Skill Level MAX
I handed rifle development over to the Development Department and focused on magi removal.
That didn't mean I abandoned it entirely. I still visited Iron once a week to check on their progress.
And today was the return trip after my second visit.
"Did I make a mistake creating the Development Department? Should I have improved it myself?"
Even two weeks in, they were still drowning me in questions about firearms instead of actually developing anything.
"I'm not their teacher."
I was starting to worry the whole process might actually be slower this way.
The one silver lining was that I'd been using the Magi Removal skill instead of Designer's Guidance. It was still stuck at level 9, but at least the experience was stacking.
While I was still fretting, the carriage came to a stop.
"Young Lord, we have arrived at the new village."
"Good work."
I pushed every thought of guns out of my head. Clearing the magi here was just as important.
Week five of the Iron visits. Inside the carriage bound for Iron.
A merchant caravan happened to be heading the same way, so we traveled together.
"Sara, aren't you tired?"
The one in charge of this expedition was Russel's daughter, Sara.
"I'm fine. I've learned a great deal from my father."
"I see."
Silence settled over the carriage, filled only by the steady clop of hooves.
Clop. Clop. Clop. Clop.
Just as the sound was becoming background noise, Sara spoke again.
"Some time ago, Lady Maya offered us some advice."
"Advice? To you?"
"Not to me personally—to the entire merchant group. Thanks to her, we've been able to bring in far more wanderers."
"Is that so? Good to hear."
I'd told her to improve the rifles, and instead she was out giving business advice.
She'd better have a real idea ready this time.
Once the caravan reached Iron, I stepped down in front of the Development Department.
"My lord, I'll take my leave here."
Sara called me "my lord" in that stiff, formal way, even with her cute face.
"You can just use my name. Or Young Lord is fine too."
"No, my lord. Then, if you'll excuse me."
Her carriage rolled away into the distance.
"Surprisingly rigid, isn't she?"
I turned and walked into the Development Department.
Inside the conference room, the meeting once again opened with questions.
One employee raised his hand.
"Why do we use gunpowder for the explosion? Couldn't we do it with magic?"
I was pretty sure I'd heard this one before...
"Most magic can't produce the same instantaneous explosive force as gunpowder. And not many people can cast that kind of spell anyway."
With gunpowder, even ordinary people could generate serious firepower.
"What about artifacts? Regular people can use those, can't they?"
"Artifacts themselves are expensive, and the mana stones they require aren't cheap either."
Buying artifacts in bulk could deliver plenty of firepower. The problem was that the cost would be astronomical.
"Then how about this?"
The employee held up a blueprint. Instead of a trigger, the existing rifle design had a button attached.
"It's an artifact that creates a tiny spark. With this, we can ignite the gunpowder at a much lower cost."
He continued explaining the artifact.
"I even inquired with the Magic Tower. They said a first-circle artifact, using a small mana stone, could last for years."
An artifact that used the absolute minimum of mana just to produce a tiny spark. Peak efficiency, in other words.
Still not cheap, though. It still required both an artifact and a mana stone.
"Worth considering. Good work."
"Thank you, Young Lord!"
After that, more questions from the staff and presentations of their own designs continued.
Then, as evening fell, Maya finally spoke.
"This is the idea I've devised."
Maya's blueprint wasn't exactly normal either. She'd attached a strange handle to the rifle.
"When you turn this handle—"
Maya rotated her clenched fist in a vertical circle.
"—this piece of metal moves like so."
I traced the motion of the metal in my mind. The piece that had been pointing skyward swung down toward the rifle—specifically, toward the spot where the gunpowder went.
"And?"
"Of course, nothing happens as is. However."
Maya pulled out a thick cord and lit the end of it.
"You attach this fuse to the metal piece."
As the explanation continued, the rough picture came into focus.
The existing method was like dynamite: connect a fuse to the gunpowder, light the fuse, and when the flame finally reaches the end, the powder ignites and the gun fires.
Maya's method was different. You kept the fuse lit from the start, then brought that burning fuse into contact with the gunpowder.
That would make the firing timing far more precise—and save the time spent waiting for the cord to burn down.
"Not bad."
Of course, that weird handle would need to be converted into a proper trigger.
"Alright. We'll go with this approach. Get Dver here immediately."
