I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 42
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 42
Episode 42
A test to determine the extent of Jia’s ability—more precisely, ‘Latent Threat Elimination’.
I first unsummoned Jia and re-entered the 30th Floor before leaving the area.
People who couldn’t see me, chattering about whether all party members had arrived yet.
Once I had put enough distance between us.
「Difficulty setting complete.
S+」
“What, what is this?”
“S+? Is Ilgyeok here?”
“But there are only four of us….”
“More importantly, didn’t Ilgyeok say he cleared the 30th Floor earlier?!”
Only then did they fall into chaos, scrambling about in confusion, but nothing changed.
Meanwhile, I quietly summoned Jia.
“….”
Jia remained silent as always.
Yet it was not dissatisfaction or malice, but rather an extreme loyalty.
As if to say: what need is there for words when I will follow any command without question?
As someone who had been a soldier operating under the principle of absolute obedience to orders, I understood that sentiment very well.
“The objective of this floor is to kill the Kobolt King inside that fortress.”
“….”
Jia simply gazed at me silently without a word in response to my explanation.
Having witnessed dozens of catapults sweep away Minjeong’s Skeletons moments ago, I spoke first as if confessing.
“Just so you know, it might be quite difficult. Do you think it’s possible?”
Honestly, no matter how remarkable an S+ grade item was, given the tank’s nature, she would simply clash head-on, and knowing that full well, I felt a twinge of conscience about sending her.
But Jia still gave no answer.
As if such trivial confirmations were unnecessary.
Clank— clank—
Jia walked forward in silence, producing the distinctive metallic sound of heavy armor.
‘That’s… cool….’
Honestly, I couldn’t help but admire that sight.
There was a romance in the back of a knight advancing without hesitation at her lord’s command, even before vast armies—a romance that stirred the hearts of many.
Especially when that lord of loyalty was myself.
The overwhelming appearance of the Cobalt Fortress.
And Jia, walking forward without the slightest hesitation.
“Hey, look over there!”
“There’s a person!”
“Is that Ilgyeok?”
“But she looks quite different from what we heard…?”
The Hunters also spotted Jia and began to make a fuss.
They knew well enough that they themselves weren’t Ilgyeok, so that person had to be him—but his appearance differed greatly from the rumors that had spread.
However, regardless of the Hunters’ shock and confusion.
Thud— thud-thud—!
As Jia crossed a certain threshold, the Cobalt Fortress unleashed dozens of boulders just as before.
‘Is she really just going to smash through all of that with her bare body?’
Ihyeon watched the situation with somewhat worried eyes.
Jia’s body, even clad in armor, possessed a solid sturdiness—but only when compared to an ordinary person.
Watching those overwhelming boulders descend in parabolic arcs, Jia walked forward calmly without employing any technique whatsoever, which made Ihyeon’s heart race with anxiety.
But.
———!
“????”
Ihyeon’s worry proved to be nothing but needless concern.
The moment Jia and the boulders collided, I could only doubt my own eyes.
“???!?!?!”
The other Hunters felt the same way.
‘What, what did she do?’
To be precise, it was closer to doing nothing at all.
Jia simply took an ordinary step forward, just as she had before.
And that was all.
So, despite Jia colliding with boulders several times larger than her own body without any defense.
———!
It was the boulders that shattered, not Jia.
It was an alien sight, as if the laws of physics in this world had malfunctioned.
Despite weighing several times more, the boulders that touched Jia’s body crumbled to dust like clumps of sand the same size.
Ihyeon’s eyes narrowed as he observed the scene.
An otherworldly aura emanated from Jia’s body as she casually received the boulders.
‘That is….’
After one volley of boulders had passed.
Jia now stood before the gate of the Cobalt Fortress.
How would she break through that gate?
There was nothing more to be surprised about at this point—merely a simple question.
It didn’t take long for an answer to come from Jia.
Though they hadn’t known each other long, her response was truly characteristic of her.
Boom—!
“Mm.”
As Jia extended her hand, a shockwave erupted, and the massive gate crumbled to pieces before them.
It was like witnessing a scene from mythology made real.
Ihyeon swallowed hard.
Breaking down a gate?
I could have done that easily enough with my Maesek Gun.
The reason this sight was so astonishing, however, was simple.
