Chapter 94: Adding to my arsenal

Veyron Academy – Workshop District.

I descended into the basement and was immediately greeted by Reid, the blacksmith’s alluring older sister.

"Mm~~ Isn’t that Aria’s handsome boyfriend?"

"Seems that way."

She stood beside the sweltering furnace, gazing at me with slightly unfocused, intoxicated eyes.

Had she been drinking in the middle of the day?

"You remembered me."

"Remember? How could anyone forget a face like yours?"

Receiving compliments so openly still felt strangely refreshing.

"Hmm, so? Have you already gotten your hands on some Demonic Power?"

Without wasting time I took out the Magic River — Moonlight. Reida immediately stepped closer, curiosity sparkling in her eyes.

"You’ve brought something incredible. I’ll refine it for you right away."

"Will I be able to shoot beams with a pistol after this?"

"No. But this is worth more than thousands of ordinary demonic powers. It should at least let you channel a little magical energy for short periods."

"Magical power?!"

Was that even possible?

Would the Glock basically turn into a magic gun?

’Would it be a waste to pour something this rare into the Glock...?’

"Should I use this pistol?"

"Hmm..."

In the future, when I faced high-defense monsters like the Shark Giants again, I wanted a firearm that could combine raw power with special properties and actually put them down.

Wouldn’t it have been better if I’d started thinking about this from the beginning?

I hadn’t realized that simply strengthening a pistol would eventually hit a wall.

"Have you considered another weapon?"

"Yes. For now, please enhance the Glock with this Magic Beast Steel."

I produced the Grade B Magic Beast Steel I’d received from the party distribution.

"Hmm. So the academy actually hands out steel of this quality."

"I got lucky."

"Consistent luck is a skill of its own. Let’s see if you have it."

While the Glock was being augmented I stepped into the gun shop next door.

There I ran into someone I’d met before.

"Oh."

"Hmm?"

**Eren Hall**.

The handsome S-class Hunter who had been in charge of measuring the training dummy last week.

Running into him at the academy was unexpected since he wasn’t a student, but a gun shop made perfect sense as a place our paths might cross.

Had he found whatever he was looking for here?

"You’ve decided to use a gun?"

"Ah, yes."

"What type?"

"A shotgun."

Eren nodded.

"Good choice for beginners."

This was the perfect chance to get advice from an actual S-rank hunter.

Eren himself was a gun-wielding hunter; a black shotgun hung from a strap over his shoulder.

"Creatures of B-rank and above have ridiculous defensive power. Is there something with really strong one-hit destruction?"

"A recommendation, you mean?"

"I’d be grateful. You seem to use one yourself."

Eren grimaced slightly when I called him "teacher."

"Drop the ’teacher.’ Just call me Eren."

"Eren, isn’t a shotgun the best for one-hit destructive power?"

"It has its advantages inside dungeons. Rarely jams, high destructive power. In that regard it doesn’t fall short of most special weapons."

This man had probably suffered a lot from weapon malfunctions in the early days.

Inside dungeons there seemed to be a quiet camaraderie among people who relied on guns.

"What kind are you looking for?"

"Something big and heavy."

Together we moved toward the wall lined with shotguns.

Unlike a pistol, the long barrel carried a completely different sense of intimidation. In the past, simply holding a pistol had given me a sense of security against monsters that casually dodged bullets.

Now that I’d grown used to the Academy Dungeons, a pistol no longer felt like enough.

"If you want potent close-range destruction, would a 12-gauge shell be enough?" I asked.

"Isn’t a 20-gauge more powerful?"

"You came to choose a firearm without even knowing that..."

I had assumed a higher number meant stronger force.

"So the 12-gauge is actually more powerful?"

"Yes. It refers to how many lead pellets you can make from one pound of lead. The lower the number, the larger and heavier each pellet."

"I see..."

Eren examined several shotguns while speaking.

"Ren Asahi, why are you so fixated on a weapon with massive single-shot destruction? If I’m going to recommend something tailored to you, I need to understand your intentions."

Could I tell him the real reason? I’d been carefully following the "protege" protocols and had basically become a model student. Sharing a little shouldn’t hurt.

"I have a skill that can finish an opponent for certain once they’ve taken enough shock."

Eren glanced at me.

He seemed to be weighing whether I was serious.

"Then... slug rounds?"

"Slug rounds?"

"A solid mass of lead. It can kill an elephant."

"Do you hate elephants?"

Eren chuckled.

