Chapter 59: Chapter 59 Fruits are bourne

They returned to the city with little fanfare, and no further drama. There was no interview with Sudraiel this time, though they submitted a detailed report on the tomb. They got a decent monetary reward, though Nathan was reminded that it was 30% smaller than it could have been. There was also the promise of more after the salvagers went through the tomb.

They had to declare the loot they’d picked up - though it seemed like the Adventurer’s guild was more concerned about cursed or dangerous items. Stella's parents showed up and they helped the Heirs through the process. Kullal guided the Heirs away from the guild-offered appraisal service to a Knuld named Neverin. The old and bent orange-skinned man operated out of a small and intricately decorated shop near where Dalo and Kullal lived.

Neverin confirmed that two of the items from the storeroom were cursed, both swords of a set holding an enchantment that would stick to and continually erode the flesh of any living object that touched their hilts. It was a shame, since they were the fanciest items of the lot, and Neverin commented that they were likely the personal weapons of the Mage-Lord. However, he judged the curse too dangerous to attempt standard cursebreaking on, and recommended that they break down the swords for their - quite valuable - raw materials.

Their remaining items were an assortment of useful combat items - weapons, amulets, rings, torcs and smaller items capable of a variety of effects ranging from automatically making force shields to shooting bolts of death mana. No utility items like portable tents, cooking equipment, climbing gear or anything like that.

Neverin submitted a report to the guild, then offered to buy a few of the more interesting items once the Guild cleared them to be sold. The enchanter was especially interested in a torc that contained a self-recharging death mana reservoir. The twisted band of dark metal could resize to fit anybody’s upper arm, and was carved with fine snake motifs. It was supposedly used to add a death mana component to spells, providing extra mana that could be woven into other spells. This kind of item was uncommon since it was hard to make and harder to cast spells with mana that wasn’t your own. Especially if you didn’t already have that mana type.

Neverin was especially interested because it had some interesting enchantments related to making the foreign mana easier to manipulate. He also wanted to study the part of the enchantment that converted the absorbed basic mana into death mana and stored it safely.

The conductive quartz got mentioned in the report, but Dalo and Kullal made sure that the quantity of it wasn’t remarked over. It wasn’t hard since most people assumed death-tainted conductive quartz was relatively useless and it wasn’t really considered a magical item. Just a raw material.

The Guild quickly cleared the items, offering a price sheet for all of the items if they wanted to sell them to the guild. None of them got marked as ‘mandatory’ to sell to the guild, and Nathan noticed that the Guild price for the torc was less than half of what Neverin had offered to pay.

It’s kind of like eminent domain, but for magical items. I can see why a lot of Adventurers hate this system. But I also understand Sudraiel wanting a list of the items that get found and the ability to take a soul-destroying weapon or an especially nasty cursed artifact off the streets. Standard ‘governing is hard’ problem, and I think I’m on Sudraiel’s side on this one. And this way when adventurers like Simla hide something nasty and it blows up in their faces Sudraiel can point to that instance and say “I told you so.”

They sold the items they didn’t want to Neverin, including the torc, for a pretty tidy profit. They kept most of the items, distributing them out as made sense according to specialization. The bulk of them went to Aarl and Sarah, since they could actually use the assortment of random magical weapons. Nathan asked to keep the cursed set of swords, an idea germinating in his mind.

The rest of the Heirs made clear that they felt they owed Nathan a small favor since he hadn’t gotten much of the loot. He didn’t turn it down but didn’t feel like it was fully necessary. And he had gotten the most 'valuable' pieces of the loot, but the swords were cursed badly enough to be unusable.

Stella told her parents that Nathan could cleanse conductive quartz. Dalo and Kullal pigeonholed him later to tell him they also owed him a small favor for giving Stella so much of it. Dalo was swearing at himself for not thinking of this earlier. His exact words were “The thought passed my mind, but I assumed he’d just shatter it! That stuff is as much magic as it is rock.”

Nathan asked why it was useful to them and they got evasive. Nathan shrugged and decided he wasn’t going to delve into their secrets too much. Might have something to do with their insane mana capacities.

Kullal also asked if he’d be willing to cleanse more conductive quartz or similar materials if they could get some. Nathan agreed. He definitely wanted to keep building up his favor stockpile. He still had his eye on the ultimate prize of Kia’s airwalking Talent, and the more favors he could build up the better.

He also asked if he could bring Sarah and Stanel to their basement in five days or so to try out the new weapon he was cooking up, exact timing to be determined later. Secrecy was all well and good, but if Sarah was going to use a gun while she was part of the Heirs then their parents were going to learn about it. He’d need to get permission from Beatred, Poppy and Herdin. If Herdin was on the project - Beatred had been planning to ask her but Nathan hadn’t talked to them since they’d been gone.

So, Nathan made it a priority to talk to Beatred.

Nathan headed out to Beatred’s shop the next day, not taking any special precautions besides being on his toes. Not only had Faline suggested he was in the clear, just being close to the Adventurer’s guild had turned out to be pretty reasonable protection. Though he hoped that the next time he needed to call for help he didn’t end up needing to wheedle out from a significant favor to somebody like Eldred.

