"And that's how you sign a contract!"

Back in ViTech headquarters, the employees and their employer gathered in the conference room to congratulate each other on the first signed deal.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this success is due to your efforts to gather much-needed intel about the recruitment targets. I congratulate you before you congratulate me." Vivian announced as she sat at the head of the table, "With each successful day, let's make a tradition of dining together as one family. Now, eat your fill and grab more from the buffet."

It was a cheerful evening as Vivian was in the best of moods. Not only has she secured the world's inventor of the light bulb, but she did so with a technology that predated Edison's by at least 100 years.

But that wasn't as impressive as it seemed, before Eddison, there were 22 scientists that made the light bulb possible, however, it was Eddison who succeeded in industrializing it in a conventional way.

But electricity and light bulbs weren't even what could scratch the surface of Vivian's ambition, there was more she was looking forward to bringing to the world.

Vivian aimed to find the scientists on the verge of making life-changing inventions and give them a nudge forward with her money and influence. Once she gathers enough scientists around her, she will be the most influential person in the city and ViTech will be the top R&D organization in the world.

In this merry atmosphere, Vivian sat alone at the table while the others gathered in groups around the conference room. Jane finally had her chance to speak with Oscar whom she has a massive crush on and Logan was handing plates of food to the old security guards whom he has a history with, even Esmeralda was making friends with some of the female employees.

It was a pleasant atmosphere and one that meant success. Vivian slowly ate the soft lamb steak on her plate with a fork as she savored the juicy taste.

"You're awfully quiet after having such a speech." Logan approached Vivian and joined her side in an empty seat.

"I am enjoying my time thinking and envisioning."

"Oh, please, don't let me disturb you, princess."

"Nonsense, Logan. You being by my side isn't merely for show or safety. Just like the rest or even more, I'm savoring this moment thanks to your efforts too."

"I'd say you're drunk on something but I see no wine in your glass, want me to fix that?"

"I don't drink."

"More for the rest of us then."

Vivian smiled wryly.

"It is just that I find no meaning in drinking. Dulling my senses while I must always stay on guard doesn't make sense in my situation." She said.

Hearing that, Logan looked at his liquor glass, and with a heavy heart, he and his glass parted ways.

"You can drink if you want."

"No, you're right. How can I, your bodyguard, drink and keep you sober so that you can keep an eye out for yourself."

Vivian smiled and chuckled a bit before picking up a piece of candy from the platter nearby.

Even though it was a peaceful moment they deserved after having their business model achieve its first success, they were deprived of the peace they needed knowing that they must fight to stay relevant in this cold world.

But a warm breeze can sometimes pass by, that comes with a knock on the office door. Esmeralda opened the door and one of the Voros' assistants spoke to her. She then turned to Vivian.

"My Lady… I mean Director. Mr. Voros is calling for you down at the workshop along with Miss Jane."

That was it… that was what she was waiting for.

Vivian jumped off her seat and headed to the door, Jane did the same and as it seemed that everyone was watching them, Vivian turned around quickly and faced the crowd.

"Everyone, enjoy the party. I will leave Esmeralda here to wrap things up while I see the small situation and long with H.T. Jane. It was a fruitful day and I hope tomorrow is just as fortunate. Goodbye."

Vivian then turned back and zoomed out of the room with Jane on her heel, even Logan did the same and followed them. That strange smile on Vivian's face meant she had done something insane again.

As the three descended four floors and the underground level to reach the basement, Vivian opened the metal gate that led to Voros' workshop and walked in immediately. There, she saw Voros standing between his two assistants who were holding something for him.

"You two can go upstairs, you've earned yourself a drink and desserts." Vivian dismissed Voros' assistants as what would happen next would be a top secret, she then turned to Voros, "Voros, talk to me."

"Chief… guns ready." Voros said and took away the metallurgist claw he used to carve on metal.

At his work table, three pieces of printed metal were displayed neatly. They didn't look the same but each of them was basically the same thing.

