However, she knew Rosen was a very intelligent man and an alchemist, so she tried to remain silent to avoid disturbing him. Since she had nothing else to do, she followed Rosen's instructions, mixing dough with salt water, wrapping it around rabbit meat, and roasting the rabbit meat and dough over the campfire.
After about 30 minutes, Rosen let out a long sigh, opened his eyes, and 'woke up'.
Annie, who had been watching Rosen closely, immediately asked, "All done?"
"Yes." Rosen's face was pale, but his eyes shone like stars, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
He had cleverly transformed saltpeter and glycerin into two other substances: potassium hydroxide, commonly known as caustic soda, a strong alkali.
The other product, a semi-transparent, pale yellow, oily liquid resembling thick snot, settled at the bottom of the vial, less than 15 milliliters in quantity.
Rosen had almost risked his life to obtain this substance.
This pale yellow, oily liquid is nitroglycerin, the very substance that made chemist Nobel a renowned dynamite maker!
Nitroglycerin is extremely unstable.
Its properties are highly sensitive to vibration; a single drop falling from a height of 15 meters could potentially ignite violently.
Its explosive power is immense, reaching up to 16 times that of ordinary gunpowder!
Rosen had limited resources and time, producing less than 15 milliliters of nitroglycerin, yet it was still extremely dangerous.
Using elemental manipulation, he gently enveloped the nitroglycerin in the vial, keeping it still, and then very, very slowly poured the vial out, discarding the top layer of potassium hydroxide solution, leaving only pure nitroglycerin in the bottle.
After finishing, Annie sniffed the air and asked curiously, "What's in the medicine bottle? It smells strange; I've never smelled anything like it before."
"It's a kind of kerosene," Rosen smiled weakly. He sniffed, following the aroma to the roasted rabbit in Annie's hand. "The rabbit's cooked! Give me a rabbit leg; I'm starving!"
Annie quickly twisted off a rabbit leg and handed it to Rosen, followed by the water pouch.
Rosen carefully placed the medicine bottle away from the campfire before taking the rabbit leg and water pouch. Ignoring the heat, he wolfed it down.
Annie's cooking was excellent. The outer dough was slightly charred, and the rabbit meat inside was tender and delicious. Although only salt was used as seasoning, its natural flavor gave it a unique taste.
Soon, Rosen had devoured the rabbit leg, even chewing the bones. He stared longingly at the roasted rabbit in Annie's hand.
Annie had to tear off another rabbit leg and give it to him.
A few minutes later, the second rabbit leg was gone, and he had eaten two rabbit legs. Rosen felt much better, let out a sigh of relief, and reached into his pocket to take out a third medicine bottle. He opened it, and the bottle was filled with a grayish-white powder.
Annie peered at it and asked curiously, "What's this? It looks like mud, and it smells like it too."
Roshen smiled and said, "It is mud. I call it diatomaceous earth. It's an excellent absorbent."
Diatomaceous earth is a valuable substance. On Earth, because nitroglycerin is too violent—it can explode from even a slight vibration—it has always existed in laboratories and could never be practically used. To solve this problem, the dynamite magnate Nobel had been searching for a stabilizer. He tried various materials and finally found diatomaceous earth, which allowed him to create safe nitroglycerin explosives.
It was with this explosive that he became incredibly wealthy.
Rosen quickly estimated the amount of nitroglycerin, and using a 3:1 ratio, pinched some diatomaceous earth powder and gently sprinkled it into the bottle containing the nitroglycerin.
"You threw mud into kerosene?" Annie was still confused.
"Yes, diatomaceous earth absorbs kerosene, making it very mild and unlikely to ignite."
As he spoke, Rosen activated his alchemical powers, mixing the diatomaceous earth and nitroglycerin evenly. His movements were extremely gentle, like touching a lover's skin.
Annie peered into the bottle again, only to see a thin layer at the bottom. She was even more puzzled: "Such a little kerosene, even if it catches fire, it won't be a big deal. What's there to be afraid of?"
She had heard of kerosene; the alchemists in the Free City of Berkeley occasionally sold highly flammable liquids, which they called kerosene.
Rosen smiled. "My kerosene might be a little different from what other alchemists make."
After about ten minutes, Rosen mixed the diatomaceous earth and nitroglycerin evenly. The liquid explosive vanished, turning into a safe, powdery solid. Rosen himself was once again drenched in sweat from using alchemy.
This time, without him asking, Annie handed him the rabbit meat she had prepared earlier. Rosen took it and ate it, eventually finishing almost the entire rabbit by himself.
"I need some silver beads and silver powder."
"Here you go." Annie had already prepared them.
Rosen took the silver beads and carefully examined them one by one. He found that the surface of each bead was remarkably smooth, without any burrs or protrusions. At first glance, they looked as if they had been machine-made, and there was no need to worry about them scratching the inner wall of the bamboo tube.
He sincerely praised, "Very good craftsmanship."
Annie smiled sweetly.
Rosen first poured explosives into the bamboo tube, pressing it down firmly. Then he poured in silver beads, pressing them down again. He then poured in a little silver powder to fill the gaps between the beads, repeating this process three times until all the silver particles were inside.
After finishing, he carefully examined the bamboo tube again using his elemental perception, while simultaneously performing various calculations in his mind.
'The heat of combustion of nitroglycerin can reach 1540 kilojoules per mole. I have 15 milliliters here, which translates to roughly... even though the bamboo tube has been reinforced, it's still insufficient... it needs further reinforcement.'
With precise perception and meticulous calculations, Rosen gained a remarkably perfect control over the power of the bamboo tube.