Chapter 70 - Barrier stone
Chapter 70 - Barrier stone
The next day, I immediately checked out the barrier stone in the High elf"s castle -- Woodcastle, and its surroundings in the presence of Lyss. Of course Snow, Chrisse, Meiya, and Shia accompanied me, too.
The barrier stone looked exactly like a pyramid, tall enough that I had to look up.
Probably as tall as a five~six story building.
I looked around it but there was no entrance.
Its texture was close to marble. So smooth that you wouldn’t think it’s been here for thousands of years.
Its position was about 10km away from the High elf"s castle -- Woodcastle.
It looked out onto a garden with great view, not an obstacle in sight.
The castle itself was originally made to monitor the barrier stone, or so Lyss explained.
The barrier stone was surrounded by high ramparts.
There were fully armed soldiers stationed on top of the ramparts, elves and Black elves that served High elves, just like Shia.
There were about 50 soldiers.
Once you pa.s.sed through the ramparts, you would find a lake.
As I was done with the check, I recalled the characteristic of the monsters I heard about from Lyss last night.
If the barrier stone was destroyed, only the monsters called "basilisk" and "dragoon" would appear from here, it seemed.
‘Basilisk’ was a monster with lizard head and body, bird wings, and dragon tail. Among researchers it was said to be a subspecies of dragon, or something close. Because of that, it had hard scales covered all over its body. Another troublesome trait was its magic eyes.
Basilisk eyes possessed the ability to petrify.
It was different for each individual but the effective range was about 500 meters.
Once you were caught by its magic eyes, there was no way to recover from being petrified.
Whereas "dragoon", much less magic eyes, it doesn’t even have magic, and had low intelligence. But this one also inherited dragon’s blood, so its physique ccould reach up to two meters. Like dragons, it had scales cover its body, though not as hard, and it possessed superhuman strength that didn’t lose to an orc or even an orge.
Its weapons were primitive weapons like stone spears, axes, or clubs made from bone but it had high strength and defense, that kind of monster.
The troublesome thing was that they attacked in groups.
If the record book was true, then after the barrier stone was destroyed, there wouldn’t just be thousands of monsters flowing, but ten of thousands it seems.
With that much of war potential, the country can certainly be destroyed in a single night.
I took the factors of geography, the enemy war potential, and our force into the equation, then answered.
“If we prepare carefully, then we may be able to fight.”
“Is it true, Hero-sama !?”
Somehow Lyss was calling me ‘Hero-sama’.
Being called that in front of other people sure was embarra.s.sing.
“Yes. But of course, preparation in advance is necessary.”
The enemies were strong and numerous.
If just the adventurers and soldiers in the castle were to deal with it, the damage would be pretty harsh.
The first trouble was the "basilisk".
It could fly, and had hard scales comparable to a dragon. It also had magic eyes that petrified anything it saw. The effective range was about 500 meters radius wide.
But, we had Chrisse.
The max shooting range of the M700P was 900m, so she could just blow its head off from the inside by shooting [7.62x51mm explosive magic stone round] though the eye sockets before entering the magic eyes’ effective range.
The dragoon also had high attack and defense, albeit low intelligence, and their numbers could reach tens of thousands.
But if I made use of the internal mechanisms of the current AK47 and changed it a bit to make a general-purpose machine gun, then it should be enough to deal with them.
General-purpose machine gun is -- a machine gun.
Well then, what exactly is a machine gun ?
A machine gun is basically a full automatic rifle, and it could continuously shoot at the speed of more than 100 rounds per second, had the function to swap the barrel, and due to the powerful cartridge its range was long (about 1~2km).
TL note: swap barrel to let it cool off for prolonged use - yuushing
It was feared as the Devil’s weapon that could annihilate hundreds, or even thousands of enemies with just a few soldiers.
Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the first machine gun called it ‘killing machine’.
In fact, machine gun had claimed the lives of many, enough to change the face of war at the time.
In WW1, before the machine gun was introduced, infantry corps would stand from a few hundred to 1000 meters apart and spread out into ranks and shoot each other with bolt action rifles, while a.s.sault infantry and cavalry would charge to the sound of trumpets.
But when the machine gun entered the stage, they were all easily shot down.
