“Stand back! Stand back, everyone! Let the Chief Alchemist of the Dry-Well Empire show you how real fire works!”
Boom-Pot Sun hopped off the fourth flatcar of the Star-Train, his round belly bouncing under a soot-stained leather apron. Because he was wearing one of Pei Xuan’s new Adjustable Gravity-Lightening Belts set to 1x, the plump Rank 6 alchemist waddled across the black volcanic rock as briskly as a plump duck chasing a beetle.
Behind him, four nervous alchemy apprentices rolled out a six-foot-tall brass cauldron covered in red fire-runes.
General Tie Zhan wiped the black soot off his nose and squinted at the brass pot. “Old Sun, my military smelting stove didn’t even leave a warm spot on this Star-Magnet Ore. Are you sure your pill pot won’t blow up again?”
“Blow up?! Slander!” Boom-Pot Sun puffed out his smoky beard in indignation. “Ever since Lord Pei fused my cauldron with hundred-refined dragon-turtle shell, it hasn’t exploded once—well, except for last Tuesday when I put twelve pounds of thunder-chili in the constipation pills, and that was a controlled upward vent!”
“Watch closely, General Tie!” Boom-Pot Sun tossed three fist-sized lumps of dark-red Star-Magnet Ore into his brass cauldron, clapped his chubby hands together, and spat a mouthful of pure Golden Core Pill-Fire straight into the vent hole.
