Knights, Let’s Smash Them

14 – First Battle (3)

At first, Heinz was slightly disappointed that the first campaign was not to exterminate monsters or raid dungeons, but simply to solve the city’s disaster.

He was an average knight.

Because I could see that I had almost no actual combat experience yet.

Because I had a strong desire to gain practical experience as quickly as possible.

But after he witnessed the sight of the city in total chaos, he realized how stupid and wrong he was.

Heinz had to sincerely repent to God.

“Aigoo, aigoo!! What is this!!”

“Dad! Dad!”

“Please let me come back safely. If that doesn’t work, at least find a corpse…… !!”

It’s desperate.

The feelings of the people whose families were buried under the ground pricked one side of the heart of Heinz, the knight.

Sympathize with them? Remorse?

No.

It was because there was nothing he could do as an honorable knight who had to put the people of the territory first and only think about their safety.

“Damn…… !!”

“Senior Heinz… ….”

Even the youngest knight, Barbara, was complicated in many ways.

Knight Lonz was busy moving the materials and heavy equipment used for mine development, and vice-captain Emain was accompanied by wizards belonging to Jarhead’s adventurer’s guild.

Chianne, the leader, and Lubern, the administrative officer, were busy checking all kinds of documents before arriving in the city.

After all, the two remaining men, Heinz and Barbara, were in charge of site control.

Thanks to this, Heinz, who had thought that the sword was the best and that any problem could be solved with just the sword, was seriously shaken.

If a sword can solve anything.

Why can’t we help those people who are weeping while digging with their bare hands?

A terrifying emptiness overtook the young knights.

“Knights, please save my son!!”

“There is nothing I can do…” ….”

That was the moment.

“Barbara, Heinz! Take the citizens aside!”

Two wagons were approaching in the distance. The ones sitting in the coachman’s seat are the administrator and leader of the knights.

“Move aside! Dangerous!”

As soon as Heinz heard Cianne’s voice, he immediately came to his senses and quickly scattered the citizens wandering around the accident site with Barbara.

When the two of them got off the driver’s seat, Lonz, who was riding in the back luggage compartment, jumped off as well.

“I have brought all the equipment!! It’s in great shape!”

“Nice job, Ronz.”

What was carried in the back of the wagon was not a shovel or a pickaxe, but a bag mounted in several layers.

“What is that?”

“It is a special alchemy material called Netro. It is usually used to make poison.”

Netro?

Heinz remembered what he had read in an old book. It is said to be a by-product produced in a mine where ‘mana crystals’, which naturally hold mana, can be harvested.

Unlike crystal, it is a thin and small powder like sand.

The color is black, and I know that it is much cheaper than a mana crystal. In fact, it was being used only in the very limited field of alchemy, especially poison.

What on earth is the administrator planning to do with such a substance?

Heinz felt embarrassed and curious at the same time.

And from another wagon, 4 or 5 wizards descended with vice-captain Emain.

Netro and the wizards.

Barbara’s head tilted at the combination that didn’t seem related at all.

“Heinz, Barbara. Please help Lonz and spread this netro all over the mine entrance.”

Sianne calmly gave instructions to the three knights. Even if you don’t understand, the knight commander’s order is an order.

Heinz and Barbara immediately took off their knightly uniforms, and together with Lonz, carried netro bags on their backs one by one and started spraying them.

Surprisingly, the intense physical training for the past few days has helped.

Even Barbara, who had the weakest stamina, was able to lift one battery with ease.

Let’s spread the black powder evenly at the entrance of the mine, which was messed up with flowing soil.

“Wizards, please.”

“This is not difficult. It is just an honor that we can help.”

The wizards who had been waiting all the way in the back approached the entrance of the mine following Luvern’s instructions.

“Huh!!”

They spread their arms in pairs and began releasing mana within their bodies with a spirit.

An energy different in nature from the mana that a knight deals with. If the knight resonates with the sword, the magician’s mana resonates with nature itself.

The blue light emitted by mana fills the space.

Soon, translucent walls rose on both sides and in front of the entrance.

“A mana shield?”

Why defensive magic? Heinz couldn’t understand the meaning at all. At first he thought he would use wizards’ magic to clear the land.

From noble mtl dot com.

Why does anti-joint defense magic pop out?

However, the question was soon resolved.

An old man with an impressive white beard approached. Even at first glance, he looked like a wizard who was as talented as his age.

He reached over the mana shield and concentrated. Suddenly, Heinz could clearly see smoke rising from his fingertips.

He is preparing fire magic.

