Chapter 523 - 328: What Zog Never Expected

Chapter 523: Chapter 328: What Zog Never Expected

The melee weapons R&D team showed astonishing efficiency.

Perhaps it was because the Dwarves and Elves working together refused to be outdone by one another, but they dove into a fierce competition.

In just three days, they had not only completed prototypes for the Thermic Sword and Vibrating Sword, but had also designed a preliminary plan for mass production.

Productive rivalry!

Wait, no. Something this genuinely useful can’t be called a rat race; it should be called healthy competition.

They even whipped up a prototype for a Chainsaw Sword on the side.

As it turned out, it had no real practical value.

Not only was it prone to malfunctioning, it was also incredibly heavy. Anyone who could wield it one-handed was no ordinary person.

Furthermore, its run time was only twenty minutes. To keep it going for two hours, you had to carry a separate, backpack-style Magic Energy Pool. The Magic Energy Pool, a magic energy storage device developed by the Zog Group, was quite bulky and even heavier than the Chainsaw Sword itself.

In the end, only Zog had a blast playing with it. He certainly didn’t mind the weight.

In the process of developing the Vibrating Sword, they also came up with an unexpected side invention.

Vibration. It gave the Dwarves, their heads already full of wild ideas, a powerful spark of inspiration.

Building on this principle, they invented something... remarkable.

Zog held a small purple ball between two of his claws. The ball was vibrating at a high frequency, letting out a steady BUZZZ.

"Ahem, this is, uh..." Zog looked uncomfortable. "What is this?"

"A toy," the Dwarf Artisan replied proudly.

"A toy?" To Zog, that answer undoubtedly confirmed his suspicions. "I never thought you supposedly simple and honest Dwarves could make something like this!

"But it’s great work. It might be an awkward topic, but the market for this thing is huge! Not just huge, but highly profitable, too. The vibration is just a little too intense, though. Might be suitable for a Dwarf, but probably not a human."

Zog was already thinking about how to set up a new company dedicated to selling this thing.

It certainly couldn’t be sold in the same product line as Zog’s other toys. That would be a little too... progressive for the kids.

The Dwarf Artisan scratched his head in confusion. "Huh? Why would a wrist-strengthening ball have a huge market?"

"Wrist-strengthening ball?"

"That’s right, a wrist-strengthening ball. Wrist strength is a fundamental skill for a Dwarf Artisan. You grip the rapidly vibrating ball to train your wrist strength," the Dwarf Artisan explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Zog was dumbfounded. "A wrist... a wrist-strengthening ball... should it be... this small?"

"Dwarf hands are only this big."

That made a lot of sense.

Right. Dwarf hands are small.

That’s why the vibration was so intense—it was meant for strength training.

"But... then why did you make it purple?"

"I like purple."

"Oh, you like it. Liking purple is good. Purple’s great. Purple has a certain... flair."

Zog scratched his nose awkwardly. "I thought... I thought it was..."

"Thought it was?"

"I thought it was for relaxing muscles! Hahaha, for relaxing muscles."

Saying this, Zog picked up the little purple ball and started rolling it back and forth over his forearm muscles.

Then, he changed the subject with extreme awkwardness. "Ahem, now that the prototypes are ready, let’s go and verify which design is more suitable—the Thermic Sword or the Vibrating Sword."

The only true test is in the application.

To determine which sword was more effective, the method was simple: give them to the armed police officers to test out.

The tide of beasts drawn by the Devil had mostly subsided, but a few squads were still stationed outside Deepwater City, responsible for dealing with the remaining Magical Beasts.

They were the perfect candidates to test the new melee weapons.

"So, the plan is this: we’ll produce a batch of both weapon types first. Let the police squads outside the city take them for a field test, compare their performance, and then we’ll decide which one to mass-produce."

With that said, Zog left the weapons research institute.

Aside from signing off on new R&D, Zog had another pressing matter. The Demon Shadow Festival’s closing ceremony was set to begin in two days, and all the long-anticipated awards would be presented.

The ceremony was the climax of the entire festival, set to be broadcast live across the Continent on all Magic Vision Devices and streamed online.

Zog was set to be the most important figure at the awards ceremony, bar none.

He was the host, one of the judges, and also a recipient of several awards.

Feilin’s version of *Silence of the Lambs*, just like the original film, was expected to sweep the awards.

For this, Zog also needed to plan his look. Although nobody really cared if a Dragon went on stage completely naked, Zog was conscious of his public image and had even gone to the Royal City to find the best team of fashion designers.

Designing a tuxedo for a Dragon was probably the strangest commission this group of veteran tailors had ever accepted in their entire careers.

Just as he stepped out of the research institute’s main gate, Zog ran into a familiar face.

It was the Chairman of the Mage Guild, the greatest living authority on magical theory: the Elf, El.

The research institute had become Old El’s favorite haunt. You could call it a spawn point for the Legendary Elf Mage.

Perhaps because he was particularly fond of the research atmosphere here, he had moved many of his belongings from his Mage Tower into a lab at the institute. He had even started formally taking on students again after a hiatus of many years.

Zog, of course, welcomed this development.

Lately, however, Old El had been a bit displeased. He had discovered that Zog was throwing his full support behind the weapons development team.

As a Mage with certain pacifistic leanings, while he didn’t object to magic being used in war, he truly disliked the idea of researching magic specifically for the purpose of warfare.

"Your new weapons were a success?" El asked.

"More or less."

"Sigh..." El let out a weary sigh. He knew all too well that an upgrade in weaponry meant that the efficiency of taking lives had once again increased.

"Hey, what’s with the sigh?"

"I am simply saddened by the thought of all the lives that will be taken by these new weapons."

Zog hadn’t expected Old El to become so sentimental. Back in his youth, he’d been a notoriously violent Mage.