The Alchemy Chamber

After passing through the corridor beside the hall, the two arrived at the courtyard behind the inn.

The courtyard had only one floor. Most of it consisted of guest rooms, while the rest served as the kitchen and storeroom. Rayne did not look around too much and followed Zoltan into one of the courtyards. Judging by the furnishings, this should have been Zoltan's own residence. It was very clean, but there were no other dwarves in sight.

Zoltan unlocked a room with a key. It was piled with all sorts of things and looked like a storage room.

Rayne watched as Zoltan pushed aside a cabinet against the wall, revealing a staircase leading downward behind it.

"Come down."

The dwarf offered no further explanation and led the way down the stairs.

Rayne hesitated for a moment before following him inside.

The staircase was not long, and they soon reached the end, where a spacious underground chamber appeared before them.

Several gas lamps lit up. Once Rayne could see clearly, he was rather surprised. The place was far larger than he had expected, nearly a hundred square meters in area and three meters high. It did not feel cramped or stuffy in the slightest; it could no longer really be called a basement.

However, Rayne's attention was drawn entirely to the machinery around him.

A machine resembling a lathe stood in the middle of the chamber. It looked thick, heavy, and somewhat old, yet it had been maintained very well. Its shafts, gears, and flywheels had all been polished until they gleamed with oil, without a trace of rust. The machine was connected to a tall boiler and was clearly powered by steam.

"A steam lathe!"

Rayne recognized it at once, but something about it did not seem quite right.

This machine was highly complex. It was not merely a single lathe, but seemed to combine cutting, forging, planing, milling, grinding, and pressing functions. It was like an improvised all-purpose machine tool. Besides the steam lathe, there were many other tools around it, such as a forge and grinding wheels. Various metal materials and components were stacked in the corners.

Seeing Rayne's expression, Zoltan said proudly, "This is my private workshop."

"Boss, are you a Mechanical Craftsman?" Rayne asked curiously. Earlier, he had guessed that Zoltan was an Alchemist, which was why he sold Alchemical Materials.

"Barely."

Zoltan shrugged. "I used to be a blacksmith in my clan, but I was terrible at it. Later, I came to the Empire to study mechanical processing. I was never very interested in making swords and weapons, though. Now I'm a gunsmith."

As he spoke, he drew the pistol at his waist and gave it two hard pats.

Rayne had never heard of a gunsmith, but he could guess that it was a craftsman who specialized in making Soul Guns. No wonder he had seen so many parts like barrels and springs among that pile of metal materials.

"Just when I was getting sleepy, someone brought me a pillow."

Rayne was thrilled. His plan had been to first confirm whether he could make gunpowder, then figure out a way to make a gun if he could.

There were many artisan workshops under the Steam and Machinery Guild in Longsand City. They sold all kinds of weapons and could also make custom metal parts, as long as one could afford them.

His earlier idea had been to order firearm components in batches from different workshops, then assemble them himself. But the total cost would certainly be high, so he had needed to make some money first.

Now that he had seen Zoltan's workshop, Rayne immediately had a new idea.

If he could borrow this workshop and make it himself, with the mechanical diagrams on his phone as a guide, he could save a great deal of money and quickly produce a gun.

Zoltan walked up to a wall and raised his hand to press against it.

Several silver lines appeared on the wall, forming a door that then opened inward. As it opened, it scraped against the ground with a dull rumble. It was clearly extremely heavy, seemingly made from a single solid slab of stone. An ordinary person would never have been able to push it open.

"This is a Magic Door!"

Rayne froze for a moment. It was his first time seeing a Magic Door, but what surprised him even more was that Zoltan seemed to trust him greatly, without the slightest fear of this being exposed.

That made him wary. Could Zoltan have some other motive?

As if he had guessed Rayne's thoughts, Zoltan said indifferently, "I didn't make this Magic Door. It and this underground chamber were already here before I bought the inn. There isn't anything particularly valuable inside. It's just where I store Alchemical Materials. Plenty of people who trade with me have been in there."

"Stop dawdling. Are you buying Alchemical Materials or not?" Seeing that Rayne was still hesitating, the dwarf grew somewhat impatient.

Rayne did not think any further about it and could only walk inside.

The hidden chamber behind the Magic Door was not large, only a little over twenty square meters. Its walls were smooth stone, and the entire room looked as though it had been hollowed out of a massive boulder. It was completely airtight. The only light source in the chamber was the gas lamp Zoltan carried in his hand. Since his hand kept moving, the lighting was very unstable.

Rayne secretly activated his camera and raised the brightness of his vision.

Several rows of wooden racks stood in the room, divided into hundreds of small compartments containing all kinds of materials.

Zoltan raised the gas lamp to illuminate the racks and said, "All my Alchemical Materials are here. I've used quite a lot recently and sold plenty too, but I haven't had time to restock. Take a look yourself and tell me what you want to buy."