Is it Inferno? Or Explosion?

No matter what it is, I need at least 6th circle magic to clear all of these landslides.

‘The defense magic was for that!’

Heinz seemed to put all the puzzles together. The higher the magic circle, the more powerful the firepower.

Even if it’s only 6 circles, it’s basically the power to burn down a normal house at once.

If I was going to hit a stronger magic than that, of course I had to wear a mana shield even if I was conscious of the damage around me.

Rest.

However, contrary to Heinz’s expectations, what the magician manifested was only a small ember.

A trivial flame that is less than a Circle 2 magic fireball.

“Is this enough?”

“It has to be smaller. If that’s enough, the mana shield might barely last.”

It was an incomparably poor flame.

It’s too big, said Luverne Alroy. As for Heinz, he had no choice but to fall more and more into obscurity.

When you think about it with common sense, how can you do that huge earth and sand with a flame that’s not even a campfire?

The fire, which could be called a ‘flame’, was soon reduced to embers the size of candles.

“Enough.”

“Okay.”

The aged wizard threw the embers of the problem towards the mixture of netro and earth.

The shimmering flame is frightening to fall.

aaa!!!!

An enormous explosion occurred, and the ground shook. The explosion was so strong that it almost cracked the mana shield on the left.

“…… ?!”

Let the wave of flames, which had been shaking as if burning everything like hellfire, finally dissipate.

“Whoa.”

After Lou Verne Aloy let out her sigh, she threw out a light word.

“Let’s proceed with the search now.”

As much as the entrance to a mine that was wide open.

Heinz couldn’t bear to close his wide open mouth.

***

Triton Mine and Nordic Mine are virtually the same mine, with only a difference in name.

The entrance was not too far away, and both mines could be moved to each mine using the passage formed inside.

It is said that right after the entrance to the mine was blocked by a landslide, the miners in the two mines joined together and waited for rescue.

This environment also contributed to the fact that most of the miners were in very good health even after three days had passed since the first accident.

Once the size of the mine was large, the oxygen stored inside was also secured to some extent.

In this way, a total of thirty-seven miners were safely rescued.

Clean happy ending without superfluity.

“How on earth did you know that Netro had those qualities?”

“When I work as an administrative officer, I pick up on this and that. It is part of it.”

“…… I should have been an administrator, not a knight.”

Sianne said in a dejected voice.

It seems that I was deeply impressed in many ways by the way I dealt with not only simple dungeon management and guild recruitment, but even the big event of mine burial.

“We solved the same problem with the last Shephela gold mine burial case. It was the first time I knew that something like this existed.”

At that time, it was a substance that I learned while searching for something similar to dynamite to open the entrance to the mine.

Since it is a world where magic openly exists, in some parts, technology at a level similar to that of modern times has been applied.

On the contrary, because of that, things that would have been commercialized long ago used to be abandoned.

A case similar to Netro.

As a by-product of the mana crystal mine, it is a very sensitive material to mana.

It was a substance that exploded the moment it came in contact with unrefined unstable mana.

In modern times when magic has become commonplace, the perception that it is a useless substance that hinders efficient mining is stronger than the perception that it is a valuable compound that can make explosives.

In the vicinity of the mana crystal mines, they used to be stacked in batteries as they are now.

There’s no place to sell it even after harvesting it, so I’m just leaving it alone.

It’s really a joke.

However, it is useful in this special situation. Because the range is so wide, it would be difficult to pioneer the interior of a cave or mine in many ways.

“If you let me know once, the next time there is a similar incident, they will use it on their own.”

Also, it’s not that I didn’t think of upgrading the problematic netro to dynamite.

In the end, it came down to the opinion that it was necessary to do it, and it was abandoned long ago.

The destructive power is lower than that of general gunpowder, and it is more difficult to process than that, and the conditions are much more complicated.

It doesn’t explode just by bringing fire and putting it on, because you had to use unrefined mana.

“Still, you’re amazing…”

“That’s too much praise. More than that, since we’ve solved this case nicely, we’ll have to get that much from the mayor.”

“Yes?”

“Can’t you smell the money?”

Although it was a worldly word.

Wasn’t it resolved well once? If what could have ended in a colossal disaster was handled so neatly, of course there should be something coming and going.

The money will be copied!!!

Since you’ve been generously favored by this side, you’ll have a somewhat advantageous position in the negotiations.

And as if to prove my point, let’s open the door to the mayor’s office and enter.

“Welcome!!! Seriously, how should I repay this favor!”

The hairy mayor with a thrilled expression jumped out.

Ah, dazzling.