Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

“Oh, yes?”

“Are you okay?”

Blaugrunn, the bronze dragon, looked at Leeha with a worried expression from the slope on the opposite side. Even though his true identity was a Bronze Dragon, a being a hundred times more reliable and inherently great than Leeha, seeing him worry about her in her “little” state, Leeha’s hardened heart slowly began to soften.

“Blaugrunn, could you please use a loudspeaker spell?”

“A loudspeaker spell? Just a moment.”

Blaugrunn cast the spell. Luckily, being hidden behind the slope, where no attacks were being made, made it an easy environment to use the magic.

“Alerting the White Reaper! We have not come to fight! Please do not attack!”

Leeha roared loudly towards him. His eyes just blinked, and there was no response. Leeha shouted again.

undefined
“I haven’t come to fight! I’m not a giant! I have your rifle- uh, I mean, I had it!”

Though Leeha didn’t explicitly say “right now”, if this message got through, he wouldn’t attack further. Leeha waited for a moment.

“Hwook, good. 『Platinum Shield』.”

And then he stood up. Blaugrunn tried to stop him with a pleading gaze, but there was no time for that. Thud, thud, thud. Leeha stood in the middle of the road again, strengthening his stance.

“White Reaper, reporting to Shimo-nim! We…”

KAABOOM!

The sound of Platinum Shield being struck was like kicking a huge barrel.

“Leeha-nim!”

Leeha’s neck jerked backward as his whole body tumbled onto the snowy ground.

“Are you okay, Leeha-nim!”

undefined
Blaugrunn was about to rush out immediately. Sensing that, Leeha spoke up.

“Ah, it didn’t work.”

Thud!

Gunfire rang out once again. Leeha quickly flipped over and crawled down the slope. Even in the perfect cover, a snowball sprang up as it hit the spot where Leeha’s foot was.

“Are they shooting again?”

In that brief moment, he managed to dodge another shot. If his movement had been just a little slower, he might have lost his ankle this time.

“What? Why won’t he stop?”

“He could hear my voice, but… maybe it’s just not working as expected.”

“What do you mean! Faced with a ghost who indiscriminately attacks—”

“No, I thought it wouldn’t be indiscriminate. I was expecting something else.”

His disappointment spoiled his mood.

Blaugrunn asked, puzzled, “Expecting?”

“I thought he wouldn’t shoot unless it was a Giant… well, it seems not.”

The first assumption was to only attack those from Krabavi origin. But that wasn’t the case.

“Seems like he would eliminate anyone who isn’t from Pandril.”

He pressed his forehead in frustration. The bullet that had just grazed him was right on his brow.

So, what should he do? He opened the quest window once again.

『I acted. I had no choice but to do it -1』

Description:

“Krabavi has had countless opportunities to accept our goodwill. However, they mocked our siblings, committed atrocities against innocent compatriots, and did despicable deeds. They must not know how much and in what manner we endured. Someone must tell them, even if it means turning the devil’s mask inside out.”

The deep-rooted grudge of the Pandril hero, the White Reaper, prevented his spirit from resting even in death. Meet the ghost of the White Reaper, who acts with only one purpose, and guide him to eternal peace. But remember, only those acknowledged by him can meet him.

Content: Listen to the story of the White Reaper’s ghost.

“There is no one from Pandril on Middle Earth. So, ultimately, being acknowledged means…”

They want him to listen to his story. But he attacks. To avoid being attacked, he must gain his acknowledgment.

How does one gain acknowledgment?

“Well, that’s right. So… this is how you become part of Middle Earth.”

It means to subdue the ghost of the White Reaper.

“Oh… I almost forgot.”

“What?”

“I thought sniping was something only I could do. I mistakenly believed that all Middle Earth snipers were on my side.”

He brought out Black Bass. Up until now, every user or NPC who became a musketeer was practically one of his friends. The fact that he didn’t risk his life against Elizabeth or Brown was proof of that.

