Dawn- An age of Darkness

"Yes, I have. He's the archduke of Alfeim, so do pay some respect."

"Ar-argh- Archduke!" the guy squeaked some more and fell flat on the floor, prostrating a second later. "My humble apologies milord." His tone changed but his voice did not. 

I really hoped this was just a joke but unfortunately it wasn't.

"It's okay. You can get up." I didn't have time for this, anyway. And I couldn't do anything about his voice either. So I just had to roll with it. 

"Thank you, milord." All this lord business was kind of getting on my nerves but I couldn't do anything about it either.

Argh. The sheer amount of things I couldn't do anything about were just increasing and increasing. 

When the hell would my life get better?

I gave the earl a glance. "Why are we here again?" I grinded my teeth. 

I wanted to leave, now!

He smirked. "We'd like some good quality weapons, bring em." He smirked harder and gave the squeaky guy a pat on the back. The way he reached upto the guy was kind of comical. 

I giggled silently. I was still a bit pissed though. 

"Right away milord!"

The guy didn't even ask us what type of weapon we wanted. So much for being a smith. But considering what I'd seen so far here, I didn't think we'd get much of anything anyway. 

I shouldn't have trusted this guy. But I guess this was the earl's way of getting back at me. I didn't mind but he wasted both of our precious time. And it was probably going to cost him more than me. 

The large guy came back roughly five minutes later and brought a bunch of stuff with him, and by the looks, those weren't that shabby. Three swords, two spears, two knives, an axe, and a frigging barrel. But not just any barrel, no. it had a trigger and boy was there a small box of gun powder. 

Now we were talking!

Though, in this world of magic and stuff, I didn't actually see the point of using guns like this. After all, weren't these only effective against powerless humans? Not to mention these were the heavily outdated type. 

Would they really work against beings who could use magic and all that? And more importantly, on monsters and stuff?

I was still curious though. I picked up the gun first. "How do you light this up?" I didn't know how to use one, since, well, I never even touched a gun in my whole life let alone use one. My dad was dead for the most part of my life, so yeah, I didn't get to secretly run to his stash and play with guns. 

Cause, there was no stash.

And even if there was one, there wouldn't have been stuff like this anyway. 

"What is that?" Alisa asked. I guess she didn't know. 

"What is that indeed?" Ve didn't know either. Both came near and almost rested their heads against my shoulder as they carefully observed the barrel. I guess they were too focused on the gun.

I couldn't blame them. I didn't think this was possible either. But this world just kept on surprising me nonstop.

"You already know about it? I'd expect no less from you." The earl smirked. "This one is special. It doesn't use flame powder or fire for that matter.

"Flame powder? You mean this black stuff?"

"Yes, it lights up pretty nicely." 

I guess the names weren't as similar as I thought them to be. "So how does this work." I picked it up. 

"You first inject your mana into this barrel through the handle and then boom!" The large guy's explanation wasn't helping. 

"Basically, you slot these metal cylinders: rodents, in and pour your mana in. and then pull the trigger. It's faster and requires less work on your part. No need for flame powder on this model: but keeping a small amount in case of an emergency won't bring harm."

Rodents for bullets? I snorted. But one thing did bother me though. "I thought dwarves didn't have mana. And why not gunpow- I mean this flame powder?"

The bullets were pretty large. I guess this was their answer for monsters with tough shells. so, I slotted one in and aimed at the floor. a bit of mana and- BOOOM!

Holy! That was loud!

"We are under attack!?" Ve glared around but unfortunately, it wasn't. 

While Alisa was busy trying to calm her down, I carefully examined the barrel itself. This was a lot, and I mean a lot, stronger than I had anticipated. Not to mention a lot louder too. I nearly wiped my ears out with this one. 

But the earl just ignored all this. "We don't. But as you can see I'm a half breed." Nope, the thought didn't even cross my mind. I guess that should have been obvious, considering his stature and all that but it wasn't. "Well, technically, I'm a half of a half of a half of-" He went on for a minute. 

Long story short, he was part Alf. 

His ears or skin color didn't really look that different from the rest of his peers though. Again, I didn't care. But I did have my answer. "So basically this was supposed to be for you?"

This gun was pretty strong. If he used it on me, I'd be dead. 

