Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter] - Chapter 38

Ch 38

“By the way, where is the Brown Bear?”

“I guess it has killed all the users and left. Everyone, be careful. The Brown Bear is big, so you will see it immediately. If you find it, you need to inform the party unconditionally.”

At Petal Kim’s instruction, thirty people from the raid team began to search, spreading out slowly.

“Ah, I’m getting nervous. I want to catch it quickly and check the items.”

“Hahaha, even though there are 30 people, if it’s a field boss, we should still expect our experience to rise by at least 10%, right?”

They felt excitement and anticipation; the users who depended on each other for the attack were confident. It goes without saying that there was a tangible tension and excitement about dealing with a “boss-class” monster for the first time since the golden eagle.

However, they were not able to find the Brown Bear even when they were spread out across the forest until they were unable to see each other.

“Captain-nim?”

“Isn’t it very quiet around here? Is there really a bear the size of an elephant?”

“Didn’t you say it was around here? Why is there nothing at all?”

“Captain-nim! Where is the brown bear?”

“Shhh! Everyone, keep quiet and keep looking for it. Anyway, the Field Boss will come out soon as it will keep wandering around here unless it dies.”

One hour.

Two hours.

Three hours.

Even after searching through the forest for three hours, they were not even able to find a brown bear’s tail hair, let alone a brown bear.

Annoyance mixed with dissatisfaction was beginning to be focused on Petal Kim and his original party members.

“You’re not scamming us, are you?”

“Fuck, did you gather us on purpose to prevent us from hunting?”

“Ah, we’ve been searching back and forth for 3 hours, and there’s nothing here!”

“What is this? Is it true that you saw a Brown Bear? Is this a scam?”

It was… here…

Petal Kim’s expression was distorted. Where did it go?

Dissatisfaction burned like flames among the members. Of course, the targets were, naturally, Petal Kim and his party members who had gathered the users. The raid group had prepared everything from their mindsets to equipment and items to capture the Brown Bear field boss, Agonia Oso.

The problem was that there was no Brown Bear.

The responsibility for this matter fell on Petal Kim.

“How did it happen?”

“I do not know.”

“Maybe that musketeer was able to… ”

“No way! The brown bear was already chasing him… and we saw the bastard run. He wouldn’t have been able to attack while moving. The bastard would have certainly died because it would take him more than 2 minutes to reload.”

At the statement of Petal Kim’s party members, he shook his head strongly. His voice was mixed with irritation. In Petal Kim’s opinion, it was impossible for the musketeer to catch the brown bear.

“Anyway… ”

“Oh, don’t talk any more nonsense, just find the brown bear! What kind of nonsense is that…”

When Petal Kim’s party started returning to the village…

In other words, when the last player in the raid was burned to death, and the brown bear started approaching Leeha.

Leeha was reloading.

‘This is crazy, what kind of animal lives after getting shot in its head twice? It’s a total scam!’

Is it because it is not an animal?

Leeha stared at the approaching Agonia Oso.

From a distance, it was amazing that it was the size of an elephant, but the pressure when it approached him was truly unimaginable.

“Calm down. Keep calm, Leeha.”

Leeha tried to calm himself down.

In the distance, Leeha saw Petal Kim’s party running away.

Ao, those bastards! It’s like those guys worked and left without doing any cleanup. Are there any other nuisances like them?

‘No, keep calm. I don’t  have to think about them.’

Leeha tried to get rid of his distracting thoughts once again…It took a lot of concentration to do something for the first time.

Leeha had practiced reloading several times with the combat assistance system turned off, and trained over and over again while moving until now.

However, he did not need to use the mobile reload before!

‘It’s possible because I don’t use a ramrod. Just like I practiced.’

As he ran, he pushed the iron ball into the muzzle.

For horizontal stabilization, users had to insert the ramrod into the muzzle and to do so, the user must stop.

However, Leeha was different.

‘Because I was doing Tap Loading! I did not need a ramrod for horizontal stability!!’

After lifting the musket, he ran and struck the musket’s butt against the ground. Paak-!

Thankfully, the gunpowder did not explode due to this degree of impact.

The gunpowder and bullets in the barrel had been stabilized by the moderate impact.

‘All right, reload complete!’

At the same time, Leeha turned around.

‘Where is that dog-like brown bear-’

Kreung, Kreung.

The brown bear was much faster than Leeha thought.

The moment he turned around while lifting his musket, the Agonia Oso had already approached him and raised its front paw.

And because of that, he felt his breathing stop in-game.

Fortunately, Leeha didn’t feel the full effects and only had a little trouble breathing properly because he had lowered the assimilation rate.

Anyway, he should be grateful for the low assimilation rate right now.

“First…”

I need to prepare my resolve.

Agonia Oso slammed its front paw.

Paak-!

He felt a hot searing pain in his chest. He flew into the air without knowing how his body rose.

“Kaak- kkeuk.”

Leeha’s body flew over 8m and then bounced and rolled over the ground.

‘The gun is my lover, it is my life!’ Thanks to this maxim he had learned thoroughly in the military, he did not let go of his musket even when he flew, however, his whole body was shocked.

It was a bad practice however, he stubbornly rolled with his musket.

“Peup, kuheok, kuheok, Kehek.”

He felt intense pain in his head and chest.

It was so painful that it felt like someone had beaten his chest continuously, and his head was spinning – unable to think straight.

