Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Wanting to Make a New Gun, the Genius Fina
After they returned to the Orphanage, Kaya was shocked when she saw the state Ryan and Fina were in. She hurried over and asked, “Ryan, Fina, what happened to you two?”
“Aunt Kaya, this is what happened...”
Ryan told Kaya about their encounter with the Goblins.
Kaya was astonished when she heard that the two of them had run into Goblins.
What shocked her even more was that these two children had actually wiped out more than twenty Goblins all by themselves.
“Oh, right, Aunt Kaya. That girl fainted while running away. She needs you to treat her.”
“Mhm, no problem. Leave it to me.”
Only after seeing that Ryan and Fina were not seriously hurt and that their clothes were merely a little dirty did Kaya finally relax and begin treating the girl.
A short while later, the girl woke up.
“Th-This is...?”
“My child, this is the Orphanage. How are you feeling?”
“The Orphanage? Ah!!! Goblins!”
At first, the girl still looked dazed, but then she suddenly cried out.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. The Goblins have already been wiped out. You’re safe now.”
Kaya quickly pulled the girl into her arms and comforted her softly.
Before long, the girl calmed down.
Only then did she learn that Fina and Ryan had saved her.
When she thought of the horrifying fate that would have awaited her if they had not rescued her, the girl immediately expressed her gratitude to Fina and Ryan.
Ryan did not feel much about it, because he had never intended to save her in the first place.
Fina, on the other hand, nodded and accepted her thanks.
Kaya took the girl away from the Orphanage and escorted her home.
Then Kaya went outside the town and followed the Goblins’ tracks deep into the forest.
Although Healing Magic was the magic Kaya excelled at most, her own strength was not to be underestimated either.
After making a full sweep through the forest, Kaya did not discover anything especially significant.
For the time being, the Goblin attack could only be classified as an accident.
Even so, this was the first time Lute Town had encountered an attack from those monsters in nearly ten years.
The townspeople immediately began speculating over whether the Demon King had been resurrected.
In the end, after a vote by all the town’s residents, it was decided that once every ten days, the guard squad would enter the forest to patrol.
Because Ryan and Fina had managed to kill more than twenty Goblins between them, the townspeople’s impression of the two of them changed as well.
Previously, they had only regarded them as ordinary children.
Even though Fina possessed magical talent, she had not yet fully grown.
But what happened today made everyone realize that even an ungrown Mage was still far stronger than they were.
And as for Ryan, who had no magical talent, people praised him even more.
They called Ryan a genius of Magic Tools.
Ryan did not care in the least about the shift in the townspeople’s attitude.
When you are poor, no one asks after you even in a bustling city. When you are rich, even distant relatives come to you from deep in the mountains.
That saying perfectly described Ryan’s current situation.
Still, if they were to learn that the wildly popular perfume had also been made by Ryan, he wondered what they would think then.
Five days after the Goblin attack, something happened that left Ryan both amused and exasperated.
The reason was that the girl Ryan and Fina had rescued turned out to be the mayor’s daughter.
Seeing Ryan’s potential, the mayor wanted Ryan to stay in the town, offering his daughter’s hand in marriage as the condition.
The moment Fina heard about this, her expression immediately turned ugly.
Ryan rejected the mayor outright.
There was no way he would settle down in one place because of a single person.
After finally transmigrating to another world, he naturally wanted to travel widely and experience the customs of different places.
Besides, the girl was neither some breathtaking beauty nor anyone extraordinary enough to make him stop in his tracks. Why would Ryan halt his journey for her?
Ryan liked this town.
But that did not mean he intended to spend his entire life here.
That matter quickly passed.
At present, Ryan’s main focus was on making a new weapon.
After what happened during the Goblin attack,
Ryan became acutely aware of the handgun’s limitations.
A handgun was certainly convenient and quick, but when facing large numbers of enemies, its sustained fire was simply too weak.
A little more than ten bullets were gone in the blink of an eye.
Without a companion protecting him, there was simply no way to reload in the middle of battle.
Of course, he could prepare magazines loaded with bullets in advance.
That way, during combat, he could save time by replacing the entire magazine instead of loading bullets one by one.
So now, whenever Ryan went out, he always carried a backpack with him.
Inside the backpack were dozens of magazines he had already filled with bullets.
When he practiced his shooting normally, he still replaced the bullets one by one.
But once battle broke out, he could directly swap magazines, which was much faster and more efficient.
Even so, Ryan still had a lingering fear of insufficient firepower.
So his next goal was to make another new firearm.
After the Goblin attack, the children of the Orphanage were forbidden from leaving the town.
Of course, Ryan was not included in that ban.
After all, he was already capable of killing Goblins.
Kaya also did not want Ryan leaving the town alone, but after he insisted, she finally agreed.
Ryan was now thinking about what kind of new firearm he should make.
“Ryan!”
Fina ran over from the distance and immediately threw her arms around him.
“Fina, don’t suddenly jump on me like that. It’s startling.”
“Ehehehe...”
Hearing Ryan’s complaint, Fina said nothing and simply giggled.
