2.47 Powder and Lightning

After dinner and a few comments about the spider on my head later, mainly from Seralyn, it was time to say good night to the others. It wasn’t that late yet, but I had something I wanted to talk about, and quite honestly, experiment with, in our room. For that reason, I went to the hallway and fetched my polearm, much to the surprise of the others. I saw their curious eyes follow me all the way to our bedroom as Velariah followed me with a giggle, very much aware of their stares.

After closing the door, she closed the gap between us and took me in for a kiss, causing Minia to jump onto the hammock. She smiled widely as she broke away and her gaze shifted to the weapon in my hand.

“So, what's your plan with that? Please enlighten me.”

“Something I thought of while out in the forest,” I said as I removed the scabbard, running my hand over the blade, feeling the little electricity the steel contained connect with my fingers.

“It really is like a nine-volt battery,” I whispered the exact words that were in my mind.

“What’s that?” Velariah asked. “Is this another one of your experiments?”

“Well, no, but also yes. Hmmm,” I let out as I thought aloud. “How to explain…?”

I let my eyes run over the steel of my blade before I move it in front of Velariah.

“The power of lightning,” I said. “Feel it.”

She did as I asked and touched the blade before looking at me with confusion.

“I feel it, what of it?”

“Well, in my old world, we called this electricity, which is basically a form of lightning that we ‘tamed’ so to say. We have many things in my world that are operated by consuming a steady stream of electricity. This power could be stored in things we call ‘batteries’, which, in a way, are similar to the heat- and coldstones that you use. They can be transported and be used in tools you take with you out in the world. One very specific type of battery would feel almost exactly like this if you touched it with your tongue or a wet finger.”

“‘Wow,” Velariah let out. “Tamed lightning? That’s impressive. “You know, we have tried storing lightning in stones as well, but any attempt has been unsuccessful.”

“What if I told you I know how to do it?” I said with a smirk.

“No, you do not.” She said, trying to sound convincing, but my smirk made her doubt herself almost immediately. “You do.”

I nodded.

“You’re not going to believe how simple it is. That is, assuming you know what vinegar is.”

“Yeah, we always have some. What else do you need?”

I could see in her eyes she was excited to watch what I was going to cook up next.

“We already have everything. Well, almost. I wanted to do a bit of experimentation regarding my inherity.”

“What kind of experimentation?”

“Easy, Vel. If I’m going to explain everything at once I’m afraid I’ll overload your brain.”

“Then start with the beginning,” She said, as impatient as ever.

“That’s what I was doing, dummy. Then, you interrupted me.”

“Okay, okay, continue.”

“Here is the thing,” I started explaining further. “Electricity can be manipulated in a multitude of ways without using magic by just using the science thing I talked about earlier. One of the things we learned is that electricity can travel through metal quite easily. Some metals work better for this purpose than others. We call these conductors, and the best-known one is copper, which is also easy to get, but silver is another, as is gold. Here is the thing, steel is also pretty good.”

“Ohhhh,” Velariah let out, interrupting me again as things started dawning on her. “And now you wonder if your steelthread does the same thing.” She then paused for a second before I saw another figurative lightbulb turn on in her eyes. “And you’re wondering if you can create threads specifically for the purpose of forcing lightning through them.”

“Exactly,” I said. “But it doesn’t quite end there. If I can do that, I’m curious how far I can take it. I have no doubt I can create a battery, and if I can do that, and make threads with the properties I want, I can create something that can make a fire in seconds. Ideal for when we’re out.”

“And what’s wrong with Seralyn’s magic? It’s not like it takes long to light a fire when she uses her inherity’s power.”

“Let me have my fun for once, will you?” I said with a grin. “I can’t believe how excited I am. And here I thought I was never going to use this seemingly useless knowledge.”

“You’re not the only one excited,” The elf replied. “You got me all worked up now as well. I assume you want to use tomorrow to pursue these things?”

“You think I have the patience to wait?” I asked rhetorically. “Hell yeah, I’m gonna do this tomorrow. In fact, I wanted to check out one part now.”

“Always happy to help if you want me to.”

“Sure,” I replied while thinking of what else I’d need.

“How did you suddenly come up with these ideas, though?” Velariah asked while digging up my inherity sheet. It seemed she was one step ahead of me in that regard.

“Communication,” I said. “I grew frustrated at one point during the campaign at how long it took for messages to be delivered. I know of a method that is ancient and should be simple for me to replicate. Now, I’m not saying I want Valtheril to know of it and use it. I guess it’s more of an ‘I want to know if I can do it’ question, and who knows, maybe someday we can use it.”

“And what is that method if I may ask?” Velariah asked me with a sly smile.

“Alright, remember when I said metal conducts electricity? You make thin wires of metal and then send lightning through them. It will travel to the other end of the wire near-instantaneously, creating a steady flow. Alternatively, you can send short pulses this way, which can be seen as a message. We used to have a specific alphabet in my old world for this purpose. You would create short and long pulses which would stand for letters or a word, or a message. Three short, three long, and then three short pulses would be a call for help. We call it a telegraph system.”

