Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system! C.124: Mist of Steel

"You asked if I'm trying to field a small army," Makary spoke softly, his eyebrows moving down a little bit. "But aren't you the one asking for quite a lot of firepower?"

For a moment, I simply scanned the man's face, weighing the options in my head.

Should I admit that I was indeed in dire need of some serious heavy hitters? Or should I play it dumb… and try to pretend I was simply trying to get my hands on some new, fancy toys?

'Yeah, as if. The cost of those is way too high for him to believe I want them just to have some fun,' I thought, rolling my eyes over my own, momentary naivete.

"Right now, I cannot answer this question." I've revealed enough for the day. Nothing good would come from stupidly hinting at what plans I was fostering in my mind, regardless if they involved Makary and his men or not. "A time might come… No, I think a time will come when I will give you the answer. And by then, I might…"

'I might give you the war you wanted,' I thought, barely stopping my tongue from growing a bit too loose.

Makary's face tensed up a tiny little bit, eradicating all the hints of the smile I saw on it before. He clearly heard the restraint in my voice, and saw I said less than I was about to. Yet, he got the hint and didn't try to pry any further.

"Let's put the talks of the future to where it belongs, a better time later on," Makary spoke, kindly offering me a way out from the slight impasse my words put me in. "So, a heavy-hitter for when things get close and personal," he then muttered, raising his hand to caress his chin as he slowly scanned the items within the locker.

"How about Neupour?" Makary suggested, squinting his eyes as he looked down to inspect the small, hand-gun-like, blocky weapon.

It was a shape I was generally familiar with, for it was a modernized version of the legendary p90 model which was often referenced in the games I used to play.

"How is it any different from its prototype?" I asked, failing to see any marks that would clue me in on the weapon's secret.

After all, the neuarmament of the new age always used an already existing gun for the base. Yet, whatever time and effort the past engineers saved on the initial design, I was more than sure they put to good use when turning the old model into its neu, redesigned version.

"First off, it shoots needles, not bullets," Makary started to explain, near instantly showing a worrying sense of familiarity with the weapon, turning its back towards my eyes before removing the cover that protected the magazine hidden within the weapon's bulky handle. "But instead of a mere fifty shots, it stores two thousand."

For a second, I imagined what shooting out from this weapon would feel like. Or rather, what would be its effects, for the recoil shouldn't be that different from the original model.

In the end, fifty bullets or two thousand needles… the shot count didn't matter, as long as the weight of the projectiles and their acceleration were roughly the same. The main advantage of the needless lay in their overwhelming number, but came at a cost of much smaller kinetic power of the single shot.

"You shouldn't aim with this. And its effective range reaches nearly two hundred meters, so you need to make sure there are no friendlies anywhere near where you are firing at," Makary added quite the important caveat.

Then, he suddenly pulled the weapon back, turned roughly a quarter of a circle, and stood down in a firing position. He pushed the upper part of his body forward, over his extended, leading leg while raising his other foot just an inch above the ground.

"It kicks quite a bit, so make sure to properly brace yourself," the man continued to instruct while setting his back foot heavily on the ground and then grinding his entire posture down at his hips. Finally, his face leaned towards the top side of the weapon as he aimed down the iron sights.

"Now, imagine a cone-shaped mist starting from the end of the barrel and extending roughly to cover roughly half of the wall above."

I turned my eyes toward where Makary was aiming, only to translate his instructions to the scenario I was most likely to encounter if I were to use this weapon.

A massive celestial beast rushing at me, its eyes filled with bloodthirst, its mouth watering at the thought of tasty human meat…

And then, a thick layer of steel mist appeared in its path, prying at every tiniest vulnerability the luck would allow me to hit.

A true, wall of steel… but one that would last for but a moment.

'Maybe I should ask for something with a heavier punch?' I thought when in my mind-scenario, the celestial beast simply broke past the mist this gun could produce.

The end result of the scenario I played in my heat wasn't nice. And while it was all based on mere imagination, feel of the power I felt from Madam's fox form…

"Is it not to your satisfaction?" Makary asked the smile once again appearing to linger in the corner of his mouth.

"I'm not sure it has enough stopping power," I admitted, spreading my arms and shrugging them a little. "Sure, it can shred a human, but…" I shrugged my shoulders again.

In a moment of doubt, I looked over at Fay. Yet, rather than quickly averting my eyes and thus proving that whatever she made me think about was important enough for me to try to cover such a blatant hint… I continued to look at her face for a short while. "But now that I think of it…"

Makary obviously caught my glance. Yet, just like before, when I held back my tongue, he either opted not to comment or simply didn't bother to.

"Let's put it aside, then." In the end, Makary clearly read into my initial thought, not the one that followed. After putting the relatively small but deadly gun away, he pulled a much longer, simpler one out. "What do you think of this slug-slinging sucker?"