Varying in sizes, the three pistols, which Vivian envisioned, Jane designed, and Voros printed, were still fresh out of the oven and Voros was adding the last touches to their metal. What remained was for Jane to add the wooden outer casing, put it together with wood joinery, and make sure all the parts moved right.

The smallest pistol, the medium pistol, and the large pistol were all finished. Each of them resembled this era's style of firearms with the smallest being small enough to fit into a palm, the medium being of a regular size, and the largest being a tad bigger than normal as it was fitted with a chamber that could withstand larger types of ammunition.

"That's some fine work, Jane, Voros." Vivian couldn't hide her smile but she could hold her hands from holding those babies and testing them out.

"Thank you, director." Jane was pleased and couldn't hide her smile either.

"Tiny gun… funny." Voros commented as he pointed at the smallest gun.

"I know. But it is a serious weapon." Vivian replied.

"Bah! Swords better." Voros seemed to be on the side that prefers honorable melee weapons rather than firearms but no one can deny how exquisite his work is.

"That's the new generation of guns you were talking about, Princess?" Logan asked.

Before answering that, Vivian cleared her throat and went in for a professional demonstration.

"It is, Sir Knight. These are the first of their kind: break-action firearms for personal safety and ease of use. They support a new breed of ammunition made of hardened flash paper and stuffed with black powder with a lead musket ball glued to the top. Our ViTech's genius gunsmith, Miss Jane Smith-Waters, has managed to create an internal ignition mechanism based on the wheellock firearms. However, she had developed the outdated wheellock system into a whole new internal ignition system that is very stable according to her calculations. These three pieces are the first prototypes for the ammunition calibers of 0.39, 0.41, and 0.44 respectively."

With her superb demonstration skills, Vivian was sure Logan would be impressed and convert to her gun cult immediately but he looked at the firearms and then at her.

"Half of what you said didn't make any sense to me."

Vivian and Jane rolled their eyes. They had to explain it since Logan is the type to get sensitive and narrow-minded if he doesn't understand what's going on.

"Break Action!" Jane held a safety lever on the side of the gun with one thumb and released a release slider with the other before applying pressure and opening the barrel as if she were breaking it from the rest of the gun.

She then proceeded to put three of the paper cartridges she had designed on the table, each of which varied very slightly in terms of width and height.

"The caliber of this gun is that size of bullets, 0.39 inch wide bullets fit in that chamber." Jane slid the bullet in with a little push before closing the pistol barrel with one move that activated its locking safety mechanism automatically.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Once you're ready to shoot, move the safety back, aim steady, and may Arthur bless your hand."

Jane handed the gun to Logan who received it with a frown.

Immediately, Vivian, Jane, and Voros ran from his vicinity and hid behind a metal cabinet on the other side of the large basement.

"Hey, what's going on?" Logan asked.

"Do your part, Sir Logan!" Jane replied.

"This is for the advancement of Firearms, my knight." Vivian added.

"Every new firearm must be tested. Still, the ammunition of the gun is the first of its kind, we need a scapegoa… a competent tester." Jane said.

"While we are sure of the design, only a knight with such a Slivery Aura like yours can endure it if the test goes wrong." Vivian said.

"Bang Bang Hahaha!" Voros said with a nasty hoarse laugh.

"Goodness!" Logan was horrified not by the gun but by their actions.

"Bang Bang Logan!" Vivian shouted.

"Aim ahead at the cement wall." Jane added.

With a tired face, Logan mustered up his Aura around his hand and chest then aimed the pistol ahead. He steadied his thoughts and removed the safety as Jane said before…

BANG

A few seconds passed as the bang echoed through the underground basement.

"You alright, Sir Knight?" Vivian called.

"More or less." He replied, "That was a hefty kick that gun had."

The three creators of the gun rushed back to Logan and he put the pistol down. Jane and Voros immediately examined it to determine the effect while Vivian ran to the cement wall and stuck her pinky in the bullet hole in the cement wall.

