Because if you travel along the same path that others have made, you will remain eternally unable to surpass them...
A sure-kill weapon that even I, without any means of performing magic, could use.
<big>"Just do the things you can do."</big>
A weapon of my own, one different from magic.
I wanted a weapon.
If you line them up before you and compare them, it will always lose.
If a replica remains nothing but an imperfect copy, it can never beat the original.
Hmmm.
This pseudo-magic I can use. In the end, it's a counterfeit. A replica.
These people are magicians, so I figured it would be good to have something other than magic to counter them with.
It's too late to prepare for these things after they've already happened.
That wasn't a lie.
...could show up, too.
...or some other suspicious person...
Still, a thief...
That was a joke.
Am I already that famous?
Huh?!
See, what if some servant of evil or something showed up, coming after your research?
Since there are lots of magicians here.
For self-defense, I guess.
Why a gun?