Firing the Gun

"Congratulations, little Duke."

"Not bad, not bad. If you have any problems with meditation in the future, you can come find me."

Card Master Dilanke and Sane, upon learning that Duke had opened his Spirit Sea, both expressed friendly messages.

Only Card Master Best, whom little Duke had followed before, had no reaction upon hearing the news. Instead, he snorted and busied himself with cards.

As he passed by Duke, he muttered in an unclear tone, "Just opening the Spirit Sea, using elixirs. His talent is only this much."

Duke heard this.

He didn't bother to argue.

A vast supernatural world was unveiling itself to him, with endless mysteries waiting to be explored. He had neither the energy nor the interest to get entangled with low-level cultivators like Best.

Old Sam didn't assign him any work.

So, he spent the entire morning trying to repair the energy routes in the spirit cards, occasionally asking Dilanke and Sane for advice. Most of the time, he analyzed and summarized with Xiao Yi.

Time flew by, and it was suddenly time to get off work.

"Bob, I'm leaving."

"Okay, go back and rest early." Bob smiled and waved.

Duke returned to his newly rented small courtyard at Second Vertical Street, No. 237. It was just a short walk through an alley from Little Sam's Card Shop, making his commute very convenient.

He didn't rush to cook.

He changed into a pair of sturdy leather boots, slung a worn canvas bag over his shoulder, and left his home, heading towards the farms outside the town. Outside the town, many Knights could be seen patrolling.

These Knights mostly rode horses, but the leading Knight wasn't on a horse; he rode a tall wolf-like spirit beast.

They weren't wearing armor but rather leather outfits adorned with the Black Snake Family crest, clearly indicating they were the Knight patrol guards belonging to the Black Snake Family.

Duke walked along the ridges of the fields, not drawing the attention of the Knights.

After he passed through the farms and was about to enter the bushes ahead, he saw warning signs planted at intervals along a ditch.

They read: "You are now outside the patrol area. Danger!"

Duke observed his surroundings. Apart from farmers working in the fields, there was no one else around.

He silently materialized the Desert Eagle, holding the First-Ring Arcane Artifact, which had not yet fired a single shot, in his hand. He then quietly crossed the ditch and walked into the bushes.

Humans were never the masters of the wild forests. The residential areas they carved out were only a part of the vast wilderness.

Therefore, areas far from the safety of towns and patrol zones held unknown dangers. However, as long as one didn't venture deep into the thickets, it was certainly no more dangerous than the established routes.

In fact, many hunters from small towns would cross patrol areas to hunt in the dangerous forests.

Nearby dangerous high-level spirit beasts had been wiped out by human firepower in repeated Pioneer Wars, leaving only ordinary spirit beasts to roam.

"Alright."

"This is deep enough. If I fire, no one should hear the gunshot. I'll hunt here." Duke climbed a large tree using both hands and feet. "Xiao Yi, pay attention to recording the firing data of the Desert Eagle."

"Understood, Master."

There were many small beasts in the bushes. After crouching on the tree for less than fifteen minutes, Duke was attracted by a rustling sound. He looked closely and saw a black-haired wild boar, rooting around on the ground while occasionally lifting its head to observe its surroundings.

The distance was about twenty meters.

Duke gripped the Desert Eagle pistol with both hands, aiming at the black-haired wild boar's head.

While the black-haired wild boar was completely unaware, he quickly pulled the trigger. Then, with a "bang," Duke felt a powerful recoil that almost made him drop the Desert Eagle.

At the same time.

A bloom of blood suddenly burst from the black-haired wild boar's head.

The next moment, the black-haired wild boar lay on the ground twitching. In less than ten seconds, the twitching stopped, and the black-haired wild boar was completely dead.

"Hoo!"

Duke exhaled a breath of turbid air.

He watched as the Desert Eagle in his hand dissolved into scattered specks of light and disappeared. With just this one shot, the Desert Eagle could no longer maintain its materialized form. Nearly forty drops of Spirit Liquid in his Spirit Sea were consumed by this single shot.

He waited for a moment, confirming there were no other beasts around, before jumping down.

He quickly walked towards the black-haired wild boar.

Blood was still gushing from the bullet hole in the black-haired wild boar's head. The Desert Eagle's bullet had pierced its head and then lodged in its shoulder blade.

"Good power."

Duke flipped the black-haired wild boar over and suddenly noticed that its shoulder blade had also been pierced. He searched the ground carefully and found the bullet's impact mark.

It had even penetrated the ground to a depth of nearly half a meter.

However, after digging into the soil, Duke did not find the bullet head. "It must have dissipated. After all, the Desert Eagle is now a First-Ring Arcane Artifact, not a real handgun."

He was very satisfied with this outcome.

This way, after hunting with the Desert Eagle, nothing would be left behind except for the bullet hole.

"By the way, Xiao Yi, what do you think of the power of this shot? Can it kill a 1-Ring Spirit Beast?" Duke laboriously cut open the hind leg of the black-haired wild boar with a small knife, preparing to take a leg back to cure and eat.

There's no way I can carry the whole wild boar back, and it would be hard to explain how I hunted it.

Xiao Yi responded, "Based on existing data, the physical fitness of wild beasts is weaker than that of 0-Ring Spirit Beasts. The Desert Eagle's shot pierced through the black-haired wild boar's body, which would definitely kill a 0-Ring Spirit Beast. However, 1-Ring Spirit Beasts have extremely strong physical fitness. Unless the shot hits a fatal weak spot, or it's a physically weaker Spirit Beast, it won't be easy to kill."

"What about a 1-Ring Great Knight then?"

"Insufficient data, unable to infer."

"Alright." Duke cut off the wild boar's hind leg, dried the blood, and stuffed it into a canvas bag. "A 1-Ring Great Knight's skin is tough, so it's hard to say. But if a 1-Ring Arcane Mage isn't careful and gets ambushed by my shot, their soul might scatter... But then again, it's hard to say. I've heard that 1-Ring Arcane Mages can solidify arcane arts. What if they have instant-cast defensive arcane arts..."

He had only just stepped into the extraordinary world, and everything was unknown.

He wiped his hands.

Carrying a wild boar hind leg on his back, Duke walked quickly towards Snakehead Town, bathed in the afterglow of the sunset. Although his Spirit Liquid was depleted and his body was somewhat tired, his spirit remained exhilarated.

No Knights stopped him for an inspection, and he returned to town smoothly.

He bought a bag of salt, scraped the hair off the wild boar's hind leg, meticulously cured it, and hung it in the stairwell to air dry. It was already the end of May, and the weather was getting hotter. Without salt curing or a refrigerator, it would spoil easily.

After dinner.

He read until late at night, only washing up and going to bed when he felt sleepy.

Lying in bed, he was still communicating with Xiao Yi. "Xiao Yi, share with me what you learned from reading just now."

"Okay, Master. Tonight you read 'Ring of Skills', which discusses how to construct spell models using energy circuits. A 'Ring' is an interpretation and record of Spiritual Arcana. For a qualified Ring, the first requirement is energy penetration. Only with penetrating energy can the boundless arcane secrets of Spirituality be revealed..."