The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 108

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 108

The butterfly drooped its antennae and wings weakly. She lifted the butterfly with her finger and moved it to the handle’s pattern as she spoke.

‘It’s dangerous because of the recoil, so stay inside.’

[Lament: Isn’t this not the time to worry about an artificial spirit, user…]

The drooping butterfly seeped back into the gun. Rita immediately fired.

Whoosh—the harpoon fired with the suppressed sound of a silenced shot flew far beyond normal range and embedded cleanly into the cliff’s edge. The line made from processed Oaths stretched taut.

Rita crumpled a handkerchief in her mouth and gripped the gun with both hands. Grace reported in a weary voice.

[Casting: Applying enhancement magic to the user’s arms.]

‘Thank you.’

As soon as she retracted the Oaths, the line’s length rapidly shortened. Naturally, her body shot up like a slingshot and rose diagonally along the line.

In the blink of an eye, Rita reached the cliff’s edge where the harpoon was embedded and stretched her arms to pull herself up onto the cliff.

Only after sitting on the cliff did she spit out the handkerchief she had bitten to suppress her groans, wiping the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand and letting out a long breath.

‘It hurts like hell even with the fixation. But there’s hardly any bleeding. The injury didn’t worsen either. See, I told you I could handle it.’

[Opinion: The creator’s assessment is correct. The user is insane.]

‘Why…’

Rita felt inwardly wronged.

She had only done what seemed necessary and the results were good, so why did she always have to listen to nagging? Couldn’t Grace just admire her for executing the operation well?

Despite her injured state, she had successfully moved to the target location, so shouldn’t she be receiving praise instead? She understood the concern, but the injury hadn’t worsened and she had prepared for everything…

However, since voicing such thoughts usually led to longer lectures, she decided to keep her mouth shut and focus on what needed to be done.

After carefully positioning her legs to avoid touching the embedded horn and settling into a comfortable position, she looked down at the Crawler that appeared finger-sized from this distance.

Even with her good eyesight, it was too far away to see anything clearly except the writhing giant worm and occasional flashes of light.

Rita was about to ask Grace to cast magic, but fearing more nagging, she simply brought her index and middle fingers to her neck herself.

“〈I desire the gaze of a hawk and the vision of an eagle.〉”

Oaths gathered in her eyes and enhanced them. She looked down at the battlefield with vision like that of a bird of prey.

The first thing that caught her eye was the magic circle spread wide across the forest floor beneath the rampaging Crawler, glowing softly.

‘That’s what Oli set up. She won’t have time to do anything else while maintaining that.’

She immediately understood its purpose upon seeing it. Oli had used that magic circle when fighting Crawlers in the Ash Ruin Era too.

To contain Crawlers that would burrow underground and flee when pushed back, the Beacon’s Witch had performed the tremendous feat of laying a barrier across the entire battlefield floor.

The Crawler could only burrow underground by either breaking through that barrier or crawling completely outside the magic circle’s range.

‘The one blocking and holding the Crawler to prevent it from leaving the magic circle…’

That had been Gid’s role back then, but currently on the battlefield, Lucas was fulfilling that role.

A Beast with its entire body covered in stiff blue fur, swollen to three times its original height, was wrestling with claws sprouted from its massive hands embedded between the Crawler’s segments.

‘Luca made his body incredibly large. Did he overdo the swelling because of the Crawler’s size?’

Luca’s ‘Beast Transformation,’ which could modify body shape and increase size using Oaths, was a useful and powerful ability in many ways, but it was also an inefficient technique requiring enormous food consumption and high Oath usage.

‘While Luca and Oli hold out, someone else needs to somehow wound the Crawler’s body…’

Seven Special Agents in black uniforms with torch flame insignias.

They seemed to be Tritoma Squad 3, who had discovered the Crawler and initiated combat, and while they were all attacking with everything they had, it didn’t seem particularly effective. Despite all sorts of techniques being unleashed, not even a scratch appeared on the Crawler’s reddish skin that seemed like rock or steel.

But the Special Agents couldn’t be blamed for this.

‘That thing deflected all my bullets too, so it’s impossible for rookies who’ve at most faced a few ordinary magical beasts.’

