77. Silver Plated Shotgun

The most popular of the four lots was this fire lizard leather armor with a foot-long slit on its chest. This well-made fire lizard leather armor was different from the one worn by the young warrior of the War Wolf Clan, who wore a one-piece leather armor with the upper body and leather trousers sewn together. Kurtz told me that fire lizard skin is almost the strongest and most durable of the first class beasts, and that this is the beast that stands at the top of the food chain in the northern foothills of the Pai plateau, and as long as it doesn't go into the northern foothills to seek death and just roam the wilderness, the most powerful beast is the fire lizard, which makes very popular leather armour.

The orcs in the room, most of whom were probably excellent leather makers, were not the least bit worried about the cuts in the leather armour, which meant that the torn upper body armour was worth repairing, and when auctioneer Koro offered a starting price of three gold, it was instantly doubled by the mad orcs in the room, and was finally priced at seven gold and fifteen silver coins and bought by an orc hunter, I was amazed that there were still some rich people among the orcs.

When the auctioneer, Koro, introduced the last broken lot, I was enlightened. Who said I had to buy a crossbow to fight, a shotgun like the one on the stand would do for me! With the power I have now, I could barely use a short-barrelled shotgun like this, and it would be much easier to carry than a crossbow.

"This is a very collectible silver-plated shotgun, the work of the famous master gun maker Freki!" That was the first thing Koro said, and then I decided that the rest of what he said was no longer relevant. The short-barrelled shotgun had already been characterised, and such a shotgun, with all its lavish exterior decoration clad in secret silver and finely carved, could only be hung on the wall and slowly admired, with no possibility of ever being taken out and used again.

"The accidental destruction of the magic crystal at the heart of this shotgun's lead shot excitation mechanism has left this silver-plated shotgun with a fatal design flaw that prevents it from being re-set with a high quality magic crystal, hence why it is here! Although this shotgun is unusable, it still does not disguise the fact that it is a blue quality exquisite grade silver plated shotgun. If there is anyone present who likes firearms, they may wish to take this gun away with them, the starting bid for this damaged silver plated shotgun is three gold." Auctioneer Koro took the silver-plated shotgun in his hand and showed us the exquisite carved pattern on this shotgun, which had been exquisitely crafted.

I sighed darkly at the fact that it was unusable.

The reason why shotguns are not very common in the Orc market is that Orc warriors prefer throwing weapons other than bows, such as short spears, flying axes, flying swords and so on. There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is the price. They are not as practical as hard bows, and the lead pellets are not recyclable, making them far less economical than arrows that can be used over and over again. In addition, the complex manufacturing process makes the maintenance of hunting rifles very harsh, and the orc warriors who are used to the rough and tumble are very averse to the maintenance of firearms, so few orcs are willing to buy an expensive hunting rifle unless they have special needs.

There was no gunpowder in this era, and the guns were able to fire lead pellets only because of the instantaneous generation of a large amount of energy from the magic spell in the excitation device, which instantly pushed the lead pellets out of the barrel. Even a child can carry a shotgun into battle if he learns how to use it properly.

The Dwarves, with their dark humour, gave the different grades of lead pellets funny names, the cheapest being the black, pure lead pellets, which were jokingly called black beans by the Dwarves. The slightly better copper-clad lead pellets were known as copper peas, and the more expensive silver peas with magical damage, which were shotgun pellets.

"May I ask, Mr Auctioneer!" One of the human traders raised his hand and rose, interrupting Koro's presentation.

Koro was displeased that he had been interrupted in the middle of the auction, a very rude and irritating thing to do, but when Koro found the source of the voice, the anger on his face turned into a warm spring breeze and he gestured to the man with a very patient and polite hand and said, "Your Excellency Rishkos, please ask your question and I will do my best to answer it! "

It was not a great orc or a powerful orc who could make Koro speak in such a humble manner, but a human merchant who had spent at least a hundred gold coins at the auction, almost a tenth of the total sales of the auction, and who was more like a tail-wagging pug.

The merchant's question was to my liking as he asked Koro, "Where exactly is this shotgun damaged, please tell me more about it, perhaps there is a master gunsmith in my human kingdom who can repair it, otherwise from a craftsmanship point of view alone, this silver plated shotgun is not much of a collector's item."

