In Claude's memory, revolvers were the simplest and easiest to make.
Forgive his military illiteracy, but the reason he thought so was because he had seen a cowboy in a western movie in his past life. He saw a cowboy make a revolver for the main character of the movie using a simple furnace, blacksmithing tools, a hand grinding wheel, and a file. That was how he got the impression that revolvers could be made by hand.
Not to mention, he didn't have high requirements for a revolver. All he wanted was for it to have a range of a hundred meters and an effective killing range of around fifty meters.
Based on what he saw in western movies, the distance between two cowboys during a duel was no more than ten to twenty meters.
As for the battle in the town, the main character in the movie had to fight against dozens of people alone and the distance between them was only fifty to sixty meters.
In an era where muskets were the norm, he believed that a five-burst or six-burst revolver was the best weapon to protect oneself. At the very least, it was much more reliable than the short muskets that were sixty to seventy centimeters long.
As an officer, Claude would rather charge into battle with a standard aubass mark 3 than wave a beautifully decorated musket at his men. That wouldn't look cool at all.
Compared to a blunderbuss, Claude preferred to ride on his horse and strike a pose with his white-gloved hand. Sometimes, he would draw his sword and command his men to attack. That way, he would leave a deep impression on his men and make them believe that they would always be victorious if they followed him.
That was why Claude, who didn't like muskets, didn't carry any other weapons apart from his sword. It made him feel like he was missing something.
After being promoted to field officer, he couldn't have a musket strapped to his thigh as a defensive weapon on the battlefield like the other junior officers.
That was also the reason why he asked his sister to make a revolver at the same time as the grenades.
Another reason was that Claude had the clearest memory of a revolver's structure. This was thanks to his boss in his previous life, who had a revolver model that looked exactly like a real revolver apart from the barrel being solid.
Claude would often take it out for fun when he had nothing to do in his office, so he knew the model like the back of his hand. That was why the model he drew for Angelina was the same one he drew. The only difference was that the barrel was hollow and the few bullets were drawn.
Just as Claude had expected, Angelina was able to easily refine the entire frame and parts of the revolver. After a few modifications, she was able to assemble a revolver that didn't look too different from the one in Claude's memories.
However, the final problem was the bullets. Claude didn't know how to make mercury fulminate, so he couldn't make the caps for the bullets. The rate of misfiring with flint was too high and he had to change the hammer as well. There was a chance that none of the six bullets would be able to ignite and fire.
Many things were as simple as watching others make handicrafts with origami.
He could see it clearly and remember the steps in his head, but when he tried to do it himself, he realized how difficult it was. In the end, he only managed to make something that looked like nothing.
It was the same for the grenades and revolvers Claude had Angelina make. In the end, the grenades became throwable bullets and the revolver failed due to the mercury fulminate caps.
On the other hand, there was a lot of progress in making nitroglycerin safe explosives. But since nitroglycerin couldn't be mass-produced, the safe explosives could only be made on a small scale using alchemical formations.
Now, with Madam Sonia's invention of gunpowder, it could perfectly replace fulminate.
Angelina immediately thought of the few revolvers she had made in the past. She took out the box that held the parts and loaded the revolvers. She then began to assemble the bullets in the alchemy rune array and used gunpowder to replace mercury fulminate to make the caps.
"Ugh …" Sonia covered her mouth, not daring to make a sound lest she affected Angelina's movements.
"What's wrong?"
Claude didn't understand why she was so surprised. Liboyd was equally shocked as he watched Angelina's every move with a look of longing.
"That's … That's Fine Control, the legendary forbidden spell?" Sonia asked softly.
Angelina was turning Magus's Hand into all sorts of tools in the alchemical formation to load gunpowder onto the caps and the caps to the bottom of the bullets.
However, Claude stopped her just as she was about to load the safe explosives into the bullets. It was too powerful and the bullets might explode in the revolver the moment the trigger was pulled. It was better to load gunpowder instead.
Claude recalled that the bullets made by cowboys in westerns used their own hand-made conical bullets and were also filled with gunpowder.
