Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

Indeed, why bear the burdens of the heart alone in silence?

‘It’s definitely the headmaster. Just need to utilize what’s around me!’

If Browless had heard, he would have protested that it wasn’t what he meant, but by then, Leeha’s switch had already been flipped on.

“Transforming will be hard enough without having to roar like Toon-“

“Ah, forget about the roaring. Just transform, quickly!”

Blaugrunn grumbled inwardly about the requester’s attitude but didn’t forget to cast the spell.

In a flicker of turquoise light, standing before Leeha was not the human form of a bronze dragon.

A 44 meter tall dinosaur with blue Scales for a left arm and second-in-command.

‘Toon…!’

Toon was there.

If low-level users passing by had seen, they would have been terrified, possibly collapsing to the ground.

“Woahhhhhh———!”

Toon released a long cry. However, compared to the roars heard during the conquest of demonic bases or enemy waves, it felt somewhat lacking.

“Hm, seems a bit off?”

“Roarrrr— cough, cough! Of course! As I’ve said earlier, polymorph is about changing the appearance! I can manage a decent imitation of the voice, but not the power within.”

Leeha pondered aloud, to which Toon, mid-roar, coughed embarrassingly.

It couldn’t be helped. What was visible was the form of Toon, but the essence was Blaugrunn.

“Ew! It’s weird! The voice sounds different from Toon’s too!”

“Ah! What does that matter! Leeha-nim only wanted Toon’s form in the first place!”

“Well, still. The atmosphere should be more intimidating. I’d get scared again—or rather, saying I’d get scared isn’t quite right… Anyway, the atmosphere needs to be right for me to properly conduct the test.”

Leeha teased Blaugrunn, who had transformed into Toon.

Deliberately deepening his voice to mimic Toon, Blaugrunn’s cheeks turned red.

Of course, in the form of Toon!

A dinosaur of 44 meters tall blushing would probably have more of an effect than any mental attack spell.

“Anyway, just get on with it. I’ll be here, casting barriers and going ‘koo-wooo’.”

“Okay. Wait for it.”

Leeha quickly put some distance between them and Toon.

Using a Kentucky Musket but combining it with the Snipe skill allowed for engaging from a distance of 400 meters to be effective. Especially when fighting an oversized monster like Toon, being at close range would actually be a disadvantage.

‘Close-range dealers might have it easy since they can hit Toon anywhere, but for someone like me—’

Preferring to aim for one-hit kills, a musketeer found it challenging to be up close with large monsters.

With the Black Bass and its multi-warhead capability, Leeha would have been firing recklessly, but at the moment, Black Bass was with Bottleneck.

Holding the musket, adopting its battle method was only natural.

“Alright, alright. I can do this.”

Leeha didn’t look back and finished loading the Kentucky Musket. The distance was about 400 meters.

“The Stabilizer?—No. Yes!” Thinking of making it more comfortable to shoot from a standing position, Leeha recalled the support gadget, the Stabilizer, crafted sometime back. But then, the idea of Jellypong came to mind. It could extend infinitely and harden to any degree desired.

“Jellypong! Can you support this?” [Dong dong!]

Whoosh-!

Jellypong’s arm supported the bottom of the Kentucky Musket, effectively acting as an excellent shooting stand.

Leeha gave a thumbs up and aimed at Toon in the distance.

“Hoohoo… Snipe.”

Whoosh—!

The barrel of the Kentucky Musket gleamed. Leeha aimed the muzzle at Toon’s head. Despite being 400 meters away, aiming for the head of the tall Toon required the muzzle’s angle to be raised significantly.

Blaugrunn: Leeha-nim, ready to proceed.

Leeha: Okay.“Huff, huff.”

The aim was perfect. There was no influence from the direction or speed of the wind. All that was left was to pull the trigger. ‘Damn, that’s not even a Toon. It’s a Blaugrunn.’

Back when jests were made before creating distance, Leeha had his concerns. Would it be possible to practice sniping using the light and skittish Toon as targets?

But that wasn’t the case.

[Mongmong…?]

Jellypong felt a warm vibration in his arm.

Since the safety mechanism was in play, Jellypong did his best to steady the barrel, absorbing the vibration entirely.

Naturally, it wasn’t due to any trembling of the ground.

Trembling slightly, Leeha, holding the Kentucky musket in a shooting stance, stood ready.

‘Damn, damn…

Kwooooar

The Blaugrunn let out a heavy roar.

Leeha’s index finger on the trigger had hardened like a stone.

‘Even though I’m not looking through the scope, I can’t shoot? Even knowing that’s not a Toon!’

In other words, there was an intention to attack the Toon.

That’s what made pulling the trigger impossible. Without using a scope, whenever a Toon entered his sight during the Third Wave or otherwise, sniping other monsters was perfectly feasible.

But now?

Not being able to shoot a Toon even without the scope could only mean one thing.

Fear of the Toon.

A mental block or whatever it was, the moment the thought of attacking Toon formed, it became impossible to pull the trigger.

‘Am I freezing up against this damn dinosaur? After all that hellish training I endured!’

Leeha bit his lip hard.

If he had his character window open, it would show about 1 HP worth of self-inflicted damage. The stinging pain was enough for the taste of coppery blood to sizzle through, yet his finger still refused to move.

