Chapter 23: Can’t Handle It? The Firepower Isn’t Enough!
In just a few short minutes, the protective talismans were complete. Rhodes packed them up, but then paused, remembering something.
He reached into his personal space and pulled out his weapon, a double-barreled shotgun, about the length of his forearm.
“I need to reinforce my weapons, too.”
Back then, when he fought the werewolf transformed from the witch, he realized this shotgun’s power was way too weak. It could barely kill a normal werewolf with a single shot. Against the witch’s werewolf form, even two headshots only injured it slightly. And that was just a werewolf.
Werewolves, while formidable, were small fry among the many magical creatures out there. Creatures like griffins and cyclopes from legends; each of them could effortlessly kill a werewolf. And don’t even mention dragons, beasts capable of destroying nations with a mere thought.
Did he really think his little shotgun could take down a dragon? He’d be lucky if it could even scratch one of those tough dragon scales.
Even if he never encountered such powerful magical beings, it was better to be overprepared than underprepared.
“If one shotgun isn’t enough… then I’ll just get more.”
Rhodes stroked his chin thoughtfully. He didn’t believe there was anything in this world that couldn’t be killed. Dragons, exorcists, demons—if they couldn’t be killed, it only meant the firepower wasn’t enough.
The truth only exists within the range of artillery.
If a shotgun doesn’t work, use a missile. If a missile isn’t enough, go nuclear. Even gods could die, as long as there was enough firepower. Can’t handle it? That just means you’re underarmed.
He couldn’t exactly get his hands on missiles, but if it were more shotguns? As long as he had the money, he could buy as many as he wanted. That’s the freedom of the Land of Liberty.
He biked to the city, bought a secondhand pickup truck, and, after some asking around, found a sketchy gun shop. There, he bulk-ordered a load of legally available firearms. Though the shop owner gave him weird looks, a fat cash cow walking through the door wasn’t something he was about to pass up. Rhodes basically wiped out their entire stock.
Back at home, he looked at the back of his truck, now piled high with weapons. He couldn’t help but marvel at how easy it was to buy guns in this country, like shopping for groceries. And they were dirt cheap.
A small-caliber pistol? Around $100. A decent revolver? Only $200–300. Rifles? Mostly above $500, but rarely exceeded $1,000. Only the sniper rifles were a bit more expensive, usually above a grand.
Altogether, this truckload of weapons only cost him a few tens of thousands of dollars. After unloading the guns, he sorted them by type: pistols, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rifles.
Rhodes selected the pile of pistols and immediately activated a sacrificial ritual. As powerful as shotguns were, pistols were more practical most of the time—compact, lethal when aimed properly, and without the wide blast radius of shotguns that risked friendly fire.
He was curious as to what kind of weapon he could summon by sacrificing this many guns.
A flash of light lit up the dim room. The pistols vanished instantly, and in Rhodes’s hand, a black revolver from a mass of dark energy materialized. Its gunmetal body was etched with red spiral patterns, sinister and striking.
He traded dozens of guns… and all he got was just one? Rhodes narrowed his eyes and picked up the revolver.
It looked like a normal revolver, but weighed about three times more. Luckily, his current physique was inhuman, so the weight wasn’t an issue.
Still, what good was the weight alone? Ultimately, it all came down to the bullets.
The exchange ability was based on equivalent exchange—the value of what you gave up should match what you received.
Sacrificing dozens of pistols just to get one? That was not an even trade.
He’d performed this ritual many times before and had never seen this happen. Thinking it over, he opened a box of bullets and loaded six rounds into the revolver. Once it was fully loaded, he glanced out the window at a large tree.
Raising his arm, he aimed and pulled the trigger.
A deep gunshot rang out. Red lines on the revolver glowed faintly. A burst of flame erupted as the bullet shot forward.
The instant it struck the tree, it punched straight through the thick trunk.
Feeling a slight sting in his wrist, Rhodes looked on in amazement. He approached the tree and stared at the hole, wide enough to fit a fist through.
Clearly, this wasn’t something an ordinary revolver could do. That power… it was practically on par with a high-caliber sniper rifle.
Rhodes replayed the moment of firing in his head.
It felt like some unknown energy had wrapped around the bullet, accelerating its speed and boosting its impact. A regular revolver… with this kind of firepower?
He had just created a magical weapon!