Chapter 25: The Body Armor and The Shotgun

The next day. When I visited the Guild about the issue to exterminate the bandits, I saw a receptionist signaling. The receptionist was a girl today. Cute.

「Here is my Guild card. 」

「I see, so you are Kaede-san. A request has come along with the reward for the quest.」

After I showed my Guild card, she gave me 3 gold coins and directed me toward a quest board and a package. On the visible side of the quest board, it said, “For confidentiality, make sure that there are no people around you before opening the package.” These people really insisted on carrying on with such a secret. I wondered if it was okay.

「Thank you. 」

I put the package in the item box, thanked the receptionist and left the Guild. Shall I open the package at the inn?

When I opened the package inside the room, the contents of the request were the following.

—

RANK: E

Request details: Subjugation of Bandits

Reward: 50,000 Tael will be divided among the number of participants, and an additional reward of 500 Tael will be given per subjugation

Quantity: All bandits

Remarks: Meet at the Guild one hour after the bell rings on the morning of the 15^th. You must show the request form at the reception. The participants will decide the strategy on the spot.

—

The 15th was tomorrow.

I was wondering if the three gold coins were only information charges, so I looked at the Guild card, but the history of the bandits’ subjugation request was not written on the card.

Did the Guild use a concealment technique?

I wondered if the reward was already paid despite only receiving the information. The fact that a subjugation team has been formed could mean that it had been already confirmed.

It was just a guess.

I had to wait a long time until tomorrow…or rather wait a whole day… so I went to the workshop to see if my weapons were done. However, they said that it would take about two more days to remove the magical power.

I decided to check the fuel shop next.

「Hello, how about the coke? 」

「Is the coke the proper coal that can be used for refining metal? I tried to make it as you told me to, but in the end, the coal was just full of holes.」

Ah. Full of holes meant that it was probably complete.

「I see. So the coke is full of holes. I think it shall burn at a higher temperature than charcoal when lit.」

「Oh… Can I burn it now? 」

「Of course, you can. 」

The people at the fuel shop scraped off the coke and started to make a fire.

I had nothing to do, so when I looked around, I saw something like a coke making device. It even came with something like a device that used gas. A high degree of perfection. Did a dwarf make it?

It looked like it was ready. I thought it was extremely fast, but there was something magical about this world.

「Hmm…It is true that the firepower is quite high for this amount, which may turn to be a wonderful fuel. But it’s still not enough to be use for refining metal.」

It seemed to be done…The problem was the amount.

「I think that depends on the amount. The problem is profitability…」

「It’s a good fuel for heating, but it is tough as it is now. Maybe, you can sell it to blacksmiths by taking advantage of its high firepower, but the cost is too high for refining metal, so it is better to use charcoal. If the whole coal can be made into coke for refining, it will be somewhat similar to charcoal, but since coal is now retailed for household fuel, it will be much cheaper if purchased directly from coal miners.」

「I think you should reduce the thickness of the place where the coal is. The part where the thin coal is put and the place where the flames burn to heat up are alternately overlapped.」

「That makes sense. I’ll try it out, but I will make just one for the time being, and if it seems possible, I’ll go further with the experiment.」

「Yes, do it please. How much money do you have left? 」

「I have not used the gold coin yet. There’s no problem for now.」

「Is that so? Please let me know if you need more. 」

「I’ll do that, though it should be okay for the time being. 」

I left the fuel shop. If he does it as I explained, it might not be difficult to put it to practical use.

I did not have a place to go, so I decided to go on an adventure after having lunch. Today I decided to kill the Red Wolf.

When I killed about 30 animals until the evening, my level went up by one point. However, the level of swordsmanship and magic did not rise.

Speaking of which, I was strengthening my magic power towards speeding up my magic with the help of the wand, but the magic itself was not particularly strengthened.

It had no problem until now, even when considering MP consumption. Still, it seemed unlikely that I could create magic that was simply efficient and strong at this rate.

Tomorrow was the subjugation of bandits, so I decided to prepare only interpersonal magic and try the rest for the day after tomorrow.

Some skills were suitable for interpersonal use, but they were definitely inefficient in this world. However, I still wanted to try something different.

