Chapter 54

Browless was preparing early in the morning. He didn’t really oversleep, but today he woke up especially early.

Was it because he expected the rookie to return, after forcibly giving him a quest just the night before?

‘There’s no way I feel that way.’

The operation of the academy had already been neglected. The people who thought they were the next generation of the “Three Musketeers” left and never came back.

Moreover, what happened to his co-founders who founded the academy together with him?

‘If only I could check if they are alive or dead… no, do I still have this kind  of regret?’

After the two co-founders disappeared, he was left all alone, and although the operation of the academy had been neglected, he could not get rid of it.

Even if he was the last musketeer, he wanted to protect this place that contained the dreams of the three of them.

The reason he treated uninvited guests harshly was that he did not want to tell anyone about his situation.

“Hmm?”

Browless, who was carefully brewing coffee and moving to the director’s office, caught the silhouette of a person.

‘Who? Is he the one from last night?’

He couldn’t have known that he was taking a board and lodging inside the academy. If someone had come in, wouldn’t he have felt their presence in an instant?

‘It seems they have sent someone with a bit of skill this time.’

Are the threats to relocate the academy not over yet? Even if they suffer?

‘Right, another guy’s head will just have to explode.’

Browless took his musket. He was able to load in an instant.

It was dark, but the silhouette of the enemy gradually became clearer.

Browless took two more steps and then, click!

He lifted his musket and aimed it straight.

And he couldn’t hide his embarrassment.

The person he saw was the kid he sent out last night.

“Oh? Should I show you the letter of introduction again?”

Leeha raised his arm while holding a musket in his hand.

Browless couldn’t even think of a retort to Leeha’s question. The spider legs and bat teeth spread and almost filled the floor of the Director’s office. With just a glance, it should be around 200 each.

“It should probably be enough.” Leeha looked at Browless and smiled.

Browless looked at his watch.

“It is commendable that you are not late.”

I’m not late? Is that all? Leeha was disappointed at Browless’s reaction.

No, would he be satisfied with just slightly enlarged eyes for a moment? He thought that there was going to be an uproar about how he did it and what tricks he used.

“Cough, hmm… hmm… Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“Thank you.”

Browless’s face contorted after getting out of the director’s office.

‘How did he get so many?’

Those sundries are not tradeable.

He only gave Leeha 200 sets of gunpowder.

Even if he used it all up and killed all the targets in one shot, there should be only about 200 monsters.

Besides, there wouldn’t be that many spider legs or bat teeth. He would need to kill at least 80 spiders or bats to get 30…

‘How many did he catch? Even if he hunted all night, he shouldn’t have picked up that many…

The timing is not right.’

With the number of sundries available, he should have hunted and caught more than 500.

At Leeha’s reload speed, he could only shoot once per minute.

To catch 500, it would take 500 minutes. That would be 8 hours.

With the 12 hours time limit, he must have spent at least 4 hours just for the round trip.

That is exactly 12 hours! That would be right, but… When he thought about it, it didn’t make any sense.

It took more than a minute to hunt because aside from the one minute reload time, it also took time to find monsters.

‘Did he really end up shooting more than 500 rounds?? That little kid?’

Even after preparing a cup of coffee, Browless’s question was not answered.

Browless walked with a stiff face and managed his expression again in front of the Director’s room.

“Here.”

“Thank you.”

Leeha took the cup of coffee and smiled. There was no praise. There wasn’t even a fuss. But at least the way Browless treated him had improved. Him offering Leeha a coffee was enough to make Leeha understand how surprised Browless was.

“Hmm… cough. It must have been hard.”

“It was not easy.”

[Completed Lightless Forest.]

[Intimacy with Brown Bess Musket Academy’s Director, Browless, increased by 30%..]

[Intimacy increased by an additional 5% by exceeding the quest condition.]

[Fibiel Kingdom National Contribution increased by 30.]

[National Contribution increased by 5 for exceeding the quest conditions.]

‘Oh?’

Leeha was surprised when he saw the notification window. Exceeding requirements?

There’s something like this?

‘Why didn’t I see it in the community?’

It might be because hunting quests are usually difficult. Is that the reason I didn’t see exceeding requirements? Or was it not just by exceeding the requirements by one or two times, but by exceeding it by a crazy amount?

“Hehe, that’s not everything yet, Director-nim.”

“I don’t know how many shots you fired, but if you hunted all night then you should have already mastered Precise Hand Movement.”

“Yes?”