Yeah, where exactly is it broken? That's exactly what I wanted to ask, but Ro only said that the magic crystal at the heart of the excitation device was damaged, and shouldn't the energy stone inlay slot on the excitation device be used repeatedly? Even if the magic crystal was not accidentally destroyed, but was reduced to countless particles after the magic power had been exhausted, wouldn't it still need to be set with a new one? That was the question I had in mind.

The silver-plated hunting rifle has been identified by the master craftsmen of our Chamber of Commerce and confirmed that the magic crystal inlay slot, which is the core of the magic pattern array in the excitation device, is damaged and the broken magic crystal cannot be completely removed. As a result, the magic matrix could not be activated and generate a huge amount of energy to push the pellet out. The problem now is that it is impossible to remove the broken magic crystal without damaging the inlay, which would only result in the destruction of the magic pattern at the base of the magic pattern, knowing that the core component of the gun is to activate the magic pattern on the mount. So for the moment this silver plated shotgun is a bad gun without a source of magical energy, and our master craftsmen at the Chamber of Commerce suggest that such an exquisite silver plated shotgun would make a fine collector's item."

"Mr. Auctioneer, you mean to say that the magic crystal on the silver plated shotgun is broken, yet you are worried that when you remove the magic crystal, you will damage the magic spell formation that inspires the device, so you have decided that the gun is beyond repair, right? What if ... I mean what if! If a magician injects magic power into the magic pattern array of this silver plated shotgun, then the gun can still be used, right? Now the problem is that if an ordinary person wants to use a shotgun like this, they have to do everything they can to weed out the broken magic crystals from the gun, don't they!" Rishkos asked the auctioneer, Koro.

Koro didn't know much about the silver plated shotgun and was at a loss for an answer to Rishikos's more technical question, standing awkwardly on the platform in a sweat. It was not long before a waiter trotted onto the platform and whispered in the auctioneer's ear, before Koro, with a calm look on his face, said to the merchant, Rishkos, with great confidence, "You are right, Sir Rishkos."

"Well, then, I have no further questions, so please continue! For this, I personally express my sincere gratitude to you and to the Union of Chambers of Commerce!"

I suddenly turned my head and asked Sister Gogo, "Sister, how much magic power is consumed by the magic spell of a normal firearms excitation device?"

Sister Gogo, who was bored to death at the side, had already drifted off to sleep, and if she wasn't worried that we might encounter danger like yesterday, Sister Gogo's character would have already stopped staying long ago. After hearing my question, she obviously didn't know that the auctioneer Koro on the stage was auctioning off a shotgun at this moment, and frowned in thought before saying, "A shotgun is something that only exists in the Dwarven Kingdom, and it's also very rare, right! It is extremely complicated to make and not easy to maintain, even dwarves who are proficient in instruments don't like shotguns. The magic spell is no bigger than a matchbox, and the magic crystals consumed are extremely small, one primary magic crystal can only stimulate the lead pellet more than 10,000 times. Oh, why do you ask?"

"Huh! Ja, are you going to buy that shotgun?" Kiger, who was sitting on the other side of me, interjected when she heard what Koko-san and I were talking about, her eyes became bright and I knew she also found the flawed shotgun to be a perfect fit for me.

I had a little bit of magic power, but it was not enough to cast a full damage spell, so I could only defend myself a little bit when I entered the wilderness, but I lacked the means to attack. I lacked systematic strength training, and being a human child I was naturally weaker than orc children in terms of strength attributes. The crossbow did not require a strong arm, it could be easily drawn with an aid, but the disadvantage was that it was slow and took a long time to wind up after firing the arrow, enough time for any beast to come at me from a hundred metres away and tear me apart.

But this flawed silver-plated shotgun happened to be missing the power section, because of the accidental damage to the magic crystals and the broken magic crystal inlay slot, which eventually led to no way to repair it, and if the gem inlay slot was repaired it would have damaged the magic pattern spell in the excitation mechanism, so for such a very special shotgun, I felt as if it was tailor-made for me.

I nodded in the affirmative and said to Kiger with great certainty, "Yes, I want it!"

