Chapter 144: 144

“Is this all that you need?”

“Waa……”

[You have acquired 1 Ordinary Needle Gun Pistol.]

Its total length was 40 cm. The angular and dull musket’s butt was trimmed and turned into a handle that could be held in one hand.

Naturally, its barrel was incomparably shorter than a musket.

In other words, its size could be put inside a bag or worn around the waist and covered with clothes.

‘This is amazing……. It’s worth it to spend 2 gold and 10 silver.’

It was not a cross-section that was roughly cut by Matsushige. The Blacksmith Zeke’s skills matched his reputation.

“I changed the grip as you ordered, and I added a little weight to keep the balance. Well, if you want it to fit your hands better, you would need to take it to the woodworker. It would have been better to file it more, but I’m not good with the specific details.” 

“No, this is enough! As expected of Zeke!”

“Cough, well, I’m glad that it’s worth the money.”

Zeke shrugged his shoulders and wiped under his nose.

Leeha eagerly complimented the NPC, because there was something else he wanted to ask.

“By the way, Zeke-nim.”

“Hmm?”

“By any chance with the barrel…”

It was possible to make a pistol. To be precise, it was not to make, but transform an existing musket into a pistol by modifying it.

If that was the case, are other variations possible?

You wouldn’t change it into a pistol, but would it be possible to strengthen the musket itself?

Leeha had always been curious about that.

“Can you make a groove at regular intervals? In a spiral.”

“You want to dig a groove in the barrel? I-in this narrow hole?”

If one could make a pistol, why couldn’t one make a rifle? The current musket is a gliding type. In other words, it fires a sphere-shaped bullet inside the barrel without a steel-wire.

However, what if one could dig spiral grooves at regular intervals inside the barrel?

‘It would have a fair amount of distance, and the accuracy would be overwhelmingly higher. Perhaps, it is necessary to change the shape of the bullet, but it is important to be able to put the steel-wire first.’

In an era when smooth-bore muskets were getting replaced by the steel-wire rifles, the steel-wire muskets existed for a while!

‘It’s not as strong as a modern rifle, but it’s incomparably stronger than a smoothbore musket!’

Zeke took the needle gun again, held it, and looked inside. It had a wider hem than a modern gun, but it was still too narrow. But digging a spiral groove at regular intervals into it….

“Cough, it’s going to be pretty tough.”

“Can’t you do it?”

“It’s possible to dig in it appropriately. But that is not what you want. If there’s a difference in the gap while entering the interior-.”

“Oh! Then it’s not possible!”

In that case, bullets won’t fly out straight. The spiral grooves had to be dug all the way up to the end while maintaining a certain interval.

In a way, steel-wire required more delicate and precise work than jewelry crafting.

The reason why steel-wire technology had not yet developed even when the method of handling gunpowder was so advanced was because the spiral grooves required higher technology than expected.

“That’s what I meant. I guess it’s possible with this small one, but it would be hard to work on a long musket.”

He didn’t know if there was an electric drill, so it was impossible to make it perfectly. Even in modern times, in the first place, a frame with the steel-wire was made and manufactured using a press.

Although it was said that Zeke was a skilled blacksmith, he was a craftsman who made spears and armors, but it was difficult for him to make a delicate steel-wire work.

“Isn’t there any way?”

Leeha looked at Zeke with his most pitiful expression. Zeke scratched the back of his head and shook his head.

“It might be possible for dwarves.”

“Dwarves!”

In addition to the five races that the user can select, there were several races in Middle Earth. The most famous ones were dwarves and dark elves.

They were not monsters, but rather NPC races who lived in a certain society and were closely related to specific quests.

It was also a race that Leeha, who only wandered in the Fibiel Kingdom, had never met before.

“I-I don’t exactly know what you meant. But dwarves are a race that makes magic weapons. We humans, no, to be precise, their skills are far superior to mine. I’m guessing that they should not have any problem digging grooves like that.”

“That would be enough! Thank you!”

“I’m glad it was helpful. See you next time!”

Leeha waved his hand toward Zeke and headed out of the capital.

‘The place where dwarves are located had already been revealed. Adamantine Mountains!’

However, it was different from the Sentinel Mountains, which are located at the center of the continent. A mountain range stretching from north to south from the western end of the continent.

‘In other words, it’s outside of Fibiel’s borders… I must go through the Minis Kingdom or  the Shazrasian Federation.’

Leeha’s steps were quick.

Dwarves and steel-wire musket. Those two keywords kept running through his head.

He couldn’t go without any preparation or weapons.

The reason why Leeha went out of the capital was not to meet the Dwarves. His purpose was to test the pistol.

“The weight is just right. It has good balance.”

It was indeed made by the blacksmith Zeke! Leeha carefully filled the Needle Gun with gunpowder and started reloading.

‘Because the barrel is short, it’s easy to load. It takes very little time to shake off the gunpowder and load the ammunition.’

It was his first pistol reload, but it only took 10 seconds.

Wouldn’t it be faster if he got familiar with it? Leeha raised the pistol with a pounding heart. One hand was enough to control it.

‘There is no gauge because I cut the barrel. I have no choice but to properly aim.’

It would be hard to aim for the time being.

What Leeha aimed for was the leaves 50m’s away. After holding his breath, he pulled the trigger.

Bang-!

“Oh!”