“That distance…” Velariah let out, her eyes large with surprise, “Is there a limit to it?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea. As far as I know, it’s infinite, but I’m pretty sure that electricity can’t travel through metal endlessly. The current gets weaker as it travels further, so there may well be a maximum range.”

“By the goddess, that is insane. I know you’ve come up with the most otherworldly ideas already, but if something like this exists… I just can’t wrap my head around it.” She shook her head. “And yet, when you explain it like this, it all seems so, I don’t know, fitting, or logical in a way.”

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you were to see my world, you wouldn’t believe anything your own eyes saw.”

“What’s an iceberg?”

I blinked and had to do a double-take to see if she was joking.

She wasn’t.

“Uh, it’s a floating mountain of ice, usually found in the arctic areas of the world.”

“That sounds like quite the sight.”

I chuckled.

“It is for certain, but I’ve only seen them in pictures.”

“That has to be one of the strangest things. Being able to see things without ever going there,” Velariah said. “I still can’t believe such a thing can exist.”

“You have magic,” I fired back. “Do you have any idea how many people on Earth would throw everything that we have away, just for the chance to become good at magic?”

“Judging from your tone, quite a few.”

“Exactly,” I said with a nod. “Anyway, shall we try?”

“Sure. but do you have any way of testing it, I mean, without the battery?”

“Maybe, I can probably check it with my polearm, and if not, I can test it again with a battery tomorrow.”

“Alright,” She replied as I got in position and started thinking about copper, its softness, its electrical conductivity, and everything else that I knew about it. This had worked for steelthread, so I was hoping I’d book the same results this time around. At the same time, Velariah took her place behind my abdomen and started gathering the threads that were formed.

“Well, it’s doing something alright,” She commented as she and I both felt the stiffness of the resulting silk.

Just seconds after she said it, I felt the thread snap.

“Oops,” The white-haired elf called out. “My bad.” She apologized and pulled on the silk, slower than before, but the thread snapped yet again.

“Damn it.”

“Hold on,” I said. “Let’s grab the inherity sheet. I have a feeling I know what’s going on here.”

“Oh, yeah. You’re right.” She seemed to suddenly realize. “I’ll go get a knife.”

She left the room as I looked at the paper. Without the words being there, I could already guess what was going to be there as soon as I’d spilt a drop of blood on it. It didn’t take long for her to return with a wide smile as she closed and locked the door again.

“You won’t believe the looks I got.”

“I can imagine,” I replied, chuckling.

“And you look like you already know what’s going to happen.”

I nodded as she sat down on the edge of the bathtub, knife in hand and waiting for me. I offered my hand and after she’d made a small cut, let the first droplet hit the paper.

The words started disappearing, reappearing, and rearranging before ultimately settling down as the sheet finalized itself.

Name: Elania

Race: Arachne

Age: 25

Inherity 1

Toxin Assimilation

Grants the wielder complete immunity to all venoms and poisons that have the sole purpose of directly harming, or immobilizing the body. In addition, allows the wielder to synthesize any toxins that have previously been neutralized for their own use.

Inherity 2

Adaptive Body

Evolutions allow for body enhancements and improvements of existing enhancements. In addition, allows minor adjustments to be made to the physique.

Included enhancements:

Regenerative Blood-Multi Eye Vision-Exoskeleton Hardening-???-Arachnid Communication-Tremor Detection-???-???-???-Healing Molt-???

Inherity 3

Corium Enhancement

Allows Corium to be absorbed at a faster rate than usual for self, and nearby allies. Higher evolution levels increase this speed further.

Inherity 4

Silk Weaver

Allows for the infusion of magical and physical properties in created silk. New options become available after evolutions.

Currently learned:

Strong Sticky

Strong Non-Sticky

Very Strong Water-resistant

Fire-Resistant

Weak Steelthread

Rubber

Very Weak Combustion

Very Weak Copperthread

“Yeap,” I concluded. “That’s about what I expected.”

Vellariah looked at me with expecting eyes.

“Very weak copperthread,” I clarified. “Explains why it's so brittle. Seems I’m going to need an evolution or two before I can make proper use of the properties I intend to use it for.”

“So what do we do with this?” She held up an unbroken piece of thread, about ten centimeters long.

“How malleable is it?” I asked.

“Dunno,” She said as she handed it to me. “I’ll leave that for you to find out.”

When I played with it for a few seconds, I found out I could twist and bend it as if it was a copper wire without it breaking. However, when I tried to pull it apart, it broke extremely easily.

“Hmmm,” I let out. “So it has almost no tensile strength, but it can still be shaped without breaking as long as you’re careful. Not the best, but I think I can work with this.” I paused for a second, thinking about my other newly-acquired thread. “Makes me wonder if I can use my steelthread as well. Does it conduct electricity? I suppose we’ll find out tomorrow. Wanna get some more silk prepared?”

