Chapter 154: My Second Shot Punched Through Four Centimeters of Armor

The problem was where the Pressure Chamber connected to the left exhaust conduit.

Nothing had broken.

The problem was response time.

The biological filament detected the increase in tension correctly, but the treated section surrounding the rear port took too long to open. During that fraction of a second, the excess pressure searched for another route.

It found one through the activation channel.

Straight toward Raven.

"Blood would do the same thing," Valeria said, holding two fingers close to the filament. "If you block one route while maintaining pressure, the flow finds the next available path."

Raven adjusted the valve.

"Then the secondary route needs more resistance than the exhaust."

"Or the exhaust needs to open earlier."

"Both."

FORGE reacted.

[Proposed Correction Recognized.]

Raven added a second pressure-sensitive filament around the port, then slightly reduced the opening mechanism’s rigidity.

That made the system more responsive.

It also made it less durable.

Every correction seemed to create another compromise somewhere else.

Valeria watched him work.

"Can you make sure none of it ever reaches the person holding the weapon?"

"Eventually."

"I don’t like that word."

"For the second shot, I can reduce the risk considerably."

"I don’t like that as much as you probably expected either."

Raven ran a partial test at three percent mana.

No projectile.

The Activation System engaged, mana flowed through the auxiliary channels, and the Pressure Chamber responded.

Both rear ports opened almost simultaneously.

Valeria tracked the mana movement with her eyes.

"Better."

"Any deviation?"

"Minimal. There’s still some return toward the trigger assembly."

Raven already knew.

FORGE did too.

[Pressure Vent Response Improved.]

[Projected Operator-Side Mana Leakage Reduced: 82%.]

"Enough to test."

Valeria gave him a look.

Raven added, "After it cools."

"That helps slightly."

They waited almost forty minutes.

Raven used the time to examine the first impact.

The projectile had struck roughly thirty centimeters below and twenty centimeters to the right of the painted mark.

For an uncalibrated weapon with improvised sights, that wasn’t terrible.

He found fragments of deformed steel embedded in the broken stone. The projectile had flattened and fragmented violently on impact, which told him the first design was transferring energy well but sacrificing too much penetration in the process.

The second target would answer a different question.

Hadrik had lent them a plate of laminated iron normally used for testing spearheads and heavy crossbow bolts. The reinforced center was almost four centimeters thick and meant to represent heavy protection.

Raven mounted it on a support at one hundred meters.

Valeria studied it from behind him.

"Would that normally stop an arrow?"

"A normal one, yes."

"An enchanted one?"

"Depends on the enchantment."

"So this isn’t going to prove your weapon is better than all magic."

Raven looked at her.

"I never said it would."

"Good."

"I only need to know what it does to metal."

Valeria smiled.

"That was considerably less grandiose than I expected."

"I’m building a prototype, not a religion."

She laughed.

Raven made the second projectile slightly differently.

The diameter remained the same, but he lengthened the body and shifted some of the mass away from the tip. The goal was simple: reduce immediate deformation and preserve more of the projectile’s forward momentum after impact.

FORGE evaluated it.

[Experimental Projectile Detected.]

[Barrel Compatibility: 93%.]

[Penetration-Oriented Mass Distribution Detected.]

[Ballistic Performance: UNKNOWN.]

Raven also lowered the firing output.

Ten percent.

Less energy.

More useful information.

Once the rifle had cooled enough, he loaded again.

[Experimental Projectile Loaded.]

[Pressure Vent Correction Applied.]

[Structural Condition: ACCEPTABLE.]

[Live-Fire Cycle Available.]

Valeria started walking toward her rock.

Raven watched her continue past the position she had used before.

Thirty meters.

Then another five.

She turned.

"Far enough?"

"Enough."

"That’s progress."

Raven settled the stock into his shoulder.

This time, he knew what to expect.

That changed everything.

He could recognize the weapon’s weight, the pressure against his shoulder, the slight vibration of the internal biological systems, and the way the grip shifted as the Reservoir prepared to release mana.

It wasn’t an M4.

It wasn’t a precision rifle.

It wasn’t any platform Raven had trained with before.

But for the first time since beginning the project, individual sensations meant something.

The first shot had been data.

The second could actually be a shot.

Raven aligned the sights with the center of the plate.

He inhaled.

Slowly exhaled.

Then pressed the trigger.

The Reservoir discharged first.

