Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume2 Phase01 (section)

===Part 4===

Falling water could be heard in the ocean cottage, but not because a midnight squall was pounding on the roof. Henrietta was taking a shower.

Ayato Criminaltrophy shut his eyes and sighed while seated on a sofa in what would have been the living room of a normal villa.

He was beginning his mental sorcery experiment he called self-maintenance. That required no special tools or equipment, so any Sorcery Hacker would do that during any spare time. It may have been like a squirrel stuffing its cheeks full of nuts or a gymnast stretching to keep their body limber.

But.

“Coach.”

“Mgh!?”

He was hit by a surprise attack.

A weight plopped down on his thighs. He ended his work and opened his eyes to find the tall Dark Elf seated on his lap. She looked like a cool beauty, but she was quite the grandma’s girl, so she was very communicative once she opened up a bit with you.

She kicked her long legs.

She seemed to be toying with some kind of device in her hands.

“I want to know how this cartridge device works, so can you teach me?”

“Hm?”

Everyone could use sorcery guns for easy magic use these days, but that had indeed introduced the new troubles of maintaining and supplying ammo for those guns. A cartridge device was a tool used to create your own ammo.

“Yeah, they probably do have clay target shooting here, but I bet the wealthy have their own equipment brought in for that. The island’s shops probably don’t actually sell ammo.”

He had a feeling that was a hobby brought here by the 5th Prince. He was an indoorsy type who liked to tinker with sorcery devices and he used sports as a reason to get out of the house, but he would meekly smile and say he was not willing to shoot animals for sport. Ayato really wished a certain Minotaur could take a lesson from the guy.

On the other hand, sorcery guns were used as more than just weapons. They were also an ignition source for household stoves and heaters. However, there was a lot he did not know about how that equipment found its way to the island’s people.

“I want to learn how to do this while I have a chance, Coach. Where should I begin?”

“Let’s see.”

Mamilis was not a small child, so he had trouble seeing the device itself while she sat in his lap. He had to effectively embrace her hips from behind to use his sense of touch to check on the cartridge device she was toying with.

The device itself appeared to be a rectangular piece of steel about the size of a toaster.

Thumb-sized cylindrical holes were evenly spaced across the upper surface like a honeycomb, making it look something like a strange cooking appliance.

“First, check the knob on the side. Make sure the heat really is switched off.”

“Okay.”

“I can explain the basic principle behind it while you work. The standard bullets used by sorcery guns are made from mist mana.”

This reminded him of his time in the Academy Towers.

“First, the actual bullet,” he said while her long, twitching ears hit him on the cheek. “That is made from disintegrating lead. You generally want to make basic bullets that can be used for anything, but if you know what element you want from the beginning, you can use an arrangement specialized for fire, water, wind, or earth.”

“Everything I do is with fire.”

“The actual magic is formed by the muzzle flash that is given a specific pattern similar to a firework by carving grooves into the bullet with your willpower. Sending the power of mana through that creates the magic.”

But if that was all you wanted, you could simply pour dull gray powder inside and shape it by crushing it down with the rounded end of a wooden stick. A shotgun self-replicated a single type of magic and scattered it in a fan shape, which required focusing on multiple ''bullets'' instead of one even mass, but that was a separate issue.

The magical part of this job was coming up.

“Once the bullet portion has solidified, it’s time for the next step. Take concentrated and liquefied mana and rub it onto the inside of the tube.”

“You can touch mana with your finger? I thought you would pass right through it. Isn’t it called Intangible Mist?”

“Which is why you rub an impurity on the inside of the tube beforehand. It’s generally a powder, but the cream type might be easier for a beginner. Both options only keep the mana there for a short period of time, but you just have to get it heated and solidified before then.”

Mamilis’s movements were hesitant, but she was brimming with curiosity.

In terms of the Academy Towers, she seemed to see it like a summer break research project.

She leaned forward and rocked side to side, so his arms looked something like a seatbelt holding her in.

“Now turn the previous knob to heat up the entire device. For a shotgun, you’ll want to crank it up a little more. A thicker casing means more stability. Oh, and make sure you don’t touch the metal portions while it’s heating.”

“So this will create a tube, Coach?”

“Exactly. Mana generally passes through everything, but it can’t escape walls made of mana. The casing will quickly harden like a shell once you heat it and you can fill it with mist mana then. That you won’t harden. But overfill it and the high concentration will liquefy it, so be careful.”

“Okay.”

“Once you turn the knob back to stop the heating, you just have to shield the opening with a detonator and seal it up.”

When she pulled down the small lever on the side, a set of brand new bullet cartridges popped out of the cylinders. A cartridge device like this could make 20 rounds at a time. They popped out as easily as toast from a toaster.

Shops loved to sell “first class” sorcery gun ammo said to be made by specialists, but most people would just make their own. Especially Forwards who might not be able to visit a shop depending on their circumstances.

But anyway.

“I did it,” said Mamilis in a way that would probably have made her weapon developer grandma weepy.

The shotgun shells she had made all glowed red like jewels.

He had shown her through the standard method here, but the end product could vary significantly based on the creator’s quirks and the materials used. Teleria’s and Henrietta’s would shine with a unique light all their own.

“There is almost no chance of the creator being identified from a used cartridge since they lose their color and disintegrate on their own. But you could be in trouble if you drop an unused shotgun shell on a job, so be careful how you handle them.”

“Got it, Coach.”

“You have to wait for the device to cool before you can make another set, but you can use an incombustible gas for that. Submerging it in cold water would crack the device, so don’t do that. Regardless, I recommend doing it with me or Miss Teleria around for the time being.”

“Incredible. I can make as many bullets as I want with this.”

She sounded like a small child who had been given an ice cream maker that was more or less just a toy.

Back in the sky city, she had feared the weapons people wielded, but making them herself may have helped her conquer that fear by understanding how they worked.

“The experiment is not over until you have cleaned up your equipment. Once you finish that, you can take a shower and get to bed early. Even if we were using a sleeper train, we did just complete a long journey.”

“Hm? You don’t want me to review what I’ve learned now???”

“This is not quite the same as my self-maintenance work. One lesson I have learned the hard way is that you will accomplish nothing by trying to learn when you are feeling sleepy and your eyelids are growing heavy.”