"Ivy… Do you have any plans for today?" Mother asked me.

At breakfast time. Only me and Mother, while Father, have gone to work because the place he works needs something urgent.

"Umm… Yes… No… Actually, I just spend my whole day in the basement," I answered uncertainly because sometimes Mother would not consider my activities as planned if I did in the basement.

"Hmm… research again?" Mother asked.

"Yes… Only assembling my component, for tomorrow solo hunting," I explained.

"... Sigh… Alright, don't forcing to much okay, be careful" My Mother stopped for a little while and warned me.

"Alright," I responded objectively.

So, my activity for today is to continue my research again. Mother has become so worried recently because my research nearly destroyed the basement last time.

Yeah, literally destroyed.

I made some stuff for a basic, without care, and made the basement explode. Luckily I made a barrier and protected myself, even though everything became a mess.

***

After breakfast, and helped Mother clean all wares. I go outside to enter the basement.

There are some stuff and tools inside the basement, with only one way to the square room of 4x2 meters, like a barrel, firewood, table, tools for farming, and even a sword that Father stored after the war.

My goal isn't here but a self next to the table in the corner of the room. I push a little bit and open a secret door. With only a small room and a hatch, go deeper to another room.

I opened the hatch, and there was a ladder. Keep down the ladder around 10 meters, then I arrived at a small square room with a large around 5x5 meters.

There are an empty wall rack, a barrel labeled "Gun Powder," a chair and self filled with book and paper, and three tables. The first is for crafting a gun, the second is for producing a bullet, and the third is filled with so much paper and rulers for designing prototypes for firearms.

I did this after I got the materials from Mr.Rize, crafting a new gun. In this small room, exactly when I worked at a factory in my previous life.

Then, I reach to the self, take one book and sit on the chair while placing the book on the table.

I opened the book, which was filled with many designs and prototypes, some from my past and some from my new design.

"Sigh… This is my first time stuck like this," I sighed. Honestly, I'm never as this confused, actually.

This isn't from my poor design that became malfunctioning. Still, the main problem is every single gun that I've crafted is always destroyed after taking one shoot.

That happened on the first attempt I made in the basement. Without thinking too much, even if I used blank ammo, the gun exploded after firing one bullet.

Then, the shatter from my gun scattered everywhere until it reached the gunpowder barrel and boom, the explosion occurred quickly after a chain reaction from my exploded gun.

Even though it did not make my house explode in the sky or collapse into the ground because of the explosion, it caused quite a big earthquake around the village that lasted for 5 seconds, which caused a shock in the village. Luckily everyone didn't know the culprit; only my parents knew about this incident.

Alright, the main problem with my gun was that it couldn't stand against explosives; in other words, every single gun that fired from my gun scattered because the explosion from a bullet triggered by the firing pin made the whole gun scatter like they couldn't handle explosives.

It is probably from the gunpowder, which caused the rifle to explode. Even though I made it using my old way of making gunpowder, I decided to make the worst quality to get the weakest power. In other words, I couldn't change it anymore because it was the weakest than I usually made in my previous world. Unfortunately, it didn't give me any chance. The bullet that I made from caliber 9mm felt like 10mm or even more.

The second possibility is from the materials that I used. At first, I thought all the material was the same; I made components from ore that were molded with magic and made modern firing systems like M4A1 or HK automatic guns. Unfortunately, after looking at my case, my father said that the quality material I used was terrible. He implied I couldn't use it for complex parts or durable stuff like a sword that could bear any blow attack.

Then, I searched for at least one decent-grade metal ore that I could afford with my own money. Until yesterday, when Mr.Rize came to our village, he bought pretty decent-grade metal ore.

By learning from the past, I worked once again from the bottom. I won't try straight to the modern arm but from the basic firearms system.

Without wasting much time thinking, I opened my book. Look one by one while checking what kind of firearm I'll make for today. Something that with a simple mechanism. Then, I come up with three firearms designs.

-        Martini 1871

-        Winchester M21

-        Sauer M30

Looking at them, basically, both of them are quite simple enough. Even though there are muskets, flintlocks, trapdoors, or kammerlader rifles that probably could use considering their mechanism, I erased those firearms from the list because of reload time and accuracy that I could say quite long.

Different from Winchester M21, Martini-Henry, and Sauer M30, all of them have their advantages compared with the two before. Like, reload time and power. Because of that reason, I chose to craft that three guns and testing it if they could stand power from bullets or not. Even for Sauer M30, I greatly expect it to withstand a fired bullet.

Luckily, because of magic, I could make firearms easily. I only need to conduct an object to molding or shape the object that is appropriate to what I need. I don't need to go through metallurgy to make an ingot; I can make all components directly through raw material. Moreover, It is easy to separate from inappropriate content that could reduce the metal purity.

I started with Martini-Henry first because their system is quite simple. First, I make component parts like a breech with their firing pin inside and then the trigger part with a lever for opening and closing the breech, that's, for the firing mechanism. Next, I need to make a barrel, wood part for stock, in front and back.

