“Hey El,” I heard coming from the kitchen.

I walked over to the door and Velariah opened it, showing a glass bowl filled with what appeared to be just water.

“Is it supposed to be clear?”

“As far as I know, yes. All the garbage is now separated from the stuff I need. It’s still in there, but as the water cools down, it doesn’t mix as well, so you’ll see crystals appear over time.”

“Interesting. Should I just put this on the table to see if that theory of yours is correct?”

“It’s not really a theory, though,” I said with a smirk.

“It’s science.”

“Exactly.”

She placed the bowl on the table and sat down, grabbing a cookie for herself as Elly walked down the stairs, followed by Valtheril. He narrowed his eyes briefly as he looked at the bowl of water and then at Nira working on the wood, before assuming his relaxed expression from before as he walked off into the side room after giving a quick nod.

“Some more coffee?” Elly asked politely.

“I’d love some,” Velariah replied.

“Could go for another,” Draco said. “If that’s no trouble.”

“Of course not,” The maid responded. “Anyone else?”

Seralyn and Nira shook their heads, prompting her to walk back into the kitchen.

I then asked Velariah if she still had any of my rubber silk saved. She had, and fetched it.

I created a small ball out of it and used it to erase the barrel and trigger on the drawing I’d made. Nira looked at it with a strange look in her eyes, but when the general walked back into the room and up to the table to see what she was doing, I could see that she understood why I did it.

“I suppose this all is part of your invention?” He asked after he took a seat.

“Yup,” I replied as I continued to watch the harpy work. I could see she was slightly nervous now that Valtheril was present, but continued nonetheless. “Part of it, at least. Dworag is working on the other half.”

“Well, I’d love to see the results, but I promised to stay out of this matter.”

“I can’t imagine how frustrating that must be,” I replied. “But know that I wouldn’t ask something like that if I wasn’t sure it’d be for the better.”

“Elania,” He said, causing me to freeze. “You should know by now that I trust you wholeheartedly. That, combined with the fact that you know things I cannot even comprehend, and I’m not afraid to admit that fact, is more than enough to keep me out of this. The very last thing I want is a war to break out. Even if your inventions give us an incredible edge to defeat the would-be attackers, what is there to gain? We are at peace right now and our relationships are fast improving due to the additional trade goods and now the cooperation between us and the Flamarr kingdom with regards to the forest. Things haven’t looked this good in a long time. I can’t, and I won’t allow this to interfere.” He narrowed his eyes on me, then slowly alternated his gaze between each of us. “And I do trust you all to not leak any of this.”

“We’re being extraordinarily careful, father,” Velariah replied softly. “Elania’s made us all very much aware of the dangers involved, yet we determined it was still worth pursuing this for self-defense reasons.”

“That’s a purpose I can respect.”

“And we figured the best place to test it would be in the dungeon, for several reasons, including easy privacy.”

“The logical choice,” Valtheril concluded. “Good to hear you’ve thought this through.”

Elly returned with a large pot of coffee and enough cups for everyone but me. She made a second trip and brought in the rest of the necessities such as sugar and milk, and a glass of a strawberry smoothie for me.

Score.

After placing them, she looked at Nira’s handiwork for a split second, clearly interested, but then made her way upstairs.

“Yeah,” Velariah continued. “Elania and I figured now would be the time to explore these ideas she’s had for a long time. We are planning to eventually move out to Zerdania, and we’d like to have this ready before then.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then,” He said with a smile, shoving back his chair. “If you need me, I’ll be upstairs for a bit, dusting off some old books.”

“Research?” Velariah asked curiously.

“Research,” The general replied in affirmation. He never even poured a cup of coffee for himself.

What a waste.

“Well,” Seralyn said after Valtheril had disappeared. “Don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ll watch this all day. I think I’ll go to my room and, dunno, fix my arrows or something, I suppose.”

Poor her. She was left in the dark about what this would become and it seemed to be getting to her. Even if that wasn’t the case, and I’d misjudged, it was still no secret that she had a hard time sitting around. I was already surprised she'd lasted this long.

Although, building a battery with venom and coins was probably a lot more exciting than watching a harpy slowly but steadily carving a stock from a block of wood.

I, on the other hand, was completely content with doing just that. It proved to be useful too, as Nira did ask a few questions as she worked such as how thick the resulting craft should be. Despite not caring much about the looks of the object, I could see she was interested in having it appear somewhat decent, so I guided her hands for some parts of the process.

