Birth Of The Crafts-God

The Green-snout metal moles didn't hold back, even at the cost of death. There was no shred of care or caution, but simply viciousness. They charged at the chimera even if they were to get bit in half or crushed in one strike.

Compared to earlier, the chimera had more grave injuries on its body. One of its legs was broken, while another was missing some flesh on it. Even with all these injuries, the chimera was still a terrifying beast.

Lucas, who had already finished making the explosives, appeared by the edge of the tunnel. His talismans had all expired, and he was visible in plain sight. However, because the desolate beasts were too focused on the battle, they failed to notice him. Even if they did, they might be a bit surprised but would be unbothered by his presence, as Lucas was far from being a threat to them.

To counter the issue of the explosives causing a cave collapse, Lucas had two reasonable options: to detonate within the desolate beasts or to control the size of the explosion.

By detonating from within, the solid exterior of the beasts could act as a cushion and mitigate a portion of the explosion. This option, however, was laced with issues. For instance, it would damage the beasts' body parts, rendering them almost unusable. Lucas did all this for their body parts, and if his gains turned out to be unusable, this entire plan would have been pointless.

Also, he could only make one bomb in this time frame, and that meant only one target, which would most likely be the chimera. If the explosion was diminished so much, it would successfully kill the chimera but might only injure the Green-snout metal moles.

As for controlling the size of the explosion, Lucas had never worked with the body parts of a desolate beast, much less any of the two species gathered here, so he couldn't properly estimate the degree of toughness. In other words, he didn't know how powerful he had to make the explosion to kill them.

From this, one could see that both options had their flaws. As such, there was only one suitable choice; the third option of combining both.

In Lucas' right hand was a strange contraption that looked like a pipe. It was his home-made rocket launcher, created using a Grade 1 pole-type vestige he made as well as some other metal parts. For the propulsion system, Lucas had smashed a handful of Violent Sun ores alongside the Igrum steel.

He also calculated the strength of the explosion to be close to the theoretical limit of the point where it could cause the cavern to collapse. The reason for this was to be sure that all the desolate beasts in the cavern would die, even if they were away from the centre of the explosion.

Leaning on the ground by the exit of the tunnel, Lucas monitored the battle as he waited for a chance. Just then, he spotted one. The chimera was preoccupied with the king mole, having little attention for the weaker moles, which numbered less than twenty, a third of which were at the third level.

One of the third level moles, knowing it was no match for the chimera but having no intentions of retreating, lunged to the back of the chimera. A third level Green-snout metal mole was about four metres in height when standing on its hind legs. There was enough atop the chimera for it to land.

*Bang*

The third level Green-snout metal mole brandished its claws on the chimera's carapace, dishing attacks after attacks on it. Usually, the chimera would only feel a tingle from these strikes, as the gap between the two was vast, but this time around, things were different. Albeit still standing, the chimera had been beaten black and blue and covered with injuries.

Its healing factor had fallen, and its energy was dropping too.

The king mole and the other Green-snout metal moles saw the chimera falling behind with its attacks, and they all closed in on it from different angles, attacking furiously in a bid to end the battle then and there.

Being assaulted by the mole king on one end, and having to split its attention to the other dozen Green-snout metal moles, the chimera was unable to pay much attention to the mole atop. It could only withdraw its tail from attacking a metal mole on the side and control it to go for the one atop.

By doing so, it inadvertently left a particular spot open.

'Now.'

Lucas, who had already set the rocket launcher on his shoulder and calculated the perfect trajectory, aimed his DIY weapon at the chimera's pink spot [1], which was revealed as it stretched out its tail.

The chimera's fighting pattern was such that its tail attacked from an angle capable of shielding that precious chrysanthemum. But as it had to aim for the mole atop, the tail had to be fully stretched, which would in turn reveal that gap.

"Asta la vista, or something." [2] Lucas pulled the trigger and fired the rocket.

*Shhh*

*Boom*

Smoke blew out from the other end of the rocket launcher, and with a low but reverberating sound, a projectile shot out from the pole and darted towards the chimera's pink spot.

Lucas had built the rocket luncher and created the propulsion system to function in such a way that the projectile would make it to the target at the fastest speed possible. He performed his calculations while considering the distance of the tunnel's exit to the opposite end at the bottom of the cavern.

This was the farthest possible reach, and Lucas ensured that even if the target was there, his projectile would make the dash within a second.

At the same time, there was a detonating sequence set for exactly one second. In other words, one second after the projectile entered the propulsion sequence—just as it began to exit the rocket launcher—it would explode.

This timing was made to ensure that it would explode close enough to the beast's behind, but not inside of it. This way, the chimera would surely be killed, but its inside wouldn't be damaged to the point of being unusable. With all the Green-snout metal moles literally hugging the chimera, Lucas was sure that they would all die.

Even if by some absurd miracle, they lived, their injuries would be so severe that lifting a finger would be impossible.

Lucas, though, hadn't even bothered to check the result of his shot. The very millisecond he felt the rocket launcher lighten, he threw it aside and ran back into the depths of the tunnel with all his strength. He had even activated the second speed talisman a few minutes earlier.

One should recall that the force of the explosion was calculated to be close to the limit of causing a cave collapse. In other words, it was so powerful that the majority of the cavern would be in flames, and part of those flames would spread into the tunnels. Standing at the entrance of the tunnel was no different from trying to turn himself into a human barbecue.

*Boom*

Lucas hadn't even taken two steps when a loud explosion sounded behind him as the entire area brightened up. He didn't even have enough time to curse his luck or pray for some miracle as Lucas felt the space behind him swiftly heat up. Despite that, he kept running and running to the point that his muscles were close to tearing up.

The system had given him heat resistance, but this wasn't flawless. As a blacksmith and a craftsman, being sensitive to the changes in heat was very important, so if he was completely resistant to it, his skill would drop. The heat resistance Lucas was blessed with could only make sure that he wouldn't get killed or injured by any form of heat.

However, Lucas could still feel the change in temperature, and therefore the pain, to some extent.

But this wasn't the problem.

The problem was that the temperature of this explosion most likely exceeded his resistance limit, which was 2000ºC (3632°F). In other words, if Lucas didn't run for his life, he might end up like an overcooked turkey.

"Restore."

A trenchcoat appeared on Lucas' body and began to glisten with a dark light. Two seconds later, Lucas felt an incredible force slam into him, but the coat managed to protect him from the majority of it, although Lucas was still sent flying forward for a couple of metres.

Lucas gritted his teeth and held his head with his arms to prevent getting a head injury from the incoming crash landing.

*Whoosh*

Flames engulfed him while still burning his coat, until Lucas' silhouette was nowhere to be seen as the flames had blazed past his position. The entire walls of the tunnels turned black as they were being charred by the flames.