“Pardon me, Mr. Sean?” I heard a voice from behind me as I was relaxing after blowing up poor Bruce. There were bets going around as to how long it would take him to pull himself together, and several people were making impassioned speeches to the poor training dummy.

“Hmm? Oh, Hides-in-Reed, right? What can I do for you?” I asked, turning to see the guild secretary standing there looking a bit sheepish. Which was quite a feat on a lizardkin.

She cleared her throat and said, “Sorry to interrupt you and Magus Nolan, but I have a note from the guildmaster. He wanted to remind you that all physical bullet testing needs to be done outside the walls, and he highly recommends having Elendria and her summons there. He doesn’t know what 100 Kelvin is, but it is important to get close to it.”

My new friend, apparently Magus Nolan, looked at me so I explained, “It’s a way of measuring temperature back home. Water freezes at 273 Kelvin, and boils at 373 Kelvin.”

“Gods above, what in the world would you be doing that requires it to be that cold?” He asked, slightly horrified.

“Well, I was going to fill a bullet with a mixture of compounds, one of which is slightly unstable if you heat it up.” I gave a nervous smile as both people stared at me.

Hides-in-Reeds was the first to break the silence, “Slightly unstable? You mages and your penchant for understatements. Honestly, you’re just as bad as those damn alchemists. ‘Oh, don’t worry dear, heating a mixture of liquid flame essence and powdered dragonbreath flowers won’t do anything!’ I’m exercising my authority as a guild executive to issue the following orders. One, you absolutely will not test any of these experiments in town. Two, Elendria must be with you when you do whatever madness you have planned. Three, I am sending runners to the guards and the major shopkeepers. They will be informed of what you are doing, so that they can spread the word and not cause a panic. And four, whatever you do will be deemed as classified by the guild until we can figure out a safe way to disseminate this knowledge. Since you created, or will create it, assuming you survive, we can’t place limits on your use of it. We will ask that you be circumspect with how you pass on the knowledge. Now, I have things to do, please enjoy the rest of your day.” Spinning on her heels, she strode of with a determined gait.

“So. Unstable compounds?” Nolan asked.

“Yeah. Sorry, but I guess it’s restricted information. Probably for the best, as the two compounds were pretty scary even without magic.” Before we could continue, there was a massive cheer from the group near Bruce.

“Do they do this every time Bruce comes out?” I asked.

“Yep. They’ll take turns unleashing ultimate attacks on it. It’s not often they bring it out, the thing drains several large mana stones per hour. They’ll go until everyone has used their skills then put it back, and everyone will get wasted and tell war stories.”

“Ah, probably for the best if I head on out then. No sense in testing my luck with a bunch of rowdy adventurers and a broken leg.” I said, standing and excusing myself.

“No worries. If you don’t mind, do you care if I watch the tests tomorrow? From the safety of the walls, of course.”

“Go right ahead.” I said with a smile. “Though I hope I don’t disappoint.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

A few hours later, and I was lying in bed with Elendria relaxing on my chest, idly drawing with her finger on my stomach. “Hey, do you mind if I ask a favor of you tomorrow?” I asked.

“Hmm? Sure, what’s up?” She asked.

“Oh, I wanted to test out a new spell, but the guild is a bit concerned. They aren’t entirely wrong, mind you, but I will need your help if I’m going to be trying everything.” She raised herself up on one arm to look at me, so I explained, “Brian used his foresight, and highly suggested you be there. The stuff I’m wanting to work with comes from my world, and is unstable at high temperatures.”

“What do you call high temperatures? And just how unstable is it? Actually, why don’t you just describe it to be.”

I sighed and stared at the ceiling. “Ok. So, our world’s version of the alchemist is called a chemist. There was one chemist who wrote a series of papers I rather enjoyed reading, called Thing’s I Won’t Work With. Basically he finds examples of highly dangerous compounds, most of which you can tell by the name are going to be dangerous. The first one I want to try is nicknamed FOOF, as that’s what the compound is. Dioxygen difluoride. Every single bond in there is remarkably unstable. The poor bastard who did experiments on the stuff must have had balls of steel. At 100 Kelvin, or roundabouts there, this stuff is an orange liquid that likes to explode. If I remember right, just 70 grams of the stuff at that temperature releases as much energy as 400 or so grams of TNT. The other stuff I wanted to use doesn’t need to be cooled, but I forget the name of it. All I can remember is that it had six nitro groups on it, and what it looked like.”

“What it looked like?” She asked.

