Chapter 61: The Prodigious Alchemist 9

Kent returned to his alchemy laboratory.

Everything he needed was already prepared.

The only thing missing was the magic crystal powder.

For now, he had only brought in water-element crystal powder.

Everyone knew what would happen if large amounts of different elemental powders were placed together carelessly.

The slightest mistake could trigger an energy reaction.

So Kent carefully separated everything.

Then the production began.

---

Hark’s three brothers were responsible for the outer shell.

They coated the outside of each mine with a thick layer of a mixture made from leather glue and obsidian powder.

Dex was responsible for fixing the spring mechanism inside the mine.

Kobi handled the loading of the magic crystal powder.

Tanis was responsible for sealing the upper layer.

He covered the magic crystal powder with another thick layer of the obsidian and leather glue mixture.

Finally...

Kent performed the quality inspection.

The most important requirement was simple.

He had to be unable to sense even the slightest trace of water-element magical energy from the inside.

---

After half a day of work...

The mines had become semi-finished products.

Only then did Kent bring in the fire-element magic crystal powder.

He carefully filled it into the interior of the mine.

To increase the destructive power, Kent also added iron fragments.

These fragments had been coated with the venom of a Dark Widow Spider.

Anyone who touched even a tiny amount would become paralyzed.

After that, the iron fragments were sealed inside with the obsidian and leather glue mixture.

The final step was fixing the cover onto the central metal spike.

Once everything was completed...

The energy mine was finished.

Kent carefully examined it with his senses.

There was not even the slightest magical fluctuation.

---

“That’s strange...”

Dex stared at the mine in confusion.

“There is almost a kilogram of magic crystal powder inside.”

“But why can’t I sense anything?”

Kent smiled.

“Uncle Dex, come on.”

“We’ll bury these things along the kobolds’ path.”

“I’ll explain while we walk.”

---

Kent gathered Hark’s three brothers, Kobi, Dex, and Tanis.

They carried the mines toward the battlefield.

Each mine weighed only about three kilograms.

Kent decided to place them first along a route the kobolds would definitely pass through.

They brought a total of one hundred and eighty mines.

Six people.

Thirty each.

However, Kent’s share was carried partly by Dex and Tanis.

---

“Uncle Dex.”

“Refined iron naturally blocks magical fluctuations.”

“And obsidian is even better at isolating magical energy.”

“That is mainly to prevent detection by mages.”

“This thing is actually just a simple magical trap.”

Kent struggled to explain.

After all, the concept of a land mine was something this world had never seen before.

So he could only give a vague explanation.

---

With Dex and Tanis helping him, Kent carefully buried every mine.

The mines were placed along the passageways.

They avoided wide areas.

Instead, they chose narrow sections where movement was restricted.

The kobolds would have no choice but to pass through these locations.

---

Later, Kent stood on top of the city wall.

This was one of the defensive positions inside the underground passage.

Far ahead...

The kobold army could already be seen.

Fortunately, they had not yet reached the area where the mines were buried.

Kobi looked worried.

“Kent...”

“Do you really think your things will work?”

He glanced toward the battlefield.

“Darkya’s magic arrows can penetrate refined iron armor.”

“She tested them yesterday.”

“Everyone is talking about them now.”

Kobi sighed.

“Compared with those arrows...”

“Your things don’t look very impressive.”

Kent looked at the distant darkness.

The kobold army was approaching.

The final battle was about to begin.

But he did not answer.

Because only after the kobolds stepped onto the battlefield...

Would everyone understand the true power of an alchemist.

The cavern before them contained the largest passage leading toward Muan City.

Calling it a tunnel almost seemed inappropriate.

It was wider than a highway and several hundred meters high, its enormous ceiling disappearing into the darkness above.

According to the latest scout reports, nearly one hundred and fifty thousand kobolds had gathered along this route alone.

Standing atop the defensive fortifications, Kent finally saw the infamous kobolds with his own eyes.

They were roughly the size of gnomes, with large ears, protruding snouts, and eyes capable of seeing clearly in complete darkness.

But their eyesight was only one part of what made them dangerous.

Their hearing, sense of smell, and ability to detect movement were all astonishingly sharp.

According to what Kent had been told, a kobold could smell food from as far as ten kilometers away.

Even more frighteningly, they could judge the approximate number and size of approaching enemies merely by sensing vibrations through the ground.

Kent could not help clicking his tongue in amazement after hearing that.

Isn’t that practically radar?

And every single kobold comes with one built in.

Kent carefully studied the terrain.

The passage here was almost perfectly straight, extending for roughly five kilometers.

Both sides were formed from incredibly hard obsidian, mixed with exposed veins of iron ore.

Closer to Muan City, three enormous defensive walls had been constructed across the passage.

Each wall stood nearly fifty meters high.

They were built from massive blocks of stone and reinforced by molten lava that had been poured between the gaps and allowed to harden.

At first glance, the defenses looked almost indestructible.

Yet the dwarves and dark elves around Kent remained deeply pessimistic.

Kent looked toward the kobolds gathered two kilometers away.

And inwardly, he was delighted.

They had not triggered the mines.

That meant his plan was already half successful.

The kobolds had stopped well outside the dark elves’ effective attack range.

They carried all kinds of strange weapons.

Some wielded clubs made from animal bones.

