I Can Make Everything Level UP
chapter-189

Alexander ended up facepalming again after he heard that and saw the angry expression of the girls. Even Lily had joined them, so Billy only ended up throwing oil on the fire.

"You can laugh now, I know that I am a joke master," Billy said. "Or would rather hear me say that you guys were too fragile to endure a war?"

The girls ignored Billy. Regardless, that was the best he could do since he couldn't apologize for doing the right thing. Besides, it was technically their fault for not hearing about the war until it happened… at least that was what Billy was thinking. In any case, Billy waited for a while, but the girls didn't improve their mood. So, he left.

"That guy! That guy!" Kate said with her face red with frustration and unable to find a way to do with that. "He returns after all that, and the first thing he does is joke around."

"Wow, you are really frustrated," Sarah said.

"And you aren't?" Kate asked. "Not as much as you… we already know that Billy is that kind of guy and I would rather not keep using my magic to take human lives."

"Putting his attitude aside… Billy certainly has some mental fortitude," Natalie said. "I heard that big wars like that tend to mess with people's heads. But he looked the same as usual."

"Putting that aside? Don't you want to punish him somehow?" Kate asked.

"Well, it is not like any punishment will change him…" Natalie said. "And now that he is back, do you really want to waste time ignoring him?"

"No, but we can't let him keep thinking that he can do as he pleases without thinking about the consequences!" Kate protested.

"Just go easy on him, all right?" Alexander asked. "The real problem isn't completely solved yet and Billy stayed silent during most of the trip back thinking about this new state that will absorb the Toles state. Billy also mentioned that Jean wants to marry him with one of his nieces, so he has a lot on his plate right now."

"What? Again?" Kate asked, visibly flustered. "Why is he so popular with that attitude? First was Louise and then Marie, and now this?"

"I am pretty sure they weren't looking at his personality when they think of arranged marriage and the first two didn't seem that interested in him as a man," Lily frowned. "Just like your father did, Jean wants a leader to take his place. Billy might not be the most charismatic there, but his skills make him reliable and he is quick to learn new things too."

"That being said… he seemed pretty troubled when I was handling the loss of my students… I am pretty sure that I heard him saying that he would never wanted to feel this way," Alexander said.

Alexander was getting over that, but they could imagine why Billy said that… In any case, he didn't tell anyone aside from Lily that he wanted to occasionally work like that again. He liked that period when he helped people develop their skills.

While Billy's friends were thinking of a way to do something regarding his attitude, Billy headed to the hideout. It was time to do some forging. He wanted to use at least half of his free time to develop those skills before something happened and forced him to leave home again.

"This time, I didn't have the chance to use my throwing knives since it would be hard to recover them in a battlefield, but I need other means to fight large numbers of enemies," Billy thought.

Fortunately, the enemies this time gave him the answer that he needed… Crossbows. He never saw the soldiers of Neles state using it. Still, when he asked about the guild masters on the way back to the capital of their state, Gerald told him that they didn't have it, and that was an invention that only a few soldiers of their state could use. Only the descendants of nobles had access to them since they were the tamers. Billy wanted to learn that skill too, but for the time being, he decided to focus on learning how to make a crossbow. He knew the theory, but he wanted to make one that would be powerful enough to pierce the shields and armor of the toughest enemy, and he knew that the answer was in his magic. Adding an elemental affinity seemed like the best answer, but that would limit the use against certain enemies.

"There is also the issue that I don't want to make others see it until the very last moment, so I have to think about that as well," Billy nodded to himself. "Well, I'd better start working soon…"

Making a crossbow out of some metal wasn't impossible since Billy could increase his furnace heat with magic as much as he wanted, but it would be pretty heavy. Still, that would give him the firepower he wanted. However, he started with prototypes made of wood. As one would expect, the first ones barely had any firepower. Basically, they had only the main body, the arc, the string, and the place to put the projectiles. Still, little by little, Billy studied the weapons and added new things with each one of those. He made them more powerful.

While Billy was busy with that, his friends were having a hard time coming up with ideas for their plans. They couldn't imagine anything that they could do that would make Billy get rid of his attitude, so in the end, they decided to annoy him just the way he annoyed them with his attitude. They began to follow him around for several days to discover what he was up to, as expected of someone who made many people lose the trail of him.. Billy fooled them for several days, but eventually, they discovered his patterns, and with Natalie's senses, it was hard to escape from her… they found his hideout.