So what was the magic suitable for interpersonal use?

First, armor. It did not have to be that much. Unlike other animals, humans did not have thick fur. Humans may be equipped with sturdy equipment, but I found many humans that were lightly dressed. So let’s suppose the opponent was lightly dressed.

Next was speed, the faster it was, the better. To do that, I had to wait for a new wand.

Okay. I could think of a barrage at the expense of power. In other words, I could use a large number of small rock spears to fly toward the enemy.

The hideout was like a cave, so it sounded scary to use fire inside, and the water had no strong prowess for tight spots.

There was the wind attribute, but this was also unsuitable for attacks. Nonetheless. Whether the opponent floated or not, it was not a good idea against someone who specialized in long-range attacks.

Hmm? Even if the opponent floated, if I let the wind circulate around the enemy’s body at a high speed, I could prevent long-range attacks.

I tried to use magic with that image in mind.

I felt that a fast wind blew around. If I put an umbrella on it, it would be blown away immediately. This seemed to consume 10 MP points per second.

The grass that grew around the whirlpool of wind also felt like it was being hit by a typhoon.

I picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it over my head. The stone flew straight up…and then, it just fell on my head.

If I thought carefully about it, it seemed that I could not prevent attacks with stones without the power to blow the stones away. Even if the trajectory shifted, the distance was not enough.

Maybe it would be better to create a wall directly on the surface of my body with magical power. An in-game wizard must have used this kind of skill.

After I activated the magic while imagining the creation of armor outside the body, I tried to grab a pebble, but the magic pushed the pebble away and I could not grab it.

It would be convenient if it could just repel it because it was harmful, but it did not seem to do that. It could not be helped. Therefore, I tried to stab my cheeks with the pebbles I picked up using magic only on my face.

My magic blocked the pebble and it did not reach my face. There seemed to be no problem even if I tried to stab myself with greater strength.

Instead, as far as I seen in the status, the MP consumed each time I used this type of power. I thought this method was trying to offset the attack with the magical power used to make the armor and make up for it. This explanation was the most natural.

After trying various things, I found that it was possible to put a lot of magical power in advance on other magic properties.

In addition, clothes and the like seemed to be considered as part of one’s body and were not excluded from protection. Then, I decided to apply this magic to all parts except my hands because of the advanced radar, as I needed my hands to proper invoke it. Just in case, I always tried to protect my eyes. My eyes were equally important to read the advanced radar.

This armory power around my body was good for defense. Next was the attack. Originally, I was planning to develop attack magic.

I did not feel like strengthening my body with magical power like as I’ve seen in games. If I made a mistake, I could end up exploding gracefully. Delightful!

Wind magic was unlikely. I did not have many aggressive images with wind. Water magic was equally useless, since I did not want to crush the bandits; I just wanted to kill them. Rejected.

I did not feel like using fire in a cave. I could end up injuring myself. Then, it should be Earth magic. A small rock spear was like a bullet, and it could be sufficient for interpersonal use.

Unlike animals, humans could easily escape even if a bullet stuck in their limbs. Instead of downsizing, I decided to increase the numbers.

The speed was not that fast until I’ve got the new wand. But it should be no problem for now. Assuming that a human was 40 cm wide, there was no way that I could line up spears with 30cm wide. Moreover, it was not possible to deploy magic in a horizontal row.

Perhaps, I had to use it like a shotgun. Not the way of flying like a real shotgun, but the one that shoots widely like a shotgun in gaming*.

In order to increase the control pressure, the bullet had to be 1/50 of the normal one, and got to invoke 7 x 50 = 350 elongated spears to fly like a shotgun.

I thought that the firepower might not be enough, but when I looked at the bullet holes, it seemed to be around 2 cm into the tree.

Even this level would give me enough time. And 0.5 seconds later, the next spears could fly again. Okay, great. For interpersonal magic, I decided to use magical armor to protect my body and a rapid-fire shotgun to attack the opponent.

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*The reality of the range from shotguns in games differs from the range of real shotguns. Games are often criticized by the lack of realism, but Kaede wants to make use of that lacuna to improve his magical attack power.

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