"I... I..."
Arthur stuttered, unable to explain himself properly.
He couldn’t confess how his pride led to his weapon almost sacrificing itself, or how he chose to fight barehanded to prove his ttle, leading to his current sorry state.
Xu Tao watched his face change colors rapidly and couldn’t help but sigh. "Well, I don’t know what happened, but I heard you can’t use Excalibur right now? Want a side weapon to use in the anti?"
He wasn’t the devil himself, so he had no intention of pushing Arthur to the edge when he was already showing remorse. Instead of that, he offered a way to solve the problem at its roots.
"I have a lot of swords to choose from. You can choose any—"
But before Xu Tao could finish his words, Excalibur shifted so violently it clanked within the scabbard. It sounded aggressive, almost as if it was throwing a tantrum.
"S-Sorry, Sir Tao..." Arthur apologized as he placed a hand on his sword’s hilt, calming it down. "But Excalibur doesn’t take it well if I hold another sword—or any bladed weapon at that."
"..."
Xu Tao couldn’t understand the underlying reason behind it, but he let it go. He shook his head, thinking.
"Then, a weapon without a blade..." he pondered, recalling the items in his storage ring.
However, almost every weapon on him had a blade of so sort. Even the polearms and bows had blades on their tips!
"Oh...!"
Then he suddenly recalled one item he never got to use—or even figure out its usage. "How about this one, then?" he said, presenting a small item to Arthur.
It was a lump of silvery tal in the shape of a crooked hamr by Xu Tao’s standards. It had a spinning chanism in its middle and a long barrel at the end.
"It’s called a revolver," Xu Tao explained. "All I know is it’s a weapon, but I have no idea how to use it. Maybe you can figure it out?"
"Revolver...?"
Arthur echoed the na before glancing at Excalibur—who, for once, stayed quiet. Its silence ant it was giving him the green light.
"I’ll take it," Arthur nodded, grabbing the revolver. "I think I can figure out its usage too."
Arthur had experienced many weapons, mastering them all before he got hold of Excalibur. Only then did he beco a sword-only focused knight-cum-king. Thus, he had great knowledge about weapon handling.
He carefully scanned the revolver’s body and quickly figured out the handle and trigger part, holding it properly. However, he wasn’t sure what to do next...
While he was figuring out the new weapon, Xu Tao went and handled the remaining wave monsters who had started ignoring them and were heading for the walls.
Of course, he didn’t kill the monsters just yet—only immobilized them in ice up to their necks.
Imdiately after, he gave the signal to those on the wall to begin gathering the loot boxes scattered around. This part of the job was technically the most ti-consuming, given that the guards had to move back and forth with their limited ring space.
"I... think I figured it out," Arthur finally spoke after a few minutes of inspection.
Xu Tao perked up. "Really? Then let’s test it." And pulled one of the frozen monsters closer.
Arthur carefully held the revolver, with the muzzle pointing forward. Then, he pulled the cocking lever at the back, priming it for a shot.
"Here goes..."
With a casual tone, he carefully pulled the trigger—
BANG!
—but in the next instant, his entire arm flew upward from the recoil, shocking him.
"...!"
Xu Tao’s eyes tracked the flash—like the weapon had spit fire and fury in one breath. So sort of burning projectile passed by the target’s left shoulder, missing it by two inches. But despite that—
SHRIEEEK!
As the bullet passed, an invisible force followed, gouging out a soccer-ball-sized hole over its left shoulder—wide enough to reach its heart, if it had one.
By the ti Arthur regained his balance, the hit monster had already turned into a loot box without much fanfare.
"..."
Xu Tao and Arthur glanced at each other, then down at the revolver in Arthur’s hands.
It was so freaking powerful!
"What the fuck?! There’s guns in this world too?!"
And to their surprise, a little figure—Yifa—crept up between the two n, gazing at the silver revolver with excitent.
"This... isn’t a design I’ve seen before. A Colt? It has a capacity of 7 rounds... How many bullets did this thing co with? Do you have extra bullets?"
And like a machine gun in overdrive, her questions and comnts sprayed at a rapid rate.
"Wait, wait, wait... This thing’s called a gun?" Xu Tao asked, surprised that soone else knew about it. "Do you know how to use it too?"
"Judging from how you fired it no problem, I’m guessing I do," Yifa nodded, then snatched the gun from Arthur’s hand.
She first flipped the loading chanism, checking the bullets inside—but to her surprise, there were no leftover shells or loaded ones. All chambers were empty.
"Huh? Weird..."
To test it, she closed the revolver, cocked the hamr with her thumb—pointing it toward the portal behind them—and fired.
BANG!
Once again, the weapon spewed out flas.
But unlike with Arthur’s case, Yifa’s arm barely twitched—clearly used to handling the recoil. She then squeezed the trigger a few more tis without setting the hamr, ruling out the possibility of it being a double-action one.
After experinting a bit, she pulled the hamr once more, aid at another immobilized monster, and fired.
BANG!
Its head exploded instantly.
"Phew~!" she whistled, a smile curling her lips. "Doesn’t look like it needs bullets to fire, but there should be a limited number of shots at a ti. Could be cooldown-based, or ti-delay charging..."
After speaking to that point, she started firing like crazy, filling the open space with the sound of consecutive gunshots.
Including Arthur’s practice shot, at the seventh shot—the sa number as the chambers—the gun finally failed to shoot. But Yifa didn’t stop. She continued to pull the hamr and trigger, letting the revolver click again and again.
Only after ten seconds passed did the click turn into another gunshot, shocking everyone. Once more, she fired seven consecutive tis before the clicking sound returned.
"So seven shots at a ti, with a reload ti of ten seconds." She smiled, nodding. "Please take note of it, Master Tao."
She spun the gun on her finger before extending it toward Xu Tao.
"...No, you keep it."
But since he was impressed by her display, Xu Tao felt she had earned the right to keep a gun for herself. "I still have a few more of those, anyway—"
Yifa, hearing that she could keep the gun, suddenly bead. "Really~? Thanks, Master Tao!"
She jumped up, grabbed Xu Tao by the neck, and pecked his cheek.
A short, casual kiss as a gesture of thanks. Nothing more, nothing else.
"...!"
But for so inexplicable reason, Xu Tao felt a chill run down his spine.
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