Second World Online

Twenty [Toxic Mud Bombs] were neatly arranged inside my inventory. Their appearance was nothing more than foul-smelling mud clumps the size of a fist, yet I knew exactly the deadly destructive power stored behind those organic casings. The itch to immediately test this newest alchemy masterpiece of mine could no longer be held back.

I quickly tidied the workbench in the back room of the former grain mill that had now become my private shop in Silvergrass Village. After ensuring the door was locked, I used the Waypoint Crystal to return to StoneBrook City.

From the city square, I wasted no time and immediately quickened my pace toward the Northern Gate. My destination was not Murkwater Swamp, but a rocky hilly area located slightly off to the northeast of the main northern road. Based on the digital map and information from the forums, that area was a Level 12 to 15 zone inhabited by Orc and Goblin tribes. This area was very suitable as a testing ground. Monster levels below mine would minimize the risk if my bomb experiment failed or the fuse went out halfway.

The journey took a relatively short time. After fifteen minutes following an ascending footpath, the trees began to thin, replaced by sharp limestone cliff formations. The air here felt drier and dustier.

Not far from my position, thick black smoke billowed into the air. I immediately activated the passive Slow Walking and let my Stealth sub-skill take over. My avatar’s steps became nearly silent; my body lowered, blending with the dry bushes behind a large rock.

Up ahead was an open camp roughly built using animal-hide tents and pointed wooden fences. Five large-bodied [Cave Orc – Level 14] with moss-green skin covered in scars sat in a circle around a giant campfire. They were roasting something that looked suspiciously like a whole wild boar thigh while growling and laughing with hoarse voices that were ear-piercing.

"Perfect. Stationary targets gathered together," I whispered softly. Their distance was about forty meters from my hiding place.

I drew the Whispering Ash bow from my back. Instead of pulling out a Blood Oak arrow, I took a lowest-quality standard wooden arrow from my quiver. Using a strand of spider silk thread, I tightly tied one Toxic Mud Bomb right behind the arrowhead, ensuring its weight balance did not lean too far forward. Tying a bomb this heavy to an arrow would clearly ruin its aerodynamics drastically, making its flight trajectory curve sharply downward. I had to aim higher than usual to compensate for the law of gravity simulated by this game’s Physics Engine.

I drew the bowstring, feeling the now much heavier arrow load. My left hand took a small fire-striker stone from my belt pouch.

Ctek. Sssshhhh...

A spark caught the tip of the brown fuse on the mud bomb. The fuse immediately lit, hissing softly and scattering small sparks near my fingers. Adrenaline surged hard. Holding an active explosive aimed right in front of your face gave an extraordinarily real psychological terror sensation. I only had about three seconds before this mud clump exploded and sent my avatar back to the temple of resurrection.

Time seemed to slow. My vision narrowed, focusing only on the point in the middle of the group of Orcs who were feasting. I held my breath, raised my aiming angle about fifteen degrees upward, then released my finger grip.

Whoosh!

The heavily weighted arrow shot in a curved arc through the air, leaving a thin trail of smoke from the burning fuse along its flight path. The five Orcs did not even realize the death coming from the sky until the shadow of the arrow fell right into the middle of their campfire.

One of the Orcs looked down, staring at the strange mud clump that had just stuck in the ashes of the fire. His stupid eyes blinked.

The fuse ran out.

BOOOOOM!

An ear-splitting explosion thundered, shaking the surrounding stone cliffs. An invisible shockwave swept the three-meter-radius area, instantly extinguishing the campfire and flinging the five large-bodied Orcs into the air like rag dolls whose strings had been cut.

The blaze from the black powder exploded violently, followed by a thick green mist of frog poison that immediately expanded and enveloped the location.

A series of overlapping red and green damage numbers filled the air, blocking my view. Their levels that were far too low, combined with the terrifying AoE (Area of Effect) destructive power of my bomb, meant they did not even have time to scream. The HP bars of the five monsters evaporated in a matter of seconds.

[You have defeated Cave Orc x5. Gained 1150 EXP.]

I stood up from behind my hiding rock, my mouth slightly open in amazement. "Crazy... the explosion far exceeded my expectations. The physical damage is extraordinary, and the poison mist locked down whatever remaining HP they had."

