Chapter 229

Chapter 229

Kreka stood bored in front of the broken Sinwen castle walls. At least that’s what the Lady spoke of. He was commanded to stay and wait, but his dragon blood was telling him something else.

His lady needed him. Yes, he had crawled out of the underworld and into the light with the help of the Lady. Now, he would crawl further. He looked up to the stars and what lay beyond.

Kreka had heard of legends about them. They were dragon eggs. After a thousand and thousand years, they would hatch and fly into the endless darkness and become masters of the universe. But Orelgor the Mad was hyped up to the scales on hallucinogenic mushrooms. There was no saying if his words were true or not.

“Why are you staring at me?” The lady with red hair asked. Apparently she was the Lady’s cousin. Kreka had a cousin, too, but he tried to kill him with a dull relic spoon. It hurt.

“You are the Lady’s cousin,” Kreka said. “So why do you hide on this metal boat? Did the Lady also give you an order?”

“By Lady, I assume you mean Astrid?” She asked.

“Oh the Lady is called Astrid?” Kreka perked up at the information. “That is a striking name. It matches her grace and ferocity perfectly.”

The red haired Lady sighed. “My name is Freya. Ayway, what do you intend to do right now anyway? We have successfully routed the corruption and order has been restored.”

“The Lady–em, Astrid, ordered us to remain here until she returns,” Kreka said.

“Then why don’t I put you to work?”

“Slave labour?” Kreka asked.

“Not slave labour, Kreka.” Freya chuckled. “Something that a mighty kobold may have use for.”

“Will it help Astrid?” Kreka baled his hands into fists. He looked at the woman with expectancy. Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only

“Oh yes. It will help Astrid tremendously.”

“Then okay,” Kreka said, tilting his head at the young human female’s curled lips.

Freya took Kreka into a large building on the outskirts of the Upper District. It had two enormous towers built on top. Smoke billowed out of them like a dragon's mouth. It reminded Kreka of the slave house back in the town. Kreka spat. He didn’t like being taken here.

No human houses were in this area. Not only that, it smelled like human faeces. The worst of them all.

Kreka remained vigilant. Just because the Lady with red hair was Astrid’s cousin, that didn’t mean that she would treat him kindly. After all, humans had hunted kobolds for decades. What was stopping her from taking him into a deep dark area where no-one would walk...

Before Kreka realised it, the smile that Freya had shown before was obviously devious. She intended to harvest his organs and feast on them!

“Stop, you wretched human woman!” Kreka pointed at Freya, the kobolds behind him tightened the grips on their weapons. “You intend to harvest my organs, don’t you? I won’t accept it! My Lady Astrid is going to take us into the skies and let us fly with dragons. I can’t die here!”

“Warrior Kreka!” Gor saluted, hand on chest. “How can I be of assistance?”

“You heard the human woman,” Kreka said, knocking on the workshop table. “See what you make of this contraption.”

Gor nodded and picked up the metal ball. Then he dipped his finger into the boom dust, tasting it. Freya had a weird face, but Kreka ignored it. Gor clicked his tongue and started touching everything on the table. He would pick it up, taste it, nod, then place it back onto the table and move onto the next thing.

After a few minutes, he stood in front of Freya, and said, “Yes, I can teach the others how to use them. But if I may, can I change a few things?”

“Like what?” Freya responded.

“The boom dust mixture is off. If we take out ten percent and mix in the leaves of Marrow, with a hint of Orken blood, it will improve the destructive capabilities by around twenty percent.”

“You seem to know a lot, Gor Shatter Bones,” Freya said with a smile.

“I have been blessed with knowledge, my Lady,” Gor replied.

“Wait, Gor,” Kreka interrupted the skinny kobold. “What if, on top of the Marrow leaves, and Orken blood, we add my power?”

Gor pinched his own cheek, in thought, then his good eye widened. He nodded enthusiastically, and said, “Yes, that will work wonderfully. I don’t know how much it will improve, but it should be by a large amount.”

“Let’s try it!” Kreka grinned. He opened his palm. Soon after, his veins glowed a bright frigid blue. From his heart, the veins all moved toward his hand. Then, pores escaped from his palm. They floated, moving toward the boom dust. They settled, mixing in with the grey dust like stars in the night sky.

Gor, excited, finished creating the explosive device in haste. His hands were incredibly dexterous, as if he had created the same device hundreds, thousands of times before. He handed the created explosive into Kreka’s hands.

“All you need to do is imbue it with your mana, then throw.” Gor clapped happily. “The mechanism will do the rest.”

“Fire!” Kreka shouted.

“Wait!”

It was too late. Kreka already acted. He lobbed the explosive device to the far side of the factory. In the next instant, an enormous explosion sucked the air from the surroundings, flashed a blinding light, then ripped a giant hole in the wall.

The resulting blast was reminiscent of an attack from a level one hundred and fifty.

“By the gods–” Gor clapped again and danced on the floor, tapping against the tiled flooring. “If we change a few things, gather some rare materials, we can increase the blast radius by a sizable margin. Lady Freya, what is that boom dust?”

“It’s a secret.” Freya smiled, but she stared at the massive hole in wonder. “The ingredients are quite rare, but I should have enough for at least sixty of them. If not more.”

Kreka moved his gaze from the smoking hole in the wall, to the rest of the workshop. He bawled his scaled hands into tight fists.

“With this, I can help Lady Astrid ascend!”