Brown Bess

As soon as the wall was completed, Blackfire incorporated started receiving letters from people who wanted to know what kind of material that was used to make such smooth and even walls. Not only was the aesthetics of the wall pleasing but also the time frame that the wall was built was incredibly fascinating.

His only reply was that it was not yet for sale but that that they would would be given preference when purchasing the cement.

Business was going well as people kept buying glassware. But Damon knew that soon enough the market would be saturated and then profits would start trickling in before perhaps even stop completely.

So he decided to invent a weapon with a soul of its own , he decided to invent firearms.

The design he went with was the brown bess , a British muzzle loading land pattern flintlock musket. Historically, this weapon had served the British for almost a century and has been reliable through hundreds of wars .

It had a massive of 4.5 kg , a barrel length of 42 inches and a total length of 58.5 inches. It used a 17.5 millimeter cartridge that fired either an 18mm or a 20 mm round ball. This model was using the flintlock system of fire which could eventually be upgraded to the percussion cap model. The musket also had a rate of fire if about 4 to 5 shots per minute.

It had a muzzle velocity of 1000 to 1800 feet per second with an effective range of 91 meters.

After two weeks of careful crafting, the weapon was complete. Damon then packed it up in a box together with a flask of gunpowder that he had whipped up, boarded a carriage that took him to the Wolfsburg castle.

Two days later, he finally arrived at the castle that was still looking as majestic as ever with the red banner carrying the sigil of a wolfs head flowing in the wind. After freshening up, he was led to the the Duke's office.

Damon entered the office, said his greetings and exchanged pleasantries with the Duke and after so much small talk he cutt to the chase.

" Father , I produced a very deadly weapon that can allow a breastfeeding mother to easily take down a fully armoured knight." Damon announced .

" Is that so ?" Duke von Wolfsburg asked, " I do not believe you ."

" Then shall we place a wager on the matter, if what I say happens to be true, you will gift me one of your mines, but if it turns out to be false , I will give you the recipe for making glass." Damon replied.

The Duke thought about it for a while before accepting the deal.

They then moved out to the fields behind the castle and the Damon asked that three criminals whose crimes carried the punishment for death to be brought out to the field.

When they were brought out , he asked that they be dressed in full plate armour which was done reluctantly. As this was happening, Damon quietly prepared the weapon, biting open the paper cartridge and pouring the contents into the barrel of the gun, then using the remaining paper as a wad he used a ramrod to push down the ball till it was secured . Then he primed the pan and then announced to the prisoners who were now armoured and carrying weapons.

" Your objective is to kill me, if you complete this objective your freedom will be assured but if you fail, you will be dead before you hit the ground."

People who had gathered to witness the so called weapon capable of killing a full armored knight in one blow saw what Damon was doing as the recklessness of youth and prayed that the surrounding guards could rescue him before those criminals rip him apart.

Without warning one of the criminals tried rushing at Damon , but the weight of the armour greatly reduced his speed. Damon quickly raised the musket and immediately the man entered the effective range, the trigger was squeezed . What followed was the loud bang of exploding gunpowder and a puff of white smoke.

Without even having to check Damon knew that the round hit it's mark. Without waiting for confirmation, he began loading the next round and within ten seconds he was done .

As he saw that the other prisoners stood rooted in the ground without moving he started moving forward towards them , picking his target as he moved forward. When he made his choice, he squeezed the trigger again and like clockwork the flint hit the pan , igniting the gun powder that sent the musket ball flying faster than the speed of sound and create a fist sized wound in the chest of the prisoner.

The last prisoner seeing the fate that befell the others lay down his weapon, knelt and started begging for his life.

" Mercy master , please have mercy."

But Damon paid no heed to the prisoner, he quickly attached a bayonet and quickly stabbed at the helmet opening and into the prisoners eye and ending his life .

As the demonstration came to an end, the entire field was errily quiet , not even the birds were making any sound .

Damon walked towards the Duke cleaning the blood off the the bayonet.

" What do you think your Grace, you didn't expect it , did you ?"

The Duke was at a loss for words , he had thought that Damon was bluffing in an attempt to upsell his product. He even believed it was some kind of new sword or spear but never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that he would see such devastating weapon in his lifetime. He gestured for Damon to follow him and when they were in a quite place they stopped.

" I am handing over the mine in Cordobo, it is just eight hours north of Hankook, you won." Duke von Wolfsburg said, " now , how long and how much will it cost to make this weapon for twenty thousand men."

Immediately the calculator in Damons brain made the calculations immediately,

" My workers at the moment can produce ten muskets a day which means that I can meet your demand in five years that is unless I scale up production. As for the amount, one musket together with a bayonet and one hundred cartridges is worth ten gold coins , twenty thousand muskets with their accessories is worth two hundred thousand gold coins. If you want to purchase a cartridge separately, it would be sold at ten silver coins per one hundred cartridges.

Training on the use of the weapon would be offered free of charge."

And just like that , a new era of warfare has been introduced .