No Step On Slime

Chapter 6: Expedient Handmade Weapons

Ammonium nitrate is a rather versatile substance. On Earth, it's used in a bunch of industrial applications. Think things like mining and construction. Farmers also really liked it too, it was very commonly found in fertilizer.

I definitely found it useful, but not for those reasons.

Ever since a few particular incidents happened in the United States, buying up a large amount of ammonium nitrate would raise the eyebrows of plenty of government officials.

Understandably so. Certain people would use them to make lorry bombs and improvised explosives. Oklahoma City, 1995, was one of the deadliest examples.

I suppose my specific application wasn't too different from that. But ironically, I'm actually using it to help build a nation rather than tear one down.

But enough of my rambling about dangerous chemicals, I've already processed and stocked them all up outside. I'm sensible, or at least I like to think I am, so that's why I'm not keeping them inside or anywhere near the fires of the smithery.

There've been plenty of cases on Earth where ammonium nitrate caches went off, and they were all far from pretty.

I worked through the night after drawing out my blueprints. Kaijin taught me how to use the warm coals to get the forge hot and burning again.

Speaking of that Dwarf, I think the light and noise from the smithery caught his attention.

"Miss, are you really up so early?" Kaijin asked. He yawned and wiped his eyes.

It was still dark outside, the smithery lit only by a few lanterns and the forge that was burning red-hot.

"Don't need to sleep, remember?" I replied. "I normally take breaks during the night, but a lil productivity in the early morning never hurt."

Kaijin chuckled. "Morning? It's practically late night right now, but I suppose you can say it's technically morning. Couldn't sleep, so I might as well get started for today."

I looked at the Dwarf. "Did the hammering wake you up?"

"No, I'm used to the noise. Lived in a dwarven city, after all... No, something you told me awhile back has had me thinking."

"Yeah?"

Kaijin seemed to be carefully thinking his words. "You said that you might be able to change the world... it's a bit of an ambitious goal. When do you plan on getting started with something like that?"

"Right now. Come over here, I'll show you the blueprints I've drawn out."

The Dwarf stepped over. I set aside the metal I had been hammering out and shone the lantern over the piece of paper I was referencing.

"Back where I'm from, this thing right here contributed to the downfall of knight armor. Revolutionized warfare, changed the way battles were fought."

Kaijin picked up the sheet and scanned his eyes over it. "A spear? No, it looks more like some kind of staff..."

"Neither of those, this doesn't need an ounce of magic to operate," I replied. "Really couldn't ever get into the whole 'magic' thing... back in my homeland, we barely even used magic."

None, to be exact, but telling the Dwarf that an entire world exists where magic isn't used would result in a pretty lengthy explanation that I didn't feel like giving.

"Your homeland? How are things done, then? Surely it would've taken some magic to craft a construct like you."

"Physics and chemistry, that's how everything was run. Gadgets and gizmos to make life easier, advanced industrial methods to mass-produce these products."