‘Damn it! Hum, there is another way.’ Ariadne whispered to herself.

‘So one must be loyal to her grace in order to use this weapon? What?’ Alon spoke it aloud.

‘Alon, calm down; everything is going to be fine.’ She spoke while addressing Alon.

‘Anyway, if you are familiar with how a noble uses magic with encantations and all that, this lever action I am performing is the same thing but faster; this is not a known spell; it is just pure magic being shot out of the weapon.’ Edmund handed Alon the rifle.

Edmund got a spare battery from his pocket and gave Alon a rectangular object with a dent in one of it’s corners.

‘Now, take out the one on the weapon and make the switch; it is simple; just pull it out and get the new one in, just make sure is secured.’ Edmund pointed at it.

Alon stiffened as he removed the old battery and replaced it with the one Edmund had given him. He was still unsure of how it worked.

‘This right here is a safety pin; it sort of cuts the magic going to the runes, so even if you pull the trigger, nothing will happen. Don’t point this thing in our direction; just set it aside like this:’ Edmund directed the weapon's point in the direction of the tree with his hand.

Alon aimed and pulled the trigger. The sound was followed by a recoil, which nearly caused him to drop the rifle, but he managed to hold it up.

‘What? How come it didn’t affect you? Do you think my lack of loyalty is the cause?’ Alon widens his eyes, surprised by the recoil.

‘Oh no, it's because I’m stronger than you; I’m sorry for not telling you that it has recoil; now reload and shoot.’ Edmund chuckles.

‘How many times can this thing shoot, peasant? I didn’t count, and what is the range?’ While watching Alon's shooting, Ariadne remarked.

‘Alon,stop. Shoot at the tree that is on the opposite side of the training camp.’ Edmund pointed at the other side of the camp.

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‘But it's so far; can it reach?” Alon aimed at a large tree on the other side.

They could see it fly for a split second after he pulled the trigger, and the light came from the weapon. They could not tell if it hit the target. All of them started to walk to the other side.

‘I can’t believe it reaches that far; what is the real range of this thing, peasant?’ Ariadne gasped.

‘I don’t know the effective range, to be honest.’ Edmund shook his shoulders and looked at Ariadne.

As they drew nearer to the tree, they noticed that the hole, along with burn marks and pieces of wood on the ground, was exactly like the one on the other tree. Eliza observed that Ariadne was even showing her teeth because of the broad grin she had on her face, which was something she had never seen her do, not like this, like a maniacal person had discovered how to destroy the world.

‘A battery has seven shots, but in reality it has ten shots in it; each shot uses at the same time a little of the magic left to reinforce the weapon it self; otherwise, it would explode on your hand.’ Edmund touched the hole in the tree.

Alon regarded the rifle with admiration and fear. All of his sword training is now useless; it is not even close. Everything changed in his mind. He took a deep breath and then turned to face Edmund.

‘This weapon changes everything, so you need to tell me everything about it. We need to develop a new strategy for combat.’ Alon placed a hand on Edmund’s shoulder.

Edmund called them to the warehouse, where he showed the battery recharger, and the size of it surprised them; it was as tall as Alon and so wide that they could not even hug it. It had places for the batteries to fit in.

‘It’s not perfect; there is always room for improvement. Don’t expect to recharge in the middle of a battle. It is kind of big and can only recharge some at a time.’ With his hand, Edmund lightly tapped the side of the recharger.

‘We don’t need to worry about that; they will not get close to us with this new weapon, it will be over before they notice.’ Alon laughed.

‘You think I did this to fight people from other kingdoms? Even defend this territory? This is for the dungeon!’ He came closer to Alon and tapped his chest.

‘But we will use to do exactly that, peasant; with this, even going to the dungeon will be easy.’ Ariadne interrupted.

‘If we rely on this things, everyone will die; it only gives us a fighting chance, nothing more, nothing less.’ Edmund nodded his head negatively.

‘Peasant, aren’t this lights in this warehouse supposed to be on my mansion.’ Ariadne shut her fan and pointed at Edmund.

Edmund was taken aback by her words, which made his hands sweat. He slowly turned his head around to face Ariadne.

‘Well, I obviously need a good place to work and sleep and i need to test first.’ Edmund tried to dry his hands on his pants.

‘Put those lights on my mansion, right now!’ She looked at Edmund and raised her voice.

Edmund felt a rush on his body all of a sudden He suddenly started grabbing lights and other items, put on a bag, and left the warehouse, heading for the mansion.

‘Wait, peasant, I’m just asking; you don’t need to do it.’ Ariadne screamed.

‘Duchess, it is all right; I will get started right away. It was my fault.’ He screamed back.

Ariadne and Eliza emerged from the warehouse, seeing Edmund's back as Alon placed the rifle alongside the battery charger and got out of the warehouse.

‘Your highness, this new weapon will help us deal with the increased number of monsters after the archduke’s guards are gone.’ Alon closed the door of the warehouse.

‘Talk more about this problem that I wasn’t informed about.’ She spoke while casting a sidelong glance at Alon.