserted and pushed in with a stick to solidify the gunpowder, but this prototype magic gun does not use gunpowder. Instead, only the bullet is pushed in through the muzzle, and a very small amount of explosion magic is triggered at the back of the barrel to fire the bullet with its explosive pressure.

It seems that wind magic, not explosion magic, was used in the prototype of the magic gun, but it was not as powerful as explosion magic. They have tried various kinds of magic, but so far, using explosion magic is the most powerful.

The barrel is made of black steel, which is highly resistant to magic. Although it is heavy, it is highly resistant to magic, and they decided that the deterioration of the barrel caused by explosion magic would be minimized. Because of its durability as a metal, it is preferred by heavy warriors as a material for armor with high magic defense. It is also more expensive than iron, but not as expensive as the magic metals, and is easier to maintain than iron because it does not rust easily.

The rifle’s barrel has a four-row right-handed rifling, perhaps in reference to a bolt-action rifle. The warhead also seems to be in the shape of a vertebrate. The bottom also has a skirt-like hollow. The bottom of this skirt swells up under the pressure of the explosion and bites into the rifling to keep the pressure in and allow the bullet to fire.

If I remember correctly, this hollow was supposed to be filled with something… Was it a wooden plug or a cork?

The barrel is threaded at the base of the gun, and a tailstock is fitted. This tailstock is made of magic steel and seems to be a trigger for explosion magic. In the unlikely event that the explosive trigger of the tailstock is broken, it can be replaced with a simple tool. Removing the tailstock would also make cleaning the barrel easier.

As for the firing mechanism, by raising the firing pin and pulling the trigger, the explosion magic is triggered at the bottom of the barrel, and the loaded bullet is fired. The magic power is supplied from the magic crystal stone loaded in the place where the firing pin hits the fire cap. If the magic stone is filled to the maximum, it can fire 30 shots.

If a soldier is able to fill a magic stone with magic power, he can shoot as many bullets as he wants as long as he carries a lot of bullets and his magic gun is not broken. If not, the magic stone itself is not that big. If you carry spare magic stones with you, you can shoot quite a few. I heard that if you want to get out of a hurry, you can use an appropriate size of magic stone or magic crystal instead.

Although the magic stones are disposable, you can get them by defeating monsters. The magic crystals are also disposable, but they can store far more magic power than a magic stone of the same size. They can fire ten times as much magic power as a magic stone of the same size. The advantage of the magic crystal is that even if the magic power is used up, you can use it again by refilling it. It’s very eco-friendly. It says in the instruction manual that it is basically designed to be operated using the magic crystal stone.

The warhead can be manufactured in the field as long as you have a mold and lead. There is a possibility that the accuracy will be slightly lower, though. It seems that those who can use a little bit of magic can replenish the magic power in the crystal stone, and if you want to make bullets, you can make them on the front line… Maybe? Lead isn’t something you can carry around all that often. Well, it’s better to make a lot of bullets in the rear… and supply them properly than to supply lead as a supply.

Whether it is a relief for the soldiers to know that they can make bullets for emergency evacuation even in the front line… or whether it is a relief for the soldiers to know that they can make their own arrowheads if they want to, considering the bow and arrow. I’m afraid that some of them might start using stone bullets made with earth magic.

In any case, making bullets is probably easier than making crossbow arrows, as long as the facilities are in place. I think this is a big advantage over crossbows. Crossbow arrows require a certain amount of time and effort to make the arrowhead, make the arrow handle, attach the arrowhead, and attach the arrow feathers.

As far as mass production is concerned, thanks to the increasing popularity of golem-type lathes and thrust-powered lathes, mass production of gun barrels and other parts are possible. The problem is the tailstock, which is made of magic steel, but if the plan to mass-produce magical metals at the rear base goes well, it will be possible to mass-produce this to some extent.

And as for the shooting performance, this prototype type of magic gun is… very big. The caliber of this prototype gun is very large, about 15mm, by my estimate. As for the effective range, the test firing showed that it was about 500 meters…? Eh? Seriously? That’s about the same effective range as the bolt-action rifle I supplied.

And the power of the large-caliber bullet can kill a Gizma with a single blow. Probably an instant death for a human? If it hits a limb, will the limb be blown off? That’s right; it’s 15mm, isn’t it? Even the largest caliber anti-material rifle I have available is a 12.7mm round.

The power of a gun is greatly affected by its caliber. Well, my anti-material rifle will have much higher accuracy and initial velocity, so I think it will be more powerful and have a higher range than the prototype magic gun.

“However, I’m amazed… Didn’t they just do this thing?”

This is the perfect murder weapon. If this is used in large numbers, there will be many corpses piling up on the enemy side. And above all, this prototype magic gun was made using only technology from this world. In other words, if they were to capture it and reverse engineer it, the people of the Holy Kingdom would be able to manufacture it. They probably don’t have golem-type or hydraulic-type lathes, so I don’t think they can mass-produce them that easily.

There are still many things that need to be improved as weapons — for example, the weight. The black steel used for the barrel is heavy, and the barrel itself is thickly built to prevent the gun from exploding, so the gun’s overall weight is heavy. It probably weighed more than five kilograms. It’s a burden to march with this on your back… No, the people of this world, both human and subhuman, have high physical abilities, so it’s not a burden…?

It says that the barrel is thick and sturdy enough to be used as a weapon in case of an emergency. If the barrel is distorted, it could be dangerous… But the reason the barrel is so thick is so that it can be used as a melee weapon when approached. Anyway, they are pursuing robustness. I wonder if that’s enough.

