Prior to the Firing Experiment

Joseph

I was preparing the materials I needed to craft the most basic and rudimentary gunpowder. I’ve ordered my servants, Tellon and Kall, to take some of the sulphur and charcoal hand it over to my station, but their eyes seemed nervous while their hands trembled from terror.

Oops.

I may or may not have frightened them with some explosion the other day while experimenting with the same materials they had in their hands. Afterwards, they repeatedly showed hesitation in proceeding in with the experiment as they’ve tried to dissuade me. It didn’t work but their repeated actions of dissuasion bothered me while their mumbling for mercy irritated my mind. And now, they’re afraid of touching the substances they’re handing, but they regardlessly kept handing them towards me.

A few moments later…

Let’s just say that having a lit candle nearby the powder wasn’t a great idea, I thought. But I blame Tellon and Kall. Their fault, not mine.

An hour ago, I ran out of magic crystals to power the light system within the lab, and I’ve ordered other servants to arrange some for me, but they haven’t returned yet. And so, I opted to put a lit candle to continue my work. However, I was frustrated by the lack of tools to create the needed flintlock parts for the musket, and I was building them on the left side of my table. To the right was a candle and further down the table was a good amount of gunpowder. Ahem, I also blame my infant mind, which my body and my souls devolution to its infancy had created a child mentality with the knowledge of advanced technology. Not a great combo. Add more frustration from Tellon’s and Kall’s vexatious mumbling and pleading to the mix, I exploded as any annoyed scientists would.

“Would you mind stopping your mumbling?!”

With my exclamation, I swung my arms for more demonstration of my irritation and annoyance but… I whacked the nearby candle… towards the powder… and the candle slowly rolled to the substance…

“Fuck! Get down!”

Startled by my warning, the two servants quickly followed suit in my actions, diving and ducking under a table far from my station. We waited for the explosion but it didn’t occur. Looking at the servants I gave them the coast is clear, so we started to stand up.

“Hey, I think that was a false alar-”

Boom!

And that, my friend, is where you can imagine a midget scientist and two scared, grown men screaming soprano, like girls, squatting down on the floor with hands on the ear. Though I was relieved to see that my work wasn’t too harmed from the explosion and was salvageable. But I need to seriously shut these servants’ mouths as they’re getting to me. And I crafted just the perfect plan. I just need some rope and two makeshift gags. Hopefully, no one thinks I’m sadistic… or into BDSM.

The next day…

Okay, I just put some sleeping potions inside the servants’ drinks and it seemed it was working since Tellon and Kall were slowly moving around dizzily with their eyes half-closed. Then, they slumped on the floor and were knocked out, while I proceeded to tie up their bodies and placed gags in their mouths. Trust me, it wasn’t easy, especially when disturbing thoughts kept occurring within my mind.

Am I a dominant or into men? Nah, I shrugged off the thought and continued my work on the first prototype of my musket.

As for the flintlock mechanism, I could create a model of it using my memories as a reference along with the magical substance that produces the shape from one’s imagination. If I’m able to describe with detail on the book, I’m sure that fire mages would be able to make them through forging. I’m not sure if I would be able to get regular civilians to mass produce them since there isn’t much tech do so, but expert blacksmiths might have a chance. At most, if I’m able to gain some mages to provide support, we should be able to produce more than a thousand in one year, given that the idea of an assembly line was revolutionized. However, my recent research for a more advance firing mechanism isn't as fruitful, as I'm missing memories and information. This might mean I would have to mass produce this basic flintlock mechanism. Hopefully later, in the long run, I would be able to formulate the necessary tech and methods to build a more advance firing mechanism as this one is barely efficient to be used in fantasy infested reality.

And there I was, staring at my creation before I placed it on a holding aiming at an armour on a stand. The armour was made of iron and was designed for strength-type aura users; it was heavy and created for utmost protection. This type of armour was usually used rank four and fives, but it wasn’t the materials that made it so. It was the inscriptions, that rose defensive powers, engraved on the armour that made it valuable. I understood from certain books that inscriptions that strengthened defence didn’t produce shield by using their user’s energy, but it rather strengthened the material it was engraved on. In basic words, it made the iron armour stronger.

As for the reason why iron was chosen by the military, it was because other than the fact that the material was easily produced, the material itself could hold a few regular attacks, except special attacks, from a power enhanced rank six strength aura user (meaning they used their aura to transform their body and abilities for a short duration. Though it may leave some trauma from the kinetic energy passed. If the inscriptions were used, the armour could defend against an enhanced special attack from a weak rank six aura user. As for duelling against similar ranks, it will take skill and great energy management to be victorious.

I took some metallic shield platings and magically enhanced glass and placed them in front of me in order to protect myself from an explosion caused by the prototype musket. Just to be safe. Then I tied some wires to the trigger of the musket, which was attached to a lever that I would pull for the flintlock to work its mechanism.

Yet, before I pulled the lever, I saw something within the armour. It was a corpse, a female body that I’ve seen before. The eyes were diluted and were lifeless, while the arms sagged by her side. There was blood coming out from her mouth and radiation scars can be seen all over her face. It frightened me into standing there motionless before my arm had accidentally pushed the lever. It felt like I was there again and it was a memory that I didn’t want to remember.

The last thing that I saw before I faded into to darkness was my mother’s worried face in front of mine…