Removing his goggles, Eldin wiped the sweat from his cheeks and forehead with a nearby towel.
"I tell you, the dwarves were popular back when they could analyze iron with their senses. In this world of alloyed steel, there are no such racial boundaries."
The dwarves were able to make great weapons in the olden days because they knew the amount of carbon in iron.
It was a species trait they were born with.
With their senses, dwarves can recognize the presence of impurities in iron, the carbon content, and even the quality of the iron.
This is why they are called artisans.
It was science that closed the gap and allowed them to surpass it.
Modern steelmaking technology has allowed even humans to rival the dwarves.
"So what did you come to see me for? I make a lot of things."
"Weapons, of course.""Weapons. If it's a gun, I customize parts, but I don't carry the guns themselves. You'll have to go to a gunsmith to get one."
"It's not a gun I'm looking for."
Eldin looked puzzled by the answer, then his eyes lit up when he saw the long sword at Osian's waist.
"Wait. That thing at your waist is a sword?"
Eldin's face lit up.
"This is amazing, I can't believe there's still a fool who openly carries such an anachronistic weapon, may I have a look?"
Despite his words, Eldin looked quite pleased.
"Why not?"
Osian handed the long sword to Eldin.
He had repaired broken blades, so he recognized the shape of the longsword.
Eldin examined it carefully and exclaimed.
"Holy shit, this is......."
"Why? Are you surprised it's a better sword than you thought?"
"It's a really crappy sword."
"......."
"Judging by its crude design, it's definitely not a ceremonial sword. If it is, it must serve a practical purpose, and the quality of the iron is this bad?"
Eldin's words stung.
As a wandering knight who cherished his sword, it was heartbreaking to see his weapon dishonored, even if it was broken.
"Is there something......wrong with it?"
"Not so much a problem, hmm......as a surprise in a different sense. Do you happen to have a hobby of collecting artifacts? It's almost a thousand years old at this point, but you've taken good care of it."
Indeed, if it was almost a thousand years old, there might be some extenuating circumstances.
Osian had a silly thought.
“We could make some money selling it as an antique, if it's still in good condition."
"......."
The barrage of criticisms made it impossible for Osian to think straight.
A wandering knight is a knight who wanders the world, but the backstory is that he once came from a very prominent family.
As a Wandering Knight, you start out with a longsword, which was a common weapon of the time and was considered a mid-to-high level weapon in the game.
That's about what a plain longsword without any add-ons would be worth.
It was pretty much the pinnacle of pure vanilla stats weapons.
But a thousand years later, with the advances in steelmaking, metallurgy, and metalworking Osian's sword is an anachronism, a relic that will never be used.
"A longsword made of such low-grade carbon steel in this day and age, when iron can be mixed with any element in any proportion. Even the kitchen knife used by the fishmonger down the street is stronger than this."
"......."
Had Osian's mind not been of the 21st century, he would have challenged Eldin to a duel right then and there.
As it was, the wandering knight's body was reacting in a furious rage.
‘Patience, wanderer in me.’
Osian had to suppress his body's desire to rampage as much as possible so he didn't even open his mouth.
If he tried to say something, he felt like he'd slip into a racial slur.
"So I suppose it's safe to say that you're in the category of geeks, too, by asking me to create a new weapon like this?"
Osian opened his eyes, which he had closed for a moment to cool his temper.
"You mean, there are quite a few people like me here.......?"
"Of course, just like the one next to you right now."
Diolan shrugged lightly at the point.
"Can you call me a lone visionary ahead of his time instead of an eccentric?"
"You're already talking out of your ass."
Eldin gave Diolan a light pinch, then studied Osian's features.
His skin was white, his hair dark. His long, shoulder-length hair was well-groomed and dignified.
He had a handsome face. Even Eldin, an elf with a high sense of aesthetics, thought so.
‘Are you the heir to some high noble family?’
He had a certain nobility that could be felt just by standing still.
Considering the kind of clientele he primarily catered to when he made and sold weapons, Osian was completely out of place.
So when he first saw him, he thought he was some noble family master.
‘Who the hell is this guy?’
Eldin thought to himself.
Osian felt a new curiosity in Eldin's words.
"Am I not the only one who uses this type of weapon?"
"Cold weapons? Of course there are so many people in this city, I can't imagine there isn't one who would want to use their own special weapon."
"But I've heard of no one using a sword."
"That's right, too. No one wields a 'pure' longsword, even the cold weapons have their own 'modifications'."
"Modifications?"
"Not a firearm, not a cold weapon, more of a warm weapon, if you will?"
The words still didn't make sense to Osian.
He had a vague idea of what it was, but he needed to see it for himself.
"Can I see those things, by any chance?"
"Well, why not? It's why I made them in the first place. Let's open up my collection for a change."
Eldin was unnecessarily proud of his artifacts.
And naturally, people like this want someone to see their creations.
Eldin led Osian and Diolan to the storeroom attached to the workshop.
He called it a storeroom for simplicity's sake, but it was more like a weapons rack.
"Hmm."
Osian's eyes lit up as he looked at the weapons on display.
The weapons here were all of different shapes, but they all had one thing in common: they were cold weapons.
Swords, spears, axes, knuckles, tonfa, halberds, maces, and more.
Just as the saying goes, if you're going to get a gun, go to a gunsmith, but all of Eldin's creations are things people wouldn't use in this day and age.
