I am the head researcher of the Reytsent Empire.
The Reytsent Empire is currently the worlds leading figure in terms of technology, diversity, economy and military power.
In the last few years, other kingdoms and empires have been forming large-scale alliances and focusing a large amount of their effort on their military.
The Royal family of Reytsent have thus hired me and my team to work on weapons that might work as bargaining chips for war.
"If we have a weapon that can clear a country, no country would attack." they told me with a prideful grin.
Honestly, they get on my nerves.
I still work for them though, the leading figure in economy pays really well. Well enough to even hire me, Mr Winters.
They wanted a weapon so we started working on one.
We gathered rare materials. Horns from Immortal level Minotaurs, fangs from High-Grandmaster level Dragons and we even managed to procure some scales from a sort of Mythical Beast.
The origins of the scales are still unknown, but that's what makes it exciting!
With those materials, we constructed weapons. Swords and spears, some armour from the scales and somehow even some daggers from those very same scales.
I'll give credit where it's due, the blacksmiths really did a good job with the materials.
I personally could not even scratch or slightly bend those scales. At most I could lightly scratch the Dragon fangs but nothing more.
Even though I have a Strength Stat of B+.
Nevertheless, we brought the completed products to the Royals.
Spears that stab and swords that cut almost any metal. Armour that can block even S rank attacks and daggers that are the perfect tool for parrying and deflecting.
Yet we were told it was not enough.
We were possibly looking at all-out war with two empires and three kingdoms. One of those empires and two of those kingdoms being our geographical neighbours.
They took the weapons, gave us more monetary support and sent us on our way so we could make something better.
Pushing aside the idea of literal weapons, I understood why the weapons were rejected.
Rare materials and few of those weapons. They are unfit for war where our tools can be stolen on the battlefield.
So I and my team decided to make something that can not be stolen on the battlefield.
If weapons and armour don't help our soldiers get stronger, we need our soldiers to, quite literally, get stronger.
We decided to make training equipment.
Machines that push your abilities to the limit while injecting you with mana. The source of mana can be monster cores.
The theory was simple. If you push your Strength to the limit until your bones start cracking and mana is forced into the body, that mana will then be instinctively used to increase your Strength. With this method, the efficiency of draining monster cores increases and you can use it to increase stats that you wish to increase instead of relying on luck.
Simple in theory. Sort of...
It took a long while to complete these machines.
We needed a straight and efficient way to actually get the mana into your body while you use the machines.
At first, we planned on making the metal in the machines the transmitter but it ended in failure as too much mana was being used and we burned through monster cores.
The second idea was simple wires that connect to the body.
Another failure.
Attaching the wires was rather easy but they left scars that could be used as weak points. The second problem was that there was no good way to get the actual mana flowing through the wires. To get it flowing, we needed someone to work with the core while the soldier trains. That, in turn, drains the mana from the core since someone other than the soldier would be touching the core.
The third method was to implant the core into the body and immediately start the procedure of training.
This... actually worked.
If we remove a small part of the soldiers' nape, we can implant a shrunken version of a core.
Of course, we can not implant large cores since the nape is an essential area for a soldier.
The efficiency of core consumption is acceptable while not leaving many scars that the enemy could use as weak points.
After some fine-tuning, we brought a soldier and one of the machines to the Royals so they can evaluate.
We were, yet again, turned away.
They were pleased with it, yes, but it was not enough.
They said that receiving even one weak point is a fatal flaw.
It has been 1 year, 2 months, 9 days and 18 hours since I started working for Reytsent. The pay is good, but my work is not appreciated. MY WORK!
I am Christopher Winters! How can they not find my work satisfactory!
Fine! I'll make something that causes no weak point! I'll make the perfect weapon!
End of Log 1.
...
Meanwhile, on a particular field of flowers in the empires territory, a petite girl with long black hair appeared out of nowhere just as some leaves fell from a tree on the hill.
In the shade of that tree, the girl stood in shock.
Taking a deep breath, she looked around.
Her features were hidden due to the strong wind that blew her long hair in front of her face.
The beautiful scene was then disrupted.
A low growl was heard from behind the girl.
Turning around without even moving her legs, the girl saw a dark red wolf.
The air turned hot as the wind stopped.