The Fourth Calamity: Starting with Dungeon Slimes

Chapter 156 The Concept of the New Mech

After the natural war ended, the players returned to their respective positions.

Those who needed to clean up the battlefield did so, and those who needed to tally battle losses did so. In short, everything began to proceed in an orderly manner.

Overall, this battle was basically a crushing victory. The surprise attack in the early stages caught most of the enemies off guard and they were wiped out before they could even react. The subsequent use of various war machines and turrets made the whole thing very easy.

The group was quite satisfied with the performance of this defensive mech; at least from a purely defensive perspective, it certainly met the standard.

Just now, facing the combined attack of the Dark Elves and the Nightmare Squad, this defensive mech remained completely still, withstanding all the damage.

Based on this alone, this defensive mech is excellent enough.

As for their performance later on, it was actually quite good.

At least its speed and agility are quite impressive for its bulky size.

"This war mech is indeed excellent in all aspects, but the only drawback is that the price is too high. I heard that when the amateur welders built this mech, the cost was close to fifty or sixty thousand."

At that moment, a player looked at the departing war mech and said with some envy.

Upon hearing what he said, some players who knew the situation gathered around.

"Pretty much, but definitely a bit higher. The welders built this mech for the mission, so its real value lies in its core. That core can absorb attacks and convert them into energy needed for defense. This allows the mech to continuously use a super-powerful defensive shield."

"I have specifically studied the defense mechanism of this mech. Simply put, if the defense provided by ordinary defensive magic or the mech's defensive magic array is 5, then the defense provided by this super mech's defensive magic can reach 500."

Upon hearing what this player said, the player who had just asked the question was also shocked.

"That means this thing is 100 times stronger than ordinary mechs."

He said it with some disbelief. These numbers were simply too overwhelming. To describe it as numerically overwhelming was not an exaggeration at all.

"Is it really that high? Could they be exaggerating? I could accept 50, but 500 seems a bit outrageous."

Hearing this player's question, the player who spoke earlier was not surprised at all. In fact, when he first heard the news, he was just as shocked as this player.

After all, the increase in this number is simply too exaggerated, and it's a bit outrageous.

However, he later went to investigate the matter further and, after learning from various sources, he roughly understood the situation. It was only after understanding the situation that he realized that the data was not exaggerated at all.

"I have to tell you about this. The most important thing here is the special ancient magic circle. How should I put it, sometimes I don't want to complain about the ancient magic circles in this game, but actually many of the ancient magic circles are inferior to the magic circles of today."

"These magic circles have been optimized generation after generation to reach the level of modern magic circles. Therefore, modern magic circles are definitely far superior to ancient magic circles in terms of dexterity, convenience, and other aspects."

"However, one thing is undeniable: after being streamlined and optimized, modern magic circles are certainly inferior to ancient magic circles in some aspects. For example, ancient magic circles consume an exaggerated amount of magic power, but the defense they provide is also terrifying. Modern magic circles consume less magic power, but the defensive power they provide is naturally reduced. However, compared to the cumbersome and complicated ancient magic circles, modern magic circles clearly still have a great advantage."

"The mech that the welder and his team used a genuine ancient version of a magic circle, and it was the most powerful defensive magic circle at the time. That magic circle had several characteristics. First, it required a huge amount of financial and material resources to set up. Second, it took a very long time to set up. Third, the defense it provided was incredibly formidable, but the amount of magic power it required was also astonishing."

"In short, it is a special and extreme magic circle."

"However, although this magic circle is extreme, it's different when placed inside a mecha. In addition, the mecha has a core, so the most difficult problem to solve with this magic circle—the energy supply problem—is solved. In the past, this kind of magic circle was used for city defense."

"With this level of consumption, even if you wanted to set it up elsewhere, the resources you have wouldn't be enough to sustain it for very long."

"Because of that core, this thing has the ability to move, which is why we have this incredible mech now. That's roughly the situation."

"So you should understand the situation with this mech now, right?"

"Simply put, there are definitely no problems with its strength and other aspects, but if you want to replicate it, unless you have another core with the same features, this thing can never be replicated."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded thoughtfully, as they were aware of the situation.

"That's true, but it's different if there's a core. And with a core, I feel we can use the same approach to create an offensive mech, with an ultimate attack magic array inside, and a main cannon. Then we can use it to hit those powerful enemy targets, one shot, one kill."

As the saying goes, what is said without intention may be taken to heart by the listener.

One of the welders' team members overheard this.

At this moment, this person also began to consider the feasibility of this matter.

"You know what, this idea actually seems feasible, and it doesn't necessarily need to have a core. Even if this kind of offensive mech has a core, it's useless because you can't withstand more than a few hits."

"To put it bluntly, if you can't convert your attacks into defense, how are you going to withstand damage? Don't even think about converting your attacks into energy to sustain them; you simply can't hold on."

"This kind of mech can be designed to fire only one shot, and then need to replenish its energy. However, the power of that one shot can be increased to a terrifying level."

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was something that could be done.

Without thinking too much, he immediately went to find the welder and others to discuss the matter. Upon hearing his idea, the welder also began to ponder.

"Abandoning defense and focusing entirely on offense, only using one shot, and then returning to the field to replenish energy or using magic crystals to replenish energy, this idea is feasible, but the cost of this one shot is a bit too exaggerated."

