Lord of Rot

Upon receiving Leech’s command, Quickblade led his men and followed Leech to a pre-designated shooting range in the dense woods.

The location was far from any residential areas, so there was no fear of the gunfire disturbing anyone.

After lining up, the men saw neatly arranged wooden and iron tubes.

There was also a breastplate from a Porcupine Soldier’s armor.

Paper targets were tacked onto distant tree trunks, but they couldn’t find any bows, crossbows, or arrows.

’Are we supposed to practice throwing these iron tubes?’

Some of the Soldiers present had witnessed the Lord’s throwing skill with their own eyes, while others had experienced it firsthand. They knew that no matter how thick one’s armor was, a single hit would bring excruciating pain.

Leech walked to the gun rack and picked up a firearm.

It was a Flintlock Gun, built according to a specific design.

Pulling the trigger would cause the flint to strike, igniting the gunpowder and firing a metal projectile from the barrel.

The Flintlock Gun was still in its early stages. While it had mostly done away with the inconvenience of using a matchlock to ignite the powder, in other respects, its operation wasn’t all that different.

For example, the projectile still had to be loaded through the muzzle.

The projectile was inserted into the muzzle.

Then, gunpowder was poured into the pan.

The basic principle of the Flintlock Gun was a spring-loaded flint clamp that would strike a steel frizzen to ignite the gunpowder. The overall design wasn’t overly complex, but it involved numerous small details.

The spring was a particular challenge. Even with Leech’s verbal descriptions and hand-drawn diagrams, replicating it proved extremely difficult.

This method of striking flint to ignite gunpowder was far inferior to the way Betty used Magic. First, there was the matter of accuracy. Magic could help adjust the angle so effectively that it wasn’t an exaggeration to say the bullet would go wherever one willed.

Second, Magic amplified the weapon’s power.

In other words, with the same gun, the power of a projectile fired by an ordinary person was completely different from one fired using Magic.

However, the cost of training a Caster versus training an ordinary person to fire a gun were two entirely different things.

Ordinary people who could shoot were more cost-effective, easier to train, and more expendable.

Now that the Flintlock Gun was developed, Leech could, if necessary, raise a force of marksmen in a matter of days and achieve terrifying results in battle.

Leech first poured in the gunpowder from a powder horn, which was airtight and waterproof.

A single horn of this powder cost two Silver Moon. Truly, with every gunshot, a fortune in gold vanished!

To give each Soldier present a horn of powder, not including any other expenses, would cost two to three Jinri.

He then stuffed a paper-wrapped projectile into the muzzle, took the ramrod from its housing, and tamped everything down.

The whole process took only a few seconds.

Finally, he shouldered the gun, took a rough aim at the distant target on the tree, and pulled the trigger.

”BANG!”

The thunderous crack made all the Soldiers jump.

Thick, acrid smoke billowed from the muzzle.

”Go take a look.” Leech blew on the hot, smoking barrel and pointed toward the distant tree.

The target on the tree trunk now had a dark hole in it, which everyone could see just by turning their heads.

At Leech’s command, a Soldier walked over to inspect it.

He stuck his finger into the hole made by the gun and tried to pry out the projectile, but it was lodged too deep.

”It’s so deep!” the Soldier exclaimed.

Quickblade knew Leech had been researching new weapons, but he’d never imagined they would be this terrifying.

’If that iron ball hit a person, could their armor stop it?’

’Could even the strong lamellar armor of the Porcupine Territory stop it?’

Leech gave Quickblade a meaningful look. Understanding, Quickblade blew a sharp blast on his whistle.

”FWEET—!”

The Soldiers quickly fell into formation, standing at attention.

Responding to the whistle had already become second nature to them.

Leech held up the gun and said, ”This is called a firearm, a type of Alchemy Weapon.”

”An Alchemy Weapon?!” the Soldiers exclaimed in shock.

’That’s something only a great scholar could create! It must be filled with wisdom beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.’

’No wonder it’s so terrifyingly powerful. It’s not just wisdom—there must be Magic in it, too! How else could it unleash such dreadful force?’

’They couldn’t see any bowstring on the firearm, after all.’

”Using this weapon is very simple, just as you saw in my demonstration. And each and every one of you is going to become a musketeer!”

Leech planned to make the firearm the standard ranged weapon for the Porcupine Soldiers.

He was now able to acquire Alchemy Materials from Three-fork River Castle at the lowest possible prices, which had brought the cost of a single shot to a minimum.

Losing a battle fought with firearms would certainly be a net loss. But as long as they won, even if all that was left was a field of bodies, he was guaranteed to come out ahead.

The Soldiers were ecstatic to hear that they too would learn to use this Alchemy Weapon.

There weren’t enough firearms to go around, so for the time being, they formed groups of three, with one gun per group.

Leech then began to instruct them step by step, gravely warning them about the necessary precautions.

He especially warned them not to look down the barrel—that was just asking to die.

Following Leech’s instructions, the eager Soldiers formed a line and fired at the distant tree trunks.

”BANG! BANG! BANG!”

The simultaneous volley produced a tremendous roar that echoed across the sky.

However, each shot produced a strong upward kick. To adapt to this recoil and improve their aim, they had no choice but to learn through practice.

Every gun had its own personality, and each man had to find his own rhythm to get a better feel for his weapon.

Leech walked over to Quickblade, who was admiring the firearm as if it were a treasure. ”What do you think?” Leech asked. ”How does it compare to a bow or crossbow?”

”It’s not as accurate as a bow,” Quickblade said with a nod. ”Its range is greater than a crossbow’s, but it’s less precise.”

”But!” Quickblade suddenly grew animated, his cheeks flushing slightly. ”The firearm is completely effortless to use! It’s too loud for ambushes, but as long as you have enough powder and shot, you can fire continuously. And even after you’ve exhausted your ammunition, you aren’t tired out.”

This was the firearm’s first huge advantage: it required little effort to use.

The cost of training an archer was by no means lower than that of training a Cavalryman.

How many arrows could one archer fire in a single battle? And with every shot, their accuracy would diminish.

Crossbows had similar issues. They were easier to use than bows, but spanning them was still tiring work, and their rate of fire couldn’t compare to a firearm’s.

In the time it took to span a crossbow, load a bolt, and fire, a man with a firearm could get off two or three shots.

With the classic three-rank volley tactic, it would be possible to achieve nearly continuous, uninterrupted fire.

Quickblade continued, ”And an untrained person can learn to use a firearm quickly.”

”That means you could give a group of militiamen or farmers half a day of training, and they’d become decent musketeers ready for the battlefield, with lethality on par with archers and crossbowmen.”

”Furthermore, the firearm’s effective range is clearly greater than that of a small crossbow.”

As for large siege crossbows?

Leech had an answer for those as well: cannons, which had yet to be produced.