‘She’s still just protective equipment, after all.’
Jia’s true nature was the dark robe she wore.
That she withstood the catapult assault without a single scratch was forgivable—one could concede that an S+ grade defensive armor would manage that much—but how could one possibly explain such devastating offensive power?
As I pondered this, a massive horde of enraged Kobolds came surging toward Jia from within the fortress beyond the shattered gate.
There was no need to worry anymore.
I simply waited to see how she would withstand this onslaught.
Jia’s form vanished from my sight in an instant, swept away as if drowning in a sea of Kobolds.
Countless spears and blades were surely raining down upon her.
And I sensed it then.
‘I think I’m beginning to understand the principle behind this.’
If my intuition was correct, then Jia would prove to be—
—————!!!!
Truly worthy of being called the ultimate defensive armor.
If the sea of Kobolds had swallowed Jia whole,
then from the depths of that sea rose an unstoppable tidal wave.
A wet sound, and then an explosion erupting from the very center of the Kobold swarm.
‘No, “vibration” would be the more fitting word than “explosion.”‘
A tremendous vibration.
Countless Kobolds flew skyward, knocked into one another, tangled together and collapsed.
And at the epicenter of that vibration, as one would expect,
Clank— Clank—
there was Jia, walking forward with perfect composure, neither quickening nor slowing her pace.
No matter who attacked her, her stride remained unimpeded.
And whenever enough enemies had gathered,
———!!!
she would simply unleash another vibration to sweep away the troublesome obstacles.
‘So that’s what it was—could it be reflection?’
Now I was certain.
The principle behind that impossible offensive power was absorption and reflection.
When one thought about it, it was perfectly suited to Jia, who was armor incarnate.
And with that single technique, Jia, who had swept away every Kobold in the fortress,
「Kobolt King defeated.
30th Floor cleared.
Rank: S」
had, in the span of a mere moment, cleared the entire 30th Floor alone, without my assistance.
Clank— Clank—
The ruined Cobalt Fortress.
Jia emerged from the wreckage of the gate she had destroyed herself.
“What just… what happened?”
“A person enters and it’s cleared….”
“Is this the power of Ilgyeok?”
It all happened before the Hunters behind me could even comprehend the situation.
To be precise, it wasn’t Ilgyeok’s power—it was the power of the item he possessed.
The moment I confirmed the clear, I didn’t waste any more time and exited the Floor.
Of course, after I had unsummoned Jia.
To everyone else, it would have looked like Ilgyeok had single-handedly destroyed the fortress and then made his exit.
“That was seriously cool….”
“Do Dark Mages fight like that these days?”
“There’s no way….”
The remaining Hunters could only stand there with their mouths agape, replaying what they had just witnessed.
Meanwhile, I had already left the Public Floor and returned home, my heart trembling as I summoned Jia.
Whoosh—!
The moment she materialized, Jia knelt on one knee before me and spoke.
“There are no remaining enemies.”
The report was inevitably a bit delayed, but I nodded as naturally as I could manage.
“…Good work.”
There wouldn’t be any remaining enemies.
She had smashed them all to pieces and returned.
I hesitated for a moment because Jia had returned in far better condition than I had anticipated.
Looking at her, one might think she had gone for a stroll rather than cleared a dungeon.
Despite surely being scraped and pierced by countless blades, the lustrous sheen flowing across her black armor remained completely unchanged.
Not even a single bloodstain clung to her after close-quarters combat.
An utterly overwhelming conclusion.
A different kind of dominance than that of a sniper like me.
But what surprised me most was something else entirely.
「Item ‘Black Robe’ has leveled up.
Please check your status window.」
A notification I had missed in the chaos and only now noticed.
‘What is this now?’
It meant that the Black Robe—Jia herself—could also level up.
It was surprising, but thinking about it, wasn’t my sniper rifle also an item?
I silently opened Jia’s status window.
「Jia
Lv.21
Defense : 110
Mobility : 80
Mana : 70
Distributable Stats : 13」
“…?”
What kind of nonsense is this?
I stared at Jia’s stats, which reached the triple digits, and my mouth fell slightly open.
What?
Defense of 110?
How in the world could such absurd stats even exist?
As if to answer my curiosity, a new notification window appeared.