"Among the ancient magics we currently know, there is indeed such a spell. The power of this spell has reached the ninth rank, and within the ninth rank, it can be considered a powerful move."

"However, this magic has a huge drawback. First, it consumes a huge amount of energy. Actually, this problem can be solved by increasing the mech's energy reserves. But the second is that the preparation time is very long. While it's charging up, I guarantee that the opponent will definitely be able to detect it and attack it. Even if it has a mech for protection, the opponent isn't stupid."

The opponent will avoid our attack range, and most importantly, even if we're fully charged, we still can't do anything to them if they move at high speed.

According to the welder's design, if this method is used, the main gun barrel must be at least 20 meters long and at least two meters in diameter.

Of course, it could also be designed as a sci-fi-style cannon turret, but the size would not change much.

"If we follow this line of thinking, then how do we control the turret's turning? If the enemy is fast, our turret's turning will absolutely not be able to keep up with their pace. So we can only restrict the enemy in advance, but once the enemy is restricted, they will discover that our turret is charging up, or they will discover it from the beginning, making it very difficult to restrict the enemy."

"I had considered making some of these weapons before, but I found that they had too many flaws and their practicality might not be as high as I had imagined. Otherwise, I would have started researching this thing long ago."

Upon hearing what the welder said, the previous player suddenly realized what had happened.

That's exactly where the problem lies. He only considered the attack itself, without considering whether it would hit the target. If he manages to get a shot off and then misses, that's a real pain.

"Can't we speed up the energy storage process?"

The amateur welder shook his head at this.

"It can't be sped up. The minimum charging time is 10 minutes. There's no way to reduce that time any further, otherwise I would have done it already."

Upon hearing this, the player immediately lost interest.

The entire 10-minute charging time could be interrupted at any moment.

However, after hearing their conversation, Tianqiong had an idea.

"Actually, I do have an idea. The purpose of building this kind of turret is actually to accurately strike high-level powerhouses. It is because of this, considering the speed of high-level powerhouses, as well as the tracking speed and charging time of our turrets, that this plan had to be abandoned in the end. But we can change our approach. In addition to tracking high-level powerhouses, we can also add a function similar to a scattering function to this turret."

"If we can restrain the high-level expert before the charge-up ends, then we'll just fire a shot at him. If we can't restrain him, we'll just scatter the enemy. As for clearing out the mobs, with the power of this turret, I don't think it'll be slow at clearing out mobs. At least one shot will take out a whole bunch."

Hearing what the amateur welder said, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. After thinking about it carefully, they felt that this idea was not entirely unfeasible.

"I think there's a reason for this. If it's a scattering effect, clearing out a whole area, then it's not like that shot was fired for nothing."

"If we can defeat those strong individuals, then that's definitely how it will be. And even if we can't defeat the strong individuals, we can still use it to attack the city."

"According to what Lilith mentioned before, the outer city walls are basically covered with a lot of magic arrays, and their defensive capabilities are many levels higher than ours. If we have these things when we attack the city, a few shots will be enough to blow down the city walls."

Upon hearing this, everyone began to make their own plans.

"Alright, let's get the small mechs done first, and then we can study this. Our progress on the small mechs is pretty fast right now, but the main problems are the weapon systems and the small energy systems, which are a big headache."

In fact, they had had ideas about small mechs for a long time, but for various reasons, they didn't pursue them. After all, even if they were to manufacture mechs, they would only manufacture those that would bring them profit. The market for small mechs was unclear, and the risks were too great before a clear mission was established.

In fact, they don't need to worry about the basic components of the small mechs. The most crucial thing is the energy system. First, they need to ensure the mobility of the small mechs and the duration of combat. Then they need to consider how to deal with the energy aspect. Currently, they are constantly researching energy-saving solutions.

The biggest problem facing small mechs now is their insufficient endurance. To put it simply, in a full-firepower battle, they can only last for about 20 minutes at most. 20 minutes is too little time in a battle. According to the amateur welder's estimate, they should be able to sustain themselves for at least an hour to be considered acceptable.

This problem can certainly be solved by increasing the size of the energy bay, but increasing the size of the entire mech would require increasing the energy consumption, which would then require further increases in size. Eventually, after increasing the size to a certain extent, the two sides would reach a balance, but at this stage, the size of the mech would no longer meet their requirements.

The most difficult issues right now are their energy and energy conservation. If these two problems can be solved, then it will be only a matter of time before the small mechs are manufactured.

However, it is clear that the welders do not currently have a good solution.

While the players were still collecting their loot and the amateur welder and his crew were still discussing the new mechs, on the Succubus and Nightmare sides, Old Six's team had already returned to their gathering place.

Overall, the battle went very smoothly. They escaped successfully and also managed to send the entire reinforcement squad away.

In short, aside from the war footage recorded by the photographic crystal, there is nothing else here.

As for the war scenes, they were deliberately staged, so there's nothing wrong with them.

However, the biggest problem now is that although they have sent this wave away, what about the next wave? When will they arrive? Who will lead them? How easy will it be to manage? These are the questions they need to consider next.

Of course, the most crucial question is how many times this kind of behavior can be maintained. If it's used once or twice, no one will suspect anything, but if it's used three to five times, anyone who isn't an idiot will notice the problem.