He Holds a Rose from the Abyss

Chapter 16 – The Trajectory of the Bullet

When Chi Lang returned to the laboratory, it was already late at night. The place was still cluttered, the floor’s original color could no longer be seen, and every day, new black smudged footprints would be added.

There were no lights on in the room, Luth was lying on the table, he was thin and looked like a skeleton from a distance.

The table, which was always full of books and scrap paper, was empty at this time it, apparently, Luth cleared a large area out and then put a shelf on the table where a musket was placed.

Chi Lang subconsciously held his breath, took a few steps closer, and bent down to observe.

There was no metal hook on this gun, so it was not a fire-rope gun, and combined with the level of technological development in this era, it should be a flintlock gun.

“What, see what’s going on?” Luth woke up at some point and his tone was a bit disheveled, “I did this.”

“How far is the range? What is the rate of fire? And how is the accuracy?”

“A couple hundred meters, I guess, accuracy is uncertain,” Luth gave an odd smile, “Rate of fire, doesn’t it all depend on how fast you can load ammunition?”

The information with him all matched, Chi Lang thought, it should be the flintlock gun.

“Want to see its power?” Luth asked him.

Luth took him to the basement and said as he walked, “The basement is a wall made of Eternal Stone, so you can test the power of the gun here as much as you can.”

Luth used an illumination spell to reveal the full view of the basement. The basement was very large, and the wall at the end was at least 400 meters away from their location. It was also very empty, and there were only a few bullet marks on the wall.

“Although you don’t have to worry about getting hurt, I still recommend that you cover your ears. I don’t have the extra strength to use soundproofing magic for you.” Luth raised the gun and walked forward.

Chi Lang followed him forward. Luth first loaded the ammunition, his hands were slow, and even the loading was done for almost a minute or so, he struggled to raise the gun and almost gritted his teeth and pressed the trigger.

Chi Lang’s attention was completely on the bullet that was fired, although he could not capture the trajectory of the bullet and could only see a thick cloud of smoke spreading out in front of him.

Even after covering his ears, he could still hear the loud noise. Chi Lang ran over, there was only a faint bullet mark on the wall made of “Eternal Stone”.

Luth used a light spell to connect the bullet mark to where he was standing with a line of light, which was very skewed. This was to be expected, after all, the accuracy of the flintlock gun was not yet high.

It was only then that Chi Lang turned his attention to Luth and found that Luth’s state was not right. Luth bent over, panting slightly, barely holding the handle of the gun in his hands.

“Are you okay?” Chi Lang ran over and asked him, “This recoil…”

“I’m fine, I just didn’t expect the recoil to be bigger than before… Maybe it’s because I’m older than I used to be, so I feel that the recoil is bigger,” Luth said with a wry smile. “Would you like to try it? Can you reload?”

Chi Lang took the flintlock gun from Luth’s hand, and Luth stood farther away from him. The moment Chi Lang took the gun, he suddenly asked Luth, “What time is it now?”

Luth took out his pocket watch and glanced at it: “Twelve twenty.”

It’s past twelve o’clock.

Chi Lang has been very concerned about this time recently.

He picked up the gun and didn’t feel the same feeling he had with the clock and lock before.

To be fair, the flintlock gun can also belong to a kind of mechanical creation, if it can be used to master…

With this thought in mind, Chi Lang clearly heard the sound of a pointer turning when he started to reload the ammunition which came very abruptly. He looked at Luth, but Luth acted as if he had heard nothing.

When Chi Lang turned his eyes to the gun again, he saw the structure of the gun again, and he even knew how to load the ammunition, so his movements were much faster than Luth’s.

He also took the most standard posture of holding the gun, until he pressed the trigger, Chi Lang didn’t even get distracted by the loud noise in his ears.

He was completely mesmerized by the sight before him – he could see how the bullet rushed out of the barrel, arced through the air, and hit the wall.

And he didn’t feel any recoil.

Once again, Luth connected a line between the bullet marks and Chi Lang’s position. The accuracy of the shot fired by Chi Lang was better than Luth’s, but there was still a big deviation.

The flintlock gun was not a gun with high accuracy, and it would seem that even if he had the ability of “mechanical time”, he could not raise the upper limit of the gun itself just by the action.

Chi Lang heard the sound of the pointer turning again, and he vaguely guessed that one minute of this “mechanical time” had passed.