Others carried crude stone-tipped spears.

A few wore scraps of iron plates fastened onto animal-hide armor.

Their equipment looked primitive.

But their sheer numbers made the sight disturbing.

The creatures constantly shouted and chattered among themselves.

Even from such a great distance, Kent could clearly hear the chaotic noise echoing through the cavern.

After observing them carefully for a while, he estimated that nearly twenty thousand kobolds had crowded into the visible stretch of passage.

They completely filled the tunnel from one side to the other.

Some of them even shouted toward the defenders.

Others made crude gestures of insult and provocation.

But none of them stepped into range.

“Kent!”

Kobi suddenly appeared beside him.

No one knew where the dwarf had gone earlier, but the news he brought was definitely not good.

“Darkya has already killed almost a hundred kobolds.”

“What do you think about that?”

Kent glanced at Kobi.

He was not discouraged.

No one understood his own plan better than he did.

What interested him more was something else.

How had Darkya managed to kill nearly a hundred kobolds from this distance?

Before Kent could ask, Kobi continued.

“The main reason is that Darkya is a high-level Magic Archer.”

“And she is using enchanted arrows.”

“The kobolds were completely unprepared for attacks from that distance.”

“She caught them by surprise.”

Kobi paused.

“But she has already used nearly one-tenth of her magic arrows.”

“She is moving to another defensive position now.”

“She plans to continue attacking kobold groups that still don’t understand the range of her arrows.”

Kent frowned.

That was not exactly good news for him.

If Darkya kept attacking like this, the kobolds might become more cautious.

And if their formation changed too much...

His mines might kill fewer enemies.

Just as Kent was thinking about this, something suddenly changed.

The noisy kobold army became silent.

Kent immediately raised his head.

The densely packed kobolds were separating.

A path slowly opened through the middle of the army.

Kent’s eyes narrowed.

He had already been told about this behavior.

It was a habit among kobolds.

Once the tribal leader believed that the road ahead was safe, he would personally move toward the front.

There, surrounded by his warriors, he would issue the order for the full assault.

It was a way of displaying authority.

A declaration that the leader himself stood at the head of the tribe.

The distance was too great.

Kent could not clearly see what the kobold leader looked like.

Even so, his heartbeat began to accelerate.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

His palms felt slightly damp.

This was it.

The moment he had been waiting for.

Around him, the dwarven warriors and dark elves silently began checking their equipment.

Weapons were tightened.

Bowstrings were tested.

Armor straps were adjusted.

No one spoke unnecessarily.

Because everyone here understood what would happen if Muan City fell.

Whenever kobolds captured a city...

Nothing was left behind.

Every living creature became food.

Weapons and armor were stripped from the dead.

Those stolen weapons would then be used to strengthen the next kobold invasion.

Even the bodies they could not immediately consume would not be wasted.

The kobolds would dry the meat and carry it away as provisions.

Nothing was discarded.

Nothing was spared.

The kobolds themselves were small.

Because of that, their settlements were usually hidden inside narrow cave systems and tiny underground passages.

Places larger races could barely enter.

That made them incredibly difficult to eliminate.

They could attack larger settlements in overwhelming numbers...

Then disappear into cave networks where their enemies could not easily pursue them.

That was why the kobolds had survived for so long in the Underdark.

And why every civilized race feared them.

Kent stared at the path opening through the kobold army.

Somewhere within that sea of bodies...

Their leader was approaching.

And beneath the ground ahead of him...

Kent’s mines were waiting.

“Look!”

“The kobold chieftain’s personal guard!”

At the sound of the voice beside him, Kent immediately looked toward the kobold army.

The passage through the already densely packed ranks suddenly widened once more.

Two orderly columns of heavily armed kobolds emerged from the crowd.

These kobolds were noticeably taller and stronger than the ordinary warriors around them.

Their leather armor was also far more complete.

But the holes, cuts, and dried marks covering the armor clearly revealed where it had come from.

None of it had been made for them.

It had been stripped from the dead.

The same was true of their weapons.

Unlike the crude bone clubs and stone spears carried by ordinary kobolds, every member of the chieftain’s guard carried an iron weapon.

But the chipped blades, broken edges, and battered surfaces told exactly the same story.

These weapons had been taken from fallen enemies.

Kent began to grow anxious.

A kobold chieftain’s personal guard usually numbered only around a thousand warriors.

The section of passage ahead was only about four kilometers long.

The main kobold force had stopped more than two kilometers away from the defensive walls.

Which meant...

The kobold chieftain should already be approaching the minefield.

Kent’s eyes remained fixed on the distant army.

The mines had been buried roughly ten meters apart.

There was no obvious pattern to their placement.

Some were farther forward.

Some were farther back.

Some were buried slightly to the side.

To anyone looking from above, there was no clear route through them.

And somewhere beneath those thousands of kobold feet...

One hundred and eighty silent traps were waiting.

“Kent!”

Kobi suddenly came running over, panting heavily.

“Darkya has already killed more than six hundred kobolds!”

“And she still has some enchanted arrows—”

He stopped halfway through the sentence.

His eyes widened.

The scene before him left him completely stunned.

Then—

BOOM!

The entire cavern shook.

BOOM!

A second explosion followed almost immediately.

Then a third.

BOOM!