Chapter 9

Walking down the corridor beside the hall, the two of them arrived at the courtyard behind the inn.

The courtyard was only one story high, mostly consisting of guest rooms, with the remaining part serving as the kitchen and warehouse. Rain did not look around aimlessly but followed Zoltan into a part of the courtyard. From the decoration of the house, it seemed to be Zoltan's own residence, which was very clean, but no other dwarves were seen.

Zoltan unlocked a room with a key, inside which many things were piled up, looking like a storeroom.

Rain watched as Zoltan pushed aside a cabinet against the wall, revealing a staircase leading downward.

"Come down."

The dwarf did not explain further and led the way down the stairs.

Rain hesitated for a moment but followed.

The stairs were not long, and they soon reached the end, where an open basement appeared.

A few gas lamps lit up, and Rain was quite surprised. The place was much larger than he had expected, covering nearly 100 square meters with a height of about three meters. It did not feel cramped or stuffy at all and could hardly be called a basement.

However, Rain's attention was drawn to the machinery around him.

A machine that looked like a lathe was placed in the middle of the basement. It appeared bulky and somewhat old but was well-maintained, with various shafts, gears, and flywheels polished to a shine, free of any rust. The lathe was connected to a large boiler, clearly powered by steam.

"Steam lathe!"

Rain recognized it at a glance but felt something was off.

This machine was very complex, not just a single lathe. It seemed to combine cutting, forging, planing, grinding, and extrusion functions, like a multi-purpose machine tool. Besides the steam lathe, there were many other tools around, such as a forge and a grinding wheel, with various metal materials and parts piled in the corner.

Seeing Rain's expression, Zoltan said proudly, "This is my private workshop."

Rain asked curiously, "Boss, are you a mechanical craftsman?" He had previously guessed that Zoltan was an alchemist, which was why he sold alchemical materials.

"Sort of," Zoltan shrugged. "I used to be a blacksmith in my clan, but my skills were poor. Later, I learned mechanical processing in the empire, but I wasn't interested in making swords and weapons. Now I'm a gunsmith."

As he spoke, he patted the pistol on his waist a couple of times.

Rain had never heard of a gunsmith before, but he could guess that it was a craftsman who specialized in making soul guns. No wonder he saw many gun barrels and springs among the metal materials.

"Truly, when you're sleepy, someone brings you a pillow."

Rain was very pleased. His plan was to first confirm whether he could make gunpowder, and if so, then try to make a gun.

There were many workshops under the "Steam and Machinery Guild" in Longsund City, selling various weapons and offering custom metal parts, as long as you could afford it.

His previous idea was to order gun parts in batches from different workshops and then assemble them himself, but the overall cost would definitely be high, so he needed to get some money first.

Seeing Zoltan's workshop, Rain immediately had a new idea.

If he could borrow this workshop and do it himself, using the mechanical structure diagrams in his phone, he could save a lot of money and quickly make a gun.

Zoltan walked to a wall and pressed his hand against it.

Silver lines appeared on the wall, forming a door that opened inward. The door, when opened, made a dull sound as it rubbed against the ground, clearly very heavy, seemingly made from a single piece of stone, which an ordinary person could not push open.

"This is a magic door!"

Rain was stunned. It was his first time seeing a magic door, but he was even more surprised that Zoltan seemed to trust him so much, not fearing any leaks.

This also made him cautious. Did Zoltan have other motives?

Zoltan, as if guessing Rain's thoughts, said indifferently, "This magic door wasn't made by me. The basement, including this door, existed before I bought the inn. There's nothing particularly valuable inside, just where I store alchemical materials. Many people who trade with me have been in here."

"Stop dilly-dallying. Do you still want to buy alchemical materials?" The dwarf became impatient when he saw Rain hesitating.

Rain didn't think much more and walked in.

The secret room behind the magic door was not large, only about 20 square meters, with smooth stone walls. The room seemed to be hollowed out from a giant stone, airtight. The only light source was the gas lamp Zoltan held, which flickered due to his hand movements.

Rain secretly turned on the camera and increased the brightness in his field of view.

Several wooden racks lined the room, divided into hundreds of small compartments, each containing various materials.

Zoltan raised the gas lamp to illuminate the racks and said, "All my alchemical materials are here. I've used a lot recently and sold quite a bit, so I haven't had time to restock. Take a look and tell me what you want to buy."

