86 What are you, a Masochist?

Over the course of the next several days, Astur had been spending all her time stockpiling her new items. The first was making the gun from Zrathno's blueprint. And the second was the bomb blueprint.

The gun was an automatic assault rifle, its design was made from scratch by Zrathno, named the ZAR-3. Both the barrel and the magazine can be swapped to support a variety of different bullets. Zrathno didn't skimp on the blueprint as it included these as well as various attachments, one of which was a grenade launcher, one that Astur was immediately fond of.

The bomb, called the HEE Frag Grenade, was slightly worse than the gun in Astur's opinion. It's small and easy to carry, while also being better than standard TNT. While it isn't the best in the universe at large, for her current needs, it's a very good weapon to have around as it is the pinnacle of explosives on Zrathno's starting planet. The reason for this title isn't because of its pure destructive power, but still strong, being a combination of a frag grenade and a high explosive concussion grenade, but because it has a togglable EMP function, making it a highly versatile explosive. Although the effect is a little limited on Vopal as much of the technology has a base in magic and Astur is fairly certain that most civilisations in the universe have a way to protect against an EMP weapon. These things considered, the grenade's value falls a little short but is still useful for its destructive power alone.

When Astur first tested the rifle… she almost shot her head off. It didn't look pretty, having a head completely drenched in blood with a dozen bullets lodged in it. Despite being nearly being scared to death and worried out of their minds upon seeing what the commotion was, Elizabeth, Kretea, and Ystur couldn't help but wonder how the hell Astur's even alive. Of course, she gave a perfunctory and useless answer. And then the next day she did it again. Twice.

Despite being told several times to learn how to handle a gun from the Warband or even Zrathno, Astur refused. Only to injure herself again. But after repeated attempts, Astur finally got what she wanted. Normally, Astur would have been the first person to look for help, usually being unwilling to do anything that requires constant effort if it can be avoided. If she wanted, Astur could have found a gunman in the Warband or Zrathno to teach her a general skill on wielding a gun and instantly learn it with skill points, but Astur wanted to see if it was possible to gain general skills from repeated actions. One of the things that Astur has realised is that this world, while is it has the overlay and mechanics of a game, still maintains a very strong sense of realism. Thus she should, in theory, be able to pick up new skills by simple practice and once she obtains the skill it comes into effect immediately. Unfortunately, the skill Astur obtained wasn't a skill related to shooting a gun, but one that reduces self-inflicted damage.

[Self Protection LV.1 (Passive)]: All damage received originating from oneself is reduced by 20%, applied after all other damage reduction effects have been calculated. System Remark: What are you, a masochist?

Astur wasn't sure if she's supposed to laugh or cry after she saw this skill. In terms of usefulness, this skill is incredibly useful. Astur's main method of combat is to throw explosives at people, and explosions don't discriminate between friend or foe. Astur has even previously used self-destructive tactics before when she sparred with Kretea. But this wasn't the skill she wanted to get, who would have thought that trying to learn how to shoot a gun would put her on such a strange path. But unwilling to continue, she gave and tried to learn the skill from Zrathno, only for him to laugh at her after finding out she didn't have any skill points to learn anything, to begin with. Naturally, Astur tossed a bomb at his partially completed mech before leaving.

As for the grenade, Astur found a bit more success. Unlike the rifle which does benefit from her Affinity when being made through alchemy, the item bonus doesn't apply to it when used due, but the grenade double-dips from the Affinity Bonus due to being a consumable item. Like the ZAR-3, the HEE Frag Grenade is also an accessory in the blueprint for it, a handheld switch used to detonate the grenades that are synchronised with it. And this on-demand detonation gave Astur an idea, one that only really works because of the new skill she acquired. Keeping a plethora of these grenades wrapped around her body and hidden under her coat to be used in a suicide charge.

And with a few days of experimentation, Astur revised the design for the grenade using magitech and successfully created a version that can interfere with magic, disrupting already cast spells. Unfortunately, she wasn't met with the same success for the rifle, unable to figure out how to convert it into a gun that can fire energy-based magic bullets. At least she was able to launch her new grenades from its grenade launcher attachment.

Astur kept the grenades for herself, but put the ZAR-3 up for sale in her shop, albeit a downgraded version made from inferior materials compared to the ones she kept for herself and handed out to the Warband. As for bullets, of course, Astur didn't put any up for sale. The reason is that she could send all the players who bought the gun off to bother Zrathno while he's working on his mech. The blueprint she received contained the method to make a standard 5.56×45mm cartridge, and in a way, sending the players to bother her relative helps him in the long run, Astur cares more about the immediate annoyance it will cause him.

And as the days went by, the time for Astur to return to the bank has come.