Instead, it touched them here and there with its thin tendrils, then planted them in the ground.
Dunkel sighed and left them alone after trying to dig the seeds back up.
“Anyway, it’ll take months for sprouts to grow and bear fruit… Huh!”
Something gooey moved from the chimera’s tendrils into the seeds.
In the underground where no sunlight reaches, lemon sprouts suddenly shot up.
What kind of miraculous thing is this?
I checked the chimera’s status window again, wondering if I had missed something.
──────────────
[Seedling Chimera lv9]
[Traits]
[Seedling], [Baby], [World Tree], [Bone], [Fire]
[Skills]
[Instinct lv1], [Perception Expansion lv2], [Absorption Growth lv6], [Leaf Shaking lv4], [Tendrils lv1], [Empathy lv1], [Cultivation lv2]
[Status]
[Hungry]
──────────────
There’s a skill called ‘Cultivation lv2’.
I’ve seen it before. None other than Dunkel, uncharacteristic for a dwarf, possessed this skill.
However, despite having that skill, Dunkel only grew and managed plants in the traditional way.
He couldn’t perform magical feats like the chimera.
Is this the difference in talent?
As expected, a monster born with a World Tree silver spoon is different. I was almost jealous.
‘Dunkel, the chimera says it’s hungry.’
“Huh? O-Okay, should I give it water?”
‘Not that.’
A thought occurred to me, so I made a request to Dunkel.
‘Give it some ham.’
It’s a proud chimera after all, isn’t it?
With a doubtful expression, Dunkel cut a piece of ham and placed it on the chimera’s pot.
Slurp.
The ham was sucked into the soil.
Then, the chimera’s wilted leaves perked up and became sturdy again.
A carnivorous plant (possessing the traits ‘Bone’ and ‘Fire’).
After absorbing the nutrients, the chimera started promoting the lemon’s growth again.
The lemon that was just a seed moments ago had now grown larger than the chimera.
It seems it can vigorously grow other plants while still being a baby itself.
As the chimera’s cultivation skill level will keep rising, we should be able to get lemons sooner than expected.
While Dunkel, and even Helmut, were watching the chimera’s feat with their mouths agape.
Manjin returned earlier than expected.
“I succeeded!”
Surprisingly, he managed to bring back Tral and his five companions all at once.
“Did the lemon really work?”
“Yes. They regained their senses right after eating a piece.”
Tral scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.
“I thought I’d be fine if I squinted, but that flame was just too beautiful. Looking at it just made my mind go blank…”
Tral said this and suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Manjin immediately stuffed half a lemon, peel and all, into Tral’s mouth.
“Urgh, I’m okay. I’m really okay now.”
It seems they’ll need periodic lemon intake for a while.
Still, it’s been proven that dwarves who haven’t been entranced by the fire for long can quickly regain their senses.
It’s a silver lining in this misfortune.
Dunkel muttered with a bright expression.
“T-Then if we mass-produce lemons and slowly gather people…”
“No.”
It was Helmut who stopped Dunkel’s soft approach.
“Trying to use a broken sword by gluing it back together is the way of fools. Blue Beard is done. He no longer deserves any more chances.”
At first, Helmut had told me to give Blue Beard a chance.
But now, Blue Beard has crossed the line far too much.
“Whether he was entranced by the devil’s fire or not, a mine lord shouldn’t act like this. We need to overthrow Blue Beard and either extinguish or bury that so-called devil’s fire.”
“We want to do that too, but…”
Tral scratched his head.
“That fire is in the deepest part of the mine. It’s not something we can extinguish by just pouring a bit of water on it.”
I nodded.
“And above all, we lack the manpower. There are only nine of us… and we might lose our minds if we get too close to that fire.”
Wait.
It’s eleven.
You should include me and the seedling chimera.
And I’m Ouroboros.
However, I didn’t need to refute Tral’s argument.
Helmut’s eyes gleamed.
“Do you know what kind of Meister I am?”
Somehow, I thought it might be the case.
It seems Helmut was indeed a Meister.
“Uh…”
But Tral couldn’t answer immediately.
He seems not to know.
He looked at Dunkel, who might know the answer.
