The moment stretched on as the shot rang out through the air. The three remaining pig men looked from their friend's body to the now empty gun in his hand. Of course, they didn't know it was empty. Brett raised it slightly, and the three of them turned around and started sprinting away.

After he was sure that the thugs had truly gone, Brett holstered his gun and turned to check on Shilia. She was staring at him in pure shock. He raised his hands slightly so as not to scare the young woman. "Hey, it's okay, you don't have to worry about me. I got your back." 

Slowly he took a couple steps closer to her, doing his best not to spook her anymore. She looked down at the body and then back up at him.  

"You killed him." She whispered in horror. 

Brett wasn't sure what to say; sure, he had watched training videos on situations like this and even comforted many people who had seen death. But he still had never actually killed a person before. The fact that they weren't human didn't really help. At least, he didn't think it did. It was hard enough to keep himself under control, let alone property reassure someone who just watched him gun someone down.

"He was coming after me. I'm not trying to threaten anyone though." He tried to reassure her.

"What was that? They just… died? What magic did you just use?" Shilia asked him.

"No magic, just a gun," Brett explained. Maybe guns aren't as common here as I thought if she didn't recognize it. That'll probably make getting more bullets hard.

"You have a gun!?!" She nearly yelled. "Holy fuck. Wow!"

Brett blinked, "Uh," He said intelligently. "Yeah?"

"Damn, lucky." She muttered, kicking at the ground.

So not unheard of, I see. Glad she isn't bothered by me killing people…

"Have you never seen one before?" He asked, cocking his head a little.

"Have I seen one?" She echoed. "No! Of course not! I hear they have an old one on display in Aetrom, but that's a week's travel and I haven't been more than a day away from home."

"I guess it's gonna be kinda hard to get bullets then. Fuck." Brett cursed. 

"Yeah, but not for the reasons you're thinking though." She said, "People can make bullets. Better than most honestly, but the hard part is letting people know you have a gun."

She paused for a second. "Well, they are expensive too, I guess, but that's mainly because the demand for bullets is so low, because there are so few guns."

"Why are there so few guns? Surely they can't be that rare?" Brett asked.

"You know how you can't have hot running water here?" She asked. Brett nodded. "Yeah it's like that, but way more enforced. Gods really don't like guns, like reallllllly don't like guns. So we can't make or repair them, at all. All we can do is clean them. But that's not it, we also can't bring new ones in from the other side, so there are only the ones people bring over when they first come here, like you. With less than ten percent of the worlds having guns…. Well, it's a no brainer. That, and the ones who might be able to get them don't really want them anyway."

"Why not? They seem effective here." Brett said. 

"They are very effective before level 30, then they start taking all sorts of special work to be as useful. At higher levels they're just a bit more useful than a bow, but a lot more expensive."

"Hmm. I don't suppose I can ask you not to tell anyone?" Brett asked, digesting the information. Well, if getting killed is one of the prerequisites for coming here, then people having guns shouldn't be that rare. Unless the actual percentage is much lower than ten percent. Actually, I don't know how many new people come here… or how. Aside from dying.

"I'll keep my lips shut. I can't speak for the ones who ran away. It would have been better if you killed them all, but maybe you'll get lucky and they won't recognize what you used." She said, casually tossing in the suggestion of murder. Brett was slightly taken aback; he wasn't sure if she was just that brutal or if this side was really that harsh of a place.

"I appreciate it." Brett said. Looking around, he considered what to do. Remembering Ravenous's advice, he felt at the empty vial in his pocket. "I'm going to head back to the city now."

Shilia nodded, and they started walking together back toward the road. "Just a warning, but expect to be attacked at least once, if their buddies can track you down. The Hand is a low level gang of sorts but they won't let this go without at least a token attempt at revenge. To save face, ya know."

"Are you going to be okay?" Brett asked, not at all confident in her fighting ability. 

"I should be. My father will take care of them if it becomes an issue. I just won't leave the city alone for a bit." She shrugged indifferently. "You should be fine in the city though."

Nice to know.