Chapter 17: Making Black Powder
Celi, mine sulfur from here..." Astra commanded with short breath. They arrived at the volcano side, standing over the volcanic rock that held the materials they needed.
[Understood! Unique skill ’Master Gatherer’ activated!]
Astra watched as the sulfur rose from the cracks in the rocks and disappeared into her inventory one by one, quickly moving to the next step without wasting any more time.
"They’ll be here soon, so I need to hurry..." she muttered to herself. Making a mortar and pestle appear out of nowhere, she set it on a high bit of stone and started to get to work.
"Start out by separately grinding each ingredient..." Her voice was barely audible over the scraping of the pestle against the mortar, her eyes narrowing with focus. "Careful not to let even a drop mix—"
When she was done, she moved onto the next step without skipping a beat.
"I don’t have any basins—so maybe a crater will do," she reasoned with herself, creating a portal halfway through the earth, which soon took a considerable chunk when it vanished. "There."
"Now, with water, you mix them all in proportion: 75% potassium nitrate, 15% charcoal, 10% sulfur," she called out one by one as they all went into the mixture, stirring carefully as the paste pushed back against her guiding hand. Her lips pursed together tighter as she continued, her slender hands flexing under each turn of her arms.
"Finally..." she murmured, wiping her brow and breaking into a soft smile. Looking on fondly at the product of her fine work "Now we let it dry..."