Chapter 11: Ethan Learns Magic
Ethan and Mia went to the alchemist's abandoned workshop to make gunpowder. Ethan had requested that the town blacksmith grind three and one eighth kilograms of charcoal into a fine powder and then bring it over to the alchemist's abandoned workshop. Meanwhile, Ethan was grinding three and one eighth kilograms of Sulfur into a fine powder in the workshop and Mia, with her magically enhanced strength, was grinding the twenty kilograms of Saltpeter into a fine powder.
"What does this substance do when it is completed? How is a gunpowder a weapon?" Mia asked while grinding the saltpeter.
"When you put it in a confined container and then ignite it, it creates a big explosion without using magic." Ethan explained.
[If we put some of this primitive version of gunpowder into these small wooden boxes that are lying around this alchemist's shop, and then throw them at the enemy over the walls with a fuse attached we might be able to create a makeshift explosive weapon.] thought Ethan.
The small wooden boxes that Ethan was referring to were in a cube shape ten centimeters by ten centimeters by ten centimeters for a total volume of 1000 cm3. They were smooth and unvarnished, and seemed to be made of a soft wood resembling pine. They had a lid, which, when latched shut created an almost airtight seal. There were 27 of them in total lying around the shop. Mia had told him that that was the type of box that large orders of potions were typically packaged in.
Just then, the blacksmith entered with a cloth bag containing three and one eighth kilograms of powdered charcoal.
"Here is the charcoal powder that you asked for." Said the blacksmith.
"Thank you. Please set it right over there." Said Ethan pointing at the alchemist's workbench.
The blacksmith set the bag down on the workbench and then left the workshop.
"Alright, I've finished grinding the saltpeter." Mia said.
"And I'm just finishing up grinding the sulfur now. All that's left is to mix the three powders together and pack the powder tightly into these boxes and then we have our gunpowder weapon. The only trouble is figuring out what will be used for a fuse, but we can deal with that later." Ethan said.
"Fuse?" Mia said.
"It's like a slow burning string that will give the person throwing this device time before it ignites the powder." Ethan said.
"Well, I may know a way to give the person throwing this device time before it ignites the powder. It's not a slow burning string exactly though. We could use a 'delayed spark' spell." Mia said.
"How does a 'delayed spark' spell work." Ethan asked.
"It's a simple incantation spell that uses about 1/100 of a standard mana unit to cast it. You can set it to create a spark either after a certain amount of time has passed or once a certain condition is met. People often use it to light campfires because it is so simple to cast and doesn't use much mana, but under these circumstances, it could be used in this way." Mia said.
"So, we could cast the spell on the inside of this box, and set it to go off when it gets within a certain distance of lizard-people?" Ethan asked.
"Yes. That is possible." Mia answered.
They then mixed the three substances together in a large cauldron that the alchemist had left behind in his workshop. Once they had mixed it all together evenly, they had a primitive version of gunpowder. (Author's note: Just so that I'm being clear, I do NOT recommend that any of my readers attempt to create this substance. This is a work of fiction, and should remain that. Please don't do anything to injure yourselves or others. It goes without saying that just because the protagonist does something dangerous doesn't mean that the readers should.) The two of them then began to pack each of the 27 boxes to the filling point with a little bit less than one kilogram of gunpowder each. Once they had finished they had packed all of the boxes to the filling point. Once they had done that, Mia began teaching Ethan to cast a 'delayed spark' spell.
"I understand that you are good with language. A spell consists of two parts: the incantation and the dispersal of Mana. In order to cast a spell, you must use the Magicae language for the incantation and say exactly what you want. The thing about the Magicae language, though is that you must be perfectly clear and precise with your words or else the spell will not work. You must have no pronunciation or grammar errors or else the spell will not work. Your word order must be exactly correct or else the spell will not work. Any ambiguity in your incantation and the spell will not work. You must say clearly exactly what you want the spell to do. This is the reason why it takes ten minutes to cast a 'golden protective barrier', though the delayed spark is much quicker to cast. The words of the incantation become very redundant after a while. For example, to cast the delayed spark spell with the condition to create a spark inside the box when the box gets within two meters of a lizard-person, you must say the equivalent of 'Create for me a small point of burning heat in a spherical shape which is one millimeter in diameter, the center of which is at the center of this box of pine, five centimeters from each of four sides of the box of pine, five centimeters from the bottom of the box of pine, and five centimeters from the roof of the box of pine. Set the condition for the creation of this small point of burning heat in a spherical shape which is one millimeter in diameter that once the point five centimeters from each of four sides of the box of pine, five centimeters from the bottom of the box of pine, and five centimeters from the roof of the box gets within two meters of any member of the lizard-person species, the spell will activate. Set this spell to last for 0.1 seconds after the creation of the small point of burning heat in a spherical shape which is one millimeter in diameter.' in the Magicae language. This is why some people never learn magic, because it takes such a long incantation to do such a simple thing as creating a spark, and any mistake will mean that the whole spell, and the mana that you use go to waste. You must then release from yourself the exact correct amount of mana for the spell." Mia said.
"Well, that makes sense. You wouldn't want any ambiguity in a spell that you cast anyway or else you may get a result that you are not expecting. Alright, teach me the Magicae words that I will need for this spell, as well as the magicae grammar rules." Ethan said.
Mia taught Ethan for a couple of hours before Ethan finally thought that he knew enough words to cast the 'delayed spark' spell and that he understood the Magicae grammar rules. It seemed to Ethan that the Magicae language was very similar to Latin in terms of vocabulary, with the words that he had learned sounding very similar to their Latin equivalents, making it easier for Ethan to learn the new vocabulary words, as he had been majoring in Latin in his university back on Earth. The main difference from Latin was the grammar. It seemed that the Magicae language was not inflected at all. Not only did it have no declensions on its nouns and adjectives, but it didn't even conjugate its verbs at all. It depended entirely on word order and on adding extra explanatory words into its sentences to express the same meaning as a language like Latin would in fewer words. This made Magicae slightly easier than Latin to learn for the first time, but much less efficient to speak in than Latin.
Just as he was getting ready to cast a 'delayed spark' spell for the first time, Pieter Von Verafgelegen came in and said "Lady Von Ritter, the Lizard-people have begun their siege!"
"Ethan, I'll leave the rest of this to you. When you finish the incantations, distribute these among the knights and adventurers and tell them to throw them over the walls in the direction of high concentrations of lizard-people. Pieter, does the enemy possess any siege equipment? How numerous are they?" said Mia.
"They don't seem to have any siege equipment. My knights have spotted at least 350 of them through the trees, but the possibility remains that…" Pieter's voice trailed off out of Ethan's earshot as he and Mia had left the workshop and were quickly going in the direction of the village walls.
"Well, now I just have to perfectly cast 27 incantations in a language that I just started to learn today under threat of a siege of monsters while I'm surrounded by explosive material. No pressure or anything." Ethan said.
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