“It’s better than mine,” Luth narrowed his eyes. “You reload very fast, and you don’t seem to be affected by the recoil. Have you ever used a gun before? Have you been in the army?”

“You can say that,” Chi Lang said vaguely.

“However, accuracy is always a problem. If you can’t improve the accuracy, you can only work harder on the rate of fire. Someone from the Magic Research Society has come up with a strange plan…” Luth said casually.

Chi Lang moved his lips, but didn’t say anything. Although he knew the way to improve accuracy, he was not sure if anyone in this world had already proposed such a method.

“Mechanical Time” was in effect when using a firearm, Chi Lang was almost certain that “Mechanical Time” would also be in effect when making firearms. Then, he has the confidence to make the kind of craft he knows.

It would seem that the next step should indeed be to enter the Magic Research Society as soon as possible and take a good look at the level of development of firearms in this world.

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Under the falling rain, Sheffield walked down the stone path with an umbrella.

The night sky was dark and dreary, and there wasn’t any light here either.

He underestimated the ability of the necromancer, to be precise, underestimated his ability to escape.

But at this point, no matter what, he could not escape.

The light of the fire faced the rain and illuminated the alley. There was no other sound except the sound of the rain. Everything was silent under the effect of sound insulation magic, and the surrounding residents would not notice anything.

Sheffield used fire magic, flames rose from the ground and surrounded the necromancer.

The necromancer crouched in a corner, his face red from the light of fire: “Chasing me for so long, it’s time to stop now, right?”

“Say less words, I’m not interested in what you’re up to,” Sheffield replied.

The flame was like a wave, one layer higher than the other, heading towards the necromancer, but it stopped suddenly just as they were about to burn the corner of his coat.

“You absolutely can’t be a student of the Magic Academy. You don’t even have to chant… Instant magic, even that God of Magic, at the age of twenty, couldn’t do it, right?”

“Who I am, there is no need to discuss such things,” Sheffield said with a smile, “I just came to remind you that it’s best not to set foot in the inner city, and you should not enter the Saints Magic Academy in the future

“—or I’ll kill you with my own hands.”

“Don’t speak big words,” the necromancer laughed strangely. “Although you are much stronger than me, there is no place in this world that I can’t go to.”

The flames spread around him and the necromancer still had an odd expression on his face.

Sheffield smiled and said softly, “I’ve changed my mind. It’s better to deal with you now.”

“Hey. You can feel it, right? The power of the soul on that guy is far beyond that of other people. It is simply the best spell casting material for necromancy—”

In the next second, this necromancer, whose age could not be seen, was engulfed in flames and did not even leave his corpse behind.

The necromancer did not die.

Sheffield’s eyes went cold.

According to his speculation, this person had already found another body long ago, and then used necromantic magic on himself. Once this body was destroyed, his soul would immediately be resurrected in that body.

Then he would reappear with a new, unrecognizable face.

Sheffield had watched Micah Rahman die with his own eyes, so he could be sure that Chi Lang didn’t come to Micah’s body because of necromantic magic.

The rain showed no sign of abating, and the night was still long.

Sheffield returned to his dorm room with some rain on his clothes and leaned his umbrella against the door.

He slowly unbuttoned his cufflinks, took out his pocket watch, and placed it on the table.

There used to be only a vase on the table, but now there were more notes, one on top of the other ―

― “The watchmaker today said I had a talent. I thought I was amazing and could make a fortune by making watches, but he said, ‘When you reach my age, you’ll be a master’.”

“He’s sixty years old!”

― “Have you found that necromancer? Is everything all right?”

― “What the hell happened to Joyce and Dana? It’s not because I’m gossipy, it’s because Joyce is always dragging his feet in front of me, saying he’s never going to fall in love again, and then he goes after Dana.”

― “I noticed that Luth’s head was missing a few more hairs… No, it feels like I’m so gloating when I write it out like this.”

― “If you come back today, don’t come looking for me. I’m going to study with Luth until dawn! He’s too amazing, doesn’t he even get tired?”

Sheffield read through the dozen or so notes, he folded them up and smoothed out the folds.

He could almost imagine Chi Lang writing down these notes, jotting down any interesting things he saw.

He stepped out of the darkness for a moment, as if the smell of blood stained in the blanket of rain had been washed away by the sun.

Holding the notes, he seemed to be able to feel the temperature of their owner.

Sheffield leaned his back against the table, his left hand tapping slowly on the table, holding the notes in his right hand.

Gently, he kissed the top note.