Chapter 10: Witcher

In the crucible, a small spoonful of black granules erupted in flame, rapidly releasing heat as white smoke curled upward, then burned away completely within a second, leaving behind a thin layer of residue.

A smile appeared on Lei En's face; he was very satisfied with his results.

The black gunpowder he had formulated had not actually reached its maximum power, but limited by the purity of the raw materials, without purification tools on hand, and unable to precisely determine the chemical composition of these materials, this was the limit of what he could achieve.

Even so, it was sufficient for making bullets.

He sealed the prepared gunpowder in a jar, and next, Lei En immediately set about making a gun.

He opened the three-dimensional structural diagrams on his phone and browsed through the already unlocked firearms.

Handguns were eliminated first, because handguns have a small caliber, and combined with using black powder bullets, their lethality was limited. Moreover, handgun parts were more delicate, difficult to machine, and had higher requirements for metal materials.

Rifles were also out of the question; the several unlocked assault rifles and submachine guns were all gas-operated automatic weapons that simply could not use black powder bullets and would jam after a single shot.

There were two sniper rifles, but they were also unsuitable, with excessively high requirements for materials and machining precision.

The only option left was the shotgun, also known as the "scattergun."

Lei En often played games, so naturally he had heard that saying: before a scattergun, all beings are equal.

A shotgun had a large caliber, strong firepower, and a wide kill zone, making it suitable as a close-combat weapon. Lei En had only fired a gun once at a shooting range before, so his shooting ability was about the same as an ordinary person who had never touched a gun. If given a handgun or rifle, the difficulty of getting the hang of it would be too great, and he had no confidence he could hit an enemy at close range.

But if what he held in his hands was a scattergun, then his confidence would be much greater.

Moreover, black powder bullets were also suitable for shotguns; the downside was that the smoke after firing was too heavy, but that was unavoidable and could only be endured.

Among the unlocked three-dimensional structural diagrams there were three or four shotguns; eliminating the gas-operated semi-automatic models that were equally unsuitable for black powder bullets, Lei En ultimately chose the shotgun he was most familiar with and most classic—the Remington M870!

This shotgun was pump-action, requiring manual loading, with a capacity of seven rounds, a compact structure, reliable performance, and the simplest to manufacture.

Lei En had used this gun in many games.

He was a mechanical engineering major to begin with; even without the three-dimensional structural diagrams, he could have figured out the M870's structure on his own, though it would have taken more time.

In his field of view, the M870 was completely disassembled into parts: barrel, trigger, tubular magazine, screws, springs, foregrip, wooden stock… all the large and small parts added up to a total of 71.

Lei En first carefully observed all the parts once, repeatedly disassembling and reassembling the gun body over a dozen times, then viewing demonstrations of the working principles during firing and the shell ejection and loading process, quickly committing this shotgun's structure to memory, categorizing the parts, and deciding their manufacturing order.

Zoltan's workshop had a large stock of metal materials in reserve, including sheet metal, steel pipes, and springs of various tensions, all of which could be used to make a gun.

"Fortunately, this world also has guns, and the profession of gunsmith; otherwise, just the step of making qualified springs alone would have stumped me."

Lei En silently rejoiced for a moment, then decided to start with machining the barrel.

But before that, he needed to get the machine tool running and learn how to operate it.

He fiddled with the steam machine tool's workbench for a while and roughly understood its functions and operating methods, so he shoveled some coal under the boiler, lit it, and heated it; steam rose from the boiler, and before long, the machine tool was running.

Chug-chug-chug…

The flywheel spun, steam billowed, and the machine tool emitted a rhythmic friction sound; this kind of noise would be unbearable to most people, but in Lei En's ears it was like a beautiful song.

He installed the cutting head,

secured the barrel, then pushed the lever and began cutting.

When immersed in work, time always passed especially quickly, to the point of even forgetting the need to eat.

"Lei En, why are you still here?"

It wasn't until Zoltan rushed into the workshop and shouted, telling Lei En to shut off the steam machine tool so the noise wouldn't travel up from the basement and disturb the guests' rest, that he realized it was already nearly midnight and he had spent the entire day holed up in the workshop!

His stomach let out a series of rumbles, an intense wave of hunger surged up, and his limbs felt somewhat weak and sore.

He removed the coal from the furnace, and the steam machine tool gradually quieted down.

Zoltan grumbled at Lei En a few words, then casually picked up the recently machined barrel, originally just glancing at it out of curiosity, but when he got a clear look, his expression involuntarily changed.

"Did you machine this?"

Zoltan gently rubbed the barrel with his hand; with his years of experience, he could naturally see what was extraordinary about this tube.

The dark tube body gleamed with a black luster, evidently having undergone special treatment; one end was milled with threads, the cut clean and smooth without the slightest defect, the other end was split down the middle, leaving only half. Though he didn't know what the thing was for, just looking at the craftsmanship, he felt it was quite extraordinary.

"I had no idea you had this kind of skill; you're not much worse than the best mechanical craftsmen in Longshandecheng." Zoltan praised sincerely; even if he had done it himself, he wouldn't have done any better.

