After four days when he escaped the druids' cove. Akatosh didn't waste time fixing the stillmage's last hideout. A cave and quite large to call home.

"Are you sure no man or someone knows this place's location?" Akatosh asks the stillmage.

"Who the fuck knows, even that bastard couldn't trace my last mark. So, I guess it's a good place to bury your shit here."

"Now that you mention, I should better get started."

Eager and enthusiastic Akatosh one by one pulls out all the items from his bag of holding. Later when he withdraws all his horde of stolen inventories, didn't he know the cave was half full?

"Damn dog, why didn't just keep it still in that magic bag of yours." Ask Amaragnum.

"A hunch maybe."

"A hunch, what do you mean?"

"I don't know, it's just that this bag won't stick to you forever. You might never know it will dissolve tomorrow or the day after."

"Got a pretty good point but, if your things disappear it won't be me," Amaragnum said, fading away into his book.

Akatosh sighs heavily, afterwards he tends to his scattered stuff. Organizing the potions, books, weapons, armor, and unidentified things to their desire location.

Neatly tend and establish, Akatosh was now smiling as he imagines what he can do when he obtains his finished project. Filled with joy and lust for crafting, he quickly starts coining black powder after he filled his belly.

Grinding solid charcoals to powder, mashing the pebbled sulfur and saltpeter. Immediately after pulverizing a small portion from those three ingredients, he carefully ground it together.

"What are you making." Comes the stillmage.

"It's serpentine honey!"

"A what?"

"Nothing, just wait for the outcome."

Not ratio or calculated, Akatosh was eager to ignite the powder. His aim was not the rate of burn but to see if the powder he made can be oxidized. Trailing the powder more than one meter, he then hastily lights the end… he smiles.

When he saw the sparkling orange flame bursting like fireworks and the smell of black powder enveloping his nose, his heart was in constant joy.

"It works bitches!" Akatosh amusingly laughs as he watches the line of powder incinerating.

His foundation in creating serpentine came with great success. Having the powder ignited, he can now proceed to his second step, that is… the rate of burn. He needs the powder to char more faster for it to give a potent explosion.

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His hands stop for a moment for his mind to think. Since there's no tools and materials for calculation, all Akatosh could think of was to improvise.

As a basis, he cut the upper segment of an empty wine bottle leaving only the cylindrical part. After making ten more, he can now begin his own recipe.

Having himself an improvised apparatus, he labels each tube for him to distinguish the fraction. Understanding that a filled bottle is 100% capacity and, differing half of the bottle is 25% he can now do simple quantification.

With little bits of knowledge at hand, he remembers the time he wrote his presumed formula.

"A 65-70% of saltpeter, 15-19% of charcoal, and 10 or 12% of sulfur? Or perhaps."

He tore a piece of paper and begun scribbling his first formula that is 75% saltpeter and since the partial half of 25% was 12.5% he concluded both charcoal and sulfur's segment should be 12.5%.

Once he blends his first recipe, Akatosh again scatters the powder inline track and, slowly he flares the powder. And from that moment on he was pleased how it quickly burn that from his first mix of minutes to second. Though however, he wants to make it swifter, hastier for he sues more, he wants the best outcome he could find. For that, he composes another formula and reprises the work all over again. But for one and a half days had passed, the 'mad crafter' has already jaded.

Dispirited to continue he went on to sort other things, such as studying the unknown slimes, trying to learn magic but still can't. More importantly, he created another pit for him to produce more saltpeter.

Without furniture to sit and sleep, all he could do is sit on the ground poking the bonfire while at the same time fathoming. Alas… Akatosh remembers how he set fire to the large slime he encountered, how it quickly ablaze and easily flaked.

"Well, I'll be damn!" He rushes towards the three slimes. "It's right under my nose all the time."

Borrowing Amaragnum's book he learned that slime needed to devour flesh, living or dead for them to sustain their lifeforce. Otherwise, they will stop excreting fluid and eventually expire.

"Welp… guess we need meat after all. But why aren't these little pigs won't produce liquid or die."

"They're in a magic prison dumbass," Amaragnum said. "They're being conserved by that cube."

"I see… So, do you know how to utilize this magic cube… Oh, great stillmage?" Akatosh smile.

"You scoffing my knowledge, for me to help you? Boy."

"What's obvious."

Following the harsh winter season but, after two months of preparation and outrageous trial spring was beginning to take its place. And for Akatosh's powder, he was very much in elation. He was able to attain higher oxidization. It was due to one ingredient from the slime's excreted fluid that was mixed with the powder, boosting the rate of burn. Other than that, he was able to comprehend the 'corning technique'. A method that turns the powder into grains intended for the fire to spread quickly.

How he manages was all because of a slime's fluid. So too is his stirred observation on how slime's fluid work. He gathers that when leaving the fluid to dry for an hour it will turn into withered flakes, a fitting ingredient for stronger explosive powder. But after all those days of feeding the slime and himself, his meat supply was no more.

"But why bother when I got lots of money! Rag we're going for a market."

"Hmm… Where to?" Amaragnum replies.

"Do you need to ask? To Ravalind because I need barrels to pack these large quantities of powder."

"All of these works, just for you to make business."

"Business? Sell? Why would I, this knowledge and work is mine, mine alone, this is the light of greediness."

"Pff… so what's the use then, I never even seen its capabilities. All I've seen was good for starting a fire."

"Oh, you'll soon see it alright. But enough talk we're going for a market so send us to Ravalind honey."

When they were teleported to the outskirts of Ravalind, avoiding for small disturbance of illegally teleporting without permission. And just a few sights through the gate and the place, things were a bit different at the promptly of spring.

He came to the festival of spring…