The Last Alchemist

On the open space along the river, a group of young and strong men stood in a row, each holding a long musket in his hand. On the wetland by the river, there was a row of paper targets.

There were 40 men in this group. Next to them, Annie held a small flag with bright colors in her hand and shouted: "Ready~~~"

"Click~Click"

The men raised their muskets in unison, with their right shoulders against the gun handles, their heads slightly tilted, their left eyes closed, their right eyes, the crosshairs of the gun heads, and the bull's eye a hundred meters away in a straight line.

"Fire!" Annie shouted.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A burst of frying beans-like explosions appeared at the same time, and a puff of green smoke came out of the muzzles of the muskets in the hands of the men, and large holes appeared on the targets by the river at the same time.

Annie waved the chess piece again and shouted: "Point the muzzle at the ground!"

"Hua La~"

The men took down their muskets together, and the muzzles were facing the ground at a 45-degree angle.

After making sure that everyone strictly followed the order, Anne turned her head to look at the target by the river. After a few glances, she said, "Hans, empty target! Glick, empty target! Ferro, empty target! All of you, step out!"

The faces of the three young men who were called turned red, and the three of them took a step forward and shouted at the same time, "Here!"

Annie turned the chess piece in her hand, pointed to the open space on the side, and shouted, "Put the gun on the safety, carry the gun and run three laps!"

The three young men did not dare to disobey at all, carrying the 8-kilogram musket, and began to run in the open space. Although it was winter, after running two laps, beads of sweat oozed from the foreheads of the three men.

Anne looked solemn and cold, and warned loudly: "Warriors, muskets are our only weapon to fight monsters! In this dark and cruel world, only muskets can keep us alive! However, it is not enough to have powerful muskets. We must become stronger and use them perfectly. On the battlefield, every bullet must fall on the monsters, understand!"

"Understood!" The young men shouted with all their strength, and everyone held the muskets in their hands tightly with a firm look.

After waiting for a while, the three young men ran 3 laps and returned to the team again.

Anne waved the colorful flag: "Continue training! Ready~~~~~~fire!"

"Bang bang bang~"

In such strict training, the young soldiers fought for 2 hours in a row, and each soldier fired more than 400 rounds of bullets. The barrels of the muskets were hot, and all the bullets they brought out were also used up.

"Today's training is over, let's go back to the camp!"

The young soldiers turned around and lined up in a neat team, jogging back to a bungalow built of wooden boards next to a stone house not far away.

Along the way, Annie also ran, saying as she ran: "I have a message to announce. Starting tomorrow, the results of target shooting training will be recorded. The top 10 soldiers will form a strong team. The team members will be equipped with new muskets with stronger power and more accuracy!"

After hearing the news, the soldiers did not say anything, but everyone's breathing became slightly faster, and everyone subconsciously tightened the musket in their hands.

After returning to the camp, Annie said to a dark-faced and strong young man: "Grede, this is up to you."

"Yes, instructor!" Grede answered loudly. He was the captain of the musket team. He had a high level of shooting, a calm personality, and a good brain. He was selected by Rosen himself.

Annie turned and left the barracks and walked towards the stone house next to the barracks. As soon as she arrived at the door of the stone house, she saw the magician Xuma coming towards her.

When Xuma saw Annie, his eyes lit up and he smiled, "Ms. Annie, you're just in time. Master Rosen just wants to see you. He asked me to tell you that when you are free, go directly to the alchemy room on the second floor to find him."

Annie hurriedly said, "Oh, I'll be there right away."

She quickened her pace and trotted towards the stairs. After reaching the second floor, she turned left and walked a few steps. There was an iron door, which was tightly closed, and there was a whirring sound of wind coming from inside.

Annie walked over and knocked on the iron door with her hand: "Rosen, I'm here."

"Squeak~"

The iron door opened immediately, and a warm air flow mixed with the smell of iron rushed over. Annie looked inside the door. In a room of about 50 square meters, there were four magicians surrounding a large stone table, busy all the time. On the stone table were placed all kinds of strange tools, and there were several piles of semi-finished bullets.

The little girl, Galoni, was also there. She sat next to a magician named Daros, holding a handwritten notebook in her hand and reading without blinking.

Rosen was standing by the window, with two big things on the ground next to him. One was a strange-looking, huge metal musket, and the other was a huge slatted wooden box.

Rosen also saw Annie and waved, "Come here, come and see this new thing."

Annie walked over and fixed her eyes on the metal musket. Although she had not seen the power of this thing, she vaguely felt a sense of oppression through the cold and heavy gun body.

"How to use it?" Annie asked.

Rosen smiled, with some complacency on his face: "Just like other muskets, aim at the target and pull the trigger."

"Where should the bullet be placed? Where is the trigger?" Annie carefully observed the new musket, but did not find the location of the magazine and trigger.

"The magazine is here." Rosen opened the lid of the wooden box.

Annie looked over and found that the wooden box was filled with steel bullets. These bullets were very thick, with a diameter of more than 2 cm and a length of more than 15 cm. There were also many of them, with an estimated number of more than 1,000. The strange thing was that these bullets were packed into a long bullet chain with a strange material.

"What is this?" Anne still didn't understand.

Rosen picked up the bullet chain from behind and stuffed it into a groove in the middle of the musket, fastened it, then walked behind Anne and gently pushed her behind the musket: "Hold these two metal handles. Yes, hold it tight, that's right. Stand firm."

"That's it?" Anne was a little nervous. She found that at some point, all the magicians in the room stopped their actions. Everyone turned to look at her, with strange expressions on their faces, seeming a little nervous, and a little reluctant.

