Logan nodded.
"Right," he replied.
Tsukuru then let out a sigh.
"You're going to have to use that Glathrium alloy to make it, though," he replied.
"What?" Logan asked. "Why?"
Tsukuru's shoulders slumped.
"Remember how I told you that those armor-piercing rounds had a copper layer on them?" he asked. "Well, they're a reason for that. It's so that they don't shear off the rifling inside the barrel as they're being fired. And we can't make just the barrel out of the material, because then it'll become top-heavy."
Logan glanced back at the small, metal cube.
"I'm gonna need more of that alloy then," he replied.
Tsukuru let out a sigh.
"Yeah," he replied. "I know."
"Maybe you should have just used normal bullets," Logan replied in a deadpan tone.
Tsukuru snapped his head towards him.
"What's the good of having a gun if the bullets will just bounce off of anyone wearing Beast Armor?!" he shot back.
Tsukuru retrieved the Intermediate-Tier Scordana Beast Crystal from his System's Inventory, as well as two more Palewalker Beast Crystals just for good measure.
He then created a large chunk of the composite Glathrium-Tungsten alloy for Logan to use, roughly the same size as the ones he gave to the military.
"Here," Tsukuru replied. "I didn't know how many Beast Crystals you needed, so I gave you three for good measure. Same thing with the alloy. Just give me back whatever you don't use, and I'll see if I can pawn it off on the Head General."
Logan nodded.
"I'll also need one of your daggers to use as a reference for the blade," he replied.
Tsukuru retrieved one of his Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Daggers from his Inventory and handed it to Logan.
Logan then sat down at his desk.
Tsukuru let out a sigh.
He headed back to Logan's bed and laid back on it across its front.
Tsukuru retrieved his new book from his System's Inventory and popped it open. He knew that it would take Logan significantly longer this time around. After all, creating the gunblade was much more complicated than just making that metal spike.
***
Back at the desk, Logan looked at the blueprints that he had made.
'I'll make it in three separate parts,' Logan thought to himself. 'The core body of the revolver, the blade, and the grip.'
Just like before, Logan placed his hands on the two pieces of the metal alloy and closed his eyes.
Soon, the metal began to break down, and his spider-bots began to form.
***
An unknown length of time later…
***
Tsukuru flipped a page in his book, still lying on Logan's bed.
***
Meanwhile, at Logan's desk, he had three pieces of metal in front of him.
They were the base of the gun itself, consisting of the barrel, cylinder, trigger guard, trigger, and frame.
Logan gave the cylinder a few quick spins. A whirling sound was heard.
He then pressed the protruding button just behind the lower corner of the cylinder. As he did, the cylinder popped out. It left a large hole in the middle of the gun, the cylinder hanging off the left side by a bolt connected to the lower-right side.
He picked up one of the bullets and took turns putting it in and taking it out of each of the six chambers.
Logan nodded with satisfaction, and he clicked the cylinder back in place.
Next, Logan brought the main body of the gun and the grip together. Because the weapon was a gun first, and a dagger second, it possessed a relatively short 'handle'.
'It should be fine,' Logan thought to himself. 'Daggers aren't known for their exceptionally LONG handles anyway.'
Logan brought the two pieces together and closed his eyes.
Soon, a swarm of his spider-bots crawled out from his sleeves. The metal bugs crawled down his arms and onto the two pieces that Logan was holding together.
The spider-bots coalesced on the point where the start of the grip met the end of the gun's frame.
A moment later, Logan no longer felt as if he was holding two pieces. But a single item. He opened his eyes, and the spider-bots crawled back up his wrists.
Logan examined the device in his hand, which looked like some kind of bladeless sword with a gun trigger attached to it.
He pressed the sliding tab near the top of the "handle", and the body of the gun tilted downwards as if spring-loaded.
He then pressed a small circular button protruding from the butt of the gun. As he pressed it, the grip snapped upwards, taking his hand with it. A moment later, the grip was straight with the body.
An audible click was heard as it locked back in place.
Logan repeated this process two more times, just to make sure that the mechanism was working properly.
'Alright,' Logan replied, before turning to look at the dagger's blade on his desk. 'Time for the last part.'
Before even attempting to attach the blade to the front of the gun, Logan held it upside down against the top of the barrel.
When making the body, he had created a long groove in the top. This way, the blade could rest safely in the groove, preventing either the blade or the barrel from being damaged whenever the blade snapped upwards from switching to gun mode.
To Logan's immense satisfaction, the blade fit perfectly into the groove.
Just like with the grip, Logan placed the end of the dagger's blade flat against the front of the gun.
'Here we go,' Logan thought as he closed his eyes.
Once again, the spider-bots crawled down his arms and onto the gun. They swarmed around the connection points between the two pieces.
After a few moments, Logan could feel them being connected.
He then opened his eyes.
As he did, he saw his metal bugs retreating up his arms.
The front of the barrel looked exactly like the start of a sword blade. The dagger's blade widened downwards from the point where the blade and the barrel connected, making the barrel just look like a blade that had a long, thin piece of metal between the start of the blade and the back of the gun's frame, which served as the guard.
In fact, the only clues that it was a gun were the revolving cylinder and the trigger.
Just like before, Logan slid back the tab on the top of the handle.
This time, not only did the body of the gun tilt downwards, but the blade flipped backwards, the flat top of the blade fitting perfectly in the groove on the barrel. The tip of the blade stopped just before reaching the hammer, at the very end of the barrel's sights.
Logan then pulled the trigger.
Immediately, the hammer snapped forwards, before going backward, hitting the end of the gun's chamber.
However, due to the gun's cylinder being empty, nothing came out. Although the cylinder didturn slightly, shifting from the top chamber to the first one on its left.
'Seems to fire just fine,' Logan thought.
Logan then pressed a button on the back of the gun. A moment later, the folded-back blade snapped forward as if spring-loaded. An audible click was heard as it locked back into place at the front of the gun.
Logan then repeated changing the weapon back and forth between gun mode and dagger mode a few times.
'Alright,' Logan said with a slight smirk on his face. 'Doesn't seem to be any issues.'
The only thing he didn't like was how the blade's edge faced the user while in gun mode, but he honestly had no idea how to fix that. The blade had to go somewhere. Anyway, it should be fine. The blade did stop before the sights, and it was blocked by the gun's hammer.
So he shouldn't have to worry about the blade accidentally slicing into Tsukuru's eye or something.
Additionally, given its irregular weight, it shouldn't have any recoil either. In other words, there should be no situation where the blade's tip would come into contact with the user's face.
Logan then turned his attention towards the large container on his desk. The one with the three Beast Crystals in it.
'Now, to turn this from just a really intricate piece of weaponryinto a proper Beast Weapon,' he thought.
***
Tsukuru flipped another page in his book.
He let out a bitter scoff.
"What a fucking idiot," he muttered.
He had just gotten to the point where Gary's gang, the "Howlers", tried to make a business deal with a corporation owned by one of the friends that Gary had made at the "Altered Fighting Academy", a boy named Numba whose Altered Form was that of a goat.
However, as the Howlers were a relatively new gang, even even worse, they came from a Tier-three city, Numba's father had chosen to reject the Howlers' offer and try to make one with a more prominently known one, the Scatterbugs, who came from a Tier-two city.