What had been planned as a one-day visit to Iron stretched longer.
I summoned Dver and the other craftsmen to the Development Department, and there we began a joint meeting with the staff.
"Listen carefully. The core idea is bringing a lit fuse into contact with the gunpowder."
I explained Maya's concept to Dver and the craftsmen.
"And our job is to replace that rotating handle with a trigger."
When the trigger was pulled, the fuse simply needed to touch the powder chamber.
Once they had a clear direction, the craftsmen and staff began fleshing out the idea in detail.
I took those refined ideas and turned them into blueprints, measuring the completion rate as I went.
A full week passed.
At last, I finished the blueprint for a rifle with a trigger.
Completion Rate: 15
I held the blueprint high. The craftsmen and Development Department staff erupted in cheers.
"Finally!!"
"Ooooh!!"
"Waaaaah!!"
The cheering didn't last long. One after another, staff and craftsmen collapsed face-first onto their desks.
"I can finally sleep."
"Finally... I can go home."
"A human life is returning to me at last..."
Watching them, I felt sleep crash over me as well.
After two sweet days of rest, we gathered at the Development Department again.
The craftsmen didn't come this time—they were busy producing the new trigger-equipped rifles.
"Thanks to the Development Department, we were able to improve the firearms."
"Waaaaah!!"
"Waaaaah!!"
"This is your next mission."
I held up a drawing of a rifle. No one seemed to understand just from looking at it.
"What's different?"
"It looks pretty much like the old one."
"We're eliminating the burning fuse!"
The very earliest guns had used fuses, as far as I recalled. But at some point, the fuse itself vanished from firearms.
Why? How did they get rid of it? I had no idea.
What I did know was that as guns advanced, the fuse disappeared. So that was the direction I demanded they improve toward.
"..."
"..."
Silence dropped over the Development Department like a bucket of cold water.
After several dozen seconds, one employee raised his hand.
"Young Lord, how do we fire a gun without a fuse?"
"Young Lord, are you telling us to detonate the gunpowder without fire?"
I pointed a finger at the staff.
"I don't know. That's why you're going to make it."
After developing the trigger, my trust in the Development Department had grown. So I left the development of the new rifle entirely in their hands.
That didn't mean I was taking it easy. Every single day I was still on my knees in the farmland, using my skill.
The skill level should be going up soon.
Building the massive farms around Plain had burned through a lot of skill uses. That was how it had climbed all the way to level 9.
For now, I was focused on gaining that one last level.
If level 10 is the max, I should be able to promote the skill.
I focused my mind again and activated the skill.
New village. Temporary administrative office.
A flood of reports had been arriving here. Handing rifle development over to the department had finally given me the breathing room to manage internal affairs.
"Sara was right. The influx of wanderers has sped up."
Plain's six satellite cities were already full. Every wanderer after that had been settled in the new villages.
I flipped to the next report and found the food production figures—current output, plus estimated projections for next year.
"At this rate..."
Once Plain's massive farms hit full production, they would cover the entire demand of the Frontier. Revenue would climb right along with it.
I'd gotten through about twenty percent of the reports when my mana was nearly full again. I stood up and headed for the farmland. I needed to burn every last drop of mana on the skill.
I spent my days managing internal affairs and clearing magi at the same time.
And after purifying the magi from three more farmlands—
"Finally!!!"
The Magi Removal skill leveled up.
Magi Removal (Lv MAX)
Purifies magi.
I straightened my knees and stood up.
"How much stronger does it get when you promote it?"
The mission hint had said promotion required a skill point, so I'd been saving one.
"Let's go!"
I promoted the Magi Removal skill. The skill point vanished.
And then—
"Nothing changed!?"
Magi Control (Lv 1)
I rubbed my eyes and looked again carefully. Then I saw it. One of the Korean characters had changed—specifically, a single consonant.
"Phew... I thought nothing had changed at all..."
"It promoted, so it should be better, right?"
I moved to a new spot and cleared some magi. It purified the same as always. The speed didn't seem any faster.
"If the performance is the same, maybe the versatility increased?"
I read the skill description.
Magi Control (Lv 1)
Controls magi.
"Is that a description!? You just wrote the skill name again and called it a description!?"
In the end, it looked like I was going to have to figure it out myself.