Elania, Arachne in a different world

When we walked into the dining area, it didn’t take long before all eyes were on me, eagerly expecting my plans.

I saw their looks but was lost in thought.

“We’re going to need a wooden bowl, some water, a mortar and pestle, multiple if you have.”

Velariah was all too eager to get exactly what we needed, but I wasn’t quite done yet.

“We’ll also need a pair of scales.”

“Gotcha,” She said. “Anything else?”

“I think that’s about it. All we need to do is measure and mix… carefully, very carefully.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Seralyn commented.

“It’s dangerous. I’ll admit that. That’s why we use water. It’s going to take some more time, but it’s the safer way. With some luck, we’ll still have it ready today for testing.”

“Now that’s what I like to hear,” The brunette replied with a smirk.

“Oh. There is one more thing,” I let out as I realized the last ingredient. “We’ll need charcoal, but we can just get it from the hearth.”

“I’ll get that,” Draco offered as he knelt next to where the fire had burnt the evening before.

“And that’s all we need. Three simple ingredients. Hopefully, all goes well.”

After Velariah and Draco had collected the necessary ingredients and equipment, we gathered in the bathroom. The reason was simple: we could lock the door and not have prying eyes.

“Right,” I said, after everyone had found their spot to sit. “Now we need all the ingredients to be ground into fine powder.”

The white-haired knight and lizardman got to work with their ingredients, each using different mortars to pulverize the charcoal and sulfur. At the same time, I collected the crystals that had seemingly finished growing. The fact that they were still slightly wet wouldn’t matter too much as we were going to mix everything with a bit of water anyway.

I knew there were other solutions in tap water still, which is why I intended to use as little as possible to create the gunpowder. Enough to make sure spontaneous combustions were out of the question, but little enough to ensure these other salts wouldn’t form a problem.

I had no idea if they did, and this was my first time doing anything like this, so I figured it would be best to be on the side of caution.

As soon as I finished grinding my salt, I took some of the charcoal that Draco had already finished and placed it on one of the two matching saucers that were placed on either side of the scales.

It was a simple balance, but it was perfectly suited for this job as the ratios were easy and part of the reason why I remembered it so well. One-eighth charcoal to one-eighth sulfur to six-eighths of saltpeter. Sure, the ratio that was ultimately settled on was slightly different, and they even differed between countries, but hey, we were testing here, and well, it would be slightly more difficult with scales like these.

I knew I’d be able to figure it out, but that would come at a later time.

I measured the charcoal and sulfur to get equal parts, then deposited the charcoal in the wooden bowl and added a bit of water to moisten it. After that, I weighed the first batch of saltpeter, and repeated the process until I’d done that six times. Then, I finally put the sulfur into the mixture and added a bit more water.

“And now we mix, very carefully. There’s water in here to prevent it from igniting, but don’t try to do anything funny.”

“How bad is it if it catches fire?” Seralyn asked in all seriousness. I thought she was joking at first, but her eyes told me she wasn’t in the slightest.

“No idea with this amount,” I replied in earnest. “But in my world, ages ago, there used to be barrels filled with this stuff that were stored in ships and warehouses. Ships would have a dedicated chamber for this, and any fire in there would spell disaster for ship and crew alike.”

I looked down at the bowl and estimated half a pound or so of the mixture.

“Not sure how bad it is if this all blows, and I don’t intend to find out, either. I suppose the one good thing is that it’s not confined, which should make it less dangerous.”

“Confined?” Nira asked, puzzled.

“Yeah, it doesn’t technically explode. It just burns really, really fast. You confine and then ignite it. Then, it explodes.”

“Explosions sound good,” The archer said with a shrug. “Can’t go wrong there.”

“Yep, but just wait.”

With the utmost care, I started grinding everything together into a paste, making sure to mix and mash as well as I could.

Then, at last, I was certain everything was blended perfectly, I spread it through the bowl over a large surface and then placed it on the side of the bathtub where it could dry.

“Now what?” Velariah asked as she watched the result of our labor.

“Now, we wait until the water dries up. We should have a fine, black powder at the end.”

“I can take it up to my room if you want. There’s a window with plenty of sunlight coming through. I reckon it’s going dry much faster there,” She continued.

“Sure. Go for it.”

She took the bowl with her as Draco and Nira took the rest of our equipment back to the kitchen. When everyone returned, Velariah was practically asking me with her eyes what we were going to do in the meantime.

“There are a lot of books upstairs,” The lizardman said. “Do any of them have information regarding Zerdania? Dangers? Dungeons? Anything that can help us?”