“Yeah. Depending on the compound, certain groups make things unstable. Nitro groups tend to be particularly explosive, especially when you have multiple ones. That increases again if they are attached to nitrogens, like in the compound I’m thinking of.”

“I think I see. And you said there were six of them?”

“Yep. And the bonus from this compound is that it doesn’t need to be cooled, and since it has so many oxygens in it there’s no need to really react it with anything else. A lot of times you can just set it off with a bit of energy and it will practically fall apart. Releasing a lot of energy.”

She laid her head back down and sat there for a bit before answering, “Ok. I’ll help you, but you need to help me first. I’m probably going to lose my contracted creatures when I go to evolve. I want to see if you can track two of them back to their planes, then take me there so that I can reform the contract in person.”

“If they are willing to do it, I’m more than happy to help out.” I said almost immediately.

“Good. Then let’s get to sleep, as I don’t want you messing with unstable stuff without a proper rest.”

We laid there for another five minutes before Elendria had another question. “Hey Sean? You mentioned 100 Kelvin, and I know I can get around 0 Kelvin. How big is the difference between the two?”

“Easy. It’s the same difference between freezing and boiling water.” I said, gently running my hand through her hair. “Anything else?”

“No, but keep doing that. Feels good.” She mumbled, snuggling into my chest. I smiled and tried to relax, but part of my mind kept going back to FOOF. Mostly it was thankful that I could build it with magic and not how they used to do it, which was absolutely insane. Who in their right mind heats oxygen to 700 Celcius and adds fluorine gas?

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next day we were at the south end of town, outside the walls and looking across the barren expanse towards the tree line. There were a surprising number of spectators on the wall, but I had tuned them out. Instead I was planning a bit of an earthwork bunker, and what would be best for our safety. While I could make it so that I raised the wall a bit after firing, that seemed silly when I could just jump down into a bunker if it looked like the mana shield was going to crack.

““Hear my call and come to a new hunting ground! My mana becomes your trail to follow. I call to thee, Arctos. He who hunts the souls across the frozen hells. I call to thee, Frigara, mother of the ice wolves. Come, join me in the greatest of hunts!” I heard from behind me, feeling the temperature drop as Elendria summoned her two wolves. “I swear, you two get more ferocious every time I see you! No, this time we don’t have anything to hunt, rather I have a simple request and a more complex one. But to make things easier on everyone, I need to summon some other friends. Will you agree to my hospitality for the day?” There must have been some form of silent communication, because Elendria immediately started her other summoning.

“Come, my frostlings. Return to my world once again.” I felt several surprised furry bodies flow around me almost immediately after their summoning, though at an alarmed squeak they lost all interest in my wall and turned to face the wolves.

“Be calm friends, and accept my offer of hospitality that Arctos and Frigara have already agreed to. I have need of both groups, and have the mana to keep you summoned all afternoon with no threats if you wish.” A few tense moments went by as the otter type creatures chittered among themselves, before I heard Elendria sigh in relief. “Thank you friends. Now, for the first reason I called you here. My friend Sean needs your help to maintain this temperature.” As she spoke, the temperature around us plummeted. I had already erected a shield to keep my heat in, so I wasn’t affected. Almost immediately I felt several different mana signatures flow into the spell Elendria was maintaining, taking control of it and dividing the work among themselves.

“Impressive.” I said, turning to look at everyone. “I can feel the two wolves working to get everything around 90% there, and the otters using their finessing power to get it the rest of the way.” An amused chuff and several preening chitters greeted my words, along with a smile from Elendria. “My name is Sean, and I thank you all for coming and aiding us today. I’m attempting a new spell that needs to be cold for a while, and I’ve made a bit of a bunker for everyone’s protection. If I feel the spell starting to slip out of my control, I will immediately send it towards the trees over there. I’m going to need a few minutes, though, so while I finish up preparing I think Elendria has one last question for you.”

“He’s right. Friends, soon I will be trying to evolve again. As you know, this means I will likely lose my contracts with you, which is something I don’t wish. However, there is a possible solution. Instead of me casting a blind summon again, even with my ability to concentrate on our former bond, I think I have an even better solution. Sean is able to create portals between planes. If one of each would be willing, could he attach a tracker to you? After I evolve in a few days, we would both visit and that would allow me to renew the contract in person.”

