[This is a prologue, giving a glimpse as to where this story is headed. It spoils a bit of the story and I'd advise people to start with chap 1 instead. This chap 0 is only here to give an idea as to where this story is heading to.

If you don't want any spoil, jump straight to chap1, 2 if you don't care about Earth ^^ ]

I need more explosives.

A lot. And stable enough. I don't want to blow myself up or have my lab blown up -again- by a careless worker.

I peruse the numbers on my textbook, crossing out my previous overestimations. The niter beds in the farmlands won't start producing an ounce of saltpeter for a while. This is a huge setback and will slow down the factory operations for a while. The lack of supplies is what hinders me the most.

I'm on my way back from the southern herding grounds, sailing upstream the river on one of the Shieldlord's two-masted boat. My goal there was to assess the potential for expanding my niter production as well as improving the agricultural process so as to increase the food supply to the city.

The saltpeter processing in itself isn't that problematic: dungs and piss are easy to handle, my main disappointment was in the size of the herds: they weren't big enough for me to expect a substantial amount of manure in the near future. That and the time needed for the ammonium and potassium to crystallize and precipitate. It will be a year before this farmland becomes a steady supplier.

Monsters' raids on the cattle are disrupting the growth of the number of heads. Farmers can't work the land as well as they'd like to because of the constant threat of roaming monsters.

The Shieldlord doesn't have enough manpower to secure the farmhands and neither are his blades strong enough to enforce security around such a huge area.

They are thus reduced to work only on a small perimeter around the small forts they call nighthavens.

If I was able to procure more black powder and rifles, that would make the standard guards significantly more impactful, not everyone has Chi enough to fight against monsters and magic users are even rarer.

A small squad of guards with firearms could repel most roaming monsters, allowing for the exploitation of more land and thus more grazing grounds for more cattle, in turn giving me more manure for niter increasing the amount of gunpowder I can manufacture... A virtuous circle, if I can upstart the process. Plus more food thanks to more fertilizers.

I'm at a stalemate until I can provide this initial amount of firepower.

The trip wasn't a total failure though, at least for the crops I had some positive inputs to bring: irrigation can be improved with some water wheels. If I manage to smelt enough steel for them to be sturdy and long-lasting, this could be a huge boost to the yields even at constant surface worked. The additional food will always be a relief for the hungriest in the city.

The soil is also in need of some good liming, that's something I can arrange for easily: milling some chalk shouldn't pose any issue. Fertilizers should also be an option since there are some phosphorite veins in the mine under the city and with enough sulphuric acid I will turn it into an agricultural revolution. The acid is still a work in progress, I was able to make some samples but don't have the lab to produce it in the amount needed for fertilizers.

I had surprisingly little to teach to the herders, they know their job well. I could only improve their caretaking on mastitis and other local inflammations but won't dare try more surgery without antibiotics. I am still working with the priests of Charavatkeh on selecting proficient strains of penicillium, so it will have to wait.

My other option would be to convince the temple to garrison a Fursaad's priest, tasked with curing infections, but that is unlikely: these priests are most sought after for their ability to help in food conservation and to prevent and cure infections on the citizens.

Whatever advocacy I could make for my project, convincing the Temple to let one of them leave the city and expose them to monsters' raids will be quite the ordeal.

* * * *

While I was lost in my reflections, our boat got rocked by something huge bumping our quill. I can hear some shouts on deck, heavy stomps of armoured soldiers walking around, followed by some cheers. Whatever monster tried to go after our sailboat was promptly disposed of.

A light knock at my door diverts my attention from my desk, in the door frame appear the whiskers of my friend Melodi. The catgirl was appointed as my aide and bodyguard for the trip. It was also her first expedition outside the city.

“Any trouble on deck ?” I ask her without much worry in the voice.

She walks in with the natural poise of felines, her tail wagging nonchalantly in her wake:

“No, that was just some bigger than usual chogsu, nothing worth noting, Tel,” She waves the incident. “Although it is rare to get annoyed so close to the city. In fact, I came to inform you that we are going to pass under the southern Arch, wanna come on deck to have a look?” Her pupils are shrinking down to two slim slits as her excitement piles up. She's alway's been the most energetic out of us all.

