Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 93: A Mechanic's Downtime with Drinks

A couple days have passed since the fight with Brosjak, the archoneldwyn that seems to have been pulling at least some of the strings behind the scenes of the Demon Covenant. Ryuogriar and Geirahoel have mostly recovered, though they are still weary as their mana recovers. Given their massive mana pools, like Hekate, it takes a long time for them to get back up to full magical stamina.

Daniel scrolls through his phone's various documents. He has plenty of engineering handbooks, technical manuals for the various equipment he has worked on, a few survival guides, and lots and lots of manga and light novels, as well as videos of various topics. He hasn't shown anyone the videos yet, since most of them are fiction, and he is worried they might get addicted to the unprecedented type of entertainment in this world.

Though, if he could entertain people with fiction, perhaps there would be fewer idle hands seeking war. Naturally, Daniel knows that it is not an inoculation against war, of course. Warhawks will exist in every world, no matter how peaceful, and peace through superior firepower is the only way to deal with them.

And, in an attempt to learn from Daniel without explicitly asking, Choul took it upon himself to develop his own simple fuse-fired cannons. It shouldn't surprise Daniel that much. When he asked, Choul said he recognized the smell of what this world calls 'alchemical flash powder'. Daniel's black powder isn't the exact same blend, but when he made the first bullets for his rifle and revolver, he was able to use pure flash powder for testing.

The problem is the forging process, by the sounds of it. One of the cannons Choul had made exploded, rupturing the side and sending shrapnel flying. It could be that the projectile jammed inside, but it's more likely that the metal was too thin or brittle.

Daniel writes down the process he used for his rifle, but adds notes that both the barrel thickness and tempering have to be done more carefully, especially when cooling the barrels. If the large metal barrel of a cannon is cooled too quickly, it can weaken the metal and create internal stresses. Coupled with the expanding gas pressure of the black powder burning, and potentially temporary or permanent binding of the projectile itself from either being uneven in roundness or variations in the barrel diameter, even a brief blockage would turn the cannon into a bomb.

As for the cannon that fired on its own long after the team had abandoned it to help recover those wounded by the cannon that exploded, the fuse smoldered for a time, finding a dry enough point to spark itself again and light, leading into firing. It unfortunately was merely a problem of quality control. The fuse didn't burn evenly, and may have absorbed moisture. Daniel doesn't have the know-how to make it, but he knows that the cannon fuses of Earth typically have an actual black powder core, wrapped in string, and coated with a lacquer of some kind to increase moisture resistance. Conversely, some of the earliest cannons on the Asian continent used a much smaller fuse or no fuse at all, and instead, used an ignition rod.

In this case, it may be simple enough to make a basic flintlock mechanism. In many regards, a flintlock is more reliable, faster, and easier to use. Though, the mechanical nature of the system means it is more complex to assemble and slightly more vulnerable to failure.

That said, for their purposes, there's no reason to skimp. Not if they're going to have to forge the body of the cannon again anyways.

Daniel draws up the basic designs of a flintlock mechanism. He doesn't have to get too technical -which is good, because he's terrible at highly accurate drafting drawings-. And, since Choul started the project on his own, it's only fitting that Daniel minimize his assistance. Choul could requisition artillery pieces like the ones Daniel and Xyreko added to the Citadel, but instead, he's trying to act as a self-sufficient general and handle his problems at his own level without relying entirely on Daniel's power.