Just the propellant is not full gunpowder.

First, you need something to make it powder, or the granules would just stick together and that's not what you want. Second, the propellant only could be good for artillery, but used in small arms, it could damage the chamber or barell. So it needs something what would slower the burning. For this task are always used plastcizers, for example diphenyl amin. Here, there are no such things.

I had got idea of using the residue after overboiling tar. I even got some in inventory .

The small amount of gelatin was put into wooden bowl with piece of black, barely liquid oily thing. I carefully rubbed the tar into gelatin by piece of wood.

The result wasn't as successful as I wanted.

Just ignition of it was gruesome and there wasn't enough of oxygen in the compound to burn all the carbon so it produced a lot of soot. Result: failure.

A next attempt was with only quarter of the amount before. This had only particular success. Even though it somehow slowed the reaction, it still worsened the ignitability.

"The tar itself isn't good. Maybe if I ..."

In the next attempt was combined the tar with saltpeter which was then rubbed into the explosive gelatin. Now it was much easier to ignite it, there wasn't much of soot and it didn't burn so fast, yet it still wasn't alright.

Next to powdering, I followed the same mentality and used charcoal with saltpeter. I used more saltpeter than it was needed for burning all of the charcoal in the mixture because it would make up for the residual carbon from flegmatizer (tar).

I tried several possible options, and finally choose the one which seemed most passable.

When you have gunpowder, you still need three more things to make a round.

Primer, cartridge and bullet.

I've got some metals in Inventory and in meteorites and with my Shapeshifting skill, this would be just a child's game.

The real challenge is the primer.

Primer is unstable explosive sensitive to impact, higher temperature, friction, stab or electricity.

There are many kinds of such things, but both have one thing in common, they are highly dangerous. Manipulation with them or just even their production is dangerous.

Even the slightest mistake could or could not end in explosion. That is also dangerous about them, you never know how that compound would act. Everything may look ok, but there can be one crystal with higher tension than others, just waiting for some friction to make kabooom....

Many amateur "chemists" lost their fingers or whole hands in attempt to create some of them. I do not have any experiences with PEs (primary explosives) whereas I do have four major advantages, Shapeshifting, Scan, Inv and possibility to reheal myself with Heal potions.

And from that stands up one question.

Which one shall I make?

Hexamethylenetriperoxodiamin (HTMD)

Tetramethylenediperoxiddikarbamide (TTMD)

Mercury fulminate

Lead azide

Tetrazene

[Or something else? I dunno. So which one is the best]

Lead azide, the best option, high stability, high brisance, used in military. But hard to produce. Production of azides is damn hard, so scratch it out.

Tetrazene, also nice, but same problem. Aminoguanidine, material for it is something I don't know.

Mercury fulminate, the oldest of primers.

It is simple to create, but it requires mercury and mercury is not anywhere nearby. Also, the power is bit lacking.

So there remains HMTD and TMDD.

HMTD: little bit less stable than TMDD, thus twice more powerful.

Materials:Urotropine (Formin or Aminoform; made from formaldehyde and ammonia), Citric or vinegar acid, H2O2

TMDD: the most stable organic PE, only little more powerful than explosive mercury.

Materials: formaldehyde, H2O2, urea and HNO3 (both already acquired)

[So that is the dilemma. HMTD or TMDD

HTMD could be hazardous, it is mostly on random how stable it will be, but the power is good enough to ignite the propellant without help. On the other hand, TTMD is safer and the material requirements are more acceptable. However, I would probably need some kind of secondary explosive. Maybe just pressed nitrocellulose would do the trick…]

Half an hour later

After considering all pros and cons I decided for TTMD. Mainly for two reasons. First, I don't have access to vinegar or citres. Second, it isn't so hard to make up for the lack of power.

So now, how to make formaldehyde? Formaldehyde, the simplest of aldehydes, occurs naturally in atmosphere when other carbohydrates oxidizes. In nature, formaldehyde quickly degrades into other compounds. It also arises during burning for example, just in small amount though. Industrially, it is produced by oxidation of methanol (CH3OH), in presence of catalyzators (made from Silver or alloys of Vanadium and Molybdenum). That's it.

I've got some Silver. About ten grams.

For some small scale catalyzator, shall that be enough. Principle of production is catalysis of methanol by atomic Oxygen.

And there comes the Silver in the game.

At approx. 600°C the silver dissociates O2 molecule and the atomic oxygen then reacts with methanol. I have methanol. It is being created during colder pyrolysis of wood. Thanks to it, methanol is also called "wooden spirit".

Reactor is rather simple. Just a tube with highly porous Silver. In comes heated methanol with Oxygen and during the way through the tube, it is overheated up to the desired 600°C. Extract would do the remaining job.

The second materials much more problematic to obtain. One of basic compound used for many, many things.

The hydrogen peroxide (H-O-O-H, or H2O2).

Industrial process is impossible for me to perform. So I had to grab for old preparation.

You put sodium peroxide in water.

And sodium peroxide is made by burning metallic sodium in the air.

So, how to obtain metallic sodium?

Answer: hardly.

Sodium could be created by electrolysis of sodium hydroxide, which could be made by caustification process, the historical way of obtaining it. Into dissolved soda, you'd add slaked lime water. So that means I had to get lime somehow. That's done by burning limestone (CaCO3) at temperature over 800°C, then you slake the arose calcium oxide (CaO) with the water and voilà, you've got it.

I found nice limestone spot, in which there wasn't too much of impurities, took it out and crushed it into smaller stones. With Shapeshifting created I something, what looked like an hourglass, just bigger.

In the center, there was a grill for limestone not to fall down, where was furnace. The grill was angled and in the wall of the kiln, at the center, there was also a small hole for burnt lime to fall out.

I fullfiled the furnace and started the fire.

