"Hmm, that should do the trick"

It was already noon when I finished the reaction vessel. Stone boiler, standing upon the furnace with inlet and outlet for both steam and oxirene. Nearby was steam generator and overheater with its pipes leading to vessel. I started the fire under generator and overheater. Overheater is a series of small pipes, between them is space for fire, in old ages used in steam locomotives, increasing their effectivity by a lot. Overheated steam has much higher temperature, pressure and is dry. Thanks to it, trains were able to reach high performance and speed.

My OH wasn't so perfect. I designed it to reach temperature no more than 200°C and about two to four atmospheres (400 kPa). Or to be precise, this shall be the final pressure in reaction vessel.

The generator, basically normal boiler, started to evaporate a lot of water and I opened the valve to the OH. Meanwhile, I also started to heat the oxirene.

It took some time for OH to reach designated temp, so I had to refill the boiler too.

Finally, everything seemed OK, and I opened the valves. The reaction could begin.

There are many reactions while hydrating oxirene, many types pf byproducts, temporary compounds etc.

The first step of hydration is simple ethylene glycol. Then my desired DEG, next TEG "and so.

Naturally, there would be the majority of MEG and less of others, but MEG could still partially hydrate to DEG/TEG.

"Ah, it doesn't matter, I'll just keep extracting

Thanks to my Scan skill am I able to find out pressure and temperature, so I was actively controlling it. Sometimes let the steam vent out, sometimes add it. Add wood on fire and so on.

I was keeping the reaction until I still had some oxirene. The gain was about 80%.

What had I got was oily pure liquid. Highly toxic and flammable.

When I finished, I still had about half of afternoon. Even though I was tired, my motivation didn't let me rest. I took out piece of quartz and started to Shaping it into thin high flask. Quartz was able to resist the highly concentrated acid I wanted to pour inside. And so the next step begun. I poured inside the DEG I had. Next went inside the nitric acid at the concentration of 98%. Normally, the nitration mixture would consist also of sulfuric acid because nitration releases water and sulfuric acid has higher affinity for water than HNO3 so it works as a dehydrating agent. I didn't have H2SO4 so I had to do it with Extract. Only missing point before I could have begun was done when I found the nice cold stream in which I put the whole flask into, because the reaction is highly exothermic.

Surely, I wasn't stupid and poured the acid inside only bit by bit while constantly keeping Extract on.

I minded keeping some, or better, a lot of acid for later use. The DEG dinitrate is pretty good solvent of nitrocelulose, so I didn't need to produce lot of it.

Also, there were actually some byproducts, mostly DEG mononitrate, which is still nitrable to dinitrate, but damn, it is more work. At some point, decided I that I had enough and stop. All in all, this was success.

Obtaining raw and relatively pure cellulose is damn hard in forest.

Originally, I tried to Extract it from wood, but it didn't work. So I had to find something like cotton or another high cellulose containing material. I spent almost two hours blindly wandering around, looking everywhere, without any success. At start was it like this "Shit, where is that fucking thing"

Then "Where are you, fluffy cotton, where are you?" and finally "Pleaaseee, come to daddy, pleasee, come to mee!".

With every single minute my effort and motivation were lesser and lesser.

I felt tired, hungry and thirsty, so I leaned over some random tree and took a snack. Suddenly, some cone on my head from above. Usually, I would start cursing, but that time was I probably too tired even to do that, so I started to open the cone just from pure fatigue and boredom. I often say, that this world is making fun of me, that was the moment, which finally approved this theory. Under the cone's scales were small pieces of fluff, connected to the seed. Normally, I would start cursing even more, but that time, I was just looking at the fluff with stupid, lost and dumbfounded grin on my face.

It turned out, that the fluff was truly the right material, I was looking for.

"This is awkward from you, world, and from you too Mr. Whoknowswho."

Whatever, I just started with nitration.

Conditions were same as before.

Just with the difference that now was I putting the material into acid. Before use, I surely washed the fluff in the soda and dehydrated it by Extract.

Man has to be extremely careful, there ends all fun. Cellulose mustn't be there over three minutes, but I rather let it be for two minutes. As before, I had to do it without sulfuric acid, so I had to manually dehydrate it.

I just put small amount inside, set the clock and waited. After two minutes was it done. I carefully extracted it out.

The cotton was a little bit more yellowish than before.

[So, let's test it!]

Nitrocellulose isn't explosive itself. It deflagres, which means it burns really fast, so it should be safe to test it out.

I ignited a random stick, which was lying around and brought the fire towards the cotton.

There was just a blinding flash, in which the cotton disappeared.

"Well, mission successful"

Even though my expression didn't change even by little, inside, was I as happy as a small kid who finally got its so long desired toy.

