Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Duplicate Spell

Sitting in my bed, I’m thinking about how to get more magical energy flowing to my body while scanning a blueprint. What Albert said is still hanging around my brain, regarding the magical energy needed to actually produce a meaningful blueprint for rifle parts. 

“What’s troubling you?” Rachel asks as she sips on a tea while sitting down on her study table and peeks at me. She turns her body around and put her cup on her table. “Do you want some tea? This is milk tea, something that I actually can drink during nighttime.” 

I wonder why my sister is like a drink mixer, always having something to drink every once in a while. Apothecary is sure a nice class to have, to be honest. What’s the difference with the alchemist class, though? That’s a good question to be asked. 

“Sure,” I say. She gives me a cup and then pours the light brown liquid into my cup. “How was your tour with Albert?” She asks. 

“It was great, why do you ask?” I ask her back. 

“Nothing, just figuring out what my sister is up to,” she smiles back. 

“Hey, Rachel, do you have more of that acidic cotton?” I ask. 

“Yes, why do you ask? Don’t tell me you’re going to tell mom about it,” she says. 

“About the acidic cotton? No, I just want some of it, do you have it or not?” I ask. 

“Promise me you’re not going to tell mom about it.” 

“I promise,” I offer her my pinky. If her age group is correct, then she’ll gladly accept my pinky promise for some amount of nitrocellulose that can be converted into smokeless powder. Someone like her is probably that gullible to such an easy trick. 

Of course, as expected earlier, she grabs my pinky with her pinky, “Fine…” she sighs. “But don’t tell mom about it, ever.” 

“No, I won’t tell her,” I say as I let her pinky go. 

She then walks to her bed. He retrieved a metal container from the bottom of her bed. The container is as big as a small trash can, it was tubular and with a lid on top of it. She then opens the container, revealing a bunch of cotton balls on the bottom of it, packed in tightly. This way of storage gives me a shitton of anxiety, I’m not going to lie.

Then again, my sister is only 13 at its oldest, probably. She doesn’t even know that under pressure, guncotton can make explosions. Still, this kind of storage is kinda good, as long as she doesn’t put it in a heated place. That will ignite the nitrocellulose immediately. 

I grab some of it with my hands, probably just enough to make five or six bullets. It is about a handful of it, and I stuff it somewhere safe near my bed, in another metal container, hollow enough that it fits all of it.

“Is magical powder explosives?” I ask. 

“Kinda, but when not enriched, it’s not explosives. However, powdered low-quality magical stones are often used by sport shooting,” she says. “Liquefied mana is also often used in industrial explosives.” 

“Hmm?” I wonder. 

“Magical stones don’t stain the barrel as much as gunpowder, but they are tenfold more expensive, not very great if you want to supply an army, or so father said,” she says. So, gunpowder is still more common, it’s just our father is a noble which means he can afford a magical powder.

I wonder if the liquefied mana has the same properties as nitroglycerin. If so, then I only need to mix it with the cotton, alongside adding acetone to make Cordite in this world. Hahaha, well, let’s make my sister figure that out by herself. I have the feeling that she is a demolition maniac to some extent

“Have you ever tried handling liquid mana?” I ask my sister. 

“I have, but under Ostwald's supervision. I’m not going to try to touch dynamite,” she says.

“Hmm, I see,” I nod. 

I am not a chemist, but hey, a little bit of experimentation won’t hurt anyone, as long as I am not dumb about it. As far as I remember, nitroglycerin is only sensitive to shock, mixed with nitrocellulose and dissolve with acetone, you’d get a smokeless powder for firearms. 

I remember stuffing homemade smokeless powder from the same exact composition with my father’s help. He said those who held firearms would have a fighting chance in the apocalypse. I wonder what my father is doing in heaven. Probably shooting all the guns that he didn’t get to shoot when he was still alive. 

The question is, how to trick my sister into making smokeless for me? I won’t dare mix it without a scale, or at least, some form of precision scaling. Well, let’s see whether I could convince Ostwald to hand us some liquid mana to use. It will be hard unless I can somehow convince Albert to help me. 

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“I beg your pardon, young miss. Liquid mana?” Albert gives the reaction. 

“Yes, liquid mana,” I say. 

Albert looks at me in full confusion and in full distress. One of the reasons is particularly because liquid mana is very explosive. Albert is a gunsmith, and rarely, if ever, touches chemicals in his entire life. 

“Well, young miss, if we are going to play with liquid mana, we certainly need a chemist, preferably either an alchemist or an apothecary, do you happen to know any?” Albert asks me, giving me the requirement to play with liquid mana, of course, I already have known the correct answer. 

“How about Rachel’s personal tutor, Ostwald?” I ask. 

