Chapter 87: The New-Type Crossbow

“Uh?”

Darkya was clearly surprised by Kent’s question.

She looked down at the object in her hands.

How could something this beautiful possibly be measured with money?

To her, it was not a simple tool.

It was a piece of art.

However, after thinking about it for a moment, she remembered that Kent was human.

And humans...

were naturally obsessed with wealth.

For them, placing a price on anything was completely normal.

Thinking this way, Darkya’s opinion of Kent subtly changed.

A faint trace of contempt appeared in her eyes.

Kent noticed the change in her expression.

But he had no idea what had caused it.

Still, this matter directly involved his future income, so he needed a clear answer.

“How much do you think this thing is worth?”

He asked again.

Darkya looked at him.

“This beautiful work of art...”

“Do humans really have to connect everything with money?”

Her voice was filled with dissatisfaction.

“Is art something that can truly be measured by gold?”

Kent coughed awkwardly.

“Cough.”

“Cough.”

“When I designed this thing, I did not create it as a piece of art.”

“I designed it as a weapon.”

“So I’m afraid I don’t completely agree with what you said.”

Darkya stared at him in confusion.

“A weapon?”

“How could this possibly be a weapon?”

She looked at the night-vision device in her hands.

“Are you trying to fool me?”

Kent sighed helplessly.

“Why is it that you never believe anything I say?”

In truth, Kent was being completely honest.

The original inspiration had indeed come from Earth’s night-vision technology.

A night-vision device was not a direct weapon itself.

But in modern warfare, it was an indispensable piece of auxiliary equipment.

Its value was undeniable.

“You really mean that?”

Darkya looked at Kent carefully.

He did not seem to be lying.

So she answered with a hint of doubt.

“Then show me.”

Kent nodded.

“Come with me.”

He knew that unless he provided actual proof, Darkya would never truly believe him.

Although Kent did not have any special intentions toward her, having a powerful eighth-rank Magic Archer as a guard in the Dark Region was certainly a good thing.

So maintaining a good relationship with her was important.

Kent brought Darkya back into his laboratory.

This time, the item he was designing was completely different.

A sniper scope.

Or rather, a targeting device for a crossbow.

Compared with bows, crossbows were far easier to operate.

A bow required years of training and considerable physical strength.

A crossbow, however, could be used effectively by ordinary soldiers after simple instruction.

That made it much more suitable for mass production.

Creating this targeting device was even more complicated than making the night-vision device.

The crystal lenses had to be polished with extreme precision.

Their size and thickness had to be exactly identical.

Even the smallest difference could affect accuracy.

After that, measurement marks and calibration lines had to be engraved onto the surface.

The entire process involved countless small details.

This time, Kent did not use purple gold.

Instead, he chose black iron.

The reason was simple.

Purple gold looked beautiful.

But in darkness, even the slightest reflection could reveal someone’s position.

Black iron, on the other hand, behaved much more like plastic from Earth.

It reflected very little light.

That made it far more suitable for a battlefield tool.

Kent spent nearly four hours before finally completing the targeting device.

The next step was enchanting it.

And once again, he used the unfortunate kobold as the test subject.

However, this time Kent added two fixed mounting structures to the device.

The principle was exactly the same as the scopes used on Earth.

A sliding rail system.

The scope could be attached securely while still allowing adjustment.

Of course, this also meant that the crossbow itself needed modification.

The scope was not actually the hardest part to create.

The real difficulty was polishing the crystal lenses.

That was a slow and delicate process.

A tiny mistake could ruin the entire piece.

Kent carefully examined the finished device.

A new idea was slowly taking shape in his mind.

The night-vision device had already proven the value of combining Earth knowledge with this world’s magic.

But this new-type crossbow...

might completely change the way battles were fought in the underground world.

Kent spent another half hour making slight modifications to the crossbow.

After finishing the adjustments, he attached the newly created scope onto the weapon.

He lifted it up and carefully examined the result.

It was almost exactly what he had expected.

The only real flaw was that this was his first attempt.

The craftsmanship was still somewhat rough.

But the overall effect was already impressive.

“Come on.”

“I’ll show you something interesting.”

Kent carried the modified crossbow and led Darkya toward the direction of the volcano.

That area was home to some low-level beasts.

There were also a small number of magical creatures living nearby.

Darkya followed behind him with great curiosity.

Earlier, she had only seen Kent working on the weapon.

She had no idea how different this crossbow actually was from ordinary ones.

Although the construction looked somewhat crude, she was not worried.

After all, she was an eighth-rank Magic Archer.

There was very little in this underground world that could threaten her.

“Do you see that?”

“About five hundred meters ahead.”

“There’s a mole.”

The meat of underground moles was considered extremely delicious.

However, catching them was not easy.

These creatures had extremely sensitive senses of smell.

They could see clearly even in darkness.

And their movements were incredibly fast.

Darkya immediately focused her attention in the direction Kent indicated.

She was surprised.

Because she was a Magic Archer, she could barely locate the creature Kent mentioned.

But Kent?

Kent was only a third-level mage.

The range of his spiritual perception should not exceed one hundred meters.

In an environment this dark, discovering a target five hundred meters away should have been completely impossible.

Yet the truth was right in front of her.

Kent had found it.

If he had not pointed it out, Darkya might have completely overlooked the creature.

“Come here.”

“I’ll teach you how to use this new weapon.”

After Darkya confirmed the target, Kent began explaining how to operate the new crossbow.