I walked closer to the small crater created by the explosion. The Orc corpses had already shattered into light particles, leaving cheap loot such as [Orc Tooth], [Rusty Iron Sword], and dozens of copper coins scattered across the scorched ground. I picked them up with a satisfied smile. The first trial was a huge success.

However, my curiosity was not yet fully satisfied. If this bomb worked this well in a dry rocky area, how would its performance be if used in a dense and damp area like Murkwater Swamp?

My remaining playtime was still long. Without overthinking, I turned around and immediately took a shortcut route north, re-entering the border of the Level 20 swamp area.

Half an hour later, the smell of rotten eggs and methane once again filled my nose. This time, I did not go too deep. I positioned myself on a safe hanging tree root, searching for a cluster of targets in a murky water pool area filled with gas bubbles.

Below, about thirty meters from me, a group of [Giant Leech – Level 18] giant leeches the size of a human arm were writhing on a wet mound covered in dead moss.

I once again prepared my second bomb arrow. Tying it, lighting the fuse, drawing the bow, and shooting.

The arrow shot straight, embedding perfectly in the wet ground in the middle of that giant leech cluster.

BOOOOOM!

However, this time the explosion was not like the one at the Orc camp earlier.

Instead of merely exploding within a three-meter radius, the sparks from the bomb triggered a chain reaction I had never predicted. The air around the bomb, saturated with swamp gas, immediately ignited. The mound of earth where the arrow had stuck exploded secondarily, creating a giant pillar of fire five meters high that swept an area with a radius of nearly ten meters!

The shockwave was so massive that the tree root I was standing on shook violently, nearly throwing me down into the mud. The scorching heat hit my avatar’s face, reducing my thin HP bar by about ten points just from the thermal radiation effect.

[Environmental Warning: Explosion triggered Methane Gas Reaction and Flammable Soil!]

[You have defeated Giant Leech x8. Gained 2400 EXP.]

I held tightly onto the tree trunk, staring at the smoking crater that had now turned into a pool of eternal fire burning atop the mud.

"Wait a minute... Flammable soil?" I muttered, my brain working quickly to analyze the system notification.

I jumped down carefully, keeping my distance from the remaining flames, and used my hunting dagger to dig into the wet, blackish-brown soil layer around the crater. This soil was fibrous, porous, and consisted of piles of partially decomposed ancient plant material.

"Oh my god... this is peat soil!" I exclaimed in amazement.

The ecosystem in Murkwater Swamp was truly designed with insane geological detail. This swamp was not merely a pool of water and ordinary mud; its foundation was a giant peat bog. Peat soil is extremely rich in carbon, and under certain conditions or if dried, it is an extraordinary solid fuel and extremely explosive if suddenly exposed to extreme temperatures. My bomb explosion earlier had ignited the accumulated methane gas in the air, which then set the peat layer on the soil surface ablaze, creating an instant hellscape.

My alchemist eyes immediately sparkled. This was a gold mine that no one realized. Other players were busy hating this swamp because of the mud that slowed movement, yet they were trampling on an extremely valuable energy resource.

I immediately took out a small iron shovel leftover from my blacksmith profession and began digging. I spent nearly forty minutes harvesting chunks of that wet peat soil. The system named it [Raw Swamp Peat]. I kept putting it into my inventory until my character’s weight limit was almost full.

"Today’s experiment truly gave results that exceeded expectations," I said while patting the virtual dirt from my cloak. "Time to return to the workshop. There is a lot of work that needs to be completed."

I used a Return Scroll to return to StoneBrook, then used the Waypoint to return to my shop in Silvergrass Village. The peace of this small village was a contrast I greatly loved compared to the explosive chaos I had just created.

Entering my wooden shop, I stared at the completely empty front room. The dusty glass display case looked pitiful. Although my initial intention in renting this place was only for experimental privacy, having an empty locked shop in the middle of the village would sooner or later attract the attention of idle players who might think this place was a secret guild headquarters. I had to make it look like a normal NPC shop or a beginner player’s shop.

"Better I fill this display with a few items," I decided.

I walked to the back room, placed dozens of chunks of [Raw Swamp Peat] near the open window so they would be exposed to the breeze and sunlight, allowing them to dry naturally into solid fuel. After that, I switched to the alchemy table.

While humming softly, I brewed a dozen bottles of [Basic Antidote] using leftover ordinary monster bile that I had, and mixed a large bottle of [Weak Paralysis Poison] using spider glands. I also made a smaller and more stable bomb variant, the [Lesser Bomb], which only used a little Saltpeter without poison. This bomb was enough to briefly stun a monster without causing a brutal explosion.