Again there was a lot of chittering and chuffing, but I ignored it. They would come to a decision, and until then I would try and figure out how to get this working. FOOF probably didn’t need an igniter, as soon as the contents warmed up it would explode. I was going to give it a bit of a boost though. I started with a conjured bullet, only it was hollow. I left the shell just thick enough to be stable. Inside I had an area of hydrogen disulfide, a gas whose worst effect was the smell of rotten eggs. A bullet, even a large one like I was creating, didn’t have enough gas in it to cause problems. I shot it toward the tree line, smiling as I realized the air inside the bullet maintained the temperature. The mana lining the inside of the bullet was the same type that I used to create my thermal shielding.

“Sean, they all agreed. How are you looking for things?”

A quick check of my mana had me shocked. I had used my sniper bullet for the base spell, as it was master level and cost 200 mana. The hollow bullet only cost 275 mana to fire, and I was recovering just fine.

“I’m good to go. If you guys want, the next bullet should have a small explosion. I’m only putting a little bit of the explosive compound in there.” I explained, creating another bullet and concentrating as I filled a small bit of a separate mana compartment with FOOF. I wanted to see the actual explosion, so I made the bullet nose rather snubbed so it wouldn’t penetrate too fare. I cut it off at around 70 grams of explosive, and fired. It shot across the gap, striking a tree and exploding with a decent fireball, about the size of a torso.

“That it?” Elendria asked.

“That was low powered.” I chuckled. “I went with the absolute minimum I could of explosive, and made sure that the bullet didn’t penetrate the tree. Hmm, 300 mana? Not bad.” I muttered the last bit, then made a new bullet. This one I half filled with FOOF, and left it with a normal tip. “Let’s check this one.”

Boom!

This one the poor tree never stood a chance. With the bullet penetrating before the explosion occurred, even a tree with a nearly two-foot diameter trunk like I had picked stood no chance. Shards of wood were sent in every direction, but that wasn’t all. Any tree that was closer than six feet was charred from the blast, and ended up leaning away from the force.

“Well, that worked a bit better. Arctos was impressed.” Elendria said.

“Thanks friends, but if you don’t mind go ahead and drop the spell. I think the other compound is going to work a bit better. Even if that spell only added a hundred and fifty mana to the cost.” I said. I felt them release their magic, but I wasn’t paying much attention after that. I needed all my concentration to make the compound I was looking for. It helped that it was only made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, as they were some of the most common elements. I just needed to add them into the proper places.

Start with two 5 carbon rings, and stand them up like they are on a table. Connect the tips. Dropping down the sloped sides, we need to change those four carbons to nitrogens, and add nitro groups to them. The bottom two remain carbons, but instead of directly connecting them, put a nitrogen midway between them. Of course, these nitrogens also get nitro groups, and the compound is finished. Eyes flashing open, I filled the inside of the bullet with as much as I could pack in there and in the very core added a small bit of pure fire mana behind a thin mana shield.

BOOM!

This explosion actually shook the ground and rattled my chest. As we waited for the dust to settle, I could feel the respect from the wolves and the interest from the otters. I conjured a bit of wind to clear the air, and headed over. The results were fantastic. The explosion had ripped into trees nearly ten feet away. Even better, it cost less mana to produce than the previous one, coming in at 300 mana.

“Well?” Elendria demanded impatiently.

“Well what? This one was better obviously. Stronger attack, less mana, and it didn’t even need the cooling effect.”

“Wait.” She said, glaring at me.

“What?”

“I know that look. You knew this was gonna happen, didn’t you?”

“What do you-“ I started, only to be interrupted with a finger jab to the chest.

“You knew this one was going to be better. The whole time. Why in the hell did you make the other one then?”

I gave her a sheepish smile as I frantically thought for an excuse. Well, one she wouldn’t get mad at. I was almost certain that if I told her I wanted to do it because I could, she would leave me entombed in ice for a few hours. “Um, I had to be sure.” I said after a fraction of a second. “Just because I had a feeling it would work better doesn’t mean that it actually will work better. Besides, now we can see if your friends will let me put the tracker on them, right?”

She let me get good and uncomfortable before crossing her arms and turning sideways with a hrmph. “Very well. I’ve talked to them, and they agreed. But they warned that protecting ourselves from the cold would be on us, not them.”

“That’s not a problem.” I said.

“Whoah, that was badass!” We both turned to the new voice, to see a seven foot tall demon stomping towards us. His hands ended in three clawed fingers and a thumb, and up to mid arm and knee were made of shiny metal that was covered in swirls of crystalized elemental mana. “I don’t think even I could take a shot like that, even with my new evolution!”

“D’VAEN?!” we both cried as it finally clicked as to who it was.

“In the flesh!” He said with a grin, holding up a hand that he easily morphed into a jagged blade. “So to speak.”