Chapter 323
Outside the Imperial Capital, behind Minister Honest's villa, a huge pipe had been thrown into the lake.
The machine connected to the water pipe was running at high speed, letting out a tremendous noise.
Noah was adjusting a terminal that resembled a computer, attempting to further increase the pump's output.
"Tch. Can't you put in a little more effort, you useless thing?!"
With this level of power, it was nowhere near enough to meet the requirements.
In an extremely rare display, Noah looked somewhat irritated.
Taeko and Suzuka watched him from the side, feeling as though black smoke was rising from his back, and neither of them dared to get too close.
After repeated attempts, the suction force of the pipe seemed to have reached its limit.
Noah glanced at the pentagonal crystal placed at the center of the device.
That was a weapon core he had created through alchemy and Weaver.
If he only gathered materials temporarily from nature, the power he could unleash would at most reach the level of his current Lv.2. Without a doubt, that kind of attack power did not satisfy him.
Then he would improve the energy source and increase the output!
He also wanted to create a Teigu like Roman Artillery: Pumpkin.
Merely converting mental energy into shockwaves had allowed it to produce that kind of power, enough to rival magic released by a Lv.4 mage, and that was not even its trump card.
By conservative estimate, its trump card would not be weaker than a Lv.5 Bombard.
Unfortunately, the material requirements could not be met.
After all, Pumpkin had also been made using a legendary Danger Beast as its material.
If he used an inferior substitute, the best he could make would probably be an air gun.
So Noah adjusted his line of thought.
He thought of the Noble Art used by Kurogane Ikki's younger sister, Kurogane Shizuku.
Hi-Sui Jin.
The inspiration for that Noble Art came from high-pressure water jets.
In other words, the so-called "water cutter."
With Weaver, he could easily manifest high-pressure water or create a high-pressure water device.
However, the quality of the "ammunition" and "output" needed to be controlled through a specialized "device."
He decided to do as he had when creating the flame magic sword, Crimson Guardian, and make a sword hilt as the control device.
The pentagonal crystal at the center of the machine was the core used for storing energy.
At this moment, the crystal had already been filled with about one-twentieth of the liquid.
The liquid was a clear, almost opaque blue, giving off a faint blue glow.
Although that was how it looked, the amount of water inside was actually equivalent to roughly twenty tons. It was the result of Noah and the pump working hard together for more than a thousand hours.
He drew water from the lake, then used Weaver to transform it into high-density water elements before storing it inside the energy core.
The process itself was fairly smooth. The problem was that the efficiency was somewhat pathetic.
To fill this core, he would need to work without sleeping or resting for at least several more days.
The boring wait made dangerous thoughts rise in Noah's mind.
"I haven't used today's five amplifications yet..."
If he could amplify this thing to +5, its efficiency could be increased by more than half.
Do it!
The moment the idea appeared, it spread like wildfire.
Noah no longer hesitated.
He placed his hand on the twitching machine and directly activated his Development Ability, Amplification.
Three white flashes passed.
Just as Noah had expected, with his current proficiency, an item of this quality had almost no chance of failing when amplified to +3.
A thirty percent increase in base performance.
He had thought the machine would become even more restless, but instead, it actually stabilized.
Earlier, the suction force pushed to its limit had made the machine shake like crazy, but after its power increased by thirty percent, the noise suddenly dropped by quite a lot.
It could not even be considered loud anymore.
After thinking for a moment, Noah understood.
Each successful amplification increased base attributes by ten percent.
Since they were base attributes, then stability, noise suppression, and similar factors were naturally included.
After being amplified to +3, the pump's efficiency had improved by far more than thirty percent, because its fundamental capabilities had undergone a leap.
The coordination between its various systems was far smoother than before, to the point that it was almost unbelievably seamless.
"I'll bet on it."
Seeing the machine's change, Noah used the remaining two amplifications directly on the pump.
Two flashes of light passed, and the pump successfully reached +5!
Under Noah's surprised gaze, the special trait of amplification was triggered, and the pump's essence changed.
