I Pioneered Scientific Magic

Boom... boom... boom!

In the Misty Sea, within the city of Fire Oil, echoes of thunderous explosions reverberated continuously across the training ground.

Dozens of imperial soldiers formed a long line, awkwardly manipulating triggers. Bullets shot out from the tongues of flaming barrels, hitting the target fifty meters away directly. The sturdy armor was pierced through instantly, and the wooden dummies behind shattered.

"Good power. No wonder the Empire's expeditionary force led by Edweil suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of these people," Joshua commented, watching the soldiers with rifles in their hands, his tone low.

"Have you shown these to the craftsmen? Is there a way to replicate them?" Lucia asked with interest.

"Replicating other parts of this weapon is not a problem, except for this particular steel pipe." Joshua took a rifle, and with a flick of his wrist, he used magic to disassemble it, leaving only the barrel.

Lucia took it, carefully examining it. There were no traces of magic or divine arts; it was just an ordinary steel creation.

"No cracks or joint marks!" Joshua reminded in a hushed tone.

Lucia paused for a moment before realizing.

Ordinary craftsmen needed to melt iron ore at high temperatures to turn it into sturdy steel, followed by rigorous forging. The steel pipe in front of them, a meter long with a diameter of only a few tens of millimeters, looked seamless, with even a thread-like structure inside. It was indeed quite miraculous.

"Could it be magic at play?" Archbishop Sireid suggested from the side.

"Not very likely!" Lucia shook her head.

Only grand wizards had the ability to manipulate metal elements. While it was not a problem for them to create such a steel pipe, as far as she knew, the entire council of grand wizards numbered only thirty. The rifle team, on the other hand, counted in the thousands. It would take too long for just a few dozen grand wizards to produce them.

Thinking about it, they would spend all day just making steel pipes. It seemed impractical.

After pondering for a while, Lucia thought of two possible solutions.

For example, finding an extremely hard substance and placing it in the molten iron, then forging it. Or preparing a mold and pouring the molten iron into it.

After Lucia finished speaking, Joshua tactfully informed her that similar methods had already been tried by those craftsmen. The resulting steel pipes were simply not up to standard. When reinstalled on the rifles, the accuracy became poor, and one rifle even exploded.

Lucia was quite surprised; it seemed the wizards had indeed created something interesting. "What about the captured personnel? Do they know anything?"

In addition to capturing a large number of rifles in this battle, hundreds of rifle users were also captured, and the methods of using rifles were extracted from their minds.

"They were previously poor peasants who only knew farming and fishing. They only know how to use the weapons but have no idea about their manufacture," Joshua explained.

At this point, Joshua paused, then continued. "These people have all been corrupted by dark forces. Unless forced, we can't extract any information from them."

"Are there no exceptions?" Lucia raised an eyebrow, thinking that among these hundreds of people, there should be a few soft-hearted ones.

"No exceptions!" Joshua said solemnly.

He had searched their memories and roughly found the reason.

These riflemen were originally a group of impoverished peasants who were often hungry and cold. Most of them had families to support. Joining the rifle team was like reaching the heavens for them.

The price set by the council was high. As long as they joined the rifle team, they could receive fifteen to twenty silver coins per month, leading a life of abundance.

If they died in battle, they would also receive a generous compensation, and their families would be properly taken care of, placed in workshops to work.

This treatment was even higher than the most elite guards of the Empire, almost catching up with the Punishment Legion. Most riflemen were in a fanatical state similar to faith, corrupted by money.

It could only be said that the wizards had invested heavily to deal with the Empire.

During their conversation, the imperial soldiers demonstrating the rifles had finally loaded the bullets with difficulty, followed by a volley that shattered the target in front of them.

"It takes more than a minute to load the bullets. In my opinion, these wizard weapons are not as useful on the battlefield as an archer." Sireid couldn't help but comment as he saw the two lords paying so much attention to these demonic creations called rifles.

As a conservative bishop, Sireid had always been wary of these magical weapons. According to the church's regulations, destroying them once discovered was the most appropriate thing to do.

Moreover, it took more than a minute to load a bullet, a fatal flaw. If a shot missed, there would be no resistance capability.

Sireid believed that even if he encountered a whole team of riflemen, he had a hundred ways to bring them to death, even toying with them in the palm of his hand.

Joshua was well aware of the shortcomings of this thing, but it couldn't conceal the advantages of the rifle. "Do you know how long it takes to train a qualified imperial archer?"

"Probably... half a year?" Sireid hesitated.

"It's three to five years!" Joshua corrected. "The requirements for personnel are also very strict, needing to select from strong soldiers."

"And they learned to operate rifles in just two or three hours!" Joshua pointed to the imperial soldiers experimenting with the weapons.

The key was that the rifle had strong armor-piercing capabilities, something a bow and crossbow couldn't compare with.

In previous battles, a knight wearing well-crafted armor could charge on the battlefield without fearing stray arrows.

Now the situation was different. A single rifle shot would probably end their lives!

This kind of improvement was undoubtedly terrifying!

In other words, those wizards only needed to randomly grab a peasant from the street, train them for a few hours, and they might have the potential to kill a knight who had practiced for decades on the battlefield!

"According to the reports of several knights of the Punishment Legion, the wizards loaded a special rifle on a running iron box, which can shoot dozens of bullets in one second. Even a bishop may be torn apart on the spot," Joshua said with a solemn expression.

Obviously, the wizards had found a way to overcome the flaws of the rifles, but they hadn't been mass-produced yet.