24: Purchase the Swift Crossbow

For Karona, who always saw herself as Arthur's maid, the word "friend" carried a lot of weight.

To some extent, this word could be said to have brought her closer to Arthur.

As a result, Karona even forgot about the existence of the Mountain Giants at this moment, her mind filled with the word "friend."

Arthur didn't notice anything unusual and still looked at the Mountain Giants:

"They both long for the power of giants, so they want to stay on your shoulders for a while to experience it!"

"No problem, it's a small matter, Baron!"

Even if Arthur told them to die, Zoffy and Zog wouldn't hesitate in the slightest, so they directly agreed to such a small request.

But this stunned Arina. Wasn't it said that unless it's someone they trust deeply, one cannot stand on a giant's shoulder or a Dragon's back? These two Mountain Giants actually agreed just like that.

Arina thought Arthur would have to haggle with the two Mountain Giants, and it would be lucky if they barely agreed in the end.

She was even prepared for Arthur's failure.

Agreeing so easily instead gave Arina a sense of unreality.

"Maybe she really underestimated the relationship between Arthur and these two giants!"

This thought suddenly popped into Arina's mind, and the way she looked at Arthur became somewhat complex.

She didn't expect that after not seeing her younger brother for just a few days, she would find him somewhat hard to understand.

After agreeing to Arthur's request, Zoffy and Zog each extended their stone palms, several meters wide, toward the ground, signaling Arthur and the others to step on.

As the two giant palms approached, Karona and Arina finally snapped back from their respective daydreams.

Arthur directly took Karona's hand and stepped onto Zog's palm, leaving Arina to go to Zoffy's palm alone.

Subsequently, the three of them each stepped onto the shoulders of the two Mountain Giants.

Being held by Arthur like this, Karona's already rosy cheeks turned crimson until they actually reached the Mountain Giant's shoulder.

Karona, who had been led by Arthur like a puppet just now, shyly pulled her hand away from Arthur's.

To this, Arthur only savored the residual softness in his hand and did not perform any further actions.

After all, there was plenty of time ahead; one shouldn't be too hasty.

Perhaps because of their age, although the relationship between Arthur and Karona had been very good in the past, they had always maintained the normal distance expected between a master and a maid.

An act like holding hands today was a first.

But now, Arthur expressed that such behavior would become more frequent in the future. After all, Karona's beauty, whether in his past or present life, was among the best in his memory.

He wouldn't let her go.

On the other side, Arina had been excited ever since stepping onto Zoffy's shoulder, looking as if she wanted to let out a couple of shouts!

"Zoffy, Zog, let's walk around and patrol the surroundings of the Initial City while we're at it!"

"Alright, Baron!"

Then, under the shocked gazes of the crowd at the gates of Initial City and the excited expressions of Karona and Arina, accompanied by the vibration of the ground, the two Mountain Giants walked further and further away.

Not until the sun set and only a glimmer of afterglow remained in the distant sky did Karona and Arina return to Initial City with expressions of wanting more.

After descending from the shoulders of the two giants, Arthur said to Arina:

"Remember what you promised before!"

"Alright, alright, I know. You want me to leave that badly!"

Arina, who had just satisfied her craving for being on a giant, was too lazy to argue with Arthur at this moment and waved her hand to indicate she understood.

After the three of them entered the city, the two Mountain Giants fell back into a deep sleep not far from the city gate, turning into two small hills.

The next day, under Arthur's expression of barely being able to hold back a smile, Arina left reluctantly.

Actually, Arina wanted to stay for two more days, but with the Kingdom's army retreating back across the border the day before yesterday, it was uncertain when the Orcs would come.

If Arina didn't leave now, she wouldn't be able to leave once the Orcs actually arrived, so she could only depart today in reluctance.

With the Orcs approaching, for some reason, the "insufficient firepower phobia" left over from Arthur's past life flared up!

Without exposing trump cards like the Sky Knight.

He felt that even with two Mountain Giants present, if too many Orcs attacked...

Since most of the warriors in the city were currently just ordinary people who had undergone training, the existing military force was still not enough to guarantee the city's safety.

Besides, an army of a thousand people was far too small.

Arthur wanted to conscript soldiers and distribute new types of weapons.

First was conscription. Initial City had four walls; at least one wall should have a thousand soldiers!

That would mean conscripting at least three thousand more!

As for new weapons, the gale repeating crossbow he had drawn before was very good, having considerable lethality against ordinary people and Bronze Knights.

After switching to special armor-piercing bolts, it would even pose a significant threat to Silver Knights who could cover their whole bodies with Battle Qi.

And since it had little effect on high-end combatants above the Gold Knight level, even if he brought it out, it wouldn't cause too much of a reaction from other forces.

Even if there were some impact, Arthur, who possessed a Sky Knight, could keep things under control.

Having decided, Arthur opened the Portable Shop and clicked on the gale repeating crossbow:

"gale repeating crossbow, capable of firing three arrows in succession. It is a powerful crossbow imbued with magical power. The bolts fired are as swift as the wind yet melt into the wind, silent and soundless.

The power does not diminish within three hundred meters. If a Silver Knight is not wearing special protective gear, they cannot withstand its sharp edge with Battle Qi alone!

Price: 500 Gold Coins

Note: Bolts can also be purchased separately,

Ordinary iron bolts: One gold coin for a hundred

armor-piercing bolts: One gold coin for ten"

Five hundred gold coins for one gale repeating crossbow. In addition to the planned army of four thousand ordinary people, Bronze and Silver Knights could also use it, so he would buy four thousand one hundred units.

That would be two million and fifty thousand gold coins.

Each gale repeating crossbow would be equipped with at least a thousand ordinary bolts and a hundred armor-piercing bolts.

That would be four million one hundred thousand ordinary bolts and four hundred and ten thousand armor-piercing bolts, costing eighty-two thousand gold coins.

The total for the repeating crossbows and bolts was two million, one hundred and thirty-two thousand gold coins.

For Arthur, who still had fifteen million, eight hundred and fifty thousand gold coins, this was just pocket change, so he directly confirmed the purchase.

He designated the delivery location to be a blank space ring on his hand.

As the balance in the shop decreased by two million, one hundred and thirty-two thousand gold coins, piles of crossbows and bolts appeared in Arthur's blank space ring.

Taking out one of the gale repeating crossbows to observe, he found that the length of this crossbow was only twenty centimeters, not very large.

The entire body of the crossbow was covered in mysterious patterns. It seemed these patterns gave the gale repeating crossbow its magical power, making the bolts it fired both significantly more powerful and silent.

With the idea of giving it a try, Arthur went to the window and fired three bolts in succession at the ground of the castle's first floor. Sure enough, Arthur didn't hear any unusual sound from the bolts in the air, only three sounds of the stone slabs on the castle's first floor being pierced through.