Solomon lobbed the bomb high up into the air. The goblin phalanx was about fifty feet away. As soon as he let the throw go, Solomon knew in his gut that it was going to land right in the middle of the little bastards. The system's boosts would have had him ready to compete in the Olympics, if it hadn't also probably ended human society as he knew it.

One second.

The goblins reacted quickly. They brought their shields up overhead, forming a wooden roof. Solomon frowned. He didn't think the wooden shields would do them much good, not at point blank range, but there was no sense taking chances. He drew his gun.

Two seconds.

He activated the magical sight and trained it on the center of the phalanx. He wasn't sure precisely where the bomb was going to land. That was all right. He just wanted to disrupt the formation. As soon as the dot appeared on a goblin's chest, he brought his hook down and touched off a shot.

Three seconds.

The goblins may have been told about his weapon, but they were still shocked by the noise and the smoke. The fact that the goblin standing front and center had staggered backwards with blood fountaining from his chest didn't help matters. The formation as a whole flinched back away from him, while most of the goblins brought their shields down as if to ward him off.

Four seconds.

The bomb bounced off the head of the goblin standing next to the one who had been shot. He ducked his head at the impact, then straightened up and glared at Solomon. He gestured forward with his spear, yelling something at the other goblins.

Five seconds.

Solomon just got his own shield up in front of his face before the bomb went off. It sounded as though a bolt of lightning had struck, the sound of thunder loud enough that it registered more as a pain in his ears than a noise.

He felt more than heard several metallic pings as shrapnel bounced off of his shield. There was also a sudden spike of pain in his shin and another at his hip. Nothing crippling. Solomon lowered his shield and charged forward, activating his Dash ability as soon as he could see far enough ahead to keep his footing.

He had to strike while the goblins were still in disarray.

The world blurred, then came into focus as he drew close to the goblins. They had not been thrown into disarray so much as destroyed. The goblins nearest the blast had been killed outright. Proceeding outward from the center each goblin had suffered slightly less catastrophic injuries than the last, but almost all had been grievously wounded. Only the two goblins who had been on the extreme right of the formation were still on their feet, and they were both bleeding profusely.

They both looked at Solomon for only a moment before they turned to run. Solomon grunted, then holstered his pistol.

The cold math of battle in the face of HP healing meant that chasing down lightly wounded enemies was a poor use of time. The more efficient thing to do was to ensure that seriously wounded enemies wouldn't have time to use their HP and get back into fighting shape.

Solomon drew his hatchet and went to work.

It was a grisly task. It obviously needed doing. No system dialog had appeared to tell him that combat was over. But using his hatchet to chop at the throats and necks of miniature humanoids that had already been blasted to pieces was still the most disturbing thing that Solomon had been forced to do since the system appeared.

He sustained himself with the memory of suffering arrow fire from two directions while taking a spear to the guts. The goblins had been trying to kill him with all their might. The only reason he was the one carving out their throats was because he had succeeded and they had failed. If not for his own planning and preparation, he would be the one on the ground as the goblins turned him into a pincushion.

He had himself half convinced by the time the system dialog box appeared.

Congratulations on a successful combat encounter!

You have demonstrated Explosives Mastery, Lvl 3. Would you like to add this skill?

That was interesting. Solomon studied the message, happy to have something to distract him from the carnage on the ground.

He was pretty sure that he had done most of the actual killing with his hatchet. None of it had been particularly impressive or skillful, though. And certainly the use of explosives had been more important than the use of the hatchet. For now he filed it away as another curiosity of the system and added the skill.

He was going to be using explosives plenty in the future, he might as well get rewarded by the system for it. The monsters weren't going to be getting any smaller, he didn't think.

He sighed and made himself look down. The sight was disturbing, but he wasn't in a position to be squeamish.

"Disassemble."

He worked his way through all but two of the dead goblins before his MP ran too low to continue. Powder-wise, he had gotten the materials to make more than he had used.

He left the last two goblin bodies for now and headed for the wooden palisade. Inside he found the beginnings of a small village. A crude log house held enough bedding to sleep all of the goblins that he had seen. The beginnings of other buildings could be seen in piles of logs and scratches in the dirt. Solomon didn't spend too much time studying his surroundings, just enough to confirm that there weren't any goblins lurking around.

He focused on tracking down the X marked on his minimap. It led him to a small altar in the center of the fortifications. Standing in pride of place was a small golden cup. It was the kind of trophy that wouldn't have looked out of place for a friendly bowling league.

He had expected something a little more grand, but it wasn't like the system really needed to impress him. Solomon hooked his hatchet back on his belt and picked up the trophy, tucking it under his arm. A little golden timer began counting down from fifteen minutes in the corner of his vision, right above the timer for the grace period.

Solomon braced himself and looked around. No new horde of goblins had appeared out of nowhere. It looked like he was almost done with the outpost.

He headed back to harvest the last two bodies before the timer ran out.