6.1 Bootstrapping

200 F.Y.

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*CLANG!*

The sounds of industry echoed throughout the blistering air of the Furnace as I hammered down on my new project. It had been at least a week since I had last spoken to Baccus, but it almost didn't feel like it. In fact, the days seemed to zoom on by as everything just came onto me all at once. Projects upon projects, raising Lise, even the resistance that I only once thought of as an idea was just constantly in my mind.

Actually, thinking about it now, I realized that it was kind of in the realm of possibility that I could lead a somewhat decent resistance front. I had the know-how through some of the games I've played throughout the years, and if I applied what I knew of modern tactics in this fledgling rebellion of ours, I could actually see it working out in our favor.

"Bro, am I doing this right?"

A voice shook me out of my musings as Lise called for my attention. Taking a glance away from my work, I inspected the little project that I had my little sister make for me. It was a thin, elongated, hollow barrel, with something that resembled a stock on one end of the whole thing.

"I made the 'barrel' as straight as I can," she pointed out as she handed me the metal rod. "I also etched the 'rifling' Seigels just as you described it~"

I hefted the rod with two hands after Lise had handed it over to me. With the finesse fitting of someone who had absolutely no experience with making guns, I raised the length of the barrel to my eye level, checking for the straightness of it as well as feeling out the newly-etched 'rifling' Seigels inside it.

"Hmmm..." I hummed with as much professionalism as I could muster. "Everything seems to be in order..."

"Really?~"

I mentally cringed as Lise looked up at me, her eyes sparkling with admiration and approval. I couldn't really tell if I was doing this correctly, only going with what I remembered from binge-watching some online videos back in the day. But from what I've gathered, what really changed the game in my timeline was the discovery of 'rifling.' That was, to etch spiraling grooves on the inside of the gun to introduce spin to the bullet. It would then increase the bullet's travel distance and accuracy by a lot, and in turn, make it deadlier.

"Yeah," I ruffled my sister's hair before handing her back the metal rod. "You did good, Sis."

I couldn't help but smile. It warmed my heart to see her this happy.

"So... it's supposed to be finished now, right? This 'rifle'?'"

"No, it isn't, Lise," I chuckled. "We still have a lot to go."

"But... It looks exactly like how you described it, Brother," Lise almost whined as she clumsily assumed an aiming position with the stick.

"Well, unfortunately, it's not," I shrugged as I took the glorified gold club away from her. "And it won't be for a long time."

I had asked Baccus if he knew about cannons during one of his brief appearances here in what I'd dubbed as the 'Central Hub' of the Furnace. And to my surprise, he didn't. He had already asked our fellow Nenners about it too since he's been spreading the news of our little resistance pocket throughout the rest of the Furnace's Nenner population. Unsurprisingly, all of them answered with a resounding no.

But back to the gun stuff, the news that there weren't any kind of firearms in this world kind of hit me in an annoying sort of way. Then again, I was in a world stuck in the medieval period. Likewise, Zahlers were more than enough firepower to destroy enemy castles and stone walls, rendering cannons pointless.

And so, despite knowing all of this, I had it stuck in my head to recreate a rifle somehow. If anything, it would even out the playing field for anyone without an ounce of proper weapons training. Also, it would give us access to cannons if we really wanted to escalate or dig in. It'd make sense at least. Unfortunately, there was just one problem...

How do I make it fire if I didn't know how to make gunpowder?

I'm sure I'd muttered it to myself once too, seeing as Lise recognized the term in spite of me not telling her about it. As much as most transmigrated protagonists, it was one thing to think about making something and another to actually put it into reality. All I knew was that it required sulfur, charcoal.... limestone? And some other chemicals that I couldn't really remember. I didn't have photographic memory, dammit. And I didn't have both the time and resources to experiment and rediscover the magic formula.

"I still don't get how it's going to work though," Lise admitted. "I mean, this thing's going to make everyone deadly?"

"I'll take care of it, Lise," I lied through my teeth as I carried the useless stick with me. "In the meantime, you should practice your forms."

The girl looked at me with doubt for but a split second before giving me the same radiant smile as before. "Okay, Bro~"

And just like that, she walked away from her anvil and pulled out her shortsword. With practiced finesse, Lise went through the forms that I had apparently drilled into her during the one year that we were under the blue bvtch. I was still a bit salty about it, to be honest. Who wouldn't when you couldn't properly recall a whole year's worth of memories?

At least Aria was dead now. She won't be messing with anyone's head for the foreseeable future, I'm sure.

Turning my attention back to my project, I ran my hands through the barrel's outside Seigels, noting the clockwise coils and right angles that I'd inscribed near the base of the rod. These Seigels were in charge of maintaining structural integrity, as well as to avoid heat-warping from any kind of discharge. I'd mulled this over for a while now, actually, which runes to use when replicating modern technology...

Still, an idea was different from reality. Now, it was time to put it to the test.

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