Well, I guess another improvement is the fact that it can’t be fired in rapid succession. There is also the issue of supply and the high cost of production. I don’t think it will be mass-produced and widely used anytime soon, but I think the ease of maintenance is well thought out.

“Let’s try to shoot it.”

Seeing is believing, so I decided to try out the gun. The people here discussed the airboard, dismantled it, and inspected it.

“Wait a minute! What are you doing dismantling it?”

“Don’t worry; I’ll put it back together.”

“It’s just the tip.”

“Don’t worry about the details. Oh, you’re going to test fire the prototype magic gun?”

“I was interested in that, too. Let’s do it, let’s do it.”

The blacksmiths and alchemists who had been discussing near the airboard said so and began to take broken armor, logs, and scrap wood from the test site’s warehouse and set them up as targets.

“If you don’t fix it properly, I’ll use you as a test subject for an interesting mecha I’m working on…”

The people who were dismantling and inspecting the airboard shivered at my words. I’m going to let you fly freely in the sky. If you fail, you’ll fall headlong into the ground, though.

I get my bearings and decide to test fire the prototype magic gun. The target was set up about 50 meters away, a thin wooden board with multiple circles drawn on it. There was a log with a broken metal armor on it, a simple log, and a human-sized clay doll. The clay dolls were made of earth magic and were said to be as durable as a human body.

“Alright, let’s start with the armor.”

“Oh.”

The shooter was me, who was most familiar with shooting. I’ll temporarily disable the excellent archer’s skill, which increases shooting power by 40% because a 40% difference can make quite a difference.

I held up the prototype magic gun, used the iron sights to aim at the body of the armor, and fired.

Boom! A loud firing sound rang out, and a large hole appeared in the center of the armor, sending the entire log flying backward. The recoil was milder than I expected, probably because the gun itself was heavy.

“…That’s a lot of power, isn’t it?”

“It’s a little more than I expected.”

“Isn’t this armor useless?”

A Cat-beastman alchemist who was watching the test from my side was astonished, and a Dwarf blacksmith frowned. I’m sure it will penetrate any armor with this power.

The next time I shot the clay doll, a huge wind hole appeared in its torso. When I hit the neck, the head flew off, and when I hit the arms and legs, the arms and legs blew off. This was terrible.

And the accuracy at 50 meters seems to be within about two centimeters. Why approximately? Because the first shot made a fist-sized hole in the center of the target, and after that, no matter how many shots I fired, it was always in that one hole.

By the way, I had a Dwarven blacksmith shoot at it as well, and he got about the same result as I did.

“The fact that I can shoot like this is truly amazing…”

“With a little training, anyone can take out an enemy soldier at this distance with a single shot.”

As a test, I asked Isla to put up normal barrier magic and shoot a log with armor on it, and it penetrated the barrier without problems, smashing through the armor and blowing the log away.

“…Isn’t that a little too vicious?”

“As a weapon, it’s perfectly capable… but to be honest, I think the crossbow can overwhelm the Holy Kingdom army at present. It might be better to deploy a few and use them to kill the Holy Kingdom’s mage troops.”

“I’ll report back to Sylphy and Danan about that… Well, even though it’s a prototype, it’s pretty complete.”

Of course, some improvements can only be made by actually using the product. For example, the mechanism around the trigger and the firing pin seems to be delicate, so if you handle it roughly, it might break. I think this could be improved.

“If we deploy this on the front lines, what kind of supplies should we give the soldiers?”

“First of all, bullets, right? I’ve heard that it can fire 30 rounds if it’s fully loaded with magic stones, so at least 30 bullets. The ideal is to double it to 60 bullets if possible. It would be nice to have a spare magic stone as well.”

“Also, there should be tools for maintenance. It would be a good idea to have a spare tailstock as well.”

“The tailstock is the core of this weapon, right? If you give it to them and they lose it on the battlefield, they’ll be in trouble. If it malfunctions, I think it’s better just to let them back.”

“Hmm, that may be true. You only need a tool to clean the barrel, and then a tool to remove the tailstock. Are sixty bullets enough? They’re light compared to arrows, and I think they could carry more.”

“It depends on the supply situation. In some cases, more might be better. In fact, they’ll have to carry food, water, potions, etc., and that will depend on their other equipment. If they want to carry a sword for close combat, their equipment weight will increase even more.”

After the test firing, we had some idea of the gun’s performance, so now we discussed the operational aspects. We actually put the bullets in leather pouches to see how much they weighed. Each bullet weighs about 32 grams, so 30 bullets weigh about 1 kg. That’s a lot of weight, but if we were to make a special pouch to carry it in, we might as well use a pouch with 60 rounds. The number of pouches to be distributed could be increased depending on the situation.

“I think it would be better to make 50 of them for now, deploy them to a test unit of about 30 people, and conduct an operational test. It would be too risky to put them into actual combat without operational testing.”

“Yes, that’s what I think, too.”

“Then I’ll write a report in that direction.”

I nodded at the words of the alchemist who was examining the mass production type magic gun together with the Cat-beastman. This is the way it should be to verify the prototype-type magic gun. I’m sure the Holy Kingdom’s army won’t even dream that we are developing such evil weapons one after another. If we have to fight them, it’s going to be one-sided.

I felt a little sorry for the soldiers of the Holy Kingdom who would probably fall in the coming battle. I feel sorry for them, but I’m not going to stop it. The only thing I can do is to carefully advise them to surrender.