“Ah, Ostwald, the alchemist? Well, we need to ask Lord Ferrett before even thinking of asking Ostwald,” Albert says. 

“Why so?” I ask. 

“If Lord Ferrett says no, then don’t even bother to ask Ostwald to say yes. So, you need to convince your father first, young miss,” Albert says. He sipped on the tea that Larse serves him. “Besides, I doubt Lord Ferrett will allow you to be too close to explosives without any armor.” 

“Armor? Would steel armor suffice?” I ask. 

“Perhaps? You need to ask Ostwald more about it. That royal alchemist can be rather stingy, in terms of chemical handling,” he says. 

You are reading story Gunsmith Materialmancer – Modern Firearms Crafting [LITRPG] at novel35.com

“I’ll go talk to him,” I say. 

“Then I’ll say good luck. Anyway, back to the topic, young miss, have you figured out what will you use a duplicate spell for?” He asks. Probably, after yesterday, he taught me about the duplicate spell, and he wants an answer. 

“Precision crafting, I think?” I shrug, if I just answer that I’ll make a 9mm bullet cartridge, then it will immediately come out as a little suspicious. “Drawing blueprint with fingers on the imaginary blueprint seems to be a hassle, especially with the lack of solid surface.” Try drawing a pen in thin air, and it is similar to the imaginary blueprint. 

“Correct. There are a lot of ways to cope with the cons, but the duplicate is duplicate, it’s used to copy someone’s design and remake it,” Albert nods. He then puts a lead bullet blueprint on the table. “This is a lead bullet and should be easier to copy than the spoon. Just try it.” 

The lead ball is the more correct term, in my opinion. It’s simply a ball that will be inserted into a musket after putting the gunpowder inside of it. I pick up the blueprint with my hand and open the [Material Manipulation I] menu. 

[Add Blueprint for Object 2?]

Can I change the name of each blueprint? It will be filled with bullshits if I keep a database filled with new objects. Especially considering how many firearms I will try to recreate later if I actually have learned the know-how. Well, doesn’t matter now, though, but it will matter later. 

“You can also use a real object to add to your blueprint,” Albert says. 

“Really?” I ask. 

“Yeah, more or less,” Albert answers. 

It is great news to be able to do that, but to be honest, in my end goal, it won’t really matter, because I doubt there is a readily available bullet for me to use. Well, better to know that short fact that not knowing anything.

The ball blueprint appears in my imaginary blueprint. It just looks like a ball, probably, I won’t be able to differentiate it from a marble if it were made from glass. So, what should I even do with this marble? 

“Alright, let’s create your first bullet,” Albert then places a piece of a copper cube on the middle of the table, alongside an empty metal box with a lid on it. “Let’s learn the dumping area first. This box will be the place where metal dust is gathered as long as you keep it close. Open your imaginary blueprint, and search for items similar to a cube.” 

I look around the [Material Manipulation I] menu, and I don’t find any of it until I notice that it is in the top left corner, at the same height as the ‘x’ button. I press the button, and suddenly, the tubular container that I hold turns into green color. 

“I assume you are seeing the container in green color, am I right?” Albert asks. 

I nod. 

“Good, now press the check icon on the top left corner.”

[Do you want to use Object A as a trash storage unit?]

I press the check button and the screen disappears. The residue material container stays the same, nothing has changed from the metallic tubular container. So what should I do next? Should I just craft the item? 

“Press the cube button again,” he says. 

I press the cube button again. The option appears. There is a big ‘X’ button, presumably, for erasing the current storage. There is also a ball icon below the cube button. I click the ball icon and a slider appears alongside a circle button.

“This slider adjusts the size of particles that would be dumped into the container. The other button adjusts the shape, whether you want it to be a ball, shavings, a cube, or anything else. I recommend the ball for first-time usage alongside giving it moderate in the slider.” 

I put the position of the slider in the middle and change the shape of the leftover material to ball size. Albert then puts a metallic copper cube on the table. It’s as big as a small musket ball, but in a cube, and my task must be changing it into a musket ball. 

I hold the cube, and slowly, the cube transforms into a ball. At first, the edge of the cube disappears, then slowly, it transforms into a sphere. Then, that’s the musket ball on the table. I open the previously marked container. 

Now, it’s filled with small balls, probably smaller than BB bullets made with copper. I pick up one of the balls. It is a perfect sphere without any minus on it. I was astonished that a feat like this doesn’t require any machinery at all. 

[Helen]

Race: Angelic Wolf-kin

Level: 1

HP: 100%

MP: 75%

Class: [Materialmancer] 

Skill: [Material Manipulation I]

General Health Status: 

Still, it’s still a long way to go until I can make a gun on my own. 

 

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