And Then, just added the wood and air.

The quicklime had to be grounded into dust before being added into the water. This particular action could sound boring, yet, it is still very dangerous. Slaking the lime is highly exothermic reaction, so if you overdo it, there will be splash of boiling water or calcium hydroxide flying directly into your face.

I was just glad, that I still had some soda with me, because producing it is just another pain in ass. I made some tub, poured the soda inside, then water and then finally the Ca(OH)2. Just then, the white dregs started to appear, slowly falling to the bottom.

I let it be and went away for lunch. Today's, ' menu: remnants of breakfast.

[Extract: NaOH]

Finally the caustification was done and could have proceeded to another step. Maybe even more complicated, than producing the NaOH.

Metallic sodium, as it has been already said, is producing by electrolysis of sodium hydroxide. Yes, only sodium hydroxide, not solution of it. So that means I had to melt it.

And this gives me two problematic words. Melt and electrolysis. Na OH melts at approx 320°C, not hard to obtain. It just means, that resistance in electrodes would be bigger, which means I had to produce more electricity. And that bring us to next problem.

Where to get that desired flow of electrons?

More accurately, for electrolysis, I need a direct current. The simplest option is to create alternator, however, alternator produces alternating current, so I would need to make rectifier and this is too difficult.

So I'd rather hop back to 19th century, where was the only mean of making DC some ineffective and problematic machine. The Dynamo.

Part No.1-stator. I made simple bipolar stator by reshaping two Neodym magnets which I got from HDD from our old computer which I disassembled and kept in my room. So even such trashy things could count as my property. Huh, sometimes is handy to be curious kid. So these magnets have I reshaped and put inside the iron skelet I also made.

Part No.2-rotor. I carved a wooden star with three tops. This one would be unconductive holder for coils. I the middle is a metal bar being put as a shaft.

Worse it was with material for coil. I used all the copper and silver I got from the meteorite, yet, it wasn't enough, so, I also used some redundant wires, I had. All this material was turned into wires and made three coils from it, turned around the three parts of the wooden rotor base. Each end of wire was connected to coil on the opposite side. These connections made collecting circle on the shaft.

And now, the final session. The commutator.

When the rotor rotates, the coil is once turned against the north pole of a magnet, and then against the south, so once it inducts positive current, and then negative current.

The collecting circle is divided to three separate parts. And the commutator are a two small desks, which don't move and lean against the collecting circle, so it connected to the coil, which is currently in one, particular phase. And like this, DC is being made.

Yet, the last task to solve. How to move with it ? I really wouldn't do it manually, but I also don't have any engine. So how?

[Hmm.... Hmmmm.... Hmmmmmm

Ahh... That's it!! My Shapeshifting can change a shape, so when you move with air, it is changing shape, isn't it? Hehehe!]

From iron, I made a conical tube. The base.

Then used another bar as shaft, and started to put blades on it, on one side wider than on the opposite, so it can fit in the base.

In the end, I got something like small steam turbine.

[Now just connect the shafts and... Hoorayyy!!]

[Shapeshifting!!!]

The air started to flow inside, yet nothing.

So I pushed it more, adding mana to the spell.

The air now had speed of inferior orcan.

*Shuuu* *Bzzhuuu*

And then, it moved, the rotation increased at speed, faster and faster. The sound of grieveling machine the reminded me one key step, which I forgot.

"Shit"

I reversed the flow, and it slowly stopped.

Do you know what I forgot?

To grease it. Such basic thing, how could I?

Now to the tub for electrolysis.

The simple quartz tub should be enough.

However, to be sure it won't crack, I added some iron plate in the middle.

Electrodes from iron would be sufficient.

Now just, pour the NaOH tablets inside and make a fire underneath.

Long time nothing, just then the white tablets started to melt to pure liquid.

[Shapeshifting]

As the turbine started to roar, bubbles of steam and oxygen bubbled up. Also, the opposite electrode changed the color bit, as the metallic Sodium appeared there.

Holding the air flow was very Mana comsupting, so I had to end early.

On the other hand, I didn't need much of it so the unused NaOH could have gone back to Inventory.

"So I had made it so far, huh?"

The next step to desired H2O2 is also dangerous. Burning Sodium in Oxygen.

To this, I made a iron cube, inner walls covered with aluminum. On pedestal inside was put piece of sodium, air substituted by Oxygen. Through a small hole, was on a metal bar piece of burning wood. I put the flame to Sodium.

*Shiiii*

Yellow flash of light encompassed the cube.

When opened, there was yellow powder in the cube. Sodium peroxide (Na2O2).

This process was repeated several times till I had enough.

Now the last step. I used the same tub as for making sodium, put the hot water in and then poured the yellow powder in, quickly cover it and run. The reaction is highly exothermic so lot of steam leaked from underneath the desk covering the tub. And after a while, I had just to Extract it. The H2O2.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are finishing.

All the effort to this single compound.

However, this one would make me even stronger than now, so it is worth it.

So let's do this, the TMDD.

I surely am not stupid, so I would make it only by a small amounts. It would be needed to be cooled, so I moved to the stream and put the glass vessel in the cold water.

The instructions are:

In water, dissolve urea, then add 12% H2O2 and 30% formaldehyde. Mix it, cool it and let it be for a while. Then you add HNO3 by drops. Let it react for a whole day.

[Ok so this will be it, let's go…]

After 24 hours

I prepared some filtration paper thing by pressing the fluff and shaping it by spell.

I filtrated the white powder in the vessel. Then washed it by soda water. I let it dry on the safe place.

3 hours later

The TMDD should be ready now.

I took to Inventory and poured out only several hundreds of micrograms on alu-foil.

Then wrapped it. Put it on the stone and hit it with long stick.

*Boom*

"Hahahaha, yay, I really did it"