"If you want to make someone you dislike suffer, buckshot that shreds them with shrapnel is more useful. Slug rounds aren’t for that. They simply kill."

"Are they that potent?"

"Even if you’re wearing a bulletproof vest that stops regular bullets, a slug to the chest can rupture the ribcage. To the abdomen it can rupture the abdominal cavity. Internal organs get devastated. That said, the effect drops off sharply once you go beyond Class A."

I wondered what kind of world Class A truly was.

If even the strongest solid-lead projectile couldn’t reliably harm someone, what were you supposed to use?

A grenade launcher?

’Ah. That wouldn’t work either.’

I thought of Liliana’s Devil Suit.

Even before she fully equipped it, rifle rounds hadn’t left a single scratch. Facing the student council president would probably require an armored vehicle at minimum.

"Slug... that sounds perfect."

Certainty was always best.

「Soul Excretion — Slug」

It already felt appropriately vile.

"There’s a downside. Shotguns are designed to spray metal, so they don’t need rifling, but slug rounds do."

"Does that mean poor accuracy?"

"Beyond the effective range the drop-off is so dramatic it almost feels excessive. It’s just a lump of lead, so you can literally watch the trajectory draw a rainbow."

"..."

A rainbow trajectory...

Still, now that I was drawn to the idea of a slug, it was hard to change my mind.

"I like the slug."

If a 12-gauge was like thrusting a small dick multiple times,

then a slug was a single, extremely powerful Big Dick.

Was there a more suitable weapon for ultra-powerful Soul Excretion?

"At that age there are times when you get completely infatuated with pure destructive power."

We weren’t that far apart in age.

He was only in his mid-twenties at most.

"Shall we look for a slug gun with rifling?"

"No. The greatest advantage of a shotgun is how easily you can change ammunition types. Make sure you learn to switch rounds according to the situation."

Eren picked up a black pump-action shotgun and held it out to me.

"This is the Benelli M3. It’s the only Benelli model that can switch between semi-automatic and pump-action."

"Is a full semi-auto necessary if you’re trying to take down an elephant?"

"Do you also dislike elephants?"

"I actually like them. That’s why I’d use slug rounds if I ever needed to stop one."

Having only used handguns until now, the weight of a shotgun felt completely different in my hands. Eren watched me try out various stances.

"Benelli’s semi-automatic system relies on recoil to cycle the next round. When you use low-recoil or non-lethal rounds, it sometimes fails to load properly."

"So in those cases you switch to manual?"

"Exactly. Pump-action is more reliable when you’re using non-lethal loads."

He had emphasized that the shotgun’s real strength was flexibility with ammunition. In other words: lethal and non-lethal, each used for its proper purpose.

So this was the Benelli M3.

As a skilled hunter, Eren must have felt uneasy listening to me talk as if I would only ever load the heaviest, most destructive shells. It was good that he asked.

On reflection, the shotgun I needed didn’t have to be excessively powerful. It only had to break through an opponent’s defenses. If I stubbornly insisted on oversized lead bullets every time, my own body and my Soul Excretion would be wrecked before I could finish the job.

There would be plenty of situations where careful, deliberate shots were better.

"Thank you."

"Like me, attach it with a sling and carry it on your shoulder. Then when a situation arises"

With a smooth motion Eren grabbed the Benelli’s body like a guitar and spun it into a proper firing grip. Wow. Impressive.

"That’s how you switch."

"I’ll buy it right now."

"It must be pretty expensive for an academy student."

2,500 coins... The Python hadn’t been cheap either, but this easily surpassed it. At this point it was hard to even call it a luxury. No one could complain after I’d already sent 300,000 coins home.

I collected every type of shotgun ammunition I could find including non-lethal rubber rounds and added them to my inventory.

What was this "Dragon’s Breath"?

"Incendiary buckshot. It sets targets on fire. Like I said earlier, rounds like this can jam a semi-auto."

"In reality it might happen only occasionally, but inside a dungeon it’ll definitely happen."

"You understand well. That’s exactly when pump-action becomes useful."

I never expected there to be actual magical fire-breathing shotgun shells.

Sometimes advanced technology really was indistinguishable from magic.

I decided to buy the Dragon’s Breath as well.

Keeping Eren’s advice in mind to practice switching ammunition types as needed I also bought a shell belt, loaded the thick shells one by one, and tested how it affected my mobility.

"I’ll take this too."

Total expenditure: 5,844 coins.