"The gun's heat dissipated nicely." Jane said as she touched various parts of the barrel, "And the flash paper left no trace inside the muzzle. Complete success."

"Metal good… screws tight… no damage." Voros said after receiving the gun from Jane.

As for Vivian she returned and searched through Voros tools before picking up a small screwdriver and returning back to the bullet hole again.

"God, that's powerful." She said and touched the cement wall, "Hope nobody heard that."

"How deep?" Jane asked immediately.

As the other three kept staring at her for an answer, Vivian took the screwdriver out and with a rough estimation…

"4 Inches deep."

The three became silent with wide eyes. No firearm bullet in that era could do that much damage.

"That's… scary!" Even Jane the Gunsmith got cold feet.

"No Bronze Aura Knight would survive a bullet like that." Logan said with a scared smile, "Even I wouldn't want to block that bullet."

"Mad strong!" Even Voros had to admit that the gun exceeded his expectations.

"That's it, friends. That's what I wanted so bad." Vivian, on the other hand, smiled like a child.

She ran back to them and held the medium-sized gun which Logan was shooting with.

"Listen up, the three of you." She held the gun and opened its barrel.

She showed them the empty barrel and then performed the hand movement as she was loading the gun with another bullet before closing the barrel again. She then pointed the pistol a way and squeezed the trigger.

"Bang!" She spoke the sound.

Then she performed the reloading movement again and squeezed the trigger, then again, then again.

Four times she has done it before stopping and turning to her friends.

"The best gunman with muskets would shoot those four shots in one minute and he'd be considered an expert gunman. An average gunman would do two at best per minute when under pressure or in battle heat." She said before raising her pistol up, "That thing we made just now eliminated many of the problems a gunman would face. The reloading is easier and faster, the bullet is stronger, and when we apply proper rifling to the barrel, the accuracy will go up as well."

"Director, one way or the other people would have developed something like that eventually. It is just your insight that has pushed the boundaries before anyone else." Jane said.

"True but… imagine if that thing falls into the wrong hands." Logan said with obvious worry.

"Logan, you went to war once, right?"

"Just a summer campaign against the Adnani fleet three years ago."

"In your opinion, what if this weapon was used by a side?"

"One side would completely dominate the other of course in terms of foot troops."

"And if the two sides have it?"

"I don't think…" Logan wanted to reply but he paused and thought more, "These weapons would change the whole system of the battlefield. Simply charging and volleying would be a suicide."

"That's insightful of you to say." Vivian agreed with Logan, "Battles won't be fought the same anymore. I'm afraid to tell you this, friends, but if the schematics of this weapon and this type of ammunition were to go public, these nations and empires would find more vicious ways to kill each other and colonize more lands."

The three seemed resolute and agreeable with Vivian.

"We are simply pioneering this new type of firearms. This is merely the first of many firearms that are possible to create. With just one idea from our design, the door to developing firearms will wildly burst open." Vivian said and took out more schematics from her purse and spread them on the table for the other to see, "Firearms that can shoot tiny bullets that spread all over, firearms with an insanely fast rate of fire, and firearms with a caliber so large they can penetrate heavy fortifications."

Logan held the shotgun schematics and looked at it with wonder.

"Now this is something." He said with admiration.

"You kept all that from me?" Jane looked at all the schematics with wide eyes.

"Combine together… make a super gun!" Even Voros started spouting some insane words.

"Glad you like it, Logan. And Jane, this is simply the beginning of many more ideas. As for you, Voros, I think I can show you something really… really good."

Vivian handed Voros a schematic that was larger than others. Voros saw it and his eyes lit up with a childish smile appearing on his face.

"SUPER GUN!"

The other two came behind him to see what he was so on about but all they did was frown from the sight they saw. Jane held the schematic from Voros and read the description Vivian added to the top.

"Large-Caliber Multiple-Barreled Rotary Firearm." Jane read.