"Alright." Rayne nodded.

There were more than a hundred kinds of materials here, and their variety was complicated. Most were ores and powders of various kinds, along with some processed plant branches and leaves, as well as certain strangely shaped materials that might have come from living creatures.

Rayne immediately found himself in a difficult position. He did not recognize most of these materials.

He remembered the recipe for Black Powder, but he did not know what the three ingredients were called in Aurelian Language. For the moment, he could not tell whether they were here.

However, some things were easy to recognize, such as alcohol and graphite. Both might be useful, so Rayne took them down and placed them on the table. He continued searching until his gaze fell on a glass jar containing black granules. They were dark and familiar-looking.

"Is this Black Powder?"

Rayne stepped forward and opened the lid. The smell of gunpowder reached him, and he was instantly overjoyed. He had been thinking of mixing it himself, yet there was already a finished product here.

"Boss, what's in this jar?" He pretended not to recognize Black Powder and asked casually.

Zoltan came over, took a look, and replied, "That's Fire Sand. Long ago, we dwarves used it to make ammunition for firearms, but its power was too low and it was difficult to preserve. It also produced a great deal of smoke when fired, so it was replaced by Phlogiston long ago. It has very few uses now."

After hearing that, Rayne was completely certain that this was indeed Black Powder.

So the dwarves had discovered Black Powder long ago, but had never used it on a large scale before it was eliminated by Phlogiston.

Rayne had heard of Phlogiston before. It was the primary material used to make Soul Gun ammunition. Like gunpowder, it could ignite and explode, but it required Soul Power to activate. He immediately understood that it was precisely because Phlogiston existed that the Aerenus World had never continued researching more powerful gunpowder.

Black Powder was not actually weak. The dwarves simply had not developed the most precise formula, so they had quickly abandoned it.

Still, this jar of Fire Sand was probably unusable. Its power was insufficient.

Rayne considered it for a moment and decided not to hide it from Zoltan. "Boss, I want to buy some Fire Sand for research, along with its formula and enough raw materials. Do you have them?"

"I'll take a look."

Zoltan did not ask what Rayne wanted Fire Sand for. He paced back and forth in front of the wooden racks a few times, then quickly took down three or four materials and introduced them. "Fire Sand is made from Volcanic Loess, charcoal powder, and Bitter Ice. I'll write down the formula for you later."

Rayne recognized them at once. Volcanic Loess was sulfur, while Bitter Ice was saltpeter. He also memorized the names of those materials.

After that, he did not buy anything else and asked Zoltan to calculate the price.

Since these materials were fairly common, not particularly valuable, and not bought in large quantities, Rayne only paid 100 Copper Liso for them.

Before leaving the hidden chamber, Rayne's gaze happened to sweep across the floor. Beneath some of the wooden racks, he noticed strange carved marks forming complex patterns. They were filled with dust and not very noticeable. If he had not increased the brightness of his vision, it would have been difficult to spot them.

However, he did not pay them much attention and followed Zoltan out of the hidden chamber.

After closing the Magic Door, Zoltan glanced at Rayne holding the Alchemical Materials and said, "If you're doing alchemical research, you can borrow my Alchemy Table for a few days. That way you won't set my inn on fire with Fire Sand upstairs."

As he spoke, he pointed toward a table in the corner of the underground chamber, where many glass vessels had been placed.

Rayne was naturally more than willing.

He did not just want to borrow the Alchemy Table. He also wanted to borrow the entire workshop and use that steam lathe.

"Thank you, Boss." Rayne smiled somewhat sheepishly. "I'd also like to borrow this lathe. Is that alright?"

The moment Zoltan heard that, his eyes widened, and even his beard bristled.

Rayne hurriedly added, "I can pay."

Zoltan's expression softened. After considering it for a while, he said somewhat reluctantly, "Paying is fine." He held up five thick fingers and said fiercely, "Fifty Copper Liso per day. Coal and materials used are charged separately. If you damage any tools, you'll compensate me at full price."

Rayne calculated the money he had left. It could support him for more than ten days, which should be enough to make a gun with his skills.

If he failed, he would have to find another way out.

For revenge, he gritted his teeth and nodded in agreement.

Zoltan made a round through the workshop, took stock of the materials already there, and left.

Rayne did not want to waste time. He immediately went to the Alchemy Table, familiarized himself with the set of glassware, and began preparing Black Powder.

He had once read a book about weapons and ammunition in the library. It not only covered the history of gunpowder's development, but also included methods for making various kinds of ammunition.

Black Powder was the simplest of them all, and it had left a deep impression on him, so he clearly remembered the optimal formula ratio.

Actually, Black Powder was not his first choice. Rayne also remembered a method for making smokeless powder with solvents. It was more powerful and not difficult to make, but there were no raw materials here, so he could only settle for the next best thing.

After several attempts, Rayne successfully prepared Fire Sand in just half a day!