Three weeks before the Months of Darkness.

I stood within a small lab at the Rock and Stone Foundation primarily used for chemistry.

It was there that I stood before heaps of materials.

Bags upon bags of saltpeter and sulfur laid before me, with more inside of a warehouse. I had spent a rather small amount of money for all this material, but that was only because this world had yet to find any use for such things. They were somewhat cheap, used in only a few special applications.

I even intended to buy more, but there was only so much I could process in a given period. This would be enough for now.

“Good, very good. Now, we can begin. Tiya!”

“Yes!”

Tiya jumped with a smile. She, Grace, and Rachel had followed me to this lab. I needed Tiya’s help, and the others wanted to see what I was doing.

And on a table beside me was the first prototype for my new line of flintlock rifles.

It wasn't much more than a long barrel secured to a wood body. The inner machinations of the flintlock mechanism had all been specially manufactured under my guidance alongside a local blacksmith. So long as it had the fuel, it would be able to fire.

I just had to make the fuel.

Recently I had also created charcoal, the third of the materials necessary. However, there was an underlying issue that I had identified in secret.

Not all charcoal was created equal. Different types of trees and their wood created charcoal that was more or less suitable to making black powder.

The reason for this was found in the organic components, primarily the nitroglycerin found within the wood. More of this reactive chemical would create more powerful black powder.

But using my Tool, I was able to identify the concentrations of these chemicals. I quickly found that the concentration of nitroglycerin wasn’t optimal.

This meant I would have to reduce strictly the carbon content to increase the concentration of the chemical.

And who better for that job than Tiya.

I gathered some of the charcoal, dumping a pile of it on the table.

My eyes focused on hers as I explained.

“Your power is that of controlling Carbon. This pile right here is called charcoal, and it's created by burning wood and leaving behind carbon. However, there are some other chemicals in there besides carbon. What I need you to do is pull out carbon, and only carbon, from this pile. We’re going to do some tests in order to see if your power works the way I need it to.”

“Okay. I’ll do my best.”

Although nervous from my expectations, Tiya rose to the challenge. She looked at the pile of charcoal and lifted her finger to it.

Her power was invisible, so all I saw was the pile shift around a bit as particles flowed out. They gathered beside it, forming an almost pure black pile.

I nodded, already seeing how her power was working. The charcoal was gray, naturally because it had things other than carbon within. But this pile was black, making it nearly pure carbon.

“Stop.”

I grabbed her hand after a small pile was formed. I didn’t need too much to be taken out.

She froze and her power deactivated. After I let her go, I gathered some of the other materials and some tools.

Within this chemistry lab were some measuring devices, so I grabbed them and started throwing different amounts of these ingredients together.

What made black powder so easy to create was the fact that every ingredient was easy to find and mix. Smokeless power or guncotton required sulfuric and nitric acid to form nitrocellulose or nitroglycerine from different compounds. Even primers for cartridges require these acids to fulminate mercury.

But black powder didn’t need any of that. Of course, the only reason I was stooping to this primitive compound was because of the looming threat to my city.

With these thoughts in mind, I successfully and easily created the mixture of powder. I also created a mixture with the unaltered charcoal.

Then, I took a match to them both.

*Woosh!*

The flame rapidly ignited the modified line of powder, burning through it much faster than the unmodified line. This clearly showed the distinction.

Tiya’s powers had increased the ratio of organic nitroglycerin to carbon within the charcoal. While it was never a significant problem, it would give better performance and efficiency. And with a little standardization, we could mass produce the better powder.

So with Tiya’s help, I spent an hour or so creating a basic system for charcoal purification. Basically, given a large box of charcoal, Tiya was required to pull out a certain amount of pure carbon that could fill a small box. The remaining charcoal would be the final product that could then be mixed to form black powder.

Tiya’s power made this whole process shockingly easy. Since she could only control carbon, she just had to remove a bunch of the dust. It came rather easily to her, though it still consumed her energy.

However, I also taught her about the dangers of this process. While the creation of black powder wasn’t chemically sensitive, it was dangerous thermally.

Over time, the room we were in started to fill with a hint of carbon dust. I grabbed Tiya’s attention.

“You see all this dust in the air?”

“I do.”

“Well, this dust is extremely dangerous.”

I grabbed a handkerchief and covered my mouth with it.

“One small spark can ignite this dust, causing a massive explosion. It would kill everyone inside the room. That’s because carbon is flammable, especially so in that dusty form. Breathing it in can also be dangerous over time, leading to sickness.”

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“That bad?”

Tiya was surprised by its danger. It was hard to believe that all this dust could blow the roof off this building with but a single spark.

I nodded.

“Yes, its that bad. Right now its not so dangerous since its light, but any more and everyone’s lives are put at risk. That is, unless you are able to pull all the dust out of the air. Can you do it?”

“I can try…”

She looked around for a moment before waving her hands.

With them, I could see the air shift, the dust swirling while congealing above her palm. It formed a small ball of black carbon.

But only the air in the vicinity was filtered, and Tiya seemed to be strained while grabbing it. While she could do it, it wasn’t as easy as controlling a pile of the stuff.

She walked around, filtering the air as best she could while moving. And after a few minutes, most of the dust had been captured.

But Tiya seemed tired. I pat her shoulder when she came back, causing her to smile through a bit of perspiration.

“Good job. The production of my black powder is important, but so is keeping my workers alive. And your ability happens to be perfect for this job. So I have a proposition.”

“I don’t mind working here. It’ll help me control my ability more anyway.”

“Good to hear, but I don’t intend to have you work for nothing.”

I turned back, looking at two boxes of black powder we had sitting on the floor.