No matter how strong the brown bear’s attack was, his assimilation rate was only at 20%.

‘Haa, This…Doesn’t it hurt more than I thought?

‘Should I be glad that I didn’t die?’

But he couldn’t relax now.

Grrrr…

“Damn it! Where is it? Fricking bear bastard.”

His eyes couldn’t see well.

His vision had darkened enough to indicate that his HP was in the single digits.

In his dark red vision, he was not able to differentiate between the sky and earth, and he couldn’t even see the field boss the size of an elephant.

Hearing the sound made by the bear, Leeha was barely able to lift his musket, but that’s all.

He couldn’t aim properly with his blind eyes.

‘I  can not see. No, but could I feel it.’

Agonia Oso did not make a sound as if it knew that Leeha was not able to see. He couldn’t even hear it walking.

It meant that the field boss thought of Leeha as a target that he needed to use all of his strength against in order to hunt, but it wasn’t favorable to Leeha at all.

‘Heat? Which direction?’

Didn’t it have a burning body?

However, he was not able to determine the direction properly with the numbed sense of touch caused by the assimilation rate of 20%. It just felt hot everywhere.

‘It is hot. If I hesitate and get hit by one more shot, I will surely die.’

If he didn’t shoot it right away, he would die.

‘But what if I shoot randomly and it misses?’

Even if he shot and missed, he would die.

The distance that he flew was 8m. It was a distance from which the Agonia Oso could attack again after taking only a few steps.

‘It should not have that much HP left.’

Leeha was able to gauge its state. He felt that the quick guy was struggling. Agonia Oso was clearly in a critical state as well.

‘I just need to shoot one more shot… … Where is it… Damn, I can’t even hear it.’

His eyes were blinded, his sense of touch dulled, and he couldn’t hear any sound.

But he felt it instinctively, that the brown bear was slowly, but surely,

approaching him.

Leeha kept his musket close. Suddenly, a different thought came up as he took a standing posture.

‘Blind shooter… Is this cliched?’

When he thought about it, he laughed. Thinking like this even in the face of death.

“Kek. Why is this so fun?”

Krng?

At that moment, he heard the sound of the bear.

Behind his left ear. Did it want to attack him from behind?

“Haaat!”

Kuaaa—

Leeha jumped and turned around. Floating in the air, the musket’s muzzle turned in a smooth motion.

He had a hard time seeing, but it was clear that the brown bear’s paws were swinging towards him.

“Calm mind!”

The skill he tried for the first time.

Will it work even when I didn’t practice it before?

However, the effect of a 15% increase in accuracy and preventing shaking hands was beyond Leeha’s imagination.

He could feel the muscles in his armpits tighten.

The hardened forearm supported the musket firmly. When the floating muzzle stopped shaking, his index finger moved.

Taaang.

Kuooong, Kuooong “Kahk, Kuleok, Kuaaht, Damn it!!”

Not dead!

The Agonia Oso did not die, it didn’t die even after it took the hit head-on.

Leeha was worried that he would die if he rolled even once on the floor with the small amount of HP he had, but he did not die.

But looking at his state, he should only have 1% HP left, maybe even less.

Now it is difficult to load. At least I was able to move earlier so I tried reloading while moving, but now I am not able to, and it’s almost impossible to reload a musket with your eyes covered, no matter how good your senses are.

‘I have to practice like this.

Can I measure the amount of gunpowder just by using the hand feel?’

Leeha reflected on himself, who thought that moving while reloading was enough. Should he accept death calmly?

Leeha thought that it’s too wasteful to do that.

Kuaah, Kuaah!

He felt that this was different from the roar that it had used earlier. That sound was not a roar or a threat. It was groaning, the bear was screaming in pain.

It was not known where the third shot hit, but its condition should be serious. He shot it from close range, so it couldn’t have missed.

What if I was hit in the head? The field boss was hit thrice in the head.

‘Fucking… Looks like that bastard also has a limit.

Huuu, huuu!

The Agonia Oso breathed out. The sound was intermittently mixed with sputum. This meant that it had suffered severe damage to the extent that blood came out as it breathed out. Leeha knew it.

‘It’s a sound I’ve made a lot in the hospital.’

It is obvious that it is on the verge of dying, but I won’t be able to shoot.

I need to get the final hit that will lead to a fatal injury.

‘What should I do? Hit it with the butt? I could hunt a rabbit in two hits with it, but can I do that in this situation?’

With the musket’s butt?

There was something that suddenly came to his mind.

‘Use it only as a last resort, was it? That’s a great explanation. Surely in the end, there will be nothing else I could use?.’

His legs shook, but he stood upright.

A body that stood in the direction of the rumbling sound of the field boss. The 1.5m long musket held tightly with both his hands.

‘Just one shot will kill you. I need to sense it. I need to focus my senses.’

Leeha organized his breathing. The already hot heart remained as it is, and his head cooled down. He started running.

Tat, tat, tat.

“Please die, you damned brown bear! I was just on my way to the capital!”

Kuaaaa–.

When he felt that he was within striking distance of the bear, Leeha supported the musket’s butt against his belly and stabilized it.

“Go, bayonet charge!!!”

The skill he learned when he changed his job. A musketeer’s last resort that he had never used. Intense blue light gathered under the muzzle.

A mana bayonet gradually took shape. An instant skill that did not require casting time was activated.

(To be continued…)