[+5 Pump That Can Put in a Little More Effort]
・Water output: 250 gallons per hour. Due to amplification, efficiency +50%.
・Put in a Little More Effort: When the phrase "put in a little more effort" is spoken to it, Effort Mode will activate. Efficiency increases by 200% for 5 minutes. Cooldown: 30 minutes.
"..."
Although this was his own ability, this was a little too unreasonable!
In any case, Noah was very satisfied with the newly improved pump and immediately tried activating its special ability.
"Put in a little more effort!"
Boom!
The pump suddenly spun wildly, and a sound like something had slipped off its chain replaced the original rumbling.
In the next instant, an exhaust roar like a V12 engine rang into the sky.
The entire pump gave off an astonishing shine, and even the surface of the lake began surging because of the sudden suction.
The pump in Effort Mode was completely incomparable to its earlier state. It even brought pressure to Noah, who was responsible for the conversion.
Good.
At this rate, he could finish this thing in a short amount of time.
Noah stared at the crystal at the center of the device and saw the stored amount inside rising at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Unfortunately, this efficiency could only last for five minutes, and after that, it required thirty minutes before it could be activated again.
But with output at this level, he could complete the energy core's reserves within the day.
After spending the entire day on this, the inside of the pentagonal crystal was finally completely filled three hours after sunset.
It had transformed from colorless transparency into water blue, giving off a clear aquatic glow.
At this moment, Noah finally relaxed.
"Phew. Although Weaver only needs a tiny amount of mana to activate, maintaining it for this long is still a bit exhausting."
He had come very close to mana exhaustion.
'Barely made it.'
Noah walked over to the device and removed the crystal that had fully transformed into a watery blue.
With this, the "ammunition" was complete.
He only needed to combine it with the device, and then he could begin testing it.
...
Returning to his room, Noah collapsed onto the bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep.
The enormous consumption of mental energy and mana made him feel a kind of exhaustion he had not experienced in a long time.
At a time like this, lying down on a soft bed naturally meant falling asleep in seconds.
It was not until ten the next morning that he slowly opened his eyes.
If he had magic stones, he could replenish his lost mana by absorbing the mana inside them.
But this world did not have magic stones, and the mana in the atmosphere was also extremely thin.
It was merely the amount naturally released by life in the natural world.
If he used Weaver to "eat people," then he would probably need to eat three or four people to equal one goblin magic stone.
A Dungeon capable of producing things like that truly was a special existence.
After briefly sighing over that, Noah continued his unfinished work.
First came the power test.
The moment he left the room, Suzuka naturally followed him, and she did so openly.
That was the agreement between the two of them, so Noah did not care.
Taeko, who wanted to protect him, had also been waiting since early morning.
Ever since that day, she had been watching Suzuka closely, preventing her from harboring any bad intentions.
The three of them went to the waterfall farther away from the lake.
Compared to the Azure Great Falls, this small waterfall really did not have much impact.
Noah examined the surrounding environment and decided to test it in a way that would cause less damage to nature.
He first manifested Raven feather and engraved several formulas onto it.
Then he took out the water-colored energy core and used Weaver to carve multiple formulas onto the surface of the crystal.
With that, the preparations were basically complete.
The series of formulas he had set up were all for the sake of allowing himself to replace the unfinished "control device."
This was another advantage of possessing Weaver.
He could use himself to simulate the device and thereby determine the required values for each parameter.
A high-pressure water jet used a high-pressure water generator to pressurize water to several hundred atmospheres or more, then converted it into a high-speed, ultra-fine water stream through a nozzle with a tiny aperture.
The faster this water jet flowed, the greater its power, and it possessed enormous impact energy.
However, if it did not exceed a certain value, then all it could accomplish was "high-pressure cleaning."
Therefore, to obtain a water cutter with sufficient power, he had to make the high-pressure water jet reach an ultra-high-pressure state.
Noah temporarily embedded the Forest Dragon's jewel into Crowfeather, securing the power source as well.
Seeing the gauntlet that seemed to appear out of nowhere and the peculiar light it emitted, a trace of surprise flashed through Suzuka's eyes.
