Chapter 384: Magic Gunners (Part 1)

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

“Two under that tree.”

I casually reported the location of two assassins, and moments later the Clint armor’s machine guns lit up with flames—well, if one determined the difference between “gun” and “cannon” by caliber and power, then more accurately they could be called machine cannons.

Golden painted bullets shot out at a furious pace, while bright red flames were spat out by the cannons. Each bullet exploded on contact, which was followed by booms and pitiful screams.

The cannons soon started overheating and were forced to stop firing, but the Clint armor immediately produced a large amount of steam to cool them down. The tall tree, which had been the target, was reduced to a tree stump and shredded wood.

As for the two unlucky individuals hiding in the tree, they were now nothing more than hornet nests. Perhaps it would technically be possible to put them back together again if one tried hard enough.

“Two underground.”

This time, I casually stomped, turning the brick-laid ground harder than a frozen tundra. No matter how they got there, I could only hope that they could find a way out before they died of asphyxiation.

Noticing we had detected the assassins, someone made a sharp sound and a throng of black-clad individuals jumped out from rooftops, corners, trash bins, sewers and all sorts of abnormal locations. Just as I was about to pull out my sword, I saw that the Clint armor was flashing with bright lights and emitting smoke from its joints. I wisely decided to take a step back.

“Bullet storm!”

The Clint mecha’s knees, chest, and shoulders opened up, giving rise to countless tiny holes. Numerous flames shot out with beautiful fireworks and deadly explosions. Individual after individual was sent flying, like meteors in the night sky; in fact, the entire night sky was illuminated. Together with this were the wails, screams and howls of pain.

Glina could appear in public as herself now, so no longer did the Clint armor have to be disguised as an ordinary male human. Glina had modified her favorite ride—perhaps it would be better to say that she deemed all parts not related to combat as unnecessary and removed them.

Perhaps she heard something ridiculous from someone, such as “cannons are justice.” Or perhaps she simply loved explosions. The result was that her new Clint armor had hundreds of cannons installed… fine then, apart from the most basic function to walk, this Clint armor was basically a moving artillery. The critical difference between this Clint armor and its former version was that this new Clint mecha was a product of magical engineering.

A breakthrough in a single critical technology would improve the entire industry, and this was typically true no matter the world.

In this world, firearms were improved or modified versions of dwarven rifles. No matter how much one improved the parts, the foundational workings were still that of dwarven firearms. The ammunition would be created out of mined metals, a small explosion would be created in the gun’s chamber and the force of the explosion would be used to shoot out a small metal bullet which would be used to kill or injure an enemy.

The scientific principles for how dwarven firearms worked was similar to how early flintlocks worked on Earth. Thanks to improvements in metallurgy—and hence working with magical metals—along with how alchemy constantly refined and improved explosions, a high-grade dwarven rifle was already quite powerful. It would be capable of threatening even a Silver-ranked warrior. However, dwarven rifles lacked effectiveness against the more powerful individuals, forever making that its greatest weakness.

Of course, the average intelligence in this world wasn’t any lower than my original world. To improve dwarven firearms’ power, however, technology was insufficient, so instead the basic method of increasing the size of the dwarven firearms was chosen.

And so the enlarged versions became dwarven cannons, siege cannons, goblin cannons, titan cannons, and so on. They were all quite dangerous. If one dwarven rifle’s power was insufficient to kill you, a goblin cannon, which was the amalgamation of one hundred dwarven rifles’ power, would definitely be sufficient.

However, the overly large size of such weapons made them inconvenient to use. They were difficult to transport, meaning they could only be used to siege cities, defend cities, or as fixed artillery on ships. Their slow movement meant a low accuracy against moving targets, which was another big weakness. Not only that, dwarves and gnomes typically had unreliable products, making these cannons weapons used to defend cities only in the end. Even among the weapons used to defend cities, there were also heavy ballistae, ancient artifacts and mage towers, so cannons didn’t at all stand out from the crowd.

In this era of metal weapons where flying troops and elite powerful individuals existed on the battlefield, cannons had been invented long ago but remained as a large-scale weapon which could only slay ordinary soldiers in “low-level battles.” In fact, numerous military experts treated cannons as meaningless because elite squadrons and top-level individuals could already easily suppress ordinary soldiers. Killing ordinary soldiers with cannons wouldn’t help anyone obtain concrete results in battle.

