Work Prophet
Chapter 168 - 16: The Sea King Spear Makes Its Entrance

Chapter 168: Chapter 16: The Sea King Spear Makes Its Entrance

The process of retrieving information is often long and tedious.

Moreover, there is always an inevitable deviation between theory and practice, and Li Yu is unsure how much of the results derived can actually be effective.

However, these studies have indeed brought him quite a few ideas. The Black Dragon in the swamp remains mysterious to him, but at least Li Yu is no longer completely ignorant about it.

Once the layers of myth and fictional literature that clothe it are peeled away, it turns out to be just a powerful creature.

And as long as it is a creature, it has weaknesses and a health bar.

Of course, recognizing weaknesses and health bars is one thing, but how to effectively hit the weaknesses and deliver an output is quite another.

Li Yu had once harbored a doubt in his heart after downloading and browsing the app "Forging House" launched by the Equipment Department and had even consulted Hephaestus later on.

"Why aren’t there any weapons class equipment in there?"

The hybrid handsome guy had answered at the time, "Please, we are a completely lawful and legitimately operated joint-stock company; of course, we won’t develop and produce weapons, especially not weapons of mass destruction, as that is illegal, you know.

"And considering the company’s main business, we send employees to other universes to produce and collect faith, not to engage in cross-plane conquest or colonization, therefore after research and discussion, the board does not think it necessary for the company to develop weapons.

"Look at the weapons currently in the hands of humans. Our ancestors once ruled Earth with cold weapons, standing at the very top of the food chain, and when we obtained firearms, we were basically killing each other with those firearms," Hephaestus took the opportunity to deliver a political statement.

"That may be so, but there are still times when violent means are needed," replied Li Yu. "After all, there are always people in this world who do not speak reason, and there are quite a few of them."

"All right, you’re right. If the company were to issue a million AK47s to each employee in the business department, I believe that would greatly enhance your work efficiency. But unfortunately, the board does not approve of such practices," the hybrid handsome guy shrugged.

...

Thus, Li Yu had more or less given up the possibility of acquiring weapons through company channels. Although some of the equipment in "Forging House" seemed, in his view, to be no less powerful than modern weapons, such equipment often commanded an outrageous price.

Unless, in the later stages, he had so much faith he had nowhere to spend it, from a cost-effectiveness standpoint, purchasing such equipment obviously did not make as much sense as purchasing other types of equipment, and Li Yu did not have so much faith at the moment.

So, it is up to Li Yu himself to figure out the weapons issue.

And on the sixth day after Jude and Juan returned from the swamp, Li Yu received some good news.

After more than a month of hard work and nearly a thousand Gold Coins spent, Li Yu also dispatched fifty people to assist Fitzwilliam, and the shipwright finally constructed the first Sea King Spear!

This giant crossbow was originally mounted on warships for use in naval combat with staggering power, able to easily pierce through the smaller warships that dared to approach, one of the two main reasons the Weiting Family’s fleet dominated the seas.

The finished product looks a bit like a combination of a Song Dynasty Bed Crossbow and a Roman crossbow, with a massive crossbow frame fixed by a support, a high-quality refined iron bar installed between the machine’s axles, and a square wooden beam with an arrow groove on top of the iron bar.

According to Fitzwilliam, the core craft of constructing the giant crossbow lies in the torsion spring.

The strength of the torque spring determines the maximum power a bow crossbow can deliver.

The torque spring used on the Sea King Spear is a composite material, the recipe and production process have always been the secret family recipe of the Weiting Family, known only to successive Family Heads and the main shipwrights responsible for shipbuilding.

Unfortunately, some of the materials are difficult to gather in the Western Territory, and Fitzwilliam could only substitute with other materials, resulting in the Sea King Spear being somewhat weaker than the original version.

But afterwards, the Shipwright did a test fire with specially made iron arrows, or more appropriately called iron spears, which could travel nearly four hundred meters, and if the arrow shafts were switched to wood, they could fly an additional two hundred meters.

This result greatly exceeded Li Yu’s expectations.

Although the Sea King Spear is not as outrageous as the legendary three-bow Bed Crossbow with an effective range exceeding one thousand meters, many people were skeptical of the range data given in the "Song History".

After all, the average handgun bullet can travel about one thousand meters.

It’s a pity that the production techniques for the three-bow Bed Crossbow have also been lost, otherwise, Li could have printed a copy to give to Fitzwilliam for reference, and it might have even helped the Shipwright gain some extra experience.

However, the current stage Sea King Spear was already sufficient for use, and Li Yu found it hard to imagine any creature in this world that could withstand the Crossbow Arrow fired from such a giant crossbow with just flesh and blood.

Even a giant dragon covered in scales, provided it was close enough, would lose at least half its health if it took a direct hit from one arrow.

But such heavy weaponry is not without its drawbacks, first of all being almost immobile due to its huge size, it could only be fixed in place, and the Weiting Family typically mounted these giant crossbows only on battleships and the walls of ports.

Moreover, because of the massive recoil, even some small warships were unable to mount the Sea King Spear, not to mention moving it around with a oxcart.

Beyond that, reloading was another issue. Winding up the crossbow alone required eighteen people, and even after firing an arrow, it took at least three minutes to reload and rearm, and even longer when including aiming and adjusting the position.

With the speed and intelligence of that dragon, it would certainly not give the Crossbowman that much time. If increasing the number of giant crossbows could solve this drawback, then the next problem was what really troubled Fitzwilliam.

Similar giant crossbows, placing too much emphasis on power, naturally fell short when it came to accuracy.

The Sea King Spear was initially devised to combat other ships because only targets of such size were possible to aim at, and the Family would spare no Gold Coins in training a group of excellent crossbowmen from an early age, especially for operating the giant crossbow.

Since the Weiting Family was defeated too quickly in that rebellion and didn’t even have time to deploy their fleet, most of these men survived, but afterwards they either joined the Imperial Navy or were poached by naval forces of Foreign Countries.

Regardless of what they did next, they were not likely to come to the Western Territory.

As for the members within the Weiting Family, including Fitzwilliam, none knew how to operate the Sea King Spear.

And it was only towards the end of the work period that the Shipwright remembered this issue, feeling somewhat guilty, as the giant crossbow was something Li Yu had paid a great deal of money for him to build, but it was likely to be of no use.

However, after hearing this, Li Yu did not blame him; on the contrary, he praised his craftsmanship and handed out an additional reward to everyone involved in constructing the giant crossbow. Then he asked the Shipwright to continue building the second giant crossbow, while Li Yu himself took on the task of resolving the issue with the crossbowmen.