04 - Preparation for Siege

---------- POV MC ---------

After completing my Daily-Quest I came back to the king's palace. I need intelligence about the lands around capital if I want to make something grand. That's why I'm waiting in front of the throne hall.

"His majesty is waiting for you sir Axel." said the royal butler signaling guards to open the huge golden door in front of me. The door opened and I walked inside to the huge hall the guards were lined on my each side. I saw the king Elijah sitting on the throne. On his right side was sitting a beautiful woman with blonde hair and purple eyes smiling slightly. On the other side of the king his daughter the princess was sitting with the same adorable hairstyle and smile. I walked in front of the throne and greeted them with slight bow and said " I greet his majesty the king, her majesty the queen and her royal highness princess."

"We greet you too sir Axel." Said the queen smiling.

"I heard you wanted to talk about Baros Kingdom's upcoming siege." said the King.

"Yes, when the guard rushed inside of the room I heard him talking about it and I wanted to offer my help." I said which they gave me frown.

"How can you possible help us. You might be strong individually but what they have is whole army."

"Your right sir, but in a wars like that one person might make whole army suffer." I said watching him closely.

--------- POV Elijah the King --------

While I was working with my ministers and commanders, I heard he was looking for me so I excused myself from the meeting to hear what he wants to say but I didn't excepted this. We just met and chatted max for a ten minutes yet he is here offering help. He seems to be good person but I can't stop thinking him being suspicious. First he saves my daughter and now he is offering help for the Kingdom. He might be a spy from Baros Kingdom. Well let's play with him eventually he will make a mistake.

"Very well, I will take your offer. Now what do you need from Kingdom." I said watching him carefully.

"I will need a map of the surroundings. If I want to make them suffer I need to choose perfect spot for the job." he said looking at me.

"Joe will be arranging the map for you." I said as I signaled towards the Joe, the royal butler of the palace.

"Do you need anything else?"

"Do you have anything like when you ignite it explodes?" he asked and I thought about our fireworks.

"We have but it's nothing more than entertainment." I asked and looked at him.

"That powder's worth is changing according the use of it. After the right steps you can make it an explosive that can kill hundreds of soldiers alone. Or you can use it like propeller for explosives." he said making me think deeply. From the very moment I saw the fireworks, I thought about possible ways and making explosives was one of them. Maybe he has a way to make it real.

------------- POV MC --------------

"Okay, I will let you take a look. Do you have way to make explosives." Elijah the King asked me. " I need to see it first before saying anything certain your highness." I said. I don't know what kind of powder they are using but I hope this world isn't that different.

"Alright, Joe will arrange everything you need." he said and got up with his family. "Depending on the results you will be rewarded, or punished." said Elijah before leaving with his family. I turned around and started following the Joe, the royal butler.

After leaving the throne hall Joe brought me all the to the underground. We kept walking for few minutes before coming to the seemingly laboratory in the cave. Inside I saw elderly man looking closely to something on the table. And on his right side there was young man looking around my age. Joe stepped inside and cleared his throat but no one cared about him. Joe stepped forward and picked up metal rod before hitting to the desk.

CLANK

Because of the loud sound the thing they were looking at fell to the ground before exploding in blinding white lights. My eyes were hurt and I knew this feeling, this was something from my world. It was the same damage flashbang gives but without the sound. This thing will be really helpful. I was thinking and sound of yelling brought me to reality.

"Joe I really want to kill you so much!!" said the elderly man yelling at joe.

"Sorry brother but King's orders. This is sir Axel he will be our help in the coming war. He asked us for something that can be ignited before exploding." Said Joe looking at the elderly man. "If you're gonna use it for war, then sorry to disappoint you but it's not gonna work." Said the elderly man.

"I need to see it before I could say anything." I said looking at them. "Alright then my name is Gerald, and this young man is Pedro." he said "My name is Axel, pleasure to meet." I said and they both nodded.

