Chapter 72

Cullen's words and the sight of a real firearm shocked Alistair, but Cassandra, on the contrary, took it calmly.

"What?! You created a firearm! I hoped that no one would do this, because it will fundamentally change the world!" Alistair said loudly, causing surprised looks from those around him.

Raising his hands, Cullen decided to explain everything calmly.

"First of all, I should say that the new members have no obligations towards us. We came together as a group of like-minded people and were all wary of each other at first. Over time, we became friends and began to really help each other out. Now we have common interests and I hope that we can develop the same friendly relationship." Cullen said, creating a friendly atmosphere and causing a few awkward smiles from the old members.

"Regarding low-level firearms, you are mistaken in thinking that this will usher in the era of the steam engine, which will advance technological progress by leaps and bounds. No, not at all. Do you even know how the average person lives? And how middle and lower class society is structured?" Cullen said and looked at the newcomers.

Dylan shrugged, he wasn't interested in anything other than the adventurers' guild and the wild forest. And he'd only been to the guild once, thanks to that damn church.

Liam shrugged as well, his main estate was in a developed city with high mana density, only high-level classers lived there. He only saw normal people on short walks with Dylan.

Cassandra remained silent, until she was 10 years old she only saw her own kind and was under close control and observation. Only after she didn't show the usual madness for vampires, she was able to go out in the sun and barely feel weakened. Of course, she was still strictly controlled until she entered the academy.

Alistair wanted to answer something, but hesitated. He spent all his time until he was 15 in the estate trying to combine chemistry and alchemy into a single whole, it had its successes and failures. He often communicated with different people who brought him rare ingredients from different parts of the country and beyond. Only now he realized that they were not ordinary at all, although they looked like it.

Looking at the others, Linella was at a loss for words. She had personal security, of course, but she considered herself not far from the daughter of some rich merchant. The fact that the others could not even imagine the familiar world was a shock to her.

"Seriously?! You don't know?! You've turned into, how should I say this. Arrogant young master, right?!" Linella said using word magic.

The people around her reacted calmly to her magic. Thomas wanted to dispel it immediately, but the twitching of Kallen's eyes was enough to make him change his mind. When Linella's words reached the people around her, everyone couldn't help but imagine the "Arrogant Young Master" as a very fat and disgusting cultivator.

Walter and Edgar started laughing loudly, Cullen and Ajax allowed themselves small smiles, but the rest found it disgusting and grimaced.

"Oh my God, I can't decide whether I like your performance or not! When you have a picture like that in front of your eyes, it's disgusting! But at the same time, damn, it's so unusual, it's breathtaking!" Dylan said, torn between the two.

He held out both hands, imagining the options. Looking at the left hand, he shuddered in disgust, and looking at the right, he smiled and twitched with pleasure. He repeated this action several more times, not knowing which to choose. This earned him strange looks from everyone present, except Liam, he was used to it long ago.

"Let's skip that." Cullen said, getting back on track. "I'll tell you what you need to know. This world has its own era of industrialization, and it's been going on for a long time, it's just that everything runs on mana. There are mana engines here that aren't much different from ours. The communication system is also built on magical theory. Basically, everything you can remember from our world is in this one, it's just replaced with a magical twist."

"The problem with this approach is that in order to use mana, you need mages, specifically [Rune Mages]. You need to teach people a complex art, spend time and resources on it. Also, the mana in the atmosphere is not infinite, you can only install a certain number of such devices without using expensive mana crystals. Another problem is the resources to create at least one mana engine, this requires magical metals, beast mana cores and many other resources, not to mention the mana itself."

"In short, this approach is expensive. And anything that uses mana is very expensive, so most people are really stuck in a medieval sword and sorcery society. Where the only way out of poverty is to go into the forest with a sword and hope for your luck."

"In general, every person tries to survive as best they can and feed their family with what they can do. That's why most people don't have combat classes, but are engaged in various crafts." Several people made puzzled faces, to which Kallen slammed his hand on the table and continued. "Of course, it's not enough to just want to get a combat class, you need full training, which also costs money, not to mention armor, healing, weapons, talent and luck in the end. We were able to get rare classes because the skill requirements were lowered, in fact, we are still a pitiful [Uncommon] level. I mean, most of us." Kallen said, casually glancing at Ajax.

