Promoting firearms

When Herad teleported back to Silvermoon City with a large stockpile of weapons, Jindi also left Dalaran in a hurry.

However, Dalaran did not yet have a portal connected to the Gnome capital, Gnomeregan.

He could only fly back in his helicopter.

The straight-line distance between Dalaran and Gnomeregan was roughly two thousand kilometers.

But an enormous bay lay between the two cities.

The helicopter could not fly straight across a stretch of sea at least five hundred kilometers wide.

He had to skirt the bay, landing several times to refuel and rest before he could reach Gnomeregan safely.

Flying mounts such as Gryphons followed the same route.

Only extraordinary creatures like Dragons could fly thousands of kilometers in one go.

While Jindi hurried along in his roaring helicopter, Herad had already left Silvermoon City and was racing through the forest on a Hawkstrider.

The High Elves called the region surrounding Silvermoon City Eversong Woods.

The trees here were more strongly affected by the Sunwell.

Their leaves shone golden, making it look as though autumn had already arrived.

Yet the biting chill of autumn would never descend on Eversong Woods!

As long as the Sunwell remained intact, the climate here would always be neither too hot nor too cold.

Bathed in the Sunwell's highly concentrated energy, the trees of Eversong Woods were evolving at an accelerated rate.

The forest's oldest trees had already evolved into Treants, able to pull their roots from the soil and walk slowly through the woods.

But even after gaining intelligence, the Treants did not like moving around.

How could a tree go walking around on the ground?

These intelligent trees preferred to quietly observe what happened in the forest.

For instance, they watched lynxes hunt small animals and High Elves fight Forest Trolls.

As Herad rode his Hawkstrider through the forest, he soon drew the ancient trees' attention.

They took a special interest in the young elf who cared for nature.

However, what Herad had come to do today had nothing to do with caring for nature.

He rode into a camp where many High Elves were stationed.

Through the flowers, grass, and trees around its perimeter, the ancient trees observed what happened inside the camp.

The camp Herad entered was a training camp for High Elf Rangers near Silvermoon City.

Many novice Rangers trained there.

Sylvanas was the camp's commanding officer.

During routine training, she wore a set of tight green leather armor.

Although the armor covered her quite thoroughly, it perfectly outlined her full bust and shapely hips.

When Herad approached with a long-barreled firearm, she was practicing on targets with her Ancestral Sacred Bow.

Watching the bowstring skim past those towering peaks always made Herad nervous.

Archery was better suited to men; women needed flatter chests to do it safely.

Firearms, however, were not fussy about body shape and made a suitable replacement for bows.

Yet after trying a shot, Sylvanas glumly dug at her ear.

The weapon was so loud that she immediately lost interest.

She felt her own Windrunner Warbow was still better to use.

After all, it was a sacred bow that had once been blessed by Elune, the moon goddess.

Every arrow fired from the sacred bow carried powerful air elemental energy.

Empowered by that energy, the arrows flew faster and more steadily, without a sound.

Enemies only realized they were under attack when an arrow struck them.

In that respect, they were much like bullets.

However, arrows infused with air elemental energy were far more powerful than bullets.

The wind's power translated into kinetic energy, giving them extraordinary piercing and cutting force.

Sylvanas had once shot both a Troll Headhunter and the large tree behind him clean in half.

With an artifact-grade weapon like that, it was only natural that she had no interest in a long-barreled firearm.

Her second-in-command, Lor'themar Theron, was very interested in this simple, brutal weapon.

After firing a few shots, he gave a fair assessment.

"Aside from being too loud, this weapon is excellent in every other respect!"

After hearing their second-in-command's assessment, the Rangers picked up the weapons Herad had provided and tried them out.

Some of their experience with archery carried over to firearms.

They were soon hitting the targets.

Besides being easy to pick up, the firearms had more advantages that they soon discovered.

Their bullets were small, and a modest cloth bag could hold two or three hundred rounds.

A quiver held only twenty-odd arrows and took up a great deal of space.

Although magical equipment was fairly common among High Elves, storage items were not everywhere as they were in games.

Even the Magic Pouch with the least storage space started at a hundred gold coins.

Rangers from prominent families were equipped with larger Magic Pouches.

For an ordinary Ranger, even the smallest Magic Pouch was already quite good equipment!

Once essential supplies were packed inside, little room remained for arrows.

The long-barreled firearms therefore held considerable appeal for the Rangers.

Their only drawback was still the excessive noise.

Besides tormenting the shooter's ears, it could easily attract distant enemies.

But there was a way to fix that drawback.

Herad had explained the principles and construction of a suppressor to Jindi.

As long as the Gnome engineers had a direction for their research, making a suppressor would be no problem.

Herad confidently assured the Rangers.

"There's a way to solve the noise problem. You'll definitely be pleased with the finished product."

Hearing this good news, the Rangers stopped hesitating and tested the long-barreled firearms with greater enthusiasm.

Seeing his subordinates eagerly trying the new weapons, Lor'themar immediately made a suggestion to Sylvanas.

"Boss, these weapons really are good. They're worth introducing more widely!"

Sylvanas had no need for firearms that went bang, bang, bang.

But she would not forbid her subordinates from using them simply because she had no use for them herself.

Besides, Herad had recommended these weapons.

If there were no major problems overall, adopting them in large numbers would certainly be fine!

"Practice with these weapons for now. When the time comes, take them to the border and let your results speak for themselves."

With their commanding officer's approval, the Rangers no longer hesitated.

"Give me one to practice with."

"I want one too."

"These bullets are so cheap!"

Arrows cost very little on the industrially developed Earth.

A few yuan could buy one.

Although Azeroth had industry on a substantial scale,

only the Gnomes and Goblins possessed it.

Both races loved things that went bang, bang, bang and had no interest in manufacturing arrows.

Dwarf: "Can you use machines to make arrows?"

Gnome: "Have you considered firearms?"

Dwarf: "I want arrows!"

Gnome: "Then I recommend this repeating firearm."

Dwarf: "Aaargh, I want arrows!"

The Dwarves had once favored battle axes and bows and crossbows.

Under the Gnomes' gradual influence, they had turned to firearms.

Still, bombarding the enemy with cannons, then sending Steam Tanks into the vanguard while Warriors and riflemen advanced together, was indeed an excellent tactic!

The High Elves could not copy it wholesale.

But they could start by introducing firearms more widely.

They were simple to learn and powerful to boot.

Once civilians had practiced with them, they could serve as half-fledged Rangers.

Warriors and knights could also use them for ranged attacks before charging.

Rangers could switch between bows and firearms according to the situation.

But Herad had come from another world, and he was particularly sensitive to a lack of firepower.

The firepower of these firearms was not particularly impressive and still fell short of his standards.

So he proposed the concepts of machine guns and automatic rifles.

These high-firepower weapons would be easy to develop.

They just needed to scale down the large-caliber aircraft autocannons and make them better suited to handheld use.

Technological weapons were all about the density of firepower.

Once the squad machine guns were set up, the enemy would surely have a wonderful time!