Six months has passed by since I've settled down into Edward's fiefdom. The town of Nutra. Nutra is located right next to the chasm and is also right next to the ocean which at the opposite side is the continent of demons which you should know by now is a continent filled with beastmen and other non-human creatures the Empire deemed impure.
True to his words of the town being right next to a giant chasm filled with overwhelming mana and undead the village has a gloomy feel to it, the skies are always cloudy looking like its going to rain but never does, the trees and plants around the town are all sticks and branches with barely any leaves growing on them.
Despite all of those aforementioned depressive descriptions the inhabitants of this town are happy and content. When asked why, they will answer back with the fact that this town doesn't discriminate against them unlike the Empire and promotes the various non-human species to interact with each other.
When I first got here I was impressed by the diversity of the cultures present in the town . An example is how the dwarven citizens will contribute their works to the rest of the population. I was told by one of the inhabitants about how normally dwarves in this world will not share their works and even if they do it will be sold at a high price.
While I was satying here I'm surprised by the fact that they were able to grow food despite there being barely any sunshine. When I went to take a look at what they were harvesting or how they did it I was surprised.
What the town citizens were harvesting were wheat and vegetables despite it always being cloudy and there being very litle sunlight and how they did it was even more impressive.
What they did was that they made a green house of sorts. After the green house was done they then proceed to use fire magic to create artificial light for the crops to grow and when the time comes for the plants to be watered they used water magic to water the crops.
With this kind of system in place the town has a wierd combination of buildings that are of Romusian architecture to Elven architecture to buildings made of glass and always shining brightly at its outskirts.
Despite their ingenuity for producing crops and diversity of thier culture their military might is lacking. But that is mostly due to the fact that warriors killed by the undead tend to resurrect back as the undead and depending on their remorse they could resurrect as intellegient and powerful undead such as a lich or a vampire.
Due to this I've developed a weapon for the conscripted soldiers to fight with at a distance. That's right, I'm talking about firearms. However, the equipment available in Nutra doesn't allow for me to create firearms with rifled barrels or repeating mechanisms, such as a gas blow back or a bolt action so I have to make do with making a musket.
With that in mind I presented this idea to Edward who was at first skeptical about it but then relented and delegated a couple of mechanical geniuses who were mostly dwarves to help me with my endeavours.
So, after the six months that I was here the dwarves and I made our first musket after testing countless other models. It isn't anything fancy, just a tube of metal encased in wood with a ramrod slung underneath it by a series of metal loops and the gunpowder is activated by a flintlock mechanisn.
With the lack of understanding of chemistry in this world the chemical compound needed for smokeless gunpowder was unavailable but with the huge amount of rotting bodies and buried faeces we made the first batch of gunpowder this world has ever seen.
With the gunpowder and the musket ready I presented the musket to Edward and showcased it to him.
"Oh, if it isn't Pual? I see you have finished with that 'musket'project of yours." I approached Edward while he was gardening the front porch of his manor.
"Yes, uncle. The musket is finished." I then presented to him the musket, the ball bearing and the gunpowder.
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"So, how this thing works?" While Edward said that he pointed the barrel at his face which made me cringe.
"Uh... You put in the gun powder first." I handed him a pouch of gunpowder.
"This?" Edward siad while receiving the pouch of gunpowder.
"How do I put in the 'gunpowder'?"
"You do that by pouring the gunpowder through the opening in front of the barrel." I instructed Edward.
As Edward was about to pour in the gunpowder he stopped halfway through and looked at me with a questioning look on his face.
"How much should I put in Pual?"
"The gunpowder in the pouch is enough for a single shot Uncle."
Hearing that Edward nodded his head and began to pour the contents of the pouch into the musket barrel . While he did so a sudden gust of wind blew some particles of gunpowder into his mouth.
Tasting the sourness of the gunpowder Edward immediately started spitting.
"My gods this 'gunpowder' tastes horrible. What is it made of Pual?" Edward cursed while still pouring the gunpowder into the barrel.
"It's made of rotting bodies and faeces uncle."
Hearing that Edward started cursing and spitting out his saliva more.
"Okay, now that that's done what should I do next Pual?" Edward said after pouring the gunpowder into barrel and also spitting out a jug worth of saliva.
"Next, you put in the ball bearing which will act as the projectile."
I then took out a ball bearing out of a pocket in my pants.
"Here." I presented it to Edward.
Edward then took it and dropped the ball bearing into the barrel.
"Is this thing ready to activate?" Edward asked with a look of anticipation.
"Not, not yet." I shook my head. "You still have to seat the whole thing together by using the ramrod located here." - I indicated to the ramrod slug under the musket.- " And ram it down the barrel."
Listening to my instructions Edward took the the ramrod and and shoved it down the barrel seating the gunpowder and ball bearing.
"Is it ready now?"
"Not yet."
"How many steps does it take to activate this bloody thing?" Edward again cursed.
"After these few steps it is ready for fring."
"Quick, tell me."
"Erm... All you need to do now is just pull the hammer back which is this thing here."-- I showed Edward where the hammer is.---" And then once that's done you pull the trigger. Which is this lever down here."
Following my instructions the musket is now primed and ready to fire.
"Okay uncle, the musket is ready for you to shoot. Oh, before you do that put these in your ears." I handed him a pair of ear plugs fashioned from wood.
"What are they for?"
"When the musket fires it's going to emit a loud crack uncle."
Hearing my explanation Edward put on the ear plugs.
Once he was done Edward raised the musket via the way which I taught him so as to prevent the ball bearing from rolling out and stabilised it on his shoulder.
With a big grin on his face Edward fired the first shot from the first musket this world has ever seen at a wooden target set up 5 meters ahead of us.
With a thud the ball bearing landed right at the center of the target.
Seeing the power of the musket Edward couldn't help but exclaim.
"My gods Pual! This 'musket' will really help us in defeating the undeads!" Edward then hugged me in a tight embrace.
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A/N: YAY! First musket to be ever built in the world Pual's in. Anyways, next chapter is going to be more talking before the next fight which will be BIG! So, stay strong and push through the boring chapters.