After some experimentation, while he was crafting another ballista, Ryan realized that those wouldn't help all that much per se. The reason was simple, the monsters were big, and he still would need a lot of time to charge the projectiles with Power Shot. His newest crossbows were a better option in terms of efficiency since Ryan could even use them alongside Firing Posture. So, he decided to adopt the ballista.

Mortal Needle Cannon

Effect: Consumes one hundred points of mana to fire a single massive steel needle capable of piercing the toughest flesh and ignoring ten percent of the target's Endurance.

Dexterity + 450

Durability: 250/250

The new ballista was thinner than the ones Ryan made before, but it was longer to be able to fire Steel Needles that were thirteen meters long. While those wouldn't kill the monsters, the needles at least would bother the bosses during the whole fight. Ryan intended to use it to damage the bosses' legs. However, before that, Ryan had to enchant the weapon with the soul of a monster.

"No… I will wait for a while," Ryan shook his head. "Crafting this thing took me a whole night and I don't intend to make another for the time being. Instead of selecting a monster to enchant this weapon, I should take a look at the other two. For the time being, the ballista will serve its purpose."

"As usual, you are always finding nastier ways to kill monsters," Femradiel said.

Ryan was still hundreds of kilometers away from Tokyo, so it was time to pick up the pace using his newest creation. While finding survivors was hard, and that didn't happen since the Haruna's group, finding the bosses wrestling each other was pretty common, so Ryan soon obtained a chance to test the weapon. Byakko and Genbu were fighting pretty much alone. They were the perfect test subjects, but then Ryan had another nasty idea.

"I didn't think you could be this brutal…" Femradiel said, and she sounded pretty impressed in a negative way.

"You already know what is about to happen, huh," Ryan smirked.

Ryan created a small earth tower and then took out his ballista from his storage dimension. Without even using Power Shot, Ryan pulled the lever, but not after he activated Deadly Aim and Perfect Aim. The massive steel needle flew in a straight line toward Byakko's right eye and pierced it. The creature screamed in agony, but despite the critical damage, the monster didn't die… yet. Ryan fired three more steel needles while Deadly Aim and Perfect Aim were also active. The projectiles hit the first needle and made it pierce the monster's head even more. After the second shot, the first projectile broke, the third one took its place, and the fourth one finished the job.

You obtained 70.000 coins.

Just like that, Ryan managed to kill a powerful monster without exposing himself. While he had to use half of his total mana, the experiment had been a success. It wasn't perfect, but it had a lot of room for growth.

"I guess I was lucky that when I fought you, you weren't this nasty," Femradiel said.

"I can't disagree with that," Ryan said.

Killing the black tortoise wouldn't be that fast, so Ryan only aimed at the monster's legs and made sure that the creature lost all the little mobility that it had. Once that happened, the monster couldn't even turn around properly. Ryan just flew and then landed on the back of the creature and beat it down until he finally obtained the chance to use Magic Upgrade.

"Nasty and efficient, that is how hunting monsters should be," Ryan nodded to himself in satisfaction. "Go on, buddy. It is time for your breakfast, when we leave this country, I want you to be as strong as those fuckers."

That was probably impossible, but no one could prevent Ryan from dreaming about it. In any case, while Ryan didn't need to look for drops anymore, he found it weird that lately, the number of drops had been decreasing. It has been a long while since the last time he obtained a decent time by killing monsters. So, he considered the idea of increasing his luck again.

"Luck is for weaklings," Femradiel said.

"I thought you couldn't read my mind…" Ryan frowned.

"I didn't read your mind, but your expressions are easy to read," Femradiel explained. "You should work more on your poker face and stop looking around trying to find loot."

That was something difficult, given that Ryan was as straight as his arrows and bolts… Regardless, he decided to increase his luck slightly and then see if things will improve a little bit. Even Furball had two times more luck than him, so perhaps Ryan should let him fight more small fries and see what happens. The problem was that the small fries had at least two times more health than him.

"Femradiel, can you talk with Furball?" Ryan asked after suddenly having an idea.

"In a sense," Femradiel replied.

"Can you pass your knowledge of some skills to him?" Ryan asked.

"That is impossible," Femradiel replied. "While Wargs are fairly intelligent monsters, he won't be able to assimilate the knowledge of a dragon. You are only able to do that because our spirits are connected due to the contract."

"Is that so… that is a pity," Ryan said.

Unfortunately, Ryan didn't find another way to make Furball stronger. After Furball finished his meal, Ryan and the others proceeded to resume their journey. However, after a while, they change their course because Ryan found dozens of humans guarding a dungeon. Even from a distance, Ryan saw some Reptilians trying to leave the dungeon but failing due to the Japanese survivors.

It was another tier two dungeon, it wasn't worth Ryan's time, but in the end, he chose another route because he didn't want to kill more humans. Even if they had joined the monsters' side… Ryan didn't want to become a butcher. Unless they attack him later, Ryan decided to leave them alone, to keep his sanity and his hands from being drenched with even more human blood.