Chương 74: Chapter 73 - The Fire in Her Blood.

The sound of nonstop hammerwork rang from the stout construction, the stonework, trying and failing to insulate the sound. By the gods, this women is a menace. How is she still in here? The heat is more than most forges bother working with. Dorrick hammered the iron plates into shape without so much as a glance. The hammer was more a part of his hands than the fingers he was born with.

"Milady, pardon my interruption" Dorrick used every ounce of formality he was accustomed to.

"Are you a professional blacksmith?"

"Nope, I'm a cartographer, I make maps" Her eyes never left the metal work, despite a lack of any apparent skill, the metal yielded to her commands, after just two failures, she was folding iron into shell plates nearly as fast as he was. He tossed another steel plate onto the pile. We got enough now to begin making the shells.

"Shall I begin merging plates" Dorrick inquired, looking down at the industrious Queen.

"Yes, start the process, I'll fill them after" Dorrick's hammer worked with rapid-fire ferocity, each hit sending flux through the metal. … Nythera's arm was sore from hammering, but she didn't have the time or will to stop herself. Finally going to level that ordnance-smithing skill, and then I'll take my new cannon and shells and go blast that ugly green things fucking head off. An angry hammer strike bent the metal too far. Except it doesn't really have a head does it? Or is the entire body its head too?

"This isn't enough, I need more skill, more technique" Nythera reached into Boxy with only a glance, an orange gemstone popping into her hand. With a flex, she crushed it. +3 Dexterity! Better than nothing I suppose, it'll help with my hammerwork. I really cannot afford to fuck up any of the mushroom shells. Nythera flipped over pieces of parchment and brought forth Aether Cannon for measurements. Hammerwork began.

"Dorrick, help me make these shells" She dumped a load of mushrooms onto the work bench, scraps separated by color. With a nod, Dorrick's hammer molded iron plate after iron plate. After each shell was finished, they identified it with a shred of colored cloth, tied around the end. Red were Flame Rounds. Blue were Blue Rounds. Iron-Green were the two types merged into one shell, given she did not know the effect of either.

"I'm not even going to bother testing this one, let's just find out what it does when it hits Obros-Ka" she rolled the thing into its own corner. With careful precision, the last shell was forged, the single, incredibly dense brown mushroom was all that was placed inside. Every shell was carefully filtered through the extended lid of Boxy. [5 Flame Rounds] [9 Blue Rounds] [1??? Mushroom Round] [1 Brown Mushroom Round] Not bad, this will take awhile to load and fire and that's not even account for the remaining quartz rounds and the hyper-flux shells. With everything I have dozens of shells ready to fire. Edwin would murder me and bury my corpse in a vat of acid if he found out what I'm doing with these presumably valuable alchemical ingredients. Oh well. [System Notifications!] Later. The room boiled over with heat, exhaustion was visible in Dorrick's eyes.

"Are we done yet, milady?" he asked.

"Not even close, that was the warm-up" She gestured at her schematics, multiple pieces of parchment lined up into one gigantic configuration.

"By the Hels, what are we making? This thing is gigantic" Dorrick swore, his eyes darting from one side of the schematic to the other.

"This is a piece of artillery, think of it like a giant explosive ballista. It should hit our target from far enough away, but it won't be terribly accurate" Nythera answered.

"It seems to be front loaded? We are going to account for this barrel size on the support platform, and hauling shells up to the top end of the barrel will not be easy, steps will be necessary, likely from both sides" Dorrick commented, his eyes not leaving the parchment.

"I didn't really think of that, you think the workers will have trouble reloading?" she asked.

"What happens if they fail? The shell either smashes through the deck or into the sea, we need to make a fast and safe reloading mechanism. What about the recoil force?" Dorrick asked.

"Recoil force? Is that a problem? The platform does need to take it without shattering…" Dorrick is right, this support platform would probably shatter by the third round. He shook his head "Not just the platform, but the ship too, unless your bolting it to the ground, two shots from this and it goes through the deck and out the bottom" FUCK, he's right, if we don't redistribute force, we are going to shatter the ship its mounted to. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent.

Report any appearances on Amazon. This ship will be bombarding it from as far away as possible, while the Sea Empress runs decoy and a third ship fires on the spawn… It's going to need a huge amount of blasting powder to send these shells. He's right.

"Get some runner boys, we are going to need more supplies and fuel for the furnace" Nythera ordered. Every scrap of iron was shoveled in and melted down.

"Milady, Dorrick" A young lad pried open the door, he flinched when the wave of heat hit him, eyes blinking rapidly.

"Get every scrap of iron you can manage, and get me Delita. I want a dedicated runner on wood as well" Nythera said, dropping the last fuel into the roaring blaze. He rushed out the door, clearly glad to be rid of the heat. Nythera only noticed the time of day from the few glimpses of the outside when runners opened the door to bring in iron and wood, the light was dimming.

"Dorrick, lets get started on the barrel now, we got enough iron" Nythera said.

"Aye, plate by plate, then we'll have a metalmancer merge the sheets" Dorrick poured a batch of liquid metal straight into the mold he had been making. She nodded. I didn't even realize we had a metalmancer.

