Chapter 21: Are You a Legitimate Explorer?

Melina was greeted by a surprise the moment she descended the stairs.

On the sturdy wooden desk at the center of the manor’s first floor lay several disassembled flintlock-style firearms. Senior students Maria and Sonia were carefully wiping down the barrels with oiled cloths and installing control cores onto the guns.

Melina approached silently, like a cat, startling the two unexpectedly.

Yet, as if enchanted, her eyes remained fixed without blinking on the gleaming silver rifles on the table. The silver barrels were slender and elegant, the brass fittings exuded mechanical beauty, and the wooden grips and bases were exquisitely crafted—truly otherworldly in their allure. She could almost imagine the sensation of running her fingers along them.

Her fingertips traced the barrels, feeling a slick, supple smoothness; the grips offered a delightful, polished touch.

A soft murmur escaped her lips.

Melina felt a subtle affection beginning to grow within her.

She exhaled softly:

“These are…”

“Flintlocks, classified as [Flintlock Maiden—Alpha Model],” Maria explained. “If you choose a crossbow, you need to pick either the Brass Series or the Sapphire Series, as each has its own traits. Bows require choosing one from six types. But flintlocks don’t require a choice; if conditions allow, always start with Flintlock Maiden as the base.”

“Lady! Look this way, this way!” Sonia held up one of the guns, running her fingers gently along the chamber.

“It holds five rounds, second only to the Brass Series’ Beta model. Initial power rating is 5.0, the highest among new firearms. It uses a perfect recessed chamber ejection system, allowing for rapid-fire shooting. The starting ammunition includes Standard Shell Type I and II, Armor-Piercing Shell Type I, and Destructive Shell Type I—perfectly adaptable for dragons wearing heavy, medium, light, or no armor. There are ninety upgrade paths, covering everything imaginable.”

Sonia raised the rifle, aiming it at the ceiling.

“It offers the finest aiming feel, the most prestigious price, the best weight balance, and the most accessory slots. Moreover, its magical factor attributes are [Shooting Firepower: Level 1] and [Rifling: Level 1].”

These two magical factors compensate for the flintlock wielder’s initially poor damage output.

The former enhances muzzle velocity; the latter improves bullet spin to provide some armor penetration. Both work by consuming magical factors to generate extra power. However, these two magical factor levels are extremely precious—at least, according to Sonia.

“In the future, apart from a few fortunate ones, very few flintlock users will manage to get both Shooting Fire and Rifling to level five. So the upgrading process for the Flintlock Maiden is mostly a gamble on preserving these two skills at each upgrade, sometimes requiring starting over from scratch.”

There was a saying in this world:

“When the gods come, they still have to gamble for me.” The ultimate divine weapon was a double-five—meaning both main skills reaching level five.

For Melina, this was not exactly good news, since she had ten guns. The only consolation was that having ten firearms allowed her to forcibly stack skill levels up to level five.

Two level-one firepower skills combined to make a level-two firepower.

Two level-two firepower skills combined to make a level-three firepower…

By careful calculation, her initial ten guns had already achieved a double-level-four accomplishment. With reasonable upgrade luck, a few level-three firepower and rifling skills would easily bring her to double-five.

More skills meant higher magical factor consumption, essentially trading stamina and mana limits for skill activation. But for Melina, she didn’t need to worry at all—even if she maxed out at a hundred level-five skills, she could still run faster than her seniors and cast spells of superior quality.

This was undoubtedly her innate gift.

The equipment system was the essence of an explorer. Most explorers in this world still limited their weapons to offensive skills only. Functional enhancements like Sonia’s were considered heretical, and her suggestion that Melina consider adding defensive skills was sacrilege enough to stun all those who prided themselves on pure damage output.

What was even more alarming was that Melina evidently entertained such heretical ideas.

She first borrowed several accessories from Sonia.

She equipped herself with the skills [Flashbang Immunity] and [Running Art: Level 2]—an anomaly among sharpshooters.

Within the explorer framework, sharpshooters occupied a somewhat awkward niche. Teams could survive without exceptional sharpshooters but needed at least one support shooter to cover ranged damage. Such teams usually focused on hunting terrestrial dragons or assigned shooters to expendable tasks. True core sharpshooters were rare.

Their sole duty was fixed-point damage.

Melina was entirely different. As a shooter, she was the extreme outlier. Her speed rivaled that of dagger enthusiasts, and her firepower output was five to six times that of typical shooters (though some output was lost across so many guns). More importantly, she had ample magical factors and showed no fear of consumption. This allowed her to recklessly indulge in heretical magical factor upgrades.

