I was definitively a Shinpilo's blessed one.

I fell asleep while worrying about niter and Shinpilo answered me.

That night my dreams to me back on Earth. It was a strange experience. Not only was I seeing my parents or my brother, but Shinpilo was bringing back all the feelings too. I was both missing them and at the same time, I was feeling guilty to consider them as my “true” family. It was like I was “cheating” on my new family.

I was back in Mr Turner's history class once more, in high school. I was sitting next to my best friend, Franck. Just seeing him reminded me how much I missed him, we parted ways after high school and life drifted us apart.

The point of my dream was that Mr Turner had us watch a documentary about the Napoleonian army and there was a specific moment where they were talking about the logistic of the imperial army.

My memory was specifically about the moment the whole class laughed as they were explaining how the French were using great factories to process faecal sludge into niter and then use it to fire on their enemies. Sadly I didn't pay much attention to the further commenting as I was entranced by Suzy's smile, two rows in front of me, she was my crush from back then. I only had a blurry vision of the screen where a man was stirring a mixture in a big pool, like those sea salt sun basins. Damn you Suzy and your smile.

I woke up immediately. In my rush, I also woke up Gel who was sleeping in her own futon next to me. She went back to sleep almost instantly after I whispered to her that everything was fine.

I needed to write this down, every detail I could. Finding light and paper in the middle of the night was harder than I thought.

In the end, I got arrested by a patrol. I had no pass to roam the inner palace so late at night and finished the night at the guard post waiting for someone to attest of my identity. They were not joking with curfew.

Shizu was my saviour but it was already fourth night bell when she freed me. After letting her lecture me on responsibilities and how I should carry lord Iroto's sigil on me at all times, I was finally free to find some paper.

I'd given anything for a good cup of coffee right now but will settle for the mint-like tea of this world.

There wasn't much to write down but I made a quick sketch of the pools to be sure to remember it. I was done before first morning bell and came back to my room right before Gel woke up.

Except for my sunken eyes, she wouldn't suspect a thing.

* * * * *

There was one thing I forgot to ask the troll: was there coal under the city?

Charcoal made from wood was better for gunpowder making, that I knew, but I would need coal at some point if I expected the city to start making steel or just any reaction needing heating in bulk.

While the girls were having their morning practice with the princess, I dragged Balout outside, we were going to the mines.

I didn't need an authorization to go out of the castle. It was getting inside that was troublesome thus why I was sleeping there more and more often.

We ambled through the industrial district and took a breakfast on the way. It was my treat and my way to coax Balout to follow me. It was a warm summer day so we settled for a light breakfast with a freshly squeezed juice and a “calamari” sushi. I don't know what beast had this kind of green tentacle, nothing I ever saw in the river. There was of course no rice, it was instead some kind of semolina made out of bunta that was coming as a side dish.

It was pretty good, fresh salty and a bit tangy but the tentacle had the flavour of something between tomato and chicken.

Once Balout deemed his belly was full enough and my purse empty enough to compensate for whatever I was dragging him into, we made the rest of our way to the Crack.

It was my first time going there. It was right at the bottom of the tallest mountain in the city. Its official name was Mt Roroa which meant “tall” in old Tanguana but everyone just called it the Shaft or Mt Shaft.

Atop of it was the lighthouse that diligently observed the skies and the mountain chains in the north, looking for any sign of monstrous activities.

Our main goal today wasn't the top of the mountain but instead its roots. The entrance to the mine was a small fortress. But one designed to stop things from going outside rather than inside. It looked more like a prison at a second look.

I asked one of the guards on duty at the entry to call for Onder and tell him Telerios wanted to meet him. He was dumbfounded when I flashed the Lord's sigil in front of him, Shizu was right, I should always keep this with me.

Onder wasn't happy to be summoned like that without prior notice by not one child but two now... “What do you pebbles want? To humiliate me in front of my men?” He grumbled. We weren't welcomed.

I sympathized with the pile of stones, he was facing a whimsy child and had to put on with it. I bowed my head in apology. “Sorry for the unannounced visit, it was rude of me. It's just that I realized there were so much more I needed to learn from you and your experience with the mine that my eagerness took the lead and here I am.” A bit of belly patting never hurts although I wouldn't pat for real his rocky belly, that would hurt.

I sounded right enough for him to take the bait. He raised his voice to be heard from the onlookers, “It is always my pleasure to have the lord's disciple come hear my teachings,” he was bragging around.

I rolled my eyes internally but I was happy to let him brag a bit, better this than having to argue for hours. “What was so pressing that you came at once?” he inquired in a milder tone.

“I wanted to know if you could give me a tour of your supplies? I'd like to see for myself what you have in stock and if you have sulphur and niter I'd like to take some too.” This was all property of the Shieldlord so I didn't need to pay for anything, the old lord's sigil would be enough warranty. I could splurge however I wanted.

He ground the two stone chunks that were making his jaw together. “Hrrrmph, I am quite busy right now. We are going to go on an expedition tomorrow and there is still much to prepare. Can I entrust you to my own apprentice? Mermer knows all about the ores we bring back and has already delved tens of times in the mine.” I agreed with his demand.

His apprentice was a troll that was a bit smaller than him, white as marble and with silvery nuggets growing like curly hair atop his head. Mermer was quite amiable and happy to take care of two guests from the “high castle”.

