The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 174

Chapter 174 – Concept Test

“Your Majesty, it is good to see you again. I trust you remember the rules of the range from last time?”

I chuckled as Rikusōchō Suto Ichiro, the range master at the firing range I’d used to qualify on different weapons just two years ago. “Of course, Rikusōchō. You are, after all, the right hand of the kami on this range.” Then, I looked to the others who were meeting my disciples and I here. “And Koyama-kun, Ittō rikui, Kaisōchō, it is good to see the rest of you, as well. In fact, I’m glad you’re here, as it will give me a wider range of testers for the prototype I developed.”

“A prototype firearm, your Majesty?” Koyama asked. “My apologies, but you did not seem the type to get into gunsmithing the last few times we spoke.”

I chuckled, and said, “No, not full-on gunsmithing, though I am considering adding one to Athelian Arms so that I can learn the trade while teaching them to enchant, especially if this test works as I hope. It is an idea that I’ve had rolling around in the back of my head since that unfortunate little incident during my first interview on one of the late shows. The weapons those Purifiers used were crude, using a spell to enhance the speed of the bullet leaving the barrel, and a rudimentary form of imbuement on the bullets.”

“How rudimentary are we talking?” Watanabe asked.

“If we were to compare what those Purifiers did to what my people at Athelian Arms are capable of, then it would be like comparing an Oldowan tool from the Paleolithic era to a knife made of Damascus steel and modern craftsmanship. It was only because of their fervent belief that the magic stuck at all, honestly.”

“But it inspired you to make something similar,” Koyama said. It wasn’t a question, since he knew me well enough by now to know I didn’t bring things up for no reason.

“Indeed,” I said, and reached into my pocket dimension to pull out a cart with several guns on it, properly made ‘safe’, with the slides back and the magazines removed. I allowed myself a small smile when the range master just nodded slightly, which was, itself, a sign of great approval.

“An AK-47, hmm,” Fukuyo said, as she examined one of the guns. “I guess you picked it because it was something that could be made in a machine shop and assembled easily?”

“Yes,” I chuckled. “Plus, I wanted proof of concept before I started looking at expanding to more complicated or modern weapons. Once the basic enchantments are dealt with, that is something that can be turned over to Phantomline’s new weapons division. At any rate, the difference these guns and the typical AK is that these guns do not need physical ammunition. They can fire bullets, and default to that mode, but these have been designed to fire basic spells, as well.”

Everyone was suddenly very interested in that. “How so, Mistress?” Dai asked, before anyone else could speak.

“It is in the enchantments,” I said. “The weapon itself is actually only lightly enchanted, primarily with self-repair and self-cleaning functions. However, there is also a… well, you could think of it like a plug for an electrical outlet. While ‘unplugged’, it does nothing. However, when matched with a proper ‘plug’ from one of the magazines, it allows the user to access a second firing mode.”

“I don’t see any extra switches,” Watanabe said, frowning slightly. “Did you incorporate it into the normal fire selection switch?”

“Exactly,” I nodded. “This model gives up the fully-automatic firing mode, but gains the ability to fire spells instead, which I consider an improvement for most scenarios. The actual spell enchantment is on the magazine, not the rifle, though. Turns the gun into a specialized focus.”

“Hmm,” Suto frowned, looking at the guns on the cart. “I can already see one potential problem. While keeping spent magazines is natural at the range, they often get dropped in the heat of combat. Maybe not purposefully, but when you’re moving quickly under fire, taking the time to tuck an empty magazine into your bag isn’t something that most soldiers are thinking about.”

“A fair point,” I nodded. “Perhaps making a fully spellwork sidearm would be better, then?”

Naya frowned. “But Mistress, if someone already has a focus to shoot spells, why would they need physical ammunition?”

“For the same reason I’m ensuring you know how to use weapons, Naya,” I chuckled. “There are ways to dampen magic in an area, after all, and some creatures, like Golems, are heavily resistant or even immune to spells, actually requiring physical attacks to harm. Plus, being able to bring physical ammunition to a fight expands your options.

“More importantly, though, this weapon is designed more for Warriors than Mages. A Warrior typically has fairly limited abilities when it comes to ranged magical attacks. Typically in the form of using imbuement on ammunition or relying on enchanted ranged weaponry. This is compensated for by their greater physical prowess and ability, of course, but it is still a weakness that could be exploited.”

Koyama nodded. “Yes, and eliminating weaknesses is always a good thing. What spells are these magazines loaded with?”

I waved my hand at the ten magazines on the cart. “Each magazine has a single spell enchanted into it. I have ones for the Magebolt spell, as well as the eight different elemental variants. The last one is a spell called Shock, which basically functions like a taser when hit. Designed to be nonlethal, or at least less-lethal, though some creature types have stronger reactions to it than others.”

Koyama sucked in a breath. “Your Majesty, if this works out, I can see a large demand for this weapon in a law enforcement role, throughout the Alliance. Especially if there was a version that only used spells, so an officer would have to deliberately switch magazines in order to move from the Shock enchantment to the Magebolt one.”

“Not just police, Koyama-san,” Ya said, one hand on her chin as she thought out loud. “They would be popular in rural areas, as well, for dealing with some of the monsters that have begun appearing. I’ve heard that some creatures with the Shadow element have been getting bolder in the mountains near Shangluo, in the same province as the Wellspring of Shadow.”

“Let me guess,” I said, “the creatures have some form of limited intangibility, which allows them to slip inside areas that aren’t protected by wards, and allows them to ignore some weapons?”

“Yes, Mistress. So far, the most troublesome is being called the shadow snub-nosed monkey. They are like the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey, but their fur is all black, and they have exhibited shadow powers. They are becoming a major nuisance in the Shaanxi province. However, since the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey is still considered Endangered, local officials have been having trouble dealing with the pests.”

