Author's note: I will take my slight creative freedom pass on this one. There are some mistakes, but I don't think someone can figure them out. -> Cut to some chemist who is actually working at a water treatment plant writing an extensive comment. This I would actually love.

Also, beginning in July, I will post only on Thursday and Sunday for the next months because of my semester exams and lab I need to do! Don't worry, though, I will post the coming Sunday :*

...

Wolfsteeth, Canalization

What was the most unpleasant place for canine-kin in the whole of Wolfsteeth? The canalization, undoubtedly. So, why would a very young canine-kin, wearing aristocratic attire, with his tail stuck into his pant legs after accidentally touching the walls, visit it with many soldiers and guards surrounding him from all sides? It was because he needed something, something he could only find here.

As Alexander walked in a seemingly endless tunnel, with his anti-gas spell needing to be replaced every five minutes, he was deeply in thought while observing a place he wished he never needed to enter.

This vigor, which vanished now but led him to this place, started with a letter he received from Aurum explaining their plan in such a vague manner that it could mean everything from starting a coup to wanting another suite in the hotel. However, when Alexander visited them inside the dump they called a room, he became fascinated by their idea.

First, with his current finances being drained from him, like the sewage water draining all the excrement, he was forced to be a little more proactive in his endeavor to gain more gold. Besides schools and his charity projects, he tried something else entirely after the love potion debacle. He wanted to reform prisoners and drug abusers, creating a more sustainable way for low-level offenders to rejoin society. However, the reason was less his love to help but a cold and calculative move than anything else. Reformed people like this were far more productive and valuable to society than those who only visited drug dens and committed crimes.

If this and the other projects showed that the fief made more gold and became safer, his Mother would fund it by herself, but it was too early to show any definitive conclusions. Until then, though, he would need to sponsor those projects himself.

However, because someone made a foolish decision, primarily and only Lila, whom he called lovingly braindead now, he was in a precarious position, forcing him to think about his finances, which had been stable until now.

Did Alexander want to know why she did what she did? Yes. Would it change anything? Not really. The operation would continue because he needed to move the camp away from the border, as he was in contact with them.

As such, Lila's quintupling his costs was annoying, but he wasn't the only one who suffered. Helena, her half-sister, was also somewhat forced into the situation. Sure, from her tellings, she could withdraw her branch from the merit bet, but it would lose a lot of trust and gold—something Alexander didn't want to happen to trusted allies.

Would it mean that Alexander had to cut Lila loose? Not at all. He just commanded her to sit still and learn. While incompetent, he trusted his gut feeling that she was skilled in other fields and was just tricked by someone who appealed to her hubris.

Other than that, when life gave him lemons, he would need to make lemonade somehow. Thanks to Ariana, who saw a golden opportunity in this disaster, she really squeezed them dry. She reacted quickly by suggesting they could partly make gunpowder in their territory, ship it over to the fire-djinns, finish it, and sell it to others.

As such, they already made a rough draft for their contract, with Alexander having immense profit margins. After this, he started to love the petite chameleon girl for having such a great idea, as she slowly lost herself in the craziness that was Moorgrel.

Weirdly enough, many didn't know the formula for gunpowder, but Alexander did. Also, Merlin did it, too. Thus, he advocated banning it during his time for many reasons. Fortunately, after checking through most laws regarding alchemy and weapons, while it wasn't allowed to be made in Mal-Gil, Alexander could still theoretically sell it to other Kingdoms or Empires.

Of course, the Emperor or Count, finding out, would have his head either way, whatever a dusty law book said. Yet, they were nonetheless bound by it and would try to follow the law as best as possible. The Council of Commoners, the Count, Higher Nobles, and the Crown all restrained each other as strictly as possible to follow the laws put in place by all parties.

Ignoring the law would make one untrustworthy, bringing much more negative consequences than it was worth to act outside of the law. However, Alexander believed little that he would have any way to mobilize others should he be found out. Instead, he would be executed on the spot. Thus, he needed as many friends and allies as possible, even foreigners, which was sometimes even better as they would connect through him with the Empire.