The arch is the southern pass of the river through the city's wall. It is a 30 m tall hole in the black wall upon a natural chokepoint on the river. There is a customs office sitting at this bottleneck, the toll on every merchants' boats passing through the city is a huge source of income.

Traders coming from either the southern portcities or from the Beastkins empire have no other choice than to pass through here. The undersea or the landroads are far too dangerous to transport goods and only the boldest or the most desperates would risk those.

As we are sailing on one of the lord's boats, we aren't subjected to the taxing and won't be stopped, but the sight of the arch is always worth it.

Melodi knows that the view of the arch always amazes me: there is nothing like having your boat passing under a huge tunnel made of one block of obsidian. Well, maybe the underground river is even more impressive, far under the northern mountains chain, but mostly Beastkins will sail down there.

Our captain is using flags to exchange some greetings with the river guards in coded moves. They let us pass through without bothering us, the lord's crest on our sails deters them from seeking any trouble with us.

Melodi stretches her arms lazily, her light grey fur gently waving in the wind:

“I'm kind of happy to be back home. Can't wait to go back to the castle and finally grab a good meal for ourselves.” she licks her canines.

I'm forced to disappoint her: “That will have to wait a bit longer, don't become like Balout. We are going to dock on the eastern pier first. I want to go to the kilns to see where the construction is at, and after that, I'll need to go to the compost farms in silver bottom.”

She scowls, her flattened nose frowns in displeasure at the idea. Not that she can't wait to eat. In fact, I could also enjoy something better than our travel rations but the “compost farms” are my niter beds in the city.

They are supplied with the feces from the servs, since there aren't enough cattle in the city to provide me with manure, I had to resort to collecting human wastes.

The place is stinky and has a bad reputation because we had to buy slaves to work there. It also brought me all kinds of nicknames: Sir shit, Mr dung, professor stink, little turd, and other scat references more or less inspired, targeting either my age, social standing, or bodily hygiene.

I try to not care much: haters gonna hate.

It is only expected that a young commoner's child rising to such responsibilities will attract some irk from blades and other scholars who are less successful. The nicknames are more an annoyance than a threat, although I know my friends don't like them going around.

I just find it petty but do not have the time to care about it.

The grey kitten retorts “Do I really have to go with you Tel ? I mean, my nose is more sensitive than most.” she points at her flattened snout.

“You're the one who insisted to be my bodyguard on this trip. Now you have to assume for better and for worse.” I tease her. Yet I'm not entirely joking, I need some protection at all times since I can only defend myself to some extent. I can't make use of Chi yet and that makes me far more vulnerable than her. If heretics or even simple muggers wanted to have their way with me, I would be done for. Not even talking about an assassination attempt made by professional fighters.

I've got quite the bad reputation among some people and facing either violent mobs or straight out assassins isn't out of consideration.

A lot of people still don't get why I'm collecting the chamber pots of all servs in the district to hoard the disgusting material, stirring it in open basins. I've been working on the project for 10 months now and my first batch of salpeter should be harvested soon. I do not hope for a huge volume out of it, not as much as a real niter plant running on constant supplies of manure.

But that will have to make do: a little bit of almost pure niter after some processing is better than none.

There will be room for optimization of the yields, as I'm uncertain of the best ratio of ashes and quicklime to speed up the process. This will be one of my long term experiments running in the background.

With higher grade salpeter, I'll be able to make perfect black powder with far less impurities. Only then will I risk using mercury fulminate to switch from flintlocks to percussion locks and maybe some encased shells for a limited amount.

Shells will have to wait for more manpower, I doubt I'll have enough smiths to supply more than a handful of “artisan crafted” bullets, grapeshot will stay the standard for a while.

As of now, the state of the art is my personal gun.

I say “gun” but it looks more like a double barrelled sawed off shotgun. It is a flintlock muzzle-charged gun, the double barrel allows me to have two shots stored, each barrel has its own flint hammer.

The gun hangs, muzzle up, on my right side. It is always charged and ready to fire: you never know when danger can arise. The sheer weight of the thing imbalances me when I walk but I'll get used to it.

The arm long muzzle isn't rifled. I decided to stick with a smooth bored one and still use more grapeshot than real bullets. Making it a close range weapon more than anything else.

Most threats will have to come in close quarter anyway since this world is still relying on bladed warriors, so in the end, it works for me.

