As the young dusk engulfed both the homeworld and the wayward worlds, numerous spiritual torches and braziers were installed within the kingdom and the outpost perimeters, a source of light that was blessed by the priest of nezuras.
The starry stars on the sky of the private realm were known barely by its own owner, evoking curious wonders on what this isolated world might bring in the future.
Passing through those spiritual checkpoints, Droste herded 10 nezuras that were sent to work alongside her, together with the vanguards and their 20 nezuras to somewhere beyond the horizon of the kingdom's infrastructure and common populace area. There, resided a medium-sized hut with a trap door that led to an underground storage where foul smell was emanating sinisterly from it.
"Wait for me, I'll be getting the materials," Droste said as she went into the underground room alone, before resurfacing a couple of seconds later with a crate box that appeared to be drooling some sort of mucus from the inbetween of the gaps, alongside some other materials that was stored inside a glass. "Alright, this process needed extreme focus and precise control of the material. I want at least three nezuras who are confident with their skill to raise their hands up in the air!" she said, referring to the ten nezuras that were working under her.
Seven nezuras raised their hands with a comfy smile on their face.
"Alright, seven of you can come inside alongside the vanguards of the expedition team. The rest of you can either wait or try to temporarily help other departments of the kingdoms." Droste gestured with her thumb to the lousy area on the east side of the kingdom.
"... The rest of you can do the same," Jingo said to the 20 nezuras of the expedition team. "Just come back here every two hours, or you can ask Hoppington through your priest if there is any complication."
The 20 nezuras saluted and started to blast off from the scene, searching for a logistic department that needed some extra hands.
"This feels top secret." Karasaki laughed. "Does the Patriarch and the Queen know this?"
"90% of the operations here in the homeworld are strictly handled and incentivized by the Patriarch and the Queen." Droste snickered. "Especially our Patriarch, that goofy father of ours controls more direction of the kingdom than you think."
"I'm not surprised," Hopscotch commented with a deadpan. "At this point, I don't even see him as a human anymore."
"Oy, the Patriarch might feel a little bit hurt if he heard that," Karasaki said in a jesty tone.
"Oh right, all seven of you use this mask, and goggles." Droste then handed the nezuras all of the required protections as if they were entering a highly contaminated lab. "All of you might not have any resistance in the form of bodily repairing nanites, so having some extra assurance is a worthwhile incident-prevention, just in case."
"I just realized, since when do we have a lot of glass?" Hopscotch raised one of her eyebrows.
"Juani have been producing them for quite a while," Droste replied, "We didn't make many of them yet because of how long making one of them with the current tools on the forge. And it's quite a challenge too when you already have many orders in the queue. The expedition team should really mine some ore deposits now that you got more people."
"Huh, aren't they wearing a gas mask? Do we have the technology for that? Karasaki commented.
"Not the best kind of respiratory protection, its method of filtration is relying on three layers of seripium condensation, and some low quality activate-charcoal," Droste casually replied.
"You're speaking beyond my realm."
As soon as they entered the hut, the smell of chemicals immediately smeared the entirety of their throat.
"Knowing how bad the chemicals are here, that's bad manners for you for not providing us with any gas masks." Hopscotch could be seen trying to cover her mouth and nose with her hand.
Droste laughed, not minding the air pollution as if it was her natural habitat. "You're an usalian, deal with it."
The interior of the hut was something that they did not expect after seeing the building. Inside, a lot of glass contraption could be seen holding liquids and chemicals. And despite the rough walls and floor that was made out of mood, this room was probably cleanest room in the kingdom when it comes to the absence of debris and dust.
"... This smell." Amidst the emotionless deadpan that Jingo wore, her eyes were suddenly lit with sparkling excitement. "Black powder!"
"Black powder what?" Karasaki tilted her head.
"75% potassium nitrate, 10% charcoal, and 15% sulfur," Hopscotch interjected. "Open your memory tree branch on the development of explosive and propellant category."
"Huh, for something that advanced." Karasaki leaned her face towards one of round glassware, reflecting a fisheye field of vision on her facial from the other side. "I know about the charcoal, but what about the potassium nitrate and sulfur?"
"You can find natural sources of potassium nitrate from cave walls," Droste replied, as she placed the materials she was carrying on a large empty table. All of the seven nezuras could be seen following here like little ducklings. "Or to be precise, accumulations of bat guano in caves. We didn't find a bat in a wayward world, but Pippin found a cave filled with this crystallization of manure! We thought that it won't work but it's basically the same as the one on Earth.
"As for the extraction, it is accomplished by immersing the guano in water for a day, filtering, and harvesting the crystals in the filtered water.
"And as for the sulfur, it was found within one of the skarn deposits that the deposits team found back then. Hoppington managed to identify them and provide me with them."
Droste then unpacked the box, revealing a couple of fatty parts of a butchered beast. A compartment section inside the box could also be seen storing numerous plants and flowers. All of them were packed more neatly than the lunchbox that the expedition team received as a provisional supply.
"Uh, I'm still not sure what kind of help you're expecting from us," Karasaki said with a snicker.
"Isn't it obvious?" Droste wide grin beamed upon the vanguards and the seven nezuras, as wide arrays of schematics unrolled from the wall like a curtain. "We're making guncotton and nitroglycerin!
"...!" Jingo, despite not really showing any kind of facial expression, her excitement could be seen by the entire people in the lab. "... Smokeless gunpowder!"