Matan’s Shooter

-Kijeong, I got another achievement..

-Huh? What achievement did you get? What’s your level?

– It’s still 1. I got it while hitting the scarecrow at the training camp.

-What?. Is there something like that? What’s the effect? No, didn’t you say you got an achievement that gave a skill before?

Leeha heard Kijeong’s voice in his head and he couldn’t hold back his smile. Didn’t you know more about achievements after making the strategy book or something?

-Kek, yes. But it’s different from before. This one gave me 3 strength and 2 intelligence.

-Heol，amazing. It’s like you leveled up once.

-Leveled up once?

-Every time you level up, it gives you five points, this means that hyung is 1 level ahead of others in terms of stats.

-Yes，try opening your character window. Look for the plus sign.

Leeha opened the character window while listening to Kijeong’s voice tickling his head.

Name : Ha Leeha / Race : Human

Job : None / Level : 1 (0%)

Title : None / Achievement : 2

HP ： 160 / MP ： 50

Stats :

Strength 13(+3)

Agility 13(+3)

Intelligence 12(+2)

Constitution 13(+3)

Mind 10

-It’s surprisingly simple?

-There aren’t many visible information. Stamina and energy can’t be seen anywhere. You have to figure it out on your own and get the feel for it.

Leeha also knew about stamina. That is used when running. But what’s it’s other use?

-What is energy again?

-Simply put, isn’t it your hunger level? When you run out of energy, you won’t be able to recover your HP and MP. Potion is expensive, so you can’t drink anyway… When you’re a beginner, you just die if you can’t manage your energy.

Leeha murmured at Kijeong’s explanation.

‘As expected from a game called Middle Earth. It’s like a game for unkindness, literally due to unkindness.’

-Oh, it’s the same for item weight. There are moments where your movement slows down. You have to manage weight as well.

-What do you mean the same? You can’t see it? You won’t be able to tell your current weight?

-No, you can’t. If you think it’s getting heavy, it’s better to leave your items behind. Leave it at the warehouse. If there’s too many. At least put a marker and pay attention to manage it well.

Every level gives 5 stat points. As a result of his recent achievements, his stats now looked like he leveled up twice. Then, how far is the difference between him and the strongest in Middle Earth? Leeha asked what he was curious about.

-What is the highest level? Who has the highest level?

-I don’t know. Nothing is revealed yet. They say that the highest level of people right now is 200, but I don’t know exactly.

“200?”

Stop. At the end of Kijeong’s words, Leeha murmured. ‘The highest level is 200, four months after opening? Then, what’s the level cap of this game? Given that the level has already exceeded 100 units, the maximum level is likely to be 500 or 1,000. It is not something that you’d like to get with just two achievements, is it?’

Leeha was able to understand this because he was familiar with games. When someone reaches the max level, the difference between, a max level and a max level + 1 will be huge. Then what about max level and max level + 2?

-What? Are you already interested in the rankers after only just starting the game? Kukuk, are you going to the class tower now?

-Yes. I’ll go and get a job.

-Don’t mess with anything! It says it’s automatically determined by the algorithm, right?

-I know. I know.

-Good luck.

Kijeong was hunting so he suddenly lost contact. Leeha lost the tingling sensation in his head so he knew that was the case.

‘I can’t get used to this’ Leeha’s head buzzed and suddenly became quiet, so he was flustered.

“Didn’t they say this is a beginner village?”

Candle Castle was a beginner village, but there were a lot of users with good weapons and armors.

There was shabby looking person wearing a good looking leather armor, a person with a round shield on his wrist who is looking for party members.

Leeha was busy looking around like a dog on a walk for the first time, after passing through the fountain square in the center he reached the Class Tower in the south.

And a 5-story stone pagoda that was revealed.

[Class Tower] Even though the starting village was different, the location of the “Class Tower” was the same, so it was also the place with the most information shared in the Middle Earth community.

“Hello sir.”

Leeha went inside the class tower. People can be seen, as if they were waiting for a party, but the one who spoke to Leeha was the man in the front desk.

“Stranger. Are you here to find out your potential?”

“That right.”

“Stand on top of that.”

“Okay.”

The man wearing a green robe and holding a long stick instructed Leeha, there is a weak light on the hexagonal circle painted on the stone floor.

“Are you ready??”

“Yes.”

“That’s a good smile. Hope you have luck.”

“Yes?”

Shaaaht- The light from the hexagonal circle enveloped Leeha’s body without receiving an answer. A familiar voice was heard after the blinding light disappeared.

[Chachan! We meet again!]

Similar to the time Leeha created his avatar, he was once again in a space of nothingness. The first thing he did was to make sure he was wearing clothes.

“Ara? We meet again!”

[Isn’t that a joke? Then, what kind of weapon will you, the Candle Castle’s Model Student, choose? Once you have confirmed the weapon you want, your job will be determined, so choose carefully!]

He thought, “Artificial Intelligence is not a joke.” It’s not like fighting games.

“Wow, I heard that there are a lot of weapons, but this is completely……”

In addition, there were so many things that he couldn’t care about the helper anymore.

Leeha realized the meaning of what Kijeong said to pick up the wand without paying attention to other things.

‘Because there are so many, your eyes will turn white.’

Weapons for melee dealers such as Long Sword, Unwoldo, and Bastard Sword.

Tanker armors such as round shield, tower shield, and kite shield.

Weapons for magic dealers such as staff, wands, orbs, and even combs.

Weapons for physical ranged dealers, such as composite bow, long bow, and crossbow.

