Birth Of The Crafts-God

Chapter 43 No Risk, No Reward

For the second time now, Lucas was breeding a daring idea in his head. Raiding the caves of the moles had resulted in him profiting a lot, but seeing the two mid level desolate beasts, Lucas felt it wasn't enough. But even if he set his sights on them, there was a problem.

The Green-Snout Metal mole king and the chimera were both heavily injured, but their aura was still on par with a fourth level and a peak fourth level stellar practitioner respectively. The battle was still far from ending, but the chimera had an advantage. If it won and managed to wipe out all the moles, no matter how weak it became, Lucas would not be of any threat to it.

On the other hand, if the Green-Snout Metal moles won, they would still be able to handle Lucas. The weakest amongst the horde was a third level desolate beast whereas Lucas was still in the Body Strengthening stage.

If he wanted to be the fisherman who catches both the clam and snipe [1], Lucas needed to make sure that both parties ended up dead or too weak to resist. The problem was, how?

'I should have spent my cash on a gun or something.' Lucas began to regret his parsimonious behaviour.

Vestiges used for battles were divided into two classes: cold weapons and hot weapons.

The cold weapons were the typical swords, spears, daggers and so on. The power of these vestiges heavily depended on the user. For instance, even though the spear Lucas used was a Grade 3 vestige, which was suitable for a fourth and fifth level Apertures Opening stage practitioner, he couldn't produce enough power to compare with a fourth level practitioner.

Hot weapons however, worked different. Just as with Leno's pair of guns, they could be fired with one's stellar energy or specialised rounds. For the former, the power of the weapon would depend on one's stellar energy level, while in the latter, the attack was mostly dependent on the rounds.

Although one's stellar energy level still had some influence on a hot weapon, it wasn't as much as with a cold weapon; in essence, the bar was lowered greatly.

If Lucas had spent a lot to get a powerful cold weapon type vestige, as well as some specialised rounds, his attack power would have risen greatly. At the very least, he could maintain a steady output at the second level or even the third, if he spent more. It wouldn't have been impossible to blast the mole king and the chimera to pieces as long as their strength dropped one more level.

'Hold up, blast them to pieces...'

Lucas' eyes brightened up. An idea just struck him.

At this time, the dozens of Green-Snout Metal moles were attacking the chimera with the Green-Snout Metal mole king leading the assault, but Lucas wasn't focused on that.

Violent Sun ores.

There was a reason why the ores were called 'Violent' and this had to do with its explosive nature. Usually, they were in a stable state, but they could be used as explosives after going through some processing. To prevent acts of terrorism and destruction, the process was unknown to the common people, and even few freelancers knew how to pull it off.

But this wasn't a problem, because the Violent Sun ores reminded Lucas of something.

In his first life as Yohan, Lucas was a grandmaster blacksmith and had dealt with many different types of elements. There was a certain metal which looked and behaved just like a Violent Sun ore and it was called the Explosive Sun stone.

Just like the Violent Sun ores, the Explosive Sun stones were incredibly stable in their natural form, but they contained enough energy to set off an explosion.

During his first life, there was a war that broke out between the Deserters -those who used True energy- and the Mages -those who used mana-. The mages resided in the south and the deserters in the north. Both sides occasionally clashed due to ideological differences, and sometimes, those minor clashes resulted in a full blown war.

In one such war, there was a popular DIY [2] weapon which used Explosive Sun stones to create explosive devices. The process was so simplistic for a mystical energy user that even an amateur could make a bomb within fifteen to twenty minutes. Lucas was familiar with the production method and he intended to use it on the Violent Sun ores since both metals were very similar in nature.

While Lucas lacked the mystical energy requirement, it didn't mean that it would be impossible to make the bombs. Rather, it would be more difficult, but his experience as a grandmaster could make up for that.

Lucas began to sneak back towards the tunnel that led to the Igrum steel mine. One strange yet important requirement for making the DIY explosives was the need for heat in the process. This was quite contradictory as heat and explosives did not go together, but this had to do with the nature of the Violent Sun ores/Explosive Sun stones.

One of the major reasons the metal was able to remain stable despite having enough energy to cause an explosion was the strange effect caused by the heat generated. This was also why one needed to be a mystical energy user to make the explosives, as they could generate heat with their energy.

On the way to the mine, Lucas was presented with another challenge. How to ensure that the explosion didn't go out of control.

Until the tenth level, hyumans had to utilise stellar energy directly or empower their bodies with it. They would only unlock their innate superpower at the tenth level. However, desolate beasts were different.

Unlike hyumans, desolate beasts relied on their physiques. At the same time, they were natural existences whereas the hyumankin was a product of intense research and development by the past human race. This meant that desolate beasts would unlock their superpowers at an earlier level. It also meant that they had a much stronger physique and body than hyumans.

For the two top desolate beasts, even if they were severely injured, they still wouldn't die so easily if Lucas were to drop a bomb on them. The explosion has to be intense and powerful enough to penetrate their external defence, especially for the chimera which was covered in a hard carapace.

However, if the explosion was too powerful, it could bring about the collapse of the cavern. This was of course, bad because not only would Lucas not be able to reap the benefits of his kill, but his life would be at risk once the cavern began to collapse; escaping might become a dream that he'll never achieve.

Nonetheless, if the explosion were too weak, it wouldn't do the job. So on one hand, Lucas had to ensure that the explosion was strong enough to take down the two desolate beasts as well as the 'side dish'. On the other hand, it had to not blow the entire place up.

The calculations required to pull this off was quite high, but luckily, Lucas had majored in physics and chemistry during his lifetime on Earth. He wasn't new to calculations.

Very soon, Lucas arrived at the mine and vegan to take action.

Making the explosives wasn't so difficult, requiring -apart from the physical elements- only intense focus and a stable hands.

Lucas made a makeshift furnace by digging a hole into the wall and stacking it with Igrum steel roughly separated from the ores. He then carved specials runes on the Violent Sun ores before making a cearful cut.

All of this occurred whilst the chimera and the mole king facing each other.

Soon Lucas was ready.