It had been a long time since he shot with one hand. He was taken aback by the strange sensation which he had not felt in a long time, but he soon came back to his senses.

‘This should be enough as the effective range of modern pistols is 50m. In terms of maximum range, it could go further than that.’

Leeha approached the leaf he was aiming for. There was no bullet hole in the leaf, branch, or trunk.

“Huh? ”

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It didn’t go in the direction he pointed at all?

‘The range is proportional to the length of the barrel but… Compared to a musket, it was shortened by 1/5, so it was expected that its range would be reduced.’

But he couldn’t hit at 50m? Leeha tilted his head and went back to reload.

This time, he shot 5m closer!

“This too?”

He approached 5m again.

Click, Bang-!

“Hey-.”

He didn’t hit at 40m either. He tried to increase the accuracy by holding it with both hands, but it didn’t work.

If it was 40m, it was the shooting range of the musket when the combat assistance system was turned on.

Even if he turned the combat assistance system on, it didn’t seem possible to hit the target at 40m distance using a pistol.

Leeha barely suppressed his frustration and reloaded, and approached another 5m.

He pulled the trigger at 35, but it failed.

He approached another 5m again. He pulled the trigger at 30m.

‘Please!!!’

Bang-! After the gunshot rang, Leeha

looked at the undamaged tree and poured out all kinds of curses.

“What is this! What trick did Zeke do? Why can’t I hit?”

He was not able to hit it at 30m? What’s the point of getting closer! It was just a hammer that made a loud noise!

‘Damn it! Damn it!’

Leeha finished reloading and approached again. It was now only 25m.

It was a distance that could be narrowed down in an instant when a melee user used an instantaneous acceleration skill.

If it doesn’t hit again this time, the purpose of the gun would disappear.

Leeha stood with his body turned to the side, and the moment he raised his hand the sound of flintlock getting shot rang again, bang-! Finally, the leaf fell.

‘The effective range is 25m.

The joy of finding the pistol was momentary, and Leeha did not know whether he should laugh or cry?

He felt like he had made the discovery of the century, only to suddenly feel like nothing was going right.

Leeha fiddled with the Needle Gun with a gloomy expression. After reloading and firing a few more shots, he suddenly realized.

Why was he disappointed?

‘You idiot! This gun is not your primary weapon! After all, a pistol is a secondary weapon, right? Right! There’s no need to shoot from 100m with this!’

His thoughts were locked because he could only use this one item.

From now on, he had to travel through Middle Earth with only a 25m range.

‘Idiot! Stupid! That’s absurd! If I could hit a target at 100m with this, then I would be able to hit 200m with a musket! With a new musket!’

And what was the weakness of using a musket? Even Rising Sun’s Tikal knew.

Close combat!

The musket’s length was too long, which needed both arms to aim, making it difficult to deal with approaching enemies.

It was difficult to aim as well as reload.

‘But if it’s a pistol”…

When enemies approached, he could put away his musket and pull out his pistol.

It could be wielded with one hand and its muzzle could be easily aimed at an enemy.

‘In other words, the weakness in close combat would be gone.’

Leeha looked at the needle gun in his right hand. The pistol was one-handed. When the enemy approached, would he only use one hand?

He could use both. What if he wore the pistols around his waist? Right, it would be hard to aim because it has no gauge. In that case, he could put the grapeshot in it.’

Grapeshot bullets pouring out like thunder from two pistols. Even if he roughly estimated, 40 bullets would pour out in one shot. In other words, it’s like building a fire net.

‘If I build a fire net. I wouldn’t be able to aim, but the amount of gunpowder would stay the same, and its destructive power at a short distance would not fall short behind the musket!’

Will it work on a heavy-armored warrior? Those warriors won’t be able to survive if they are shot in an exposed area or in the head.

People who think that a musket’s weakness is close combat would approach carelessly

“I can send them straight to hell.”

Leeha got goosebumps while imagining his own battle scenes. If he had known about this earlier, his fight with Rising Sun might have changed a bit.

When he first caught the Roadrunner, he wouldn’t have been attacked so easily by Jaco and Tikal.

Also, he would have immediately known how Kidd cleared Browless’s test.

He would have used the same method Leeha thought of.

To build a fire network by loading several pistols with multiple rounds.

‘Two would not be enough but four will. If he made four pistols and loaded them with grapeshot bullets!’

Reloading took time.

However, if one had preloaded the pistols, it was possible. If you fire 80 grapeshot bullets at random towards the 13 falling leaves in 3 to 4 seconds, although there would be some errors, the fire net would cover those errors, and the leaves would turn into honeycomb in an instant.

As soon as he got it…

Genius? Or someone knowledgeable about guns? The idea of remodeling an item itself was not common.

“No, wait.”

Leeha suddenly wondered how Kidd would fight.

Right, he understood carrying a pistol. But he had no musket, right?

Leeha had a mid to long-range musket and short-range pistol to switch out, but what about Kidd? He had no musket!

“Could he fight with a pistol that has an effective range of only 25m? Is he really a musketeer?”

Can you call him a musketeer? What kind of battle does he do?

“Leeha-ssi!!!!”

“Huh?”

As Leeha imagined how Kidd battled, he heard a voice calling out from the gate of the capital, Aelstock.

The voice was familiar.

“Shin Nara-nim?!”

A woman in shining silver armor. Shin Nara ran toward Leeha.

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