"Okay, that's understandable. But why don't we apply the knowledge from our world to make gasoline engines, power plants, modern medicine, and God knows what else? That would open up a much better life for more people." Dylan asked, voicing the thoughts of some.

Most of those present smiled at his question, so Cullen continued to explain everything with a slight sense of self-satisfaction.

"Theoretically, there is nothing complicated about it, there are people among us with the necessary knowledge. We have created a small power plant as a test thing and it works quite well, although there are some nuances with the presence of mana. The main reason why we did not do this is that the implementation of such a project would take a lot of resources, time and manpower. With absolutely minimal benefits for us. As sad as it is to say, but we are not able to repeat computers as they were before, or not yet. Airplanes, rocket engines, anti-aircraft guns and other advanced inventions of our world also remain beyond our reach. We can only make relatively simple, inefficient electrical installations and engines, which we no longer need in this world."

"We certainly plan to do this, but only when the situation with the demons improves. For now, it's not worth our time, no matter how selfish it sounds."

Dylan thought about it like the others. If a group of Reincarnators from noble families said it wasn't worth it, he didn't doubt it. It was more a question of ethics, better medicine and cheap labor that didn't depend on magic would save millions of lives. It would open up a new era of discovery, especially for the crafting classes.

But the opposite was also true. Was it necessary to invest so many resources if they couldn't obtain the most powerful weapon from the previous world? When every drop was important in the fight against the Archdemon, it was not wise to invest in a completely new industry with uncertain prospects. And in general, would nuclear weapons be able to kill, or at least harm [the Archdemon].

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Okay, important question. Theoretically, if we use nuclear weapons against the Archdemon. What will happen to it?"

Cullen laughed slightly, he responded to his question easily, unlike the others. This obviously spoiled the mood for everyone.

"I think it will be unpleasant for him. We don't know what the Archdemon can do, but it will at least injure his physical form, which of course won't be enough to kill him. I can say that no matter how many nuclear attacks of the same power as those on earth we send at him, he won't die from it. In order to kill [the Archdemon], we need to destroy his spiritual form, and in order to significantly weaken it, it is important to destroy the demonic core, which nuclear weapons are not able to do. There are also a few other points, in the form of a possible hit and other enemy magic, in general, this idea is not feasible." Cullen answered.

Cullen's words were unpleasant for Dylan and the others. They did not question them, but it was extremely disappointing. After this bitter feeling, each of the newcomers asked themselves if they were ready to take on the responsibility of developing the knowledge of the previous world. After thinking for a few seconds, no one dared to do so.

"Okay, then I'll just forget I suggested it. Damn, it's so annoying to feel selfish when we could make life easier for millions. Are we really an evil club hiding knowledge now?" Dylan said, upset.

"Nobody is stopping you from taking your own steps. But overall you're right, it would slow us down too much." Cullen agreed with him.

The room went silent, the mood of most of them falling heavily from such an unpleasant topic. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts and worries. Dylan was thinking about it too, but quickly came to his senses. He was a selfish bastard and he knew it. He didn't want to do boring kingdom building, why would he even be in the magical world if he wasn't going to have fun? He wanted to be a real mage and do so much cool shit that even after his death his name would be mentioned with reverence and fear.

Dylan leaned back in his chair and looked at the people around him. They were all thinking about something with sad faces. It made him feel sick, they were all selfish bastards, but their consciences were bothering them. What a nightmare!

To lighten the mood a little, Dylan decided to bring up the topic that was bothering him the most.

"Screw this! We're not going to be sad all day over this bullshit!" S. "Let's just come up with a name for our secret club! Without a cool name, I'm not even going to come here! We also need cool names! This is a must!" Dylan said with more enthusiasm than most people thought was appropriate.

As soon as he started speaking, everyone in the room focused on him. But as soon as he said his idea, most of them quietly laughed at him and rolled their eyes. The name "secret club" was only liked by Liam, Walter and Edgar. The rest thought it was childish. Even Lynella quietly laughed at him, he didn't expect such a betrayal from her, and she loves theatrics.

"Oh, don't make those faces! And stop pretending that you don't like my idea. We are Reincarnators in a new world, it won't even be considered stupid." Dylan continued to defend his position. To which Edgar, Liam and Walter nodded seriously.

