The Ancient Elf was just born.
We—comprised of Kuina the Celestial Fox, Elder Dwarf, Ancient Elf, and myself—were currently conducting an experiment at an open gra.s.s-covered field somewhere in Marcho’s dungeon.
The objective of which was to find a suitable weapon for Ancient Elf.
Tenko preferred close range combat so she chose the shotgun while Elder Dwarf chose the a.s.sault rifle, prioritizing providing support fire from any distance.
Elder Dwarf still hasn’t settled on any particular fighting style yet so she has to try out different kinds of weapons.
Although slightly wary of their new little sister, Kuina and Elder Dwarf managed, for the moment, to properly to talk to her.
“Kuina’s recommendation is, of course, the shotgun. The feeling of diving in range of your enemy and one-shot killing them with a boom really is something.”
Despite being slightly scared, Kuina was still able to properly play her part as the elder sister.
As expected of my [Monster of the Covenant].
“Thanks Kuina-chan but I feel like it won’t suit me. Firstly since my defense worries me. Additionally, my attacks won’t miss my targets even from far away anyway.”
It was exactly as she said. She had the strongest eye skill, the Jade Eyes, coupled with another skill, the Shooter of Magical Projectiles.
She didn’t need to deliberately put herself in danger.
“Then, I’ll recommend the a.s.sault rifle. Its clip size is great, it’s highly accurate even from far away, and it’s easy to use. It has enough firepower too, if using the 7.62mm bullets. Above all else, the feeling of stability it gives is outstanding.”
Next was Elder Dwarf’s recommendation of the a.s.sault rifle.
Just like she said, its sense of stability was outstanding. When going for safety, it was the way to go.
“I agree that it certainly is a great weapon but it’s still a little lacking. I’d like something like this but with a bit more punch. Isn’t there a weapon that you can use from far away but still as powerful as the shotgun?”
A weapon that had shotgun-cla.s.s firepower even from far away… there was only thing that came to mind.
But it wasn’t like that was something one usually carried around.
Oh well, it was a good opportunity to try it out.
“Ancient Elf, I’ll be taking out a new weapon out now. Try it out. [Creation].”
I created the weapon using my own ability.
Each Demon Lord had their own Unique Skill and mine was [Creation] which was:
<>
Thanks to it, I was able to materialize all sorts of things.
I might have lost my memory but the ones about weapons remained.
“As you can see, it’s a fairly big weapon but, well, just try it out for the meantime.”
The weapon I created was an anti-materiel rifle.
It was a really large rifle intended for super-long-distanced shooting as well as for penetrating deeply into one’s target.
It was longer, bigger, and heavier than ordinary rifles. Its recoil was more intense too.
And distinguishing itself even from among those of its kind was the Pallet ML82A1.
Pallet ML82A1
Overall length: 1450 mm
Weight: 14.0 Kg
Magazine capacity: 11 rounds
Caliber: 12.7 mm x 99
Muzzle velocity: 853 m/s
Effective range: 2,000 meters
The caliber it used was the same as the ones used for the Mithril Golems’ heavy machine guns: the .50 caliber.
It weighed, however, at one third the weight of those heavy machine guns; just barely light enough to be carried. It was a beast with nearly twice as much weight and length as that of Elder Dwarf’s favorite MK417.
It was unable to shoot fully automatically but due to its semi-automatic feature, it could still somehow do a rapid-fire shooting.
“It’s fantastic! So st.u.r.dy and impressive. May I use it?”
“Do you know how to?”
“I more or less know how to use weapons that attack from range.”
It was most probably an effect of her Shooter of Magical Projectiles skill.
There was none more capable to her when it came to long-ranged weapons.
“This feels nice. I might be able to do it with this.”
She said so as she licked her lower lip, her tongue still stuck out.
“There’s some nice pebble three kilometers away so I’ll try firing at them.”
“Will you use the gun’s legs or will you shoot standing up?”
“I’ll manage by myself.”
The anti-materiel rifle which had a length of 1450 mm originally used two legs so that it may be easily fired as one laid on the ground.
Without them, one would be hard pressed to aim due to the gun’s excessive length and weight.
Ancient Elf chose not to use the gun’s legs and instead was aiming as she stood. Despite that, however, her gun was steady.
Such wasn’t due to her physical strength alone; she was also using the wind to support herself. What a convenient ability that was.
I produced a pair of binoculars using my [Creation] and checked the target she was aiming at.
“Here I go!”
She pulled the trigger and an explosive sound was heard.
The intensity of the 12.77 mm bullet was indeed different.
The bullet then easily smashed the target 3 kilometers ahead.
At the same time the bullet was released though, I sensed wind magic power.
Indeed, the shooter of magical projectiles.
“Ancient Elf, that bullet was kinda weird, wasn’t it? It was more like it accelerated further than be impeded by the air resistance.”
“Ah, I get what you mean. I borrowed the wind’s powers. I asked it not to get in the way of that little one and instead help it a little.”
What an unfair ability.
Normally, the faster an object went, the more wind resistance it met. Furthermore, the greater the distance was, the greater the wind’s effects were.
And yet, Ancient Elf nullified those and even turned it into an advantage.
There probably wasn’t any monster more suited to long-distance shooting than she was.
It was also likely that she used the wind to help cushion the recoil. Otherwise, she would have felt pain from the intense recoil.
“You did better than expected. You’ll be using that weapon from now on, Ancient Elf.”
If she could use the difficult-to-handle Pallet ML82A1 that easily, there wouldn’t be any problems rising up any time soon, hopefully.
I needed to prepare a secondary weapon for her though, in the event that her enemy had managed to shorten the distance between.
As I was thinking of such, Elder Dwarf approached.
She spoke in a rather timid manner.
“Elf, if it would please you, I can increase that gun’s firepower for you. I can also give you bullets like the ones the Mithril Golems use for their heavy machineguns. Just by replacing its materials alone, its strength will increase. It won’t take much time either.”
“El-chan, that’s amazing! You’re so cute but you’re also so smart. For sure, please do so! If you could do that, the bullets will follow a smoother trajectory and then fly far far away.”
Was this one a certain kind of long-range shooting enthusiast?
Well no matter, Ancient Elf’s weapon had now been decided.
“Which reminds me, have you remodeled your own weapon, Elder Dwarf?”
I had been slightly wondering about it. I knew that, until recently, remodeling Kuina’s shotgun had taken up most of her time but at the moment, she should have had enough to improve her own weapon.
“It’s still on the planning stage. I’m aiming for it to have both accuracy and firepower without sacrificing its ease of use. For now though, there’s no way to make sure it won’t break after raising its power to be like their weapons.”
I see, do your best then, I thought, I’m looking forward to it.
Perhaps the results of her work would bring about a technological breakthrough.
◇
Afterwards, we spent a bit more time target shooting.
I was especially surprised by the mid-air shooting Ancient Elf did. She precisely shot her targets as she swiftly flew using wind magic. No doubt that would become a considerable tactical advantage.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it but we will be going to a human town tomorrow.”
I informed them so as we were on our way back. And the moment I did so, each of them was surprised in their own unique way.
Actually, I had already decided on doing so for some time ago.
In order to attract humans into my town, I first had to know one.
And so, I’ll go to a human town and see lots of things.