Chapter 14

Bringing Down Hell

“Agon, we are going to set up a new trap. For that, I need a thick wooden plank and three wooden pillars. Do you have any at the village warehouse?”

“I think there must be some of those at the village. Maybe we can find them in one of the ruined houses.”, Agon replied after brief moments thought.

“Good. Let us go, we don’t much time”, and the two set off for the village. They searched all the ruined houses and found more than what they required. So the two walked back to the cave while carrying the items.

Shiv then stood in front of the cave and used water magic to soften the earth. Then he stamped the three wooden pillars into the earth, one in the middle and one at each of the ends of the cave mouth. He then softened the earth which was above the cave mouth using water magic and then pressed the wooden plank into the soft earth. The plank went a couple of inches deep into the now watery mud.

This wooden plank was now supported by the three wooden pillars emerging from the ground and so looked like a table with three legs. The next thing he did was place some sacks of sugar on the plank. The kids had brought ten or so sugar sacks of which four of them were placed of the plank while the remaining sugar sacks were kept inside the cave.

“Agon, tie a rope to each pillar. Give the free end to any of the three kids who should be hiding in the bushes. Ask them to pull the rope when they come across fifty or more goblins. Remember only if there are more than fifty”, Shiv explained to the boy who nodded his head repeatedly.

“I understand”

“I want your hunting group on the trees closest to the cave entrance, spread out, ok?”

“But we do not have that many arrows”

“Don’t worry about that. You guys are plan B in case something goes wrong. How many arrows do you have left?”

“Twenty with each of us”, said the boy.

“I will be casting a fire spell, but in case I can’t, you will have to shoot fire arrow on my signal. Can you do that, Agon?” to Shiv’s question Agon energetically nodded his head. Shiv then asked the boy to take position with the others.

After Agon hid, Shiv carried all the pickaxe and spades along with some meat and hid it inside the hole in the cave. This hole was something he dug up himself, a hole on the walls of the cave big enough for a person to hide. Once he placed all the equipment inside, Shiv entered the hole and using earth magic narrowed the hole’s mouth to hid from the enemy.

Hours passed, as Shiv waited patiently. When more than 3 hours passed three goblins passed Shiv.

‘The next guards eh. This is the most dangerous phase of the plan. If I don’t get this right it is all over.’ Shiv had made the children cover 20 meters of the cave with flour. What he had done next was too narrow the cave where the flour coating ended. The cave mouth was wide enough to let only one person to enter or exit. Shiv did the same thing with the other 20-meter end. He had made a bottleneck on both sides of the 20-meter-long flour coated cave. This was all for his plan to succeed but he was not sure if this would work. It was all a gamble.

The goblins were now outside the cave, busy with their routine actions. Seeing the guards, Agon, and his friends began making noises to attract the goblins and the stupid goblin fell for it easily. The three began walking away from the cave, towards the source of the sound. Things were going exactly as Shiv wanted it to.

A little away from the cave mouth, the kids had dug shallow holes, holes in which Shiv had planted sharp wooden stakes. These holes were then covered with leaves to hide them from the goblin’s view. Not knowing any of this, the goblins walked into the holes only to have their bare feet pierced by the sharp stakes. The wounded goblins let out groans as pain surged through their body.

‘Ah! Phase 1 success. Now let those idiots rush out’, Shiv was overjoyed as things went down smoothly as per his plan. If this was to fail, then his entire plan would have collapsed.

And just like Shiv had expected, the goblin army rushed to help their comrades. Their numbers were huge, but the bottlenecks at either end that Shiv created made it harder for them to get out easily. The 20-meter-long chamber in the cave got crowded in a matter of seconds.

The panicked and angry goblin mob marched aimlessly, their footsteps disturbing the flour which were on the walls and floor of the chamber. The bottleneck which was the same height and width of a goblin was now blocked by the goblin bodies, causing the air inside to build pressure little by little. Shiv waited, he wanted as least two hundred of those monsters to be inside the 20-meter chamber.

When he felt the number of goblins that passed the hole in which he hid himself decrease, he used the chains of time to slow time, a large amount of mana was shaved away but it was worth it. Then activating Kaze he moved towards the bottleneck. Once near he used a fireball directed towards the sack of sugar inside the tunnel and rushed back deep into the tunnel.