For example, in the Russo-j.a.panese war, the Russian army annihilated 200 j.a.panese soldiers with just 2 Maxims (heavy machine gun).
TL note: ~puce_00/kansei_milytaly/maxim/maxim.htm
In a certain colony, 28 British troops and 20 foreign troops, for a total of 48, died, but the "casualties" from the enemy natives was over 11000 people.
It is said that about 80 percent of the casualties of the First World War (9.92 million dead, 21.2 million wounded) were victims of the machine gun.
One battalion (about 1000 people) could be swept clean with one machine gun in just three minutes. It was only natural that it came to be called the Devil"s weapon.
The machine gun then evolved and split into the heavy machine gun and the light machine gun, each serving a different purpose.
The heavy machine gun took at least three people to operate, was set up in encampments, trenches and fortifications and was used for defense.
The light machine gun could be used by one or two people and was an attack weapon, used to a.s.sault enemy trenches.
As the age advanced into the Second World War, heavy machine guns, while having the portability of light machine guns, that came attached as anti-aircraft machine guns or vehicle-mounted machine guns entered the stage.
This was the general-purpose machine gun.
The general-purpose machine gun I’m making was a PKM, a machine gun based on the well-proven mechanism of the AK47.
It was a general-purpose machine gun currently used by the Russian military.
These were the specs:
Caliber: 7.62×54mmR
Total Length: 1173 mm
Barrel Length: 658 mm
Weight: 8.99 kg
Ammunition capacity: Belt link ammunition feed (200 rounds)
I"ve already made several AKs, so the internal structure and gun body shouldn"t be much of a problem.
The problem lied in the ammunition (cartridge).
Could I make the case for 7.62x54mmR cartridge, find the right amount of powder, and ma.s.s produce it three months from now?
Originally I should have made a general-purpose machine gun that used the M700P’s 7.62x51mm NATO round....
Heavy machine gun or light machine gun or whatever, if I made one that used the same ammo as the infantry’s standard ammunition it would be more convenient to supply.
But I didn’t have the confidence to make general-purpose machine guns that used 7.62x51mm NATO rounds, for example, the M60, or the M240, in just 3 months.
Because of that, it was faster to make 7.62x54mmR cartridges with the experience I had acc.u.mulated up until now.
Or rather, soon Chrisse may ask to replace her M700P for a semi-automatic sniper rifle that uses 7.62x54mmR cartridge like the SVD (Dragunov sniper rifle).
If it’s in Chrisse’s hands then even the less accurate SVD probably wouldn’t be a problem.
When it comes to that, I will need to have a “briefing session” with Chrisse.
But in the end, it was still a race against time.
It’s probably better to make some insurance.
I omitted the parts I couldn’t tell everyone about and wrapped up the explanation of the general-purpose machine gun.
Meiya’s eyes sparkled while she took notes, as usual.
TL note: no, if it was the usual she would be kissing his feet right now - yuushing
Snow’s group listened with uninterested faces as usual, while, Lyss showed great interest.
There’s no way she wouldn’t be interested in a weapon that can save her country now, is there?
Then a new character appeared.
“Hee~, so you’re the Hero-sama that oneechan brought along.”
“!?”
I turned to the voice, and there was a three, no, four meters large wolf.
Its body hair was completely white, while from its mouth, sharp teeth like those of a Sabre tiger were sprouting out.
Riding on that wolf’s back was a little girl.
The soldiers guarding the barrier stone were kneeling toward her.
Her height was about the same as Chrisse’s, and her physique was also close. She had long blonde hair tied in twintails, and was a beautiful girl, but she seemed to have this cheeky air about her.
She continued talking without getting off from the wolf’s back.
“I’m Lyss oneechan’s little sister, Luna. This one is a sabre wolf called Lexy. My favorite thing is the hero story picture book. That’s why when I’m in a pinch, please save me like the princess in picture book ne~♪”
“Hey, Luna! Why are you giving greetings from Lexy’s back!? Get off right now and give a proper greetings! I’m sorry Hero-sama, my little sister is still a kid who isn’t even 100 years old yet, so she still doesn’t understand etiquette properly.”
No no no, she’s more than old enough.
She likes picture books -- hero stories even!
Looks like she would get along with Chrisse. Their physiques are similar, their blonde hair too.