Regardless of the worst-case scenario, it was more probable that he would be just fine, especially since he built so many safeguards that it would be impossible to track him down or accuse him of anything.

Before he could think more about it, as he had nothing else to do while he wandered through the canalization, a giant rat jumped him from through the wall. However, barely anyone moved, with Alexander catching it while it hissed at him. He also immediately saw how dirty it was, throwing it into the sewage water, as he found it disgusting to hold. The rat hissed and screamed while arching mid-air, landing in the water with a plop.

However, seeing how the rat presumably cursed him while trying not to drown, he looked to the side where it came from, through the wall, "Is this..."

A guard approached him, trying to explain, "This is a closed area in the underworld. Inside are either a black market, a clan for illegal dealings, or something else entirely and most likely illegal."

Alexander looked at the guard, who looked bored while explaining the concealed areas in the underworld, 'Well, who knew that crime was that boring to a guard.'

He already knew the most important facts about the underworld and wouldn't want to get involved directly because of some literal vermin. As long as they let him alone, he was fine. The same was true for all the guards and soldiers around him who weren't here to look for a fight. They had a goal and didn't care about any hidden spaces. At most, he saw how someone tried to remember the place, probably informing others about it later.

When Alexander started to walk again, he cleaned his hand, using a spell, with which he caught the rat, falling into thought again and thinking of the best way to sell the gunpowder, noticing the irony that he was basically in the underworld where all kinds of illegal dealing were made.

However, he would act much more carefully and intelligently than some small-time thieves as he would not sell gunpowder directly. Alexander would make part of the gunpowder in his fief while using it for other products to create plausible deniability for himself should someone figure out that those chemicals were used for gunpowder. He even told his Mother that he wanted a better ingredient for the paper making, probably found in the canalization, which wasn't untrue.

Later, he would siphon part of it away to produce gunpowder, which he would then sell to the fire-djinns. They would process it further and sell it to someone else, maybe with a profit. It was as easy as that.

Other than that, the guards and soldiers around him believed that Alexander just wanted to understand the sewage system better, thus coming down here to protect him, but most knew that he didn't need any help. Therefore, they were pretty relaxed when a local vermin vigorously greeted him.

After cleaning his hand up and shaking the greyish flakes away, he suddenly was grabbed by his collar and pulled back, "Keugh... what the fuck?!"

As Alexander turned around angrily, rubbing his neck, he saw one of the guards apologize, bowing down, "I apologize, Mr. Alexander, but we are here."

Alexander looked at her and raised an eyebrow, "Here where?"

Some of the soldiers and guards chuckled, knowing Alexander too well, which made the guard, who pulled him back, barely hold her laughter, "At the... please just look behind you, Mr. Alexander."

Alexander frowned, turning around, and only now noticed that he almost fell down into a giant whirlpool of shit, "Fuck me... that's big."

All the dirty sewage water from the central district of the city flew down through this canalization from all sorts of water tunnels, falling down a giant waterfall, at least fifty meters (~55yd) in height, into a massive sea of shit.

Alexander already knew somewhat how it worked here, similar to Earth, but it was not by chance since he had read about it a lot before coming here, even getting a quick lecture from Anastasia.

When learning about it, the most exciting thing was that a name appeared in his research: Zhuge Xiao, who revolutionized the sanitary foundations of every Empire and Kingdom, revolutionizing the sewage system for this world, making it much better than before. A name so ridiculously different from anything else at that time that it was apparent who it actually was.

Zhuge Xiao was dead, and nobody knew her real age because she was older than the beast-kin and human calendar. Yet her tomb was inside the spirit guardian territory where most furries and fauners lived. Over the years, it transformed into a dungeon, with all her archived documents still inside it.

Anastasia found it exciting since Alexander's obvious predecessor had apparently documents written in a language nobody could read. Many thought it was some kind of code, but Alexander knew what the moron did write it in her language, maybe even waiting for someone like him who also reincarnated to read them.