At the same time, Agon had pulled the three ropes causing the wooden plank to fall down thus releasing the sugar powder on the goblins outside the cave. Agon then used the bow to fire a fire arrow towards the cave. By some luck, Shiv’s fireball and Agon’s fire arrow hit the cave at the same time. And with this, all the conditions for a dust explosion were met.

A dust explosion is the fast combustion of dust particles in a confined area. There were 5 conditions that had to be met for a dust combustion to take place. They being: a fire source, fuel, oxygen, correct concentration, confined area.

In the case of Shiv’s cave, the first 4 conditions were satisfied. But for the fifth, it was not possible. Shiv had been thinking for days to solve the problem and had finally come up with one. He made a tunnel inside the cave, with one end being the cave mouth and the other end made into a bottle neck he created a chamber. But even this did not make the tunnel a confined space. The solution he came up with was simple, wind barrier. Casting wind barrier at both the ends would make the tunnel a truly confined space. The barrier was not too strong thus letting goblins pass easily but were enough to keep the air confined. And thus, the fifth condition too was satisfied.

After casting the fireball Shiv had returned to the hole he had dug up earlier and using earth magic he covered the hole to shield himself from the explosion, while Agon and the others ran away with all their might. Once the fireball and fire arrow entered the tunnel a chain reaction was set into motion. The dust particles which were suspended in the air caught fire due to the fire source and paved way to a huge explosion.

‘Sugar and flour are highly inflammable. The finer the particles the more they burn’, he knew that and so he had made the kids grind the sugar as much as they could.

With a loud ‘bang’, began the explosion inside the tunnel. The sugar and flour particles exploded violently as if the tunnel was filled with gunpowder and explosives. The huge explosion inside the tunnel sent fire outwards through the two bottlenecks. The fire that escaped outside acted as a source for the sugar that was dispersed outside the cave by the hunter group to catch fire too.

The goblins that were covered in sugar from head to toe were now on fire. The rapid combustion burned everything in its way. And in minutes, the fire died out as it ran out of flour and sugar particles.

Shiv waited inside the hole for a while to let his mana build up. He had been continuously using water to cool down the earth around him and earth magic to solidify the earth.

After half an hour of wait, he slowly dug his way out. With his sword and dagger equipped he slowly stepped out. The moment he stepped out he felt nausea and his body went limp. The chamber was filled with the repulsive smell of burnt meat. When he looked around, the roof had collapsed covering the bodies. Shiv felt a sense of relief surge through him as he did not have to see the mutilated bodies of the monsters.

The collapsed roof was a concern for him too in the beginning. This was another problem he had no idea of how to deal with. And for solving this he had inspected the cave a second time. It was then he came across something that was on the roof of the cave. The thing he saw were roots, very thin roots. Roots of plants which were newborn. When he saw those roots he understood that if the roof collapsed, he did not have to worry about getting out.

The entire roof was down yet bright light greeted his tired body. Shiv smiled, a smile of satisfaction. He was sure that 90% of the enemy had fallen, and he gained 10 levels making him reach level 50.

‘Phase 2 complete. Now to hunt the rest’

There were just 30 goblins remaining and he had 7 days left. Gripping his sword and dagger Shiv rushed forward determined to exterminate the entire goblin population in a day.

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STATS WINDOWCharacter NameShivRaceDraconian[tr]Level60ProfessionGrand CommonerAlignmentOberonTitleDraklake HeroHealth: 700(+550)Mana: 430(+750)Strength: 70(+35)Agility: 77(+35)Stamina: 69(+35)Vitality: 60(+35)Wisdom: 53(+30)Intelligence: 53(+30)Luck: 30Fame: 600Perseverance: 20Magic ResistanceWind: 1%

Fire: 1%

Water: 1%

Earth: 1%AffinityWind: 1%

Fire: 1%

Water: 1%

Earth: 1%SkillsHeavenly Element Sword Technique Beginner Level 3

Magic mastery Beginner Level 2

Water mastery Beginner Level 4

Earth mastery Beginner Level 4

Wind mastery Beginner Level 4

Fire mastery Beginner Level 4

Fighting Spirit

Dragon Roar Beginner Level 1

Sword Mastery Beginner Level 4

Dagger Mastery Beginner Level 4

Bow Mastery Beginner Level 3

Identification (Passive) Beginner Level 2

Presence Detection (Passive) Beginner Level 2SkillsAcrobatics