“But this is different. If the White Reaper were alive, and in his right mind, he might have been on my side.”

However, what about now?

“It is just my quest goal. He is already a deceased person, and practically just a ghost tied to indiscriminately attacking all Minis organisms! So-”

Fight, Leeha.

He trembled.

Seeing his face change strangely with a mix of tension and excitement, blaugrung’s gaze also changed.

“Shall we find the enemy?”

And Leeha was a natural sniper.

“Yes. It will probably be somewhere around a window of the abandoned buildings in the village that is visible in front of us, and the distance is roughly around 1,300 meters. It shouldn’t be more than 1,500 meters at most, even if it’s long.”

“Yes, yes.”

Two shots aimed towards Leeha, and one shot aimed towards Blaugrunn. The enemy had fired a total of three shots.

For Leeha, the three shots contained all the information needed to pinpoint the sniper’s location.

“First, it’s not on the hill in terms of angle. The angle of impact was close to eye level, and looking at the direction of the bullet collision, it’s facing straight ahead.”

“And it’s the front direction at the current moment, a place where the body can be hidden and within range to take a shot would be none other than the ruined village.”

“And it takes about 2.2 to 2.3 seconds for the sound of the gunshot to reach after impact. If the enemy’s rifle is the same as before death, it is the Mosin-Nagant. The muzzle velocity is 8080 feet per second. Due to Minis’s characteristics, there is not much difference between muzzle velocity and post-firing velocity. Reverse calculation gives a firing distance of around 1,300 meters.”

Facing straight ahead, with a firing angle close to eye level, and a distance of 1,300 meters to hide the body.

Leeha had already classified the White Reaper as 『the enemy』.

“Start with mana detection.”

“Got it.”

While Blaugrunn immediately conducted mana detection, Leeha checked the rifle’s status.

“Okay, everything’s fine. The magazine is sufficient.”

Once Blaugrunn confirmed the location, he immediately used mana vision and prepared to fire quickly.

Since the distance had already been confirmed, the scope clicks had been adjusted as well. The key would be how fast the target moved, but Leeha was confident. With the Platinum Shield still active, he believed he could withstand at least one shot.

“Even if I take a hit after firing one shot, I can return fire.`Phew, phew, haa….”

As Leeha regulated his breathing, blaugrung’s mana detection also came to an end.

“Leeha-nim!”

“Good! In which building-”

“There isn’t one?”

With a swift movement like a boxer throwing a punch, Leeha turned his body, but Blaugrunn did not give the answer he desired.

“-Wha-what?”

The moment Leeha turned his head towards Blaugrunn, he felt it. Something was already flying towards his throat.

“Kaaahhhhhh——”

Like being struck hard, Leeha’s body flew to the side.”『Mana Clairvoyance』!”

Even while flying, Leeha scanned the distant ruins below. Nothing was visible. The platinum sigil disappeared. After rolling once in mid-air, Leeha slithered next to Blaugrunn. In that fleeting moment of flight, something was clearly visible to Leeha. There was no sense of mana within the distant ruins.

“Incredible… How is this possible, high Priest?”

“What, what is it?”

“I can’t feel any mana! Even if it’s a ghost, there should be some mana present! To be able to conceal it so perfectly! It’s amazing how one can transform into a ghost state without the need for a necromancer, and to be able to hide one’s presence at the same time! Amazing! Impressive, white Reaper!”

Leeha exclaimed, admiring Blaugrunn’s glistening eyes, lowering his in awe.

“Anyway, it seems that something rare is happening if Blaugrunn is reacting this way. In other words… it must be something so unusual that it would astonish a dragon.”

This was no ordinary problem.

“If we can’t find the enemy, we might as well be useless,” Leeha muttered to themselves.

“I thought they might be hiding inside the building, but that may not be the case.”

Just before his body took flight, Leeha remembered the village they had last seen. Their speculation was that the window frame of the ruined building might offer a good vantage point for a brief engagement.