Once Olivia’s Magic Box was invented, the magic sword wielding Four Elemental Swordcasters were introduced to the world. In truth, however, another new job class had been born together with them, but it didn’t receive much attention: the Magic Gunners, who wielded magical guns.

Their magical guns were actually creations in the same vein as Olivia’s magic swords. This meant their guns were foundationally different from dwarven rifles—their magic guns and bullets were the products of magical engineering! They could be strengthened with both magic and engineering technology from this world.

The attack power was insufficient? Why don’t you try my flame bullets, which also contain self-destructive properties that’ll shoot out even more cluster bullets?

Speed not fast enough? Wind element enchanted magic bullets could fly faster than birds and were auto-enchanted with haste spells. And if you still felt like those weren’t swift enough, there were also thunder element magic bullets. It was just that you would have to make anti-thunder precautions before using them.

The target had super defense? Have a taste of my earth element armor-piercing bullets. These bullets were as hard as diamonds, you know.

You needed to restrict the target’s actions and use support abilities? Take a look at my water mist magic bullets. I also had ice bullets capable of freezing the ground and spiderweb bullets capable of shooting sticky strands to restrain an opponent.

All the job classes created by Olivia’s Magic Box relied on outside items. While the Swordcasters focused on researching sword seals and magic swords, the Magic Gunners focused on their magic guns and magic bullets.

Gun barrels enchanted with the wind element increased the bullets’ speed. Gun muzzles were enchanted to improve the bullets’ armor-piercing properties. Gun scopes were enchanted with eagle eye magic for super accurate aiming. All sorts of extra parts were invented. While this greatly increased the mana usage of the magic guns, these gun parts also greatly improved the Magic Gunners’ strength.

These basic equipment modifications were only the beginning. Together with the weapons’ improvement all sorts of new combat techniques were invented. Magic Gunners who were experts in the wind element not only became mega long-range sniping experts but could also control their magic bullets to dance freely in the air like a living snake. Meanwhile, top-level fire element expert Magic Gunners would focus entirely on the attack power of their bullets. Yep, Glina was a classic example of this.

Last year, when Reyne was still hesitatingly trying out the Four Elemental Swordcaster job class, the young queen in Antuen too came into contact with Olivia’s Magic Box for the first time. And Glina instantly joined the Magic Gunner job class without a moment’s hesitation.

Unlike Reyne who often slacked off, Glina was a mega first-rate genius engineer who had succeeded in inventing the Clint armor and was skilled at creating explosives, all while in the Underground. When Glina came into contact with this technology which would pioneer a new generation, her sharp senses told her to not hesitate one bit and embrace it full-heartedly.

Unlike Timlad, who forever focused on theories first and foremost when inventing, Glina focused from the very start on whatever could be used in practical combat. She was most skilled in inventing all sorts of “practical” weapons, such as this “machine cannon” of hers.

If her machine cannon worked only on the scientific principles of typical firearms, reloading would be required after one explosion, and multiple explosions would be no different from suicide. However, wind and fire magic were used together to power this weapon. As long as the mechanism’s parts’ quality was high enough, continuous firing would be easy to accomplish. Not only that, magic could be used to strengthen the cannon and increase the final power of the explosions.

Yet this was only the beginning.

The true identity of the Clint armor was Glina’s personalized version of an “Olivia Magic Gun.” The bullets she shot out were filled with fire magic. As Glina had been born with a Demon Bloodline which possessed a natural affinity for fire, Glina herself had an abundance of fire magic mana.

Just like how the few who did have magic talent typically ended up being more successful as Four Elemental Swordcasters, Glina, who originally possessed magic talent, displayed the best possible situation for the future development of Magic Gunners. In fact, she was perhaps the one who had walked farthest down the Magic Gunner path.

*Boom!*

After tossing out an explosive shell, an entire house was transformed into rubble while tiny stone shards flew everywhere. Tiny mushroom clouds could also be seen raising into the sky in all directions.

