43 – The Upgrades

It only took a few weeks, they produced several parts for wheel attachments. They carry out intense testing every day. Failures persist, including stuck wheels, detached tires, ineffective springs, brakes that fail, and many other issues.

Lance and his team had to work extremely hard. To ensure the powered armor is ready for testing, they stay up late sometimes.

Even so, Lance still enjoyed it. He did it out of personal desire, not external pressure. The engineer was challenged to produce a solution with all the limitations.

Although those things are his own design and Zashrend only tweaked it a little.

"Woo-hoo!!!" Trish glided the track full of rocks and bumps with such ease. With wheels on both legs of her armor, her mobility becomes more agile.

"It's looking good." Lance muttered. "Well, lately she always shows excellent results, but still gives us some notes."

Trish cared about the soldiers who would use those upgrades. She always pointed out potential difficulties if the soldiers use them. Not everyone has abilities like her, after all. So, she needs to make some adjustments.

Trish closed her training session by jumping into the air, doing a somersault, and landing in front of Lance and Tobias.

"That's so awesome, Trish." Tobias clapped his hands while the female warrior got off her armor.

"What do you think, Trish?" Lance asked.

The female warrior gave a thumbs up. "All good, boss. I think our soldiers will be able to use it well."

"Good, make a report about this. We will review it together later. I'll check on Ashe and Cecil first." Without waiting for Trish's answer, Lance left.

"You seem in such a rush, Lance." Tobias followed the engineer.

"I feel we shouldn't waste any time, sir," Lance explained. "Zashrend's silence worries me. On the one hand, it gives me more time to work. But it also makes me think they might prepare something."

"Something? Something like what?"

"Perhaps a new weapon or type of armor." Lance shrugged. "I don't know."

The closer they got to the shooting range, the clearer the sound of the explosions became. Tobias used a spell to muffle the voices in their ears.

Once there, Lance watched as Ashe–in a powered armor–fired a series of shots at the target. This time they didn't use a lever system, so the soldiers could do consecutive shoots.

Lance's new dampener minimized the weapon's impact. He crafted it from materials found in this world.

"What do you think, Eve?" Lance asked after the elf had used up all her bullets.

"The recoil is still too strong, which will decrease its effectiveness. It will be more difficult for the bullet to hit the target." The elf answered while reloading. "Making a new prototype would solve this, but it would be time-consuming."

Lance massaged his forehead. Making weapons was more difficult than mechs. In his past life, a weapons expert on his team provided help.

"We have no more time." The engineer sighed. "We will reduce the output of the rifle. But that means we have to get closer to the target to penetrate their armor."

"It's fine, Lance." Tobias assured the young man. "That weapon is enough."

This irritated Lance, who was quite a perfectionist, but they had no other choice.

"After we carry out more tests on this rifle, we will start mass production, Cecil." Lance turned to the blacksmith. "And Trish said the armor wheel attachment was good. We will also do mass production for that."

"Alright." Cecil made notes in her handbook. "Should we focus on production for the troops in the fortress first?"

"Yeah…" The engineer rubbed his chin, then spoke to Tobias. "To shorten the time, we will train the ranged soldiers to use wheeled powered armors and rifles. Then they could transport the parts to the fortress. That will speed up delivery. I suggested Trish go there too."

The female warrior, having just arrived at the scene, lowered her chin. "Why?"

"You will teach the troops on standby in the fort to use those wheels." Lance explained. "I think you can do it best. You really understand those things. Hence, you will be able to teach them better."

Trish looked up and sighed. "Even though I enjoy working here."

"And I'll come along." Lance added while checking Cecil's notes. "I felt I had to hear insight from the soldiers in person. They are the ones fighting on the battlefield."

The female warrior raised her fist to chest level and said "yes" silently. Seeing that, Cecil massaged her nape.

A bitter chuckle escaped Tobias' mouth. "There's no point in asking you to stay here, right? You will go regardless of what happens."

"This is for the sake of advancing our weapons." Lance wore his signature smirk. "They didn't follow my advice to continue with this project, and they suffered the consequences. They want the same thing to happen?"

Tobias shrugged with a smile. "Well, that's a valid reason. I'll tell them right away. After the attack on the fort, they responded to us more quickly."

"We finally parted ways, huh?" Ashe muttered with an exaggerated disappointed tone. "I always wanted to be with you, Lance. That's why I didn't go home to my family."

"You said you didn't want to see them, Ashe." Lance narrowed his eyes.

Ashe took one shot on target. "Maybe for those two reasons."

Tobias cleared his throat. "I will report this to the higher ups soon."

After Tobias left, Cecil squeezed the engineer's shoulder. "I hope you don't mess around, Lance."

"Oh, I'm sure he won't do anything wrong." Ashe takes another shot. "I couldn't break his defense, even though I was with him for quite a long time... I don't know what would happen if he wasn't with me, though."

Lance didn't expect that his relationship with these women would become more complicated.

Trish looked at her three friends one by one. "What are you talking about? I feel like my stupidity has increased many times over."

Lance felt Trish wasn't stupid, just a little ignorant.