A satisfying thud sent tiny fragments of uncommon rarity metal through the air and into Dalen’s most recent targets. The wolf-sized spiders the order had started coming across over the last few days certainly didn’t like Dalen’s latest bomb.

Each bomb sheared the legs off easily half a dozen of things and if the shock from the explosion or the shrapnel piercing their carapaces didn’t kill them a spear or arrow from the small group of younger order warriors was enough to finish them off.

Dalen was proud of his new bomb and had adjusted the description of the item accordingly.

Dalen’s Sharp Surprise [Uncommon]

This bad boy holds enough shrapnel to peel the skin of Dhinir’s stupid head. Great for spiders too. Warning: Don’t drop.

Melisia wasn’t a fan of the description but Dalen quite liked it. The bomb was quite a bit different from his other alchemical attempts. After seeing the results from some of Dalen’s first few super flash bombs one of the smiths had offered to make him some metal vessels to use in his alchemy. Dalen had accepted since he had figured the smith would have done it anyway since he had become a bit of a problem lately.

The smith's name was Karus Odran, a hard-looking man but surprisingly soft-spoken with a long scraggly beard. But because of Leo’s stupid joke, Karus had come to believe like most of the order’s tradespeople and some of the warriors that Dalen was some god's damned prophet. Dalen would strangle Leo if he thought it would work but he was pretty sure his thumbs would break before he could even flex the man's skill.

Like getting the fancy new cauldron the tradespeople had practically been falling themselves to give Dalen whatever he wanted and just as much that he didn’t. It was just unnerving, Dalen had never wanted this kind of attention. They treated him like he was noble, Dalen hated nobles just as much as Kal did. Leo and Melisia could be classed as nobles now but they certainly didn’t start out that way so Dalen would cut them some slack.

Despite his annoyance and unease with how the order was treating him, Dalen couldn’t deny how useful it had become for his growth and alchemy. When Karus had offered to make the vessels, at first Dalen hadn’t any idea why he would ever need them when he could just use vials or bottles just as well. It was only when he had delivered them that Karus had mentioned that he knew of an order member with the bomber class and that they often used spherical metal vessels when making bombs.

It didn’t really alter the process of making the actual explosive but it did give him the confidence to put a bit more juice into each bomb since it would be a lot harder to accidentally activate them since they were an uncommon metal. But apparently, he had been a little too blase about how much he added.

This had been Dalen’s first true test run of his new bombs and they had worked a treat, besides the fact it had exploded on contact. It was supposed to have a delay of just over two seconds once it landed but apparently, the current formula was unstable enough that a hard enough bump would set it off.

“Nice work Dalen! New bomb?” Leo asked moving through a group of tradespeople who had come to get whatever material they could out of the spiders.

“Yeah, it worked well enough. Bombs appear to have become a particular specialty of my class,” Dalen put the sharp surprise he was holding back into his belt and got back on his horse, “I’ll have to make a few changes tonight but mainly just make sure it won’t blow up if I drop one.”

Leo raised an eyebrow and smirked at that, “Well I’m glad I’m not sleeping near you. Have you reached level thirty yet? I'm excited to hear what skills you’re offered.”

“Yeah, I did on that first batch I helped with today. I got an Identify upgrade called Alchemist’s Eye. It basically lets me identify herbs more easily and gives me a short rundown on what essences I can extract from them. It’s pretty useful, it lets me put down the old formula book I’ve been using and select my own ingredients or easily find substitutes.”

Leo nodded, “I’ve heard of similar upgrades, what’s the rarity?”

“Rare,” Dalen replied, smiling at the thought. A rare identification skill was a big deal in most trade classes, a rare identification skill like Alchemist’s Eye was easily enough to get a position in a noble's court or start your trading company. Kal had told him that his father had done exactly that the moment he unlocked a skill called Opal Eye, a skill useful for any mining operation.

His father went from a poor miner to a healthy life as a noble in a matter of months after he had gained the skill. Dalen could do the same but honestly, all that noble crap didn’t appeal to him at all, the moment Kal was back he would move into a hut somewhere and happily ignore the rest of the world and experiment.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Those thoughts were pointless now though, none of that was going to happen until Kal was home. Dalen wouldn’t just sit quietly while his friend was stuck wherever he was.

Leo smiled and knuckled Dalen’s leg, “Congratulations, have you managed to find anything useful on our journey.”