“Hmm. Perhaps a sport rifle version, then, for civilian use? One limited to just the Shock spell should be fine for dissuading the monkeys. Or perhaps one that switches between ‘Shock’ and ‘Magebolt’, so that they can still deal with creatures who are more dangerous than annoying.”

“So, your Majesty,” Watanabe started, “what are you thinking for this weapon, as far as use cases?”

“Well, they wouldn’t be much use for my troops, since they have as good or better already. However, the materials to make the high-end enchanted goods simply aren’t possible right now, since you don’t have enough mana-rich wood, stone, or metal. However, I was thinking about standard kit for the Alliance forces.”

“Such as?”

“Well, my original idea was for troops to be issued an Armor bracelet, Shield charm, Mageblade, a rifle that can switch from physical ammunition to magic, a pistol that can switch between killing and nonlethal, physical combat knife, and an infinite canteen. On top of the normal helmet and armor vest that combat troops wear. Oh, and darkvision goggles. The only thing troops would need to carry after that would be rations and a few magazines of normal ammunition.”

Fukuyo frowned. “That sounds good, on paper, but from what I understand, the usefulness of being able to use ‘Firebolt’ instead of ‘Magebolt’ is mostly that Firebolt might set the target on fire, and some things are weak against Fire magic, right?” I nodded, so she continued, “In that case I would suggest having the ’magic bullets’ for the rifle to default to Magebolt, and having special weapons teams for elemental damage, beyond what individuals can supply with their own mana. That way, you simplify the weapon, and the supply chain.”

“Fukuyo’s right, your Majesty,” Watanabe cut in. “Having access to all damage types just in case is more along the lines of what an ‘adventurer’ in an RPG might look for, since they are typically alone, with only their party for backup. But soldiers are part of an army, which means that they don’t need to be able to do everything themselves. Having a gun shooting Magebolts as the primary weapon, with the option to switch to physical ammunition if magic doesn’t work, adding in both the sidearm, a mageblade, and a normal combat knife? That gives the soldier plenty of options for dealing with enemies on the battlefield, regardless of circumstances.”

I took the criticism in stride. This was, after all, why I’d asked to speak with them before making official proposals. I knew I was no soldier, and my knowledge of mortal armies was primarily from fighting against them in the other world. “Fair enough, then. I’ll take that into account when redesigning the weapons. How about we see their performance, though?” That got nods all around, so I turned to the range master. “Rikusōchō, you are closer to the baseline for what soldiers will be able to handle than either myself or the Heroes of Death. Perhaps you would do the honors?”

Suto grinned, and said, “My pleasure, your Majesty.” Of course, he went through all the proper range safety procedures, including having eye and ear protection on, before he brought the rifle to his shoulder, and said, “Magic rounds, three shots.”

He squeezed the trigger three times, and each one caused a pale glowing orb of magic to fire from the muzzle. The three shots hit on target, close enough together that there was only a single hole in the paper. Once the range master made the rifle safe and set it down, I called out, “So, what do you think?”

Suto took a breath, and said, “No kick. Absolutely no recoil at all, in fact. Even when I overcompensated, because I was expecting some recoil, the spell went right where I wanted it to. But I could feel it drawing energy from me. Only shot three times, and I feel like I just did a fifty-meter sprint. I’m assuming that is because the rifle was drawing energy from me, rather from some battery?”

“Yes, while it is possible to create ‘mana capacitors’ or ‘mana batteries’, something that would be small enough to be worth the weight, as far as capacity goes, would require either materials that do not yet exist on Earth, or using crystalized human souls. Which, obviously, is not technology I would like to introduce to Earth at large. In fact, Lady Murena would be very cross with me if I did something like that.”

Koyama chuckled. “Having seen her in person, during your adventures with the Seals, I can see why you wouldn’t like to get on her bad side. Incidentally, shrines to her have been appearing throughout Japan, and the Alliance as a whole.”

“That as it may be,” Naya said, “if just firing three times is enough to make the Rikusōchō feel as though he were doing a sprint, isn’t that a problem for extended use?”

“Yes, and no,” I said. “Now that we have a proof of concept, things can be refined to take some of the edge off the mana draw, but part of it is that the Rikusōchō is simply not used to using his mana in this way.” I looked to him, and said, “You are a Earthsoul, are you not?”

“Yes, your Majesty. Good at physical reinforcement, and some of the training we’ve been getting over the last couple years, but haven’t done much ‘out of the body’ magic.”

I nodded, having expected something like that. “And so, the ‘muscles’, if you will, were not prepared. Once a final design is finished, troops can begin training for the mana draw, just like they train to run without wasting too much energy, or learning how to do physical reinforcement without wasting most of the mana they put into it.”

I was about to continue, when Koyama’s phone went off. The official frowned, and said, “Excuse me, I must take this. Anyone who has this number knows I’m here, now, so they wouldn’t call unless it is urgent.”

We nodded, and gave him the illusion of privacy as he stepped a few feet away to answer the call. The others could, at the very least, hear his side of the conversation, but I knew that, without even trying, the Heroes of Death and I had sharp enough senses to hear the voice over the phone, as well. And the topic was… interesting, to say the least.

Turning back to us, Koyama sighed. “I am assuming you heard that?” When I nodded, he actually looked a bit relieved. “Then, it is as you heard. A delegation of governors from Hawaii and several of the US territories in the Pacific are flying in, and apparently requesting a meeting with you, specifically, your Majesty. They wouldn’t say what they wanted to meet with you about over an open line, but…”

I nodded, “Yes. Given the situation in the Pacific, and how all those territories are islands, and how the current US administration seems to be focused on other matters, I assume that they’re in pretty dire straits. Please, pass word that I will receive them as guests at my home.”