“I’ll write up a contract for you. You’ll be in charge of purifying the charcoal and mixing the black powder. I’ll be sure to detail every step you need to take and for the first week or so I’ll also be watching you. It’s not difficult, so I’m sure you can pick it up easily. You’ll also be paid generously for your work.”

“Oh, you don’t have to pay me…”

“Please, as if I would let such valuable skills go unrewarded! And besides, I hope that you can continue to help me in the future. Dare I say, this contract is a way to keep you by my side.”

“O-oh…”

Her lips quivered as I gave her a smile. She mumbled after brushing back her silky black hair.

“You don’t need a contract to keep me here… I’ve already decided to stay with you.”

“All the more reason to give you something for your help. I won’t take no for an answer. You will have your money, whether you like it or not!”

“Hehe.”

She giggled while I turned away.

……

…

Rachel had a raised brow as she watched Audius and Tiya get along so well.

Grace had left while the two were working out a system of purification for the charcoal, but she had stayed since she had nothing better to do.

She observed from a corner of the room, seeing how happy Tiya was whenever Audius interacted with her.

Subconsciously, she started scratching her arm with her long nails. Each scratch left red streaks which promptly faded back to a healthy white.

This lasted for a while, but eventually, they finished everything regarding the coal and moved on to the meat of the topic.

Audius called back Grace as he brought his prototype weapon to an open training ground near the northern edge of the city.

In the distance, they could see all the soldiers being trained ruthlessly. Some of them weren’t even moving, having been so thoroughly exhausted.

Audius paid them no mind as he tampered with his weapon.

It looked like nothing more than a long metal tube. She was confused as to how such a thing could be a deadly weapon over something like a sword or an axe.

She watched as he loaded some of the previously made black powder into the barrel before taking a stick and slamming down a pointed metal projectile into it.

Then, he loaded a dash of powder into a pan before cocking back a few levers.

When all was said and done, he raised his arms and took aim.

About 30 meters away were a few wooden planks sticking out of the ground in a row.

Then…

*BANG*

An explosion rang out, a plume of smoke bursting from the barrel. The wind carried the smoke away as Audius lowered his arm.

The girls nearby were shocked. Even Rachel couldn’t keep her normal apathy.

They walked over, seeing the leftmost plank completely blown apart.

Grace grabbed a large nearby chunk of wood in awe as Audius explained.

“Basically, the powder we made explodes and pushes the lead bullet out at really high speeds. That bullet carries vast power that can kill even armored knights, at least at short distances. And if you have dozens of soldiers carrying these weapons, you can kill entire armies before they so much as touch your walls.”

“Amazing…”

The three girls marveled at the gun, as Audius called it. It could make a wooden plank explode. Just imagining what it would do to soft fleshy targets was horrific.

And it took no more than a pull of the trigger. To think that you could so easily kill someone without any form of training or skill.

Grace also felt enlightened.

If it were dozens, hundreds of these weapons against those monsters…

No wonder Audius had confidence.

She gazed at him while he observed the mechanisms of the gun.

Whatever knowledge he gained from awakening as a Sorcerer was far more amazing than she thought. She wondered just how much more he knew, and if he would be able to create any other amazing things like this gun.

……

…

‘Satisfactory.’

I nodded pleasantly as I felt the wooden handle of the rifle.

There was no rifling and no sights. This was a primitive weapon that was open to many improvements.

But even this was enough to buy me a ticket into the highest echelons of power and influence.

As of this day, this world had officially stepped beyond the age of sword and bow. A new type of warfare had just been introduced, one that would flip all preconceptions on their head.

And it would afford me the power to fight off any army that decided to intrude onto my territory.

Of course, any army that wasn’t formed of supernatural humans.

I had seen the powers of sorcerers, and I wasn’t naive enough to believe these guns could protect me from or kill everything.

There were deeper powers out there that capitalized on the abilities of sorcerers, that much was certain. They were the true threat to my rule. I was not the first to imagine the vast potential of sorcerers, and I was many steps behind those that had.

But I had knowledge, which took precedence even beyond securing capable sorcerers. With knowledge and tact, nothing could stop me.

I had these thoughts while running a few more tests.

I fired a few more bullets, exploding a few more wood planks. And when I was done, I packed up all the black powder while taking the rifle with me.

I stashed it within my room, particularly a spot only I could find easily. After all, I didn’t need Rachel seeking it out for some tests of her own.

Now, I had a definitive foundation for my army. This weapon proved that, even though this world was different with its supernatural laws, those laws didn’t render my knowledge useless. And being able to fire that weapon was the golden ticket out of this mess known as the Months of Darkness.

Everything now came down to production and construction.

I wasted no time in working with the local blacksmith. He was a man not usually concerned over his smithing business. He usually only had to repair broken tools for the farmers of the city. He was one of the few skilled metalworkers with the tools.

But ever since I enlisted his help, he was busy. And he wasn’t the only one. I had brought over another pair of blacksmiths that worked together, using all their resources and skills to expedite the production of the flintlock rifles.

Production wasn’t fast, even while pooling their resources under my authority and providing financial incentives. In fact, I wasn’t sure we would have my desired amount by the time the Months of Darkness came about.

The wall also wasn’t finished, even with the level of cement production we had achieved.

These facts would normally make one anxious. The looming threat was right around the corner, and even if I did manage to secure everything in time, it would be cutting it close.

But I was confident. The stakes were high, and I was putting almost everything I had on the table. If I needed to bring out my trump card, then I would.

But I would have my victory, no matter what it took. This city would be my foundation, the bastion of my rule, when the Months of Darkness ended.