A few hours, some coffee and tea, and a bunch of cookies later, we had what I could call a crude, but well-made and solid stock for what would be this world’s very first rifle. Minia hadn’t stayed idle on top of my head. Her curiosity peaked and she’d jumped onto the table to look at Nira from all angles as she worked, putting a large smile on my and Draco’s faces.

“Well,” I said as the harpy made the finishing touches and smoothed out the timber with a piece of sandpaper that had seen better days. “I’ll admit it, I’m impressed. It looks beautiful. Thank you so much, Nira.”

“No problem,” She said with a shy smile. “It was fun to do. I hope it works.”

“I’m sure it will.”

I heard footsteps descend the stairs, and from my previous experience, I would guess that it was Seralyn. She somehow always managed to find the perfect time to show up, whether that was good or bad at that moment.

“Sup,” Was the very first thing she said as the door flew open. “Are you guys finished yet?”

“Yep,” Velariah said triumphantly. “You chose the best time to come out of the woodworks… get it? Wood works?”

I covered my face with all four of my palms at the worst pun I’d hear in a long time, but couldn’t help but feel an involuntary smile grow on my face. Nira was left giggling, and Draco seemed to mimic my reaction.

“Funny,” Seralyn replied, and without giving it much thought, changed the subject. “So what’s next?”

“Guess we could check up on Dworag?” The white-haired elf suggested while looking at me. “Maybe check the guild to see if Eric is there and apologize?”

“Let’s do that first. I think we owe it to him,” I said in agreement. “But first, let me get Minia back to our room.”

I held up the palm of my hand and the spider jumped onto it without hesitation. I placed her back on our hammock in the other room and told her that I’d be home as soon as I could.

Before I could leave, however, she seemed to want to tell me something. When I held my head closer to try to grasp her emotions better, I could tell she was getting hungry,

“Well then, let’s get you a snack, shall we?”

I skittered to her previous enclosure to find that the jar of insects was still there, filled with plenty of grasshoppers. I took a good look at the creatures inside and realized that I found these much scarier than Minia, whereas it would have been totally different earlier on. That didn’t mean I had a fear of grasshoppers. Far from it. But when I looked at their faces and strange mandibles and weird, emotionless eyes, they were just so… I didn’t know what to call it.

Minia just had so much more personality.

I fished inside with a set of tweezers and pulled one of the grasshoppers out, only to place it on the hammock, where it jumped away from the spider before sitting still, expressionless.

Minia prowled forward slowly and when she was close enough to jump, she went for it.

I shook my head at the sight and couldn’t help but remain astounded at how fast she was.

“Well, enjoy your meal,” I said with a grin and waved as I left the room.

She was holding on to the dying grasshoppers with many of her legs, but still managed to free up two to wave back at me.

“Seems someone is in a good mood,” I heard Velariah say when she noticed my smirk.

“Yup. Got any problems with that?”

“Not at all.” She held up the same linen bag that we had used to cover up the bowl of guano earlier, except this time, it was clear there was a wholly different object in it. The shape made it quite obvious and I understood what was going on.

“We’re taking this with us,” She continued. “I’m sure you know why.”

“So nobody else can find out about it by accident,” I responded.

“Well, yes,” She said, slightly confused by my answer. “But if Dworag is finished, we can check if things fit together well.”

“And that too,” I said in agreement. “But fitting is the least of our worries. We can always work the wood some more if need be.”

“Oh well, you’re the expert,” She said with a sly smile before running off to the hallway, leaving me behind to sigh.

“Expert is one hell of a big word…”

I lost track of how many times I’d donned my armor today, but I’d learned the hard way that going without it could spell disaster. After a hop, skip, and a jump, we found ourselves at the guild hall. It was late afternoon, and there were quite a few people about, collecting their rewards and ordering meals to fill their stomachs.

Eric was there as well, seated right next to the entrance, and immediately greeted us on our arrival.

“Hey,” I greeted him back. “Sorry about this morning. We were quite busy, and well, honestly, I kinda forgot.”

“That’s okay. All is well, I hope?”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling. “We’re doing well. How are you?”

“As good as it gets. I’ll be heading back home tomorrow for a bit before figuring out what I’ll do next. I wanted to properly thank all of you for the hospitality and help during my stay here.”

“You’re always welcome in Dawnleaf,” Velariah spoke for the party. “And if you do decide to come by again, feel free to knock on our mansion and ask the maid, Elly, for us. If we’re not at the guild or the dungeon, chances are we’re there, and if you tell her I gave you permission, it won’t be an issue.”

“That’s very kind of you. I’ll remember that. There’s no doubt I’ll visit this place again sometime soon.”