“I know we have several maps, but I don’t think any of them have the dungeon locations on them. I think we have a much better shot at either the guild, or perhaps a guild in the region.”

I chuckled at Velariah’s words.

“That sounds about right. To be honest, it did feel a bit weird to me to look for dungeons in the desert. I’d rather be out of that, and have access to supplies such as food and water, before trying to explore.”

“Yep,” She nodded. “Issue is that the desert is quite big. Don’t think that it’s boring though, as there’s the chance of running into sandworms.”

“Has your dad been to Zerdania?” I then asked.

“It’s hard to find a place he hasn’t been to,” She replied with a smile. “But I do suppose we could ask him for some travel tips. Speaking of travel tips, we should get a wagon and modify the wheels so we can cross the sands at high speed. I’ll have a talk with Kantasia to get some things arranged when we go to the guild again… which is likely tomorrow morning, or even later this afternoon if we’re testing your stuff anyway.”

“Sure.” I nodded in agreement. “And what about navigation? Do you have any tools for that? A compass maybe?”

“We have the stars and moon to guide us. Wait…” She looked at me with eyes that twinkled and without words, I could see what she wanted to ask. I preemptively sighed and shook my head.

“I can’t believe this,” I muttered, covering my face. “I can’t believe any of this.”

I was at a loss for words. I had placed this world in the medieval period, and I was pretty certain that compasses had already been invented by then. In fact, I was certain it had been invented quite a while before then. Making a primitive compass was so damn simple.

Then again, crossbows didn’t exist either, as did a few other things that I was sure were present in my old world during this age. It was probably my bad for presuming many of these things.

Things were different here, and Earthen logic just didn’t hold up for the most part.

“Fine,” I said. “Get me a bowl of water, a needle, a leaf, and…” I was about to ask for silk but realized just how stupid that sounded. Instead, I simply placed my rear on the ground and created a thick string of the substance myself which I then picked up and placed on the table. “This.”

Velariah immediately darted back into the kitchen and had everything, including a leaf of which I had no idea what it was doing in the kitchen.

Her impatience made everyone smile, and Seralyn chuckled. When I took the leaf from her and, unable to contain my curiosity, smelled it, I learned what the hell it was doing in the kitchen.

It was mint. Fresh mint.

It became even more clear to me how Elly was so good at this cooking thing. The existence of this herb had me believing she also possessed a bunch of others. I reckoned fresh parsley, basil, and thyme all had a place to call their own in there.

After placing the leaf on the still water and taking the needle in my hand, I prayed that this actually worked. I had no magnet to properly magnetize the needle and I didn’t know if silk worked or not. However, my silk wasn’t just any. I could give it properties that I wanted it to have, with certain limitations of course, and in this instance, I had wanted it to act as a magnet.

I had no clue whether it worked, but hid the fact that I was unsure about it and instead, just rubbed the tip of the needle against it repeatedly.

I blamed those survival shows for setting ridiculous standards. Who took a magnet with them anyway?

I kept stroking under the watchful eye of the others and kept going at it for a good while until I’d finally had enough and placed it on the leaf.

“Now if physics work the same here as on earth, the needle should turn and end up pointing north… or south. Honestly, I have no idea. Again, this isn’t my old world. Who knows how the electromagnetic fields are aligned here.”

“The what now?” Seralyn asked in a manner in which only she could ask questions. It left me with a big smirk.

Ok. I kinda did that on purpose. Seeing her like that was just too much fun.

“Electromagnetic fields. You know, the force that protects the planet from deadly solar winds. If things are somewhat similar here, you can even see them if you go way up north. They are colorful spectacles of light, a show of sorts that you can observe in the night sky.”

I saw Seralyn’s brain short circuit and grinned at the sight. Draco was actually trying to understand what I just said, and from the looks of it, Velariah had already given up.

“Maybe you can ask your father. If he did travel a lot, maybe he’s seen something like it.”

“I’ll definitely ask now. That sounds… interesting.”

“Yep. Unfortunately, I’ve never gotten the chance to see it for myself, but it is beautiful.”

My attention returned to the needle which, to my relief, was indeed turning. It needed some time, but ultimately, after a bit of shakiness at the end, it settled.

Velariah saw it as well and extended an arm in the direction in which it pointed, then slowly walked backward. It looked funny, but it was obvious what she was doing.

“Well, what do you know,” She finally said. “I’m pretty sure it's pointing in Zerdania’s direction. That’s crazy.” She lowered her arm and turned her attention to me. “How does it work?”

“That’s… probably too complicated to explain. I mean no offense, of course. I think the only important thing to know is that this needle will always point in the same direction. No matter where you are, it will point to one point; magnetic north.”