However, there was a reason he thought of her as a moron in this case. Alexander didn't believe he could read her stuff. From her name, she was most likely from an East-Asian country, and going by his dealings with them on Earth, 90% of those couldn't speak a second language, even worse for older generations, and while he could speak four Earthen languages, two good and two okay-ish, he had no idea about Chinese, Japanese, etc.

Ignoring her probable inheritance, Zhuge Xiao was still remarkable, creating the same sewage system as on Earth with the spicy Orbis twist. What was it? Those were swimming inside the sea of diseases, trash, and worse.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Alexander strolled to the edge, looking at this enormous swimming pool and being dumbfounded, "I can't believe that there is basically a biodome down here."

Before him, inside the ridiculously disease-riddled water, were organisms of all kinds, swimming around happily, eating and being fat bastards. No other organism would survive in this environment, making them true winners, whoever could live and flourish here.

With those thoughts, an example showed itself: a fish-like being jumping up into the air, scooping basically waste with its sive-like mouth, and diving back down, 'Hm... not a picky eater, but this is definitely a no-go.'

The fish-like being wasn't the only monster down here. There were ones with dozens of tentacles and small mouths instead of suction cups, eating to their heart's content, transparent dolphins swimming and enjoying themselves, small and thin multiple meter-long snakes slivering through waste, and much more.

What was more impressive was that Zhuge Xiao domesticated all of those, and what he was seeing were slightly altered versions. What did they do? They ate those excrements, filtered the waste, and excreted relatively harmless things. It was a perfect symbiotic relationship.

However, it wasn't enough. While the organisms could filter through most of the water, it would still need to undergo the typical filtration treatment. The water would sink through the ground, going through many layers of stone, sand, and other sediments, landing back into the groundwater, and then spreading toward multiple wells. While not perfect, it was okay to drink it.

However, while immensely interesting, Alexander's attention was stolen by a monster sliding down on the wall. It was the true star of all those monsters and for what Zhuge Xiao was most known for: She discovered the actual value of slimes.

Upon focusing on it, Alexander smiled, seeing that using this giant-looking bacteria was a stroke of genius, "Look at you... you really fit the name."

Little to say, it wasn't appealing in the slightest. It looked like a greenish-yellow jello with a brown ring around its core, which looked like a tiny brain. From there, small and thin nervelike strings connected to every part of its slimy body.

From what Alexander read, it was clear that the monster had no sense other than touch, for which the nervelike strings were there. It was relatively harmless, at least the domesticated version, and could reproduce itself ridiculously fast through duplication. It could also be changed into different versions, making them process or digest other things than excrement.

Seeing its exact anatomy, Alexander licked his lips in excitement, finding what he was looking for, 'It has it to be.'

Alexander gestured for everyone to stay back and for someone else to take various small and big containers from a spatial pouch. After everything was ready, he marked a slime relatively close to him and used an air contraption to let it flow toward him.

The slime wiggled and wobbled, not because it was distressed, but because Alexander could barely lift it, with the thing being hefty, 'Why is it so fat?!'

After less than a minute, he put it inside a relatively big metallic container. He scooped some fresh sewage water out, filled the container with it, and tried to grab another slime, bringing it to him and into another container.

After Alexander was done, even though he didn't touch them, he already felt dirty but didn't say it, wanting to appear as uncaring as the others and not like some spoiled brat, which he was, "Okay, let's start the experimenting..." He held his hand toward a soldier, "...I need the container, which has the number one painted on it."

The soldiers gave him a glass container with a liquid inside it. Alexander opened it by removing the glass cork and squatting down before the slime, who was not inside the sewage water, "I already hate this..."

Alexander let the container float beside him, took off the blazer, threw it to a soldier, and rolled up his shirt sleeves. After inhaling and exhaling strongly, he took a small tea tong, usually used to brew a cup of tea so as not to waste much, and put it inside the slime, 'Urgh... is this how my doctor felt?'

It was squishy and disgusting, stinging only a little on his skin. Alexander grabbed with his tea tongs a part of its jello body beside the brown ring around the core, which made the slime jiggle slightly, and pulled out a good chunk of it, 'I hate my fucking life.'