Two days ago, I'm afraid that even if I had known that such a shotgun would suit me perfectly, even if I had seen it at the auction, I wouldn't have been able to afford it, so I would have ignored it without hesitation, but now it was different, and I surreptitiously felt my money pouch in my arms, which was heavy and still contained seventeen yellow and orange gold coins, and they made me feel very confident.

The corners of Kiger's mouth curled up and as the auctioneer, Koro, announced the start of the bidding, she raised her hand again and said loudly, "Three gold coins!"

The merchant known as Rishikos also said without panic, "Three gold coins and ten silver coins!"

"Four gold coins!" Kiger didn't even wait for Rishikos' words to fall, and the crisp voice echoed through the auction hall once again.

I made a face at him and he was obviously surprised that there was a row of people sitting at the top of the stand opposite him. "

"Five gold coins!"

Kiger still didn't half hesitate.

Rishikos looked at the auctioneer Koro and finally decided to give up.

The orc auctioneer Koro said with a witty tone, "This silver plated shotgun now belongs to this beautiful human lady, please come to the front and trade with our valet live, it seems you are a collector, I have been impressed with you since the beginning of the auction with the broken sword, have a good time at this auction!"

"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed, and before Kiger could respond, fucked the money bag and ran off.

"Oh no, it's you again little one, please be careful this time, if you accidentally damage any of the tables, chairs and benches in the venue again, I will ask you to pay me a silver coin for the repairs, please be careful! This gun is not the same as a broken sword, it may shatter on a chair." The auctioneer, Koro, handed me the silver-plated shotgun carefully and, seeing me shake it in my hands without a care, hastened to advise me that I guessed he didn't want anything to happen to it until it was in Kig's hands, seeing as I was such a rash child, it was always bad to have a dispute if I accidentally broke this finely crafted and extraordinarily intricate firearm.

Once I had the shotgun, it didn't feel as heavy as I thought it would, the black crushed wood stock and silver-plated brass barrel didn't weigh too much on my shoulders, and with a mischievous grin, I carried it back over my shoulder.

"Hey, kid!" Crow's distinctive voice came from behind me, and I thought he was calling me.

I looked back at Koro strangely, only to see him on the stage gesturing for me to wait while a waiter came up from a side aisle, carrying a leather pocket in his hand and handing it to me, which I took feeling heavy. It was then that Korro, the auctioneer on the stand, smiled at me and said, "The original owner of this gun came with a pocket of copper peas, I don't know if I can still use them, but the bag is yours too."

I hadn't expected a bag of pellets to be included, and slung the leather pouch, which looked like a water bladder, around my waist, I gave Koro a deep look before turning to walk back.

By this time Koko-san and Kiger and the girls were already on their feet, just waiting for me to return before heading straight for the exit of the auction house.

"Why the rush?" I asked.

Kurtz came up to me and said, "We need to go to the livestock market north of town to buy a beast, we need a big animal to carry our load now, otherwise we won't be able to carry the hides we've hunted and the herbs we've gathered before we get deeper into the wilderness."

I asked in wonder, "Why do you make it sound like you're going in there to collect money, when the wilderness is so rich, why don't we see all our fellow orcs here in Yemen going into the wilderness to make a living?"

"How can that be the same, those primary magical beasts in the wasteland, such as wind wolves, hyenas and the like, are still very dangerous for ordinary orcs." Kurtz put an arm around my shoulders as we followed Sister Gogo down the shadowy passageway of the auction house and walked outside.

I turned my head to glare at Kuz and said, "Didn't you say that none of those magical beasts were dangerous? Now why do you say they're dangerous to ordinary orcs, and do you see me beating an ordinary orc now?"

"You're different!" Kurtz said with a straight face, "You have me and I will protect you."

When a child is told with conviction by another, older child that I will protect you! It makes my stomach hurt, especially when I'm still on the weaker side, and I even want to grab Kurtz by the throat and make him swallow those very humiliating words back down. Kurtz, who is definitely an extremely sensitive orc, looked at the disdain in my eyes and asked me with a glare and a pat on the back, "Ja, you don't believe me?"

"I do!"

I can't really say too much sometimes about this werewolf teenager who likes to take the bull by the horns.

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