“Magnetic north?” Draco inquired.

He had figured it out.

“Look. Again, take this knowledge with a grain of sand as I have very little knowledge of what this world looks like. Back on Earth, true and magnetic north are two different places. It could be the same here, but I don’t know. Still, I think it’s going to be helpful to have this tool at our disposal.”

“Always pointing in the same direction,” Draco said quietly. “That’s incredibly useful, and from the looks of it, easy to set up.”

“Would it surprise you if I said that I, myself, am surprised it works?”

“It would,” He replied with a smile. “But what good does that do?”

“I suppose that’s true. It works. That’s enough. Hey, you guys think it would be a good idea to go to the guild now, or will we actually cause her to get a heart attack if we place additional orders?”

Velariah chuckled.

“She did seem quite shocked by my father’s request, but I’m sure she managed to sort things out. We can give it a go if you want.”

“Might as well, no?”

Seeing no reason to delay, we did a quick recap on the things we would need. This included a covered wagon, storage boxes, containers for water and food, elven wood and sap, and renting space in the guild warehouse for said cart.

The wood had already been ordered earlier but had yet to arrive. According to Velariah it was much cheaper to wait a bit longer and have it shipped here with another shipment of more specialized hardwood native to the area surrounding Goldleaf. I fully understood the concept and didn’t mind that at all.

When we, after the usual delay, arrived at the guild hall, it appeared as if nothing had happened. The Lore Keeper was casually reading a book while leaning back in her chair. The chaos from earlier was all but gone.

Velariah did the talking for all of us, which made it feel a bit redundant that we’d all come here, but unfortunately, we still had good reason to do it. It also took longer than expected due to all parts of the puzzle having to come from different places.

After a lot of questions and writing, we were finally finished, and made our way back home where the white-haired knight immediately made her way upstairs.

I shook my head and sighed… and then prayed she would be careful.

As if I was heard by a higher entity, when I next heard footsteps coming down the stairs, they were slow and steady. She then appeared in the doorway with a triumphant smile as she held the bowl of dried gunpowder in her hands.

“I suppose you want to see what it can do now, correct?”

She nodded wildly but didn’t say a word.

“Alright, let’s get a skillet and something we can use to ignite,” I said before I took the bowl out of her hands. “And I’ll take this to our room.”

The excitement in not only Velariah but the others as well was apparent. They didn’t speak at all and kept glancing over at the black blend we’d created. After settling in the other room, I took some of the powder between two fingers to inspect it and noticed that it was coarser than I imagined.

I then realized that mixing it with water may have been a mistake. The moisture had caused the supposedly fine particles to become bigger, and I was pretty sure that that wasn’t a positive thing.

I ignored it for now and waited for Velariah to return with the skillet and a burning candle, which she kept as far away as she could.

To check whether we’d created proper powder, I placed some of it on the bottom of the skillet, the side that was usually in the fire. I created a line that would allow me to track the speed at which it burned, then pushed our main supply far to the side.

“Well, here goes nothing,” I said as I lit the start of the trail with the flame from the candle.

I watched the powder catch fire almost immediately and then burn through the trail. The process wasn’t nearly as fast as I’d expected (and seen) but it burned nonetheless, which in my book, was a success. Now, I was correct in what I’d assumed earlier, I reckoned the fix wasn’t that difficult.

“That looked kinda cool,” Seralyn commented when the fire reached the end of the trail. “I haven’t seen anything burn in quite the same way. Lots of smoke though.”

There was a good deal of smoke. I did have to give her that.

“Agreed,” I said, nodding. “It’s probably the biggest downside of this. Let’s open the door to allow it to clear up, and Vel, could you grab the mortar and pestle again?”

“Sure,” She said before darting off again.

Soon enough, I was carefully grinding the rough powder into a much, much finer one. When I had a bit of it finished, I prepared for the second experiment, using a line that was equally thick to get a proper comparison.

“According to everything I know, this should burn quite a lot faster. Ready?”

I waited two seconds and saw the others nod. Then, when I lit it for a second time, I was shocked by the results.

As soon as the flame touched the powder, it burnt at an extreme rate, reaching the end of the trail in a fraction of what it had taken before. Amidst the smoke, I was left with a big smile on my face.

“Perfect,” I let out as the others remained silent in shock. “I think we did it.”

This had to be my greatest accomplishment so far and the sense of that, and relief flooded through me. I still couldn’t believe we'd actually done it.

Yet, this had been nothing but a test. We had a lot more grinding to do. Then, we’d take some to the dungeon and I’d show the others just how destructive this could be.