I turned on the hidden switch between my middle and ring finger and bent my wrist a little forward. To my astonishment, a sleek black blade made out of the same material as the Neo arm popped out of the front side of the forearm.
"What? Did you add a hidden blade inside the Neo?" I asked Nolan, looking incredibly surprised.
Nolan smiled wryly and said, "I don't know what a hidden blade is, but I guess it's something similar. I'd like to keep it simple and call it the Hyper Blade because, well, you know it's made up of Hyper Alloy."
"Well, even so, how did you create something like this?" I asked him, admiring the beautiful yet dangerous Hyper Blade.
"It's actually quite simple. I had extra Hyper Alloy lying around, and I also had some time to look at a few weapons from your world. I saw these spring-loaded bullet reload magazines, and after that, I had an idea to create a spring-action blade that's concealed inside the Neo arm," Nolan explained and continued.
"That's not all, Relax your wrist and close your Neo, make it into a fist," Nolan explained again.
I followed his instructions. When I relaxed my wrist, the Hyper Blade disappeared. When I closed my Neo arm into a fist, a small sleek black shield popped up, fully covering my forearm and more.
"What's this now? Did you even add a shield?" I asked him curiously.
"Well, yes, but adding a retractable shield was much more challenging than the blade because, you know, the blade is just a single piece, while the retractable shield is many pieces of metal combined together to form a perfect shape for a shield," Nolan continued, while I was playing around with my new shield.
"I was just planning to add the blade, but I had more Hyper Alloy lying around, and since Hyper Alloy is a very valuable resource, I didn't want to waste it. When I was wondering what to do, Grandpa suggested adding a shield to the Neo. But unlike the blade, the shield was very big and not easy to conceal," Nolan explained.
"Then how did you come up with the retractable shield idea?" I asked Nolan curiously.
"Well, that was also Grandpa's idea, to be honest. He suggested making it something similar to a folding fan. But instead of making a full circle, which would be very bulky when concealed, I made it into two separate concealed shields, each making half a circle. By doing this, we can reduce the size while the shield is concealed," Nolan gave me a brief explanation.
"Wow! Mr. Norman is more knowledgeable than I thought," I told Nolan with a surprised look.
Mr. Nolan, who heard what I said, asked me angrily, "What was that, you stupid brat? I may look like this now, but in my prime, I explored two different worlds and am more knowledgeable than any of you," he told us with a snort.
"All right, all right, Mr. Norman, sorry about that. Anyway, Nolan, what's up with that hidden switch?" I apologized to Mr. Norman and asked Nolan curiously.
"That's just a safety switch. When it is turned off, both the blade and the shield will not activate, so you don't accidentally cut yourself or others," Nolan explained.
"I see. I have only seen these kinds of things in movies. To think I can use something like this in real life," I marveled at these new additions to my arsenal.
"What? Are you surprised just by this? What will you do when I show you the star of the show that I have prepared?" Nolan asked me with a sly grin.
"What? There's more?" I asked, my surprise growing.
"Yes, there is. Just wait here," Nolan instructed, then disappeared for a few minutes. When he returned, he was holding the Merman's handheld weapon that I had taken from the Merman who severed my leg. However, it looked a little different than I remembered.
"This... isn't that the Merman Weapon?" I asked Nolan with curiosity.
"It indeed is, I made a few changes, so try using it. Let's see if you can shoot that bottle over there," Nolan said, pointing to a bottle that was about 100 meters away.
"I guess I can give it a try," I replied, taking the Merman's weapon, aiming it carefully, and pulling the trigger.
To my surprise, instead of pressurized water, something similar to a laser shot out and shattered the bottle into a thousand pieces. "What? Is this a laser gun now?" I turned and looked at Nolan with a surprised expression.
"Well, it kind of is, and I call it Aquarius," Nolan said with a proud face.
"How does it work?" I asked Nolan, intrigued.