After that, I assemble all of the components. From the buttstock with the firing mechanism, combine it with the barrel and forestock, and then lock it with handguard bans. Finally, one weapon has been made.

Second, I need to make a Winchester M21. Different from before, this gun has a different mechanism. I didn't say that the firing mechanism is complex, but it has two firing systems on one rifle, and also, between barrels, the firing system is separated. Only connected by the lever that is also connected to the casing extractor.

Then, I start making all components for this firearm, including two barrels, a forestock, and a buttstock. After that, I assemble the parts again like before. A trigger, hammer, safety side, and top lever are from buttstock with firing systems, for barrels with forestock and mechanism with extractor shell. Later, I combined those two parts with a joint pin at the frame under the barrel. Eventually, the second firearm has made.

Next, Sauer M30. I used the rifle from my previous life's First and Second World Wars. It was even a favorite rifle for hunters in when pre-nuclear war era because of its reliability and could change from a shotgun to a rifle, using 12 gauge and .375 caliber.

To make this gun, Sauer M30 has the same concept as Winchester M21, only at the trigger and safety slide added some parts to change the hammer position from shotgun to rifle barrel. Also, it has 3 barrels, side by side for 12 gauge and one barrel under side by side for .375 bullets.

I only need to make the same step as Winchester before. Only reshaping some parts to make it could use three barrels for two triggers. Finally, the last and all of the rifles that I planned has completed.

If you have a rifle, you need a bullet. Then my next step is to make a bullet. Now, I need to make a bullet for this test run; I'll make one for each riffle in 5 rounds. 5 rounds .577/450 for martini Henry, 20 rounds 12 gauge for Winchester and Sauer, and 5 rounds .375 cartridge.

After I had made all the bullets, I only needed to test them before trying some hunting runs in the forest. Then I made an iron plate with different thicknesses; I made 4 plates 50x50 cm with thicknesses 1, 3, 5, and 7 mm. Also, I make for 4 pieces for each.

Rifle, bullet, and iron plate has done. Next, I need to go out to the plain area that is near from village to do a test run. Then, I exit from my basement with all the bullets in my pouch and the rifles, including the plate, in my magic storage.

Usually, I pass some villagers, and they greet me and ask where I will go; I tell them I'll make another run test outside the village for my weapon. They usually know what I mean because it is the fifth run test.

Later on, I finally arrived at the plain area. I looked for some area near the high ground, so I could put that high ground as a wall if the bullet pierced all of the iron plates.

I arranged all the iron plates with a range of 10 centimeters, and the range from the iron plate to the high ground was around 2 meters. After arranging all of that, I started with Martini-Henry 1817, from 20 meters, and then gradually moved every 20 meters until I was at the range of 100 meters.

At first, I used earth magic to build a table, place the rifle on top, and tie it with rope at the fore stock and rear stock; also, I made sure to aim at the iron plate. Then, I started the test using a string that tied up to the trigger.

"Martini Henry 1817, .577/450 ammo, first test, fire!" I shouted and pulled the trigger from the string.

BANG

Quite a loud bang, honestly; I hope no villages are suspicious about this. Then I checked the rifle to see if it didn't scatter around. After checking, I think this rifle could still continue the run test.

Then from 40 meters, using Martini-Henry 1817, aimed at the iron plate and took a shoot.

BANG BANG BANG BANG

I shot gradually from 40, 60, 80, and 100 meters. Without checking the result, I continue to another rifle with the iron plate and table I've prepared. From Winchester M21 and then Sauer M30, both of them could stand against the fired bullet.

Finally, I checked the result. Looking back at the iron plate that becomes a target, I carefully examine the plates until I come to a result.

First, martini Henry gave quite a shocking result because all shoot from 20 to 100 meters have good accuracy. Even though I don't know what will happen if I test back from 200 meters, I am quite satisfied with the result. Even with the poorest gunpowder quality, it could pierce all plates in every shot, even though the power decreased as the distance became farther.

Second, Winchester M21 has good power at a short distance and a wide spread from the shotgun shell; even though the power reduction decreased greatly than the martini, this rifle dominated for short range.

Lastly, Sauer M30, this gun basically the same as M21, with great power at a short distance, only with a more centered spread and more distance than M21, like as if M21 only could reach 50 meters, Sauer M30 can reach 80 meters using a gauge shell, even the most shocking result is the rifle cartridge, .375 on top power even at a distance 100 meters, and also the accuracy is high.

In the end, looking at the result, I choose Sauer M30 for my weapon. Even though I've planned to try Martini-Henry again when I have quite a faraway target and use Winchester M21 for close combat. That's for another story.

After the test ended, I'm back to the village in a happy mood, not only because the rifles that I made managed to withstand their first test run, but also because finally, I could run my previous job as a gunsmith, hoping that I could make another rifle in future.

Hi, Lightwood here, I know probably some of you a little bit disappointed with way to describe firearm mechanism... I must admit that I'm not a gun nerd but I've a high interest on firearms, though it is only from various game that I've played and not from real experience, I really appreciate your idea and opinion about firearms. Thank you for reading my novel...