I proceeded with nitration until the sunset ans spent almost all the acid I had. As I digged myself in my sleeping bag, I was still excited for next day, so I was able to fall asleep at 2:00 AM and woke up at 10:30. Classic.

What woke me up was some damned screeking, which was so terribly annoying that I thought my head would rupture. I immediately started to find the cause. There was big red bird in size of turkey, its crimson feather was almost gloving like lava, contrasting with its yellowish a greenish head, glowing too. The body of this bird was extremely aerodynamic, from heat to tail almost as long as I am high, and when it spread its wings, you could be able to feel pressure of pride and self-confidence. Yet its screek was worse than a damned crow.

"Uwaah, shut up bastard" said I sleepily.

The bird noticed me, but it ignored me completely. I picked stone and threw it at the bird.

"Get lost, you bitch!"

The stone missed the bird completely and the bird, I swear, started to laugh at me. As it laughed, I threw the next stone. The bird was too occupied by laughing, that it stopped to be careful and the stone hit it so hard, that it flung the bird off. In mid-flight, the bird waved its wings and with fallen pride, it attacked me. The pure anger was noticeable, when the bird tossed its talons at me.

I casually dodged and counterattacked with a simple push kick. Instead of it, my attack found its target and bird flew backwards like a wet cloth. This stirred it anger so much, that it started to scream at me. I just made a mischievous grin at this unsightly view of embarrassingly screaming noble bird.

Honestly, I also had lost my focus, which came back at me in form of burning inferno coming directly at me.

What was worse, the reason for this was that bird. Just by a sheer luck, I managed to dodge it. Fireball missed as close as hair is thin.

"Fuck, are ya crazy?"

However, that wasn't all. The bird started to chase me while spitting fire all around. I surely was faster on the ground. I ran as fast as I could, so I took some distance. The bird surely looked unhappy, waved its wings and took off.

It flew all around, zapping everything what crossed its way. Literally, this thing was like a dragon, or like a pocket firethrower. In a while, smoke filled all the area, which itself reminded forest in the fire with me in the center. All in all, the situation seemed bad and the bird didn't look like exhausting itself.

I grabbed my old good crossbow tightly, running behind a stone with fire in my ass. I somehow covered myself, so the fire wasn't able to reach me.

There, in the middle of burning square, stood lonely the crimson bird, engulfed in the fire. It looked like some kind of gunslinger before start of the duel.

On the other hand, me behind the rock, hiding like a soldier during artillery barrage. As I peeked a little bit, my eyes met those of bird. We stared at each other for a while. In birds eyes was pure anger mixed with pride, ambition and arrogance. In mine was placidity and intelligence, or I at least hoped so.

Slowly, the crosshair reached the bird's head. The trigger was slowly squeezed, until the bolt was released. In the same time, the burning inferno spewed out of birds beak. This inferno burned the bolt even before it reached my enemy, or it looked like it. The time it stopped, I clearly saw the charred stick poking out from the birds body.

"Fuuh, you gave me some take, lil motherfucker"

I uncovered myself, going to take my prey. Suddenly, I realized, that something was terribly bad. I knelt to cover myself by the shield just in time not to end like the bolt.

[Why I have to forget confirm the kill everytime, why? why? the fuck why?]

The shield, made from burnable material wouldn't last long. This time, again, the Holy Ghost enlighten me.

[Shapeshifting]

As the skill has been cast, the ground

broke up and created nice grave in which I survived the disaster.

The bird stood in the middle of square, full of pride that it eliminated that annoying ape, which allowed itself to hurt it. But now, the ape paid for its rudeness. It turned back, spread its glorious wings, ready to take off.

Suddenly, the cold piercing pain went through its back. For the prideful bird, the world started to be red and the body cold, just the pain was hot. Then the vision was darker and darker and finally, the death took it into its cold realm.

"You killed Flamingo Arie, ganied 970 xp. Level up!"

"Bitch, fuck, such awakening! If this continue, I will really need this grave for my funeral. Fuck again"

I don't like wasting resources, so the bird at least served as a tasty breakfast. And the feather would surely be great material for something in the future. Suddenly, the pop-up disturbed my thoughts.

"For eating the Flamingo, your body and mana pool gained Fire affinity. No spells at disposal"

[Eh? Fire affinity, huh? And what is it good for, when I don't have any fucking spell?]

I started dissolving the nitro-fluff, bit by bit in the DEG dinitrate. Surely, I am not stupid, so I only worked with small amounts. The cellulose has to be grind into dust, actually no problem, and then have been DEG poured onto it.

The product was ready, when it formed gelatine. Shapeshifting then took care of extrudation, forming small granules.

Impatiently, I took small example and ignited it.

*Shooo*

"Hahahahahaha, yesssss!, yesssss!"

I laughed like a madman, in the middle of charred square, after eating magical bird, because I created something, that burned too.