Ryan looked at Fina helplessly and reached out to pat her head.
Ever since Ryan had saved Fina from the Goblins, Fina’s attitude toward him had clearly changed.
After thinking about it, Ryan figured the turning point had probably been after the mayor offered his daughter to him in marriage.
Fina had become much more affectionate toward Ryan.
Before that, her feelings toward him had merely been those of a childhood playmate.
But now, her feelings for Ryan had undergone a qualitative change.
Though she was still somewhat innocent and confused about it, Fina had already decided that she wanted to stay by Ryan’s side.
So whenever she had free time, she would appear beside him.
And there was much more physical contact now as well.
The other children in the Orphanage often teased the two of them whenever they saw them together.
Ryan naturally did not care about that at all.
What was surprising was that Fina merely blushed a little and did not argue back.
Seeing this, Kaya felt deeply gratified as well.
Ryan and Fina were the most outstanding children in the Orphanage.
If the two of them could end up together, that would make for a fine story.
“Ryan, where are you going?”
“I’m going to make a new gun.”
“A new gun? Can I come with you?”
“Of course not. Don’t you still have to study magical knowledge with Aunt Kaya?”
“Ah, right...”
Fina said dejectedly.
“Uh...”
Ryan could not bear to see Fina so disappointed, so he continued, “How about this? I’ll be at the same place as last time until sunset. After you finish studying, you can come find me.”
“Huh? Really?”
At once, Fina’s eyes lit up.
“Mhm, of course.”
Ryan nodded.
“Oh, okay! Then Ryan, I’ll see you later.”
“All right.”
...
Ryan arrived at the outskirts of the town. After practicing his marksmanship for a while, he stopped.
His shooting was already quite good now.
Within fifty meters, his accuracy was above ninety percent.
At this stage, all he needed was a short daily practice to keep his feel sharp.
At present, the most important thing was making a new firearm.
Ryan spent a long time browsing the System’s exchange list, and in the end, he chose a submachine gun as his second firearm.
The P90 submachine gun had strong penetration, a large magazine capacity, and was well suited to close-range combat.
For the current Ryan, it was an excellent fit.
Its recoil was not strong, its overall weight was fairly light, and its magazine held fifty rounds, which met Ryan’s requirements.
Very soon, Ryan bought the production blueprint from the System.
But when he saw the required materials listed in that blueprint, he could not help cursing aloud.
The spine of a Thunder-Pattern Lizard, the wing membrane fibers of a Shadow Bat, the fang powder of a Frostfield Wolf, the stinger crystal of a Venom-Stinger Insect, and the feather quill of a Windwhisper Bird.
Every one of these monster materials came from intermediate monsters. There was no way to buy them here in Lute Town.
To purchase materials from intermediate monsters, he would have to go to a much larger town.
In Lute Town, only materials from low-level monsters found in the nearby forest could be bought.
His idea of making the gun by hand had collapsed on the spot.
If Ryan wanted this firearm, then the only option left was to exchange for it directly from the System with Gold Coins.
But the System’s exchange price was absurdly high. Exchanging for a single P90 submachine gun actually cost 1,800 Gold Coins.
That was outright robbery!
Sometimes Ryan felt that his System should not be called the Armament System at all.
It should be called the Money-Grubbing System instead.
A single firearm, and it cost that much.
But no matter how much Ryan complained, the System ignored him completely, as though it were saying, Buy it or don’t.
With no other choice, the matter of the new firearm could only be postponed.
After all, he could not afford it right now.
If he wanted a new firearm, then he could only wait for the upcoming perfume profit share.
The three-month deadline was almost here, and Ryan was extremely eager for this next payment.
Time passed quickly, and before long, Fina had finished her lessons and come to find Ryan.
Fina was very interested in guns.
So after pestering Ryan for quite some time, she finally got a chance to practice with one.
Ryan personally taught Fina how to use the handgun, guiding her hand in hand.
Bang!
Fina fired for the first time.
Crack!
The glass bottle in the distance shattered instantly.
Ryan was stunned on the spot by what he had just seen.
“Fina, you...”
“Hehe, Ryan, there’s a kind of magic that can enhance vision.”
Fina said with a smile.
Only then did Ryan react.
Fina was a Mage. Having magic that could strengthen eyesight was perfectly normal.
And right after that, Ryan truly experienced what it meant to face a genius.
This was clearly Fina’s first time ever touching a firearm.
And yet, after a brief period of getting used to it, she was already able to hit every shot within ten meters without missing.
Ryan had Fina gradually increase the distance.
Little by little, Fina became able to hit every shot within fifty meters without missing.
Not long afterward, she could hit every shot within one hundred meters without missing.
Seeing that,
Ryan turned his back to her.
When he thought about how he had painstakingly practiced one shot at a time, needing more than two months to reach perfect accuracy within fifty meters, the contrast left his heart aching.
But that feeling was quickly thrown aside.
Instead, a trace of anticipation rose within him.
Just how strong would Fina become in the future, when she could use both magic and firearms at the same time?