Feyd was talking to the plump shopkeeper from the Adventurer's Shop. The shopkeeper seemed slightly troubled yet as Feyd asked him some sensitive questions.
"So, do you have any explosives for sale?"
"Ahem. I'm sorry to say this sir but unfortunately explosives are tightly regulated, as you may already know. I don't have any in stock"
Now it was Feyd's turn to be troubled. He had bought explosives from a few stores before, though illegally, and no one said much when they saw him use them against a monster or bandit so it was more of an open secret that explosives could still be bought.
"Are you sure? I'm not with the government– Definitely not here to crack down on illegally trades"
"Sir I genuinely don't gave any explosives left so please lets talk about something else"
Feyd seemed ready to give up untill he noticed a detail in the shopkeeper's words.
"You have nome left? So you do you have a supply!"
The shopkeeper realized that his tongue had slipped as he sighed and knocked his head lightly.
"Yes yes, but let me be frank, I wasn't lying when I said I don't have any. They are all sold out!"
Feyd knew that he couldn't give up since his plan to successfully clear the monsters' den hinged on whether be could get even a few explosives or not.
"Oh come one, it's fine! Just tell me your supplier!"
The shopkeeper was slightly annoyed at Feyd's persistence as he pondered on whether to kick him out of the store.
Deciding it was better to end things amicably he relented as he took out a piece of paper and wrote some things on it.
"Alright fine! But I can't help you any further. This is my supplies, he might still be in town but I'm not sure... He wanders from town to town and only occasionally stays long"
Feyd's expression immediately brightened up as he nodded his head vigorously before producing some credits.
"Here's a little apology for your troubles shopkeeper!"
He snorted and harrumphed but took the money anyways and gave the paper before shooing Feyd away.
Feyd was neither discouraged nor angry, since he was the one pestering someone, and instead examined the paper carefully.
'De Marco Street,
Alley by the water tank,
Door with brown gold paint,
Knock thrice and say "Kaboom"'
The instructions were a bit weird but the last line was consistent with his request so he went along with it.
It took about half an hour of walking around to find the place and the brown gold door I'm particular.
Feyd knocked thrice before waiting for a moment and then saying "Kaboom".
The silence surrounded Feyd kept still for a moment before he heard boisterous footsteps coming from behind the door.
With a large, animated swing the door opened and before Feyd was a man with a jet-black mullet, a thick dark mustache, reflective wraparound glasses red in colour, a red and black tactical vest and cargo shorts. He stood at around the same height as Feyd, maybe slightly taller.
"Aye! Amigo! Qué onda?"
Feyd stood there perplexed at the man's strange accent and words.
"A-amigo? Quee unda?"
"Oh sorry friend, I forgot! Nevermind, what do you need me for?"
The man knocked his head lightly before scratching his mullet. Just as Feyd was about to answer the man turned around and gestured him inside.
"Aye nevermind, just come inside! If someone sent you it means your trustworthy"
"Ah..."
Feyd stood there at the slightly dumbfounded but soonest shrugged and walked inside. He prepared his Rift and readied his guard just incase.
"Here here have some juice!"
The man lightly slammed a cup of orange coloured juice on the table before sitting down on a chair.
"Soooo what do you need? No no, nevermind that. How big is you want them?"
Feyd slowed lifted the glass and inspected the juice before taking a slow sip. It was quite sweet. Actually, extremely so.
"Uhmm what do you mean by how big?"
The man seemed to pause for a moment before laughing, "Well ofcourse I'm talking about my signature products, my little beauties, my babies!"
Feyd immediately felt awkward and got ready to clear up the misunderstanding when the man cut him off.
"Uhm actu–"
"My bombastic bombs! The extremely popular, extremely blastful products of the greatest explosives dealer in the Wastelands, Dr. Boom! So, how big do you want em explo-sions? Oh wait no, weren't you saying something?"
Feyd save an awkward chuckle as he looked away slightly.
"It's fine my tongue just slipped... So anyways how big of an explosion do you have?"
Dr. Boom patted the table for a moment before sighing, "Ah well actually you came at a bad time. Just recently some people bought most of my stock, so I don't got much with me. Just some bags of gunpowder and dynamite"
Feyd nodded his head slowly.
'Well that should be enough. Well I hope so... Hmm maybe the ground is explosion proof or something'
"Yeah alright can you show me what you got left? I think so that'll be enough"
Dr. Boom quickly walked to the back as Feyd summoned a miniature Rift that led outside the alley and poured his juice inside with a slightly disgusted expression.
'Ugh what even is this? Pure sugar water? Bleh!'
He quickly closed the Rift and placed the glass back on the table as he heard Dr. Boom coming back.
"Ah yes friend here is the last of my stock. Three bags of gunpowder and a dozen sticks of dynamite!"
The man walked in smiling, but his face seemed to pause as he noticed the emptied cup on the table.
"Ah, that's exactly enough! I'll take everything"
Feyd felt quite excited as he looked at the goods. The gunpowder in the bag looked quite good in quality, though the dynamite sticks seemed a bit... Unlikely to perform well, like an old grandpa's rod.
"Oh well that'll be 200 hundred credits"
Feyd took out the money without haggling before promptly getting up to leave. He placed all his items in his large bag.
"Ah my friend it was nice doing business with you. And I see you've finished your drink, would you like some more before you get goin'?"
Feyd's pace immediately quickened as he shook his head vigorously, "No no it's fine, I'm good. I have some urgent work" And then rushed out.
Dr. Doom stood there and stared at his open door for a moment, at the space where Feyd left in a hurry and muttered to himself.
"First time someone has finished my torturous drink... Aye this new friend is quite impressive, or at the very least unique!"
...
Feyd walked reached the monster den a few hours after mid day. He had the explosives in his bag and it was quite obvious what he wanted to do.
