"Boss, I'll take a thousand of these long-barreled guns."
Herad might have been a poor shot, but he certainly talked big when shopping.
With over two hundred thousand gold coins to his name, he had the wealth to back up that swagger!
The standard price of a long-barreled gun was one gold coin.
A bulk purchase would certainly come with a discount.
But even then, the total would be at least eight hundred gold coins.
Eight hundred gold coins had considerable purchasing power.
To Herad, however, that amount was mere pocket change!
After closing such a sizable deal, Jindi was so delighted that he nearly jumped for joy.
He found a roundabout way to flatter Herad.
"I could tell at a glance that you were someone important. I've always had an excellent eye for people!"
Although Herad suspected that Jindi saw everyone as someone important, he still enjoyed the compliment.
After all, flattery could get you anywhere.
Of course, business still had to be conducted properly.
Herad first used this relatively large order to secure Jindi's attention.
Then he began discussing other matters.
For instance, he wanted Jindi to visit their Dwarf allies and purchase a batch of Bear cubs with good potential.
Bears were powerful beasts found almost everywhere.
But the pets raised by Dwarf hunters were no ordinary wild beasts.
Those carefully bred Grizzly Bears were much like the High Elves' Hawkstriders.
After generations of selection and breeding, ordinary Grizzly Bears had almost become magical beasts!
Only superior breeds like those were worth raising as combat pets.
Jindi considered it for a moment, then quickly agreed to his major customer's request.
"I know some members of the Mountaineer Corps. Those drunks have sold Bear cubs for drinking money before."
With a promising lead on acquiring quality Bear cubs, Herad's mood immediately lifted.
He generously made a substantial promise.
"Good, sorry for the trouble, boss. If you can make this happen, I'll be sure to reward you handsomely!"
At the mention of a handsome reward, Jindi's eyes lit up.
Mages generally had no shortage of money.
Engineering, however, could impoverish three generations, while enchanting could ruin your whole life.
That saying might have been a little exaggerated.
But Jindi, who studied both enchanting and engineering, really was short on funds at the moment.
He had to hold on tight to a wealthy backer like Herad.
As the two discussed business, a series of creaks suddenly reached them.
A little Gnome was hauling an enormous gun mounted on two wheels, struggling to push it toward the tunnel entrance.
Judging by the strained creaking, the weight clearly exceeded what the wheels could comfortably bear.
Herad walked over, grabbed a handle, and gave it a lift, finding that it weighed around a hundred kilograms.
Carrying it would have been a struggle.
Dragging it along the ground, however, was no trouble at all.
Watching Herad easily drag the Aircraft Cannon away, the little Gnome greatly admired his strength.
"Thank you so much! You big folk really are strong!
Heavy weapons like this are just the thing for mighty fellows like you."
Herad was speechless at the little Gnome's bizarre reasoning.
Someone strong enough could lift this thing.
But who could hold it while firing?
Even a tall, powerful Tauren would be shaken to death by its savage recoil!
Whatever race used it, it had to be mounted on a suitable vehicle.
After circling the Aircraft Cannon, Herad took the arcane golem out of his Runed Bag.
The enormous stone figure emerged from dormancy, stood up, and surveyed its surroundings, gathering information about the area.
When it scanned the two little Gnomes and the Aircraft Cannon, the purple light in its eyes briefly brightened.
Then it turned toward its master, waiting for a specific assignment.
Herad gestured over the Aircraft Cannon as he gave the arcane golem instructions.
"Grip here with your left hand and here with your right. Pick it up and hold it steady."
This improved arcane golem was highly intelligent.
Following Herad's instructions, it picked up the Aircraft Cannon from the ground.
The Aircraft Cannon's hundred-kilogram weight meant nothing to the towering golem.
Although it held the Aircraft Cannon perfectly steady, however, it could not perform the next action.
Herad had only optimized the structure of its torso.
The rest of its body remained unchanged.
The arcane golem's fighting style was crude: charge at the enemy and slam its huge hands into them.
It had only three fingers on each hand.
And each of those three fingers had only one joint.
Picking up simple objects posed no problem.
But fine movements such as pulling a trigger were certainly beyond it.
Besides, this helicopter-mounted Aircraft Cannon used an electrical firing mechanism to fire its shells.
The arcane golem had a normal body structure, with no third hand to press the button.
Someone else would have to handle the firing.
Herad directed the arcane golem to aim the barrel at a distant target.
After confirming that the barrel's angle was correct, he pressed the firing button on the box.
As the Aircraft Cannon spat flame, the distant target instantly exploded into flying splinters.
A hit on the first shot was hardly surprising.
The Aircraft Cannon had an effective range of over two thousand meters.
The arcane golem, whose weight rivaled a light tank's, also completely suppressed the Aircraft Cannon's recoil.
At just over a hundred meters, this was no different from firing point-blank.
After blasting apart two solid wooden targets, Herad stopped the pointless shooting.
He patted the Aircraft Cannon held by the arcane golem, his mind awash with thoughts.
Fortunately, the power of magic had no upper limit.
Otherwise, technology might even render spellcasters obsolete!
Technology had allowed the Gnomes to grow strong from weakness, saving them from being eaten into extinction by the evil, brutal Trolls.
Even after mastering powerful magic, the Gnomes had never abandoned technological development.
Gnomes had originally been precision mechanical beings created by the Titans.
They had been emotionless robots working for the Titans.
After the Titans left, the Keepers they left behind rebelled and began a civil war.
There was no longer anyone to keep these titan-forged in check.
But the imprisoned Old Gods secretly struck at the titan-forged with the curse of flesh.
The titan-forged scattered across the continent gradually became flesh-and-blood beings.
Even after this degeneration, Dwarves and humans retained respectable physical strength.
Gnomes, however, had always been physically weak technical workers.
Without their bodies of steel, they were the very bottom of the bottom-tier fighters.
Even Kobolds could beat Gnomes to a pulp.
Man-eating monsters such as Gnolls and Trolls utterly overwhelmed the frail Gnomes.
Faced with such an overwhelming disadvantage in size, the earliest Gnomes could only find every possible way to develop technology.
Drawing on fragments of Titan technology engraved in their bloodlines, they forged their own path.
Once the first gun was made, Gnolls and Trolls became considerably better behaved.
Enormous Steam Tanks, Multi-legged Robots that crossed mountains as easily as level ground, and the arrival of the Dwarves as powerful allies made them the undisputed masters of the continent's central region!
Of course, that was only the current situation.
The green tide pouring out of the Dark Portal would crush the Dwarves and Gnomes.
In Herad's view, that outcome was inevitable.
The Dwarves and Gnomes were few in number. Even with technology bolstering their war potential, they could never stop the fully mobilized Orcs, who had also drunk demon blood.
To strengthen his own side's war potential, Herad decided to recruit some Gnomes to establish industries.
There were quite a few uninhabited islands off the coast of Quel'Thalas.
Building weapons factories on them would pose no problem.
This would both arm the High Elf commoners and preserve a mobile force for the Gnomes, preventing them from being trapped and beaten in their own homeland.
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