I know for sure that my gun's destructive power in close range is enough to defeat Chi users up to the middle stages, even if they are enclosed in magic imbued armours.

I also already had to blow up the head of a shelled monster once, so I know first hand what it can do. The only real downside being the two shots before having to refill and the latency before firing. All those problems make it a last ditch trump card rather than a main weapon but I'm not a fighter nor supposed to be in the heart of battle. If I have to fight it is already a last ditch situation.

Still better than nothing.

* * * * *

On the east deck there is a pair of Jalea's Thorns awaiting us. They are clad in silver armour and with their iconic sasumatas in hand: polearms with a U shaped fork on top. They have taken their helmets off, at least they aren't openly hostile.

I'm not surprised the Temple already knows of our return, flying patrols must have spotted us from far away. A blue figure blurs onto the deck as we are still more than 5 meters away from the shore.

When it settles down I can make out my most trusted friend. Gelcaria's purple eyes are shining with thrill, we've never been apart for such a long period of time and she didn't take well the fact that the catgirl was to be my bodyguard instead of her on this trip.

Before I can react, her small figure is already hugging me, her chestnut braid trailing behind her.

She became yet faster, I wonder if her Chi rose again during this week. She must have been in closed door training the whole time.

“Any problem during your trip, Tel?” she asks me before turning to Mel while patting my body from shoulders to hips. “He seems unarmed,” she states, as if making the inventory on one of her goods.

Mel scoffs at the comment : “How could he? I'm a better fighter than you are, of course I would keep him pristine,” she retorts with her nose up in the air, full of herself.

I don't dig the choice of words nor the overprotection but can't openly complain: if they were to league against me I won't be able to win an argument. I'd rather have them haggle with one another.

After parting ways with the captain, we meet up with the Jaleites sisters waiting ashore.

They obviously are displeased with our group: a Beastkin, a scholar of Shinpilo: one of the god they despise, and a purple-eyed girl sporting the castle's uniform...

The oldest comes forward, a blond haired woman, her braided hair is an uncommon colour around here: only the northern kingdoms have blondes.

“I'm spear Otocha and this is spear Koje.” she points at her black haired younger colleague. “ We are tasked by the temple to escort you back to the grand Temple.” Her statement clearly suffers no rebuke, yet I'm going to have to :

“I'm thankful for the escort, may Jalea bring justice on us.” She almost sneers in contempt at my prayer. “But I won't be able to go to the grand temple immediately. I am to first go to the eastern workshops, then to the southern compost farms,” at that I can almost see her silently enunciate “dung lord”. I do not pick up on it and instead I gently step in front of Gelcaria who is trying to burn a hole in the Jaleite with her ultraviolet laser-eyes and I go on:

“and after that, I am to report to the elder lord. Only after will I be able to go to the grand temple.” I stay as monotonous and contrite as I can sound.

This wasn't enough to convince my warden:

“You dare refuse an order from the pope? Who do you think you are child? Playing with poop can wait for after obeying the Temple.” Her tone gets a little bit more forbidding.

In the corner of my eyes, I can see Gel taking her steel tonfas in hand. I raise an arm to stop her before things escalate out of control. I do not fear for my friends, they are more than able to dispose of the pair in front of us but I don't want to deal with the aftermath:

“I obey the city's Shield first and foremost. This mission was under his patronage. If you disagree, you are to protest my orders with him directly.” I take a sheet of paper out of my sleeve: white paper. The sight of the luxuriant item is enough to calm down the amazons.

I'm lucky they can't read my alphabet, this was just a page from my textbook, discussing what I remember of the production of sulfuric acid.

The pair insists to follow me until I report to the Temple. I can't refuse and more escorts can't hurt, plus they provide mounts for all of us.

Gelcaria fills us in on the events of last week at the castle. Her breakthrough to fourth chi rank and the last rumours. Melodi and I both heartily congratulate her. Fourth rank is a major bottleneck, I can see a hint of jealousy in the kitten's eyes. Melodi will train even harder in the days to come; their sparring sessions will be worth the sight.

The kilns are almost ready. The eastern district already had some kilns to make what quicklime they needed for construction purposes but I changed the design: enclosed with refractory bricks to better exploit the heat and even bake some bricks or ceramics for my later needs.

