Chapter 70 Things that go boom

"Wow what's with all the noise?" Nele asked as she came back into the main part of the shop with a large bowl of water.

"Oh sorry nothing, don't worry about it." Tommy replied while the women all gave him curious and suspicious looks.

(You mean to say that the Elf I saved from the slave market is actually a princess as well?)

((It's raining princesses, come on let's knock them all up and rule two races from behind the scenes kekeke.))

(You know two of those princesses are mother and daughter right?)

((So?))

(...)

"Shall we begin?" Tommy asked to change the subject.

"Sure." Chelna replied while still looking at Tommy suspiciously. "What do you need me to do?" 

"So as I told Nele we can do this in two ways, the first and hopefully easier was is that you will use lightning magic to create lightning bolts over but not in the water, these lightning bolts will heat up the atmosphere and create nitrogen dioxide, the nitrogen dioxide should then combine with the water in the bowl and turn in into Nitric acid." Tommy explained.

"What?" Tinen asked while Chelna and Tirma also looked confused.

"I see." Nele nodded before asking. "And the other way?" 

"Regardless of if this way works or not I will tell you the other way later, the other way is tedious though and I am curious to know if we can use magic to make it easier." Tommy answered.

"Are you sure you want me to summon lightning bolts in here?" Chelna asked.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT." Nele yelled before glaring at Tommy and saying, "Why didn't you say this earlier, I could have left the bowl out in the back yard to save me carrying it all the way through, you can carry it back."

Nele turned around and headed towards the back while saying, "All of you follow me."

The other three women giggled at Nele's admonishment of Tommy as they followed her through to her back yard while Tommy was left to carry the bowl of water.

After Tommy put the bowl down on the ground outside he stepped back and nodded to Chelna.

Chelna returned the nod before stepping forward and gathering her magic.

Tommy noticed that small lightning bolts seemed to be crackling around Chelna's hands as she held them out in front of herself.

After a few seconds small dark thunder clouds started to form above the water bowl.

"Now normally when lightning hits water it will spread out over the water which acts as a conductor before it dissipates. However lightning from thunderstorms is unpredictable and as the saying goes lightning never strikes twice." Tommy said.

"What a stupid saying," Tinen scoffed before adding. "I can totally hit someplace twice with my lightning."

"You can also use lightning magic?" Tommy asked with interest.

"Of course," Tinen replied proudly while puffing out her already ample chest. You didn't think my daughter got that rare talent from shrivel dick did you?"

"Honestly I thought it was just random." Tommy replied.

"In general that is the case." Tinen began to explain but Tommy cut her off.

"Can I get the magic lesson later since we are kind of busy right now."

"Humph fine." Tinen pouted while crossing her arms over her ample breasts and sulking.

Chelna and Tirma giggled when they saw this, they had never seen Tinen act this way with a man before.

"Now as I was saying." Tommy started again. "I want you to continually strike the water with your lightning magic and we will see what happens. I can think of three possibilities."

"One, the test will be successful as the continual striking of the lightning bolts on the water will create nitrogen dioxide that will combine with the water and turn into Nitric acid."

"Two, nothing, the lightning will just dissipate like it normally does."

"Three, the water will heat up and become so hot it will just evaporate away"

"The third possibility is very possible if we are not careful so let's start off slow and only strike the water every few seconds." 

"Ok." Chelna replied before a bolt of lightning hit the water.

A few seconds later a second hit the water, then a third. This continued for several minutes before Tirma asked.

"How do you plan to test if the water has changed into this nitric acid?"

"With this," Tommy said, pulling something out of his magic bag (Item box) to show Tirma.

(Honestly claiming to have a magic bag makes things way easier.)

((Yeah we don't look suspicious when pulling an anvil or something out of our pocket.))

"Is that silver?" Tirma asked as the girls looked at the item with interest.

"Yup, if the water has successfully turned into Nitric acid this silver will dissolve." Tommy said before throwing the small piece of silver he 'liberated' from Erden's forge into the water bowl.

"What!, it dissolves silver?" Nele asked excitedly.

"Yes, when that happens the nitric acid turns into silver nitrate." Tommy replied. "It's actually a great way to separate gold and silver, you see the silver will be dissolved in the nitric acid while the gold won't."

As if to prove his point Tommy withdrew a small lump of gold from his magic bag (Item box) and threw that into the water bowl as well.

"Really?" Nele asked excitedly. "No one has ever found a way to separate the gold and silver that are found together from mining, this means that most jewelry for example always contains both elements, only the very rich can afford pure gold jewelry since it is so rare."

"If we could manufacture large quantities of pure gold jewelry as well as other items we would make a huge profit." Chelna commented.

"Agreed, not even the Dwarves, the best miners and jewelcrafters in the world have found a way to separate gold and silver."

(Dwarves?)

"Just make sure I get a share of these profits," Tommy said before adding. "Silver nitrate has a few uses, however I will only mention a couple you might be interested in. First it can be used to cauterize a wound, though obviously this is painful and should only be used if no other option is available. Then on the complete other end of the scale it can be used to make a water sensitive explosive."

"Explosive!" Nele asked with sparkling eyes.

"Sigh this girl." Tinen sighed.

"What is aunt Tinen?" Tirma asked.

"Well like Erden is a master blacksmith, Nele here is actually a master alchemist, though she seems to be mostly interested in things that go boom." Tinen explained.

Tommy raised an eyebrow in surprise when he heard this.

"A master alchemist and blacksmith in the same city that isn't the imperial capital?" Tirma asked in shock.

"Hehehe." Nele laughed in a slightly embarrassed way before saying. "Well while those criminal organizations were not pleasant to live with seeing as they always wanted protection money or positions on the cheap, they certainly made it easier to get certain ingredients."

"Are you upset that I have damaged their operations then?" Tommy asked.

"Not really, I knew they wouldn't be able to last forever in the city, after all they take too much money from the empire and eventually the emperor would make a move to squash them out." Nele replied before adding. "Never thought it would be Erden who caused their downfall though."

"Seems we think alike master Nele." Chelna said with a smile.

"Booo, lose the master, I don't like that title and what do you mean princess?" Nele replied.

"Very well but only if you stop calling me princess and address me as Chelna." Chelna replied before explaining. "Mother and I also predicted that the emperor would soon make a move to squash out the criminal organizations. While the previous emperor, my grandfather, did not bother with them too much, the current emperor, my uncle, is greedy and wont let a bunch of criminals steal what he thinks is his."

"I understand." Tommy said, getting the women's attention. "You were not only expecting the current emperor to squash out the criminal organizations, but also most likely replace the current king because of his lack of action against them. The emperor would most likely select new blood to replace the current king as Glador has done such a bad job and he probably thinks you're as bad as your father."

"However you wanted to get rid of the criminal organizations first so that when you usurp your father and become the nation's queen you can go to your uncle and tell him that the nation's donations to the empire to him will increase since you managed to squash the criminal organizations."

 The women studied at Tommy in awe before Nele asked, "Is he right?" 

Chelna could only nod as she looked at Tommy with even more interest while Tirma's eyes sparkled and Tinen's were filled with something else.

"I am becoming more and more interested in you Tommy Smith." Tinen said with a flirtatious smile.

"As long as it just stays at interest." Tommy replied before focusing back on the water bowl again which he noticed had started to bubble slightly making him smile.