A New World, an immersive game experience

Seeing Eldrian, alive and well, Elizabeth rushed past the city mayor, magic association head, and all the others. She embraced Eldrian with a few tears of joy making itself known. Not caring how strange it might appear to others. 

"I thought you were-"

"I know, they really did have a lot of stories in play." Eldrian nodded, "We'll catch up later. Help me explain."

Elizabeth didn't know what she was signing up for, but that didn't matter. She was almost certain that Eldrian had discovered something he shouldn't have and thus why they had faked his death. There was no way she would let the cover stories convince her otherwise. 

"But, won't they-"

"I already disabled their way of monitoring," Eldrian replied, leaving Elizabeth speechless. 

"Right, as I was saying." Looking at everyone Eldrian smiled and searched in his inventory for that item. 'Freaking hell this is a mess... Yup, the corpse is still here.'

Eldrian started to randomly dump things he didn't need from his inventory. The sight caused everyone to look on in curiosity. When the orc warlord was dumped they looked at Eldrian in astonishment. 

"Here it is." Eldrian proudly held the flintlock musket in his hands, showing it to everyone. The light from his manor reflected off the polished metal and engravings in the middle of the night. It sure looked pretty, but no one could guess what its use could be. 

"What's this?" Pelaros asked, curious why Eldrian had pulled this seemingly useless piece of art from his inventory. 

"This is what we need to focus on while the undead are busy recovering. Not sure how long we will have, but if we can manage this."

Elizabeth's eyes flew wide open as she recalled the demonstration video of the gunsmith's first cannon. Immediately she understood where Eldrian was going with this. 

'I think you already understand my plan. I'm cut off from the internet and forums, can't go into details.' Eldrian sent a telepathic message to Elizabeth, the fact that it was not through the system slightly freaked her out but she knew that Eldrian and Ceph were capable of this. 

'I'm hoping you can reach out to Cadhan and make an arrangement. We can't have the kingdom fall, hopefully, we can somehow get them to share their research so we won't need to start from scratch.'

"You might not understand, but some other Chosen had designated themselves to bringing some of the technology from our world into this one since the start. This is one of their earlier pieces." Loading the musket took time, and it made everyone even more doubtful of it. 

When Eldrian fired, they lost even more interest. It would certainly be useful in large enough numbers, but that would not be possible in their current situation. It certainly wouldn't solve their current predicament. 

And against the undead, it would be basically useless. The pellets Eldrian had used were too small to add runes, meaning the only improvement possible was enchantment. But that was far more limiting in its ability. 

While it would be possible to add inscriptions, that was simply far harder and more complicated. Plus, it would require a crystal of sorts to be part of the bullet. 

"I know, that display was really not all that impressive. But this was one of their early prototypes. It is called a musket and it was capable of doing this without any runes or any type of magic."

"While that is impressive, that will not help us in our current situation." Sofiera said, "If we were able to gather a few thousand it could possibly help. However, the damage it will do will be just as lacking, if not more lacking than a flaming arrow."

"You are correct!" Eldrian declared with gusto that confused everyone, "Which is why we aren't going to make muskets... We are going to make cannons."

From there he explained what he meant, and why it would help their current situation. 

"This is going to be extremely expensive, we will need at least twenty cannons to fend them off reliably."

From here Elizabeth took over, she had already sent a few guildmates to the temples to try and see if any were for sale. She had also reached out to Cadhan and his crew, who had been eager for a new venue to extend their sales to. 

A single cannon was simply far out of the price range of any and all players. And the NPCs, well they had their doubts. 

They wanted proof of ability. And thanks to the vast distances between cities, not to mention kingdoms, it was hard to get sales going reliably. Doubt in something new was always high, especially in times such as these where schemes were at an all-time high. 

There was also plenty who would rather try to reverse engineer the new weapon, rather than rely on someone else. Some had something against the Chosen in particular, others just wanted to maximize profit and some still just did not want to outsource. 

Unfortunately, even with all this, Cadhan wasn't willing to hand over their research no matter how much Elizabeth tried to persuade him. He was adamant about keeping the research, and hence profits. Which from a player's perspective made sense. If only ANW was such a simple game. 

"Each cannon will cost 150 gold, each use will cost 20 gold and will require around a thousand mana points to activate." Elizabeth shared, it was still twice the cost of manufacturing but it was already discounted. Or so Cadhand told her, she had to accept his words at face value for now. 

"That is an absurd requirement," Sofiera interjected, focusing on the mana cost to activate. That was more than what the standard Tier 5 mage had available, after all. 

"Mana crystals can be used to supply the mana, however, the cannons do not have regulators. Hence if the mana crystal is too large it can lead to the entire cannon exploding and killing everyone nearby."

'That is a terrible design.' Eldrian grumbled to himself but didn't want to dish their saving grace right now. 

"I know it doesn't sound all that great, but each use should be capable of devastating an area of a hundred meters or more. I doubt a Tier 5 mage would be able to do something like that."

"Indeed, but how are we going to get these magical cannons?" Pelaros asked and Elizabeth quickly explained that Chosen could send things over through the temples. In the case of the cannons, it was a bit more difficult but still possible. 

After a few minutes of pondering, Pelaros turned to Eldrian. "Do you really think this will work?"

"It is our best shot. I'm willing to buy two cannons myself, along with twenty cannonballs."

Pelaros nodded, that was indeed already plenty. The cost of which would come to 700 gold. The city itself didn't have much gold to spare, but using what they had to try and survive was better than trying to hold out, out of greed, and die. 

"Unfortunately, they do not have twenty cannons," Elizabeth reported. "Cadhan just replied, they currently have six they can sell. The rest are in use defending the kingdom of Gaelige."

"How many cannonballs?" Eldrian asked, six would mean they couldn't cover the entire city. However, they could still cover one side at least. The undead were also unlikely to expect it, especially the range that the cannons would have.

A surprise barrage could deal as much damage as Eldrian's feat earlier. 

If aimed properly they should be able to outrange the undead's catapults too. Which would mean the magic towers would also be freed to be used offensively. The best part was that the cannons could be moved to where needed.. It could even be taken on the offensive.