This “Stimulation Bullet” wasn’t special because of the cannon itself—the bullet was the special part. An Olivia’s Magic Box would be installed with a sufficient amount of explosive magic spell arrays and flammable objects. Once all the magic stored within it was activated, the magic would become a catalyst for a self-destruction. Foundationally, this power would be no different to a low-ranked mage using up all their magic for a suicide explosion.

And so numerous mushroom clouds continued to rise up into the air. As the howls continued and the ground shook, the entire street was transformed into rubble.

Of course, using Olivia’s Magic Boxes like this meant they would be damaged beyond repair. When taking into consideration how expensive they were to create, the only person in the Northlands who would dare to fight like this—well, the only person who was rich enough to use such expensive ammunition—was only Glina, who was a queen.

People said that the new job classes of Magic Gunners and Four Elemental Swordcasters were useless? They simply hadn’t met someone who was rich enough to become a pay-to-win player.

“I’m rich so I can do whatever I want! I’ll kill you with money!” This was probably the true reason why Glina had been able to become the strongest Magic Gunner of all, as this job class was one where research proved expensive.

In this field of magic engineering, the advantage of being rich was evident. Just one “Fire Element Stimulation Bullet” would have astonishing power. Even a Gold-ranked warrior would either meet instant death or become seriously injured. The Clint armor, which could continuously attack at such power, was already the equivalent of a Legend rank in strength.

I didn’t even need to act. I simply watched Glina single-handedly defeat all our enemies.

The skies were filled with her cannon fire. Anywhere she suspected of concealing assassins would be treated to a cannon shot, which would end up with the person and the cover being blown away together.

“Damn it! It overheated again.”

But the next instant Glina jumped out of her armor, the armor she was most comfortable in. Judging from the black smoke being emitted from the cockpit, this new Clint armor evidently was still unable to perform a “Bullet storm” attack involving every cannon firing simultaneously. The mana circuits would eventually overheat and burn out the magical metal alloys that were truthfully quite old inventions. This Clint armor still needed improvements.

I shook my head at this. The job class of Magic Gunner still needed improving. The Clint armor’s overly powerful attacks indeed increased its combat strength, but it also made it lose reliability and the ability to fight for long periods of time. Also, the fact that it wasted so much money for a fight also needed improving.

“Huh?”

While Glina was busy cooling down her mecha armor, I unsheathed my sword.

Although all the assassins that could be seen had already exploded to death, my instinct informed me that danger still lurked in the shadows. The assassins who were truly the most powerful hadn’t yet come out.

“Who could they be? Assassinating me at this time isn’t a good idea. If I am killed off, war between the Mage Country and Bardi Empire will be unavoidable because I’m currently an ambassador. In that case, who would these assassins be? Mills’s remaining supporters who can’t stand the fact that who they supported ended up dead? A prince who wants to take revenge for his brother and earn some reputation by slaying me? Some dragon who’s dissatisfied with me? Emperor Orloss who’s gotten furious at me? Although I indeed acted quite ridiculously and even threatened him with activating an Undead Calamity if I died, I feel like this threat should be effective against the Bardi royalty. Emperor Orloss should be restraining all the factions under him. In that case, there’s only one choice—the faction not under Emperor Orloss’s control… the undead!”

Black knights, death knights, high-level lesser liches, liches, skeleton generals, undead nagas, high-level ghouls, and all sorts of high-level undead walked out from the shadows.

That’s right. What appeared before me was a full undead military squadron: Aso’s final remaining military squadron.

Aso’s death made it so that everyone in the Bardi capital changed their attitude towards the undead—it changed from respect to one where everyone hunted the undead down. Still, the high-level undead had been living here for several decades, and Aso and his direct subordinates could be described as incredibly sly. How could they possibly be foundationally eliminated so easily? Their remnants hid in the shadows and were waiting for a chance to viciously strike at the living.

In this critical time, if I was killed, the Bardi Empire and Mage Country’s relationship would take a turn for the worst. War would be the likely result. The third party, the Tark Republic, naturally had the most to gain.

There weren’t that many undead—less than twenty. However, their average strength was very high.

I took a glance and saw that the weakest undead was already at the Gold rank. There were even several Legend and Saint ranks. In fact, there were even three Myth-ranked Undead Lords…

“Oh my, is this a case of where the real culprit is only revealed at the end?”

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