Sniper

"Holy shit, I didn't think I had that many!" The young mage was astonished at the number of skills he now possessed. Checking through all of them, he simultaneously began to replace things where they had originally been. "With these, there's no way I'll be useless on the battlefield… Well, now that it's been 3 hours, I should go get those materials so I can something to alter the Silver Eagle into a long-ranged weapon." He had several ideas, but he could only implement them once he designed the attachment.

Returning to the lobby, he spotted Arcturus sleeping peacefully outside by the front doors, all despite numerous critters, especially cats, climbing all over him and using his warm, scaly body into a bed. This made Luca smile as he walked up to the receptionist, who had been admonished for her outburst earlier and looked quite guilty. "I'd like to withdraw 10kg of magic silver and two handfuls of clear crystals. Also, if possible, I'd like a quiet room for my crafting."

The Wood Elf, recalling the instructions from the quick note written by Austin, remembered that he could acquire materials up to the highest Double Copper bounty reward. As such, she nodded before heading into the back areas to the vault. Within ten minutes, she returned with a silver ring with a black stone embedded on it. "Your items are in this spatial ring. The note from the guildmaster designated it as both a reward and an investment, so do take care of it. A room has already been prepared for you upstairs beside the guildmaster's office. Please, follow me." She gracefully bowed like a concierge before leading Luca up towards the fifth floor of the circular tower.

After thanking her, Luca entered the room he was given access to, going over the schematics he was thinking of on the way up. With the assistance of the System, he decided to attempt an attachment that would convert the Silver Eagle into a sniper rifle. As he knew very few sniper rifles as compared to more oft-seen firearms, Luca had decided on basing it on the former Soviet Union's Dragunov model, including the semi-automatic bolt-action design.

Spending almost an hour and a half perfecting his schematics, followed by three hours to create it, Luca inspected it repeatedly to make sure it was to his precise specifications. To ensure it worked correctly, in particular the bolt-action firing method, he attached the extended barrel to the front of the Silver Eagle. Upon locking the side clips to the knives on the sides of the original barrel, the new attachment released a silvery liquid that encased the entire handgun. Not ten seconds of anticipatory viewing, aside from the silver colouration, a near-identical model of the Dragunov rifle lay on the desk before him. With a huge smile on his face, Luca checked it over and confirmed that it worked as intended. Now, there was only one thing left to do: live-fire testing.

___

At sunrise the next day, as a peaceful morning began, even the roosters forgot their natural duty on account of a loud gunshot alarming the city, and most especially those of in the City Lord's manor. As guards scrambled in a panic, Dominic and two of his personal retinue went towards the field just behind the manor's rear wall, which was a part of the city's defensive walls, where most of the animals in the city, warhorses, in particular, were kept. Far from the warhorse stables, on a hill facing the north, lay a white-haired boy and his weapon. The city lord had not seen Luca's personal weapon before, but, just like the others, he didn't truly understand its capabilities without witnessing it in person. The boy was focused on aiming through his new gear's scope at several targets, each of which stood at different distances, making sure that his stabilizers were properly placed. As Dominic began to speak, a second gunshot rang, dust kicking up in the wake of the sniper's barrel, followed by one of the targets being punched right through. The three men then heard Luca mumbling, "1000m test results: pass. Correcting for 1200m..."

As the young sniper repositioned himself for his next target, Dominic approached him. "What... is that?"

"Hmm? Oh, this? It's an upgrade to my personal weapon. It adds a lot of power and range to it, so, as long as nobody sneaks up on me or finds me, I can theoretically kill from beyond the range of most archers. So far, I have no problems with accuracy within 1000m, which is quintuple the original 200m. This is the best possible thing I could have made with what I had available, but it's more than enough. My personal weapon has is called the Silver Eagle, but with this new attached upgrade, it becomes the Silver Cannon. That said, it does have serious drawbacks. I can't fire as fast as I could before, and it requires manual work for each shot, meaning I can be killed by close-ranged attackers. It's also much louder than before, so if one can avoid it, they can immediately find my location, so after a few shots, I have to move. There's also a lot of work involved in using this thing... Ah, cover your ears." After a second of confusion, the three men covered their ears just in time for another gunshot, followed by Luca grunting, "Damn, just grazed it... Well, I can hit anything up to 1000m, maybe more if I'm lucky."

Dominic shook his head to clear his mind of the thoughts bouncing around in his skull as Luca began packing up his weapon, "That's... good... um... right, before I forget, the plan for the subjugation has been made, so we're departing two hours after daybreak. Since you've been approved to participate, make sure you're at the northern gates before then. We'll be sending some scouts on ahead, and with your assistance, we should be able to prepare for the attack immediately."

After detaching the sniper upgrade and storing it in his spatial ring, followed by holstering his handgun, Luca stood at attention, "Understood, sir. My partner and I, along with Thunder, are ready for battle."