After the 'negotiations' with current and soon-to-be emperors, Dark One was going to uphold the end of his bargain by killing the lowlifes that annoyed him with those explosions, however as he was intrigued by the explosions without magic, he decided to capture some of them for interrogation. Fortunately there was whole lot of 'volunteers' so after casting [Ice Prison] on few humans with rather bright uniforms, presumably some nobles or officers, he casted [Vortex] to gather all people in one place and finished them with [Negative Ray]. Those that were covered in ice were unaffected by the following two spells, but few of them died from cold anyway.
“So weak. And you call yourself soldiers.” Dark One was annoyed by humans from this world, as well as the world itself. “However I am interested to see enchanters that made such weapons. Not a speck of mana, but can kill unarmored man. I will call those things... boomstick? Yeah, will do.” And so he gathered few of those 'boomsticks', souls and negative energies from killed humas, while slowly walking towards the peacocks, he mused about what to do with the items he gathered.
As he came near the prisoners, he started asking questions on the weapons they used, but “Fuck off you fu-” some of them were less than pleasant to deal with, so he used one of the torturing methods he learned from some human torturers, namely peeling the skin off with dulled knife. Fortunately he had a lot of items in his inventory, including potions, weapons, food, ingredients, etc. Unfortunately the one who was used for making example lost his voice while screaming, as Dark One was annoyed by the loud sounds the throat of that individual produced.
“Seeing that you can't talk now I don't really need you, right?” with such words he took a 'worm' from the jar, that he had taken along with the knife. “See this small fellow? This thing is very nasty for you mortals, it crawls into your... now thinking about it, I don't really need to explain anything to a dead man, right?” and he put the worm near the ear of unfortunate victim. Worm quickly crawled into the ear with such eagerness that only starved goblin could show. Poor human couldn't even scream as his vocal cords were severed. “Example shown, so I suppose that I should ask my question again. Who are you?”
“I-i Am c-Called -” started one prisoner, but was interrupted.
“I don't care about your names, but from what place you come, who do you work for, as well as some information on weapons, and who produced it.”
“W-we are from -” and so he started telling who they are, what their goals are, as well as their 'boss' Lenin, but most of this information Dark One ignored until he heard about weapons. “-and these weapons are firearms, these are rifles, these are pistols. There are factories which produce them and-” Dark One nodded at all that, as he wasn't sensing any lie in the words of human.
“Good boy. Your death will be painless.” and with using spells [Sleep] and [Sap Life] the human died painlessly in his sleep. “Now anything you want to add?” Dark One looked for the rest of prisoners.
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“I have a family!” “I got kids!” “I'm too young to die!” were amongst the screams of prisoners.
“Fine. What year is it?”
““1917!”” was synchronous shout of humans.
“Okay. you will die painlessly. Except for that one.” he pointed at the person who had worm inside his head. “Rest well mortals.” and using same combination of spells for 'peace killing' as Dark One named it once, he disposed of the rest. After it he casted [Negative Absorption] on their bodies, so he could gain a bit more mana. “Though that year doesn't give me any ideas. It could be anything, from the fall of empire to some cretin painting something.” that actually was the reason for most eras. Age of 'Kul-di'ar'. The artist made a painting with a goddess on it, but in reality it was a driad, and after less than a century she was captured by humans, and the age was called 'Kur-a'mur'. After emergence of heroes the ages were renamed to 'We saw goddess' and 'New plaything for the Emperor' respectfully.
Getting what he wanted from humans Dark One wanted to move on with his experiment, namely getting the mana core from human brain, but the 'Jo-ram' (Mana-Eater) worm just moved through the other ear of his victim. “Strange. Either this particular specimen doesn't have mana core or it was too small to notice, or something is wrong with humans in general.” usually Jo-rams after eating mana core would produce a bit of light from their bodies, as well as starting on multiplying. Fortunately for humans and other species in general they were slow and nocturnal creatures, as the direct sunlight would harm them, and so usually they ate only things that were close to their habitat. Humans also managed to make underground farms with Jo-ram worms, feeding them little animals and slaves. Those worms were usually used in some potions and rituals, as the powdered mandibles were actually crystalized mana, and their bodily fluids were liquidized mana, their bodies were also used in creation of beginner type wands, due to their ability to 'guide' mana.
“Oh well, seems like I can't use the demon or human farms. *sigh* Troublesome, but manageable. Need a land for my nega-farm. So troublesome.” The farms he talked about were Jo-ram farms and 'blood' farm, which took the blood from living creatures and separated mana particles from it, or raw essence, after the research on 'mana and it's appliances' was published, if it could be called that. Nega-farms, or lifeforce sapping farms, use the life force of living beings and convert it to mana. Such farms were used by elves for executing prisoners of other races, and betrayers. Unfortunately for them such practice was put in use after the escape of Dark One from imprisonment.
“Hmm... seems like you are alive. Then it means you don't have mana core at all... interesting. Say, will you help me understand the usage of those 'fire-arms'?” the victim of the Jo-ram couldn't even shake his bloodied head. “Wonderful. So from what that human said, point it at right direction, and pull that thin- *KERBLAM!* -g... and the specimen still lives. Wonderful.” despite pointing at the stomach, the bullet was embedded in the left thigh. “Now to reload tilt the thing, draw back, and put it in place. Next is 'firing' it. Point it, pull the 'trigger' and - *KERBLAM!* -repeat the reload. You alive?” looking at the hole beside his groin Dark One smiled. “Oh so I missed. Well whatever, next stop is this 'pistol', do I differentiate them right?” and so the first shooting range for 'gunslinger magician' was a success. Now he had only to wait before emperor uphold the end of his deal. But now he had to test how to properly aim with the 'fire-arms', as shooting at someone at pointblank and missing the target is ridiculous, no matter the tools you have, or what world you are in.