"The Winds of Magic. Sorcery uses them - not everyone can learn sorcery, but most people have nonzero talent if they put in the effort, the blocker is ability to sense the Winds of Magic, and I can't. The Winds sort of... Mutate reality a bit. They are magic, one form of it at least, some say the most primal and basic form but certainly not the only magic in the world. So they can also cause... Wild magic, I suppose. They influence the world and are linked to, drawn to, certain emotions and phenomena. You can find yourself worked up in a place rich in Aqshy, and fires start more easily there."

"Dhar is very bad news. Dhar is how you get corrupted swamps and stuff. Formed when the other Winds mix together too tightly, like a rot. Used for necromancy, induces megalomania, paranoia, evil. Azyr, the Blue Wind, the Lore of the Heavens. Inspiration, learning, the sky, and lightning. Aqshy, the Red Wind, the Lore of Fire. Passion and temper and... Fire, heat. Chamon, the Yellow Wind, the Lore of Metal. Diligence, craftsmanship, curiosity, metals. Ghur, the Brown Wind, the Lore of Beasts. Primal urges and instincts, kill eat fuck - and animals and monsters. Ghyran, the Green Wind, the Lore of Life. Growth, life, plants, healing, satisfaction. Hysh, the White Wind, the Lore of Light. Purity and clarity of purpose, as well as light. Good against Dhar. Shyish, the Purple Wind, the Lore of Death. Death and thoughts of death, but also - rest, the mercy of oblivion. Ulgu, the Grey Wind, the Lore of Shadow - Confusion, boundaries, tricks, shadow."

She nods along, committing the whole explanation to her permanent memory. "Thank you, that's very helpful. And... have you ever seen or heard of a gun that worked like this?" She cuts off the bottom of her sign where there's space she's not using and sketches the action of her pistol, which is of course a modern magazine-fed gun. She has a good enough understanding of its inner workings to diagram the mechanism.

"...So this spring here, and... Hmm... How does the box of bullets stay in? No, nevermind, that's easy to do... So the bolt here slams back to set the hammer, and pushes the next bullet in when it comes back forward... But the hammer's locked until the bolt is forward here... And the trigger releases it like normal, but... That weird internal action looks really delicate, wouldn't the springs wear out... Yeah, never seen anything like this. Seems pretty clever, I don't think I'm seeing all the advantages yet though. I wouldn't rule out this existing somewhere, but it seems really hard to make and most of the big name heroes use magic, swords, or bows and I wouldn't know if some random B or A-ranker has one. What the hell is this part for?" She is pointing at the safety.

"That's the safety. If it's on the gun won't fire, like so. Helps prevent accidents, though it's no substitute for proper handling and trigger discipline."

"-Yeah, I can see how it locks it up. Huh. Good idea, I guess, but really if you pull the trigger you should expect a bang."

"Yeah, you should. They haven't solved stupidity on my world either. If you don't mind moving on... What are dungeons in this world like?"

"Firearms Safety level 1 stops it from being an issue, do you let completely untrained people play with guns all the time or something?"

She huffs.

"What exactly do you mean, what are dungeons like? You... Go in them and kill monsters and get loot drops, then either keep and use or sell the loot. They're very good for levelling."

"We don't have Skills like you do - you can train at something and get competent at it, but you'll never gain a level in it. So even people who should be theoretically several levels in have accidents sometimes. Hence safeties." She shrugs. 

"Dungeons in my world are - you don't build a town near one, for one thing. They're usually remnants of cursed magic, ruins of fallen empires, or dens of savage species that don't get along with humans. There can be treasure in them - old hoards of dead kings, monster parts that are worth something, spellbooks preserved by antiaging magic - but I wouldn't describe them as having "loot drops." That sounds like something from a game to me."

"You... Don't have Skills? I will. Think about that later. Those sorts of things are considered 'ruins' or 'dives'. A dungeon is... It keeps making new monsters, and whenever you kill the monsters they evaporate but sometimes leave behind useful things. And there are treasure chests inside, too, to entice people to take risks, that get refilled by the dungeon occasionally. They're sort of alive, not really smart but - they'll react to you if you do something they don't like, like easily slaughtering every monster on the first floor when you could go several down instead. I think they're sustained by adventurers fighting inside them somehow, and the occasional delver's death."

"Huh." says Thorn. "That's kind of freaky. Dungeons on my world aren't alive even a little bit." 

She runs a hand through her hair, drums her fingertips on the back of her neck. "What do you know about the history of past Heroes? I'm not looking for a lot of detail yet, but I should know who came before me."