He was in a slight hurry, though not much, to get to the capital to join the military, and Ray talked about going after a specific group of bandits, though he didn't say why.
Exploding the whole den seemed like a better idea than fighting dozens or even hundreds of them, especially since according to the locals these rat monsters were actually quite fierce in battle...
... Also it seemed fun to explode a den of monsters.
Feyd sneaked inside and scouted the cave and tunnels somewhat leisurely. He had no expectations that the monsters could catch him, and he was right.
He waltzed in there with only the most basic of stealth operations and began to spread the explosives.
He made sure to place more of them in the locations where the monsters slept or frequented since he wasn't sure whether they would move around while he was planting these things.
A few dynamite sticks stuck to the walls or floor, trails of gunpowder or even a bag. Everything was placed so that a single explosive in the middle could take them all out. That is if he got the explosives applied-to-area to be blown up ratio right.
He finished his work only after half an hour since he tried his best to make sure the explosives would connect with each other and detonate the next one while also maximizing damage to the monsters.
Just thinking of the large blast made Feyd slightly giddy but he stayed focused for the duration of his time inside the den.
Walking out he made sure that none of the rat monsters had noticed the explosives or moved them out of place before getting ready to send fireballs inside through a Rift.
After walking a good distance away from the den Feyd created a Rift diagonally infront of him, which connected it to the top of the ceiling of one of the caves. Inside were a rat monster or two who were startled by the sudden exposure to sunlight and scurried off.
After making sure the dynamite and gunpowder were in place he nodded his head and prepared to light them up.
Fire energy was channeled through his body before emerging out of his hands that were extended towards the Rift.
'Condense'
The flames flickered and crackled before they were compacted into a orb of fire.
'Condense'
A slight strain was placed on Feyd's body as a bead of sweat dripped down his temple. More flames bursted around his hands before promptly swirling around the concentrated orb of fire in front of him.
"Ugh... Condense"
Feyd's arms began to shake slightly as the strain in his body grew larger, though a faint smile crept up onto his face. Even more fire energy erupted from within him as they funneled and condensed into the fireball, albeitly slowly this time.
'This should be enough... This thing is definitely gonna pack a punch! I would love to try this on a person, maybe a bandit. But it takes too long to charge up in a battle'
After calming himself slightly he prepared to launch the fiery bringer of death. His raised hands trembled for a moment before the fireball moved forward. It's initial movement was slow but it quickly and rapidly accelerated in a large burst of speed before launching into the Rift and at a dynamite.
"FIRE BALL!!!"
Feyd shouted out, which felt really really satisfying, and watched as his fire ball exploded and sent fire throughout the whole cave and into the tunnels
'Huh, that was enough for that whole room. Maybe I should've placed no gunpowder ther–'
Just as he was thinking that the fire and explosion caused by the fireball expanded upwards and towards the Rift.
The flames and pure destructive explosive energy blasted through like a flame thrower and out in a cylindrical shape that expanded as it exited the Rift.
Feyd, caught in the blast, found himself hurled into the air and towards the monster den.
Explosions erupted inside the monster den as slightly muffled sounds resounded throughout with the earth shaking and the quaking.
"Ah crap... Well this is fine, glad that fire was mostly mine otherwise I would've been cooked alive"
Just as he was thinking that he turned his body mid air and prepared to land on the mound that was the top of the monster den.
Yet just as he was about to land on the ground cracks formed it as a large, muscular rat bursted out with flames leaking from the edges of the hole he just burrowed.
Struggling to get out while it's bottom was being turned into black char he looked up to see an expanding shadow that covered its view just as it was about to escape.
BOOM!
Feyd fell through the ground and into the monster den. There was a hole right above Feyd twice his size and a mostly burned rat monster underneath him.
His buttocks ached as he slowly stood up. He looked up to see that the cracks on the ceiling were expanding and that it was about to collapse.
Realizing that he couldn't jump through the hole in time he rolled to the side as the ceiling collapsed on the rat monster he landed on, crushing its body.
'Well if that thing wasn't dead before it most certainly is now'
He looked around to feel the scorching heat somewhat pricking his skin. Luckily he bought armour and weapons resistant to the heat otherwise...
The cave he was in was the mother rat's chambers where a bunch of rats slept. He had previously noticed a few buff rats which seemed like elite monsters or royal guards of some sorts.
He realized that somehow, coincidentally, only the ceiling here was broken and collapsed. Maybe a rat was trying to break out buy failed. He could probably escape as long as he made his way through carefully.
Yet just as he was thinking of that the ceiling began to crack even more and collapse as rocks and rubble began to fall. Realizing the danger Feyd immediately leaped out of the way and rolled escaping the collapse.
The centre of the cave was completely covered in rubble and if those rat monsters weren't dead before they surely were now.
The air in the cave was extrremely hot and felt somewhat pressurized. He felt slight tremors in the walls and floor which might've been the shockwaves or their lingering effects? He wasn't sure but he felt as though it wouldn't be much of a problem.
The main thing now was to go escape. He speculated that the explosion, heat and shockwave mightve hit and killed most of the rats but the ones situated in the ends and corners of the den might've survived.
They, just like elves, did not need much oxygen. And in any case Feyd could simply Rift out since his previous one had disappeared already.
'The ventilation of this cave most likely was bringing in cold air so it should be getting colder soon'
Feyd brandished his weapon as he headed deeper through a random tunnel he hoped would lead him outside.
Meanwhile Ray was sprinting towards the monster den while smoke and other toxic gases were ventilated out. He had noticed a blast of fire on his way here that exceeded anything Feyd had done before so he was worried that his friend may be fighting something much stronger than anything they had fought before!
Shadows flowed below his feet as he covered himself in shadows and slid inside the sweltering cave.