After Claude had Angelina load gunpowder into the bullets, he finally remembered what Sonia said. "Yes, this is indeed Fine Control. Haven't you learned it before?
Aren't Magus's Hand and Fine Control the most basic spells for rune magi? "
"We know Magus's Hand. Oh, that's what you call Magus's Hand. But we haven't learned Fine Control, so we can't turn Magus's Hand into all sorts of shapes or tools."
Sonia watched enviously as her younger sister quickly assembled the bullets in the alchemy rune circle. "When we do experiments or make various accessories in the alchemy rune circle, we use one magic hand to fix the object, while the other magic hand holds the tool and slowly modifies it.
We often have to change tools, so it's really slow. It's not as convenient and nimble as Angelina. "
Claude quickly learned the basic spells she and Liboyd learned from Sonia. Compared to the traditional rune magi spells left behind by Landes, the spells Madam Sonia's grandfather, the old magus, knew were more like the spells of a rune magus apprentice.
The seven basic spells of the first ring were Examine, Magus's Hand, Disintegrate, Isolate, Cleanse, Shape Fixation, and Temperature Control.
Those seven basic spells were all supplementary spells for alchemical formation experiments. It was no wonder the old magus was so poor before he passed away.
Liboyd said that the old magus made a few magic items and sold them for some money back home, such as a water bottle that automatically stored water every day and an accessory that could clean clothes once a day.
Back then, he only felt that those things were amazing and was determined to learn magic from the old magus. What he didn't know was that the magic items he made had a time limit. They would lose their effects after three months.
That was also the reason why the old magus didn't want to expose his tracks and sold his magic items at a low price.
With the basic rune spells that he knew, he was neither good at literature nor martial arts. He wasn't even qualified to be a thief.
It was not until Master Liboyd became a small worker in a gun-making workshop that he became interested in making guns that the seven basic rune spells he had learned could be put to good use, helping him gain a foothold in the private custom-making industry.
Claude was rather curious. He asked Sonia and Liboyd how many rings they were and received a surprising answer. Liboyd was a three-ring magus and Sonia was a two-ring magus.
The reason was simple. Back then, the old magician had left behind these seven basic rune spells. When the father and daughter became two-ring rune mages, they were stuck at the bottleneck of not having enough basic spells. They could not continue to meditate and become three-ring rune mages.
Liboyd had already made a name for himself at that time and got to know a few magi worshipped by the nobles of Askilin, Rimodra, and Sidins.
However, because he was a Master Gun Mechanic, he was vaguely ostracized by these mages. He could not integrate into their circle of magic, so he could not obtain new spells. As a result, he and his daughter had been stuck at the level of a two-ring rune mage for decades.
Then came the Eastern War that lasted five years. After the war, the father and daughter returned to Aueras and were made honorary nobles. They also became registered Magi and bought a large number of harmless spells from the special department of the kingdom. They engraved them into basic spells before they had the chance to continue advancing.
Now that eight years had passed, Liboyd had become a three-ring magus. Sonia, on the other hand, was busy with her breech-loading experiments and was still a two-ring magus.
This was also how the father and daughter felt when they saw their younger sister using precise control spells to transform the Magician's Hand into various tools in the Alchemy Rune Circle. If they also knew this rumored basic spell that rune mages must have, it would be so much more convenient and faster for their Alchemy Rune Circle experiments …
"It's fine. If you become a three-ring magus, I can get Angelina to teach you those basic rune spells.
As for Uncle, it's not a big deal. As long as you become a four-ring magus, I have a spell that can erase the basic spells you've already engraved and start anew.
When the time comes, I'll get Anna to sort out the basic rune spells we have and give them to you. I'm sure they'll be able to help you with your alchemical experiments more smoothly and successfully, "said Claude.
"Really?"
Sonia was overjoyed. She hugged Claude's shoulder tightly and wanted nothing more than to kiss him on the spot.
"Of course," Claude nodded with a smile.
Claude nodded with a smile. He wanted to recruit the father and daughter to work for him. Relying on his sister alone would take a long time and he wouldn't be able to spare any time to do so.