Browless tossed 1 silver coin to Leeha. A silver coin illuminated in the air of the dark chamber.

Tak-!

Leeha lightly caught it. He heard a notification sound.

Babam-!

[1 Silver acquired.]

[Skill: Precise Hand Movement acquired.]

“If you get used to reloading in the dark, you will become faster when there is light. Congratulations. That is the basis of Precise Hand Movement.”

“Ah…”

Leeha understood Browless’s words. It was definitely faster than with just Musket Mastery. By the way, what about Browless? So what kind of skill is this?

‘Skill window.’

[Beginner’s Precise Hand Movement] (Lv.l)]

Description: A skilled musketeer can always put the right amount of gunpowder. Always keeps his hands precise.

Effect: Fixed reload time of 30 seconds for 5 minutes.

Mana: 100

Cooldown: 6 hours

‘Oh! 30 seconds reload time? Additionally, the duration is 5 minutes!’

Although Leeha’s reload time is currently at 50 seconds, 30 second reload time can make the difference. In addition, the duration of 5 minutes is huge.

Assuming that all shots within that 5 minutes hit, it was almost double his current damage.

‘6 hours… The cooldown is a bit long but… I guess I need to be careful about when I  use it.

“What should I do next?”

“Ahem, t-that.”

“Yes!”

Leeha answered immediately.

Browless made eye contact with Leeha, looked at the wall once and then slowly turned his head.

He glanced once at the teacup. He hesitated.

“That… How did you do it?”

“What?”

“It’s impossible to bring that much with your current skill. Did you buy it?”

Browless knew better than anyone that it cannot be purchased. However, he asked because he did not want to appear curious.“Ah, that.”

Leeha sipped his coffee and continued.

“I used the combination of my skills.”

“A combination of skills?”

“Hehe..”

Leeha laughed. He was reminded of the incident in the forest a few hours ago.

“It’s inefficient… The good thing is that the torch didn’t go out, not even once, even when he threw it on the ground. It was good that he could one-shot the monsters. However, it was also true that he felt like losing money by hunting monsters that did not even give that much experience.

‘How can I effectively hunt?’

Leeha did not have a lot of skills. Additionally, Bargaining is not for hunting. So, in the end, there are three.

Calm Mind increased accuracy for 3 seconds.

Bayonet Charge increased melee attack power for 15 seconds.

And the passive skill, Musket Mastery.

“Hmm… Bayonet Charge has a 5-minute cooldown and Calm Mind has a 30-minute cooldown.”

Considering the duration, is it at the level to add an additional 1 or 2 shots? Efficiency can’t be measured that way.

In the beginning, it was explained that Bayonet Charge is an emergency and last resort skill, while Calm Mind enhances the accuracy of one shot.

‘It’s a pity that I couldn’t do a wide-ranged attack.’

This was the most common concern of ranged dealers.

As seen in the community, archers, have the arrow shower skill that uses multiple arrows to shoot multiple shots or summon mana arrows in the air, but it was not easy to learn.

‘It was said that it could be learned at level 90, right?’

Even if he knew that they have a skill like that, where could it be found? Just thinking about being able to learn it one day was enough to make one happy.

Because musketeers did not even have any information about it.

Leeha was not able to find it on the Korean site, so he was on the verge of finding it on overseas sites. Even though he was able to find some information with difficulty, not one was related to wide-range skills.

‘I have no skills, it would be really useful if there was an area of effect skill as strong as my attack power… Leeha was somewhat disappointed.

“I’ll hunt first.”

Leeha used his torch to lure the spiders.

Slowly, three spiders came down.

He currently had one shot loaded.

However, Leeha did not aim at the spider. He just quietly sat and continued to light the torch.

The spiders slowly began to descend. The moment when its position reached Leeha sight.

Taang—!

Two destructive sounds were heard along with an explosion.

Two of them died instantly at once. The last one looked at Leeha as if surprised.

“A spider pretending to have its pupils dilate! You have six eyes!”

Leeha immediately reloaded. It took the spider 50 seconds to withdraw from the light while threatening Leeha, which was enough time for someone like him who already mastered reloading to reload.

As soon as Leeha hit the musket’s butt on the floor, he grabbed the musket.

Kiii–!

The spider descended fiercely from the tree!

“Bye-bye.”

Leeha pointed his gun at the ball-sized spider. With just one pull of his index finger, the iron bullet penetrated the spider’s body.

Kiiik-!

The spider fell to the ground, with sticky juice pouring out of its body.

(To be continued…)