Emperor of Steel

There were 5 Gigants that were prepared ahead of time.

They were Dark Moon Magic Tower’s knight class Gigants with 2,200 fight, ‘Piero’.

Unlike its ridiculous appearance, it was quite a good enough force that was being used as the main force by the national guards of the Volga Republic.

“The level of the riders who are using it is also high. Should we do a test?”

Luke slowly moved Orion forward. Then, the riders of Piero quickly entered and surrounded Orion.

Hweeing! Hweeing!

Chained hooks flew from two Pieros on the left and right sides.

The hook wrapped itself around Orion’s arms and pulled it. The other three launched their planned attacks.

“Hut. This is quite pretty, but it won’t work on me.”

Luke lightly manifested lightning magic.

The mana required for manifesting lightning magic was amplified by the core engine and was instantly delivered from Orion’s arms that were chained.

“Kah!”

Frightened by the lighting shock that was coming his way, the rider was shocked, and Luke decided to fight back.

After pulling the hooks from the Gigant, Luke threw them toward Piero and attacked.

“Ahh! Be careful!”

Thud! Thud!

When Luke wielded the Gigant’s chain, the flustered riders immediately broke off the chain.

They did try to fire back again, but Luke managed to get ahead of them.

He went in between the Gigants and wielded the practice sword.

Kwak! Thud!

“Kuk, don’t panic and fight back…”

“This can’t be. I can’t even follow his movements!”

The fight with the 5 Piero Gigants was one-sided.

Luke wasn’t using Gigantic Aura or the Gold Sword, and he only used magic once.

Nevertheless, the Pieros were captured because of Orion’s overwhelming power and superior reaction speed.

“This is great! This is just amazing!”

Luke’s face, which had come out from the hatch after the practice match, was shinning.

Because of those praises, Johas smiled with a warm expression and began to tell Luke the story about Orion’s development.

“Honestly, Orion’s prototype was made in just three months after master gave us the design.”

They were already under the rhythm of creating a bio-golem called Goliath, so even if the blueprint was a hero class, it wasn’t much difficult for them to make it.

“Even then, since we want to make sure that the Gigant we will make is perfect, the completion of the prototype took time.”

They were greedy when it came to creating an unprecedented Gigant, and that kind of behavior had never been seen in the World of Magic.

The elders of Dark Moon, who were unsuccessful in creating a Gigant with the same performance as Atlas, began to use their heads.

As a result, it was possible to develop a high powered core engine by implementing psychological magic in the cockpit. By doing so, the performance of a Gigant could get a score of 100 or even 120.

“Honestly, from the time of Goliath’s development, some of the Dark Moon’s elders have been studying the magic of psychological system related to tuning. However, we had to go through a few trials and errors when applying the magic to a Gigant.”

Bio-golem was basically organic. It was cultured with a special magic solution and was not much different from a human’s body, except for the fact that it had no digestive system.

So, it was easy to apply the tuning function using the psychological system.

“But ordinary Gigants weren’t compatible. We couldn’t synthesize organic and inorganic materials. We couldn’t apply the magic functions that were used to Goliath.”

“That was why you developed the Helm. Was that a way for you to convert the information flowing into the Gigant into simpler mana waves recognized by the brain and transmit it back?” Asked Luke.

“Indeed master. As expected, you understand the theory behind it right away!”

“No, you’re the one who is great here. I was just thinking about it, but I would have never been able to make it.”

In any case, it would take quite a while for a rider to get used to the Helm and the sync functions.

“The only problem is the cost. Orion, which uses the Helm, required rare magic materials, radium alloy, and other special processing…”

“So how much did it cost to make one?”

Johas, who had been thinking, calculated and responded to Luke’s question, “It costs around 600,000 pesos including the development costs.”

“Hmm, that is equivalent to an entire year’s tax revenue,” mumbled Luke under his breath.

“But once the mass production starts, the unit’s price would drop. Orion would be much cheaper than that if we don’t include the Helm.”

Even then, the production cost of any hero class Gigant was going to be enormous. No matter how great of a weapon it was, its cost would be its weakness.

Although he was quite wealthy, there was a limit to the resources that the Marquis of Rakan could get his hands on.

‘However, the hero class is a strategic weapon that cannot be easily obtained no matter how much a person is willing to pay, and if you think about it like that…’

Luke thought of something and gave instructions to Johas.

“We will provide you as much money as we can. With general specifications, make at least two Orions a year.”

“Understood, master.”

“And look for a substitute material to replace the radium alloy. If it all worked together, there will definitely be an alternative.”

Luke stored three prototypes into his subspace ring.

One for Baron Rogers, the chief of the Lordship, and the knight commander.

In addition to that, Luke also took 6 knight class Gigants and 20 warrior class Gigants.

The Gigants were intended to be purchased from a familiar magic tower and provide them to the newly established Red Wolf Knights in Albertville.

“But, master.”

When Luke was done with his task and was ready to leave.

Johas opened his mouth with a stiff face.

“A few days ago, we received a call from a disciple who infiltrated Veritas, and he said that a large number of materials are being moved in secret.”

Johas’ camouflaged several young disciples a long time ago to infiltrate Veritas Magic Tower.

They turned into fixed agents and steadily granted information they gathered in there, but one of such message had been reported recently.

A large number of magical materials and food were being carried from Veritas Magic Tower to somewhere else in secret.

Since the identity of the spy wasn’t in a high position yet, he wasn’t granted the information.

“Huh, did that Arsene finally show up?”

Although the Imperial Army and the Empire’s army did intervene, there were numerous opportunities for Arsene and Vertias to wipe out the reformers.

And time kept on being dragged.

So Luke thought they had something up their sleeve, but finally, a clue had been given to him.

There were many things one could do with magic materials and food.

For one, Arsene could be secretly raising an army of wizards or mass-produce warlocks. Or maybe he was making undead, zombies or ghouls.

‘I need to go and see it for myself. There are presents that I want to pass onto him.’

Luke, with a small smile, returned to Albertville. After handing over the Gigants that he brought, he took both Philip and Hwang Bo-sung back to Rakan Estate.