However, before actually using it, the weapon needed to be calibrated.

A crossbow was not the same as a sniper rifle.

A firearm relied on a controlled bullet trajectory to maintain accuracy.

A crossbow was completely different.

The flight path of the bolt could be affected by many factors.

The string tension.

The angle.

The force of the shot.

Everything mattered.

“Wait...”

“It can actually be used this way?”

Darkya’s eyes widened in surprise after hearing Kent’s explanation.

Normally, whether it was a Magic Archer or an ordinary archer, once they reached the middle ranks, they would use spiritual power to lock onto their targets.

It was similar to how mages targeted spells.

But magical beasts and ordinary beasts were extremely alert creatures.

The moment they sensed spiritual power locking onto them, they would immediately flee.

This was the greatest weakness of traditional archery.

With Kent’s new weapon, however, the archer no longer needed to use spiritual power to mark the target.

The attack became far more concealed.

The enemy would not sense danger until the moment the bolt arrived.

“Hehe.”

“Small trick.”

“Nothing impressive.”

Kent laughed modestly.

But he could not hide the satisfaction in his voice.

Darkya’s surprised reaction gave him an enormous sense of accomplishment.

After listening carefully to Kent’s instructions, Darkya began testing the new-type crossbow herself.

After several attempts, she lowered the weapon.

“This thing is truly ingenious.”

She looked at the crossbow thoughtfully.

“For archers, this could have extraordinary significance.”

Kent nodded.

That was exactly what he wanted to hear.

Then he immediately asked,

“So...”

“How much do you think something like this would be worth?”

This was the answer Kent truly wanted.

He needed to know how valuable this weapon would be in the eyes of the dark elves.

Only then could he design his future plan for making money.

Darkya rolled her eyes at Kent.

Her opinion of him dropped another notch.

She had to admit that Kent was talented.

Extremely talented, even.

But among the dark elves, art was something that could never be measured by money.

For a race capable of living for thousands of years, wealth itself held little meaning.

Among the dark elves, a person’s status was not determined by how many coins they possessed.

What truly mattered was artistic cultivation.

Even a ninth-rank powerhouse would still be looked down upon if they lacked appreciation for art.

So Darkya did not bother answering Kent’s question.

Instead, she picked up the crossbow and began walking forward.

“You want to test it again?”

Kent immediately followed her.

They had already fired the weapon once, but shooting at a stationary target was completely different from using it in a real hunt.

Kent assumed Darkya wanted to find another creature and test the crossbow under actual conditions.

So he eagerly followed behind her.

At the same time, he secretly made up his mind.

No matter what happened, he was going to find out how much this crossbow was worth.

Darkya heard his footsteps behind her and frowned.

“Can’t you walk more quietly?”

She lowered her voice.

“This is the underground world, not the surface.”

“You need to stay quiet at all times.”

“With the way you’re walking now, forget about finding prey.”

“The prey would hear you first and probably kill you before you even saw it.”

Kent immediately slowed his steps.

He had very little experience surviving underground.

So he did not argue with her.

This kind of practical knowledge was exactly what he needed to learn.

He followed Darkya into a narrow passage.

As they went deeper, the surrounding light gradually disappeared.

Yet strangely enough, another kind of scenery soon emerged from the darkness.

Along the stone walls grew faintly glowing plants.

Small luminous beetles crawled between the cracks in the rock.

Their soft light scattered across the tunnel like tiny stars.

“These are Fluorescent Grasses.”

Darkya seemed to notice Kent’s surprise.

She leaned closer and spoke quietly.

“They only grow in passages like this.”

“Patrol teams regularly pass through these tunnels, so wild beasts rarely come here.”

“That’s why the grass survives.”

As she spoke, a faint fragrance reached Kent.

At the same time, he felt a trace of warmth near his face.

Darkya had moved very close to him so she could keep her voice low.

Kent quietly shifted a little farther away.

Then he took out a pair of glasses and put them on.

They were night-vision glasses.

Kent had made them specifically for himself.

The frame had been crafted from one of the mithril coins he had taken from Darkya.

Unlike the larger night-vision device, these glasses did not require specially polished crystal lenses.

That made them much easier to produce.

Once the glasses were in place, Kent also released his perception.

At present, his sensory range extended to roughly fifty meters.

For certain magical beasts that specialized in speed, fifty meters meant almost nothing.

Such creatures could cross that distance in an instant.

Archers naturally possessed much sharper perception than mages of the same rank.

The reason was simple.

Their cultivation focused on different things.

Mages primarily trained spiritual power and mana.

Perception was merely one application of spiritual force.

A mage could not possibly devote all of their time to improving perception alone.

Archers were different.

Perception was one of the core foundations of their combat ability.

They could devote far more effort to strengthening it.

Because of that, an archer’s detection range was normally far greater than that of a mage at the same level.

There was another important difference.

Once an archer discovered danger, they could launch an attack almost instantly.

A mage, on the other hand, often needed several seconds to prepare and cast a spell.

In an underground environment where danger could appear without warning, those few seconds could determine life or death.

That was one of the reasons mages had gradually lost their former dominance in the Dark Region.

But Kent was different.

He could cast spells instantly.

For a mage like him, the usual weakness hardly existed.

Even so, Kent had no intention of becoming careless.

The underground world was far too dangerous for that.

So he kept the night-vision glasses firmly in place and followed Darkya deeper into the darkness.