"Now follow me to the test ground, I will show what it can do." said the Gerald before walking and I started following with Joe. After half an hour of walking we reached to brown door and Pedro opened the it for us. We walked through the door and what I saw surprised me.

We were in large open space like stadium protected with 5 m. walls. On our right side there was black rocks scattered on desk. On our left side was something that looks like testing area. Gerald walked to the desk and picked up handful of rock. Then Pedro brought him black tube, he put the rocks inside of the tube before closing it. He then ignited the fuse and he put the tube inside of 50 cm long metal rod.

I saw the little tube flying out of the metal one towards the open field. Before exploding like firecracker but giving visual sight of fireworks.

SHHHAA

CRACK CRACK

"That's how this thing works. We tried everyway we could think but it was always futile." said Gerald turning towards me while giving the metal rod to the Pedro. I turned around and took a look at the rocks. It seems that this world has different chemical table. I picked up the rock gripping tightly before throwing it towards the testing area. The moment rock touched the ground it exploded stronger than firework.

BOOM.

Everyone looked at the explosion and then at me.

"What did you?" asked Gerald. "Nothing I just threw the rock. I don't think you guys used everyway possible." I said turning to the rocks again inspecting closely.

"So what's the name of this rock."

"We call it Granat." Said Gerald looking at the rocks. "Did you guys tried to crack it open the rock?" I asked still looking at the rocks.

"No, it's too risky so we didn't wanted to try."

"It's not, you guys can open it safely as long as there isn't any sudden impact. If we could open and see the inside maybe we can find better way to use it." I said shaking the rock. Gerald picked up the rock and threw to the testing ground. The same explosion rang and Gerald started laughing.

"Hahaha finally we made breakthrough. Thank you sir Axel for your help." said Gerald grabbed my hand shaking.

"What about the other thing that exploded in your laboratory?" I asked

"It was something Pedro found by chance and brought back."

"Pedro can you collect more for me?" I asked he simply nodded.

"What's the use of that, it's just blinding for few seconds."

said Gerald looking at me. "Think about using against your enemy in sword fight. What would be the result?" I asked and his eyes lit up immediately.

"You are right, in those few seconds you could kill him. You are genius." said Gerald running towards the way we came and we followed behind him.

After another half an hour walking we were back in laboratory. Gerald and Pedro began their job while Joe and I went upstairs. He signaled maid to brought me a map after they brought it I showed Joe where he can find us and walked out of the palace.

Today was very fruitful, I found a map and learned that this world mostly different from my. I mean exploding rock and also as a natural resource it's scary. Let's go back to the palace tomorrow for more information about Baros army.

While thinking to myself I didn't notice that I came to camp.

When I got off from horse one of the ninjas rushed to me kneeling and saying.

"My Lord, we found group of bandits around the here and they were well armed. I think someone is backing them up." saod the ninja. "How many of them?" I asked

"The closest group is numbered 30 and they are having fun, drinking all night."

"Alright tonight we'll make suprise attack on them. We can't let bandits lurk around here Before the siege." I said as I decided to summon soldiers.

[ Remaining S.P. = 2900]

I looked through the summon list but I don't have enough S.P. for most of them. I decided to use quantity so I summoned [x20 Trained Swordsman - 50], [x12 Trained Archer - 150].

This will do the job on our raid. Just after I summoned them

quest notification rang in my head. I opened and looked at it.

[Side Quest : You are preparing for the biggest battle you've ever participated and you can't make a mistake. Destroy anything could stand in your way with your goal.

Objective: Destroy x5 Bandit Group.

Rewards: 50.000 S.P., x100 Elite Archer, x10 Elite Ninja]

'The rewards are what I need right now so this quest is really helpful. I will wait and move at night.' I thought and told my plan to the soldiers, after that we started resting and getting ready for the night.

[Current Soldiers: x25 Trained Swordsman, x11 Trained Archer, x10 Trained Ninja, x5 Trained Knights.]