‘Please, come on!’

Even shifting his stance deliberately and looking around didn’t help.

Trying to fire suddenly after moving a few steps didn’t improve the situation either.

5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes.

The gunpowder firmly packed into the Kentucky musket failed to ignite. Eventually, Leeha lowered the barrel.

“Leeha-nim…”

“Ahhh, haha. I’m just not in good shape today. Shall we call it a day for now? How about a retry next time?”

Leeha felt relieved that he was over 400m away from the Blaugrunn.

Thankfully, expressions don’t show in whispers.

‘Damn…

What can I do in this situation going forward?

About to log out, Leeha suddenly decided to use the modification sphere instead. Although he couldn’t snipe, he couldn’t just run away through logging out.

If he simply let time slip by in reality, the three days given by the Vatican would pass in the blink of an eye, and he couldn’t face that day without solving his own issues. “Where should I go…

The Castle Dale of Ramhwa Yeon and Ramhwa Jung? The royal palace of Fyuviel where Shin Nara resides? Or the office in Gaza City?

‘No, the place I should go now is…’ Even though I couldn’t learn any skills, there has to be a place where I can take away something by being there.”

Leeha decided to return to the Musket Academy.

“Oh? Kidd?”

“Leeha…? What brings you here?”

“What do you mean! It’s not strange for me to be here, right?”

“It doesn’t seem right for someone who usually doesn’t show their face to say such a thing.” Kidd snorted and headed into the entrance of the academy.

Meeting one-on-one after a long time was somewhat pleasant for Leeha, but Kidd’s cold attitude quickly dampened the mood.

“Tch, always has to say it like that. Anyhow-”

Taang—

“Whoa, nice sound. Hmm?”

Leeha, about to enter the academy building, paused to look at the drill field. It was a familiar sight.After spending four hours conversing with Browless, stopping by the Vatican, and transforming Blaugrunn into Toon to overcome his “sniping phobia,” the time had flown by.

“Still here? Not doing any quests?”

In the dimming grounds of the academy, a Miyau race player was practicing alone with a musket.

There was a possibility it wasn’t the same player seen earlier in the day, but it seemed unlikely many would choose the rare combination of being a Miyau musketeer, not enough to meet several in a day.

“Ah, those were the days. Just shooting away, hunting a few bats, it was simple. Peace of mind- no, it wasn’t really peaceful.”

Recalling those low-level days, he shook his head at the struggle to obtain expensive items like gunpowder or steel balls.

Your heart might have been at ease, but physically, it was anything but comfortable.

“Oh, Kidd! Did you ever go through something like that?”

“What are you talking about?”

After stealing a glance at the Miyau musketeer, he quickly caught up with Kidd walking ahead.

He had not gotten more than NPC-level advice from Browless, but perhaps Kidd would be different.

“It’s… um, how do I put this.”

When you couldn’t shoot at your target.

Whether it’s a syndrome, a mental block, or a slump.

Any term would do to describe those times when your body wouldn’t respond, regardless of your will.

That was what he wanted to discuss.

“To put it bluntly, when City Kazua installed an ‘Enhancement-Only Forge’ and didn’t say a word to me, are you talking about times like that?”

“Eh? Wha?!”

Kidd’s retort was unexpectedly sharp.

“…Do you think I wouldn’t know? I go there daily for ammo supplies. Even a goldfish wouldn’t think that.”

“No, I didn’t think you wouldn’t know but- Ah! So that’s why you’re upset?! I wondered why you were being cold!”

It was a rare chance for a one-on-one talk, and Kidd couldn’t possibly dislike it!

Despite the grumbling demeanor, it was clear Kidd had a certain fondness for him.

Understanding this, he clapped his hands in realization, but it only seemed to irritate Kidd further.

“Not. At. All.”

“Wait, just a minute! Hey, what’s gotten into Kidd-nim again. You don’t think I’d stop you from using it because we’re both Musketeers, do you?”

“I’ve already been told that unless it’s a VIP specified by the lord, it’s not allowed.”

“Eh? You spoke to Bottleneck about it, not just saw it!”

Kidd cleared his throat, embarrassed.

When he first used the “Magma Eruption” skill to enhance the Wand of Ram Hwajung, he had made it clear to Bottleneck.

No enhancement requests should be accepted from anyone but his designated users.

“Heh, Bottleneck mentioned something about the Musketeers, so I thought maybe but- you actually went to him!”

“I did.”

“-I didn’t know- What?”

“…The analysis is complete. It’s just that the timing hasn’t been right for the enhancement.”

“You had it analyzed!? By whom? When!”

Clearly, Bottleneck wasn’t one to simply follow orders.

At least when it came to matters concerning the Musketeers, his requests were like a free pass from the NPC.

He looked at Kidd with astonishment.

Though he was a bit annoyed remembering Bottleneck’s stained beard, it was hardly something to be upset about.

A friendly competitor and rival of Middle Earth.

There was no reason to hinder Kidd and Luger’s progress.

‘Anyway, I would’ve let them eventually… Darn, I wanted to see you struggle without the enhancements!’

He was only disappointed for losing the chance to tease Kidd a bit more.