36 (36) A Hidden World

The next day went similar to the previous days; foreigners were mingled with local parties, taking notes of everything the local 'guides' said. Everyone excitedly chattered with each other, not at all concerned with beating the Dungeon quickly.

Everything seemed strange... But normal at the same time. It made Lysine doubt herself as a whole week had nearly passed by yet nothing tremendously shocking or thrilling had occurred. This left an awkward feeling in the air, like her senses told her something was off and that there was more to the situation, but in reality, nothing much had changed.

Since none of the Monsters had been up to the surface, no-one knew if anything is actually being prepared for. For all they knew - or guessed, the inflow of foreigners could just be because the town Mayor had expanded the territory, attracting migrants from all over the continent. That would also explain the notes the foreigners were taking, but it would not explain why the locals had been taking notes before the foreigners came.

The uncomfortable feeling was quickly suppressed, why would she care about it anyway, it's not like it will affect them too much. Besides, having a stain in her record from an event surely couldn't be any more embarrassing than the one Kraton had for over 30 years!

After butchering the frail raiders, Kraton had farmed up quite a bit of decent loot. He had hoarded many pieces of iron and silver armour, as well as finding some strange herbs or plants which many of the foreigners dropped. When Kraton had experimented with them before, he found out that some particular plants burnt and released a putrid smell, and clouded the entire room with a thick, grey smoke.

After burning too many of these plants, he recieved the Nausea status and started vomiting out his dinner. When Lysine had found him, he had froth bubling out from his mouth - a very disgusting sight. Lysine had quickly concocted a potion of sorts out of some other herbs that Kraton had stored away. This incident didn't stop Kraton from experimenting though, of course he only continued after learning the recipe for the antidote.

Another experiment taught Kraton that plants not only had medicinal (and poisonous) properties, but some also had explosive and breath-taking results.

By complete accident, Kraton found that mixing two specific plants together, which resulted in a thick, grey paste, it could then be burnt with contact to fire to release a brilliant white light and erupt in a pillar of flames. Upon discovery, Kraton thought long and hard to give it an awesome, original name. He ultimately decided to call it 'Explosive Paste', for it was both a paste, and was explosive! A perfect name.

There was just one problem with his new inventions... They weren't very practical. The paste obviously had to be, well pasted on a surface, then detonated with a flame, whilst the nauseating smoke would also affect himself, if he had to stop and consume the vile tasting antidote each time, he may fall sick of the antidote instead. Therefore, his product wasn't yet complete, Kraton needed to forge a contraption - preferably small and handheld - in order to make use of them efficiently.

There were many innovations that Kraton, Lysine and a few Nagas brainstormed, Kraton's favourite suggestion was adding a thin layer of paste to his club with a small trigger to light it aflame. However this required his club to be much more durable, and it wouldn't be very good against flame-elementals. If he wanted to protect his mace against these types of flame-users, then the paste would have to be under a metal layer, but this would consume much more materials, especially since it would be blown to unrecoverable pieces.

Lysine suggested creating a container that held the paste within, then using some sort of friction, or a different chemical reaction to produce the flame, the small container could be thrown and detonated. This idea seemed simple, however in reality a lot of different mechanisms and structural integrity was needed to make it work. Furthermore, it was more helpful for the humans against swarms of monsters, not exactly helpful for Kraton or Lysine unless there was a large-scale raid.

...

Kraton never thought that the first practical application for the paste was suggested by the Gargoyles. After hearing about his invention, the Gargoyles had rushed up to Kraton, begging him to lend the paste over, showering him with praises fit for a God. Or so Kraton would tell anyone.

With the help of the Explosive Paste, the mining rate of the Gargoyles increased twofold. Instead of mining a large tunnel section by section, they only had to dig a narrow corridor before smearing the paste thinly on the walls. The ensuing explosion would open a wide tunnel, enough for 5 to 10 Gargoyles to fit in and consume to fallen rocks, clearing even more space for more of them to fit through.

In just a night, the Gargoyles had dug several large tunnels, spreading in several directions underground. Unexpectedly, one of the tunnels collapsed. The tunnel itself suffered little harm, but the ground near the end had fallen through. When some Gargoyles peered down the pit, they found a large cave with sleek crystals encoating walls. It was impossible for a structure like this to be naturally formed, there was even some sort of furniture in the room, but from where the Gargoyles were, they couldn't see the details unless they dropped down.

Duis was quickly informed of the discovery, and so he quickly sent the lazy Tribus to wake Kraton and bring him down. It was midnight right now, the only reason why Kraton had not sent them back to their own floor was that they had dug so much that the bending tunnels didn't let any sound reach the Boss Room.

"WHICH INSOLENT PRICK DARES WAKE ME"

Kraton's roar, on the other hand, shook through all the tunnels, leaving the other Gargoyles thankful that Duis didn't send them to wake Kraton up.

Not long after, Kraton and Lysine made their way down, Kraton's eyes were large and bloodshot, his temperament exuded a violent aura which left the Gargoyles cowering in fear. When they reached the massive hole, even Kraton's bloodied eyes held a shocked look.

'All those crystal, I'm rich' These words were not spoken aloud, but raced through his mind.

"We tried to mine the crystals near us Lord Kraton, but none of us could break even the smalled pebble off from it." Duis woke Kraton from his thoughts but quickly regretted his words.

"Who told you to mine these rocks..."

"We- We have already punished the greedy fool, the matter has already been taken care off." A movement within the Gargoyle horde went unnoticed, luckily for the cowering Gargoyle.

Lysine flew down into the crystalline room and inspected the furniture that couldn't be seen from above. She paused by a large crystal block, half-buried in the floor, seemingly reading or studying something by the base of the block. When Lysine flew back up, her eyes glittered with restrained curiosity and awe from what she had discovered in the cave.

"Don't touch anything here, we'll enter this hidden world tomorrow."