For example, Flashbang Immunity—she already had a cunning tactic called “Melina’s Flashbang Ambush!” to trigger flashbangs at close range and drop monsters.

Running Art granted effortless running, allowing her to dash over any rugged terrain as if on flat ground. It might sound trivial, but for a long-distance runner like Melina, it was a perfect match.

Originally undecided about whether to continue stacking damage, Melina cheerfully installed these two accessories.

But only two.

After simultaneously wielding ten flintlocks, her body finally succumbed to a state of weakness—the first time in many years.

The weakness state was unique to banshees.

Because they possessed powerful magical factors and primarily consumed them as nourishment, excessive use led to internal starvation.

It wasn’t simply ten weapons.

Nor ten operating tools.

They were ten running factories!

Each flintlock devoured Melina’s magical factors, refining them into [Flintlock Magical Factors] to provide basic power. They were like ten game characters appearing simultaneously, each requiring control, manipulation, upgrades, and improvements. Though identical in design, subtle differences in built-in parameters gave each a distinct “personality.”

Even Melina’s vast magical factor reserves barely sufficed.

Adding accessories was like installing new production lines in a factory, involving complex calculations.

At present, she couldn’t fully outfit all ten guns with accessories.

“Let’s go! Give it a try!” Sonia was even more excited than Melina herself.

She grabbed little Melina, only to be zapped with crackling electricity and yelp as she released her grip.

Maria chuckled: “Haha, sorry, I was trying to hold back, but this ridiculousness was too much to resist laughing at!”

When explorers equip weapons and enter combat mode, their magical factors rapidly activate.

Weaker explorers hardly notice, as their reserves are low.

But Melina, as a [Humanoid Dragon] class explorer, generated a strong static field from the friction of magical factors, causing electric shocks on contact.

Senior Sonia nearly wet herself from the shock.

Then—

Crackle!

Maria, standing nearby, screamed as her golden soft hair stood on end like a Saiyan’s.

Melina’s magical factors were too strong; the static electricity easily electrocuted any living being within two meters.

However, this only affected living creatures.

The magical factor static had no effect on solids. Even if Melina ran into the capital’s power distribution station, it wouldn’t trigger a voltage explosion.

…

Surrounded by her flintlocks, Melina constantly felt the feedback of magical factors from her weapons, her confidence swelling.

Though she had previously felled a giant wolf capable of fighting a Collector with just two powerful punches, that was an unconventional tactic. Now with her weapons, she could confront dragons. Coupled with Miss Li’s custom-made suit, she was truly a complete explorer.

Gather materials.

Complete quests.

Run freely across this beautiful land—that was her dream and her goal.

As her spirits soared, the ten flintlocks began to rotate slowly around her, barrels pointing downward.

Outside, the rain continued to fall.

“Melina,” Sonia stood three meters away, hands on hips.

“You never used ranged weapons during your first run. At least, not the Melina I knew,” she said.

“Today’s me is not tomorrow’s me,” Melina interrupted, her golden eyes flashing a bewitching crimson. She rested one hand on her cheek, feeling her body heat, controlling the wild thoughts and destructive urges that threatened to spiral.

“Ah, the temperature’s a bit high.”

The eerie crimson deepened.

“Senior, for the first time in this world, I truly feel alive. I…”

She breathed in the unmistakable scent of magical factors.

Her former self had been like breathing through a transparent veil—completely invisible and imperceptible, yet its mere presence was unsettling. Now it was as if she had lifted the veil, her head breaking the surface of the water, finally breathing in the truest sense.

And breathing needed no instruction.

“Hm.”

Sonia pursed her lips and glanced sideways at Maria. “Old Ma, toss her some ammo.”

Maria rolled her eyes and threw some ammunition from storage.

The bullets were halted midair by magical factors.

Click-click—

All guns loaded simultaneously.

“Moving targets,” Sonia snapped her fingers, and about twenty small magical birds materialized in the air.

She watched intently, thinking:

“Let me see your…”

Bang—

The gunfire was faster than thought; in an instant, all the magical birds were shattered.

Sonia and Maria both wore expressions of shock.

The girl surrounded by flintlocks showed no sign of confusion; in a flash, she locked onto and fired at over twenty targets, unleashing a hail of bullets as precise as a surgeon’s scalpel.

Sonia murmured:

“Just speed?”

Maria sighed:

“Pure precision.”