"Aye!" Vivian replied with a smile, "This type of firearm won't work with any technology we have. Reaching this point from the break-action pistol will be like trying to pass an elephant from the hole of a needle. Our technology doesn't…"

"Fuck! I'll do it." Jane's foul mouth couldn't be held back anymore.

"I…" Vivian was perplexed for a second, "It is not…"

"I said I'll fucking do it!"

"It is not a challenge!"

"FUUUUCK! I'LL DO IT!"

Seeing how Jane was so fired up, Vivian and Logan looked at each other.

"You sure about this?" He asked.

"To be a genius, I guess other aspects can be overlooked." She replied.

"Hey, Director! Got any more schematics?" Jane asked but it was more demanding.

"Just the unfinished ones."

"Fine. We need to set up a new place. My office up there has many eyes." Jane said.

"Burrow… I burrow!" Voros raised his hand happily.

"Burrow?" Vivian frowned, unable to fully comprehend what Voros said.

Voros immediately ran to a wall and started pulling a few bricks off the wall.

"You can't be…" Vivian couldn't help but pause in her place as Voros opened a gap in the wall enough to fit an adult to pass.

Behind it, Voros had a small room dug out with some items lying around.

"When did you… how…"

"Duergar burrow… world best…"

"Oh boy!"

Seeing how Voros has made himself at home… or rather made himself a home, Vivian could only take a deep breath and shake it off.

"Alright, Mr. Voros. Build another burrow for gun research. Just don't break anything you shouldn't."

"Yes, Chief."

For now, the three gun prototypes were the first step to creating a larger array of firearms that one day would change the course of history. A mouse gun, a pistol, and a high-caliber pistol.

"Director, here's the first complete gun as promised. You can go home with it." Jane handed Vivian the small gun in a box along with 40 paper cartridges.

A small gun and a lethal projectile, perfect for stealth and self-defense. Vivian can fit this gun on an armband so that she can take it out of her sleeve when needed.

"Good weapon… good name." Voros said.

"You want me to name it?" Vivian asked, "You're the one who made its parts, and Jane is the one who designed it to a functional state. You guys should name it."

"I'll pass. Just let me pick the model names later."

"Alright. Then it comes to you, Mr. Voros. Give it a name." Vivian turned to the mad Metallurgist for a name.

"Small gun, big damage." Voros smiled and found a ridiculous name, "Titania!"

"Hah! Love it!" Vivian laughed and held the mouse gun up, "That's Titania then, inscribe the name on the side of the barrel then."

Vivian handed the gun Titania to Voros who immediately took out his Metallurgist Claw and heated it up in the furnace.

While watching him with a smile, Vivian's heart was suddenly engulfed with coldness and her insides felt as if they were shrinking with pain.

Her face became pale from worry and she suddenly grabbed Logan beside her for support.

"Prin… Vivian… VIVIAN! What's wrong?"

She gulped from the pain and a message appeared in front of her.

« You sense a Twist in Karma at 0 meters! »

What!

What is happening?

"Lady Vivian?" Jane held Vivian with worry from the other side.

"Chief!" Voros also came running but unlike the other two, he had an idea of what was going on, "Sit down! Close eyes! Focus!"

He immediately forced Vivian down by the shoulder and the strength that came from his body almost overwhelmed Logan who was pushed away.

"Duergar! What's going on?" Logan asked with anger and worry.

"Focus, chief! You have gift? Can't be! Focus! It nearby?"

He indeed has some sort of idea. Vivian started to focus just as he told her to and then the answer came to her immediately.

From her Storage Purse, Vivian took out the blank silver coin given to her by Agatha Moore from the conglomerate presentation day.

Just one silver coin made her sense this feeling. Everyone else looked clueless at the coin but Voros couldn't believe what he saw with his own eyes.

For fourteen years, this was the first clue he had ever got, and it was right in the hand of his savior.

"M… Mithril?"