“Sure,” Velariah replied optimistically. “I’m very much looking forward to seeing what this can do… and how you plan to make this thing that can store lightning.”

“Coins, Vel, coins. You’ll see.”

“You totally ruined my sleep for the night.”

“I know,” I said with a smirk. “Let’s get a few threads and then at least try to get some.”

“Alright.”

And so we did. I created several more steel and copperthreads and tried making the latter a bit thicker. I was partially successful, and it did increase their resistance to being pulled apart slightly but it was still far from the copper I was used to. It made me think it may just be a good idea to combine several ultra-thin threads and then keep them together… like wires.

The possibilities with an inherity like this were seemingly endless and it had me stunned. Yet, it also made me even more worried. If any of this knowledge got out, I’d be in serious trouble, but then again, the concept of wires and electricity wasn’t known here. Even if people found out the wide variety of types of silk I could make, minus the rubberthread perhaps as I could see people coming up with uses for that, they would likely have no clue of its true value.

“By the way, Vel. What we’re going to do tomorrow… Do you think it wise for Elly and Valtheril to be present?”

“I doubt my dad will be home tomorrow, to be fair, so I doubt you’ll have to worry about him. As for Elly, well, if you don’t want her to know about this, I think she’ll understand if you ask her to leave us alone for a bit.”

“Might just do that,” I said. “You see, the thing about technology is, in the right hands, it makes life easier and safer. Now, I don’t think I’m a saint or anything, but I think I’m not going to abuse any of it to gain power. I do intend, however, to continue experimentation and hopefully later combine it with other things as a matter of self-defense and survival.”

“Like that other thing you mentioned? Something with powder?”

“Gunpowder,” I said with a nod. “Or black powder, but I’m being very, VERY careful with that. I’ll definitely look into it, but I just don’t know when it is a good idea.”

“Is it something you’d like to look into before we depart?” She asked. “I mean, if you plan to use it for self-defense, wouldn’t it make sense to have it ready before we head out into the unknown?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “But I think you may have a point there.”

I let out a deep sigh.

“Perhaps I do need to look into this sooner rather than later. Problem is, there is so much that I know about, but don’t easily know how to replicate. I know how to make the powder, but bullets, and moreover, rifled barrels will be a major issue.”

“What’s that?” Velariah asked curiously.

I chuckled and smiled as I walked to the hammock and prepared the pillows. Minia knew what this meant, reared her back legs, and jumped all the way onto the wall.

“Have I ever explained how a gun works?”

“Maybe. I may have forgotten, though.”

“Well then, my dear Vel. Allow me to enlighten you once again,” I said as I started taking off my only piece of clothing. “A gun is basically a hollow, metal tube. In this tube, you put the powder, and after that, you put in a projectile known as a bullet, which, in the first guns, was basically a solid metal ball. There is a tiny hole at the other end that allows you to ignite the powder which then explodes inside the tube. This pushes the bullet out with immense force. The armor we have is probably useless against its destructive power.”

“I…” She started before pausing to take off her own clothes, all while shaking her head. “I don’t know what to say.”

“There’s little to say. The first guns were pretty bad, but when they were improved over time, they ended the use of any melee weapons as soldiers would simply fall before they could even get close enough to use them. There are some pretty brutal examples of that in my old world, and now I know for sure that I haven’t told you about that yet.”

“Because you were afraid of how I would react to such information?”

I nodded. 

“I figured earlier that it wasn’t exactly what you’d like to hear, but I also don’t want to keep this from you.”

“It’s interesting to know about your history, but you also didn’t have magic… I wonder if high-tier metals, infused with magic and enchantments will stop those bullets.”

“Not something I’ve thought about,” I admitted. “But it may very well be the case. As I said, I’ll have to experiment, but I’ll also need Dworag’s assistance making a barrel.”

“A barrel?”

“That’s what we call the main tube.”

“Ah yes, you mentioned something about rifling. What’s that?”

“Well, I guess it’s comparable to what Seralyn talked about earlier. Thanks to her, I can now explain this with an example you can understand.” I smiled as Velariah climbed into the hammock. “The feathers make her arrow spin mid-flight which ensures its stability and makes it way more accurate. You can do the same with bullets by making spinning grooves inside the barrel. It’s incredibly important for accuracy and range, but again, I can’t do that myself.”

“Then don’t break your head over it. If you want, we could get my father involved with Dworag and have him keep his mouth shut.”

“I’d hate to force that upon him. Perhaps we should talk to your father first before we do anything like that.”

“Fair enough.”

I stepped into the hammock and took in Velariah for a close hug in the way that only I could.

“But that’s something for tomorrow,” I said softly before closing the gap and kissing her soft lips. “For now, let’s try to get some sleep.”

“Sounds great. Can’t wait for tomorrow.”

“Neither can I,” I whispered before clapping out the lights. “Good night, Vel.”

“Good night, El.”