「From now on, the item’s level will grow alongside the user’s level.
Stats up to the previous level have been automatically distributed.」
‘Ah, I see.’
I nodded in understanding.
With the stats confirmed, the overwhelming power Jia had displayed when shattering the gate made perfect sense.
After all, by normal Hunter standards, triple-digit stats typically required reaching at least the 50th Floor.
Moreover, looking at the distributed stats, Jia gained a staggering 13 stat points per level.
If I could manually distribute that much every level, just like with my Maesek Gun, that would be remarkable in itself.
My Maesek Gun’s unprecedented 15 points per level.
But 13 was equally incomprehensible as a stat growth rate.
‘From what I know, the Divine Archer barely reaches superhuman status at 10, and the American hero is estimated to be around 12 or so.’
While inferior to the Maesek Gun, it meant Jia would receive absurd stat gains with each level.
And those would be distributed stats I could allocate directly.
I postponed the stat distribution for now and looked down at Jia, who remained in the same seated position.
As if asking if there was anything else, Jia slowly looked up at me.
There wasn’t.
‘Setting aside how much defense the Dark Robe provides… just summoning a spirit like this is a jackpot among jackpots.’
An item that could clear the S+ difficulty 30th Floor without any intervention—how could such a thing even exist?
Even if the Dark Robe were an ordinary garment that could be torn by a regular blade, no one could deny it was an S+ grade item.
“Alright, I understand. Would you go back inside for now?”
“Yes, Master.”
*Whoosh—*
Jia nodded and dissolved into light, being absorbed back into the Dark Robe.
‘But now that I’ve seen Jia’s form… is it really okay to keep wearing this?’
I watched her disappear for a moment, tilting my head slightly.
Well, since she’s an armor spirit, her appearance shouldn’t matter much, but I would’ve felt more comfortable if she were male instead.
Besides, no matter how exceptional her abilities were, using a woman as a shield felt somewhat uncomfortable to me.
‘Hmm. I don’t think I’ll have much use for her anyway, right?’
My current abilities were already sufficient for the Tower’s difficulty level, which made it even less likely.
I organized my thoughts on various matters.
* * *
“Did you go to the Tower?”
“Oh, Mom. You’re here?”
“I need to make sure you eat lunch. I came by during a break, and the timing is perfect.”
When Minjeong returned shortly after, I welcomed her back.
Then Minjeong noticed that my clothes had changed and acknowledged it.
“Did you buy new clothes?”
I shook my head.
“No, I obtained these as a reward for clearing the Tower.”
“Oh my, how splendid.”
Minjeong smiled and examined my outfit from every angle.
“I heard it’s quite rare for items to be given as rewards.”
“Yes, that’s right. I was fortunate.”
Minjeong had never been satisfied with the Orc armor I usually wore, finding it garish with poor design.
The appearance of this black combat suit seemed to please her greatly.
Understanding her sentiment, I smiled and nodded.
Was it merely good fortune?
At this rate, I might as well have exhausted a lifetime’s worth of luck in a single moment.
“Lunch is Beef Bone Soup. Would you like some?”
“Mother, about clearing the Tower…”
“Yes, yes, I knew you’d say that. Come quickly.”
Just as I was about to launch into my usual lengthy explanation about needing to eat immediately.
Minjeong cut off my words and headed to the kitchen first.
There was quite a fragrance wafting through.
In this day and age, Beef Bone Soup was common enough to appear in military cafeteria meals, but with Minjeong’s touch, it became something special.
From the moment the broth was simmered, various ingredients were added, and without a single condiment, a deep, rich flavor emerged—one bowl was enough to keep one satisfied throughout the entire day.
“Here, eat plenty.”
Minjeong ladled the soup generously into a large bowl and placed it before me.
“Looking at the Beef Bone Soup that Mother made with her own hands…”
“Don’t say such creepy things and just eat.”
Just as I was about to take a large spoonful.
Whoosh—
Light seeped from the black outfit I was wearing.
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
As both Minjeong and I were bewildered, Jia materialized once more in the kitchen.
Her gaze fixed on me, just as it had before when she appeared so loyally—
Gleam—
Or rather, her eyes seemed to be directed at the Beef Bone Soup in front of me in an ambiguous way.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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