Abe the Wizard - Chapter 34

Chapter 34

With the free time that he had, Abel decided to use it for some power-up first . By “power-up,” he would like to start with his weapons . Thinking back to his encounter with the worgen, he did remember himself wanting some sort of long-range weapon in his hands . Even if he couldn’t make the right aim, he could’ve at least slowed it down .

Abel had spent a great deal of his time thinking about making projectile weapons . He did do his research on the kind of bows that were produced in this world, but his main interested lied in something a little different . He wanted to craft a 70-pound compound bow, the same one he had used during his time on Earth .

The greatest thing about compound bows was how energy-efficient they were . To put it mathematically, if you were to save up 80% of your total strength, you would only need about 14 pounds of force to hold the string while it was being pulled . Conveniently enough, all that remaining strength would be used for improving accuracy and adjusting the wielder’s postures . If you were to save up 60% of your total strength, you would need about 28 pounds of force to keep the bow in its fully-pulled state . When you do, the shot would be a lot faster and much stronger .

With the blessing of the Power of the Will on his side, Abel could recall memories with an extraordinary level of detail . That being, he had a very clear memory of what a compound bow should be like . He knew what parts were essential to make one, and he knew all the sizes of these parts .

Let’s see . Idler wheel, cam, upper and lower limb, grip, arrow rest, string slider, string stabilizer, handle, buss cable, cable, limb pocket, string silencer, and cam . Apart from the main pars, there were also parts such as an attachable arrow rest, sight, release aid, a stick for reducing vibration, a peeping hole, and a wrist rope . That’s pretty much all the parts of a complete set of a modern compound bow .

While this world was not blessed with technology, the people living in it were much stronger than the people on Earth . It wasn’t hard to figure that out . As far as Abel knew, he’s never heard of someone slicing a human and a horse in half with just one swing of a word . And remember, the Knight of Marshall was an Intermediate Knight . As insane as his achievement, there was no telling what people stronger than he could do .

If anything, Abel was already stronger than most people on Earth . At a ridiculously young age of thirteen, he was able to release a total of 400 pounds of force with just his raw strength .  During his time on Earth as a bodybuilding trainer, the tightest bow he could pull was only about 70 pounds in total .

While it was impossible to find the same raw ingredients here as one would on Earth, Abel was free to craft the bow in however ways he desired . That being said, he could use some very sturdy materials with little to no regard for the resulting weight of the bow . He was a strong kid, and everyone was pretty strong in this world .

Having made a list of the things he needed to make, Abel started drawing sketches on multiple pieces of paper . When he was done, he would label the size of these parts and think about the sort of materials he would need for them .

For the idler wheel and the power wheel, Abel thought that he would use one bearing to support both of their rotating motion . There were a couple of reasons to do this . Reducing friction . Improving the accuracy of the spin . While it was a crucial part of the bow, he would have to make the two wheels by treating them for a hundred times .

Because of how much time the upper and the lower limbs would take, Abel decided that he wasn’t going to make them himself . So how was he going to get them? Simple . He would go to the storage room and take them out of two heavy bows . There were a few 200-pound bows in the storage room . While they were the finest bows in Harry Castle, almost nobody in the castle could use them properly . For starters, one would at least have to be above being a rank four novice to pull the bow’s string . And even if one could manage to do that, he would have to use the same amount of force to aim at his target . In this sense, you would, technically, need about 300 pounds of force if you want to use the bow properly .

If Abel could get his hands on these heavy bows, he would have himself a bow limb and two extra strings . He was going to make a massive limb for his new bow, which would use up to two whole limbs of a heavy bow for its upper and lower limb .

For the stabilizers, Abel would use the same timber as the ones he could take apart from these heavy bows . For the handle and the arrow rest, he would make from bases of one hundred skills .

Abel commenced his work after he did all of his blueprints . Having taken two heavy bows out of the storage room, he found himself a bowmaker to help him make the compound bow . While he was not very confident in his bow limb, he decided to have a professional checking it for him .

The bowmaker, being a professional in his area, had a sad, “what a waste this is” look on his face when he took apart the two heavy bows . He cut the wood into the sizes that Abel had drawn on paper and glued the limbs together with some fish gel . Abel was very pleased with the resulting product .

For the stabilizers, Abel found himself a carpenter, who followed his instructions and made the parts as requested .

After every other part was done, it was now Abel’s turn to make his bearing .

While it was not known to many people, the bearing was the most important part of every machinery on Earth . A bearing would consist of three parts: the inner race, the outer race, and about several balls that would roll around the space between the inner and the outer race .

As difficult as it was to make bearings, they were mostly made in factories by mechanical beds . Abel didn’t have access to a mechanical bed, of course . He would have to rely on himself only which, even for a master blacksmith like him, was not an easy job to do .

Abel started with the balls . He made himself a Vernier scale, and after hitting small pieces of iron into little spheres, he would use it to make sure that he’s got the exact measurement that he wanted . It was a very, very exhausting process . For a single small ball, it would take him about several hours to make .

After making his first ball, Abel used some clays and water to build himself a molding model . It was kind of like the wet sand casting process, which was used to replicate pieces of metal from liquid form . By making one ball with his hands, Abel was able to make thirty copies of it with just his clay mold .

While only twelve balls were needed for one bearing, Abel decided to make some spares in case he needed them . With that mind, he got himself some iron so he could melt them for casting . He had expected this to be the most annoying process, mainly because he would have to use charcoals to slowly liquefy the metal pieces . Luckily, Master Bentham gave him this ointment for raising a fire’s heat .  With just a few drops into the flame, the metal pieces started melting in a very short time .

Abel poured the liquid iron into thirty of his clay mold . Once they had all cooled down, Abel took them and filed the edges for a bit . Once he was done, he’s got himself thirty perfect small iron balls .

Next up, Abel had to combine the inner and outer race with the iron balls . Whilst looking back to the many physic lectures and documentaries he had watched in the past, he got out some pieces of ice and stuffed them into the inner race . He took the outer race and put it inside the stove . That’s right, he was using the thermal expansion and thermal contraction to combine the three parts in order .

After he was done making his bearing, Abel made his idler wheel and power wheel and attached them all . Soon, he’s got himself the first compound bow of the history of this world .

Realizing how late it was, Abel hid away the compound bow and went back home .

The next morning, after playing with Black Wind for a while, Abel went for some testing in the shooting . He got himself fifty arrows with the intention of shooting them all in one practice .

Abel took out his first arrow, placed it on the arrow rest and pulled on his release aid . Unlike what he had imagined, the tightness of the string was unlike anything he saw before . With the combined power of two heavy bows, the compound bow would take more than 400 pounds of force to be pulled . As hard as it was for Abel to pull on the string, it was a lot easier for him to hold it after he did . That’s the beautiful thing about a compound bow . Once having pulled it apart, you wouldn’t even 100 pound of force to keep the arrow in release mode .

Abel aimed towards his target, which was about fifty meters away from where he was standing . With a light press of the trigger on his release aid, the arrow was fired away at a pace that was not visible . It shot right through the center of the target and continued to fly for thirty meters more into the back wall before it finally stopped .

Damn . This shooting range was already the longest one in the entire Harry Castle . Abel did confirm that there was no problem in the bow’s release and aim, but he didn’t have a chance to test its maximum range of fire .

Still, just look at that clean whole in front of him . For all his experience with archery, Abel has never heard of an arrow that could still fly straight after fifty meters . Anyways, one thing was for sure, though . No matter how bizarre his compound bow was, it was the most technologically advanced in this world .