Herad was sandwiched between two gorgeous women, which must have looked thoroughly enjoyable to anyone watching.
But these were two immensely powerful rangers, strong enough to hoist a massive cauldron.
With their arms around Herad's shoulders, the force they exerted as they competed with each other was anything but gentle.
"Ladies, can't you talk this out? Please stop putting me through this!"
No matter how much Herad protested, the Windrunner Sisters had no intention of letting him off easily.
They all knew each other well and understood a great deal without needing to say it.
"Hurry up and tell us how you're going to solve this."
"Exactly. Give us a solution, and I'll let go."
Unable to overpower these two freakishly strong women, Herad could only submit and reveal part of his solution.
"I'm planning to develop a vehicle that can secure the autocannon and flexibly adjust its angle."
Hearing his proposal, the sisters loosened their grips considerably.
Alleria knew her people's various weapons well.
She soon thought of a weapon that seemed to fit his requirements.
"How about using a ballista chassis?"
Ballistae were powerful siege weapons used by both Night Elves and high elves.
These weapons could fire giant bolts to blast through city walls, or launch enormous moon blades to slice through enemy formations.
They could also store energy through a precision clockwork system, allowing them to move and turn quickly in battle.
Mounting an autocannon on a ballista chassis certainly sounded like an excellent idea!
But Alleria had overlooked just how troublesome ballistae were.
Their internal mechanisms were far too intricate!
With ballistae so difficult to manufacture, they might as well have the gnomes build Steam Tanks instead.
Herad rejected Alleria's suggestion.
"A ballista's mechanisms are too intricate. If it breaks, repairs will be difficult. I'm planning to take inspiration from the gnomes' multi-legged robots."
Hearing this unfamiliar term, the sisters began asking curious questions.
"Multi-legged robots? What are those?"
"Yes, what's a robot?"
The gnomes kept their best inventions carefully hidden.
Even the dwarves, who had been their friends for generations, had no idea what strange contraptions those eccentric little fellows had come up with.
It was hardly surprising that outsiders knew nothing about the gnomes' most prized inventions.
Herad gave the sisters a brief introduction, then explained his own idea.
"They're complex mechanical constructs shaped much like spiders. They move very steadily over rugged terrain.
"I'm planning to use their construction as a reference to create a stripped-down version of an Arcane Golem."
A stripped-down Arcane Golem was something that had never existed before.
Elven artisans had finalized the design of Arcane Golems back in ancient times.
They were powerful frontline combat units built to absorb damage, with no other applications.
Still, the sisters knew just how wildly imaginative Herad could be.
Every so often, he would come up with some impractical flight of fancy.
But some of his ideas could genuinely work.
High elves were not a race gifted at invention and innovation.
Herad's innovative thinking was a very valuable talent.
This proposal for a stripped-down Arcane Golem sounded quite feasible.
The sisters quickly released Herad so he could focus on developing a working model.
Free from the pressure of those two freakishly strong women, Herad could finally settle down and think.
He began considering exactly what functions the stripped-down Arcane Golem should possess.
Since it was a stripped-down version, its intelligence would have to be drastically reduced.
That would make it much easier to manufacture, without requiring too much thought.
Its various specifications could also be reduced significantly, saving more magical materials.
Ultimately, Herad settled on a design that could carry a fully equipped autocannon and follow the ranger troops wherever they went.
Watching Herad dash off a sketch in a few quick strokes, the Windrunner Sisters were very pleased with his design.
The sketch showed a disc with six mechanical legs.
On top of the disc sat an autocannon and a framework they did not understand but thought looked impressive.
They could not understand the design drawings at all.
They spent ages pretending to study them, but gained absolutely nothing.
What was depicted in the drawings was not as simple as they imagined.
Every high elf was precious. Herad could not possibly have them sitting in exposed seats.
Thus, this stripped-down Arcane Golem was actually a radically modified infantry fighting vehicle.
Replacing an infantry fighting vehicle's wheels with six legs would not necessarily make it faster, but it would certainly make it more agile.
Once it reached its destination and crouched on the ground, it would be even more stable than a tracked tank.
The rangers would operate it when firing, so it would not need to find targets or calculate trajectories itself.
An Arcane Golem like this would require very little intelligence.
Herad estimated that a little over a thousand magical nodes would be enough to keep it running smoothly and meet the ranger troops' everyday needs.
However, developing this stripped-down Arcane Golem was not going to be that easy.
He ruined one Magic Crystal after another, then sent them into the arcane furnace to be melted down and recast.
The arcane furnace ran on a mage's mana, and very little material was lost during smelting.
This kept his development losses fairly low.
Time flowed like water, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
After countless failures, the prototype Herad was building finally came within a hair's breadth of his intended goal.
As he fitted the improved Magic Crystal into the prototype's slot, he felt certain this attempt would succeed.
Once the Magic Crystal was activated, the purple lines running all over the vehicle lit up almost simultaneously.
Enveloped in purple light, the prototype quickly extended its six long legs and stood up, ready to enter combat at any moment.
Herad opened the hatch at the rear of the vehicle and climbed inside.
The prototype's exterior copied that of an infantry fighting vehicle.
It simply had six long legs attached beneath its chassis.
However, it was considerably smaller than an infantry fighting vehicle, only about the size of an ordinary sedan.
Although it was a little small, seven or eight people could fit inside if they squeezed together.
After all, this was a war machine, not a vehicle for sightseeing.
Herad sat in the driver's seat at the very front and placed his hands on the armrests.
The armrests were magical devices used to operate the prototype.
The left armrest controlled its forward and backward movement, as well as left and right turns.
The right armrest controlled the unmanned turret's aim.
The prototype was fully enclosed and had no viewing windows.
The magical screens in front and on either side were the only way to observe the outside world.
The images on the magical screens were very clear, and they could also lock onto targets and magnify them.
Anything a telescope could do, the magical screens could do as well.
There was a crosshair on the magical screen.
Wherever the crosshair was moved, a shell could be fired at that spot.
With war machines developed to this level, warfare was almost becoming a video game.
If this war machine could be operated remotely, it would be no different from playing a video game at all!
Of course, if they really did that, it would soon become a contest between magical jamming and anti-jamming measures.
Herad drove the prototype around the testing grounds for a few laps.
Once he confirmed there were no problems, he began the firing test.
A number of targets stood scattered around the grounds.
He moved the crosshair, quickly locked onto the targets, and accurately blasted every one of them to pieces.
Although Herad was a terrible shot, he had no trouble playing video games!
But this was not a test of his gaming skills.
The autocannon's accurate hits showed that the prototype's targeting system was working properly.
The prototype had passed every test.
After successfully avoiding it for three years, I finally tested positive for COVID.
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