Chapter 23: Modern Warfare

After running Tione and Tiona ragged, Lars dropped them at the wheat manor.

"Lars, you're crazy..." The twins dropped down in front of the manor and he was wiping some sweat.

"That was a good run girls." He looked like and sounded like he just went for a jog.

"Hah, hah, how are you not level 2?" Tione asked incredulously.

"Well, it's because I'm too awesome. So I need to go deeper in the dungeon first." Lars shrugged.

But he suddenly got an idea. 'Wait... Shouldn't I just make things harder?' Lars thought of buying some tools.

He remembered Alfia's disease and Lars wondered if it was a contributor for her quick growth.

'I should have some weights made, buy some poisons, or even better; curses.' Lars had a grin on his face.

Alfia was like a leaky pipe back then. She was leaking mana while she fought. Her body was in agony while in combat.

Paralysis took hold of her body, and her muscles felt sluggish as she moved.

Her disease was fucking ridiculous. And now, she was waiting around to be unleashed all over the world.

"We'll be doing it again and again, prepare yourselves girls. And I also remembered a procedure to make us grow faster." He grinned at them.

"I don't even want to know what it is." Tiona shuddered.

"You really have something like that?" Tione was instead excited.

"Yeah. And we'll really start when our doctor's vacation finishes." Lars had a bright smile on his face.

"Airmid right? I've heard rumors about her. It's said that she leveled up to 2 in a few months." Tiona was flabbergasted.

"Ahh, that's due to our hard work and dedication to the grind." Lars nodded sagely.

"Say... Do you think we'll grow really strong too?" Tione wondered.

'And when I get enough stats to overpower him...' Tione started to giggle with a sleazy smile on her face.

"Y-yeah? What are you going to do when you level up though?" He raised a brow.

"N-nothing!" Tione sobered up and she started muttering again.

"Bah! Leave her be, so? Isn't this like the start of a new legend?" Tiona was excited.

She has admired the stories of hero ever since they were children.

It was one of the things that kept her going. Despite the cruelty of their home; Telskyura.

"Now rest for now, you're going to need it tomorrow." He grinned at them and the twins gulped.

When Lars left, the twins looked at each other. "You think we'll survive?" Tiona asked.

"I hope so... I can't make babies with him otherwise." Tione smiled wryly.

"Hey! That's not fair! He'll definitely prefer me! Just wait when we grow up!" Tiona believed she would have a dynamite body.

"Hmph, my longer hair attracts boys better." Tione huffed at her and they started arguing.

"Ara~ Lars sure is popular." Demeter chuckled as she watched the twins fight each other.

__Goibniu familia__

Lars went to the Goibniu familia, a smaller smith type familia than the Hephaestus familia.

But their skill was roughly the same. Because he doesn't want to risk Hephaestus learning that he was commissioning weights.

And based on Demeter's interaction with her, it was a no brainer that they were good friends.

"I can't be having Demeter asking me questions." Lars thanked Airmid's magic that healed them good as new.

Due to that, Demeter didn't really see them having wounds.

A dwarf greeted Lars when he entered. "Whatcha need kid?" He was a bit short.

But he didn't have a massive head like Gareth, though he does have a nice beard.

"Hi, I need weighted clothes. As heavy as you can make them. And ones that are lined with lead." Lars requested.

"Weighted clothes?" The dwarf was confused. "It's for training." Lars looked at him seriously.

"Oh, okay. But the heaviest material besides lead is gold and adamantite you know?" The smith thought that would cost a fortune.

"How much do you need? It doesn't matter." Lars tapped on the floor with his heel.

"Hoh? You some kind of rich, young master? Then, we will need to basically make weighted armor." The smith started calculating.

And due to Lars wanting as much material to weigh him down, it was going to be extremely expensive.

Because it was going to use as much metal as weapons the size of Tiona's double bladed sword.

"The heaviest adamantite in the deeper floors is going to cost you about 100m valis." The smith gave his price.

Lars rubbed his chin and he thought about it. "That's a pretty good price. But I refuse."

The smith sighed and he thought that would be par for the course. "The lead ones-"

He was about to offer the lead lined ones, but his eyes bugged out when Lars dropped something on the counter.

"This luster... This weight... This is adamantite!? And it's practically pure!" The smith was shocked.

"Hey kid, can you sell some to us? I'm Willhelm, this is some high quality stuff..." He was overwhelmed.

"Well, I don't really need money right now. But I guess I can spare an ingot's worth." Lars shrugged.

"And that would be 50 million valis! Know what? I'll make your training clothes fer free! Kuhahaha!" He laughed.

Willhelm didn't really finesse him, so Lars nodded. 'My citizens sure do pay their taxes well~"

He had a sleazy smile on his face. "Make another two sets for me, and one made with gold." Lars took out ingots of adamantite and gold.

The lead ones would be for newbies. They had to progress with their training equipment.

"You got it kid!" Willhelm nodded at him. Adamantite of that quality was really low in supply due to evilus.

So he was happy to make some more sets for it. "Nice doing business with you. Make them skin tight."

Making them loose would be detrimental for their development.

"I'll pick them up later, Will." Lars waved as he exited the smithy.

