Cultural Influence

A whole box of standard Black Powder—more than fifty kilograms—gave off a faint, unusual smell.

The Black Powder was all in powder form. Generally speaking, if you had egg whites, you could mix them in to bind the powder, then grind it into rice-sized granules.

That way, there'd be gaps between the granules, letting flames pass through faster when ignited and making the explosion even more powerful.

But Colin didn't have the necessary materials, and he couldn't find a suitable substitute anytime soon, so he had no plans to process it further.

Besides, Colin knew that even as powder, it would be enough.

[Hint: You have more than fifty kilograms of standard Black Powder. You've never made anything like this before, but you feel that this box of Black Powder is enough to inflict significant damage on a Lord-level Aberration.]

"Wouldn't this be enough to blow it up? That monster's pretty damn tough."

Colin reached into the Black Powder and pinched some between his fingers. A hard-to-describe sense of abundance welled up in him, and the corners of his mouth lifted as his eyes sparkled. "Then let's make another fifty kilograms!"

He didn't say what he was really thinking.

Shana looked at the powder in Colin's hand, finding it hard to believe it had the power to shake the earth as he claimed. She also couldn't understand what it had to do with art.

Even members of the Storm Church, famed for their recklessness and ferocity, couldn't shake the earth without someone of a bishop's caliber.

As everyone looked on in confusion, Colin assembled a wooden barrel and poured roughly forty-five kilograms of Black Powder into it.

He pressed it down by hand, then poked holes in it with a wooden stick, making it look a little like a honeycomb briquette. Then he put the lid on and sealed it.

Next, he got a length of vine from the Trade Market and wrapped it around the barrel again and again, leaving only a hole at the bottom.

This would make the explosion more powerful.

He used the remaining Black Powder to make a fuse. It wouldn't do to light the barrel from up close with a match.

Once he was done, Colin looked around. The area was close to the mining site, so it obviously wasn't suitable for an experiment. Otherwise, he might bring down the already unstable Mine Cave.

After thinking it over, he led everyone away. In an open area a considerable distance away, Colin set the Explosive Barrel down.

After a moment's thought, he placed a large, flat stone on top of the barrel.

Then he used a stick to draw a line on the ground as he walked backward, scattering Black Powder along it.

After retreating nearly a hundred meters, Colin had run out of Black Powder.

Because of the mist, he could no longer see the Explosive Barrel. All he could see was a black line stretching into the distance.

[You think there's some risk in detonating this hundred-pound Explosive Barrel from this distance. Fortunately, it doesn't contain any steel fragments or anything like that, so you don't need to worry too much about the resulting damage.]

[But since you placed a stone on top of the Explosive Barrel, you think you should move another fifty meters back if possible, or find suitable cover.]

"It's already a hundred meters. Is Black Powder really that powerful?"

Colin stared in surprise. Black Powder was nowhere near as powerful as high explosives, but he hadn't expected that even with just a hundred pounds, a hundred meters wouldn't be far enough.

The fuse caught fire with a rustle, burning rapidly toward the barrel and trailing a pungent white smoke.

Colin suddenly felt his blood race and his heart pound.

"Fall back."

At his command, everyone hurried after him without question.

Only after Colin saw a notification saying they were far enough away to be safe did he finally stop.

With Colin setting the pace, everyone had grown a little tense.

They held their breath and watched the mist ahead, though they couldn't see a thing.

A dozen or so seconds passed.

Had nothing happened?

"Mr. Colin, did something go wrong?"

Shana was about to ask, but before she could speak, a huge burst of red light exploded ahead, reflected in her pupils.

The flash vanished in an instant. Before she could react, the boom and the tremor struck at the same time!

A white ring flashed across the ground. Everyone there felt as if an invisible wall had slammed into them. Their chests felt so heavy it hurt, as though they'd been punched.

The explosion was brief.

But the ringing seemed to keep echoing in their minds and in their ears. It took several seconds for them to gradually recover.

Unlike the others, Colin had covered his ears just before the explosion, so his hearing recovered much faster.

Colin glanced to the side. From the expressions on Shana's face, Number Two's, and everyone else's—shock, fear, excitement, or some complicated mix of the three—he could feel something called accomplishment.

Number Two slowly came back to his senses, still reeling from the tremendous shock.

The air still seemed to hold the violence left behind by the explosion. He couldn't calm down, and felt he ought to say something, yet his limited vocabulary left him unable to find the words.

Then, all at once, a thought struck him. Without even thinking, he blurted out a phrase Lord sometimes used, though he had no idea what it actually meant:

"Holy crap!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, more than a dozen "Holy craps!" rang out in succession.

They all had limited vocabularies.

"I—cough, cough."

Shana covered her mouth, managing not to join everyone in saying the phrase. She didn't understand what it meant, but it sounded rather vulgar.

After silently repenting for her "sin," she turned to Colin, her gaze entirely changed from before.

At that moment, she seemed to understand what the people in the Chat Channel had meant.

[Holy Light Priest Shana Heraka's loyalty to you has increased by 10%. It is now 70%.]

It had gone up again. But considering Shana's character, even if it were only fifty percent—or lower—she'd probably still fight to the death to protect them.

Colin didn't pay much attention to the notification. He didn't think it was accurate. Relationships between people couldn't be measured so simply.

He felt "favorability" was a better way to describe it than loyalty.

But just as Colin's attention wandered, he suddenly saw Shana lunge at him.

He barely had time to react before she tackled him to the ground.

More importantly, he didn't think she meant him any harm.

The next second, with a thud, an object came flying down from above and hit the ground, rolling twice before stopping.

It was a stone about half the size of a head.

Even though only a small piece remained, Colin could still recognize it as the stone he'd placed on top of the Explosive Barrel.

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