Chapter 51: Chapter 51 Clandestine Operations

Weeks passed. All of the trainees finished their Blooding Patrol. No teams were wiped out, though one lost three out of five members when a Stalker ambush drove them into a building which collapsed. The survivors were the hardy melee fighters last into the building. They’d been folded into the team which had lost their frontliner to a Siegeboar.

Lessons continued, and Nathan learned more details about Gemore and its environs. They had a whole lesson on common enchantments - what you could get enchanted, and what you couldn’t. Apparently Gemore was quite good at enchantments, both because there was a lot of demand and a good supply of materials. And ancient artifacts that enchanters could learn from.

Now that he wasn’t worried as much about being kidnapped in the streets, Nathan spent more time in the afternoons with Beatred and Poppy. The short orc was in the process of moving his shop next to Beatred’s, and Nathan got the sense that they had meals together daily, discussing the firearm ‘project’ and trying out new designs for cartridges and chambers. He shared some meals with them and would have felt like a third wheel except that they spent much of the time poking and prodding him to help them solve technical problems with gunpowder, cartridge and firearm manufacture.

Nathan helped out as much as he could - but he’d told them everything he’d read in various history books and wikipedia articles about how you made guns. At this point he was just helpful as another viewpoint on the problems, since the crafters couldn’t bounce ideas off other people they might be used to relying on.

Regardless, despite some remaining issues the guns seemed to be very promising. Poppy was making a good amount of reliable black powder and he and Beatred had devised a device to quickly and safely pack the casings. She had also figured out rifling and built an effective trigger mechanism that dropped an enchanted hammer to spark gunpowder through a thin disk of paper.

They were having problems with powder residue fouling the barrels. Beatred said she had a few ideas, but that they might just need to get an enchanter to make a magical solution to that problem.

I am so glad I farmed all this work off to people who can actually make shit.

The bullets they were using were beefy - almost half an inch across - with pretty large powder loads. Nathan was surprised they’d settled on such large cartridges, and asked about it. Both crafters shrugged.

Poppy explained succinctly. “If you’re shooting at a Siegeboar, or a [Mage Armor], do you want your bullet to go through it or not? A bigger bullet also means more potential to enchant the actual projectile.” The rifle bullets were the same diameter as the revolver bullets, but the rifle bullet itself was longer and had a larger tapering cartridge that held significantly more powder.

Nathan was honestly surprised that the chambers could handle that kind of power, but Beatred mentioned she used skills to strengthen the metal, and traced basic enchantments in as well.

Nathan suggested that if they were worried about armor penetrating, they could try putting a steel cap or tip on the bullets, if it wasn’t too hard to make. Beatred nodded, and asked about other modifications Nathan knew of. He explained steel-jacketed bullets and how a bullet could be ‘hollowed out’ for various purposes. Beatred nodded and took notes. She had a few ideas and mentioned buying a slab of meat for testing.

A bit later on, Beatred convinced Nathan and Poppy to let her try to bring her aunt Herdin in on the project, for her expertise at enchanting. Though it was no sure thing - Herdin was retired and had made it clear she wasn’t about to come out of retirement for just anything.

There were backups, but Nathan would be glad to have an excellent enchanter on this. And keeping it in the Bho family seemed like a great way to maintain a layer of security. He eyed the way Beatred’s hand was almost touching Poppy’s.

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Keep it in the family indeed.

The conversation turned back to how they would plan around the self-destruct mechanism. Beatred wanted Herdin’s perspective on that, as well as how a gun could be generally enhanced by enchantments. All after she got sworn to secrecy, of course. The burly smith was having problems making the guns properly eject an empty casing and load the next one smoothly. She was hoping that Herdin could help solve that problem and the fouling issue with some clever enchantments.

I hope they can still make a magic-free version that I can use. I doubt it’ll be my primary armament, but it’s a hell of a surprise weapon if somebody like Eldred tries to jump me. Or maybe I shouldn’t be angling to use a gun at all. I don’t have skills to improve a gun like Sarah and Stanel probably do. Furthermore, my Talent would probably break the self-destruct mechanism and that would be bad. Lastly, given what happened to my first spear there’s a good chance a gun wouldn’t survive my fighting style. And it looks like they’re going to be goddamn expensive.

They’d hashed out the rough price - in coin - that Nathan would pay for two revolvers and a rifle for Sarah, as well as several hundred rounds of ammunition for each. It wouldn’t be cheap, but it also wasn’t nearly as ruinous as it should have been for the amount of time and materials two skilled crafters were putting into the project. That was because of the Insights Nathan had shared and promised to keep sharing, even if they wouldn’t be able to sell guns to most people. Nathan fully expected Stanel to want one once he saw what they’d come up with, and he could certainly pay the necessary price. Nathan would probably need to have a talk with him to ensure he didn’t try to arm the entire Gemore Guard with the weapons.

The whole deal took almost three-quarters of the cash Nathan had gotten from Stanel - but that was what it was for.

Now that it looked like the guns were going to work, Nathan realized he was on a different sort of timer. He’d put in firebreaks to prevent Giantsrest from getting the Insights behind guns. But the knowledge would spread within Gemore, even if the manufacture was guarded by oath and Insight. Nathan probably had years before the technology would get out. If the Bhos could hold up their end of the deal, then maybe he had decades. He almost certainly didn’t have more than that. It was his goal to ensure that Giantsrest wasn’t a problem by that point.

He’d also discussed a few other Insights with the blacksmith and alchemist couple. With Poppy, he started with fertilizers and painkillers. When the alchemist figured out that Nathan was talking about huge amounts of material that would improve farm yield, he got less interested. However, Poppy was quite interested in non-magical painkillers. He and Nathan talked about it, but concluded that it was going to be pretty hard to get something like acetylsalicylic acid without a known natural source of it. Nathan sure hadn’t seen any willow trees around.

He was debating sketching a periodic table out and diving into the basics of chemistry when Beatred interrupted and asked Nathan if he had any more Insights to share with her.

He shrugged. “How do you make steel?”

She cocked her head and answered. “Mixing basic ore-cracked iron in a large crucible with charcoal, sometimes other metals. Keep it magically heated and mixed for a time. It works well enough, though the quality depends largely on the skills and class of the smith removing the scum from the mix.” She grimaced. “I usually buy my steel from that bandit Helmug, he’s got the skills to do it pretty well. My focus is more on turning good steel into good weapons, so I can’t make the good stuff.”

Nathan was sure there was a twinkle in his eye as he grinned. “Well, I think there might be a better way. Try blowing air through the molten metal after you mix in the charcoal. It’ll help heat up the metal and should remove a lot of the impurities. They’ll either come away as a toxic gas or float to the top as a crust that you should be able to scoop away.”

Beatred gave him the weirdest look. Then she closed her eyes and shook her head in resignation. “Ok. I’ll try it out.”

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