Dominic woke up before first light when he smelled food, and took a moment to brush out his robes before putting them back on for the day.
"You do have other robes, right?" Prince Alex asked.
Dominic nodded. "These are my general purpose ones, with a bonus to spell power. I have fancy ones for formal occasions.
But if we’re going to be at the Palace after lunch, I should have time to change before we reach the city."
The Prince looked him over and shook his head.
"It’s better to change now. Ditch the full armour, you can change back into it with a freshly laundered base layer before the dinner event if they make it military formal. Just take a few minutes to polish up your chest plate and put it over your formal robes.
I suspect that there will be many eyes on us as we approach the city, and not many chances to get outside and change clothes."
Dominic stripped quickly to change just as Princess Alexis walked in, wearing a bright blue gown with a shining silver chest plate over it.
"Good, you’re changing. Let’s see what you’ve got."
"For formal wear. Formal Wear." She hastily added as her brother gave her a ’seriously?’ look.
But she didn’t look away.
Dominic laughed and pulled on a clean pair of black uniform pants with suspenders, then put on the best set of black Mage Robes he had over the top. With a handful of water and a shake of his head, his hair settled back into its usual wavy curls, and Dominic pulled on a clean pair of polished boots.
"That haircare routine is painful to watch. How do you even make it do that without a brush? It sits the same way every time you do it." Alexis grumbled.
Dominic shrugged. "It’s getting a bit long. I will have to get it cut soon, or it won’t do it anymore."
The Regimental cooks brought over breakfast, oatmeal with honey and dried apple slices, the essentials of stable travel rations.
Prince Alex sighed as he stared at the bowl, then passed it to Alexis and took out a round of flatbread and cheese.
"Oh? Not fond of oatmeal? Or is it the apples?" Dominic asked.
"Both. I don’t mind fresh apples in pie. But the dried apple slices are a texture nightmare."
Dominic laughed as he finished his food and collected the bowls to give back to the staff, who were cleaning as fast as they could.
They would have to continue as they moved, washing dishes in the supply wagons while they travelled, but it was far better to get most of them done now. Dominic knew that for most meals, everyone would just supply their own dishes, and perhaps the majority of soldiers did. But they had brought the food to the Royal Guard.
With the carriage back in motion, Dominic settled back into his work, trying to improve the Ogre Slaying Rifles.
He was somewhat limited in the knowledge that he had, but he had a whole set of textbooks on magical engineering with him, which he hadn’t finished the lessons for before he left.
There were plenty of circuit diagrams in there, and he knew the blueprint for the Mana Revolver.
He didn’t need a fully magical bullet, but the concept should be similar to building in a magical buff that surrounded the bullet, instead of just accelerating it.
Dominic finally found the information that he needed in the Chapter on creating the magitech core for the torches that most craftsmen used. It wasn’t particularly complex, but he could use it to add fire damage to the bullet, and then from there, he could add the circuits that would turn the flaming damage into an explosion, without using an explosive round.
That would be incredibly useful when firing into crowded groups of enemies.
Now, he just needed to experiment until he could get that to work with either the Ogre Slaying Rifle, or the Mana Revolver.
Explosive magical pistol rounds sounded fun, but the revolver wasn’t large, and it was a lot of complex magitech that needed to be added.
Perhaps in the handle area?
Yes, he could stack them around the trigger and hammer mechanisms, inside hollow grips. That would allow him enough room to put the extra effects onto the mana pistol.
The rifle would be infinitely easier, and he would not have to try to miniaturize all the work. But keeping both in mind just made sense from a practical standpoint.
"What are you even working on?" Alexis asked as Dominic continued to sketch patterns in a notebook.
"Adding explosive rounds to a mana pistol."
The Princess smiled and nodded, then returned to her novel, but Prince Alex was not going to let that comment slide so easily.
"You think that you can make the explosion spell work on a pistol? Without adding a spell gem?" He asked.
"Not the spell. At least, not exactly. An explosive effect when the bullet contacts the target. It should be magical fire, the same as the explosion spell, but it should have a level based on the level of the weapon, unlike a Spell Gem that would need to be levelled separately.
I will have to test it to see if it works, but I think that it should." Dominic explained.
The Prince laughed. "Well, if you can make that work, I don’t think that you’ll have a hard time getting a promotion to Journeyman. In fact, your trade skill core might just advance spontaneously."
Dominic winked at him. "The only way to know that an idea will fail is to try. The idea was originally for the rifles that I made for the Natural Sons, as there is so much more room to work in a rifle frame. But explosive mana pistols just sound so ridiculously overpowered."
"Making Gunslingers into the new Battle Mages, one pair of pistols at a time." Prince Alex joked, then motioned for Dominic to show him the designs.
"Let’s see if I can spot any obvious flaws in the design."