Chapter 155: The Bomb is Finished

After searching the kobold chieftain’s corpse, a flood of notifications immediately appeared:

[Message] You obtained an [Ebony Staff]!

[Message] You obtained a [Frost Spellbook]!

[Message] You obtained a [Lair Treasure Chest Key]!

[Message] You obtained [Fine Fiber Shoes]!

[Message] You obtained a [Beast Fang Necklace]!

[Message] You obtained a [Red Herb]!

Aside from the Frost Spellbook and the Lair Treasure Chest Key, everything else seemed useless.

The Ebony Staff added only one point of Intelligence and had no other attributes whatsoever. The Fine Fiber Shoes offered even less defense than leather shoes. The Beast Fang Necklace added just two points of Attack—not nearly as useful as the bronze necklace he had made himself. As for the Red Herb, it was something that could be gathered with ease.

Upon using the Frost Spellbook, the user learned the Water-element magic Frost, which released a stream of frigid air and inflicted frostbite upon enemies.

Tina could learn another spell!

Keen was delighted. After putting away the spellbook, he immediately used the key to open the chest.

[Message] You opened the Kobold Lair Treasure Chest!

[Message] You obtained [Kobold Lair Construction Plans]!

[Message] You obtained [Arrow Tower Construction Plans]!

[Message] You obtained [Battering Ram Construction Plans]!

[Message] You obtained [Watchtower Construction Plans]!

[Message] You obtained the [Malt Bread Recipe]!

[Message] You obtained 50 Iron Ingots!

He had already learned the construction plans for the kobold lair and arrow tower, so they were essentially useless. The plans for the battering ram and watchtower, the malt bread recipe, and the fifty iron ingots, however, were all excellent gains.

Keen emerged from the lair and glanced up at the sky. The blue sun had already begun sinking toward the western horizon. He had to hurry back to the city!

He leaped onto the head of the mimic and returned with his arms full of spoils.

When he arrived at the city, he found everyone still busy at work. No one had even noticed that he had been gone.

“Tina!” Keen went straight to find his wife.

“Wait a moment,” Tina replied from the kitchen. She was making golden-silver pastries with her parents, Perrin, and Christina. “I’ll be done soon!”

Keen had no choice but to wait until Tina finished the pastry in her hands and handed it to her father-in-law, Bolint, for baking.

“Is the stage ready, Keen?” Tina asked as soon as she came out.

Seeing the glittering golden powder covering his wife’s face and hands, Keen could not resist reaching out and wiping some more across her skin, spreading it evenly.

“Oh, what are you doing?” Tina protested coquettishly, pushing his hand away.

“You look much prettier this way!” Keen burst out laughing as he looked at Tina’s entire face, now sparkling with golden dust.

“Pretty?” Tina suddenly reached out and vigorously rubbed both hands across his face. “Then you should have some too! Ha ha!”

“Oh, so you’ve learned to ambush me now? Just wait—I’ll give you an even more beautiful makeover!”

“Nooo~~”

The couple playfully tussled for a while. By the time they stopped, Keen’s face was covered in golden powder as well. Only then did he remember what he had come to do.

“Tina, stand still for a moment!”

“Oh!” Tina obediently stood upright and raised her head to look at him.

Keen used the spellbook on her. Before long, the system announced that she had mastered the new magic skill, Frost.

“Keen, is this a new spell?” Tina asked, surprised but delighted.

“Yes! Try it quickly!” Keen pointed toward an empty patch near the entrance, where water still remained from washing the millstone earlier.

“All right!” Tina immediately removed the Ebony Staff from her back and murmured, “Halumitu!”

“Whoosh—!”

A stream of icy air mixed with white frost shot from her right hand.

The surrounding temperature dropped several degrees in an instant. The water on the ground did not freeze, but a layer of snow-white frost spread across its surface.

“Looks like the power isn’t very great,” Keen said, somewhat disappointed. He had thought it would at least freeze the water solid.

“Keen, this spell is quite good!” Tina said happily. “If it’s used properly, it can be extremely useful!”

“Really? Then that’s wonderful!” Seeing his wife’s delight put Keen at ease as well. “Tina, I’ll get you more spellbooks in the future. There may even be intermediate and advanced spells. I’ll slowly turn you into an overwhelmingly powerful mage!”

“Thank you, Keen!” Tina opened her arms and embraced him tightly, deeply moved.

“All right!” Keen lowered his head and gave her a quick kiss. “You keep working. I need to go make something wonderful for tonight.”

“What kind of wonderful thing?” Tina asked curiously.

“You’ll find out tonight!”

Keen first went to the warehouse and took out a large quantity of coal before heading directly to the factory.

Once inside, he went straight to a workbench, selected gunpowder from the production list, and chose the option to make as much as possible.

Producing three hundred batches of gunpowder took considerable time. By the time everything was finished, the sun had already set.

While it was not yet completely dark, he hurried out with the gunpowder. At the kobold lair, he recruited ten kobold miners, gave each of them an ordinary iron axe, and led them outside the city to cut down large numbers of hollow trees.

He then had the hollow trunks transported to the factory, where they were processed into short wooden tubes.

Like bamboo, the trees were hollow, but unlike bamboo, they had no partitions inside. First, one end had to be sealed with plant fiber, then reinforced with clay to ensure that no air could escape. Gunpowder was packed in through the other end, followed by a simple fuse made from plant fiber.

After completing the first prototype, Keen immediately called over a kobold miner and had it take up a torch.

He placed the first firework in the most spacious part of the factory, quickly retreated, and ordered the kobold miner to light it.

The kobold miner received the order and, without hesitation, walked over to the crude, entirely handmade firework and held the torch to its fuse.

Once the fuse caught fire, the spark traveled rapidly inward.

Keen watched tensely, not daring to blink.

When the flame reached the inside and finally touched the gunpowder, a reaction at last occurred.

“Boom!!”

A violent explosion erupted. The kobold miner standing beside the firework was hurled to the ground by the blast and lost its breath instantly. The ground at the site of the explosion was charred black, as if scorched by flames.

“Whoa~~” Keen was grateful that he had not gone over to light it himself. He had never expected his first creation to be not a firework, but a bomb with such tremendous power. “I successfully made a hand grenade! Hurray~~ No, wait! I was trying to make fireworks...”