Dominic considered how he could accelerate the manufacturing process. If he didn’t do a wooden gun butt, and used a metallic shell with a leather back pad, it would save him at least fifteen minutes per rifle.
That was a good start.
They also had premade rifle barrels, forged and machine milled with standardized rifling and an octagonal exterior. If he cast the receiver, and used the provided pressure canisters, he could save another fifteen minutes.
At that point, he would be rushing through the whole thing in an hour, with no sense of finesse. Just enough time to check tolerances and file things roughly flat, the way he had for the first batch.
They were not works of art, but they had been produced on a very limited timeline. Of course, so were these ones, as the attack had most likely already started. The faster they sent rifles to the training grounds and front lines, the more lives they could save.
Dominic got to work heating metal and bending tubing for the pressure release and charging mechanisms.
He took a bit more time than usual with the trim pieces, and at least brought the exteriors to a smooth surface before stamping a dragon in flight on both sides of the metal butt shell to hide the imperfections.
Making them in all metal left Dominic with a bit more surface to alter, so for the first rifle, he added a checkered pattern to the guard under the barrel, making it easier to grip when wet.
They even had sights premade for the rifles, a standard front post and sliding rear sight style. Much prettier than the notched plate version that the original design had called for, and adjustable for distance.
It almost felt like he was in a factory, slapping together pieces of a product, and not a smithy. Sure, he needed to make the base frame, and add all the magitech circuitry, but they had parts of that premade as well.
The cast frame and receiver combinations were ready after three hours, but by then, he had the rest of the ten rifles assembled. With so many premade parts, Dominic just had to pick the ones he needed.
However, he could hear the other Gunsmiths laughing at him as he worked.
They were using one or two stock parts for their rifles, mostly barrels. The rest of the parts were custom-made as they went.
Dominic happily milled the receivers and ground everything perfect before he started on the loading mechanism, which was specific to the Ogre Hunting Rifle.
That took nearly as long as the rest of the rifle had. But when the sound of maids coming their way signalled lunch, he had all ten of them assembled and heated, ready for an oil bath enchantment.
He had used one of the cores they provided, a level 10 Mana Core of indeterminate origin. Ground into his oil and loaded with mana, the first rifle went in, and then came back out sleek black as the magic activated.
{Ogre Hunting Rifle} Level 10, Uncommon Quality
Then another went into the oil bath after a half minute for him to recharge the mana.
{Ogre Hunting Rifle} Level 10, Uncommon Quality
Over and over, Dominic charged the oil and dunked the rifles, then hung them to let any remaining oil drip out of their workings before he mounted the leather butt pads.
The old armourer walked to Dominic’s station and stared at the rifles with admiration.
"Ten rifles by lunch, all Uncommon. No failures, no flawed successes. Not bad for an apprentice." He grumbled, but Dominic could tell that it was more of a jab at the other smiths than praise for him.
The Journeyman beside Dominic stared at the rifles. "But where is the sense of class? The pride in creation that a Magitech weapon should have? No matter how I look at them, they’re nothing more than Uncommon Rifles for Common Soldiers."
Dominic nodded in agreement.
"Did we need to make them pretty? I can make two Rare rifles this afternoon up to a much fancier standard, with some of the rare materials, if that’s what we need." He asked the old Armourer.
The grumpy old man chuckled.
"Let the others make those. At this rate, you’ll be arming a unit a day, while they arm the Commanders."
Then the old man walked to the lunch cart, ignoring the outrage.
But that was nothing compared to the outrage when General Merlot came in to collect Dominic’s creations and hung a chalkboard on the wall with the total weapon count on the wall.
10 Uncommon for Dominic, 1 Uncommon rifle each for three of the twenty other Gunsmiths.
It was so insanely lopsided that the rest of the group, who had been hoping to impress with Rare Rifles, keenly felt the bite. If their creation failed to meet the standard, they would be struggling to make two Uncommon, or an Uncommon and a Rare, on the first day.
Dominic got another batch of receivers and frames cooling in the sand casting table, then went to get lunch.
Slowly, the others came over, and the snobbish Journeyman decided it was a good chance to taunt Dominic again.
"Don’t you have any pride in your work?" He asked.
"Of course I do. I even stamped my signature dragon on the gun butts. When the soldiers put their hands on it, they’ll know it’s one of mine at a glance. I double braze all my joints, and I extended the braces, so even the roughest of treatment won’t damage the pressure tubing.
Those rifles should be reliable through an entire war, and then some. In the woods, the hunters wrap their magitech rifles with cloth so that the metal doesn’t reflect the light and spook the animals.
When you’re actually using a weapon, nobody cares what it looks like. Pretty is for formations and formal events."
The other Gunsmiths listened to Dominic’s response with great amusement. The new Apprentice was putting the Journeyman in his place, and he had already shown that he had the skills to back up his boasting.
"What do you even know about how things are in battle, apprentice?" The Journeyman sneered, trying to salvage his argument.
Dominic gestured to the Royal Guard at the door. "No need to take my word for it. All of the Royal Guards were gathered when we got our rewards."
The guard smiled. "Six hundred and eight confirmed kills for the Royal Sorcerer. I daresay that he has more military merits than every other craftsman in the room combined, excluding the Master Smith. He was even given an official title for his military accomplishments."
That shut the Journeyman