With the material brought by Jack, Emma had finished making the prototype guns and a hundred cartridges. For the purpose of killing monsters, Emma had chosen the first prototypes to be a modern take on the famous blunderbuss with a striker mechanism.

Jack was taking a look at the new gun. It had the length of an arm, with flared brass barrel, brass trigger guard, and an iron trigger and lock. It was breech-loaded instead of loading from the muzzle. The handle was carved from wood. The ammunition was lead pellets wrapped in paper, along with black powder compressed at one end. A brass cap wrapped around half of the paper cartridge, protecting the black power from getting wet.

Emma decided to use mercury fulminate, a shock-sensitive explosive material, instead of flint for ease of use and reliability in weather. The chemical was very hard to produce without proper laboratory equipment. Jack reassured her that he would order glassware once the team had more budget, as glassware in this era was a noble product.

The brass cap held a tiny amount of mercury fulminate. When the trigger is pulled, the hammer strikes at the end of the cap, exploding the chemical in the cap along with the black powder and thus, forces the pellets out of the barrel. The cap could be collected and reused.

Emma produced the guns with almost full use of the dark energy manipulator. From the melting of the metal ingot with heat manipulation, shaping the barrel with telekinesis, finishing the surface and working on the firing mechanism with laser cutting mode, etc., the result was a weapon definitely beyond the production capability of the medieval era.

Producing a single gun would deplete the charge of the dark energy manipulation device a couple of times. The most energy intensive process was melting and shaping the barrel. Emma had noted Jack that having some parts of the weapon outsourced, for example, the carving of the wooden handle, or having the raw part for the barrel precut in an elongated cylinder form, could greatly lower the energy usage.

Excluding the percussion cap, manufacturing the ammunition was cheap. The lead pellets were made by dripping molten lead into a water basin. The resulting pellets were not in a perfect spherical shape, but they served well as projectiles.

"Awesome job." Jack rubbed the gun, then stood in shooting position. "It feels great on hands. People would not hesitate to buy this era-changing weapon."

Although Jack had never seen such a crude and primitive gun before, he knew that his engineer had made it to the best of her ability. It was a technological achievement even, which what little resource they had.

Emma did not share her ex-captain's enthusiasm. She smiled wryly. "I still don't feel like I'm doing the right thing. I hope you can prove to me that I am, Jack."

Jack grinned. "Of course, I will do my best."

"I know our purpose is to fix the ship and go home, but I never once considered doing so at the expense of people living in this place. I will make sure that our weapons are used to reduce bloodsheds and tragedies, not causing them."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He sat down, levelled his eyes with Emma's.

"You can believe in me. I won't make mistakes anymore."

The crews went out to the bar and the two adults drank themselves to stupor that evening. Emma laughed, and Naomi covered her face as Jack drunkenly danced with the waitress and fell face-first into his dance partner's ample bosom, getting a much-deserved resounding slap.

Since Naomi was dragged to the bar right as she was going home from her first mission, she couldn't find the time to tell the other two that the mercenary team had discovered her inhuman strength. In the end, she decided that it was fine. She did not feel any malicious intent from the other members.

[I'll tell them when I find anything wrong. Each of us has their own mission.]

The next day, with the five prototype guns wrapped in a big cloth and secured on his back, Jack set out to the Adventurer Guild. The sun was high, Naomi had already left for her mercenary business. It was time for product testing and advertisement.

***

Anver and Lena brought Naomi to a place on the border of the Beast Forest. It was far enough from the village that few people would go here.

"Throw." Anver gave the young girl a spear. He pointed to a tree with a target carved on it. He stepped back, arms crossed on his chest.

The young girl closed her eyes. That was odd.

The moment she opened her eyes, the spear was launched away. It whizzed through the air and came head-on into the tree with a "puck". Right on target.

"Bullseye? On her first throw? Did she have experience with spear throwing?" Anver raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe it was just a lucky throw?" Commented Lena.

However, after five throws, the two discovered that this girl had a miraculous ability of nailing the exact spot every time. It confused them more that the girl would always close her eyes for a brief moment before throwing the spear.

After plucking the spear from the tree again, Anver approached the young girl, handed it back to her. "Open your eyes." He made a gesture of using his hands to pull his eyelids open.

The young girl looked troubled. This time, the spear went wide. It was not even close to hitting the target. A few more throws were attempted, and the two mercenaries had noted some peculiar characteristics to their new member's throwing ability.

"If she closes her eyes for a moment before the throw, she would nail it no matter how hard it is." Lena had a confused look on her face. "Doesn't matter if it's a spear or a stone. It's incredible!"

Anver did not look very happy about it. "Yeah, but she can't move during her weird eye-closing ritual. Is it mental concentration? I have never seen that throwing technique before. And why is her normal throw so bad?"

He shook his head. "One last test before we force her to open her eyes at all time. Closing your eyes during a battle is a taboo no matter how good your throw is." He handed the spear to the girl again. "Strong. Full strength." Anver commanded.

The girl looked quizzical. She asked back. "Strong?". Anver nodded.

As the young girl entered her throwing stance, the two mercenaries retreated a bit further this time. When she opened her eyes, the spear seemingly disappeared. A low crack echoed, followed by a booming sound as loud as a thunderclap.

Half of the tree trunk where the target was carved on had been blown away. The spear was nowhere to be found. The tree fell shortly after failing the struggle against gravity with its wounded body.

It took a second or two for the scene he witnessed to sink it, even though it was right before Anver's eyes. Then he felt his lips stretch wider into gaping grin and his eyebrows arch for the sky.

"Or maybe there is no need for her to keep her eyes open." Lena exclaimed, hands on her mouth. "I'll stop using the crossbow and switch to vanguard."

Their days of surviving by the teeth were about to change.