On the far side, I even asked for a prototype shaft kiln, which might also become the first step for a blast furnace. The chimney is almost ready. If I can demonstrate the superiority of the design, reducing wood and coal consumption as well as increasing the quicklime output, it will make it easier to request the funds for a blast furnace.

Ores are one of the sources of the city's wealth. The mine is providing them generously with raw ores, crystals and gems. The processing of the ore on the other side leaves much to desire and there is room for improvements. They can only make bronze and some pig iron now, so the road to steel is still a long one.

After congratulating the manager and making an appointment for the first burning, we leave on to our next destination.

We ride on tojas: big fanged ostriches looking like chocobos but less cute and more intent to take a bite on the unwary rider. We cross the river on the second emperor's bridge.

Our next stop is less pleasant: the salpeter beds can be smelled from a block away. The latest and freshest batch is still smelling of sewer sludge or like a huge clogged public bathroom left in the heat of the summer for a month...

No matter how much hay or lime is added, it stinks. I don't dare add too much either, fearing it will interfere with the salpeter deposit, only adding more impurities to wash out later.

The two Jaleite soldiers can't hide their displeasure, frowning their noses as the pungent smell saturates our olfactory receptors with its stink.

They should have expected as much when they insisted on escorting the « poop lord » though, serves them well.

The plant's manager is a former slave named Murshid, a brown skinned man from afar. Although a slave, he is a scholar even more well-learned than I am.

He bows in front of us retaining the ingrained habit, even if he is as much a commoner as we are, now.

“Welcome back young master Telerios. I was expecting you soon. We finally harvested the pools one to three for almost 9 great bags of niter crystal,” he claims proudly.

The weighing unit is a mess.

I can't ell precisely how much this makes. I would say almost 400 Kg. Reforming the weight units (as well as length) is still a work in progress, most of the scholars don't understand why I insist that much on a standardized and unified unit system.

Taking into account the impurities I should end up with 380 to 390 kilos of purified niter. Which can be turned in half a ton of gun powder.

It took a year of development but this much could be game changing for the Shieldom.

Sulphur isn't a problem, there are veins deep in the mine and charcoal is easy to make. If my supply of quality salpeter is steady enough, so will be the supply of quality gunpowder.

After reminding Murshid the purification process so that he has all at the ready: glue, blood and enough water and heating wood, I congratulate him before warning him to wait for me to start the process. I want to be on-site to check every step for our first batch.

After another deep bow from him, we ride towards our next stop: the castle. My four escorts are happy to leave the smelly plant. As a proper sir dung, I try to look unaffected by the stench.

As I contemplate the castle, lording over the city atop its mountain, I ponder on how I will leverage the most resources out of the lord's coffers. I need to have access to steel in large quantity if I am to make rifles for a decent number of soldiers.

Steel in this world is costlier than gold.

Only the Nereians (fishlike merfolks) have a decent amount of it. I believe they collect polymetallic nodules from the seabed around underwater volcanoes to get it.

They should contain some steel mixed with enough nickel and chrome to make it naturally stainless steel. They sell it sparsely and ask for a hefty price out of it.

I'll need to convince the lord that I can make steel out of iron ore. With the funding for a smelter, I'm sure I could reproduce the most basic steel making.

I've read enough on it in my former life to be able to reproduce it after a few essays, as long as I keep a clear log of each experiment I should be able to meet some success. How hard can it be if even smiths in the middle age were able to make some? If I'm successful the Alchemists Association will hate me for good. Or revere me, both are possible now that more and more alchemists are working for me.

To that end I intend to make good use of the gunpowder: I'm thinking about making a bomb.

Some gunpowder with enough mercury fulminate at the bottom to trigger the explosion on shock, kept in a clay pot. If dropped from high enough by an aerial knight, it should explode on landing.

With some shrapnel inside, the area of effect and destructive power should be no less than what a medium rank fire mage can muster with his fireballs.

Which is a lot when one knows how rare mages are. If I can equip common soldiers (ok, air knights riding flying beast are not “that” common) with as much destructive power and for an affordable price, this would change the warfare against monsters.

And hostile kingdoms.

On our way to the castle, we pass in front of my local temple. The one from my childhood, where I celebrated my naming day and later got accepted as a scholar.

I can't help but take a trip down memory lane.