Chapter 37: Firearms

As he looked down at Jesse's fallen body, Vicente was momentarily silent, watching the smoke coming out of the barrel of his gun.

"That is the future of those who threaten my family, Jesse. If it is in my power, I will not spare even old friends and allies!" Vice muttered to himself as he stood up on top of that silo, looking down.

He then looked down at his rifle, something he had done before he left with his family for Saltstar City.

Vicente knew how to construct weapons even with his eyes closed in his time on Earth. He knew step by step what he needed to build weapons, every material needed, and the care required.

When he had managed to scrape together a few coins from the allowance his father gave him, he had gone to a blacksmith in Martell Village and ordered to develop the parts he needed.

He was not afraid of 'his idea' being stolen since he was the only one who could assemble these weapons, so he had been doing business regarding weapon parts for the past two years.

In this period, he had managed to assemble and hide in his room a long-range rifle, two shotguns, and a revolver.

Unfortunately, on a hunt he had participated in alongside his father a year and a half ago, he realized that his weapons were not very useful against powerful beings.

At the 2nd stage of the magic rank, the bullets from these weapons no longer had any effect.

Upon meeting a beast of this stage during his hunt, he tested it and saw how his gun had almost no effect against the beast's massive body that had attacked him.

After that experience, he stopped developing his weapons and put them aside before traveling to Saltstar City.

At that time, he planned only to gather resources and one day awaken his powers, which could really make a difference.

However, when facing this situation this night, Vicente returned to his plans and decided to reuse his weapons.

"Boss, this thing is amazing! Its power is really otherworldly!" One of the two young men holding a shotgun said as he looked at that thing with glowing eyes. Findd new tories on nov/e(l)bin(.)com

The other was also looking with satisfaction at that item that had given him much more power than he had.

"This gun is amazing! And I feel like I can infuse my mana into it and strengthen its attacks!" This other said loudly, catching Vicente's attention.

Vice had not shown that to anyone but Rory before today since, to other people, he would have the difficult task of explaining where he had gotten the idea behind it from.

Therefore, he did not know how awakened magicians would react to these weapons.

Upon hearing that, he immediately asked. "Are you sure?"

"Hmm, actually, I think I unconsciously ended up using some of my mana to strengthen that bullet." The young man said.

Vicente immediately ran to the side of Jesse's body and checked to see if this man was really dead before checking the wounds around his body.

Jesse had died, but not because of Vicente's shot!

'My bullet didn't go that deep into his brain... Maybe he could live after that. But these two perforations...' Vicente saw the size of the holes made by the shots of those two.

Each one was so large that Vicente's hands could fit loosely into the places where the bullets had hit.

The organs and bones near these holes had been destroyed.

After seeing this, Vicente's eyes sparkled.

'I was wrong!

These weapons can be affected by the magic of the one using them! I hadn't considered this before because I can use very small mana, but people with their awakened powers can do much more!'

He almost jumped for joy upon discovering the potential of his weapons.

He probably didn't have a good talent, but if weapons like this could be used to strengthen himself and his people, everything could change for them!

Thinking about this, Vicente soon considered the idea of developing more weapons and forming an armed group.

"All right, I want you two to throw this body in the Crow Woods." He said to the two after a moment.

The Crow Woods was a forest that was around Martell Village.

"And what do we do with it?" One of the two asked as he showed the weapon in his hands.

"Give them to me. I will lend you this revolver to protect yourselves. We'll talk about these weapons later, but don't talk about it with anyone else for now." He said, looking seriously at those two.

They both readily accepted the boy's orders and handed their shotguns to Vicente before he gave a revolver to one of them.

As much as they were older and stronger than Vicente, they both had their families to worry about, and more importantly, as poor people, they couldn't be stupid.

After learning about these firearms, they immediately realized the potential of being on Vicente's side.

If they continued with him, there would probably be more guns in the future and also more people in their group. This could certainly improve their situations more than them rebelling against him now.

As people of low talent, their potential was limited alone. But everything could be different next to someone with exceptional knowledge and contacts.

So they quickly left and headed for the Crow Woods.

Seeing them leaving with Jesse's body, Vicente put his firearms in a box and left, returning to his home.

...

"Rory, it's me. Open the door." Vice said in a low voice after knocking three times on the door of his house.

While they were acting, Rory returned to this place with Nina and Peter.

Peter was still unconscious, while Nina knew that she had to obey Rory in her brother's absence.

So Rory had had no trouble taking care of those two children, and upon hearing Vicente, he quickly opened the door, unlocking the several locks Vice had placed over the past few weeks.

"Well? How did it go?" Rory asked as he looked thoughtfully at his friend.

"It's all over. We solved our problems with Jesse." Vicente walked over to where he had left the son of that enemy as he spoke.

"What do we do now?" Rory was not bothered by Jesse's murder since he knew what kind of group he was part of.

"I will release this boy in the center of the village, and eventually, someone will take him back to his mother," Vice said in a low voice before picking that boy up and throwing him over one of his shoulders.

Chapter end