"Okay." Rain nodded.

There were hundreds of materials, and the types were complex, mainly various minerals and powders, as well as some processed plant branches and leaves, and some strange materials that might come from living creatures.

Rain was immediately stumped, as he didn't recognize most of these materials.

He remembered the formula for black powder but didn't know how to say the three ingredients in Aurean and couldn't immediately identify if they were here.

However, some things were very recognizable, like alcohol and graphite, which might be useful. Rain took them and placed them on the table. He continued searching and his gaze fell on a glass jar containing black granules, which were very familiar.

"Is this black powder?"

Rain approached, opened the lid, and smelled the gunpowder scent, feeling overjoyed. He had been thinking of making it himself, but it turned out there was already a finished product.

"Boss, what's in this jar?" He pretended not to recognize the black powder and asked casually.

Zoltan came over, looked at it, and replied, "This is fire sand. Long ago, dwarves used it to make musket bullets, but it had low power, was hard to preserve, and produced a lot of smoke when fired, so it was replaced by phlogiston and is now rarely used."

Rain was very certain that this was black powder.

It turned out that dwarves had discovered black powder long ago but did not use it on a large scale and was replaced by phlogiston.

Rain had heard of phlogiston before, the main material used to make soul gun bullets, which could ignite and explode like gunpowder but required soul power to activate. He immediately understood that because of phlogiston, the world of Alrenus did not continue to research more powerful gunpowder.

Actually, black powder was not weak, but the dwarves did not develop the most precise formula and quickly abandoned it.

However, this jar of fire sand was probably not useful, as its power was insufficient.

Rain considered for a moment and decided not to hide from Zoltan, saying, "Boss, I want to buy some fire sand for research, along with its formula and enough raw materials. Do you have them?"

"I'll check."

Zoltan did not ask what Rain needed the fire sand for. He walked back and forth in front of the racks and soon brought down three or four materials, explaining, "Fire sand is made from volcanic yellow earth, charcoal powder, and bitter ice. I'll write down the formula for you."

Rain immediately recognized that volcanic yellow earth was sulfur and bitter ice was saltpeter, and he remembered the names of these materials.

After that, he did not buy anything else and asked Zoltan to calculate the price.

Since these materials were relatively common and not precious, and the quantities were not large, Rain only paid 100 copper risos.

Before leaving the secret room, Rain's gaze inadvertently swept the ground, noticing strange carvings under some racks, forming complex patterns, but filled with dust and not very noticeable. If he hadn't increased the brightness in his field of view, it would have been hard to see these carvings.

However, he did not pay much attention and followed Zoltan out of the secret room.

Closing the magic door, Zoltan looked at Rain holding the alchemical materials and said, "If you want to do alchemical research, you can use my alchemy table for a few days, so you don't burn down my inn with fire sand upstairs."

As he spoke, he pointed to a table in the corner of the basement, which had many glass containers on it.

Rain was naturally very willing.

He not only wanted to borrow the alchemy table but also the entire workshop, including the steam lathe.

"Thank you, boss." Rain smiled a bit awkwardly. "I also want to borrow this lathe. Is that okay?"

Zoltan's eyes widened immediately, and his beard stood up.

Rain quickly added, "I can pay."

Zoltan's expression softened, considered for a moment, and said reluctantly, "You can pay." He extended five thick fingers and said firmly, "50 copper risos per day, plus the cost of coal and materials. If you damage any tools, you must pay for them."

Rain calculated his remaining money and found it could last more than ten days, which should be enough to make a gun with his skills.

If he failed, he would have to find another way.

To avenge himself, he gritted his teeth and nodded in agreement.

Zoltan walked around the workshop, counted the existing materials, and left.

Rain did not want to waste time. He immediately went to the alchemy table, familiarized himself with the glass containers, and started making black powder.

He had read a book about weapons and ammunition in the library before, which not only covered the history of gunpowder but also the methods of making various types of ammunition.

The simplest was black powder, which he remembered clearly, so he knew the optimal ratio.

Actually, black powder was not his first choice. Rain also remembered a method to make smokeless powder using a solvent, which was more powerful and not difficult, but there were no raw materials here, so he had to settle for black powder.

After several attempts, it only took half a day for Rain to successfully make fire sand!