I carried those items to the front and displayed them in the case. I set the selling prices slightly below StoneBrook market prices so these items would sell quickly if any new players happened to drop by. This was not for seeking wealth purely to cover the rental costs and create the illusion that the "Waterwheel" shop was an ordinary, unremarkable business.

After finishing the front interior affairs, I returned to the back room and stretched my joints.

There was one more major project that had been stuck in my mind since the battle against the Bog Troll and the test of my wind magic combo. The Whispering Ash Recurve Bow that had accompanied me was a Medium Bow type. Recurve bows were designed for agility, high fire rate at medium range, and flexible movement inside forests.

However, my playstyle did not reflect that at all. With only 90 HP points and pitiful base STR and AGI status, I was the absolute definition of a Glass Cannon. Shooting from medium range was suicide. My signature combo Power Shot, Vital Shot, and Piercing Gale Arrow required long casting time and was designed to explode enemies from maximum shooting distance like a sniper bullet.

A recurve bow was unable to channel 100% of the penetration power from that combo because of the limit of its string tension. I needed a real artillery weapon. I needed a Longbow.

A longbow sacrificed consecutive fire rate and limited the user’s agility because of its large size, but in return, this bow provided extreme shooting range and natural Armor Penetration power that was far higher.

I opened the Woodworking panel. On my workbench, I took out three logs that I had obtained from loot and past purchases: [Ironbark Wood] that was known to be as hard as pure steel, and [Crimson Pine] that had high flexibility.

I took a plane and carved a chisel, entering a state of full focus.

Unlike a short double-curved recurve bow, making a Longbow required brutal levels of precision. I used a pure Ironbark shaft as the core backbone of the bow to provide enormous draw strength. Carving Ironbark felt like carving solid stone; my hands went numb from holding back the vibration feedback.

After the bow core was shaped straight for nearly two meters even taller than my own Elf avatar I layered the back of the bow with thin slices of Crimson Pine using pure pine resin. This Crimson Pine layer functioned to absorb the pressure when the bow was drawn to maximum, preventing the stiff Ironbark from breaking under its own tension.

This process took hours. The virtual sunlight began shifting westward, coloring the river flow outside the window with golden-orange hues.

The final step was the bowstring. I could not use ordinary linen thread. The draw power of a bow this large would immediately snap a standard string. I opened my inventory and took out several strands of backbone tendons from the Bog Troll that I had obtained as additional material (Troll’s Sinew). These Elite monster tendons had extraordinary elasticity and magical durability. I twisted the tendons in multiple layers, locking them at both ends of the bow.

When I tried drawing that string for the first time, my avatar’s virtual muscles truly screamed. Even with extremely high DEX status, it required tremendous strength to bend this wooden giant.

Ding!

[System: You have successfully created a Masterpiece! Carpenter Profession Level increased. Current: Carpenter Level 14]

A bright purple glow, the sign of Epic rarity, radiated from the giant bow in my hands. I swallowed, hurriedly opening the identification window.

[Titan’s Ironbark Longbow – Rarity: Epic]

A masterpiece traditional longbow assembled from a solid Ironbark core and layered with Crimson Pine. Bog Troll sinew provides extreme tension capable of launching arrows through heavy steel.

Base Damage: 185 Physical Damage (Increases drastically based on distance).

Special Effect 1 (Sniper’s Nest): Maximum shooting range increased by 40%. Attacks from a distance of more than 50 meters gain an additional +20% Critical Damage.

Special Effect 2 (Armor Piercing): Passively ignores 25% of the target’s Physical Defense (Armor).

Penalty (Heavy Draw): Attack Speed reduced by 30%. Cannot be used while moving.

Requirements: Dexterity 40, Strength 15.

Crafted by: Syl.

I could not hold back the euphoric laughter that echoed inside the quiet back room of the shop. Its stat requirements almost made me unable to use it. It seemed I would have to look for other accessories that added STR stats.

I leaned the giant bow against the wooden wall, staring at the remaining peat soil that was now beginning to dry perfectly on the windowsill. In the real world, my original hair might be starting to lengthen in a mysterious way, but in this world, the range of my attacks had just lengthened until it touched the edge of the horizon. The alignment between my two worlds felt increasingly perfect.