Lyss was apologizing for her sister’s impolite att.i.tude.
The little sister Luna, even though she was scolded by her big sister, didn’t seem to care and nimbly jumped down from the sabre wolf Lexy.
“Why did you come here in the first place?”
“Of course, to see the Hero-sama that oneechan brought along.”
“You came here just for that?”
“It’s okay isn’t it? Anyway it’s not just me you know.”
We didn’t realize because the big sabre wolf was in the way, but a man with servants following him stood behind it.
Lyss was shocked by the appearance of the man.
“Fa, father !?”
Lyss’ father -- in other words, the king of High elf kingdom Enol !?
He was about 180cm tall, but had a slender figure with long blonde hair. While it’s obvious as he is a High elf, he looked so young that you wouldn’t think he already had three daughters, he looked like he was in his late 20s or early 30s.
The king slowly walked forward.
He waved his hand down and the guarding soldiers quietly left the scene.
He cleared everyone out.
He then took a glance at us and rebuked us with a calm voice.
“I’d like you to not thoughtlessly approach the barrier stone. It’s a very sacred thing to us High elves.”
At her father’s words, Lyss steps forward and covered for us.
“Father, these guests are the heroes I have asked to come here. How can you say that?”
“Lyss, you are still believing in the nonsense that Lara left ……?”
He replied to his daughter’s reprimand with disappointment.
“Please stop with such thoughtless words like she had not only ‘Clairvoyance’ but also ‘Prophetic dreamer’. That was just her messing around. Even the demon king can’t destroy the barrier stone. So Enol being ruined in one night is impossible. Please stop reminding me of Lara.”
The king believed in the absolute defense of the barrier stone that had been continuously protected by the High elves" ancestors, but at the same time he, as the parent, did not want to be reminded of the eldest daughter, Lara"s disappearance.
However, Lyss didn’t think it was her sister"s mischief.
She had successfully brought us to this country by following the record book.
So of course, she objected.
"But Hero-sama came to us because I followed what the record book says!"
"It"s just a coincidence. To begin with, I don"t think they have the power to stop them if the barrier stone broke and monsters came pouring out of it."
"That"s too rude, even for Father!"
"But it"s the truth, they"re still children. How can I believe that they can save us from a never before seen crisis. If they do have that kind of strength, I"d like them to show me."
The conversation was going in a weird direction.
Under the circ.u.mstances, he had to investigate us.
"....... you mean to say?"
"If they have that kind of power, then I want them to defeat the Giant scorpion that lives in the forest nearby."
The Giant scorpion was a 7-8 meters large scorpion monster, and it had a hard outer sh.e.l.l that made blades completely useless. It had three tails from where it launched countless stingers, a rather annoying monster.
If it were a request from the Adventurers" Guild, it would"ve been a level V quest.
"...... tsk."
Lyss gritted her teeth, unable to answer right away.
She believed in her sister, but the Giant scorpion was an extremely dangerous monster. To add to that, she had never seen our strength herself so she couldn’t reply.
The King said that because he understood.
If I refused, he would use that as a reason to kick me out.
If I accepted and could really defeat the Giant scorpion, then all"s well that ends well.
Either way, he stood to benefit from it.
As expected from the King of a country. …. but I don"t like it.
I answered in Lyss" place.
"...... I understand. I"ll bring down the Giant scorpion."
Lyss stared wide eyed at me when I gave my consent.
I continued the negotiations.
"In return, when I"ve safely defeated the Giant scorpion, I"d like you to listen to what Lyss-sama has to say. And if, for example, the problem doesn’t occur as predicted in the record book, then all the better.”
"Hero-sama…."
Lyss heard my request and gripped both of her hands tightly to her chest.
The King silently looked at me for a while, judging my expression.
"....... All right. You have my word. I"ll listen to what Lyss has to say a bit if you defeat the Giant scorpion."
"Thank you very much."
I gave him a salute I learned in the Vlad house — right hand on my chest, left hand behind my back, and bowed.
The King saw my salute then turned his back, and returned to the castle.
And thus we hurriedly went on our way to defeat the Giant scorpion.
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Translators:
Yuushin
Laverdy
Proofreaders/TLC/Editors :
Cyn
rei_hunter
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