Chapter 39: Chapter 39 Explanations of Explosive

Nathan started by drawing a tube on the board. “So you start with a metal tube. One end is capped, the other end is open. Then you put a piece of metal inside.” Nathan drew a bullet-shaped piece of metal near the closed end of the tube. “Then you put a little bit of something explosive here at the closed end of the tube.” Nathan drew a little many-pointed star shape behind the bullet. “When you set off the explosive it sends hot gas everywhere. But the metal tube is strong, so the explosion can only go one direction. Out the tube, pushing the metal - we call it a ‘bullet’ - along with it.” Nathan added an arrow showing the bullet’s motion.

He could see both Poppy and Beatred considering the diagram. They’d been nodding along with the explanation but didn’t seem excited about it.

He continued. “The thing is, that if the bullet fits tightly in the tube - called a barrel - then it leaves going fast. It’ll go really far, and can go through a person. Or a Wyvern, if you use a bigger explosive and a longer tube.” Nathan added a bunch more arrows to represent the bullet’s speed.

That made Beatred consider. She shrugged, looking at the diagram. “A bow or crossbow’ll do about the same in the right hands. Maybe not as fast, but Stanel can still kill a Wyvern that way. It’d be cheaper than this and you would just need a pile of arrows, not a packed tube for every shot.

Nathan nodded. He’d thought about the bow comparison. “Yeah, but a gun, which is what this weapon is called, has three really big advantages. First, it can be a lot smaller than a bow or crossbow. All of the energy is in the explosive, not in the arms of the bow or crossbow. So a gun about this big,” Nathan held his hands about a foot apart, “can still propel a bullet fast enough to kill.”

“Second. Because the bullet is lighter than an arrow or bolt and flies so much faster it won’t drop very much over time. And if you cut grooves on the inside of the barrel then the bullet will spin, which will make it fly straight. A well-built gun with a long barrel can hit a man-sized target from a mile away, even before classes and skills get involved.” Nathan drew a spiral pattern down the length of his barrel to represent rifling.

“Third. You can make a system that opens the tube and replaces the bullet and explosive propellant - quickly. There’s a few ways to do it. All of them put the bullet and propellant together into something called a cartridge.” Nathan drew a casing around the bullet and explosive. “If you do it right then you can fire another new bullet really quickly. Like this.” Nathan started snapping his fingers rapidly.

Poppy had finally had enough and stood up, yelling. “Except that explosives are fucking expensive. You need magical ingredients and the most accessible one is an eye from a Fire Stalker. I can make about this much fireblast powder from a Fire Stalker eye.” He held his fingers close together, almost touching. “This ‘gun’ would cost as much as an bag of holding to fire once.”

Nathan smiled. He’d wondered what their chemistry vs. alchemy knowledge was, and why somebody hadn’t invented guns before if they had fine metalwork. It seemed he had part of his answer. “I know how to make a non-magical explosive using things you probably have the ingredients for. Doing it properly requires some care, but looking around this lab I think you could do it. And the ingredients are probably pretty cheap.”

Poppy stood open-mouthed for a moment, then sat back down very politely. “Carry on.”

Beatred broke in. “We already have some enchanted weapons kinda like this. Bolters. They’ll fire a bolt real hard just with the enchantments. Expensive as adamant, and they drain mana like nothin’ else. But it ain’t that different.” She eyed the bullet. “Not much room for enchantments on one of those. And if it goes as fast as you say, then I doubt you can use the same one multiple times.”

Nathan shrugged. Those were fair criticisms. He’d certainly give up multiple limbs to get the weapon that came to mind when he heard the term ‘bolter’.

“I don’t know how a ‘bolter’ would stack up to a gun. But we could probably make this without any enchantments at all. They’d probably be handy to light the propellant and keep the barrel from getting dirty from residue from the explosions, but I know ways to do all of this,” Nathan gestured at the board. “Without magic. It’s complicated, and there’s a dozen problems that require solutions. But I think we can solve them, and make this into a real weapon.”

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