Beatred’s store was closed, and so was Poppy’s next door. Nathan stood around outside for a few minutes, considering banging on their front door. From how things had been going between them he was almost worried he’d catch them in a compromising position. Then he heard a muffled bang from inside, as well as a cackle.

If that’s sex then they’re out in the deep end.

Nathan banged on the wall next to Beatred’s workshop, yelling. “Beatred! It’s Nathan! Can I come in?”

A few moments later she unbarred her front door and waved him in, waving her hand ineffectually through some smoke that hung inside the workshop.

There were two people already in the room - Poppy and an ancient woman who looked like a bent and twisted tree. Her dark brown skin was gnarled and spotted and her wispy gray hair cascaded down her back like a whitewater rapid. She had multiple golden rings and tight-fitting bangles on her arms.

She turned to examine Nathan with intense eyes, her voice dry and scratchy. “Is this the one who brought these ideas here? Come closer, and we shall inscribe our meeting, Nathan Lark.”

He sat in a spare chair nearby, examining what was going on. There were even more mock-ups than the last time Nathan had been here, and he saw that Beatred was examining the barrel of a nearly complete-looking revolver. The handle was a bare metal framework and Beatred had taken off the cylinder to examine the inside of the barrel from both ends.

She frowned. “Still a lot of dung inside. Gonna need to try a different barrel enchantment. Hello, Nathan.” The burly smith idly waved to Nathan, busying herself with scrubbing out the barrel with a cloth stuck to a stiff wire. Poppy watched with a slight frown on his face, handing Beatred a cleaning solution she lathered into the barrel.

Nathan was about to respond when the old woman sitting next to him caught his hand in a firm, and surprisingly warm, grip. “Here, boy. I know the toy is shiny, but I want to be properly introduced. I am Herdin Bho, and if Vhala hadn’t already given you an Insight I would be suggesting that we offer you one. As it is, I think we may need to negotiate other payment than jangle.”

Nathan’s mind jumped to the cursed swords that the Heirs had stashed back in their suite.

I want to learn how to break curses.

Herdin was examining Nathan, and he noticed that her dark eyes glowed with a faint tracery of thin lines. Her nose and ears were pierced with more golden rings that contrasted with her dark skin. From this close Nathan could tell that all her jewelry had the faint tracery of fine enchantments. She was wearing a stiff robe of thick and heavily embroidered fabric. It looked like nothing so much as a Persian rug, tailored quite nicely to fit a person.

She was examining him in turn, and remarked. “I’d say you’re from Kalis before I’d say you’re from Giantsrest. Beatred told me you wouldn’t explain where you learned about all this -”Herdin waved her hand at the gun that Beatred was busy fussing over. “So I won’t ask. But it’s a mighty interesting weapon. There’s a lot of room for improvements with enchantments to this sort of weapon. Very unique. Just the sort of thing an old woman needs to keep her mind sharp.”

Nathan replied carefully. “I’m glad you like the design. I think they’ve got a lot of potential.”

She looked over the workbench again. “Same idea as a bolter, but I’ve built enough of those damned things that I almost threw Beatred out on her ear when that’s how she introduced the idea. Damned mana-drainers, those things are. And they’ll break when a stalker sneezes on you and take me a whole day to fix. But these…” She tapped her finger on a brass casing that was lying on the table.

“You don’t need to use magic to move the projectile. It’s like a crossbow, but smaller, more powerful and more versatile. Instead of enchanting the string to be stronger, you enchant the chamber to hold more explosive force! I’m wondering if we can integrate a dimensional pocket to hold ammunition and empty casings. As many of these ‘cartridges’ as you can make, loading automatically.” She paused for a quick breath.

“And the bullets themselves - such an interesting enchanting problem. Like an arrowhead, but so much faster. If I put on a penetrating enchantment then the bullet goes through both sides of enchanted plate! I think I might need to dig up some of my notes on momentum enchantments… haven’t touched those in decades. But whatever you enchant a bullet with, it’ll need to be cheap.”

Herdin was no longer looking at him, instead gazing off into the middle distance. Then she shook herself and smiled self-indulgently. “Divine blessings, it is good to have a new enchanting problem. I thank you Nathan, for that kindness to an old woman. And I think these weapons will become a specialty of the Bhos, even if their sale is restricted. Must be restricted. I cannot wait to see what kinds of classes could develop around such things. They might require specialized enchantments and skills to fight the largest monsters, but so does every weapon.” She waved her hands, clearly lost in her imagination.

Poppy spoke up, drawing attention away from Herdin and her ramble. “You wanted me to remind you about swearing the oath when Nathan next arrived.”

Herdin finally let go of Nathan’s hand, which she’d been holding onto this entire time. “Oh, indeed so." She turned to fully face him. "I, Herdin Bho, swear on my craft and my class to keep all information related to guns, gunpowder and the enchantments associated with them secret from all except Nathan Lark, Beatred Bho and Poppy Miri. All four of us together can agree to bring people into this secret. And I’ll bend my considerable influence to keeping these Insights secret from all but those we decide. May Davrar revoke my class if I break this oath.” She spoke in businesslike tones, but the traceries in her eyes glowed with a brighter light than before.

