Chapter 42: The Concept of Kinetic Weapons

After refining the potion formula, Richard handed over the Focus Potions he made over the past fortnight to Anna to settle his debt and commissioned her to build a machine. All the material costs during those two weeks were borrowed from Anna.

"What you want isn't hard to make. A magic probe combined with a few stable magic input devices should do the trick. But..." Anna hesitated, harboring a wild suspicion about Richard's machine.

Could he be planning to make potions with a machine?

"Anna, what do you want to say?"

"Nothing," Anna shook her head, dismissing the crazy notion from her mind.

How could potions possibly be made by machines?

"I have some free time in the next few days. Let's say a week—come back then."

Hearing Anna's agreement, Richard felt reassured. Anna specialized in magical constructs and alchemical machinery; as Jolord's most outstanding student in a millennium, her prowess in alchemical machinery was unmatched among apprentices.

With her building the machine, quality and precision were guaranteed.

Leaving the testing area, Richard followed Anna to the commercial district to settle the potion transactions with magic stones.

"You're raking in the magic stones now; even I can't keep up with you," Anna teased, handing Richard a bag full of magic stones.

Richard smiled modestly. "I'm not nearly as successful as you, Anna. Just one of your magical constructs is worth a month's worth of my potions."

"You're still young, and I'm already a high-level apprentice," Anna sighed, feeling like the proverbial old wave being overtaken by the new wave.

Richard had been in alchemy for such a short time yet achieved so much.

When he reaches her level, what kind of monster will he become?

After two weeks away from his dorm, Richard bought several pounds of fresh beef and two pounds of iron pellets in the commercial district.

He hadn't fed Wuni for a while; he didn't want it to starve.

Fortunately, when he returned to his dorm, Wuni seemed unchanged, just with duller feathers lacking their usual sheen. Richard even noticed some traces of flesh and blood at its beak.

"You naughty bird, you went out scavenging," Richard chuckled, petting Wuni, who nuzzled him affectionately.

After feeding Wuni, Richard sat at his desk and reviewed the model Ellie had given him.

The deconstructed rune array could still function as a spell, but Richard needed to find a way to make it more useful.

"The Ice Spike accelerates after casting... it's like a rocket," Richard mused, doodling on his draft paper. "Continuous acceleration—this is similar to a rocket, isn't it?"

Rockets need to constantly burn fuel to reach maximum speed, while the Ice Spike uses the kinetic energy attached to the spike to gradually accelerate.

If he could repeatedly cast acceleration spells on the spike during its acceleration, would the projectile travel further and hit harder?

Richard believed he'd found the key.

But conceptualizing was one thing; turning it into reality required significant effort.

To create this magical construct, Richard needed to find suitable materials for the spell, design the rune placement, and outline the magical circuitry.

He also needed to minimize the spell's runes. The more runes, the more magic required, increasing heat loss. If he engraved with the current rune count, he might as well use mithril.

But mithril was coveted by every alchemist; no way it would fall into an apprentice's hands.

Richard envisioned a magical construct with a long, narrow acceleration channel, with kinetic spells engraved at various points to fully apply the spell on the launched entity.

Richard sketched his idea, revising it until a rudimentary wizard version of a gun appeared on his draft.

"What a coincidence," Richard chuckled at the sketch.

With a preliminary design, Richard began preparations.

First, he asked Ellie to reduce the kinetic spell's rune count. Ellie agreed readily. Then, he started gathering potential materials from the commercial district for testing.

According to Richard's concept, the magical construct should consist of an acceleration channel and a projectile—in layman's terms, a barrel and a bullet.

The bullet's material was especially crucial.

A proper bullet needed sufficient hardness, low density, and high malleability. Ideally, it should also have magic-breaking properties.

However, collecting materials was tedious. Richard recalled meeting an apprentice dealing in alchemical materials.

...

"That's quite a list..." Kevin remarked, looking over Richard's request. He'd been in the alchemical trade for a while, but Richard's material list left him guessing its purpose.

"It's for experiments; you need to try various materials," Richard replied casually.

"I'll keep an eye on these in the commercial district. If the Wizard Guild or any apprentices sell them, I'll grab them for you," Kevin said, folding the list into his pocket. "I heard you've become a big shot, Richard."

"I'm no big shot, just riding on my mentor's coattails," Richard waved dismissively.

"Come on, being overly modest is just arrogance," Kevin laughed, pouring Richard a cup of tea. "The Focus Potions from Anna's shop are quite famous in the commercial district. Apprentices say they're more consistent than Ulrich's Alchemy Shop."

"Ulrich's Alchemy Shop?" Richard asked, puzzled.

"You didn't know?" Kevin was surprised. "Before you, Focus Potions were exclusively sold by Master Ulrich's shop."

"I honestly didn't know," Richard admitted, scratching his chin. He hadn't paid much attention to who sold Focus Potions in the commercial district.

The academy's potion market was vast; he wasn't yet in competition with anyone.

"Rumor has it you started making Focus Potions to compete with Joseph because he tried to steal your girl..."

"What nonsense." Richard laughed, interrupting. "I'm not that petty."

"Even if you aren't, people will think so," Kevin paused. "And Ulrich's potion business has shrunk because of you."

"Focus Potions were always in short supply. Even with poor quality, apprentices tolerated it. But with your product out, those not in a rush are willing to wait."

"Wait for what?"

"Wait for your potions." Kevin's eyes gleamed. "Your potions are high quality, consistent, and released in large batches monthly. If apprentices aren't rushing for missions, they'll naturally choose yours."

"I hadn't considered that," Richard admitted. "So, what are you getting at?"

"Haha, Richard, you're the same as ever—straightforward on the ai

rship, straightforward now." Kevin chuckled, revealing his intentions.

"I want to be your potion distributor."