Explosion Magic!

Arsonist stood up and pulled off his camouflaging cape.

Pointing his black steel staff forward, aiming a bit, Arsonist shot a fist-sized fireball into the air.

That little fireball drew a nice arc in air, flying over Airhorn. However, the projectile speed of this spell seemed a little slow.

It wasn't going to hit anything! It flew over the bandits as well!

Though... Jake highly doubted that a weak spell like that could hold off the bandits.

With a light sigh, Jake pulled out some pebbles out of his pouch.

Looks like it's up to him to save the day after all.

A flash of bright light!

That small fireball had landed! It exploded into a dome of yellow light!

A violent shockwave expanded at the speed of sound.

Boom!

A fiery cloud gradually expanded at that spot. Black smoke quickly rose into the air. Some pieces of the dry earth was flung into the air, quickly disintegrating into dust, fading away in the air.

Turning a closer look, that explosion didn't kill any bandits. However, the shockwave knocked them off balance.

More importantly, there was more to that attack. Fire quickly flowed down the hill like oil, engulfing everything in its path. The bushes were lit up one after another.

The bandits had recovered a bit now, starting to run down hill again. But clearly, they were slower now.

In a moment, the flowing fire started to engulf the bandits.

Wearing a numb expression, blank eyes, these bandit monsters just ignored the fire on them.

Even when they were set on fire, these things continued to robotically chase Airhorn.

One after another, these bandit monsters exploded into brown dust.

But the fluid fire was running out of fuel too. In a moment, it had stopped expanding.

At the very front, there were a few bandits that outran the flames. About eight of them.

Even when fleeing, Airhorn still frequently checked the situation behind himself. Seeing this result, this knight halted himself.

Turning around, Airhorn unsheathed his sword, entering his battle stance.

In Jake's view, thin mana threads flowed out of Airhorn. It's as if this knight was surrounded by an electric field.

The moment those bandits entered this field, they got entangled by these mana threads. Their movement speeds quickly slowly down.

With this number, they were no threat at all now.

One chop, one kill.

Airhorn easily killed these bandits off. It's as if these bandit were just level 1 monsters to him or something.

Jake raised his brows at the result.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Jake slowly nodded in approval.

Clearly, a little fireball couldn't have eliminated most of the bandits.

But with the aid of three consumable artifacts, Arsonist ramped up his attack to pseudo-iron-tier.

An iron-tier's strongest spell probably had the same spell-effect radius. Yep. Also strong enough to eliminate a field of bandits.

However, an iron-tier's spell was threatening to another iron-tier.

But Arsonist's attack... Emm... It's getting there. Yep. Getting there.

Though...

Looking at the black smoke ascending into the sky, Jake raised his brows.

The fire was dwindling now. The smoke was thinning out. But it's still a signal though.

Jake lightly shook his head. 'Maybe I'm just over-thinking things.'

After the ground cooled off, Jake's group entered the empty fort.

No hidden bandits. No booby traps. By realm logic, Jake's group had cleared this zone.

In a moment, the group finished searching this fort. Plenty of loot and chests opened.

In a moment, the group reached a mine entrance.

Looking inside, the tunnel was lit up by glowing crystals on the walls.

Passing through this tunnel, the group reached a large cavern. About the size of a baseball field. The ground was blanketed by a layer of rocks. All grey and jagged.

A few car-sized boulders. Some watermelon sized rocks. Most were fist-sized.

Yep. This was a typical unexcavated mine in the realms. It's pointless in mining the walls here. Can't gain anything. The rock pieces would just fade away into dust.

The rocks on the ground were the loot.

Jake focussed his gaze. 99.9% of the rocks here contained nothing. But still, over all, there's still a large load of resources.

Some resources were benign.

Some were volatile like infernal crystals. Carelessly open one of these up, you can expect a nasty little surprise.

Flipping through a few rocks, Jake picked up a fist-sized rock.

'Benign. Sparkling with white light. Weak energy level. Coin-sized...' Jake thought for a moment. 'Starlight crystal?'

Only one way to find out.

Jake knocked it against a bigger rock on the ground a few times.

*Ta Ta Ta*

Jake felt like a caveman for some reason.

*Ta Ta!*

The rock in Jake's hand broke in half. Inside, there was a coin-sized clear crystal. In this dim environment, one could see sparkling white light in this crystal.

Starlight crystal. Material for very specific artifacts. Pretty. But basically useless. Usually bought by rich people as jewelry.

Jake nodded at himself. Looks like he could trust his ability on this one.

Jake's bodyguards just watched this process. They weren't interested in trying their luck. Seeing this result, their eyes lit up.

Looks like Jake was well-capable of this task!

They didn't show it. But before coming here, they secretly worried that Jake's detection ability was not strong enough.

Looking back now, clearly, this was an unnecessary worry.

Jake tossed the useless crystal to Emily. She was the only girl here. Why would a dude be interested in crystals like this anyways?

Emily's face quickly flushed red. The girl smiled and stared at the ground. Looks like she's overwhelmed in happiness and satisfaction again.

"Yes." The short girl nodded.

In her mind, she could already see Jake proposing to her. This crystal had been attached to her marriage ring by then. This crystal was a testimony to their love!

Jake: ???

Well... Alright then...

Goo-(copyright)-gle. You there? Help?