Liboyd and Sonia were the best candidates sent to him by the heavens. They were originally from Askilin and weren't loyal to Aueras. They wouldn't only think about the kingdom's interests.
Sonia was close to him and her father, Liboyd, was willing to help him out on account of Mark. So, Claude didn't hesitate to take out the basic rune spells as a sincere gift.
While they were talking, Angelina had already finished loading the revolvers. There were three revolvers and 54 bullets, so each revolver could be tested three times.
Claude brought them to the back of the lab. It was rather flat and could be used as a shooting range.
Gum and a few guards followed Claude's instructions and set up three targets at a distance of 20, 30, 40 and 50 meters to test the power of the revolvers.
Claude didn't get the chance to test the revolvers first. Myjack and Gum took two of the revolvers with the excuse of personal safety. The last one was in Angelina's hands and she wouldn't let go no matter what. She insisted that she was the one who made the revolver and had to be the first to test it.
For the first round of shooting, accuracy aside, the bullet penetrated the target at a distance of twenty metres. The damage was comparable to that of the best matchlock musket. Liboyd and Sonia were shocked, but Claude expressed his satisfaction.
At a distance of 30 meters, two shots penetrated the targets and one didn't.
At a distance of 40 meters, all three bullets were stuck in the targets.
At a distance of 50 meters, the bullets left three small dents on the wooden targets.
Since it was a wooden target, Claude estimated that it would be a serious injury if it was a human body.
Of the last two bullets in the three revolvers, one of them didn't fire. Angelina was careless and didn't fasten the gunpowder on the cap tightly, causing it to fall off.
The remaining five bullets were used to test the maximum range, and the result was about 110 meters. Of course, it deviated a lot from the target.
Claude stopped the second test and examined the revolvers for a long time before whispering to Angelina. Angelina nodded and took the three revolvers into the lab. She only came out ten minutes later.
Claude announced that they would continue with the shooting.
The results of the second and third rounds of shooting surprised everyone, because the power of the revolver had suddenly increased by a lot. The target at a distance of forty meters was penetrated with one shot, and the target at a distance of fifty meters was deeply embedded with the bullet. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't pick out the bullet.
As for the furthest range, it had been increased to about 150 meters.
"Are you sure this isn't the effect of some spell?" Sonia asked in a hushed voice.
Claude shook his head. "No, I just had Angelina add three lines of rifling to each of the three revolvers."
"Rifling?
What's the use of this … "Madam Sonia was baffled.
How am I supposed to explain this … Claude thought for a long time and finally found the words to explain it to Sonia and Liboyd. "I once read an ancient magus' diary. There were many insights in it.
A wind-element magus found that when flying in the sky, there would be a lot of resistance in the air. The faster you fly, the greater the resistance. "
Master Libor nodded. This was common sense. Not to mention flying, even a person running on flat ground would feel the resistance in the air.
"… That wind-element magus started researching this. He found that it wasn't just humans flying. Anything in the sky would feel resistance. The faster you fly, the greater the resistance.
He started experimenting with bows and crossbows in an attempt to find a way to counteract air resistance.
But he failed in the end because air resistance was everywhere. It wasn't something that could be counteracted by magic.
But in the process, he unexpectedly found that the spiral rotation could increase the speed and distance of flying objects, making it easier for them to break through air resistance. "
Claude drew a picture of a rifled gun and an unrifled gun on the ground. When a bullet was fired from an unrifled gun, the bullet would maintain a straight line and fall to the ground due to air resistance.
A bullet fired from a rifled gun barrel spun like a top and flew in the air. Like a drill, it broke through the air resistance and could fly further. This increased the bullet's kinetic energy and power.
For Bord and Sonia, what they saw in Angelina's laboratory today was completely different from what they had expected.
As a famed gunsmith, Liboyd knew very well that the revolver Claude had Angelina make was a brand new one. It completely abandoned the outdated method of firing on a wire and didn't need to be loaded with gunpowder. It could even be fired in rapid succession. It was already a very mature short-range weapon.
Sonia, on the other hand, grabbed Claude tightly. She still had many questions to ask him about the revolver.