Then she chuckled, low and long. “For how else will we profit from them?”

Nathan felt a little bit run over by Herdin’s diatribe. He ventured a quick response. “Yeah, it seems like there’s a lot of potential for guns to be improved pretty dramatically by enchantments. Do you think they’ll need them to work?”

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Beatred frowned over at him. “If you want to fire one more than a few times in a row, yeah. The barrel gets fouled with crap and the bullets start getting stuck with the damned powder residue. Do you know anything we can do about that?”

Nathan thought for a moment. I think that was a lot of why they developed fancy smokeless powders later. I know how to make a couple of them, but they all require nitric acid as a starting point, which is a no-go for any sort of volume here.

Nathan shook his head. “I think it’s a problem you might need to fix with enchanting. It looks like that’s what you’re working on now?”

Beatred had just finished attaching a new barrel to the apparatus, and looked over at him. “Yeah. Auntie Herdin demanded I make her a bunch of barrels to enchant to try to solve this problem, took me all night a few days ago. Cleaning enchantments and the like. But this crap is sticky.”

Poppy handed her the cylinder, loaded with a single round. Beatred reattached the cylinder, carefully spun the cylinder to line up the round with the barrel and aimed it at a scarred wooden block a few feet away. Nathan winced, expecting the sound to be deafening at this range. But when she pulled the trigger the sound was definitely muffled, and an enchantment around the tip of the barrel lit up as a cloud rose to join the smoke hovering under the ceiling.

Oh. Silence on the barrel. That makes sense. Sounds more like a suppressed gunshot.

Herdin cackled again, watching the block of wood jerk as it gained a new hole. “I will always enjoy that. It requires so little effort! Pull a little lever and bam!” The old woman clapped her hands together gleefully.

Beatred cycled the cylinder out, dumping the empty casing onto the table where it smoked slightly. She looked through the new barrel. “Huh. I think that might have done it.” She held out her hand and Poppy handed her a clean scrap of white fabric on a wire. She dragged the rag through the barrel, twisting it thoroughly. The cloth didn’t come out pristine, but it was only lightly darkened. Beatred looked over at Herdin, eyebrows raised.

Herdin grumbled and snatched at the gun, examining the barrel closely. Then she leaned back and sighed. “Of course it was the anti-stick enchantment. The hardest one to make. At least it’s also quite stable.” She handed the revolver back to Beatred, who was grinning as she went over the other parts of the gun, quickly disassembling it into a pile of component pieces.

Nathan watched the smith neatly sort the parts of the weapon. He had to face the truth here. He’d given Beatred and Poppy the Insights they needed to make a gun, boosting them over hundreds of years of firearm development on Earth. But then they’d taken those insights and run with them, covering an incredible amount of ground in bare weeks. They understood what was going on here better than he did - at least from the practical angle.

And now Herdin was here, and they were going off in new directions that Nathan wouldn’t have thought possible. They were using enchantments to solve practical problems that Nathan would have expected to pose big issues. And now Herdin was thinking about a dimensional magazine?

Maybe I should explain how a fully automatic mechanism works. Or maybe not. I think I might prefer to keep Gemore weapons at an ‘old west’ phase, and not a ‘modern military rifles but with more ammunition’ phase. Honestly they can probably figure that out themselves. At least they’re probably pretty limited on ammunition?

Nathan turned towards Poppy, who’d been pretty quiet throughout the whole period. “How many rounds can you make?”

The short orc shrugged, scrubbing his hand through his thinning hair. “I made some pretty big purchases, hammered flat a good way to make the powder strong and consistent. Had to get a bunch more charcoal and buy out most of the sulfur some traders had, but I’ve easily got enough powder for thousands of rounds. I’m feeling a little useless now, indeed I am.”

Beatred was busy talking with Herdin about the barrel, gesturing toward the longer rifle prototypes that were scattered across another workbench.

Poppy pointed at the burly smith. “She’s been working on nothing else almost since you first showed up. It has been wonderful to work so closely on it.” He gained a small smile, before his face fell again. “But I’ve figured out the powder, now there’s nothing to do but make more. Ah, it’s not worth muckgrabber slime to complain. We’re happy.”

Nathan nodded. “Have you thought about putting alchemy inside the bullets? You can bore out a little chamber into the bullet, put something inside and then seal it back up? I doubt an explosive would survive that, but I bet it would be a good way to deliver poison pretty far into a big monster.”

Poppy sighed. “I hear you, we already talked about it. It’ll work, but not for the first attempts. I’m back to the job of a normal alchemist for now. But I want to know more. So.” He turned to fully face Nathan. “You’ve already given us such Insights, I’m hesitant to ask for more. We haven’t made many other sales, so we can’t offer to make things for free. But I want to know more about how alchemy works. I will owe you a favor for any other Insights you share.”

Do I explain chemistry to an alchemist? Maybe just draw him a periodic table and let him figure out the rest?