Healer weapons such as Bibles, crosses, and beads.

In addition, numerous weapons and armors with unknown names were shown and floating in the air.

If you hold a sword and shield, you will become a knight, if you hold an axe, you will be a fighter, and your hold a sword you will become a mercenary or a warrior depending on which sword you hold.

Even with wizard class, have differences such as dealing large amount of damage in one shot, slowly kiting and killing, or summoning evil spirits.

Looking at so many items, the Leeha naturally stepped forward.

‘Wand… … Let’s see…’

He even forgot that his lower body is crippled in reality.

‘There is also a shuriken. Is there a job like a ninja?’

There is no way to know how many weapons and jobs there are.

“It doesn’t matter if I just try it right? I will still need to confirm before changing job?”

[Yes, you can try to your heart’s content until you find the one you want!]

The answer came as if she had been waiting.

Leeha grabbed a sword and swung it, and he also raised a bow to shoot. The arrow that flies towards the target. The demonstration was easy due to the combat assistance system but it was difficult to aim and hit manually.

‘The archer system seems to be okay..’

As he was testing the wand with a smile, a weapon came into Leeha’s eyes.

“What? You have something like that?? Uh, isn’t Middle Earth a medieval fantasy? Isn’t that a little weird? No, the middle ages would be the middle ages.”

[If you are curious, you can go and touch it!]

Leeha reached out and grabbed the weapon floating in the air. Similar to the wizard’s staff or a little shorter.

Length about 1.5m. Weight approx. 4.5 kg. Heavy touch to the hand.

A weapon in which the warmth of wood and the coldness of iron coexist, no firearms.

“This……. Isn’t this a gun??”

Not a modern rifle.

Those who enjoyed FPS games and war games might think that it resembles the American semi-automatic rifle M1 Garand.

‘No. The technology is not that advanced.’

Compared to modern rifles, the M1 Garand cannot be called “advanced technology,” but semi-automatic rifles were a revolution.

The gun he is holding is a much earlier model.

“Is it… … a musket.”

[Do you know what kind of gun it is?] When asked by the helper, Leeha looked at the gun. Careful but quick hand movements, unfamiliar but familiar touch.

“I’m not sure about the model, but it’s before Pauléon, around 1700……. It’s not a bolt action, not even an afterthought. It is a full-length musket.”

A ‘flint lock’ method with a gunpowder dish and flint embedded in the ball. In addition, the lack of space to insert the bullet behind means that you have to push the bullet lead or iron ball into the muzzle.

It’s a gun I’ve seen a lot in movies.

‘No, I saw it in the game, so it’s not really.’

The voice of the artificial intelligence echoed in Leeha’s ears, soaked with emotion.

[As expected, Candle Castle’s Model Student! That’s the answer! You know firearms!]

“Can I shoot this one?”

[Sure! So far, why have you been asking about other swords and bows?]

Karuruk, the artificial intelligence made fun of Leeha. However, Leeha was so excited that he couldn’t even care about it.

‘It’s a full-length musket. Did they implement something like this?’

When he held the bow, an arrow appeared automatically in his inventory. What if you hold a musket?

‘Inventory.’

When Leeha opened his bag, the musket and the set of items came into his eyes.

〈Black Powder XI〉, 〈Iron Ball Bullet XI〉, 〈Twisted Belt〉

“Haha, it is true.”

There is a degree of reality.

Do you really have to use all of the items that a battlefield musket uses?

Leeha felt it absurd but couldn’t afford to argue. He understand that ammunition is quantified, but even gunpowder?

‘Even with bullets, if there is no gunpowder, it means that you won’t be able to fire it. And vice versa.’

Still, Leeha is having fun. Right, anyway, it’s still a gun.

Leeha lifted the musket. A target that appears in the air in an instant, with the distance about 40m.

When he lifted the bow, the target appeared in the distance of 50 meters, this means that the range of the musket is shorter that the bow even though it is a gun.

‘Good. Let’s shoot.’

Keudeuk, keudeuk.

When Leeha thought about shooting, he felt his heartbeat. With the help of the combat assistance system, Leeha lifted the musket.

No matter how much knowledge you have on rifles, what you know is still different from what you actually do. Since this is the first time he dealt with battlefield muskets, Leeha simply relied on the combat assistance system to let his body move automatically.

With the musket’s butt on his thigh, he moved the gun at an angle.

Then click, he opened the powder plate.

Took out the paper-wrapped black powder from the bag, poured a small amount into the powder plate, and closed it.

‘It’s so slow.’

The musket was placed vertically on the floor and the remaining gunpowder was poured into the muzzle. Then he opened the bag again, took out the iron ball bullet and inserted it into the muzzle!!

‘Are we shooting now?’

However, the Leeha’s hand only picked up another item.

Sticking the skewer longer than the barrel into the muzzle and pressing the skewer several times.

Only then did the Leeha’s body lift the musket.

It weighs 4.5kg, and it is not light.

It was held above his shoulder by the combat assistance system and aimed automatically.

Finally, his trigger finger moved.

Taaang—!

When gunpowder splattered, it had a nasty smell, and the name “black” gunpowder was overshadowed by a mass of “white” smoke that came out.

“Koheok, Koheok”

Leeha set up the musket and eagerly dispersed the smoke with his hands. However, target that was only 40m away was not hit.

“Huh?”

[It missed! In general, muskets have a 50% accuracy at 40m distance. Didn’t you look at the description of the weapon, Mr. Model Student??]

(To be continued)