“Do you trust that girl?”

“I just met her. She could betray us and put in jeopardy our entire operation. But either I trust her, or I can’t build what I need. The best people are those who serve out of their own volition, not those who are made to. If she finds purpose in this, then she’ll be the perfect lieutenant for this war.”

I look at the class I got two nights ago when Via left.

[Leader – Level 2]

“Explain the merging of classes, once again,” I tell the big half-giant. They know all my classes, but they also shared some of theirs in return. They told me it’s better if we play it smart and that I should refuse classes that wouldn’t synergize together.

“If you want to be an [Engineer], you have to be careful. The strongest or highest leveled class will prevail on the others and put the basis for what you’ll become. If you are more of a [Leader], it’s going to be something that influences [Engineers], that boosts them. You would have a class that makes [Engineers] better under your command. But if you want to be more of a [Gunman], then it will get tricky to have [Leader] absorbed under it. Leadership classes are usually the one prevailing upon others. To have [Leader] absorbed, you would have to keep it low-leveled, probably under level 10.”

It’s amazing how skills and levels work in this world. Few things are as amazing as the process of getting stronger and stronger by the simple concept of gaining a class or levels for your efforts.

“Leaders bear the burden,” I say. “If you want to lead, you can’t dedicate the time to become something else. The greatest need all their time to refine their crafts.”

“Correct.”

“What about the supply of steel? What’s the inventory like, is it going to be enough for the testing?”

“We pulled some strings and we are gathering more materials for the testing. Melior has asked for you to appear in the District today to supervise the prototypes.”

“I’ve left very precise indications on how they should be built. Did he invite me just because of courtesy?” I ask.

Cordius shrugs.

I look at all the books that I made them gather in one house. It’s just a ten minutes walk to Melior’s forge, but I need to know more about this world. All the strategies a person can concoct here could be foiled by one individual with the right skills and classes on the other side.

However, it’s hard to imagine someone would have high-leveled individuals on their side, especially a relatively small city like Keveiz. The half-giants of Leggiadra, even in their pitiful state, could easily raze it to the ground. The problems would arise from the other Humans and races of the continent who would come knocking right after.

“Did Melior tell you to keep an eye on me?”

“He doesn’t have to tell me. It’s my job to maintain security among half-giants.”

That’s why he’s been following me around.

“If Melior has made the bullets with a big caliber, like he already suggested, you will be able to kill [Mages] with an incredible ease. If you manage to create half-giant-manned rifles, furthermore, you will be able to punch through anything.”

“Armies will pile upon us, Cassandre.”

“And we’ll tear right through them with incredible ease. What’s the average casualty in a bloody engagement, 15%? If we have rifles and guns, we could rip apart Gold-ranked adventurers like nothing. My father used to say that when the cow falls, knives appear around it. But do you know what happens when people see a raging bull? They flee.”

…

I look at four shining tubes of steel, all of them quite thick and unwieldly for a normal person, but just a bit on the wider size for a half-giant.

“These are tests for the metals. The black gunpowder should create bigger ripples than the finished product, or that’s what Minurulex said.”

Minurulex is the chief [Alchemist] in charge of the glass production for all Leggiadra. He’s not Melior’s favorite person, since steel and glass have their own rivalries, but he’s every bit as competent as the huge man by my side.

“The metal has not been strengthened with enchantments. We believe that only great spellcasters could cast a very even reinforcement through the metal. Otherwise, it could run the risk of creating weaker points which would make all our work for nothing. We didn’t build every part of the gun, but just the ones which need to withstand the incredible force from the bullet going through them.”

These pseudo-guns are mounted on some stationary thick tongs that hold them in place. They were placed in a very large field which gives all of us plenty space to be safe.