He took us to a storeroom. It was smaller than I imagined. I understood that the amount of ore extracted was scarce because mining was dangerous but I didn't think it would be that scarce.

There was a large amount of coppery ores, tin and zinc. Those were what our bronze alloy was made of. They even had quite the number of copper ingots. That at least, was enough if one day I wanted to pull cables for electricity. This was for a later date.

Iron ore was in sufficient stock but they knew only how to make bad pig iron and it wasn't sought after. The metal had a bad reputation, it rusted easily and could be more brittle than their bronze alloy. It was also less attractive compared to how shiny copper can be made to be.

Then the quantities available shrunk noticeably. A few gold ingots, gold was valuable in all worlds, and what looked like rarer metals. I am no geologist so I'm not sure but I think there might be manganese, lead, nickel, a bit of silver, and cinnabar?

Sadly there was no aluminium. This was expected because it isn't found as is in our world so why would it be different here? The problem was that I was far from mastering the electrolysis to produce any.

Finally, he presented us the non-metallic goods. There was some sulphur and a tiny pouch of saltpetre. I tasted the white powder like it was cocaine to make sure it wasn't just rocksalt. It was saltpetre.

There were also other earths and salts I didn't know of, I'll need to remember everything I could about my chemistry class before I could find a way to assess what those were made out of.

The gems and crystals attuned with Chi were locked in a vault and Mermer didn't have the key. Only Ondur or the Marshall could access it. It didn't matter, I wasn't interested in gems.

I took a pouch of sulphur and another bigger one of saltpetre, almost all they had in fact.

We were invited for some tea while the paperwork was done. My requisition of goods needed to be recorded.

While Mermer was pouring us some peach-like tea we discussed a bit more of what it was like in the mine. “Dangerous. Very dangerous. I'm a seventh rank Chi user but I feel like a helpless kid down there,” confessed the moving rock pile.

Being with younger kids made him more likely to speak his mind, “The underground is my people's turf but the monsters are disagreeing. When the light goes out in a narrow tunnel, the fight can quickly become gruesome. Even with Chi enhancing your senses, complete darkness is a terrible experience.” The pile of rock was faintly trembling, his way to shiver. “I once had to collapse a tunnel on a wounded soldier to stop a pack of drillers from shredding us all.” Reading Troll's faces is hard but I think he was expressing guilt.

I didn't know what a driller was but if it was able to shred a troll, I wasn't in a hurry to meet one. “We're lucky the legion is here, they are the best men in the city, strong and reliable,” he praised the men under the command of the Marshall. He was probably right to, they were among the best in our army.

There were even more dangers and hardships. “If you collapse the wrong wall, you can get flooded.” Again a terrible fate. “And then you still have to bring back all the rocks. There are only a few beasts who are small yet sturdy enough for the job, so most of it has to rely on strong Chi users.” That explains why it costs so much. Strong Chi users were bound to be rarer and costlier than commoners or servs. I had a few ideas as to how to help them: steam machines or waterwheels pumps to both pump water out and drag heavy weight, but also rails and carts to smoothen operations. I would need a lot of metal to make this real though and I knew nothing about steam machines, so it would take me a lot of time to engineer one. Gunpowder was easier and more urgent. Just having guns down there would help too, the rest could follow after.

What I was really interested in wasn't gruesome stories about mining, it was coal. “Did you ever find some charcoal like stone underground?”

“Fire spirit you mean?” he replied with curiosity, at least I think it was curiosity, the two white stones that were atop his beady eyes were rising like a surprised human's eyebrows would.“Black, brittle and that can explode?” he further defined.

I nodded, this was the stuff I was after.

Happy to have guessed right the young Troll explained, “Yes. We always collapse those tunnels. This thing can catch fire and then explode on us, more than one miner died in such explosions.”

He could either refer to dust explosions or to gas blast. “Do you use torches down there? Why not use light crystals?” Fire was a worse source of light and it was dangerous to use down there.

“We use both. Light crystals can get snuffed out by the suckers.” Seeing that I was looking confused he explained further, “Those are monsters that feed on the light. The damned leeches can suck all your light crystals from afar and you'll end up in total darkness before you can call Jalea for help. That's when we rely on Oreo's fire. Torches and lanterns are troublesome indeed but at least the suckers won't dare eat fire,” he paused dramatically before going on, “Those are for fire eaters. The magma larvae will eat our torches and that's when crystals are useful.”

“What happens if you meet both monsters?” asked a shivering Balout hiding behind his cup of tea.

“You die.” answered the troll with a waving motion that must be his way to shrug. “Luckily the two fight one another, so it is unlikely to happen but if you do meet one after the other, may Husnd have your back and Nasibor guide your steps home.” He made a triple prayer gesture to Husnd and Nasibor but also Arteus.

When there is no leader to guide them, it is not rare for different breeds of monsters to fight each other for food. When a leviathan appears it turns to a whole other story. Leviathans are kind of the equivalent of our blessed ones, only for the monster god instead. I wouldn't like to be working in the mine the day a leviathan will appear underground.

On this gruesome last note we took our leave with our bounty in hand.

I had a sack of niter and a pouch of sulphur. With a bit of charcoal, I was ready to rock their world.

At least, if I could make gunpowder, things were bound to change and monsters could be pushed back. If I was to succeed, any commoner could become as strong as a fire mage.