Of course, that's just Osian's opinion.
Eldin's weapons were well known in this part of the world.
"Would you like to take a look?"
"What is this?"
Osian asked, lifting a baton in one hand.
The handle was over thirty centimeters long and quite thick.
At the end was a black iron ball the size of a child's head.
It looked like a mace, but it was too short.
"Oh, that's the Morning Star."
"Morning Star?"
"Give it to me."
Osian handed the self-proclaimed Morning Star to Eldin.
Taking it, Eldin opened the door to one side of the warehouse and headed inside.
The interior was shaped like a firing range, a place to test the weapons he had developed.
"Watch this."
With that, Eldin pointed a blunt iron ball at a steel plate about 20 meters away.
Just as I wondered what the hell he was going to do, a spike jutted out of the blackened metal.
"Hoh."
Is that how they usually hide and then reveal them?
But the surprise was yet to come.
"This is what this weapon is all about."
Eldin said in a confident voice, then flicked a switch on the handle.
-Poof!
Immediately, the iron ball fired like a cannonball.
A shell popped out of one side of the baton, and at the same time, white compressed steam erupted.
-Thud!
The sound of the iron ball hitting the iron plate resounded throughout the space.
Osian suddenly understood why that handle was so thick.
It was filled with propellant and wire to launch the iron ball.
The wire connecting the handle to the iron ball was pulled taut, and the iron ball returned to its original position.
The pointed spikes disappeared.
"It is possible to retrieve it.”
Osian struggled to comprehend the sight before him.
He thought it was just a mace, but it was actually a Morning Star, and it even fired like a cannon?
At this point, it wasn't even a Morning Star, it was a Shooting Star.
Rather than being surprised by the science, I was surprised by the extraordinary sense of creating a cold weapon in this way.
If you're going to do this, you might as well just shoot it.
“This is normal since I have picky customers. Then how about this?”
Eldin brought over a spear that stood on one side.
It was, unsurprisingly, dotted with attachments.
"I can extend and shorten the length at will, and when I press this button."
-Kiyiyiying.
The blade at the tip of the spear began to spin furiously.
"Turn like this to increase the penetrating power, and flick the handle sideways once."
-Poof!
A burst of white steam erupted from the tip of the spear, sending the blade flying into the steel plate.
"You can also shoot it like this, using a compressed steam cartridge."
The world hadn't invented steam engineering for nothing.
A world where science had advanced in such a bizarre way that instantaneous explosions using compressed steam could be applied to weapons.
Osian realized that he had truly arrived in another world.
"Or how about this hatchet?"
"A hatchet?"
Osian recognized the hatchet.
Of course he recognized the hatchet, it was one of the main weapons used by the [Barbarian Warriors].
"It's a set with gloves."
"What else does it do? Does the blade fire?"
"What? You think I only make things that shoot?"
"No......?"
"Ha. That's a fun stereotype. Watch this."
Eldin held the hatchet in his right hand and assumed a throwing stance.
The posture was angular, as if it was not a skill that had been practiced once or twice.
His muscles were lean and toned from years of swinging the hammer.
Eldin threw the hatchet as hard as he could, and it flew in a straight line, embedding itself in the iron plate.
Just as Osian was wondering why he threw that thing, a scarlet light emanated from the seams of his metal gloves.
The axe shuddered against the steel plate, then spun and flew out, landing on Eldin's glove.
"What do you think?"
"......That looks kind of useful."
It used magnetism to retrieve the throwing axe.
The handle of the axe was made of a special material.
Osian remembered the Tesla Arms of Daver, whom he had fought.
Those gloves were obviously made with similar science to the Tesla Arms, with thermal plates, of course.
"It's similar to the Rune of Recovery used by the Northern Warriors."
Barbarian warriors use axes, and of course there's the art of throwing weapons.
They can also imprint their weapons with various effects through Rune Imprinting, one of which is the Rune of Salvation.
"What, you know about that? It's kind of like that, only easier to use. Rune-carving is a nearly lost art."
"Lost?"
"Well, the barbarians of the north are a bunch of bastards who like to fight all the time, and they don't really communicate with the outside world. No wonder they regress rather than advance in technology. I don't know how they are now."
Eldin explained that the technology was a scientific reconstruction of what had been lost.
"What about the armor I make, there's a wide variety of it, a combination of science and magic, with varying prices, of course, with magic being much more expensive."
"My primary weapon is a sword. I'd like to see something in that line."
"Sure."
Eldin noticed that Osian's expression didn't change when he said that the products of his workshop were expensive.
This meant that the young man in front of him, who looked like a nobleman, was at least not short of money.
"How about this sword here, it's my own work."
Eldin showed Osian the sword in its scabbard.
It was an oddly shaped sword. From the handle to the metal on the bridge of the nose, it was curious, but the scabbard was the most unusual part.
"The scabbard is unusual."
"It's a scabbard made of a special alloy, and it's simple to use."
Eldin ran his hand over the hilt of the sword.
As Osian watched curiously to see how he would draw the sword, it was drawn out with the speed of a raindrop.
-Pow!
Eldin didn't draw it with pure arm strength.
White steam exploded out from under the scabbard, and with the recoil, the sword was pulled out and swung.
A method of exploding compressed steam and using the recoil to draw a sword and swing it.
It was the so-called steam swordsmanship.