“We’ll be behind those rocks,” Melior points to some carved rocks by the side. “If anything goes wrong, the explosions could propel the pieces of metal up to here and kill someone. Some of my apprentices wanted to have some tests in the forge—” he trembles in anger for a second. “We have some people with the skills able to trigger weapons at distance. We have done a dry run without bullets and it worked. Now, we test the different steel alloys we made and see which one better withstands the force of the bullets. Then, if some survive, we start conducting stress tests with the same dirty powder until the metal breaks.”

“Is the quality even among those four?”

“I forged them myself. There’s not one weakness in that steel. It’s going to take longer to develop the right techniques to mass-produce them like you said, but I can guarantee you that the construction quality is the best on this continent.”

Melior becomes chatty when talking about his profession and work. He’s usually one of the most silent even among the whole quiet district. But I find his mind works wonders when we talk about this line of work – so much that if we spoke in hush, you could barely tell me from him without hearing the pitch of our voices.

“Let’s see, then,” I go behind the big rock that Melior had had carved as a shield from some [Masons].

Melior gestures toward one of his apprentices who runs over with a roll of paper. He looks over the numbers for a second and then raises a hand toward a small group of people—those with the triggering skills.

The first gunshot is loud. So loud.

Merde.

I almost jumped on the spot. But Melior actually did, clearly breathing faster than before. His apprentice dropped the papers and is now taking them up from the ground.

“[A Blacksmith’s Dear], my skill tells me that the weapon is still intact. It has sustained some damage but can probably keep shooting. Let’s check.”

When we go out, I see that the gun is still all in one piece, surprisingly. If you are not familiar with the standards of medieval forging, there’s no way that a normal [Blacksmith] could have engineered something capable of withstanding the force generated to propel a bullet out of the chamber. This is a testament to Melior’s skills.

He takes up the tube of metal after loosening the tongs and starts examining it. I look at the targets they placed around 40 meters from the guns. The one they aligned with the first gun has no bullet hole.

“The trajectory was faulty,” I tell Melior.

“The tongs moved. The gun is still intact. Less damage than I thought. My skill gave me information I could not decipher well. The explosion was marked as damage, but there’s no sign that this wouldn’t be able to keep shooting all day long. How hot runs a smokeless powder?”

“No idea,” I shrug. “We’ll test that. Check the other tongs before we shoot the other guns.”

It takes Melior half an hour to secure the guns in a way that the recoil won’t mess up with the trajectory of the bullet. I’m still skeptical of whether or not this guns can shoot straight, but Melior doesn’t seem bothered at all by my doubts—if anything, this might be the first time I’ve seen the guy smile.

He can’t wait to prove me wrong.

And when the second gun shoots, that’s what happens. He does prove me wrong. The target gets hit right in the center of the chest. Some of the half-giants with archery and projectile related classes helped Melior point the gun in the right direction, but this is insane.

As Melior examines the second gun with a frown he starts explaining the ballistics involved in the process. I could have never imagined a person like him could exist at this point in time; what he talks about is basically the inception of the scientific method, something that was developed rather late in Human history and that still gets challenged every day.

“They placed it in the best way without using their skills, but mostly their intuition. It’s a straight tube, so no great effort was required. I forbid the use of skills because they could have adjusted the trajectory of a faulty gun.”

I look at the insane damage this dirty bullet made by half giants, something around the .50 caliber, did to the mannequin they used. The targets look like scarecrows and this one lost a big chunk of his chest. Ballistic mannequins would give us a better idea of the damage on a real person, but this is good enough.

“This one is too damaged to shoot again. The internal layer of steel is cracked. It could shoot another bullet, but then it would either crack or explode.”

I nod toward Melior and we resume the testing.

After twenty minutes or so, we are sitting in his forge with some blueprints and alloys in front of us.

“The first proved to be the best. I can’t strengthen it further without making it impossible for other to reproduce. I would need to use special skills that the other [Blacksmiths] do not have. This one, with a margin of error, can be remade. If the [Alchemists] can figure out the powder you described, we can work on the real prototypes.”

It took Melior barely a few days to produce an alloy capable of withstanding a bullet’s propelling force. But what really mattered was the war that we were going to fight.