*beat**beat*
Just as Ryan was excitedly watching the item in his mind, someone knocked on his bedroom door.
"My Lord?" the voice was Dylan's, checking to see if Ryan was awake before entering the room.
"I'm awake," Ryan replied. "In between."
Hearing the answer, Dylan opened the door and entered the room.
Seeing Ryan sitting on the edge of the bed, he asked worriedly, "Are you feeling all right, my lord?"
"I am fine. I probably used a lot of aura during our battle" Ryan replied reassuringly to his friend. "Didn't I already tell you to call me by my name?! You're my friend" he joked.
"It's all right. But most of all, I am also your right-hand man." Dylan responded with a laugh. Despite being a good friend of Ryan, he also understands his responsibilities.
After Ryan's father died, Alfred also abdicated his post as the lord's right-hand man, partly because he was fifty years old and partly because he intended to let the next generation take their rightful place.
Despite not being strong like Ryan, who is already a superior apprentice warrior almost becoming an aura warrior. Dylan has always trained with perseverance, falling just a little further behind in strength, as an intermediate apprentice warrior.
"How long did I sleep?"
"You slept the rest of the day and night, my lord." Dylan replied.
Looking out the window, Ryan noticed that the sun had recently risen above the horizon, illuminating the Stark fortress.
Walking over to the window, he looked down at the people starting to come out of their houses. Stark Stronghold is classified as a low-level territory for a few reasons.
Firstly because of the strength of his Lord , considering that his Ryan has not yet reached the rank of an aura warrior.
Also, during the rank 2 beast's attack, in addition to his father's death, many city guards were killed. Of the nearly 200 guards, nearly half died during the attack, of which only a small portion reached the apprentice warrior level.
There is a small agricultural area inside the keep, but the harvest is not enough to supply the keep. Thus, the Stark stronghold needs the presence of merchants who periodically come to the stronghold to sell goods and buy goods.
Next to the fortress, there is an iron mine, the main source of income for the fortress. In addition to some weapons and equipment that are forged by the city's blacksmiths.
The death of his father, generated instability within the city. Fearing for their lives in a future beast attack, much of the population chose to migrate to other strongholds. Reducing the population to something around 1500 inhabitants.
Those who stayed are the ones who still believe in the Stark name. Some soldiers, youth and families who chose to stay in the fortress
...
In the past Ryan was under constant pressure, trying to find ways to improve the lives of the people inside the fortress. Lately, there has been a growing shortage of meat within the fortress, caused by the delay of trade caravans and the increased presence of wild beasts near the territory.
Some people have died when they went hunting and ended up running into a powerful beast.
As a way to ease the crisis within the city, Ryan and his men began holding weekly hunts.
Despite having lost one of his trusted men, Ryan also managed to get his hands on Magic Core. Or it would take some more time, until Ryan had enough strength to actually kill a rank 2 beast.
Remembering the huge store of technology in his mind, a smile grew on his face.
Looking at Dylan, he spoke as he grabbed his sword from the edge of the bed and walked towards the door.
"Come on, we'll go to the forge. I had an idea while I was sleeping."
Dylan simply nodded as he followed, a little curious about his lord's idea.
...
The forge was located within the territory of the lord's mansion, as it was the safest place in the city.
"Hello, Master Ryan! Dylan!"
"Hello sir!"
"Good day sir! Any orders for today?"
Arriving at the forge, the blacksmiths who were working greeted the pair.
"No, John. Today I came to work on my project" Ryan replied with a laugh, heading towards the innermost part of the forge.
The blacksmith smiled seeing his lord enter the forge. It is well known among blacksmiths that Ryan has been working on a secret project for the past few years, although no one knows what it is.
Arriving in front of a door, Ryan unlocked the door with a key and entered his personal forge, with Dylan following him inside.
Its forge was much more organized than the outside, there were several papers thrown over the tables and some discarded pieces of metal in the corner of the room.
Dylan looked at the drawings on the table as Ryan opened a trunk.
The design showed a kind of pipe-shaped iron staff with a twisted handle. But he could understand what it was about.
"Do you remember her?" Ryan asked, taking Dylan's attention from the drawings on the table.
"Of course I remember." Dylan laughed. "You said it would be a revolutionary weapon, capable of killing even a rank 2 beast"
Since before taking over as lord of the fortress, Ryan has been trying to create firearms like those in his previous world. As his one and most trusted friend, Dylan has been helping him from the start, despite not having much faith in his lord's idea.
Rank 2 beasts are powerful monsters, the hide of beasts at this level can usually defend even attacks from aura warriors.
So to believe that such a small weapon could kill them seems unrealistic.
"I know you don't believe she could do it, but trust me. She will," Ryan stated with a steady gaze.
Despite having tried hard to create a firearm, Ryan didn't have enough technical knowledge for such a feat, after all while on Earth he was just a student of computer engineering, an entirely different area of knowledge.
A normal person like him, didn't know the steps to create a weapon, let alone the composition of gunpowder.
Looking at the paper on the table, it looked like Ryan was thinking. But in fact he was accessing the collection in his mind and preparing for his first acquisition.