"Yes. But- feel free to use it. After all, I wouldn't be heading off to battle. I will lead the armies but I don't think I will have any need for that. After all, I could just use other slingers too."

So, guns were slingers. 

  The names of these things kind of threw me off but oh well. "Yeah, I don't really care. But, why are you doing this? I mean why are you putting so much faith in me?"

I didn't know if he really needed to do this. After all, I did almost ruin his life. But I guess he was looking at the bigger picture. 

"Because as it stands, we will lose this war:  their army outnumbers us three to one. Just like you said, countless will suffer. And that's why I think the humans are behind this, as they tend to gain the most from this. But as a human yourself even if you found them guilty, you can just whip something up and clear all this while making sure neither party gets it rough. At least that's what I'm hoping for."

Wow, I actually didn't expect this. I already knew this guy was pretty smart, but he was even willing to forgive the humans just to end this war. Yeah, he had ulterior motives but I kind of respected him a little. 

But then there was the question. "Why tell me all this? You could have just-"

"Well, let's just say, the merits outweigh the demerits." He winked. 

I didn't necessarily believe him but I got the impression I could trust him for now. And what he said did make sense. But the fact remained, this guy was a lot smarter than I gave him credit for. 

Oh well. I had to buy loads of bullets, oops, rodents!

***

Next, I looked over the other weapons. I liked one of the swords. It was similar to the Ascan blade I'd given Lianne, probably a bit inferior but definitely good. The other two swords weren't that great of a quality. So I took the sword.

"How come everything else is so bad?"

"Customer rare." The big guy was a bit sad. I guess that explained the sorry state of this place. If there were no customers, there wasn't any point in making new things anyway. But he did keep the place clean though. 

The knives were good but nothing special, same with the axe.  But one of the spears- really caught my attention. The moment I touched the spear- it glowed and boy was it light: there was a bit of mold on it, but all the dust and mold disappeared and it became crystal clear, not transparent though. The color was vibrant blue with a white tint: My body was surrounded by that aura and I knew it.

"This is a mystic weapon."  I lifted it up and tried piercing the air. It moved fast and I felt my speed double. I almost fumbled and pierced the wall but controlled myself. This really was different than the mystic which boosted almost everything modestly. There was no doubt about it, this spear had a part of Trerortra's soul.

But it just had to be a spear! It couldn't have been a knife or a bow, or even a cane for crying out loud! 

Argh!

This really wasn't ideal for me. 

"Indeed. We'd tried everything but nobody has ever been able to lift it, let alone use it. Apart from you, that is." The earl Chuckled. "If you want it, it's yours."

  The way he literally was willing to hand me this spear was rather scary. Just what the hell was this guy upto?

"This is amazing!" the big guy jumped around and so did the whole shop. It was like we were meters away from the epicenter of an earthquake. 

By the time he stopped, I almost felt dizzy.

Meanwhile, my companions didn't actually care about this spear though. Neither of them was interested in it. I guess everybody hated Trerortra.

"And you're giving this to me, because?"

"Insurance." I didn't get the guy. Not one bit. "After all, if you fail, I don't think I'll have anything left."

I guess that did make sense. But there was definitely more to this, something which I didn't understand yet.

But this was basically all we needed. I had everything else anyway. And Neither Ve nor Alisa wanted anything for them either. 

'Should I buy a shield?' I wanted to, but in the end, decided against it. I was one-handed for the most part and I wanted to carve my own path, not defend to the last second.

"But where the hell am I going to learn this thing from?" Like seriously, just how many things did I need to learn?

Wasn't a sword good enough? Why did it have to be a spear? 

Well, at least the spear looked cool. It had a lot of symbols, and the tip was super sharp and pointy. It only had one tip though. 

"I can teach you." Ve offered. 

"I thought I you fought barehanded."

She didn't even flinch. "I'm a master of everything. Back then you weren't good enough to give me a challenge even without weapons." Well, that was awfully boastful of her!

Just what the hell was this guy?

Then again, she was a god, so yeah. 

I sighed. "Fine, I'll be in your care." I gave the earl a glance. "Well, pay up."

I didn't know if he had to pay for the spear or not but he probably had to buy the sword and definitely the gun and the rodents.

"Wait, I'm paying?" He looked a bit sad.

" 'Course you are!"

Now he looked even sadder. 

He still paid though.