As a rumbling sound ripped through the air, a satisfied smile appeared on my lips. The latest in a series of experiments conducted by Mal, with support from Gilo and myself, was a success. An explosive success.

“Where did you learn about demolitions?” Mal asked, giving me a side-eye, a frown on her face.

“Here and there.” I paused, before adding, “I only know how to make and use some improvised munitions.” The moment those words were out of my mouth, I realised what I had said, my face flushing. Mal paused for a moment, outright staring at me, before shaking her head.

“Nope, I won’t ask.” the expression on her face showing a mix of curiosity and fear.

“Maybe for the best.” I replied, having recovered from my earlier blunder. “Anyway, I’d say our magical claymore works just fine. Your opinion, Gilo?” I pushed aside the whole question about improvised explosives. We had an experiment to evaluate, with each of us having played our own part.

“From a pure combat-perspective, there’s quite a bit that needs improvement. The size, trigger-conditions and camouflage all need a lot of work, let alone stability.`` Gilo ruthlessly graded our experiment as useless for practical use. But that was okay, it had been an early prototype, so getting it right on the first try was unlikely.

The design I had proposed was taken from a world without magic, and thus without the myriad complications it brought to the table. Having a bomb that went off when something disrupted a beam of light was wonderful, but magic got involved, it was utterly insufficient. And camouflage by using foliage worked well against basic visual senses, but against something akin to Lenore’s sight, or some other improved mode of perception? Again, insufficient.

If we wanted to have a combat-ready weapons system, we would have to slowly design it ourselves, testing it each step of the way.

“How about you, Mal? Any ways to improve the explosive strength? What we have so far is okay against enemies below level thirty or forty at a guess, but against more powerful foes, it just won’t cut it.” Gilo passed the ball to Mal, who appeared thoughtful.

“I think I’ll have to go back to the drawing board.” she admitted, disappointment slowly spreading over her face. “What I used just now is essentially black powder, more chemistry than alchemy. Alchemically, it’s almost entirely inert, making it very difficult to magically empower it. The Astral Power simply flows off, making it incredibly inefficient.” she explained, sounding a little annoyed.

“Before you do, let me take a closer look at your black powder. When it comes to the magical side of things, I’m more capable than you.” I reminded her, getting a nod in reply.

“I’m afraid that the packaging, the shape and all that will need some more work, too. Making it out of Ice is useful for experiments but really, you’d want to use metal in the final product, or you limit the efficiency from the get-go.” I shook my head, trying to remember Mrs. Wu’s lessons in regard to the ancient art of blowing stuff up.

We continued discussing for a little longer, before we returned to the camp, where Sigmir and the others were already waiting for us.

“And, did it work?” she asked, looking at the somewhat displeased expressions on our faces.

“The prototype worked. But from prototype to finished product is a long journey.” I shrugged, before plopping down on her lap, making myself comfortable. Instead of trying to work or do anything active, I simply relaxed, letting myself get spoiled by Sigmir’s gentle hands and comfortable presence.

“Morgana, I’m afraid I’ll have to rest for longer than anticipated.” Mal told me a little later, looking frustrated.

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“Everything okay?” I asked, a little concerned. If she had trouble outside of Mundus, there was little I could do to help.

“Just some family stuff I got to do.” she waved off my concern, her demeanour not really convincing, only increasing my worries.

“Anyway, I’ll be gone until tomorrow. Gilo promised to wait for me, so if you have to leave…” she paused, before shrugging, “Eh, it is what it is.”

“It is what it is.” I nodded in agreement. “We’ll wait for you, unless something forcibly changes our schedule. If so, I’ll let you know.” promised, deciding that a day or two wouldn’t hurt our overall progress, not when weighted against the advances my Alchemy had made over the last few days. Systematic experimentation, combined with actual instruction was surprisingly effective, even if the effect I gained from the instruction was reduced.

Regardless, I had gained a neat ten points in the Alchemy-skill, bringing it to twenty-five. In addition, I was comfortable preparing some of the mixtures in Mal’s recipe-book, especially those that were explicitly harmful. That still left a wide range of substances, where the dosage made the poison, while a low dosage, combined with subtle magical assistance turned them into effective tonics, but overall, if it killed, I seemed to have an affinity for it.

“Can you leave me some of the black powder?” I asked, deciding that I wanted to experiment with it for a bit.

“Certainly.” Mal nodded, pulling a small pouch from her magic bag.

Taking it, I immediately poured out a bit, onto my hand, in order to start my own analisis. Mal would leave soon and I wanted to have her available for clarification, in case I noticed anything weird.

Looking at the coarse grain through Lenore’s sight, I could only detect a confusing, tangled mess of Astral Power, a wide variety of types and patterns all blended together. It was no wonder that trying to magically enhance the stuff was so difficult, even Lenore’s sight had difficulties making out the differences or telling me anything but that it was a mess.

Letting out a low, humming sound, I brought the powder to my nose, carefully sniffing the air, trying to differentiate from the magical smell emanating from my hand, the ambient magic and the emanations coming from the powder. It told me a little more, with traces of fire, death and decay a bit more pronounced but regardless, I wasn’t able to glean any real information.

“No choice, I guess.” I mumbled, before taking a few of the grains into my mouth, causing Mal to let out a soft swear.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice a mess of confusion and exasperation.

I didn't bother to respond, not immediately. Instead, I focused on the riot of sensation in my mouth, doing my best to separate the weird, but mundane, taste of the black powder from the magical elements.

The magical elements were more distinct, now that they were isolated within my mouth, allowing me to slowly parse them out as the substance got dissolved in my saliva. Holding up my hand to stop Mal from getting more worried, I isolated the different, active traces, trying to map them to the mess I had seen earlier. The explosive chemical reaction was only the foundation, on that, we wanted to build an alchemical, magical reaction, strengthening it and turning it into a real weapon.

My problem was,a decently large part of the magical elements were aligned to Fire, making them completely antithetical and disgusting to me. The longer I kept the gunpowder in my mind, the more I felt like I was gargling with raw sewage, making me want to spew.

Finally, I couldn’t persevere any longer and spat the whole mess out, before hopping off Sigmir’s lap, taking a few steps to the side and noisily vomiting out the remains of our lunch.

“Blergh.” I spat a few more times, trying to get rid of everything in my mouth, even as my stomach roiled.

Reaching out into thin air, I activated Overflow and conjured up a mug of Ice, filled with Liquid Moonlight. If nothing else, it would get rid of the disgusting taste. With that in mind, I took a mouth full, before spitting it back out, trying to clear my mouth. The moment the Liquid Moonlight hit the ground, it released its power, causing a cloud of mist to explode off it, as the ground beneath froze.

After taking two more mouths of Liquid Moonlight and spitting them back out, I deeply drank from my mug. Being able to constantly refill your own drink had its uses. Finally, I felt less nauseated and turned around, looking at the wide-eyed Malachite.

“Okay. I think I’ve got an idea regarding your black powder.” I assured her, keeping a straight face, despite the urge to laugh at the look on her face.

“I’ll discuss it with Gilo while you are gone, maybe experiment some more. Once you are back, we can go over the results.” I promised, getting a numb nod in response, before she walked away, shaking her head in disbelief.