"Of course, I completely agree. We need at least a name. How are we going to threaten anyone in the future? We need a strong and formidable reputation as a band, and without a good name you can't get that. Also, how will people know who they crossed?" Edgar said, supporting Dylan. To which he, with a stupid face, continued to nod seriously with Liam and Walter.

Most laughed at their funny behavior, the heavy atmosphere was almost forgotten.

"Okay, okay. I don't see any reason why we can't actually get a name. I suggest we each suggest names in turn and then we'll vote on them." Cullen said with a cheerful smile.

Dylan had already won in his mind when Cullen agreed with him. He turned his head to meet Linella's gaze and stuck his tongue out at her in a sign of victory and dominance. At first he wanted to cast a telekinesis spell and hit her on the head, but wisely decided not to provoke her.

In response to his outburst, Lynella simply rolled her eyes and ignored him. She turned slightly and began twirling her hair around her finger, pretending not to notice his anger. Dylan could admit to himself that it really did piss him off, instead of getting caught, he smiled sweetly and promised to come up with something really sneaky later.

Now he had another important task. He needed to come up with a cool name, but that was the problem. He was not good at naming things, looking around, he realized that he was not alone in this. Most of them sat with their faces full of creative potential, their eyes fixed and staring at one place. While Cullen watched them with a smile.

Dylan looked at Thomas and Emilia, seeing that they were thinking about it too, which was a surprise to him. He thought that they would still act like adults, after all, the influence of the group has a greater effect.

Dylan really couldn't come up with a cool name when he thought about it. Common, calling them some kind of group of Reincarnators would be too stupid even for him. And where would all the intrigue be? They also didn't have much in common, each with a different specialization, although they all used magic in one way or another... Did that help him come up with anything? No.

"Heh, does no one have any ideas?" Kallen asked, drawing everyone's attention to himself. "How about names from our past world. Like the Knights of the Round Table?"

No one said a word, making it clear that no one liked this idea. Dylan especially. Knights are supposed to be fair, honest, kind, and so on. Which he certainly didn't consider himself to be. Besides, most are more mages than knights.

Failed. Continue please.

"Okay, since no one likes it. Secret Seekers? Isn't that a good name?" Cullen continued.

Dylan repeated in the language "Seekers of Secrets". In his opinion, the name was okay. But he thought it was too common.

Like, really, we might as well just call ourselves Reborn. We need something short, something that doesn't say who we are, but at the same time memorable. How fucking complicated!

Dylan thought while the others decided whether they liked the name or not.

"That's better than most, but what about the Pathfinders, or the Trailblazers?" Walter asked. "Pretty big names, aren't they?"

"Well, nooo! That's too corny! God, I hope you don't have any ideas with shadows." Dylan said, unable to contain himself.

Walter opened his mouth to make his next suggestion, but when he heard the word "shadows" he closed it and clicked his tongue in displeasure.

"Can you think of something that makes sense?" Walter replied, folding his hands in front of him and looking at Dylan.

Dylan stared back at him, thinking hard. He even turned on [Accelerated Perception] and [Parallel Thinking]. But after many seconds of staring, he still hadn't come up with anything. Just when he was about to give up and admit defeat, the quietest person in the group spoke up.

"Shards, how do you like this?" Shin said awkwardly, causing everyone to blink in surprise. Following him, the snake began to hiss and nod, expressing its approval.

Dylan, like everyone else who saw a snake communicate for the first time, was stunned. Instead of focusing on the good name, Dylan assessed the snake to see if it had a class, but saw nothing other than a very high level.

Name: Tasteless

Race: Black Labaria [Rare] Level 138

"Shards, not bad at all." Cullen said, ignoring the sentient, but not entirely intelligent snake.

Dylan snapped out of his stupor and quickly nodded his head in approval.

"Okay, okay, okay! It's decided! My secret name will be "Desire" from now on, I don't know anything! You can choose your own names, the important requirement is not to be called a spear if you own a spear, you get the idea!" Dylan said quickly, joking with Walter at the end.

Walter raised his hands, pointing at him, his feelings hurt, an insult he had not yet earned. But the others just quietly chuckled at him.

"Okay, since there are no objections, we are Shards from now on. A symbolic oath would be appropriate, I suppose? But that can be sorted out another time, when we have time and "Desire"!" Cullen said, looked at Dylan, shook his head slightly, and laughed loudly.