Rosen nodded: "Yes, that's it. Okay, now turn the gun and aim at the big tree stump in the distance. Do you see that tree stump? I painted it with white lime."

"I see it, but isn't it a bit far?" Annie turned the gun and aimed at a huge wooden stump about 200 meters away with a diameter of about 1.5 meters.

"That's not far. Are you ready?" Rosen asked.

"Ready. What should I do now?" Annie was a little nervous.

"Look here, there is a switch on the handle. This thing is the trigger of this musket. When you want to shoot, just press your thumb on it."

Before Rosen finished speaking, Annie pressed her thumb on it.

"Beep~~~~~"

A strange sound appeared, some of which were similar to the crazy beating of war drums, and some were similar to the sound of horse hooves when cavalry charged. Anyway, Annie had never heard such a sound.

In the sound, Annie saw the chain belt full of bullets frantically drill into the groove of the musket, and the empty chain quickly drilled out from the other side of the musket, and a bright line appeared in the muzzle of the musket. This bright line was like a long flame whip, whipping the large wooden stake in the distance.

In an instant, wood chips flew on the wooden stake. After 5 seconds, the large wooden stake with a diameter of more than 1.5 meters and a height of nearly 1 meter actually broke into several pieces.

"God~" Annie was so shocked that she couldn't speak, and her thumb subconsciously pressed the button tightly.

"Stop! Stop!" Rosen shouted hurriedly.

Annie then released the button, she turned her head and looked at Rosen blankly: "This thing is really powerful!"

She has been using the musket for a long time, and has a deep understanding of the power of this new weapon.

She knew that for the large wooden stake like the previous one, ordinary muskets could only make a hole on it, but such a musket was enough to easily break the arm of a small monster like a ghoul. Now, this new musket can smash a large wooden stake into pieces. If it hits a ghoul, it will smash its body into pulp.

Rosen smiled bitterly: "New weapons are of course very powerful. But the bullets are also consumed very quickly. In just a short while, you fired more than a hundred bullets."

Annie was shocked: "So many? No way? How long has it been?"

A magician's painful voice came from behind: "This musket can fire 20 bullets in one breath, and it takes more than half an hour to make these 20 bullets, not to mention Master Rosen's preliminary preparations."

Annie was secretly shocked and said quickly: "I'm very sorry, I didn't know it would be so fast. "

Rosen waved his hand and smiled: "No need to apologize. This gun is mainly used by you, so of course you have to get familiar with its power. Also, this musket is a big killer, don't use it easily. Its function is to suppress the monster's group charge, or to deal with particularly powerful monsters. Do you understand?"

Annie recalled the feeling when she used the musket just now, and nodded seriously: "I understand."

She walked forward and looked at the dark musket carefully. The more she looked at it, the more shocked she felt. She felt that this thing was a silent beast. If it didn't burst, it would be fine. Once it burst, it could set off a wave of death.

Looking at it, she couldn't help asking: "Does it have a name?"

"Yes~Yes." Rosen smiled slightly: "In view of its huge power and the scene when it was fired, we call it Thor's Whip."

"Thor's Whip. Yes, very vivid." Anne nodded repeatedly.

Rosen removed the bullet chain from the musket, put it back into the wooden box, and then said to Annie: "How is the training of the musket team going?"

Annie's face was stern, and she said seriously: "Not bad. For the target 100 meters away, the soldiers can hit 8 out of 10 on average. The excellent ones can basically hit 10 out of 10. Captain Grod and soldier Darius have excellent results. Not only can they hit 10 out of 10, but they can basically hit the bull's eye. Especially the soldier Darius, although he is the youngest, he has a very good shooting talent. Not only can he hit 100 out of 100 at 100 meters, but even within 150 meters, he can hit the bull's eye with every shot. It's very powerful."

"Not bad~ Not bad~ It's worth it for us to work hard to make bullets." Rosen nodded repeatedly. Making bullets is not a difficult job, but it is very boring. However, if the musket team wants to form combat effectiveness, it must be fed with a large number of bullets. For the safety of the camp, Rosen and his assistants can only grit their teeth and persevere.

The magicians present also breathed a sigh of relief.

When they first started making muskets, they thought it was quite novel, but after half a month of continuous work, everyone would feel very bored after repeating the same action tens of thousands of times.

Anne hurriedly said: "I will save bullet consumption as much as possible."

Rosen smiled and waved his hand: "It's not necessary to be too frugal. We have made some special tools for making bullets. The speed of making bullets is several times faster than before, and it is also much simpler. With a little improvement, ordinary people can Came to help."

"That's good." Annie breathed a sigh of relief. She had seen the process of making bullets, which was hard and boring. To be honest, sometimes she was really worried that these magicians would give up their job.

Rosen continued: "Since this Darius has such a strong talent, it would be a bit of a waste of his talent to continue to let him use ordinary muskets. In this way, the quota for the heavy sniper rifle will be given to him. You must train him well. . On the battlefield, the two of you hide in secret places, support each other, and snipe those difficult monsters."

"I understand." Annie nodded.

"As for Captain Grodd, he is a well-rounded warrior who performs well in all aspects, so let him continue to be the captain. Also, you can choose a few warriors with strong arms and stable minds, but poor shooting skills. Let them throw bombs specifically and have a bomb squad come out to deal with unexpected situations.”

Anne wrote them down one by one.

Rosen looked at the gloomy sky outside the window and said in a deep voice: "The defense work of the fortress is basically completed. With you stationed in the camp, I can rest assured. Tomorrow, I can start the next step of the plan."