Alexander let the container with the painted one on it float toward him, putting the scooped stuff into it. After some seconds of letting the container swirl around, a brown ring manifested, like the one around the core of the slime, 'I fucking knew it.'

So, what was he doing inside the sewer? To create gunpowder, he needed potassium nitrate (KNO3), and while he had potassium from the potassium chloride (KCl) he imported, he didn't have any way to get nitrate (NO3-). Usually, he could find some kind of mine full of salt or ore, which had some type of nitrogen and oxide combination, but it was easier said than done. Since nobody had tested the resources for their components and didn't know how to do it, it would all be guesswork for him. In short, it would be a giant waste of time, and he would need a lot of luck.

As such, Alexander looked for other possibilities. The first thing that came to mind, and also the most reasonable, was to create the apparatuses for the Ostwald process. With that process, he could transform ammonia (NH3) into nitrate (NO3-).

So, why didn't Alexander be more reasonable and create a standardized technical process? The technical process would require weeks or months of fine-tuning to create what he needed. Besides, if he didn't want to do it himself for weeks on end, he needed workers who would need to learn magic, and he already had been stealing loyal workers from his Mother. Fortunately, she let him do it since it brought an immense amount of gold.

While the paper-making process was far more complicated because he began at zero, creating nitrate (NO3-) wasn't much better, even though he had a much better fundament. Because of all the new processes and little manpower, he would have to sacrifice too much time, which he didn't have.

Alexander knew he should've started it far earlier as there was a need for nitrate besides gunpowder, and it wouldn't have killed him, but he didn't. He concentrated on many other projects, putting too many things to the back of his mind, and this bit him into his ass since he now needed the nitrate as fast as possible.

Because the meet-up would be in a few days, plus however long they would need to discuss it, he needed a fast way to ensure enough nitrate to create explosives so the refugees could operate smoothly and successfully start when they began their attack. As such, he looked for other possibilities and accidentally came across Zhuge Xiao and her work.

Were there other faster ways? With alchemy, he could whip out nitrate made out of urine like a machine. However, he had so much to do that he couldn't sit down and do this for weeks.

Other than that, he also could use another method: nitrification. He could use specific bacteria to oxidize the ammonia. However, he had no idea what those bacteria were and how to find them. He had a solid and fundamental basis in engineering, with basic college-level chemistry knowledge, but he was a moron when it came to biology and medicine.

Fortunately, he came across canalizations and the work of Zhuge Xiao and her slimes. With their descriptions and Anastasia's explanations, he figured something out: The brown ring around their core was nitrate, which bonded to iron.

Scooping some out, he tested it as he put it inside an iron(II)sulfate (FeSO4) solution, which reduced the nitrate to nitric oxide (NO) and oxidized the iron (II) to iron (III). As such, he guessed that the ball of slime had nitrate inside, but it was relatively uninteresting and only an indicator of something else, which he was about to test.

He looked at the other container with the slime and sewage water inside. The mostly now clean water intrigued him as it was relatively fast. However, his fascination could wait. He pulled the slime out with his air contraption, almost squeezing it like a sponge by instinct, and threw it into another container.

Alexander walked closely to the container and looked at the excrement of the slime. He took one, analyzing it more closely. It was like a brittle greyish stone, 'In a world of magic, as a noble, I am analyzing the shit of monsters... what a life worth living.' With that sarcastic thought, he let a ceramic bowl float to him, putting the slime excrement inside and conjuring a fire underneath it, wanting to evaporate all the water.

While the water vaporized, he looked around, finding it amusing that his escorts were bored to death and did not understand what he was doing. Also, while yucky, when Alexander looked at the canalization, it was beautiful. It was an elegant cycle developed to create sanitary conditions so others could drink water without becoming sick. Even more impressive was that someone thought of domesticating slimes, making this progress as close to a modern water treatment plant as possible.

Of course, there were some imperfections here and there, like the fact that the monsters living here needed to be exterminated occasionally. The environment was perfect for them, so they multiplied quickly. Yet, they were usually simply taken out and brought away to some village or town, used for the local lavatories there.

