"Annie, do you still have any silver powder?" Rosen asked. Two hours of rest had been very effective. Although his body hadn't fully recovered, he felt much better than when he had just been bitten. His head was still a little dizzy, but it no longer hindered his thinking.
"I still have some."
"What about the silver grains?" Rosen asked again.
"There aren't any silver nuggets readily available, but there are plenty of silver wolves in the money box. I can cut them out for you with my dagger. How big do you want?"
"I don't know how big yet." Rosen gestured with his hands, "I also need a straight bamboo tube, about this thick, preferably from bamboo that's at least three years old. There's a bamboo grove a few dozen meters from the cave entrance; could you go and gather a few for me?"
"Of course, no problem. But are you planning to make a bamboo bow to fight the vampires?"
Rosen gave a wry smile: "Do you think a bamboo bow will be useful?"
"No."
Even so, Annie put down the rabbit she was holding, took her sword, and went out of the cave. About three or four minutes later, she returned with several fresh bamboo tubes: "How about these?"
Rosen examined them one by one, finally choosing a bamboo tube with an inner diameter of about 1 centimeter: "This one is excellent, round and straight, and the size is just right." Annie couldn't understand Rosen's thinking at all, but she knew time was of the essence, and the only thing she could do was help the alchemist, Rosen, with what she could: "Now do you know how big the silver nuggets need?"
"Well, about this big, about 100 or so. It would be even better if you could roll them into round shapes." Rosen picked up a small pebble from the ground to demonstrate for Annie.
Annie glared at Rosen: "Roll them into round shapes? Silver isn't mud, it's so hard, how can you roll it like that?"
She wanted to help, that's true, but it was a completely impossible task.
"One nugget certainly won't roll into a round shape, but you can roll a dozen, or even a hundred, together. It's best to mix in some fine sand to smooth the surface of the silver beads." He didn't have high requirements for the roundness of the silver nuggets. An ordinary person definitely couldn't do it, but the mutated hunters had astonishing strength; they could wield a 30-pound sword with one hand like a toothpick. The silver nuggets were also soft, so roughly rolling them into round shapes shouldn't be a problem.
"Really?" Annie asked skeptically.
"We'll see when we try."
Rosen wasn't idle either. He first heated the bamboo tube over a fire, evaporating some moisture and hardening it considerably.
Then, he tore a long strip of cotton cloth from his undergarments, took the bamboo tube, and wrapped the cloth tightly around the outside of the tube five times.
This was to strengthen the bamboo tube and prevent it from exploding.
After that, he used a dagger to carve a wooden stopper, wrapped it with a piece of cloth, and tightly sealed one end of the bamboo tube. Thus, a simple firing tube was complete.
After finishing the firing tube, Rosen began preparing the propellant, the most crucial step.
Rosen took out two vials from his home alchemy room: one containing saltpeter powder, and the other containing glycerin. He mixed the two solutions together, added some water, and then shook vigorously until the solution and glycerin were completely combined.
After completing all this, Rosen took a deep breath, focused his mind, and concentrated on the solution in the bottle.
'Saltpeter is potassium nitrate. When dissolved in water, the ionic bonds are broken, creating freely moving potassium ions and nitrate ions. Glycerol, scientifically known as glycerol, contains three hydroxyl groups. If I can replace the three hydroxyl groups in the glycerol molecule with nitrate ions to completely nitrate the glycerol, I can prepare a powerful nitroglycerin.'
Under natural conditions, this reaction is impossible. On Earth, glycerol requires concentrated sulfuric acid as a catalyst to react with concentrated nitric acid to produce nitroglycerin and water. But now, Rosen possesses the alchemical talent of 'Friend of the Elements,' which is equivalent to having a powerful catalyst.
Rosen held the vial, his body motionless, his mind completely focused on the solution within.
Time passed slowly. On the surface, Rosen seemed to be daydreaming, the only change being the constant sweating from his forehead, large beads of sweat dripping down his face.
After about a minute, the solution in the vial showed no change. Rosen's first attempt had failed. "Huff...huff..." Rosen gasped for breath, his entire body drenched in sweat, white steam rising from his head. In that minute, he had released almost more alchemical energy than he had previously used to control the spread of the datura poison, but to no avail.
Annie, who had been intently watching Rosen, noticed his furrowed brow in thought and whispered, "Is it not working?"
Rosen nodded slightly. "Hmm...my method is wrong. I'll think of another way."
For an exploratory scientific experiment, failure is expected; success is a low-probability event.
Rosen was mentally prepared, so he wasn't discouraged.
He rested briefly, then immersed himself in thought, carefully sensing the solution in the vial.
'Before, I controlled the natural diffusion of datura poison; the molecules were only altered in relative positions—a simple physical change. But this time, I need to transform one molecule into another—a chemical change. The difficulty is incomparable, far exceeding my capabilities. What should I do?'
The physical process of molecule diffusion in a liquid only requires overcoming intermolecular forces, the strength of which is between a few tenths and tens of kilojoules per mole (gaseous state, standard atmospheric pressure). A chemical change, however, requires breaking the chemical bonds within molecules, and the strength of chemical bonds is typically around hundreds of kilojoules per mole.