"Over here, we have the first contestant. A six-barreled wonder of mass destruction and dream weapon of every action hero. With a hundred shots per second, it's the M134 also known by the moniker of mini-gun.

The next contestant is this Russian beauty. The Kord. It might have not even a tenth of the fire rate of the mini-gun, setting it at 520 rounds a minute, but its 12,7mm caliber rounds allow it to wreak havoc at almost two kilometers distance. And that's not all, it's also dubbed the 'sniper machine gun', as it allows for high precision shooting at half of that distance. But, despite all of that, it's still light enough that even a normal soldier can fire it from the hip.

And lastly, the Anzio 20mm anti-material-rifle. At two point five meters in length, it's clearly the longest of these weapons, and the most destructive. Its effective range is four and a half kilometers, fifty percent farther than the longest confirmed hit today, and what it's missing in terms of fire-rate, it makes up for in pure power as you can eliminate targets through brick walls.

Now, what do you think?", Jonathan finished introducing the three beasts in front of me.

"Ehm. Well. No idea? They're awesome?", I really wasn't sure what to say. What was he expecting me to do? Jump from joy? Sure, they were awesome, but I had absolutely no idea how effective they would be.

"Hmm... Through brick walls you say? In that case, you may have a chance to deal some damage against Tier three monsters even. At least the ones with lower defenses.", Victoria gave her opinion instead.

Okay, now I was properly intimidated. And not by the guns.

"I know. Their power is limited against anything above Tier two. I would like to give him some of my experimental weapons, but those are all still not properly tested. You don't want any accidents on that mission, right?"

"You still didn't answer my question, actually. Why aren't they?", I ask. They may have roughly explained what reality fields are, but they never explained how they prevented proper weapon tests.

"Simple. The reality fields are limited in size, which means you can not carry much more than what you can have on your person. Considering the increasing durations of high-Tier missions, you can't really take a mini-gun-sized weapon with you if you don't even know if it's going to work as intended. And that is already ignoring the fact that you need ammunition as well.

Especially the ammunition is a problem since it's not even reusable unlike arrows for example. It's the reason most people are close-range fighters or use energy projectiles."

"So, the problem is that the weapons you develop are too big? Why not make them smaller then? Or become an elf and make them magical?", I ask curiously as I pick up the weapons one by one, trying to get a feel for them.

"Ah. That's exactly the opposite of what I'm trying to achieve. You see, in general, equipment that has been made by combining rules from different realities are many times stronger. So, ideally, you would want equipment made by someone with exactly the same races as yourself.

But, for reasons that would take too much time to explain right now, we have difficulties getting good equipment from outside sources, but we don't have the manpower to have craftsmen for every possible combination of races. That's why what I'm trying to create are weapons that achieve the highest potential with solely the rules of our world.

To create a base, on which we can then expand. But, as I said, testing them, especially guns, against high-Tier targets, get's difficult.

Well then, I'm gonna get some ammo. You two can go ahead to the shooting range. We can use the large hall number five.", Jonathan finished his explanation.

Now, with three guns I never thought I would even lay my eyes on in my life stored inside my pocket dimension, Victoria led me through the constantly splitting and winding corridors of the Argus base.

After a while of silence, I decide to ask Victoria one more question.

"When I said that you look thin, you said it was because you choose an elven race, right? Does that mean that choosing a race also changes how you look?"

"Yes, though only to a small degree. It also takes a while before you see any real difference. It's also still within the limits of our biology."

"So, if I choose a dwarf I would become smaller, and with an Orc I would become taller, but I wouldn't get green skin or something like that?"

"Yes. Pretty much. Though there are examples of people who chose several races with horns growing their own at some point. Also, even if you choose a dwarf, your beard might grow faster, but you won't become smaller."

"Why that? Didn't you also become thinner?"

"As I said, it's still within the limits of our biology. In my case, for example, elves have a harder time growing muscles and getting fat. But things like bones, organs or your brain, that doesn't change once they have fully grown, are influenced less by the changes, especially if it's a reduction in size instead of an increase.", she explained.

"It's not only bones and organs that don't change much after they are fully grown.", suddenly a voice says from behind me.

I look behind me, only to see a tall, handsome guy coming towards us, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Urgh!", Victoria groans. "Yes Thomas, high-Tier individuals have bigger tits and dicks on average, are you happy now?"

"Hmm! Very!", he answers with a content grin on his face.

"Al, meet Thomas, our resident pervert and sadly our medic for the upcoming mission. Thomas, this is Alexander, who will be accompanying us. But you knew that already or you wouldn't be here, right?"

"Hy!", I greet the man, unsure of what to think of him.

I could only hope that he wouldn't do anything uncalled for once shit got serious. Then again, if he was a danger to the mission, they wouldn't take him, right? At least, I would hope so.