Weapons Reworked, Victor's Sin

After the review of White Fang Fief's defenses ended, Shien left the head of the table and went straight down the stone steps to the Inner Fortress's underground Workshop.

At his instruction, Recorder Murray summoned Victor, Garrick, Luca, the other key technicians of the Workshop Directorate, and the Technical Knights of the Lesion-Sealing Special Operations Team to Conference Room One.

Around a hundred people packed the stone chamber. The long table had been cleared of clutter, and three items lay at its center.

There was the Grayblood Bone Pillar fragment Hughes had brought back, the original Grayblood Lesion excision records from Third Cremation Slope, and the brass recording disc from a Vein-Probing Awl that had failed in White Fang Fief.

Standing before the blackboard, Shien wrote three lines with a stick of quicklime: Evolved Grayblood Lesion, Grayblood Bone Pillar, Defense-Zone Devouring.

He turned toward the items on the table and presented the frontline data.

"The Grayblood Lesions along White Fang Fief's outer line have changed form. The Vein-Probing Awl's resonance runes failed abnormally when they touched deeper soil.

"The excision records also show that the lesion filaments' growth pattern is shifting from surface spread to vertical structures."

Garrick sat in the front row, his gaze moving between the fragment and the blackboard.

He weighed the situation—and his place in the Workshop Directorate.

Victor controlled the overall alchemical framework. Luca held the formula for the Supply-Blocking Solution.

Garrick had to produce a workable answer in artillery and machinery to secure his position as Deputy Director.

Garrick rose and pointed at the fragment.

"My lord, the core issue is still weapon impact. We can increase the alchemical powder charge in the Armor-Piercing Explosive Shells and replace the pig-iron casings with Mithril shrapnel coated in high-purity Holy Silver.

"If the impact and concentration