SIEGING EXPLOSIVE

Mortal tier recipe. No cultivation required

Every army of mortals needs weapons, and ways to siege cities/fortresses are no different. Gunpowder discovery came about relatively early in the ancient era, although fireworks took an oddly long time for someone to invent. However, hauling a barrel of gunpowder up to a city wall is difficult and dangerous. One of the largest empires at the time wanted something better, something utterly destructive. They created a powder with nearly 5 times the explosive force as regular gunpowder, but its true power laid in its ability to easily dissolve even metal walls; needless to say they conquered the continent soon after.

INGREDIENTS AND RECIPES

* Gunpowder, 250 grams – non magical explosive

* Acidstone, 150 grams – non magical acidic rock

* Inert granite, 50 grams – non magical rock

* Crystallised magma, 150 grams – non magical explosive rock

Begin by preparing gunpowder in the standard fashion. Crush saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur into three sets of fine dust. Then combine them in a 75:15:10 ratio, making sure the result is only a slightly grainy powder. This is likely the only easy part about this recipe because it quickly ramps up in difficulty.

Acidstone, where to begin?

Acidstone only forms in unique clusters of extremely unreactive stone. If compared to a traditional object, then this stone is about as reactive as gold. However, you may notice an issue with using gold tools to break down a rock. Not just is it impossibly expensive, but you’d be lucky to even chip the acidstone. The only option was using that extremely unreactive stone that facilitates the acidstone’s production.

Inert granite is the name, and it's generally useful property of not reacting with acids leads most low tier alchemists to always keep a set of tools made from this stuff. If you already have one then get cracking, literally.

Use hammers to break down the acidstone and Inert granite chunks, then powder them down slowly. In the case of Inert granite, a mortal human will need to use something like a mill to grind the flakes of rock. Acidstone’s lack of hardness allows a stone mortar and pestle to ground it down.

Quickly mix the Inert granite dust into the acidstone dust, making sure to thoroughly coat every acidstone grain with Inert granite. Just a few pieces left uncovered can ruin an entire batch of Sieging explosives.

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Now the hardest part, but still doable by a mortal.

Crystallised magma is found in two main places, either deep underground or in volcanic vents. The latter is easier to find and acquire for obvious reasons. Rather than trying to mine the crystals directly, you will encounter less trouble by mining around the crystal and taking the whole thing. This comes with the problem of unsustainability as creating a new crystal takes far longer than re-growing a chunk.

Before even attempting to work the crystal, it must be heated in a hot forge for several hours. Optimally heating it to 1900 C, this may require a specialised fuel that burns hotter than normal. Most blacksmith forges should be able to accommodate this though.

Only after proper heating is the crystal pliable enough, although in this case it means that you won’t die upon grinding it. Heating the crystal will settle the intense energies within, which are magical but lack the density to classify as a natural gathering stage ingredient. Nothing else to say, just grind it down and drop it into your portion of gunpowder. If adding it blows everything up then you know that your crystal should’ve been heated more.

If the crystal powder and gunpowder fully combine, symbolised by every grain of gunpowder releasing a faint orange sparkle of light like that of a star in the boundless night sky, add in the inert granite coated acidstone and mix well.

Pack the finished product into convenient bomb packages and send them to military storages. A competent weapon of warfare is created!

USAGE

It’s an extremely powerful bomb that corrodes things. Only extremely unreactive things are ineffective against it, of course this applies at the mortal tier. Most cultivator materials simply ignore the effect of these bombs.

A note on usage, the acid only works because the intense heat released by the crystallised magma also strips away the thin layer of inert granite. Thus the acid is allowed to react with whatever it touches, which is a tough stone wall in most cases.

Mainly used to collapse city walls, a random soldier can light one of the Sieging explosive pouches and throw it at a city’s wall. Unless the wall is magical, or made of inert granite, you suddenly have a new entry point. Do this enough and you can entirely destroy sections of the wall, beneficial if you’re a warmonger and plan on razing the city anyway. Slaughter and pillage, am I right?

As for commercial and small-scale uses, it’s a bit difficult in fighting. Not throwing it far enough signs away your life, while throwing it accurately enough such that an explosion/acid actually harms your target is difficult. One section of the economy that really loves this item is the building sector since this explosive is excellent for demolishing buildings.

Actually, considering that empire fell long ago, the biggest use of sieging explosives is now in construction. How ironic for the explosive that brought down walls to signify the creation of new ones?