Chapter 881 Hunting

Standing on a sand hill, Shiro rested the sniper on her shoulders while looking into the distance.

Narrowing her eyes, she could see several common beasts wandering around with Nanobots pulsing on their back. Fragments of what seemed to be Silvanis acted as the spine and could be utilised at any moment.

"There aren't many wanders but there should be enough to experiment for now." Shiro muttered while looking around her.

Now that she knew there was a passive acting on her mind, as long as she focused on experimenting, she could ignore most of the effects.

'Benefits of strong willpower huh?' She thought with a smirk before laying down and aiming the sniper towards the beast.

*Fu…..

Breathing out softly, Shiro heightened her senses as much as she could. The moment she feels something looking at her, she has to stop her attack since the gun would be copied. There were lots of experiments for her to do so she wanted to go through them one by one. She also needs to test out their durability first since only tier 6 harms them.

Even with her Nanobots being at tier 6, they only chipped the armour slightly while the shotgun caused a large wound but was regenerated with minimal effort. She needed something to halt their healing factor. It also needed to be powerful enough so that it's a lethal shot.

Narrowing her eyes, Shiro looked through the scope and focused on the beast's movement.

She wanted to wait for the moment where the bullet would be able to pierce through him entirely. Whether that was from the rear or from the head didn't matter.

In other words, the beast controlled his own fate. Depending on which way he moved, his fate could either be common or shameful.

Resting her finger on the trigger, Shiro patiently waited.

Last time, the bullets that she used were common.

However, this time, she has a little surprise for them since this was her payback.

Upon piercing the target, the bullet would leave a wire of nanobots which unfolds into hundreds of thin razors that would size the beast apart into thin slices. While there wasn't anything to hinder their healing factor, not even Shiro could survive if she died before knowing what happened.

After all, the healing wasn't passive, she needed to activate them consciously.

Funnelling divine energy into her weapon, golden lights lit up around the seams of the gun while runes slowly manifested on the barrel.

Tens of tier 6 magic circles compressed themselves in the chamber as the bullet was supercharged.

She had made sure to suppress the energy that was being emitted from her so that the beast couldn't sense her presence.

There was a dampening device next to her to assist just in case but with Shiro's control of her own energy, it wasn't necessary.

Sitting down for a moment, the beast looked around before scratching its ears. Stretching its body, it walked away from Shiro's location and prepared to make its way back to where the rest of the beasts were.

{How unfortunate.} Nimue sighed as the beast decided to turn around.

Pulling the trigger without hesitation, all of the tier 6 magic circles activated at once as there was even a silencing rune to stop the sound of the gunshot.

Watching the bullet accelerate instantly and leave behind a golden trail, Shiro smiled since the beast didn't notice anything.

Then the bullet struck, entering the beast's body from its backside.

Piercing through and leaving behind nanotech wires, the beast widened its eyes and wanted to cry out when a windmill of blades exploded out from its body, shredding it to pieces.

Looking at the chunks of meat which were left behind wither away, Shiro put her sniper away and hit in a spot prepared by Bonne beforehand.

Watching the beast quickly arrive at the scene, Shiro smirked since her shot killed it before it could regenerate itself.

Seeing the beasts make their way towards her direction, she understood that they must have guessed where the shot had come from and quickly retreated from her spot with the help of Bonne.

Returning to the underground base, Shiro smiled.

"That was pretty informative." She chuckled since killing the beasts was rather easy as long as she was prepared. Unfortunately, since the shot took Divine Energy, she could only use it roughly 8 times per day before she ran out of divine energy completely.

Noting down a few things in her mind, Shiro created another sniper prototype. She wanted to see what is the bare minimum for killing these beasts since using Divine Energy to kill them all would be quite troublesome considering the fact that there are hundreds maybe even thousands of beasts here. Killing only 8 per day would hinder her progression. Plus, with their doppelganger skill, it would be difficult to completely get rid of them.

If she could kill them without the use of Divine Energy, summoning an army of guns on the surface to eradicate them wouldn't be too problematic.

She just needed the right blueprint.

While she was tinkering with her sniper prototype, Bonne was sitting by the side, speechless.

Even when he told the weakness to the other adventurers that arrived, it still took them a while before they could hunt down their first beast. Even the powerful elf that used swords had to wait around two days before she could kill them without being copied.

Seeing Shiro tinker away with such joy in her eyes, Bonne couldn't help but wonder who she was to be able to enjoy the situation.

'Don't get your hopes up Bonne, she'll fail like the rest. Just prepare the spells to send her out when things fail.' Bonne sighed as he shook his head and crawled into his sleeping bag while Shiro tinkered away.

For the next few days, Shiro continued to test out their weaknesses with new weaponry that became more efficient as time passed.

Today was the first day that she was going to test out her weapon against a small group of beasts.

Due to her hunting, none of the beasts were going solo anymore and the activity of the high ends were much higher than before. It took her a while to find a suitable group.

With five beasts in this group, it would be hard to not be copied if she were to fight them personally but unfortunately for them, Shiro could remotely control her snipers.

Sitting in the underground base, Shiro had a tablet in her hand which showed her the location of her sniper and the beasts.

There was even a grid which represented the wires that she had spread out in the area. These wires were used as a medium to create new weapons on demand. For example, if the beasts start running away, she'll just create some turrets there and herd them towards the centre.

Making sure the three snipers that she had created were properly hidden so that they don't know they're being hunted, Shiro waited for a good opportunity to wipe them out quickly so that the information sent to the others would be minimal.

All they'll know is that something hit them and they died.

Shiro wanted to make five snipers but doing so would have revealed the weapon to the beasts in the distance.

Firing the snipers the moment a gap was exposed, Shiro watched as four beasts died immediately since one of them dragged an extra one.

With only one beast left, Shiro quickly fired the snipers again to eliminate it.

However, just as she did this, one of the snipers were destroyed by a high end that rushed to the spot the moment a beast died.

Looking at the broken sniper in its hands and the five dead beasts, the high end clicked his tongue and threw the weapon down with anger.

It had wanted to kill whoever was firing the guns but it found no one was there when it fired. Understanding that whoever was hunting them had a clear grasp on their weakness, the high end narrowed his eyes before leaving the area.

"Fu… I didn't expect the high end to react so quickly but seems like we'll be able to hunt them in groups now. I wonder if I can just carpet bomb them all." Shiro muttered with a grin.

"Carpet bomb?" Bonne tilted his head in confusion as it was a term that he wasn't familiar with.

"Mn, just think of it as me killing everything in an instant. Actually, speaking of killing everything, I have a great idea~" Shiro giggled as she couldn't believe that she had neglected this blueprint all this time.

It was a simple weapon, highly effective but in a way, low levelled since the blueprint was never improved. The mana pulse bomb. Akin to what many would call a nuclear warhead before the system changed everything, this bomb was one of the most destructive early weapons that she had access to. It was something that could harm the user as well since the explosion didn't care for friend or foe. If she was to enhance it with Divine Energy amongst many other skills, the outcome might just blow this dungeon out of existence. However, to use such a powerful bomb, she needed to make sure they won't get caught up in it first.

Seeing Shiro's expression, Nimue watched her with dead fish eyes and went to sleep. She knew what was coming so she was reserving her strength.