"Is that... a Teigu?"
In her understanding, only Teigu could do things that common sense could not explain.
"Phew."
"Waterblade."
After Noah murmured softly, a blade made of water appeared in his hand according to the constructed formula.
More accurately, it extended from the magic circle in his palm.
In reality, this water blade did not have a hilt or anything of that sort.
It was merely a high-speed flowing stream of water circulating in the shape of a blade.
The water-colored energy core gave off a faint glow, indicating that it was running normally.
What Noah was currently controlling was not the surrounding water, but the high-density water elements inside the energy core.
Next was...
"Pressurize."
"Pressurize!"
"Pressurize!!"
Noah felt the strength of the pressure and judged that it was still far from enough.
He needed even stronger pressure to drive it.
"Pressurize—"
"Pressurize—!!"
As he continued increasing the output, the water blade extending from Noah's hand kept changing.
As its power rose, the difficulty of controlling the pressure also increased.
In terms of shape, compared to the beginning, the water blade had grown much larger.
The water blade, which had originally only been a little over one meter long, had now become huge, exceeding two meters in length.
Its width had also exceeded that of a palm, even approaching the thickness of an arm.
"Then I'll temporarily use this level of output for testing."
Noah looked around and found a huge boulder as tall as a person. It seemed to have been washed down from the waterfall.
He walked up to the boulder without taking any stance, then casually flicked the high-pressure water jet in his hand forward and performed an upward slash.
Because he had been too casual, the "edge alignment" of this strike was somewhat off, and the path of the slash formed a slight curve.
If it had been an ordinary sword, even if it could cut into the target's body, it would become stuck halfway because the slash was not clean enough and would be unable to split the target apart.
But for a water cutter, that did not matter.
Because it was not actually a sword.
Even carbon fiber, which had a hardness ten times higher than steel, could not withstand the cutting of a water cutter, let alone mere rock.
Under Suzuka's horrified gaze, the huge boulder was split apart as easily as tofu.
The cut was not smooth. One side was convex while the other was concave, perfectly matching the trajectory of that slash.
But that strike had not used any force, and the speed had not been fast either. It had merely been an ordinary swing.
Could it be that before that blade made of water, even rock became as soft as cream?
Looking at that terrifying killing power, Suzuka felt fear rise in her heart, yet at the same time, an utterly fearless thought emerged.
What would it feel like to be cut by that?
Without a doubt, she would be split in two, ending up the same as the boulder over there.
Although the training experienced by the Four Rakshasa Demons had made their bodies as tough as steel, an attack that even steel could not resist was naturally impossible for them to withstand.
However, an attack that sharp also had one flaw.
If it was sharp to that degree, perhaps one would not even feel pain after being cut.
Thinking of that, Suzuka immediately calmed down again.
She liked physical pain.
But if she died before she could even feel it, then she absolutely did not want that.
Noah did not know the shameless thoughts filling this woman's mind.
At this moment, he was fairly satisfied with the results of the initial test.
He nodded.
"Mm. The power meets expectations. Next, I'll begin the maximum power pressure test in one go."
From the initial experiment straight to the ultimate pressure test, Noah skipped an entire series of intermediate steps and jumped directly to the stage before the final boss.
"Continue pressurizing!"
Full output until his body could no longer endure it!
Mana surged wildly.
The water blade in Noah's hand twisted for a moment, then began frantically changing shape, swelling in one breath to more than ten meters long.
"What!" Suzuka looked at this scene, shock appearing on her face.
"It still isn't over?"
The enormous water blade before her could no longer be compared to the earlier one.
Noah, acting entirely on his own, swung the huge water blade without hesitation and swept it horizontally toward the waterfall.
The water blade pierced into the cliff and instantly tore it open.
Following the angle of the swing, the water blade swept horizontally across the cliff face, actually cutting a deep gully into the rock wall.
And when the water blade crossed the waterfall, the entire waterfall was forcibly severed by that strike.
In the next instant, sky-filling mist exploded outward, filling the surroundings with drifting spray!