Spending My Retirement In A Game

The rest of the group arrived after a while. It took them longer than this kind of hallway usually would, since pushing through all those force traps was still an incredibly annoying matter, but they were really just traps that were supposed to slow people down, not really hold them back. A dungeon had to always have an accessible path to the next floor, and since force traps didn't count as blocking that, there had to be an easy way through.

"You should have seen it man, it was straight up like a gun out there," Brody laughed loudly, "Those cannonballs created massive crators in the walls."

"You've mentioned that before, but... what's a gun, exactly?" Bree asked, curiously looking up at Eisen and Brody. The two of them looked at each other, trying to figure out how to best explain it. Guns were a complicated topic for both of them, and if possible, neither of them wanted to introduce them to this world. In spite of skills and magic, there were countermeasures here that allowed towns and guards to protect people against spells or swords or bows, but guns were something wholly different. The sheer speed at which a bullet could travel was something that very few individuals could counter personally, and even the signal time for mana sensors that were usually going to activate shields against arrrows might not be fast enough. Though, there were probably already quite a few people that had made guns here... maybe they even got skills related to it, and even classes and unique magics.

There were going to be guns in this world. So maybe the originals should try and come up with ways that prevented them to be used against civilians... creating defensive zones in towns, so that they could only be used outside of them against monsters. But that was a whole other topic, which always came to Eisen's mind whenever he thought about this topic.

Looking at how curious the others were as well, with Sky, Caria, Sal, and Melissa, all staring up at them, waiting for a response, they couldn't just ignore or play off the question right now either.

"They're weapons, very powerful and dangerous weapons. They work with explosive propulsion, like handheld cannons. Here, let me..." Eisen said, grabbing two small mana crystals and a bit of gunpowder that he had stashed away. It was useful in some items and alchemical productions, so he always carried a small amount with him.

Quickly, the old man formed one of the mana crystals into a small tube with a handle. Only the front of the tube was open. He poured a little bit of gunpowder into the tube, then formed the other mana crystal into a ball that was flush with the tube, but could still travel through it smoothly. After pushing the ball to the end. He aimed the improvised gun at a wall, making sure that everyone else was behind him.

Even so, just in case, he looked at Brody, who quickly nodded at him, saying that he was ready in case the crystal bullet recocheted. Being made of mana crystals, it wouldn't be able to do a lot of raw HP damage, but it was still going to hurt like a bitch and could do some physical damage anyway.

"It's going to get loud for a moment here, press your hands onto your ears please. And that goes for you guys back there as well," Eisen said, looking at the soldiers. Almost all of them were monsters, and many monsters had more heightened senses compared to people. So even if they were further away, they in particular could get hurt. Listening to the old man, they pressed their hands onto their ears. Eisen pointed the 'gun' at the wall, and used a spark of his magic to light up the gunpowder.

The explosion forced forward the crystal bullet, and the sound echoed out through the room. Even though they plugged their ears, they all still flinched. Eisen could feel the force of the explosion run through his arm, but with how strong he was now, he didn't even flinch. The bullet hit the wall on the other side of the room, creating a small imprint before being recocheted off, just as Eisen was worried about. But Brody caught the bullet before it could hit anyone, and even he felt the pain.

"Ah, fucking- urgh," Brody groaned, dropping the bullet and waving his hand in pain. Eisen quickly got out a bit of healing salve for him, and Brody took it without a moment's hesitation. He looked at the kids and the other soldiers, showing his palm to them before starting to apply the salve to it. The skin was broken and blood dripped from Brody's hand, "And this was a bullet made from a mana crystal, guys. It broke through my skin, after recocheting off. You saw how easy it was to make."

"And that doesn't mean that this wouldn't be useful to fend off attacks. It's a powerful weapon, and if used right, it can be amazing. But it's just so easy for a gun to be used to do bad, and currently we don't have any countermeasures," Eisen explained. He already recovered some memories about guns a while back, when he was playing with the idea of making one for himself, just in case.

In the past, when things came to a point where they had to decide on whether or not to create guns, Eisen was actively stopped by Samuel. They didn't fit into his theme or worldbuilding or whatever other terms he had used to justify this world in his fucked up mind. And since there weren't guns, there was no way to create large-scale countermeasures or social awareness of guns in a way that made people treat them safely.

All in all, guns weren't actually particularly more powerful than other weapons. They had a similar, if not lower, power ceiling compared to other weapon types, considering all the ways that magic and skills came into play. A Master Swordsman and a Master Gunslinger? Though the latter wasn't something that Eisen could have ever met in this world, he knew that one wasn't going to be particularly more dangerous than the other. The only issue was that guns started at a much higher level.

Between a beginner Swordsman and a beginner Gunslinger? The gunslinger was the much more dangerous than the swordsman, and there wasn't even really any contest here. With bows, at least there was some time for the swordsman to attack while an archer was nocking a new bow, but a gunslinger could empty an entire magazine into their opponent before they could even figure out what was happening. And that was why it was so dangerous. Unskilled, untrained individuals would have access to an incredibly dangerous tool.

"And the... hallway was basically like that? Just without the explosion?" Caria wondered, peeking down into the hallway.

Eisen nodded, "Yes. Instead of the instant acceleration with the explosion, it was just a step-by-step acceleration."

"It's kind of like a... what was it, a railgun?"

"Yes, right, a railgun. Just a different type, I guess," Eisen explained, "Either way... guns are dangerous. We might figure out a way to get them to our soldiers at some point, but for the time being, I would prefer not to have to deal with them. They won't be particularly useful to us right now anyway, so let's just keep going. Brody, are you alright?"

The demon-orc halfling nodded his head, showing his hand. The salve had properly pulled into his skin and had healed the small laceration perfectly, "I'm good to go."

"Alright. Then let's hurry it up. If I'm right, then the next floor should be very different to this. But still expect insects," Eisen said, heading to the front of the group toward the next set of stairs on the other side of the chamber.

The group made their way down to the next floor. And it was just like Eisen thought. The floor still had stone bricks all over the place, but it wasn't in this 'classic' dungeon style as before. It was a large space with ruins scattered around. It was some kind of old town. The sound of insects scurrying around could be heard even here from the entrance, though there was usually a small safe zone there. Once they went away a bit, they would most definitely encounter monsters immediately.

So, for the time being, it was Bree's turn to scan the area and figure out what they were dealing with. Her magic flowed through the area, and Eisen could see her mentally create a map. But beyond that, she soon encountered monsters.

"... There's venomous insects and plants. It looks like they're really... acidic? They're digging through the stone like it's loose dirt," she explained. Eisen quickly nodded.

"Okay, got it. In that case... everyone, give me your weapons and armour real quick. I'm going to polish them up with a bit of oil that should help with acid resistance for a while," the old man said, already getting out the alchemical concociton. Oils were a pretty useful item, which Eisen had somehow not made use of a lot yet. They were great to apply temporary effects to items. Mostly it was stuff like elemental effects or resistances, just like right now.

As the old man gathered the items together, he quickly called on his duplicates and got started, polishing up the armour and weapons in preparation for the monsters.