He made a self-satisfied grin and started talking, "Well, you see, the HydroVortex Engine turns water into energized plasma. To be honest, the Mermen's weapon's mechanism is somewhat similar to the HydroVortex Engine, so I didn't have to make many modifications. But it was still very challenging to implement it into something so small, yet I managed to do it." Nolan explained.
"I see. Will you modify the other Mermen's Handheld weapons later?" I asked Nolan.
But he avoided my gaze for some reason and mumbled, "W-well, as for the others, they have been sacrificed in the name of science."
"What? What do you mean by that?" I asked, unable to process what Nolan just said.
"I-I mean these were foreign technology to me, so I first experimented with the small ones to learn about them, and unfortunately, they were all destroyed. To be specific, I accidentally destroyed their power source. Aquarius is the result of their sacrifice," Nolan told me, his voice wavering slightly.
"What? Power source? How does it work exactly?" I asked Nolan, intrigued.
"Well, that is kind of complicated to explain since I haven't fully understood it myself. That's why I asked you to lend me one of the Mermen's Mounted weapons to analyze it and learn more about it. If possible, I can even reverse engineer it and make a similar weapon like this," Nolan explained.
"If you don't know the power source, then how can I keep using it without reloading it?" I inquired of Nolan.
"Well, actually, I know about the power source, but I don't know exactly how it works. There are these small crystal ball things inside these weapons, and they can somehow store large amounts of water inside them. The weapons use that water as the power source, and you have to refill those with water regularly to keep using these weapons," Nolan gave me a vague explanation and continued.
"What I don't understand is how this small crystal ball can hold such a large amount of water. It's almost like it's magic," Nolan said, his astonishment evident as he marveled at the Merman's technology.
"Magic? How do you know about such things like that?" I was curious about how this world understood these concepts.
"Well, it's because of the Drifters. The Drifters are a very common occurrence in this world, and because of that, most of our culture was inspired by them. Some lucky drifters who manage to arrive at TerraNova directly say that most cities in TerraNova resemble cities from their own world," he told me as if it was common knowledge in this world.
Now that I think about it, David said something similar when I asked what kind of sorcery the Neos were. What Nolan said makes sense as well. The city Port Aurora looks somewhat similar to normal port cities you see on Earth, well except for the resident areas of the other races because those resemble something straight out of fantasy, especially the Avian's residents on the floating island.
"How is that thing floating in the sky? Should I ask Nolan about it?" While I was contemplating this, the Mounted Mermen's weapon that Nolan was working on caught my eye.
"Wait, does that mean the Mounted Mermen's weapons also shoot lasers instead of pressurized water now?" I asked Nolan with a puzzled expression.
"Well, not exactly, as lasers wouldn't be very fast or powerful underwater. So instead, it shoots the plasma directly. I even added two different attack modes. One is like a plasma ray, while the other charges and shoots energized plasma. The first one is fast and can deal continuous damage, but it's not very powerful, while the second one is slow but deals huge damage. You can even choose which mode to use separately on all four Mounted Aquarius," Nolan explained.
"Really? Did you name those Mounted Aquarius? And are you sure you can do this without accidentally destroying these like the handheld one?" I asked Nolan with suspicious eyes.
"Of course! I don't want to damage the big ones; that's why I started with the small ones first," he told me with confidence.
*Sigh*
I sighed and said, "Fine, I understand what you're trying to say, and I'm not mad at you for destroying the small ones. But I am kind of disappointed because there is only one Aquarius as of now."
"Well, give me some time; I will reverse engineer the big one and try to make more Aquarius," he said once again with confidence.
*Sigh*
I sighed and asked Mr. Norman, "So Mr. Norman, did you find anything about the slaves from your contact in the slums?"
"Unfortunately, no. I am planning to go to the slums later, but as I said, it's dangerous to go alone. If someone could accompany me, that would be great," Mr. Nolan told us.
"I can accompany you," Lucas, who had been silent until now, volunteered himself.