Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

Leeha checked his stats. Currently, at 3,990 in agility.

It was a mere breath away from reaching 4,000.

“And an upgrade in mastery skill grade too. The unfortunate part is that my musket mastery skill is already at the master level… Leeha examined the skill level of his musket mastery.

Having used only one weapon, his musket mastery was already at the master level. But what did “highest limit” mean?

“Hmm? Master level at 14.9…? But, the master level only goes up to 2?”

It meant an upgrade to the highest stage within the master level! After master level 1*.9, the next would be an upgrade to a new rank.

With just a bit more proficiency in musket mastery, Leeha’s achieve “Legendary Musket Mastery 1*.1.”

“What are you grinning about!? Come out already!”

“Understood, Master!”

“Master- ahem, that sounds too old! Just as a senior! I’ll teach you just one thing, got it?”

“Hehe, got it, senior!”

Even before the formal education had begun, the benefits were already significant.

However, Leeha needed to understand one thing clearly.

The special lessons taught by a legend were possible precisely because Leeha were given by legendary figures.

Following Elizabeth to a spacious open area, Leeha were filled with questions from the moment the lesson started.

“What… what do you mean?”

“Just try it. It’s useless to explain.”

Elizabeth – released a puff of gun smoke.

“But wait! That’s- that’s not something you can just do!”

“In the beginning, it doesn’t work.”

“It’s not about the beginning, it’s…”

“Don’t want to do it? Then quit. Try it.”

Elizabeth pointed, urging them to proceed.

However, Leeha couldn’t easily aim at the target.

Because it was too far? Because the target was alive?

No, that wasn’t the reason.

Leeha felt nothing for a mere wooden board with a target painted on it.

The problem was that from their position, the wooden board with the target wasn’t visible.

A huge rock was blocking their view between the target and them.

“What are you doing? Not shooting?”

Swallowing dryly, Leeha listened to Elizabeth’s prompting.

The lesson was simple.

Pull the trigger so the bullet would curve around the rock and hit the target.

It sounded utterly ridiculous.

“Insane… I’ve seen this in a movie before… No, before that! This is outright bizarre!”

The reward for the quest was clearly stated.

Clearing the quest would grant them a skill, specifically, curve Shot!

The test Leeha had to pass was literally proving he could perform a curve shot!

“This should be something you do after learning the skill! What, what are you talking about, lady?! I haven’t learned the skill yet… and you expect me to do it to then teach me the skill? Is that supposed to make sense!?”

This is Middle Earth. The impossible can become possible here.

However, isn’t that supposed to be when one harnesses the power of a ‘skill’?

“Not doing it?”

“Ah, yes. I must do it. Ahem. Then, I shall fire the first shot with my ‘Bullseye’ Ha Leeha!”

Leeha focused on a large rock, visualizing the target beyond it in his mind… and then, he made a move straight out of a movie.

The moment he pulled the trigger, he twisted the gun barrel all the way to his wrist, adding a flick of his wrist to the overall motion of the firearm!

Thwack——…!

The edge of the rock cracked and splintered.

“Of course! How could this not work!”

If you think about the technique in billiards, giving the bullet a spin at the exact timing it passes through the barrel… like a kind of jab shot, that sort. Ridiculous formulas raced through Leeha’s mind. Regardless of Leeha’s thoughts, Elizabeth spoke nonchalantly, “You do know we only have two days left, right?”

Her tone was as if she was stating, ‘Dessert means coffee.’

“Ah, yes, of course.”

Two days left.

Within that timeframe, Leeha had to master the curve shot without any help from skills.

Logging out was a luxury. Rest was a luxury.

Leeha sighed with relief as he saw the magazines stacked high in his bag.

“It’s a good thing I packed plenty of magazines, it could have been a disaster. How many have I gone through already?”

Yet, despite the many changes, the amount of enlightenment Leeha achieved did not proportionally increase.

Twisting his entire body and pulling the trigger did nothing more than miss the rock completely, sometimes absurdly so.

“What kind of confidence did you have to say you could do it in two days? Two days is one thing, a week wouldn’t even be enough. Do you know how many hours it’s been?”

“About… ten hours?”

“In ten hours, you should at least get somewhat close to bending it. It seems like you’re aiming more for the center. Are you trying to drill a hole through the center of the rock? That trick might work on Browless, but not on me~” Elizabeth stretched and said.

Leeha, who never intended to try such a trick, felt even more downhearted as he listened.

The excitement of being tutored 1:1 by a legendary figure had vanished to the distant skies after two hours.

“Ahem… Well, I might not be an expert on guns, but I know a bit.”

“Hmm. Didn’t you mention something about a silencer earlier? That was really interesting. Make me one someday. That bottle-necked, bushy old guy, why didn’t he give me something fun like that earlier?”

Leeha had tried everything from attaching a silencer to a stabilizer to succeed in the mission. Needless to say, all attempts failed. That Elizabeth showed deep interest in the silencer and subsonic bullets was a small consolation.