When he suddenly thought about it, he panicked, 'Wait... I could have used the monsters at the estate...' Feeling embarrassed, he ignored it quickly as he also wanted to see the canalization either way or at least this was what he told himself.

Alexander looked at the ceramic container to divert his attention from his dumbness. The suspension had turned into a greyish powder, which he tested similarly to the scooped-out part of the slime.

After putting it inside the container with a two painted on it, he swirled it a couple of times, and after a moment, a brownish ring appeared, proving to Alexander that his massive [Luck] attribute wasn't just for show.

Alexander turned toward the slimes, smiling widely, 'Yes... let's use you, my little gold-shitting gooses.'

...

The same day, Alexander's training room

How was gunpowder created? It was straightforward if one had all the ingredients: potassium nitrate (KNO3), sulfur (S), and charcoal powder. Mix them in a specific ratio together, add some heat, and create the weapon that makes stone walls an obsolete way to defend themselves.

Boom!

"Fuck yeah!"

Standing quite a distance away, Alexander used a fireball contraption to heat the gunpowder, making it explode. He felt exhilarating, almost blushing, as he always did when he created something new that could change the world.

Was it important to him that it would help the world? He wasn't naive. Leaders always used science and inventions in some way or another for war or other atrocities. Some were more straightforward than others, but none were exempt. Did Alfred Nobel's dynamite kill others? Yes. Did it also ease the lives of many more people or even save others? Also yes.

As such, did Alexander's morals plague him? Not in the slightest. Orbis was too different from Earth to consider gunpowder even to be a problem. Alexander knew it best: He shot his grandmother with a hardened earthen bullet into her head, whose impact was practically similar to a high-caliber sniper rifle. Without using any energy or skills, all she got was a scratch. The same was true for Barthomolew, who at least used his skills to defend himself against a metallic bullet.

Introducing gunpowder would, at most, give commoners a better way to defend themselves against low-tier monsters, not that he could sell it either way in their territory. However, with him giving it to his allies was also preferable. While there was no way they could kill higher-tiered individuals with it, it could be used to spread panic and kill all lower-tier soldiers, ambush supply chains, and more.

His first and most important goal was to let the refugees win with as little help from the outside as possible. If they used mercenary platoons made out of beast-kin and the Eros alliance races, it would become a weird situation, which could result in them seeing the refugees as what they were: a weapon others used.

However, if they could act mainly by themselves, at least initially, introducing mercenaries later would be more reasonable. The other problem was that Lila and Helena had this weird merit bet ongoing, and Alexander didn't want to lose them as allies. As such, he would need to balance the use of mercenaries and concentrate primarily on making as much gunpowder as possible so that every side would be happy.

Walking forward and looking at the area where it exploded, it was about what he expected. He would later create some neat weapons with gunpowder, though they wouldn't be guns, as manufacturing them was too much for him. As such, he wanted to make one-time-useable items like bombs or splinter grenades.

However, before that, Alexander wanted to test something else. He carefully pulled a one-kilogram sack (~2.2 pounds) out of his spatial pouch, laying it carefully on the ground, barely breathing, 'Okay, it worked with paper and ink. Does it here, too?'

It was gunpowder, but instead of the ordinary charcoal powder, it was the one from the tree with a massive amount of mana, which he used for paper and ink. He also focused on cultivating the species which had the most mana.

Walking back very far, almost 30m (33yd), he created a fireball contraption and threw it at the mountain of explosive powder. While he didn't believe something would happen, he promised his Mother to take his safety seriously, and fortunately, he did.

BOOM!

When the fireball touched the powder, it exploded, creating a massive shockwave and pushing Alexander from his feet, 'Fuck me!'

Alexander was pushed away, knocked away from his feet, fell down, and was barely able to orient himself as his ears ringed massively, 'What the fuck happened?!'

Looking where the explosion was, he saw Lili staying before him in her giant form, shielding him with her energy without a scratch herself.

However, when Alexander looked beside her, he saw a crater where the explosion had occurred, and he couldn't stop smiling, 'This is amazing.'