Dunkel answered on his behalf.
“Aren’t you the Meister of Sword and Explosives?”
“That’s right.”
Helmut took a deep drag of his cigarette with his prosthetic hand.
His black eyes glinted.
“At one point, I made half of the explosives used in the Red Anvil Mine.”
Explosives are used in mines.
It’s highly inefficient to dig through rocky areas with just pickaxes.
Instead, they place explosives at various points based on precise calculations and detonate them in a blasting operation.
“Before I retired, I personally blasted open numerous tunnels.”
So he was that kind of expert.
“Follow me.”
Saying that, Helmut led us to his storage room.
When he opened the door to the storage, a strange smell wafted out.
‘There’s a kind of stench.’
“Don’t use fire magic like last time.”
I had no intention of doing so.
Inside the storage, something was covered with a black cloth.
When that cloth was removed.
The contents, wrapped in paper to prevent moisture, were revealed.
Tral spoke with a trembling voice.
“I-Is this all… explosives!”
The storage contained enough explosives to blow this entire area to smithereens.
Even Dunkel, who didn’t know about this, was shocked and confronted Helmut.
“With this amount, were you planning some kind of terrorism?”
“Why would I? It’s stockpiled and decorated supplies. Blue Beard knows about this place too, so he’ll come looking for it soon.”
It means Blue Beard is also aware of the existence of these explosives.
If so, he might come at any moment.
“So, use it properly before that bastard steals it. We can collapse that lava lake and bury it, can’t we?”
With this much explosives, it’s doable.
That kind of atmosphere settled in.
If we fail, it’s rebellion; if we succeed, it’s revolution!
But opinions varied on how to use the explosives.
“Why don’t we just bury them and detonate them when he comes…”
“You think controlling the detonator is that easy?”
“How about attaching them to pillars to bury everything at once?”
“Why would we destroy the entire mine? And what about the other people? Are we going to kill them all?”
And, something was tickling somewhere in my mind.
It felt like a brilliant strategy was about to pop out.
‘Yes, that’s it.’
At this moment.
It was the moment of reincarnation for the snake Zhuge Liang of the great forest.
‘I have a strategy.’
All the dwarves looked at me.
Instead of using a notebook, I started writing directly on the storage room wall.
As the briefing continued, the half-doubting dwarves started to express admiration.
After the briefing, Helmut cautiously asked.
“Will that really work?”
‘Is the ventilation system working well?’
“Ventilation is the most important thing in a mine. Otherwise, we’d all suffocate to death.”
‘Then, it’s enough. This is a strategy that has been proven several times in history.’
“Alright…”
Helmut nodded.
“My explosives will be used according to the snake’s plan.”
Then he added an unnecessary comment.
“To think the fate of the mine depends on a plan made by a snake…”
You’ll be thanking me later.
Honestly, it’s an exciting plan.
That’s why Manjin and Tral have such excited expressions.
There will be no regrets.
‘Ah, one more thing.’
I added an additional request.
I asked Helmut to craft some items.
“I can make them in a day. Well, they would be good to have.”
‘Then, please do.’
==
Once a decision is made, one must act quickly.
All preparations were completed in just one day.
And Helmut made the item I requested overnight.
“Here, try it on your eyes.”
It was none other than sunglasses made of black crystal.
Though crude in shape, it undeniably looked like sunglasses.
“Wow, that’s cool!”
“For some reason, my heart is racing.”
Despite seeing it for the first time in their lives, the dwarves immediately understood the appeal of sunglasses.
I’m not sure how good of a precaution this will be, but it should be better than exposing bare eyes to fire.
“I made yours too.”
Helmut handed over a very small pair of sunglasses.
I put them on my eyes.
It was a shame that I had to wrap them tightly with cloth to keep them in place, but I was satisfied nonetheless.
‘Operation name: Red Wave.’
I liked it very much.
The chimera snake raised its vine-like hand to me.
It seemed as if it wanted sunglasses too.
‘You can’t have them. You don’t have eyes.’
I’ll make you some when you grow eyes.
“But you know…”
At that moment, Pelerian pointed out.
“You don’t really need to wear that weird thing, do you?”
I neatly ignored his unnecessary comment.