"Milady, what can I do for you?" Delita asked from the door, struggling to keep his face in the torrent of escaping heat.

"I need a double-height building next to this one, about the same area, this is forge is too low for the project we are working on. I'll need a far larger forge in the future, but for now this'll do. One more thing, get me as much iron as you can, I want the iron refinery running yesterday, eek out every last drop you can from any rocks you can find by the mine sites" She wiped the sweat off her brow.

"Yes, milady, certainly, it will be done" Delita bowed and slammed the door shut.

"Dorrick, we are going to need the stand for this barrel made, take two helpers, I don't care who, and get started on that in the room next to this one" Nythera instructed, "you come over here and help me make these plates" she gestured at the young smith-apprentice waiting in the door. Dorrick pulled a large part of the remaining metal out of the room with him and his temporary muscle.

"Delita! get me a roof!" she could hear the shout through the door. Plate after plate they pounded metal through the night. Nythera was working on her twentieth plate, which the metalmancer then forced together onto the barrel, when a bucket of ice cold water was dumped on her. WHAT THE FUCK?! She found a runner, already scampering out of the forge, retreating with a bucket. Two more buckets were dumped on her metalmancer and her apprentice. The water sizzled off in moments.

I guess it's fine, as long as they keep working.

"Milady, a word please?" A runner boy begged from the entrance, sweat dripping off him.

"Yes?" she didn't turn from her work.

"The iron refinery is up and running, but it's slow, we'll have iron to you shortly." he shut the door, fleeing from the Hel that was the forge. [System Notifications!] The gargantuan barrel gradually took shape on the ground, it had already broken through a table by sheer weight, the rear particularly heavy with reinforced triple plating to absorb the explosive force.

"We need to prepare blasting charges next, each shell will need once blasting charge to go with it" Nythera leaned over the barrel, examining it.

"Here take these" she thrust the schematics at the apprentice blacksmith. Nythera hammered out thin metal sheets, ready to be filled with blasting powder… outside the forge. Her schematics spontaneously caught fire. Good thing I memorized those. [System Notifications!] Nythera ducked out of the forge, careful not to run into the water runners, which were now a continuous feature of the forge, dumping bucket after bucket on the metalmancer and blacksmith.

The door was constantly ajar at this point, venting out a continuous cloud of steam. Pushing her parchment against the walls, she rapidly sketched shell designs for the cannon. I am going to need to name this thing… later. Now how much blasting powder can I reasonably cram into one shell before it risks exploding in the barrel?

"Hey Delita! Get over here" Nythera called out. Delita was tirelessly commanding laborers in the setting up of the factory forge and refinery just across the "road" which was a mere dirt path at this point.

"Yes milady?" he rushed over, careful not to run into the water runners.

"Do we have enough blasting powder? I am going to need a lot""Why yes, of course, the alchemists make it by the barrel, the only problem is how risky it is to produce" Delita looked nervously at her schematics "How much do you need?"

"Hey, blacksmith boy, come over here for a moment" Nythera commanded her helper.

"Yes ma'am?"

"Can you make these designs?" she pointed.

"The drums are fairly simple, shouldn't be a problem, but the powder? Thats a lot of powder, those shells are going to way a ton" he wore a deep frown.

"Can you do it?" she asked.

"Yes, I reckon I can" he nodded.

"Get me ten for now, half a barrel of gunpowder per""Five barrels of gunpowder, understood. Just be careful, if it goes off it'll level you're new forge" Delita chuckled nervously. Nythera sorted and melted metal, while the apprentice pounded it into paper thin plates. The metalmancer, who was constantly in a state between soaking wet and desert dry, melded the sheets together, one after another, to make the blasting charge. The gunpowder was kept at a safe distance from their forge.

Another wheelbarrow of metal arrived at the door, the runner ducking under the billowing clouds of steam. The door on the opposite side cranked open "I'm done with the platform, milady" Dorrick was already sweating.

"Good, load that cannon onto the platform, it's in the way" she gestured at the goliath on the floor.

"That barrel is bigger than expected, I see you doubled the plating. I'm going to need a team of lumberjacks to move this thing" Dorrick took one tug at the end of the barrel. It didn't budge. Nythera's hammer left the metal for only a moment. Flashes of sparks consumed her. One after another, shell by shell, they kept going. As the shells were finished by the metalmancer, they were rolled out to be filled with blasting powder by a separate group.

The loggers came to take the barrel, four men flooded into the room and tried to pick up the metal. Unfortunately screaming sounds disrupted her work as their flesh burned from the heat. They returned with wet cloth minutes later and heaved the metal monstrosity out the door, breaking the frame as they went.

"Milady?" Nythera's hammer rose and fell, like the countless empires strewn across time. Like her own heritage. Just work the metal, one hit, then the next. A bucket worth of water sizzled off her, turning to steam, trying to obscure her view. But she knew where the hammer had to fall.

"Milady? Please, we are done" The plate flattened out, bending to her will. Or rather the force of her hammer. Hands shook her shoulders. Huh"What? What do you want?" she yelled.

"We are done, all the shells are already complete" Dorrick said. She collapsed.