Finishing up the last mana pathway etching inside the sixth chamber, Archie placed his Runic Scriber atop the table and let the excess mana within it evaporate.
He didn’t react when the runic script remained etched onto the cylinder, instead, he gave the cylinder a leveled look, trying to see if he could find any blemishes or bubbles, he hadn’t noticed before.
It was sothing he failed to take into account before, when the runic script fizzled away when he tried to load the chambers up with mana. The reason why was related to the exact dinsions of the chambers; they had to be perfect for the script to work, or else the mana building up within the chamber would warp and damage the chamber when fired.
It was the sa with regular bullets as well. He rembered when he stayed at his grandfather’s ho every sumr and every day, both he and his brother would listen to their grandfather’s stories about the war.
He’d show them all the dals he’d earned and the guns he still had. He taught them how to clean guns, how to take them apart, and what to look out for when doing so. He showed off the scarred flesh and bullet holes he got on his body when he shot a faulty rifle, and it exploded on him. He lived, but he was taken out of duty after that incident. A lesson well learned, he told us.
Was his grandfather, soone who potentially had a minor case of mory issues, a bad type of person to keep around a garage full of guns? Maybe…Definitely, now that I think about it, Archie mulled. He kept muttering about aliens and whatnot and always managed to tie them back to the stories he told. They definitely added so flair to the stories, to say the least.
But damn was he a good shot, Archie smiled. He’d rember his grandfather at the ripe age of seventy-six, killing a deer almost four hundred yards away with a rifle he owned. Even now, that mory stuck with him as another cool grandpa mont.
However, neither he nor his brother were allowed to shoot them until they were fourteen, and the excuse his grandfather gave was that he first shot a gun at fourteen, their father first shot his gun at fourteen, and so should they.
On that day he learned that his shitty throwing skills, also translated to shooting skills. I don't think Ms. Helen ever forgave for the fright I gave her dog for almost shooting its tail off.
Snapping the cylinder back into place, Archie filled the grip of the revolver with his mana, and within a second, the mana container was full of his mana, and the chambers were filled with fully ford nature manabolts. It takes 600 mana to fill the container, Archie noticed as he looked at his mana reserves.
Giving another Identify to his newest creation, Archie smiled.
Mana Revolver of Nature(Common):
A revolver forged from steel and made by Archie Gracefield, a Novice Forgesmith. The revolver can fire-piercing nature-attuned manabolts once the chambers are properly charged with nature mana. If the revolver’s mana container is full then it can fire up to twelve nature-attuned manabolts before the mana container empties. Effects: Soul-Bound, Self-Repair & Piercing. Status: Perfect. Requirents: Lv 70 , Nature Affinity & Humanoid Race.
He had fixed the previous mana flow ratio issue that the Mana-Pistols of Undeath and Mana Long-Guns of Undead had, and even managed to fix their mana containnt issue. And to be honest, he wasn’t sure why their guns didn’t have the Self-Repair runes atop them; it was easy enough to etch them.
Maybe a cost issue? Archie wondered. Maybe the mana cost was already high enough to shoot them, and they didn’t want to waste anymore?
Now all the chambers would be filled at the sa ti so when the chambers are emptied, the container would reload the remaining manabolts into the chamber.
Unfortunately, the most it could hold was twelve nature manabolts at once before it needed to be refilled with his mana. Sothing that he would need to work on. What type of Arican am I to be, only able to shoot twelve bullets before reloading?
“One grandpops would be disappointed of,” Archie sighed.
While one would think that he could just keep filling the container with mana and shoot until his mana ran out, but that loophole unfortunately couldn't work.
Previously, whenever he stunned the Elf Bonekiins when they were refilling the mana containers of the pistols and long guns within their dark mana, then all the dark mana that accumulated within the mana container would evaporate into thin air, and they would need to repeat the whole process again.
But now with his modifications, once mana gets inserted into the mana container, it stays in it till it is emptied. But once the mana container filled or when he stopped funneling mana into the mana chamber, then the mana would be locked in and wouldn't evaporate.
But because of the mana trapping modification, he added onto the mana container runic script once the mana flow stopped, either by the mana container reaching full capacity or by his own doing, then unless the mana container emptied completely, the mana within the container would remain unbothered by external forces.
Either way, he was now an Arican his grandfather could be proud of.
Standing up from his chair, Archie deactivated Gaze of the Forgefather and activated Vital Sight. Peering into the front, rightmost tunnel connected to the ocean, he spotted a couple of stronger-looking vital energies that were surrounded by a swarm of weaker-looking vital energies. Without hesitation, Archie raised his revolver and fired.
A fist-sized nature-attuned manabolt exploded from the barrel, streaking toward the ocean. A mont later, it tore through both the swarm of weaker-looking vital energies and through the middle of one of the stronger-looking vital energies.
Looking at his notifications, Archie deactivated Vital Sight and smiled.
