He opened the black case, revealing inside the silver revolver and a row of metallic 15.2mm bullets, each as long as an adult's palm.
"Good," Aske said, "I'll take this gun, but do you have any rapid-fire automatic handguns? Preferably with a silencer."
"What you're referring to must be the Aphrodite," the Church Deacon pulled out another box from the shelf, "Judging by the name, you can tell it's a special make from the Sirius Province, a model that goes for compact and flexible rapid-fire."
"God above, I must tell you the truth," the Church Deacon continued, "this handgun was originally designed for the Empire's female nobles, but once it was released, it became popular among Mages because of its minimal recoil, allowing even women and children to use it."
"If a handgun can serve for self-defense, why bother spending money on hiring Mages as guards? Of course, I suggest you could also purchase this handgun as a secondary weapon for use with the Imperial Eagle."
"I'll take both of them," Aske said, "How much?"
"11 pounds," the Church Deacon replied, "The Imperial Eagle for 7 pounds, the Aphrodite for 4 pounds, and I'm afraid I cannot waive the extra pound for you, as it was already factored into the discount."
"I'll give you 20 pounds," Aske took out a bill, "With the rest, help me exchange for all Identification Light Scrolls."
"Identification Spirit Light, eh?" the Church Deacon said with a smile, "A wise choice, after all, if the adulterer possesses Extraordinary Power, even the Imperial Eagle cannot be certain to kill... ahem, pardon my audacity, I was thinking of something else just now, and misspoke."
"Ah, please be assured," Aske said, "there is no adulterer."
"I see, it's your wife, right? A partner with Extraordinary Power is a major cause of domestic violence after marriage. Your purchase of these two guns is indeed a good value." The Church Deacon coughed and took two boxes off the shelf, "I'll also give you two extra boxes of bullets as compensation for my earlier indiscretion. One box of 15.2mm elephant hunting bullets and another box of 9mm standard bullets."
"You're too kind, I forgive you." Aske took the two handguns and also packed up the Identification Light Scrolls and the bullets, made a God-bless-you gesture to the Church Deacon, and turned to leave.
"Ah, love," the Church Deacon watched Aske's departing figure and sighed sentimentally. It was as if he saw a young and wealthy nobleman with a bright future become a pitiful husband, trembling with his handgun, constantly berated and humiliated by his wife.
"That's much better," Aske, passing by a store, looked at his reflection in the window, armored and swords slung, with two handguns at his waist – fully armed as if regaining the feeling of a player with their power fully restored.
In the early stages of the game, the firepower of Firearms far exceeded that of Swords; when reaching the middle stages of the game and the NPCs' Levels steadily rose, the power of ordinary Firearms just wouldn't cut it (note, ordinary Firearms!).
After all, the power of a bullet depends on the explosion of the gunpowder inside, and its muzzle energy is constant. With the enemies' increasing physical resistance, the killing effect of bullets would only get weaker.
Whereas Swords could increase their killing power as one's own Physical Power grew.
His reflection in the window – the body of his original NPC character – did it somewhat resemble his own appearance before the transmigration? Aske scrutinized his reflection in the window carefully. Aside from slightly deep-set eyes and high cheekbones, and a face somewhat angling towards Western features, he found the overall composition of his facial features very similar to his real self.
After all, in the game, the Solomon people also have black hair, brown eyes, and evidently darker skin (compared to blonde Caucasians), not much of a color difference from the people of China.
Perhaps it was a soul transmigration combined with a physical body transmigration, causing the original body and NPC body to merge, ultimately resulting in this mixed appearance?
Or maybe, he had been kidnapped, with tubes inserted into the back of his head, floating in a nutrient tank while playing the game, like in The Matrix or Sword Art Online?
Was it because the programmers were lazy, so they just copied his own appearance, making slight changes before pasting it onto his character?
Aske shook his head, driving these speculations out of his mind, because they were essentially answerless.
Once more, he examined his equipment and fell into thought. Although his body was currently at Level 0 and had been drained by a vampire for some time, his strength, agility, and endurance were surprisingly higher than that of an average adult male, for reasons unknown. Now, due to the transmigration, the vampire's hypnosis on this body had been broken, and besides, "Iron and Fire" was not a game that only looked at Level Attributes; tactical consciousness and combat skills were equally important.
Given the current situation, Aske had full confidence he could eliminate all the unsuspecting vampires in his home.
However, now was not the time; it was time to go find Peggy.
At dusk, in a nearby cemetery.
"...The fire consumed her flesh, but her soul will surely find peace in the Lord's Heaven, amen," the priest concluded his last words.
"...Amen," the crowd echoed in unison. All those attending the funeral were neighbors from the same block.
Aske swung his shovel, burying the last bit of dirt on the coffin. According to imperial customs, the closest relatives of the deceased should be the ones to bury the body, but since Peggy's entire family had perished in the fire, Aske took it upon himself to take on this task.
The neighbors who came to mourn were also relieved. After all, with your fierce appearance, armored and armed with swords and a handgun, no one dared to fight you for the shovel!
After the priest and neighbors left, Aske sat on the freshly erected tombstone, lazily yawning.
"Looks like it's going to rain soon," he noted, sniffing the moist air and observing the gloomy, overcast sky.
In the world of "Iron and Fire," levels and attributes were two separate lines. Attributes came from Extraordinary Power, which could be obtained by slaughtering magical beasts or consuming spiritual material and performing rituals. Incidentally, the academic English name for Extraordinary Power is "Ethereal_Xeno_Power", abbreviated as EXP, which in the game is actually equivalent to Experience Points.
After obtaining Extraordinary Power, one could transform it into two types of attributes through training or real combat.
The first kind was Physical Power, also known as Stamina, which increased the person's Explosive Power, Control Power, Endurance, and Reaction Speed.
The second kind was Spiritual Power, or Magicka, used to enhance the intelligence and Willpower of the human brain. These two determined the "hardware" level of a character's combat ability.
Apart from attributes, level was another system altogether. All players and human NPCs started at Level 0 at birth and had to ingest specific potions to level up.
In the magic-technology advanced East Solomon Empire, this potion was a Bloodline Potion; whereas in the West Solomon Empire (now extinct) and the current Solomon Church, steadfast in the original human technological system, that potion is a Gene Preparation.
Essentially, both involve merging spiritual material into the human body, causing a qualitative transformation of Extraordinary Traits and gaining specific abilities.
If the increase in attributes represents a quantitative change in combat ability, then the increase in level represents a qualitative change.
Peggy, turned into a vampire, naturally possessed the first Extraordinary Trait—Flesh I.
Her Level had already risen to 1, with significant enhancements to Explosive Power, Control Power, Endurance, and Reaction Speed, and she had acquired the ability to heal wounds quickly, leaving no fatal areas other than the heart and brain.
In the public beta narrative phase, having such a companion was not as simple as 1+1 in terms of the help it provided to Aske himself.