“Distance, angle, the body… No, the ghost, perhaps. At any rate, if there’s a place where one can conceal their form, that place would be the only option.”

So, Leeha focused his eyes with intensity. However, amidst the dim window frames of the ruined building, there was no glint of light.

“I couldn’t see the muzzle flash of a rifle caliber .380. It could be a musket, but given the speed of the bullet, it’s unlikely to be one.”

Leeha would actually welcome a musket, as the gunpowder smoke would give away the location. But that didn’t seem to be the case. Clearly, the White Reaper was using firearms.

Leeha’s deductions were logical and sound, yet he reached a limit. The only answer that emerged from his current deductions was one: “It means he is not hiding behind the window frame of that ruined building. He might be elsewhere. Even if he fired the first and second shots from behind the window frame, there’s a possibility he could fire the third shot from elsewhere.”

“Eureka…”

“What’s ‘Eureka’ about?”

“It just feels like legends are indeed legends. Wasn’t he invincible in the snow-covered wilderness?”

Leeha recalled the White Reaper of Middle Earth, a humanoid hunter, and a sniper with the same name that existed in reality, smiling. The master of concealment. A genius sniper who did not use a scope, leaving no light reflection whatsoever, and even attempting to conceal his own breath.

Leeha never expected to engage in a counter-sniper battle with such an opponent. Where could the White Reaper be hiding? From where is he targeting Leeha? While Leeha could designate the area, without pinpointing the exact spot, Leeha couldn’t solve this problem.

‘What should we do?’

“It’s snowing now, so we can possibly use Frost Pulse Lightning. Or we could target only the buildings with regular Call Lightning. It seems possible to hit just the buildings.”

Blaugrunn’s hands were gathering turquoise mana. It was a perfect situation to use lightning-related magic due to the weather conditions. Leeha hesitated to stop him but decided to let him be.

Is he going to engage in a sniper battle based on pride alone?

It’s a great mindset, but the efficiency is lacking.

“Go ahead, try it. Start by blasting away the buildings in front of you.”

“Got it.”

Most importantly, Leeha wanted to see it. And at the same time, there was a certain belief.

Though it was actually a belief that put him at a disadvantage, if he was the legendary sniper who had vanquished the Giant Knight Corps and the Sorcerer Corps he had been searching for so ardently…

“『Nimbus Call Lightning』”

Blaugrunn shot sparks towards the clouds.

Snow started falling heavily, and lightning began to pour down.

Flash, flash, crack-!

Seizing the chaotic moment, Blaugrunn revealed himself and targeted the abandoned buildings in the village.

“『Call Lightning』”

Crack-! Crack-! -!

With each lightning strike, the old buildings shattered into pieces.

Wood splinters flew around, some caught fire and burned, and within moments, over a dozen buildings in front of them disappeared.

‘But surely he won’t take this lying down.’

Leeha enjoyed the spectacle of Blaugrunn’s raucous magic display without even bothering to look up.

Blaugrunn’s magic was undoubtedly powerful.

Yet, it was reported that dozens of human mages had died at his hands so far.

Even if Blaugrunn’s magic was potent, it would be impossible for it to unleash this level of destruction if several human mages were to cast their spells simultaneously.

However, the White Reaper’s Ghost still remained.

This likely meant that they couldn’t simply eliminate him with ‘just’ magic.

“There’s still no mana detection. Could he have been hit by his magic?”

Kaaaaaaa—

Blaugrunn’s slender figure staggered backwards. His dragon scales automatically wrapped around him, preventing any fatal injuries, so Leeha couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.

“Hehe, that’s enough. Cancel the magic and come back.”

“Uh, sorry, Leeha! How can you laugh in this situation!”

Blaugrunn got up quickly and walked towards Leeha. The lightning bolts falling from the clouds did not disappear immediately. Amidst the rumbling thunder, Leeha listened carefully.

Thud—!