"Do you want to know- What the legends say they could do, how the time of the Summoned Hero tends plays out- Where do Heroes come from, the books didn't say-"

"How it usually plays out, then the legends. I come from a world that has... more than here. It's a world where the use of sophisticated machines and magics has ended aging, the need to sleep, distances longer than a short walk... It's not a paradise, but it's closer to one than here. I was a scout who brought new worlds into the fold; hence why I'm already used to figuring everything out from scratch."

"...Amazing. Bringing entire worlds into paradise... Exploring new and dangerous places... Without Skills!"

Thorn blushes. "I just said it wasn't paradise, weren't you paying attention? But yeah... people like me are rare, even back home. I think that's why the summoning selected me."

"Of course the Summoned Hero is the best at this. I'm having trouble just being on the mainland of a world I've lived in my whole life..." She's looking at Thorn with something like adoration.

"Right. Uh. I'm not a Hero Scholar, I'm just working off a couple levels in World History here... The Demon Lord ascends to power quickly, using dark magic, evil rituals, mass conquest and cursed items, public cruelties. Sometimes they operate in secrecy, building webs of blackmail and bribery and mind control. Sometimes openly, with unstoppable brutal conquest. We don't actually have much detail on how these things play out, because the conflicts are always... Insanely destructive. Epic scale. It's almost always the Demon Lord versus the Summoned Hero in a climactic showdown in the end, wielding the kind of power that can level mountains. The lord's minions and the hero's companions can help and support them in combat, but never have quite the same potential. At most, a heroic companion could foil a scheme or hold off the Demon Lord for long enough that the Hero arrives... Six Heroes ago, I think, the Hero merely held the Demon Lord in place while one of their companions used a supercharged version of Black Hole to kill him, and the companion was turned into a walking corpse from the backlash."

"If the Demon Lord wins, the world is more or less razed to the ground and all prior history is reduced to what can be discerned from oral history and the best hidden caches - and if the Hero wins, they go on pursuing whatever their cause is and there's absolutely nobody who can stop them, by then. Sometimes that's setting up democracies. Sometimes that's whatever weird whims they happen upon like a multispecies harem or founding the largest city in the world, or recreating things from their worlds. I think it must be 'worlds', not a single other one. Sometimes that's a peaceful quiet life somewhere out of the way. The Hero's early days are usually entirely concerned with growing stronger and richer, gathering allies and resources. But - people panic. The Summoned Hero means the end of the world. It means... Well, Heroes have their own morals and causes, right, multiple heroes have gone around executing every king whose kingdom used slave collars after their victory, so powerful people tend to act - unpredictably - about the Hero. And the downtrodden will all want your aid. Um. I know the rule of thumb is, more than one year, less than ten, before things come to a head. I remember hearing that it's absolutely vital for the Hero to keep the exact details of their Unique Skill a secret, so the Demon Lord can't take advantage of it. You should probably never haste someone else again unless it's a dire emergency."

"Thank you, I think that's all. My plan remains the same - get rich, get leveled, get ready for the Demon Lord. Maybe kiss you along the way if I have a spare moment - but that's getting ahead of ourselves, given everything I've dropped on you. I recommend you head back to your inn and sleep."

"I-If you want, then-" Deep breath. "Just let me know if you need any help preparing. I'll do my best to help with things. Cover you if you earn suspicion. Tell you if something comes up I think you might not know. Sorry if I don't guess that very well. Uh... Would you like one of my pistols?"

"I think I should be fine, I'm used to long journeys. As for giving me a pistol - draws too much attention, I think. Unless you want everyone to think we had sex."

She blushes, but, "I don't care whether anyone thinks we had sex. It's not like I know these people. Even if I did care, you're important. I care more that the Summoned Hero is safe and growing."

Thorn blushes. 

"... Alright, fair enough. Can we get some practice in with it before bed, then? I still need to form a firearms skill in this world."

"I don't have many teaching Skills and we can't actually shoot indoors, but definitely."

She proceeds to give a lesson. The one she has is a two-barreled flintlock pistol with black powder in paper cartridges and iron bullets.

She's worked with reproduction firearms before to familiarize herself with their function; she makes no major errors. "I don't know a good backstop for practice shooting here, or I'd ask to go shoot."

"There's probably a reinforced practice area somewhere. Ask the local government if nothing else. I'm getting tired and I kind of need to process, though. I think I need to go to sleep now..."

"Alright, go do that, I don't mean to tire you out. And I'll go hunt for that practice area, if I can borrow some of your powder and shot."

She has belt pouches of both, she hands them over.

"Goodnight and good luck, Thorn."

And then Abyssia is out the door and gone.