“Nothing worthwhile besides a few herbs for healing potions but I have been struggling to get those working with my new skills, the purity has gone up but implementing my anger into them has been a problem,” Dalen could still make healing potions to a point but it appeared that increasing purity wasn’t enough to increase their potency enough to be worthwhile. It was definitely more efficient, giving him more vials per batch but he wanted to power them up a bit by adding his anger. Which so far, still wasn’t working.

“Well, keep it up but I suggest you get as much rest as you can tonight. According to the scouts, we are just one more day from reaching what this fractured path is, better to arrive expecting a fight but even if it is safe we should be ready for anything. I don’t like the sound of this fractured path.”

Dalen didn’t like it either, it was one of the few things the order bothered to actively hide from them and even when Dalen had asked a few of his “followers” they either didn’t know or weren’t even willing to tell him.

He had asked Melisia but she had very little memory of the subject, she said that she had been through one but it was when she was very young. She did say that the elders had irregularly used them for years but normally only with small groups of their most trusted members.

The two of them left the people harvesting the spiders and returned to the front of the column. The order moved at a steady jog at all times, covering ground very quickly. It was no wonder the empire’s warriors had never caught them, the legion’s pace had been far too leisurely to match up to the order’s. Back in the empire’s camp, Dalen would have been sleeping for hours while the order just kept running, increasing the distance between them.

The order allowed them to catch up just so they could grab Kal. Dalen almost wished they had made their move a day or two earlier but who knows what they would have done to him if they got him before the demons came through. On that note what would they do once he is back? That was something Dalen needed an answer to. He almost wanted to pray to Dhoerin for an answer but that really was Dalen’s style, but the god hadn’t rescinded his blessing when he was talking about Kal and that weird prophecy with Melisia.

So did that mean the god approved of what he was doing? Or was it that they simply didn’t care? No Dalen wasn’t that kind of worshiper anyway, he’d take the god's blessing but he was his own man. He needed to find out what he could on his own. Melisia could deal with the Jaliete and the other elders but Dalen would learn what he could from the other members, he hated it but he would use the strange position he had found himself in to get Kal back.

He would charm his way into the hearts of these people and tell them it was all in Kal’s name, it would be lies of course but he knew Kal well enough that he could be confident in whatever he said. If there were factions at play within the order Dalen needed to know what their goals were. He was aware that some wished to follow him as servants or maybe even warriors, obviously, Dalen doubted that when Kal returned he would even give a single shit about them but Dalen would rather they want to follow him than anything else.

The question was what about the others? Melisia had said that some did not want to find Kal, Dalen hadn’t sensed any of that while in the meeting discussing whether or not to go the Fractured Path. There had been a few who wanted to avoid it and simply travel overland, perhaps some of those didn’t see a need to rush since they didn’t want to find him anyway. Then again they were elders with years of experience in such discussions and Dalen found it hard to even be in the meeting let alone listen to each of their opinions.

Dalen knew he would never be a politician, Thank the Gods! But that was something that had to change, he couldn’t just sit on the sidelines and assume things would go his way. Even if he would never be adept in those scenarios didn’t mean he should just ignore them. In the next meeting, he would try to be more involved but until then he could work on the people that are more on his level.

“Leo, I’m gonna go have a chat with Karus and some of the other workers,” He said, turning his horse around to fall back to where most of the tradespeople were jogging.

Leo frowned, clearly confused, “Oh, really?” he turned to follow but paused when Dalen winked at him.

“Yeah, just thought I’d spread the word and all that. Besides I’m sure they’re probably thirsty,” Dalen replied, patting his pack which still had a few beers in it from before his class evolution and the loss of Ferment Ingredient.

Leo caught on fast and a wicked grin came across his face as he turned back to the front of the column. For some reason, he got a terrible feeling when he saw that look and it only got worse when Leo bellowed into the sky, “The prophet, Dalen Kreet deems it time to spread Kalum’s holy word!”

Your fucking bastard…

All of Dalen’s will to talk with the people of the order vanished but now he was screwed. It was lucky that there were rules to follow while they traveled, otherwise he was sure he would have been swamped by a rush of young cultists. Even so, over a dozen broke away from the column running ahead, their eyes and smiles wide.

What Dalen had hoped would be a few casual conversations with people one or two on one, had suddenly become a near-religious experience for the order members running around him. Getting thrown into the spot by Leo left Dalen scrambling for something to say, only moments ago he had promised himself he would try but now he felt incredibly stupid. With nothing coming to mind, he simply said, “What do you want to know?”

Dalen soon came to realize that he had just made a terrible, terrible, mistake.