“Looking forward to it,” Velariah concluded, before nodding slightly. “We still have a bunch of things to do, though, so we hope you’ll forgive us for leaving you here.”

“No, no, I can understand. Don’t worry.”

“Thanks, Eric,” I said with a warm smile. “We’re looking forward to your next visit. Take care out there.”

“Same to you.”

He smiled as we walked off, not stopping until we were out of sight behind the tree.

Velariah was about to walk into Dworag’s shop, but just before that, we heard a ticking sound of metal on metal coming from behind.

“Can’t believe he’s still working,” She said before changing direction and leading the way down the alley.

At the other end stood a certain dwarf, using a pin and surprisingly small hammer to hit the inside of a breastplate with not too much force. Upon closer look, it was clear he was removing several small dents. As soon as he noticed our presence however, he dropped both tools and turned around to greet us with open arms.

“Ah. My favorite party. Have I got some good news for you.”

“You managed to finish the request?” I asked, genuinely surprised. I knew he said he could probably get it done before the end of the afternoon, but still.

“Aye.”

He picked up an item wrapped in cloth from next to his anvil and held it out in front of me.

“See for yourself. Let me know if it’s okay or if it needs more work.”

I looked over at Draco and from just one look into my eyes, he understood what I was getting at as he walked to the alley and stood there, watching if anyone would come this way. In the meantime, I opened the package and stared at what looked like an actual proper gun barrel.

It was as straight as it could be and the tiny hole at the side was exactly where I wanted it. I skittered to one of the lit forges to get some additional light so I could stare down into the object, but as far as I could see, this was an excellent example of what I had in my head.

“How’s it looking?” Dworag asked as he handed me the steel ramrod to go with it.

“Perfect,” I replied, causing Velariah to pull out a money pouch from her belt pack. I then considered asking him for small round, metal balls which would serve as ammunition, but quickly came to reconsider.

The connection of ammunition would be too easy to make, and despite Valtheril talking to the dwarf about keeping this all a secret, I figured the safest course would be to have someone completely unrelated to Dworag fix those.

Velariah paid the two gold and I was left staring at the dwarf’s creation, puzzles forming in my head. I supposed it all boiled down to one person once more — Valtheril.

I covered the metal half of the weapon with cloth again and thanked Dworag for his work.

“No problem,” He replied. “I’m here whenever you need something fixed. As long as I can do it, I will.”

“Thank you,” I said warmly before we left again, heading for home.

Once we were back at the table it was time to put the two parts together. Before that, though, I noticed the container on the table was starting to show signs of crystals forming, which had me relieved. This was one of the parts I’d been most worried about but I was happy to see I’d at least done something right.

How much the yield would be exactly remained to be seen, however. This was probably what would set us back the most as well, considering that this was the main ingredient of gunpowder.

The pieces didn’t fit well because when we created the stock, we forgot to account that the barrel would be partially set in the wood. Thus, we needed a bit more work done on it to create an indenture in which the barrel could rest before we fastened it.

When Draco asked how we were going to do that I had said we’d use my silk before I knew it.

“Will that do?” He asked in all honesty. “You said something earlier about a lot of force being applied to it.”

“I think it will be fine. The pressure is applied to the wood and my silk is quite strong. I can probably use different layers, or even different types to make sure everything stays where it is.”

I could already see a layer of steelthread to keep the barrel in position, and then a layer of strong silk around it to support it. In fact, I could wrap as much around it as I wanted to and it would still not be an issue for its power.

“An easy solution,” The lizardman continued. “But also a smart one.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“You forgot cheap,” Seralyn commented with a smirk.

“And that,” Draco confirmed with a smile of his own.

I covered the barrel again until Nira finished for the second time. I then tried to fit it again and found that it did, like a glove.

“Awesome work, Nira. Just awesome,” I said with admiration, earning a shy smile from the harpy. “I’ll get this finished in our room later, but this is great. Thank you so much.”

She merely nodded while Seralyn stared. Her eyes told me she was just dying to know how this contraption worked and I decided to reply to her inquisitive gaze.

“Soon, Seralyn, soon.”

“How soon?”

“Probably the moment we return from this next mission… if you can even call it that. I’m gonna assume this mixture is settled by then.” I pointed at the bowl. “And I’m gonna have to ask one more thing from Valtheril when he is finished with his dusty tomes.”

Within two seconds of me having said that, I could hear heavy footsteps coming down the stairs that could only be attributed to the person I’d just mentioned.

“Seriously, the timing of you people is insane.”