The Impulse Spark initiated the firing sequence.

The Pulse Core contracted.

The Pressure Chamber responded almost immediately.

The rifle vibrated inside Raven’s hands as both rear exhaust ports opened.

BOOM.

The recoil struck his shoulder.

Hard.

Far harder than any ordinary rifle from Earth.

But this time the force traveled backward instead of twisting through the weapon.

Controllable.

No blue mana crawled across his arm.

Nothing tore free from the frame.

No new pain appeared.

At one hundred meters, the armored plate jumped completely off its support.

Raven lowered the muzzle.

Silence returned.

Then he heard laughter from behind him.

Valeria stepped out from cover.

"That sounded better."

Raven opened the breech.

A thin stream of vapor escaped.

FORGE responded immediately.

[Live-Fire Cycle Completed.]

[Projectile Discharge: SUCCESS.]

[Structural Stress: 12%.]

[Pressure Vent Timing: ACCEPTABLE.]

[Operator-Side Mana Leakage: MINIMAL.]

[Thermal Accumulation: 17%.]

[Accuracy Calibration Data Acquired.]

Much better.

Raven placed the rifle on the table and walked toward the target.

Valeria followed.

The plate lay several meters behind its original support.

Raven turned it over.

There was a hole through it.

Clean wasn’t the right word.

The entry point was relatively narrow, but the rear surface had bulged violently outward before losing an irregular section of metal.

The projectile had gone through.

Raven searched behind the plate.

A deep impact mark scarred the quarry wall.

The projectile was still buried inside it.

Or what remained of it.

Valeria touched the damaged edge of the hole.

"Is this good?"

Raven looked at the thickness of the plate.

Then at the impact scar behind it.

Then toward the rifle sitting one hundred meters away.

"Yes."

"Very good?"

Raven didn’t answer immediately.

The first shot had proven that the concept worked.

The second proved something more important.

He hadn’t built an artifact that merely threw a piece of metal very hard.

He had built a weapon.

An imperfect one.

Heavy.

Slow.

Limited to a single shot before manual reloading.

Its mana consumption was absurd.

Its thermal limits were still unknown.

Its structural stress remained too high for sustained firing, and the weapon had already demonstrated several creative ways to injure its own user.

But it was a weapon.

Raven felt something he hadn’t experienced since arriving in Veyr.

Familiarity.

Not with the world around him.

With what he held in his hands.

This was technology built on impossible rules, but for the first time since arriving here, Raven had created something that belonged naturally to the way he fought.

A small smile appeared.

Valeria noticed immediately.

"There it is."

The smile faded slightly.

"What?"

"The expression you’ve spent weeks pretending you don’t have."

Raven looked back at the perforated plate.

"I wasn’t pretending."

"Raven."

He said nothing.

Valeria smiled.

"You like it."

Raven walked back toward the rifle.

"It works."

"That isn’t what I said."

"It’s enough."

"That also isn’t what I said."

Raven picked up the Prototype Rifle.

The Black Mithril was still warm.

The Deepwell Reservoir had consumed an unpleasant amount of mana for only two shots.

The sights needed calibration.

The balance needed improvement.

So did the weight.

And if Raven attempted rapid consecutive firing, he would probably discover several new ways of injuring himself.

FORGE confirmed nearly all of that.

["PROTOTYPE RIFLE Mk.I" — Live-Fire Validation Complete.]

[Operational Status: FUNCTIONAL.]

[Core Systems: 6/6.]

[Calibration: 18%.]

[Recommended Next Steps:]

[— Accuracy Calibration.]

[— Projectile Standardization.]

[— Thermal-Cycle Testing.]

[— Structural Endurance Testing.]

Raven closed the interface.

Valeria was still watching him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Raven narrowed his eyes.

"That never means nothing."

"I’m enjoying the moment."

"It fired twice."

"After weeks of chasing organs, minerals, and monsters across half the kingdom."

"Yes."

"You can admit you’re satisfied."

Raven looked at the hole in the armor plate.

Then at the rifle.

"I’m satisfied."

Valeria went still.

Raven continued before she could respond.

"Don’t make it unbearable."

She started laughing.

Raven rested the rifle against his shoulder.

"Too late?"

"Completely."

They began packing the equipment.

Behind them, the quarry held a shattered stone formation, a perforated armor plate, and enough evidence to prove that the weapon worked.

Nobody outside the two of them had seen it.

Yet.