Oli and Luca could probably hold out for another 15 minutes like this, but those Special Agents wouldn’t be able to pierce the Crawler’s shell even if given 15 minutes.

Indeed, her judgment to climb the cliff had been correct.

After completing her battlefield assessment during the 30 seconds of enhancement magic, she gathered golden Oaths in her hands and began directly crafting them with care.

[Question: User, what are you fabricating?]

‘Extension parts.’

If this were the magic gun she originally used, she could simply execute extension mode without such troublesome work, but unfortunately Silvergrass was not a cutting-edge magic gun but an old-fashioned revolver.

‘Since there’s no built-in function, I have to fabricate each part by hand.’

[Question: What kind of extension is this for?]

‘Quiet. I need to concentrate.’

Form fabrication wasn’t her specialty, so concentration was necessary. Both for creating and maintaining the form.

It was difficult, but honestly, it was also enjoyable work for Rita. Fabricating parts to convert a revolver into a sniper rifle.

Her purple eyes fixed on each part being created. Lillieta became instantly absorbed, even forgetting the pain rising from her thigh.

About 3 minutes later, all parts were completed. She began carefully attaching the softly glowing golden parts to Silvergrass.

First, she attached a stock to the back of the revolver. The Oath-made part combined perfectly with the rear of the grip in a physically impossible manner.

Next, she fitted an extension part to the end of the barrel. A golden cylinder extended from the silver muzzle, lengthening the barrel.

Finally, she mounted a bipod at the end of the now-lengthened barrel. A support stand to fix the muzzle without trembling.

After finishing assembly, Rita bit her lip and carefully crawled prone, mindful of her injured leg.

‘Grace, judge as an artificial spirit. Is the revolver you’re inhabiting now sufficient to function as a sniper rifle?’

[Verification: …If vision enhancement magic substitutes for a scope, the user’s skill covers trigger fine-tuning, and recoil control and dispersion are handled, the current Silvergrass can sufficiently function as a sniper rifle.]

[Shock: User, are all Fabrication Pact Holders capable of such things? Or is the user unusual?]

‘Not all, but there are quite a few Oathbinders capable of such work. Someone specializing in form fabrication would do it faster than me… Actually, the basic principle is the same as firing Matan barehanded without a gun.’

[Confusion: According to the knowledge the creator input into this artificial spirit, this kind of firearm modification is close to fantasy. I’m confused whether the user has realized fantasy, or if there’s knowledge the creator missed during input.]

‘Oli must have forgotten to input it.’

Rita wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and replied while carefully moving the silver and gold sniper rifle.

‘I’ve done similar things several times before. Back when it was hard to obtain magic guns with built-in sniper modes.’

The Crawler, raging wildly and twisting its body, came into position at the end of her muzzle. While making fine adjustments, she whispered to Grace.

‘Grace, send a signal to Oli. Tell her I’ll snipe the Crawler’s ring segment in 2 minutes. And cast enhancement magic on me in 1 minute 40 seconds.’

[Confirmed: Understood, user.]

Lillieta took position while counting time internally.

She pressed her entire body against the ground to stabilize it. Pressing the stock firmly against her shoulder, she placed her right hand on the trigger guard with her elbow on the ground. With her left hand supporting under the stock, she confirmed the muzzle was fixed on the bipod.

Simultaneously, brilliant Oaths gathered in the barrel as the surroundings gradually turned red. Twilight bloomed at the muzzle.

‘When I pierced this thing at close range with this technique before, I needed power equivalent to 10 explosive rounds.’

To penetrate the same magical beast’s shell with a sniper shot from about 1km distance would require roughly double that power.

Even that calculation was only possible because Oath-fabricated bullets had less distance-related loss than regular bullets.

‘Then to be safe… I’ll need to compress more than 20 rounds.’

The light gathered at the muzzle blazed pure white. The rising heat made the surroundings shimmer with heat waves. The crimson Oaths around her grew even redder, stained blood-colored.

A moment of twilight, sniper position.

23, 24 explosive rounds worth, no… 25 rounds worth, maximum output.

The excessively drawn Oaths made her head spin with dizziness. Even so, she didn’t stop.

‘It’s not overuse level. This is definitely possible.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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