Chapter 388: Chapter 387: Armor-Shattering Bomb, Broken Glass, Safe and Sound

Magic Test Field.

Richard stood still, looking at the numerous humanoid metal targets set up in the field.

His eyes flickered slightly as he raised his hand, his lips moving silently, quietly uttering a spell.

After a while, Richard’s hand shook, and a small portion of Magic Salt grains flew out, quickly heading towards one of the smallest humanoid metal targets, followed by a Magic Salvo, consisting of nearly ten “Single Ring Explosion” sparks.

“Whoosh!”

The speed of the Magic Salvo was slightly faster than that of the Magic Salt grains, catching up to the Magic Salt just before hitting the metal target and causing an explosion, releasing the power of both the Magic Salt and the Magic Salvo simultaneously.

“Boom!”

A roaring sound ensued, and the entire humanoid metal target was blown apart.

Richard observed the outcome with an unchanged expression, for a simple humanoid target was no indicator of anything significant; the test must continue.

Richard turned his head to look at another larger target adjacent to the first, repeating the process, unleashing Magic Salt and a Magic Salvo to attack it.

“Boom!”

Without a doubt, the second metal target was also obliterated to nothingness.

Then came the third, the fourth, the fifth humanoid metal targets…

Each target was larger and sturdier than the last, but none could escape destruction in the onslaught…

Eventually, Richard turned his attention to a target in the Magic Testing Field, a small mountain-like structure in the distance.

This target wasn’t humanoid but a rectangular block, a thick iron wall cast directly onto the ground. Not to mention First Circle Magic, even Second Circle Magic might not be able to destroy it.

Richard had spent a considerable sum to construct this iron wall target not to destroy it but to see to what extent it could be damaged.

So, to what extent could it be damaged?

Richard raised his hand, and a large amount of the sparkling Magic Salt flew out first, quickly adhering to the surface of the iron wall, followed by the release of dozens of sparks forming a Magic Salvo.

“Whoosh!”

The Magic Salvo tore through the air at high speed, hitting the Magic Salt and triggering a massive explosion instantly.

With a “boom,” the ground itself shuddered violently, a powerful blast swept up, and shockwaves spread, sweeping through everything in their path like a wild gust of wind.

The shockwave passed over Richard’s body, pressing his clothes tightly against his skin, and after a moment, his clothes returned to normal.

Richard faintly heard what sounded like the shattering of glass behind him, “crash,” but he thought nothing of it, raising an eyebrow as he stepped towards the target to inspect the details.

Approaching the target, feeling the scorching hot air, Richard squinted his eyes and looked towards the center of the iron wall.

As anticipated, despite the iron wall suffering extremely severe damage, it wasn’t blasted through. This meant the attack’s strength was comparable to Second Circle Magic — a very ordinary level of Second Circle Magic.

Is that really the case?

“Tap tap tap…”

Richard walked around to the back of the iron wall.

There, he saw that although the explosion hadn’t penetrated through the iron wall, it caused terrifying damage to the rear, with chunks of iron peeling off and flying out.

Several human-sized metal targets stood behind the iron wall, severely twisted after being hit by the flying iron fragments, like monsters spasming in death.

This was the true power of the spell just now–it might not have been able to completely penetrate the defense of the iron wall, but it could attack the targets behind it.

The reason for this was that it applied a principle similar to the armor-shattering bombs used on modern Earth.

Armor-shattering bombs were special ammunition invented during World War I and later widely used to combat sturdy warships, main battle tanks with homogeneous armor, or permanent steel-reinforced concrete fortifications.

Armor-shattering bombs didn’t rely on pure impact and explosion to cause destruction; their shells were thin and filled with a large amount of plastic explosives. Once an armor-shattering bomb hit the target, the thin shell would shatter rapidly under the tremendous impact, releasing the plastic explosives, which clung to the target surface like a plaster.

Then, the delay fuse would activate, detonating all of the plastic explosives, creating a shockwave with an atmospheric pressure tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times greater in an instant. This shockwave acted on the target’s surface, transmitting a huge destructive force inward, generating a compressive stress wave.

When the stress wave reached the target’s free surface (the back of the target), a corresponding reflective tensile stress wave was created. The reflective tensile wave propagated backward at the same velocity, colliding with the stress wave and interfering with each other, leading to stress superposition.

Once the stress near the free surface (the back of the target) exceeded the fracture strength limit of the target material, the free surface would “crack” open, releasing fragments and inflicting damage.

In some sense, this was like a “strike across the mountains.”

Considering this characteristic of armor-shattering bombs, Richard had used magic salt as the plastic explosive in his attack just now, creating a stronger shockwave and a more formidable power.

One could easily imagine if, during a battle, a wizard-level enemy put up a hard shield they thought impenetrable and faced this method of attack. The person would fall before the shield broke–completely unguarded and dying with eyes wide open.

Of course, if the opponent had a soft, elastic shield, this method would be much less effective. However, generally speaking, the defensive power of soft, elastic shields was weaker than hard shields, and they could be dealt with using just magic salt and magic salvos without relying on the principle of armor-shattering bombs.

Thinking of these things, Richard continued his testing.

He protected himself with an air shield to prevent injury from fragments and kept bombarding the remaining parts of the iron wall, mastering the attack methods of magic salt.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom…”

The roar came in waves, and the shockwaves swept through the magic test field one after another, spreading in all directions, with the faint sound of “whoosh-crash” of breaking glass echoing intermittently.

…

After a good while.

Richard had finished testing and gained a detailed understanding of various properties, data, and applications of magic salt. He stepped out of the magic testing field and returned to the main laboratory, ready to record everything he had learned.

But as soon as he pushed open the door and walked in, he felt something off underfoot.

Hmm?

With a quick glance down, Richard saw… shattered glass all over the floor.

Shattered glass?

“Umm…”

Richard suddenly realized what the vague sounds of breaking glass were about during his test of magic salt.

Clearly, the continuous explosions over an extended period had caused vibrations, air waves, and sound waves, leading some unsecured glass containers in the laboratory to fall and break. There were also some glass containers of substandard quality that might have spontaneously shattered on any given day; stimulated by the shocks, they naturally broke as well.

Richard quickly surveyed the lab and found the situation within an acceptable range: the broken items were some not very important glass containers, and he could restock from Alex in a few days.

However…

Richard raised an eyebrow and looked at Pandora standing in a corner.

With that look of joy on her face, what was she planning to do?