"What a rich kid, how the hell could he get that much adamantite?" Willhelm thought about it for a moment.

He then shrugged, it was time to make equipment. And he never thought that he'll be making training clothes with pure adamantite.

Lars then called for the Alfia express. "We really need to have a tunnel system for you guys." Alfia was annoyed.

But she was more willing to do it for him. There won't be problems if it was just Lars, but she didn't like carrying Airmid.

When he got back to Monstro, he noticed that there were more clutter on his shed.

"Fia, what's Airmid doing?" Lars asked and Alfia raised a brow at him.

"Don't call me that, and she has been making all kinds of potions nonstop." Alfia was satsified at Airmid's hobby.

The xenos were now all carrying a couple of elixirs on them. High class potions, antidotes, and nutritional potions too.

"Wow, Airmid has been busy. Let me go check if she's fine." He went to his shack.

And when he opened it, he saw Airmid stirring something inside of a pretty large flask.

"Hey... Is that? Don't be startled, don't do that. Or we'll have a nasty explosion here." Lars looked at his stock of nitrocellulose.

"Oh? This? I saw you do this one time here. And when I did the same, it created that fluffy cotton." Airmid pointed at the product.

"Yeah, and it's pretty explosive. Not really kaboom explosive, but I've got a bit stocked up." Lars sighed.

"Ohh, I already know. I tried to light some on fire a while ago for a firestarter." Airmid shrugged.

"I guess humans can't escape their primal instinct of lighting things on fire." Lars smiled wryly.

"I'm not a pyromaniac... So, what are you making these for anyways?" Airmid thought they were really good firestarters.

But that's about it. She just continued making them because she was bored. And she didn't have the courage to ask Alfia to ferry her.

The woman is absolutely terrifying. "Well, I'm going to make a weapon you see?" Lars started to explain it.

"It's called a gun, these will be explosives that will propel bullets." Lars made a replica with his ability from the obsidian soldiers.

"Ohh, it's bigger and pointy. Not like the balls that muskets use. Though nobles only collect them." Airmid shrugged.

They were highly unreliable after all. "Yeah, this baby can make armies of normal people that can mow down minotaurs." Lars smirked.

"Really? You're serious." She was gobsmacked.

"Though, I'm not a chemist. I already want to give up too." Lars was frustrated, it would take years upon years of research to make a modern gun.

"That's a shame, imagine our goblins wielding these with their lithe frames." Airmid looked at the replica of bullets and guns.

"Yeah, that's why I was thinking of making the entrance of the 39th floor a chokepoint.

Making it a narrow passage would still be beneficial even if we don't have these, but it would be devastating for enemies." Lars sighed.

"Hmmm, can you explain to me the process on how these things work?" Airmid was thinking seriously.

"Yeah, see these casings? They're supposed to contain propellants. The back of it has a detonator. Boom, then air pushes the bullet." Lars demonstrated.

"Umu, umu, I see. Can you fetch me a little bit of mithril and orichalum?" Airmid asked of him.

"Wait, you're not saying..." Lars raised a brow at her.

"It really interested me. And my mystery DA can definitely replace the propellant and casings." Airmid smiled at him.

"I have some here." Lars took out the magical metals from his inventory. Though the two is much rarer than adamantite.

"Beautiful... I guess I should be able to do it." Airmid thought of an enclosed space.

"Wait, I'm going to specify the round it will shoot." Lars made a replica of a 308 round.

'I heard that snipers like this round better.' Lars remembered something.

They had sufficiently strong ballistic power to be accurate still at 800m away.

And it was large enough to be able to take down stronger and tougher adventurers and monsters alike.

Though for the home defense system, he'll definitely be thinking of machine guns that are mounted.

Airmid started desigining it and she created a chamber that was lined with orichalum.

Adamantite might be the metal used for weapons with the durandal trait; indestructibility.

But orichalum is called divine metal. And it was resistant to magic, while being as strong or even stronger than adamantite.

The barrel was then lined with adamantite. As it didnt need magic resistance.

"For the propellant, instead of a primer and this so-called gunpowder.

Mithril will be put in the back of the chamber and connected to a treant handle." Airmid was in a creator's high.

She quickly drew a design that was more efficient than normal guns. Because you just load it and shoot.

And with her mystery DA, she was going to put automatic spells in the chamber that would act as propellants.

"You're a genius Airmid! This won't even need to use a lot of mind." Lars checked out the design.

Due to the orichalum chamber, it won't even overheat because of its magic resistance.

The barrel is indestructible and won't need maintenance. It doesn't use gunpoweder after all, so unless dirt comes in. It didn't need cleaning.

All that's left is a spring loaded magazine and a mechanism under the chamber is needed so it won't misfeed rounds inside.

"Fia! Alfia!" Lars shouted at the top of his lungs outside his window.

"What!? Are there intruders?" She quickly appeared.

"No... But I know what we're gonna do today." He grinned widely at her.

He showed Alfia Airmid's design. "What's this? A magical artifact?"

"Yup! And we'll be bringing modern warfare into this world. But with how rare Mystery is? We'll be the only ones with this weapon." Lars grinned at her.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.