“Is the target setup ready?”
“All set. A circle of targets placed every five meters.”
“Have them drop the bomb.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the two vampire guards beside him immediately waved their flags to signal.
High above at two hundred blades, the two vampires were holding black alchemical bombs, about the size of a watermelon. The surface was composed of turtle-shell-like plating, painted with some very ugly green symbols. Upon receiving the signal, they pulled the ring on the bomb and tossed it down.
It plummeted straight to the ground. A few seconds later.
Boom~
A terrifying explosion echoed across the Moonlight Plains.
Zzzhhh~
Mud and grass exploded skyward like a rainstorm, showering back down with a shhhhhh.
A massive plume of thick smoke surged upward like a mushroom cloud, rising over twenty blades high.
The shockwave rolled out in all directions.
The surrounding grasslands were flattened as if a violent typhoon had passed through. The blades of grass were completely pressed to the ground, all bowing under the force.
A few nearby dwarves, already sporting messy hair, instantly looked like startled chickens, each with a frizzy mop of curls, ridiculously comical.
Li De, shielded by Dragonscale Shield, remained calm. The massive shockwave was like a gentle breeze brushing across his face.
But what truly surprised him was the sheer power of what was said to be merely a Common-grade alchemical bomb.
They were standing over a hundred blades away, yet a Tier 3 Spell couldn’t produce this kind of effect at such a distance.
Curious, he waved his hand. “Let’s go take a look.”
They slowly walked toward the blast zone. The closer they got, the more animated Li De’s expression became. The fires ignited in the area had already been extinguished by Stanley’s magic, leaving the ground scorched and damp.
At fifty blades out, all the man-sized oak targets had been broken. Those within thirty blades had been completely obliterated.
The scorched earth carried the sharp scent of gunpowder.
In one patch of undergrowth, a fire still smoldered, crackling loudly in the otherwise silent surroundings.
Green grass mixed with dry, shredded stalks. The entire scene carried a strange, eerie feeling.
Li De's gaze continued moving. When he saw the center of the explosion, his eyes narrowed.
At ground zero, a massive, bowl-shaped crater had formed. The top rim of the ‘bowl’ was at least eight blades wide and three blades deep.
That power…
Li De’s expression filled with astonishment. He felt like he’d stumbled upon a treasure.
Even if he couldn’t make gunpowder in this world, these alchemical bombs were just as effective.
This level of destruction even surpassed some Tier 3 Spells. Turning around with excitement, he looked at the others.
“So? What do you think about these alchemical bombs?”
Harrison considered for a moment and said, “Patriarch, the power of these bombs is immense, at least five times stronger than the alchemical bombs I’ve encountered before. They’re incredibly suitable for aerial deployment by vampires.”
Li De gave him an approving look. “Exactly. Vampires have to descend to low altitude to cast spells at ground troops.
But once they reach low altitude, ground units become capable of retaliating effectively.
Take cyclops for example, they’re particularly adept at low-altitude defense. If we descend to fifty blades, the boulders they throw are nearly impossible for us to dodge or withstand.
But if we could extend our attack range and strike them from a height where they can’t retaliate, it would be a nightmare for the enemy.
If we had that capability, our vampires’ offensive power would undergo a qualitative leap.
And now, alchemical bombs clearly give us that ability.”
With excitement on his face, Li De turned to the bearded dwarves beside him and asked, “Can dwarves produce alchemical bombs?”
Anakin Brutehammer, prince of the Brutehammer clan, stepped forward and shook his head with a helpless expression. “City Lord Kachar, while no one can match the dwarves in forging weapons...
Alchemical bombs are not one of our specialties. Compared to the complexities of alchemy, we prefer the straightforwardness of crafting weapons.”
Li De scratched his head in slight embarrassment. Asking a bunch of stone-headed smiths to study alchemy, something that required finesse and abstract thinking, was a bit much.
“Take a batch of these alchemical bombs back with you. If you can’t figure out the inner workings yet, start by studying the casing. Learn how to dismantle them, how to reassemble them, that’s your specialty.”
Hearing this, Anakin finally let out a sigh of relief.
There was truth to the saying ‘each profession is its own mountain.’ While dwarves were undoubtedly masterful weapon smiths, when faced with alchemy, which was countless times more complex than forging, they were out of their depth.
Alchemy required deep familiarity with the properties of every material, knowledge of their combinations, awareness of reaction timings after mixing, and so on. A single misstep could lead to catastrophic results.
Which was why those who studied alchemical bombs were far more likely to die by their own bombs than on the battlefield.
Unlike vampires, who mostly died at the hands of others, these people typically died by their own hands.
Among all races researching alchemical bombs, the goblins’ bombs were the most renowned.
Not only were they powerful and reliable, they were also mass-produced and abundant.
In the eyes of many in Glory, goblins were synonymous with alchemical bombs, just as dwarves were synonymous with mining and forging.
This batch of bombs bore the distinctive goblin style, turtle-shell-like casing, bizarre and ugly markings, and pull-rings shaped like goblin ears.
After giving out the necessary instructions, Li De found himself unable to sit still.
He had just witnessed the power of the alchemical bomb firsthand. If Dawn City could be equipped with a batch of them, it would be a tremendous boost to his strength.
He had over a thousand Whispering Bats under his command, that was over a thousand light bombers. As long as he controlled the skies, carpet bombing with these bombs would be even more thrilling than a Gatling Fireball barrage.
“Harrison, is it possible for us to manufacture alchemical bombs?”
Harrison shook his head with an awkward expression. “Patriarch, alchemy is even more complex than Magic Arrays. Vampires have no tradition of studying alchemy, and Dawn City doesn’t have any talent in this field.
Even if we had the materials to make alchemical bombs, we don’t have the knowledge. However…”
He gestured toward Stanley.
“Perhaps we can solve this problem at the source.”
Li De’s eyes lit up. He turned and fixed his burning gaze on Stanley. As a former dark priest of the Evening Bell Church and someone deeply familiar with goblins, perhaps Stanley held the answer he sought.
“Stanley, do you know where goblins capable of making alchemical bombs can be found?”
It didn’t matter if dwarves couldn’t produce alchemical bombs. It didn’t matter if Dawn City couldn’t produce them. The goblins could. If he obtained goblins, wouldn’t that solve the problem at its root?
Li De had always approached problems in this kind of simple and straightforward manner.