*Your Profession has reached Lv 67 – Points allocated, 4 Free Points*
*Your Profession has reached Lv 68 – Points allocated, 4 Free Points*
*[Boilingsting Jellyfish Lv 42] has been slain – XP has been given. 210 Tutorial Points given*
*[Ernigan Jellyfish Lv 25] has been slain – XP has been given. 75 Tutorial Points given*
***
*[Ernigan Jellyfish Lv 28] has been slain – XP has been given. 84 Tutorial Points given*
While being able to kill a level 42 Jellyfish wasn’t much of a shock to Archie, due to their inherent lack of hide, scales, or anything protective physically, he was elated that his aiming was no longer utter dog shit.
From his estimation, the jellyfish were likely around two hundred ters away, just at the edge of his Vital Sight’s range. And he had killed them… with a gun.
That was an achievent he thought deserved so praise, especially given that, before the system integration, he couldn’t even hit a can sitting on a fence five ters away with a pistol…It was sothing his younger brother lorded over him for years.
While he did not receive a skill from killing with his newly made revolver, it made sense. From what he understood from Xelgar and Cyric, there were nurous ways to gain skills without the help of the system’s skill options.
One way to acquire skills without selecting from the system’s provided list, received each quarter of your Class or Profession Grade limit, was through skill books. However, these books had to be related to your current Class or Profession; otherwise, they wouldn’t work.
Another thod was to create a skill tied solely to your records—a process he wasn’t entirely sure how to properly accomplish. The creation of Vital Sight, for instance, was sothing he couldn’t fully explain; it was sothing he did and created in the mont. He was fairly certain that if he tried to replicate it, he would have failed.
But that thod ca with limits such as the skill you were trying to create had to be related to either your Class, Profession, or Race, else the skill would not be created.
While Archie could still use a sword or bow as a Nature-Attuned Pugilist, no matter how hard he practiced or killed with such weapons, he would never gain a skill for either while his Class remained as a Nature-Attuned Pugilist.
But what would happen is; that prolonged use of such weapons or tools, even without a skill, would have an effect on his records which in turn would affect his evolutionary options for his Class and Profession once he reached their level cap. As the XP he gained from prolonged use of said weapons or tools would be targeted towards his Race, and it would also be reflected onto his Class and/or Race evolutionary options if he truly wanted it.
So even though Archie did not receive a skill from using his revolver, it was sothing he was going to continue to kill and practice with so that when he reached the level cap for E-Grade and evolved, he would be given evolutionary Class options that would reflect his desire to be a gun-slinging, ass-kicking, face-punching badass.
At the mont, he had middle-to-close-range combat covered, thanks to Thornscourge Expansion and Savage Charge, which granted him enhanced mobility and gap-closing capabilities. However, he lacked any proper long-range abilities or killing potential from afar, so he wanted to redy that now.
Placing his revolver into his spatial storage, Archie reached for his satchel but grabbed nothing but air. He was confused for a mont before he rembered that he placed the satchel at the foot of his table.
Walking toward his satchel, his brows furrowed as he lifted it off the ground. It’s lighter than before, Archie noted.
Lifting up the flap, Archie clicked his tongue and sighed. “Where the hell is the Temple Guardian Insectoid Core?”
Instead of finding both the Spirit Nucleus and Temple Guardian Insectoid Core in his satchel, Archie found the Spirit Nucleus by its loneso.
Did it drop when I was sprinting? Archie wondered, trying to rember where it could have fallen off. But no matter how far back Archie tried to recall, there wasn’t a mont when he could think the core could have gotten loose from his satchel. The holes in his satchel weren’t even large enough for the core to have fallen from.
Did soone steal it?
Releasing a deep, yielding sigh, Archie took out the Spirit Nucleus and placed it at the foot of the Totem of Spring’s Ascent. “At the very least, I still have this.”
Tying his satchel onto his back, Archie grabbed his Thermal Carver and walked back toward the Miniature of Primal Wrath, flooded the Volthrinite tip with his mana, and sliced off a good 75% of the miniature.
Hauling the majority of the miniature atop his shoulder, Archie tossed his Thermal Carver atop the table and lit his forge with Forgesmith’s Fla. Looking at both his tongs, he realized that they wouldn’t be able to properly latch onto the miniature.
So, Archie decided to prop up the Starforge Steel miniature with his bare hands as he was unsure if it was wise to let it be held up with mana strings. As it might cause so effects during the slting process, at least that’s what he understood from his own experints.
“Four fucking hours,” Archie muttered as he tossed the molten Starforge Steel atop both his Heavy-Duty and Precision Anvil. The sheer size of the tal was too much for a single anvil to balance, so he placed both anvils side by side.
Archie ignored his raw palms that touched the tal of the Heavy-Duty Hamr’s handle and started to mold the molten red Starforge Steel into shape with his mana-infused hamr.
Thankfully, the engine's structure didn’t need to mirror that of a pre-system integration motorcycle. Instead, it needed to function similarly to the mana container in his revolver while still coordinating the bike’s components, such as the wheels and acceleration.
However, the engine had to store significantly more mana than just 600 units, significantly more. Given how Starforge Steel had been used to store the energy that allowed Archie to et Primal Tyrannous, it seed like the perfect base material to enhance the mana container's capacity and the overall structure of the engine.
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