kscans

Chapter 150 - Man of Bone and Shell 3. Elemental Weapons

When he was fiddling with bones and making netsuke, a strange effect had been added to them, even though that was not his intention. He felt it would be better to be able to add the effects he intended, at least to some extent, rather than having them added randomly, but that would probably require a skill like Enchanting. However... asking Adon for an introduction to an enchanter would only invite more unnecessary prying. He probably would not force the issue, but it was not a good idea to divulge his circumstances either. He decided to play dumb for a while longer. Besides... Yuri had a new question.

"If a bone processed into a netsuke has a protective effect corresponding to its element, couldn't I make it into a bullet and perform an elemental attack...?"

It was a measure to make his gunfire more than just a magical attack. He had mentioned strengthening its impact force as one of those measures, but he had not been able to achieve the results he had initially hoped for. He had somehow managed to create an armor-piercing round mimic by hardening the warhead, but the development of an explosive round was proving difficult. No, to be precise, he had been able to create the explosive round itself, but he had not been able to add an elemental attack to it. In his past life on Earth, a simple explosive round would have been sufficient, but unfortunately, in this world, the concept of an "explosive round" was completely novel. Considering that gunpowder itself was underdeveloped, it was only natural when he thought about it. Yuri, who had realized this after Appraising a bullet, had tried to grant a magical attack to the bullet in order to secure its power while concealing the fact that it was an explosive round. ...But this was where Yuri had stumbled. He did not know how to grant Fire Magic or Dark Magic, which were deemed more suitable for offense than other magics, to a stone bullet. After some trial and error, he had arrived at a method using magic stones, but this had one drawback. The cost. After all, magic stones were always expensive. Yuri could use the forbidden technique of artificial magic stones, but if he used them excessively, it would inevitably attract attention. If he could substitute bone and reduce the cost, there was nothing better.

And so, he conducted a trial of bullets made from bone, but...

"...This is no good..."

Not only was it too light, lacking in impact and penetration power, but it also had the flaw of being easily affected by the wind, making its trajectory unstable. He could harden it with magic power, but he could not change its mass. When he tried compressing it tightly, the crucial magical attack failed to activate. It seemed that the compression had destroyed the bone's structure, which was related to the problem.

"...At this rate, it would be better to use it for arrowheads."

As he thought that far, Yuri recalled a story he had heard from Katra and Dalia. Apparently, elves have a poor affinity for metal, so they struggle with materials for blades and other things. In that case, couldn't he make something from monster bones? Yuri had once created "Magic Stone Tools" from ordinary earth. If he used magic power on bone in the same way, he might be able to create something usable. It was worth a try. But... which magic governed the processing of bone?

"...Well, I guess it has to be Alchemy. I was a little surprised that Smithing could handle it too, though..."

In an act of recklessness, Yuri had attempted to process the bone by activating both Alchemy and Smithing at the same time. It was not that he used Alchemy during a Smithing process. He had activated both in parallel. Well, the truth was that while he was deforming the bone with Alchemy, he had the thought that maybe he could do it with Smithing too, and so he activated it just like that. His large magic power capacity was a disaster, and what else could it be called, and Smithing had activated as is. Normally, this kind of thing does not happen, but perhaps the (Strange) suffix common to both skills, the details of which will be described later, had done some strange work.

In any case, as a result, Yuri ended up with something called a "Magic Bone Tool," but...

"Hmm... since the material is bone, it's weak against strong impacts, but it's light and floats on water... The sharpness seems pretty good too, and above all, the fact that it takes on the element of the monster it came from is..."

"I've made another troublesome masterpiece," was Yuri's true feeling.