"Hmm... It looks like a large bamboo stick," Nightingale commented as she drew closer. "What's that called?"
"RPG's..." Roland broke off while curling his lips, "ancestor."
"R—P—G..." Nightingale repeated the mouthful word strenuously and said, "Such a weird name. Is it a code name or something? In memory of the person who invented this weapon?"
Roland shook his head in amusement and explained, "It has many names and various forms in the Dream World, but this is the most popular one. It's getting so popular that a religion has formed around it, which is called the RPG Religion."
"Like the lengendary double swords that saved and destroyed the world?" Nightingale asked, her voice alive with curiosity. "Is it that powerful?"
The double swords that had saved and destroyed the world was a hallow recorded in an epic poem passed down among the ancient witches. There had been an organization prior to the first Battle of Divine Will who had looked for this hallow fervently. Although it was just a distant legend, RPGs and the double swords shared some similarities.
"You can say that about modern RPGs, but not its ancestor," Roland said. As a type of rocket launcher, modern RPGs definitely contributed a lot to the peace of the world.
"But you can't just skip RPGs and go directly to modern RPGs. You have to create its ancestor first and slowly work on it, right?" Nightingale asked, with a look of dawning comprehension in her eyes.
"Exactly." Roland was pleased with her quick response. After staying with Roland for so many years, Nightingale could finally keep up with him. Roland complimented, "You grasp the nature of the problem quite fast."
"Of course. I do improve, don't you think so?" Nightingale thrust a piece of dried fish with an air of triumph and said, "Sometimes you'll talk about terms like the Black Ribbon and Madames. Aren't they the evolved forms of 'glider' and 'concrete ship'? I've actually learned a lot from you over the past few years."
"Ahem..." Roland coughed. "Forget about them."
Roland noticed that both the battle at Northbound Slope and the night attack at Tower Station No. 1 had the same problem, that was, regular soldiers were too weak to confront the Senior Demons. According to the information collected by the Union, there were various types of Senior Demons with different abilities. Those abilities were pretty random with no specific pattern. However, it appeared all the Senior Demons could shield themselves from external harm with their magic power.
Perhaps, this universal shielding ability was just a coincidence, or simply a result of the natural evolution after decades of fighting and upgrading. Demons who did not possess such a shielding ability were naturally obliterated over the course of time. Nevertheless, Roland would still need to make a plan based on the worst scenario.
The demons' shielding ability was very similar to Shavi's. However, it could only protect the demons from physical injuries and it had a limit. If the demons stood right in front of a shooting unit and were shot multiple times, they would die in a few seconds.
Nevertheless, the demons would never let the soldiers to shoot them unscrupulously in a real battle.
Suppose the infantry of the First Army attacked a Senior Demon, the latter would immediately hide or fight back. In neither case would the First Army gain advantages.
The God's Punishment Witches were designed to repel the Senior Demons, since they were not only as powerful as Extraordinaries but could also block attacks. Unfortunately, the Senior Demons appeared to have lost their superior status over the past hundred years and participated in battles more often. If that was the case, the 300 God's Punishment Witches would probably not be enough to kill all the Senior Demons.
Therefore, Roland had to improve their weapons.
RPG, also known as Rocket Propelled Grenade, sounded like a very promising idea, but it was impossible to create such a legendary weapon in a short period of time in Neverwinter. Even its simplest model, a rocket launcher, was quite technologically demanding, which required a power system consisting of fuels and a combustor, and Roland did not want Anna to produce and test the weapon.
He thus decided to invent a grenade without a launcher instead.
That was the prototype of an RPG, a recoilless grenade.
The most famous model was the Panzerfaust.
Although most people generally referred to these types of weapons as rocket launchers, they actually belonged to two separate categories. A rocket launcher was a weapon ejecting projectiles. It was normally equipped with a power source and could operate on its own without a barrel. For example, the well-known 107mm rocket launcher could be easily ignited by dry batteries and had a fairly decent firing rate as well.
The Panzerfaust and RPG were recoilless guns that required a barrel to provide a thrusting force. If they were ignited without a barrel, they would only spin around on the ground. An RPG, particularly, relied on a rocket to increase its shooting range and accuracy. Its thrusting force would mainly be fueled by gunpowder.
The Panzerfaust, on the other hand, was famous for its extremely simple structure compared to its various successors. Its barrel was a cylinder, its head made of iron shards. The gunpowder was black powder great for mass production.
Nevertheless, Roland was not planning to completely copy the Panzerfaust. The biggest drawbacks of the Panfauster were its short shooting range, low accuracy rate and limited impact. These drawbacks were unacceptable in a mass warfare like this. As Roland constantly learned from history, he knew that some small adjustments must be made to improve the weapons.
For instance, he had to install a gourd-shaped CD nozzle at the rear of the barrel and thus transformed the subsonic ammunition into a supersonic one. In this way, he would be able to increase the counter-recoil force and thereby the shooting range of the weapon.
The barrel needed to be equipped with a handle, a scope and a wooden casing to further improve the accuracy rate and make it more user-friendly.
The missile could be further stabilized with an empennage made of mild steel, which would spread open and spin with the missile when it was in the air.
Roland was also thinking about shaping the front part of the missile into an inverted hollow cone to direct the energy to one point, making it highly explosive and armor-piercing. In this way, he could maximize the impact of the grenade on the Magic Barrier.
These upgrades were all doable with the current technologies available in Neverwinter.
Roland folded the drawing sheet and walked to the French Window.
He knew the First Army would still not a stand chance at repulsing the Senior Demons when equipped with grenades, but they would at least have something to compete against them. Even though the demons were fast, high-explosive anti-tank warheads could still be fatal. Once the demons were hit, the outcome of this war might be very different.
This would mean that any regular soldier would have the capability to kill a Senior Demon with just a bit of training. With such advanced weapons, the infantry unit would also be able to tackle armored demons such as the Spider Demons and the Giant Skeleton. To make this weapon, he only needed some gunpowder and a half slice of an ingot.
Roland thought this was a really good deal.