“Lord…”
“Lord Colin?”
Warm, white, pure, and gentle light shone before him, accompanied by a voice as warm as a spring breeze. Slowly, Colin returned to his senses after his daze.
When he saw Sanna’s glowing fist close by, it was as if he had surfaced from underwater, suddenly becoming “awake.”
Imdiately, Colin realized that everyone was looking at him with worried expressions.
“Did sothing happen that we don’t know about?”
Sanna retracted her hand, her voice like a soothing chant, calming and reassuring everyone, making them feel as if they were bathed in the spring breeze.
Seeing Colin’s face turn strange and his eyes vacant, Shana had decisively used so special power when ordinary thods couldn’t wake him.
After all, Shana rembered that she used to be a mber of the Sun Hymn Choir but was later transferred to another departnt of the Eternal Sun Church, taking on different responsibilities.
“It’s nothing, I was just thinking about sothing else.”
Colin rubbed his forehead. For so reason, when he was thinking about the population issue earlier, he suddenly thought of sothing important and fell into a whirlpool of thoughts, getting deeper and deeper, unable to co to his senses for a while.
Even now, Colin still felt a lingering sense of panic and unease, as if sothing bad could happen at any mont, sothing he couldn’t change or prevent.
Everything seed to beco urgent…
But when Colin tried to recall his thoughts from earlier, he found he couldn’t rember what he had been thinking about, as if he had suddenly beco forgetful.
“What are we going to do now?”
Sanna’s clear blue eyes looked at Colin, interrupting his thoughts.
“Let’s go to the mine and start mining. No matter what happens next, we need to take it step by step.”
Cllin made a decision. Regardless of what ca next, the imdiate priority was to increase their strength as much as possible.
And explosives were power!
Soon, they returned to the saltpeter mine, about three ters high and four to five ters wide.
The entrance was pitch dark, obviously ho to so mutated creatures, but Colin hadn’t received any warnings about significant danger, indicating that the mutated creatures inside shouldn’t be too strong.
Collin carried a lantern, prepared for anything, while Sanna led the way. The group, tightly clustered, entered the mine.
Inside the mine, it was dark, cold, and damp, the air thick with a musty, decaying sll.
Long-term disregard had left the ground relatively flat, albeit littered with fallen rocks from the ceiling or walls.
The tunnel was supported by large, unnad wooden stakes that ford long passages about two ters tall, forcing them to duck occasionally.
The deeper they went, the narrower it beca. The sound of dripping water deep in the cave made everyone tense.
Due to the mine’s humidity and the nature of saltpeter, it grew colder the further they went, unlike other types of mines, which typically got hotter deeper in.
Fortunately, they hadn’t encountered any mutated creatures yet. After a short walk, they finally reached the mining area.
The walls here were covered with colorless, white, or gray crystalline minerals.
Without wasting ti, Colin used so crude iron blocks and wood he had bought from the trade market to quickly craft six iron pickaxes.
Clang, clang—
Number Two imdiately led a few n to start digging.
As soon as they broke off pieces, Collin collected them into his backpack and began processing them on the spot.
Others stood guard with axes, ready to fend off any creatures that might attack.
After about ten minutes, there was no sign of any creatures, as if the cave were dead.
The sound of shivering caught Colin’s attention. His guards, dressed only in shorts and ragged shirts, were shaking in the cold cave, eyeing the diggers with envy.
“Miss Sanna, do you have any warming spells?”
Colin rembered that her healing magic had a warming effect.
Sanna looked troubled and hesitated before saying, “Well, I do, but my magic is limited. I can only sustain it for about ten minutes…”
What? Ten minutes is your limit too? Collin thought to himself.
Then he decided against having her use magic, instead shouting, “Everyone, rotate every ten minutes! Dig for ten minutes, then rest for ten minutes! Start rotating now!”
He wanted everyone to experience the honor of labor!
“Yay!”
“Praise the Lord!”
The guards, excited, grabbed the pickaxes and started swinging with vigor.
The only sound was the clang of steel against rock, as each worker put their back into the task, faces full of determination.
Sanna, exempt from the cold due to her constitution and magic, looked at the others’ pickaxes, regretting she couldn’t help. But she understood the importance of safety—her mining would be more efficient, but in case of an ergency, the servant’s lack of strength could lead to casualties, so she had no complaints.
Ten minutes, half an hour, an hour, almost two hours passed…
The mine had beco less narrow under Colin’s efforts, significantly more spacious than before.
With increasing proficiency, Collin’s speed at mixing explosives also increased.
His inventory now held nearly two tons of black powder!
“Thankfully, the inventory had compartnts and won’t shake, though not as absolutely still as the trade market’s storage. As long as there’s no contact, it’s essentially motionless. Otherwise, if it exploded in my inventory, I’d be dood.”
The thought of that scene made Colin shiver.
After all, this was two tons of explosives!
Well, now it’s three tons…
The speed of making black powder far exceeded Colin’s expectations.
But at that mont, Colin’s expression turned strange because he saw a notification.
[Through barely perceptible vibrations, perhaps sounds or intuition, you seem to realize that soone is approaching this area.]
[You speculate that they are survivors like you.]
Reviews
All reviews (0)