"You flatter me, boss."

Lei En chuckled inwardly; in truth, he was also somewhat amazed at his own skill. Having not operated a machine tool for many years since graduation, he hadn't expected that not only had he not regressed, he had actually gotten better.

However, most of the credit here belonged to the three-dimensional structural diagrams on his phone.

He only needed to drag a part out of the 3D diagram individually and overlay it with the barrel being machined, just like having a physical object placed alongside for comparison; machining according to the diagram reduced the difficulty considerably.

"Call me Zoltan."

The dwarf corrected Lei En's form of address, then asked curiously, "Lei En, is this a gun barrel? Isn't it a bit too long? The caliber is this large…"

Lei En hesitated for a moment; he knew he couldn't hide it from Zoltan, and it would be discovered sooner or later.

"Haha, if you don't want to say, then forget it; I won't steal your secret craft." Zoltan set down the barrel and said with a smile, "But when you finish building it, you must let me see it in action."

"Alright." Lei En nodded.

After tidying up the workshop a bit, Lei En went to the inn's lobby and found that even at this late hour, there were still several tables of people playing cards, and from the looks of it, they intended to battle until dawn.

He ordered an extra-large portion of potato stew with meat and a beer, and Lei En sat alone at a corner table to eat.

Having gone nearly a whole day without eating, this potato stew with meat, whose flavor was actually nothing special, tasted especially delicious. Lei En enjoyed his dinner while watching the card-playing guests.

Among these people were several Transcendents, one of whom was an acquaintance—the very Iron Guard he had seen on the street before. The shield and longsword he had originally carried on his back were tossed at his feet; with one hand holding cards and the other gripping a wine glass, his mouth spewed a constant stream of trash talk. His opponent was flushed red with anger but didn't dare speak up.

"Has he been playing cards from morning until now!"

"Is cardplaying really that fun?"

Lei En didn't quite understand, thinking to himself that when he had free time later, he could give it a try too.

Halfway through his meal, a figure entered through the inn's door. Zoltan, who had been playing cards with others, turned and saw this person, immediately threw down his cards and went up to greet him, calling out happily, "Roger!"

"Zoltan."

Roger's voice was quite magnetic and very pleasant to hear.

In contrast to Zoltan's warmth, Roger was expressionless, appearing somewhat cold and gloomy.

He looked like a young man, yet had gray-white hair like an old man's, simply combed back and tied. His features were extremely handsome, except for a scar over his left eye, as if caused by some beast's sharp claw, the wound running from his forehead down across his left eye to his cheek; fortunately, the eye itself was intact.

But his eyes also had an abnormality; the amber pupils stood up like cat eyes, looking rather frightening at first glance.

Besides, he wore a set of light blue armor, half leather half mail, exquisitely crafted, with a wolf-head pendant hanging from his neck, and two cross swords slung across his back, their hilts jutting out diagonally from his right shoulder.

Such a peculiar outfit drew curious glances even from some guests who were playing cards.

"Demon Hunter!"

Someone let out a low gasp.

Lei En immediately understood upon hearing it; Demon Hunter is a powerful supernatural profession, but for certain reasons their reputation is poor, they are not popular with people, and they are often opposed.

The traits of this supernatural profession are very obvious, especially the dual swords on the back, which are almost an exclusive mark of Demon Hunters.

At that moment, Luo Jie's eyes swept across the inn; anyone who met his gaze stared blankly for a moment, inexplicably feeling afraid and involuntarily looking away. Even those few supernatural beings could not bear it any more than ordinary people, and dared not speak.

This scene made people tense, knowing he was an extremely powerful supernatural being.

Lei En also caught that gaze, but fortunately he reacted extremely quickly, promptly lowering his head to pretend he was eating.

The whole inn lobby fell silent for a few seconds before returning to normal.

Zuo Ertan originally wanted to hug Luo Jie, but finding he couldn't reach, he instead vigorously patted the other's arm and happily said, "Old friend, it's been almost ten years since we last met; where have you been all these years, and why haven't you kept in touch with me?"

Luo Jie silently shook his head, seeming not wanting to mention his experiences.

He walked to the counter, took off the dual swords on his back and placed them aside, sat down wearily, picked up the cup Zuo Ertan had brought over, and drank it in one gulp.

Lei En sat farther away, and the noisy hall drowned out their conversation catching up.

He opened the phone interface, activated the camera function—that is, the "Soul's Eye"—first glancing at a few others, then making his gaze sweep over Luo Jie as if unintentionally.

The next second, Lei En saw Luo Jie's soul.

Then, as if struck by lightning, his whole body stiffened, as though he had seen something he shouldn't have, and like being blinded by strong sunlight, his eyes stung incessantly, and tears immediately streamed down.

"What the hell! What is this!"

Lei En shouted inwardly, quickly turned off the Soul's Eye, buried his head in eating beef and potato stew, and swallowed his tears.

In that instant, he faintly saw a golden soul with over ten layers of structure, and deep within the soul there were dozens of elemental runes!

"Could this guy possibly be a legendary Demon Hunter?"