BLINDING EXPLOSIVE
Mortal tier recipe. No cultivation required
An interesting explosive created by farmers of the ancient era. Many recognized a strange rock that burnt brightly, similar to magnesium, and thought of scaring off wolves at night using it. A particularly bright peasant boy stole some of his parents’ supply to figure stuff out on his own, the end product was an easily combustible powder that released a strong white light. It’s military uses are null, but to this day farmers will always keep a small jar of it on hand.
INGREDIENTS AND RECIPE
* Lightburst talc, 150 grams – non magical rock
* Standard gunpowder, 50 grams – non magical explosive
* Dried blue bells spores, 10 grams – non magical fungi
It should be clear enough, but don’t leave any of the materials near an open flame. If you’re lucky then a temporary spell of blindness would occur, or you go up in flames on the worst end of the spectrum. Don’t play with fire kids!
Gunpowder should be quite well known in any developed civilisation, such that it can be bought. If you can’t buy it then just mix saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur in the ratio of 75:15:10. Whether this is in kilograms or grams does not matter, just makes sure all the ingredients are a fine powder before them together. Then take the amount required by this recipe.
Lightburst talc is a type of talc in the end, meaning that grinding it down by hand is incredibly easy. Just do that and try not to make any sparks in the process, any of these are likely to set off and ruin an entire batch of the powder.
Lastly are the blue bell spore, we will go over the collection method even though it was previously mentioned. The safest way to harvest these is to pick the mushroom, then cut out the gills to manually scrape out the spores. All of this should be done with protection, otherwise you can expect dreadful itches for almost a week,
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
In severe cases, people cannot sleep through the itchy hell.
Drying the spores cannot be done using sunlight like before. Instead, place a stone bowl into some flames and allow it to heat up entirely. This works best on a campfire or similar, but an oven will work just as well. When you are ready to begin drying, drop the collected spores into the hot bowl. Then simply leave it in this state for an hour or so, stirring the spores gently every 15 minutes.
This process may need to be repeated a few times to properly dehydrate them. Although, if you live in an abnormally windless region then you can brave using solar drying instead. A cultivator may directly pull the water out from the spores, which is far faster than either method.
With all three ready, pour the gunpowder into your talc powder and mix profusely. You should barely be able to see any of the dark grey powder when finished.
Now slowly add the dried spores, taking extreme care not to spill them. Slowly mix them together, in case of creating sparks with your bowl. If you used a wood bowl to stir highly explosive ingredients… my condolences. I assume you to have some common sense.
Store the finished product in a dark, dry room. If a jar is used, then consider covering the opening with fabric to reduce water moisture entering the Blinding explosive.
USAGE
Unfortunately, the intense light given off is too short lived to ever hold a place for casual lighting. Rudimentary candles are generally more effective, and lots of woods filled with fire element Qi can burn for hours on end with strong lights. It never stood a chance for casual lighting.
As for actual uses, the primary is scaring off wild animals on farms. Wolves are always an issue for mortals, especially without any hot weapons, so wrapping this explosive in fabric and lighting it on fire will scare off a multitude of creatures. Especially since most night creatures are more sensitive to the sudden change in light, blinding them for far longer than day-time animals.
Additionally, this is more of a minor use, but this powder is good when catching someone off-guard. They are unlikely to recognize what the pouch is full of, and the light will leave them completely defenceless for several seconds, more than enough time to either slit their throat or make a timely getaway. Of course, less harmful actions, like stealing a wallet, is also possible given enough skill.