“No, what I’m trying to say is… this is physically impossible. Without an external force acting upon it, the idea of the bullet turning is… just nonsensical.”

Whether Leeha twisted his wrist, swung his arm, or twisted his whole body while shooting, the bullet would always travel in the direction the barrel was pointing at the moment the trigger was pulled.

That was to Leeha the most logical outcome.

Elizabeth quietly watched Leeha as he zealously explained. Feeling embarrassed, Leeha tried to elaborate further.

“If it were possible… maybe by adjusting the rifling inside the barrel? Hmm, if there was a way to apply spin to the bullet itself somehow. But right now, there’s no way to adjust the rifling on Black Bass, and besides, meddling with the rifling carelessly might even cause the barrel to bulge out, and there’s also the risk factor of-“

“Ah, ah, too much talking, too much talking.”

Elizabeth stood up, waving her arms dismissively.

Despite Leeha’s attempts to apply all of his theoretically available knowledge, that was merely according to what Leeha knew.

Elizabeth loaded a bullet.

The sound of the bolt being pulled made Leeha marvel anew.

“Of course. The bonobo paleo folks who disassembled Black Bass for [Enhancement] managed to create firearms beyond muskets. Much less Elizabeth who had used Black Bass her entire life… she wouldn’t be using an ordinary musket. Comparing a simple musket to Black Bass or Elizabeth’s current abnormal firearm would show generations of difference.

“You know the answer, right? If external force is applied, the direction changes. If you give the bullet that kind of spin?”

“Uh? Oh, yes. That is, if that were possible-“

“That’s why you use mana. Like this.”

Elizabeth swung her arm and pulled the trigger of the rifle.

Thwoooom———!!

A gunshot, much louder than Black Bass’s, resounded. The rock in front of Leeha remained unchanged, steadfast in its place just as before. Elizabeth had not specifically gone to fetch a target. The same was true for Leeha. Looking at her, confidently seated on the foldable chair, it was impossible to think she could have failed. Hence, Leeha could no longer raise any objections. It was only after silently resuming practice and changing three magazines that Leeha spoke again. The precious time of receiving special tutoring from Elizabeth also meant having time alone with her.

“Was the hint ‘to the east’ left because of the Hows-hows… because of them?”

It was an opportunity to obtain valuable information of any sort.

“Right. Well, I figured people who bear the name of the Three Musketeers wouldn’t just hide away upon sighting the Hows-hows,” Elizabeth confirmed.

Indeed. Leeha nodded; the reason Elizabeth and Brown had only given ‘the east’ as a direction was as expected. But the conversation could not end here since the real information desired was something else.

“Then, you could have at least written the name Hows-hows on the note. Or perhaps described what they look like.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Why? Because you were in a hurry to write it?”

“No. There was a chance that the letter might be intercepted.”

The possibility of interception.

Swallowing upon hearing Elizabeth’s assertion, Leeha asked, “Were you worried someone might come after the two of you?”

“Huh? Ha, you’re fun. Who do you think would come after us?”

“Well, if anyone remotely menacing appeared even within 10km, you’d probably shoot them.”

“These days, I can’t hit things that far. As you know, the terrain here doesn’t really offer a spot that allows it, and so…”

Leeha struggled to keep his jaw from dropping. Was Elizabeth really referring to a shot taken from 10km?

“No way, I thought it was the Matan’s Shooter who made that shot… It was Elizabeth?”

Pulling the trigger again, BANG! After the rock rustled, Leeha saw Elizabeth’s gun again. The scope was still absent.

“That distance, can you see it?”

“Well, 10km? I’m not sure about that. Strictly speaking, it was a bit over 8.6km. Beyond that, it’s not ‘seeing and shooting’.”

Leeha stopped practicing the curve shot.

Turning to Elizabeth, “If it’s not ‘seeing and shooting’, then how?”

“How should I put it, ‘shooting with trust’? Uhm, it’s hard to explain in words.”

Crossing her legs and resting her chin on her hand, Elizabeth frowned slightly.

“Shooting with trust.”

Leeha pondered over Elizabeth’s words, but it didn’t make sense to him. In Leeha’s understanding, “sniping” wasn’t about shooting with trust. It was about perfectly seeing, perfectly measuring, and then firing. It wasn’t a gamble or about probabilities. It was about accepting the risk that there wouldn’t be a second shot in a situation that absolutely does not permit failure. But to shoot without properly seeing? Based on the sole belief that it would hit?

“If Sergeant Kim were here, it would have been quite the spectacle.”

The prospect of spending two nights and three days discussing sniping theories seemed likely. Maybe the two would have even brought out muskets and proposed a sniping match… Thinking up to this point, Leeha shook his head to dismiss the thought.

“But you said no one would come after you, right? So why worry about the letter being intercepted?”

At that moment, Leeha sensed a contradiction.

There was a definite contradiction in what Elizabeth had said. If Leeha were two people who feared no one, what was the reason for the concern about their location being revealed?