Cthulhu Gonfalon

Hearing the mention of bombs made Sui Xiong’s imagination go wild.

From the Nobel Peace Prize to the World Wars, from Samsung phones to terrorist attacks… several ideas ran through his head like a furiously flowing river.

Alas, bombs existed in this world as well!

According to Sui Xiong’s best knowledge, this world did not have the bombs that Earth had. If one wanted to make something explode, this world’s people would use magic related to this feature or use items such as magic rocks or crystals to induce an explosion of similar effect. Needless to say, the usage of magic rocks and crystals were both extremely expensive. One could also use other ways to create an explosion. A most common spell would be the fireball, which was one of the typical mid-level spells. The price of a magic crystal or a magic rock was way beyond that of hiring a mid-level wizard to create a fireball.

Thus, except for a few special events, few would use dynamite on enemies. It was not until Crick Keane’s birth when he was sick and unable to walk that it was arranged for Master Damwade to create a large batch of dynamite to be buried in the ground in the living room. A large group of villains who had been plagued with grief was killed, and none managed to escape.

However, after that event, no one else had created dynamite. Master Damwade had focused on agriculture and had not accessed dynamite again even after the God ceremony. Crick Keane himself had died in the explosion and become the Void Mask’s Holy Spirit.

At least, that was what “insiders” presumed.

The fact was the Crick Keane and Sui Xiong were one and the same. The dynamite of Crick Keane had actually been created by Sui Xiong through following the recipe in one of the web fanfictions that he had read.

He no longer remembered the name of the fanfiction, but what remained etched in his memory was that the story had contained a large number of industrial technology facts in detail and even included diagrams. It described the steps of making acid, making glycerin and nitrating it. It also theorized that even a secondary school student could follow the instructions to create extremely powerful dynamite if they were not afraid of possibly dying while making it.

Originally, when Sui Xiong had seen the book, this left the biggest impression on him. This was how he had managed to utilize the method in this world and recreate this invention that had won a Nobel Peace Prize back on Earth…

It was just that the dwarves had also apparently been exploring the idea of dynamite for a while, to the oblivion of Sui Xiong.

“Dynamite? What’s that?” Hopes, of course, was unfamiliar with the term and couldn’t help asking upon hearing Dudu’s secretive tone.

Dudu thought before replying, “You can associate it with magic crystals, except they cannot stabilize magic and can only be used to create explosions.”

Hopes nodded in understanding. Sid, however, continued to question Dudu.

“In that case… A piece of bedrock like this, how strong of an explosive effect can it create? As compared to a fireball, would it be less or more?”

He was referring to a piece of bedrock about the size of one’s palm.

Dudu thought for a while before saying, “About four to five fireballs.”

Sid’s face paled several shades, and he carefully placed the bedrock that he had been holding on the floor. Upon second thought, he felt that it was still too dangerous and carefully placed it on Dudu’s bed instead.

“How does this rock incite an explosion?”

“You can hit it or light it with fire.”

Hopes’ face was as pale as a sheet of paper—these days, he had been knocking away at the bedrock wall for days, with countless strokes of the hammer….

Looking at their panicked expressions, Dudu couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t worry, under normal circumstances, bedrock cannot explode…”

As he spoke, he picked up the piece of bedrock and arranged it on an anvil. He casually picked up his usual axe and hit it hard, causing the bedrock to explode to smithereens.

Upon watching this, Sid and Hopes’ hearts nearly flew out of their chests, and they nearly dove for cover. If not for Dudu’s last words before his actions, they would have run out of the tent in fear of their own lives.

“We dwarves have discovered bedrock from a long time ago. However, we only discovered that it could cause explosions a few years ago. This is one of our kingdom secrets, and by right, I shouldn’t be sharing it with you. This is why I was hesitant to share. In any case, knowing this information doesn’t do much for you two, right?”

Sid and Hopes glanced at each other and nodded in agreement.

They were rather regretful that they had learned the secret as they had sworn such a huge oath for something that barely concerned them. They were also too afraid to question Dudu further and returned to their tents to sleep. However, whether they would actually be able to fall asleep was another matter entirely…

In the morning, Hopes removed all the long nails that he had assembled off the bedrock wall.

“We’ve already come so far, giving up now is a pity!” Some of the explorers felt that it was a pity to stop here.

Hopes could not explain the true reason and could only smile and say, “In any case, I would not have been able to complete the last part of the route. Let’s not leave the nails here as it would just be a waste.”

“It’s not a waste if we could possibly use it in the future!”

“No… In any case, the holes we drilled are still here. If we require it in the future, we can reassemble the nails. It won’t be much trouble.” As Hopes spoke, he led his team back to camp.

In actuality, he had already made up his mind to never touch this cliff again. Hopes felt that the bedrock was too dangerous! Although he was unsure under what circumstances it would actually explode, he decided not to take the risk as he recalled that even a tiny piece was equivalent in power to four or five fireballs.

It was better to just leave!

At the tip of the cliff, where everything was foggy, Sui Xiong picked up a piece of recently mined bedrock and observed it carefully.

Dudu Hill’s secret was as clear as black and white in the expression in his eyes. The key secret discovered by the dwarves to turn bedrock into explosives was to grind it. Grinding bedrock into powder form would allow its stability to decrease and allow it to become explosive.

Currently, the dwarves used the method of grinding followed by using gauze to sieve it. After using the extremely closely woven gauze, the powder gained could be used as explosives of a decent power level. However, this method required lots of time and energy and was not efficient. They were thus currently exploring other methods that could be better.

Dudu knew that there were several dwarf blacksmiths who were researching on a machine that could process ground bedrock. Currently, they had had some inspiration and had tried some models, but to little result.

To prevent the ground bedrock from exploding during experiments, the machines had to work in water—only when bedrock was submerged in water could it be more stable. However, working long term in water was too difficult.

“Maybe… I can think of a new solution… Explosives are an art, and as an artist, I should prove my worth!” glancing at the bedrock sample, Dudu muttered to himself.