"Yes, we carved energy storage runes into these guns, but you still need a bit of magic power to activate them, similar to magic bombs." Betty nodded slightly: "You just need to inject magic power and it'll fire a ray straight ahead. This one shoots corrosive rays, the wrist crossbow version shoots searing rays."
"Doll, you try it. Attack... attack that bottle on the table over there."
Ren thought for a moment, then handed the gun to Betty.
"Why don't you try it yourself?"
Betty took it and started aiming like a pro.
"I'm afraid it'll explode the moment I inject magic power." Ren watched the front seriously: "What if you're planning a rebellion and want to steal my godhead?"
"Hmph! Who wants your godhead! No wait, you don't even have a godhead! The God of Technology is still just a prototype, not even a fledgling deity." Betty snorted coldly and pulled the trigger.
Instantly, a green ray shot out from her hand, and the cup in the distance started dissolving rapidly, finally turning into a puddle: "How's that? Pretty good, right? Does it meet your requirements?"
"Perfect, absolutely perfect." Ren nodded with satisfaction: "When fully charged, how many rays can this gun fire?"
"About 10 times."
"Only ten times?" Ren couldn't help but frown slightly.
"Ten times is plenty. Regular low-tier magicians can only cast about that many times too."
Betty looked at Ren with some dissatisfaction. "Of course, if you want more shots, we can make these guns bigger. You could also carry multiple ray guns at the same time."
"No no no, this size is perfect." Ren quickly waved his hands: "What I mean is, is there any possibility of separating the energy storage runes? Someone could carry one ray gun and multiple energy storage runes. They'd just need to swap in the energy storage runes to fire another ten shots!"
"What do you mean?"
Betty was stunned for a moment, seeming to not quite understand.
Ren carefully organized his thoughts: "I think ray guns are different from magic bombs. We could use a completely new approach. For example, when you first get this gun, it doesn't have energy storage runes or spell models—just a basic framework."
"Then I insert a spell model representing corrosive magic, and this ray gun becomes a corrosive ray gun. If I insert searing rays, it becomes a searing ray gun."
"Of course, at this point it still can't fire. I'd also need to insert energy storage runes. Then it could fire ten shots in a row. After ten shots, I could remove that energy storage rune and swap in a fully charged one."
"One gun could achieve different types of spell rays and unlimited shooting by swapping spell models and energy storage runes?!" Betty looked at Ren with surprise, like she wanted to pry open his skull.
"Exactly. I think our new-type magic items are fundamentally different from traditional magic items. They can do many things with their stored magic power, so naturally we should find ways to enhance this ability."
Ren said with a grin: "Modularization is the first method I thought of. Through this approach, we can greatly increase the ray gun's versatility and expandability. Any ray-type spell—no, any projectile-type magic—could be used. With enough energy storage runes, you could use it indefinitely."
Betty grew more amazed the more she listened.
She seemed to have gained a completely new understanding of the magic items Ren had been inventing lately.
Originally, she thought the strongest aspect of these magic items was eliminating the chanting phase. But high-tier magicians don't need to chant anyway, and legendary magicians even less so. At most, this would affect mid and low-tier magicians and apprentices.
But the moment the concept of modularization appeared, she suddenly realized—this isn't simple!
Any new-type magic item of this kind could be made up of many components that could be easily disassembled and swapped to achieve different effects, just like her own body parts that could all be removed and recombined for different... appearances.
"I get what you mean now." Betty looked deeply at Ren: "Before when I said these new magic devices were revolutionary, I was being somewhat polite. But now, I really think these new-type magic items are revolutionary! Honestly, I even think these new-type magic items should get a new name."
Traditional magic items had magicians pursuing luxury, expense, and durability. They'd often add countless decorative devices and runes to each magic item, making them more like art pieces that could last hundreds or thousands of years.
These new-type magic items Ren proposed were obviously completely different.
"A name? How about Magic Conductors?" Ren said almost without hesitation: "Actually, the biggest feature of our new items is that energy channels made of runes replace manual magic input, right?"
"True." Betty nodded slightly. That was indeed a good name.
"Doll."
"Huh?" Suddenly being called like this, Betty was obviously startled and looked at Ren somewhat confused.
"Is there really no way to charge the energy storage runes through other means? Can only magicians inject their own magic power into them?"
"Yeah, all the knowledge that Conoscenza and I have says that's the case." Betty was very certain: "To speed things up, the only way is to have magicians enter areas with magical anomalies. In those places, magic power recovery speeds up, which would help a lot."
"But can't magic circles manipulate the magic power that's everywhere?"
"Even when using regular magic, that draws on the magic power that's everywhere. But to manipulate that magic power, you need spell models and must use the magician's own magic power as a catalyst. Without intervention, magic power can't automatically gather."
"Alright, I get it." Ren nodded somewhat helplessly: "Just modify the gun according to my requirements for modularization!"
Not being able to auto-charge and only having magicians guide and inject power was really a pain!
This would become the biggest problem limiting Magic Conductor development.
There weren't many magicians to begin with. One magic bomb already required a low-tier magician to work for about two days. How long would this ray gun take?
What about future Magic Conductors he had in mind?
Especially some of the large-scale Magic Conductors he imagined—would he need a whole bunch of magicians to charge them? That would probably drain those magicians completely!
Wait!
Ren suddenly realized he seemed to have seen information about this somewhere.
In Magic Space.
Someone seemed to have discussed similar topics.