Chapter 41- Laws of the Universe

The dwarf with orange hair and a messy beard stomped over to Drocai and slapped him across the face.

"Mind your manners in front of Lord Dubs! This man has freed us from our slavery, and we owe him our lives!", he exclaimed.

Drocai shunned away from the man and shyly responded.

"Yes, father."

Dubs let out a laugh. "Ahaha! You've got quite a feisty son there, Drocar."

The dwarves and even the knights all began to laugh along with Dubs, as if all their problems had been erased.

Dubs all of a sudden became very serious, and with a villainous expression retorted

"Be sure to raise him into a proper man who can further the influence of my new-coming empire."

Drocar still remained cheerful, and kneeled down before Dubs. "Of course I will, Lord Dubs. Me and the entire clan of my village are at your disposal. If you would allow me to ask, would it be alright for you to assist in the rescue of the other members of my village? I understand this is no light favor, but I am willing to have my entire clan work towards the furthering of your cause, if you are willing to assist us."

Dubs pondered for a moment. "I cannot say that I can rescue all of the members of your clan immediately, however I will put their rescue on the priority list, and depending on whether or not I will be able to do so while keeping my existence hidden from the empire will determine whether or not I do so now or later.", he responded.

Drocar nodded. "I thank you for your kind words, Lord Dubs. In the meantime, what will you have the dwarves do?"

Drocai looked clearly frustrated that his father, and even all the other dwarves had accepted such a dramatic change in their lives so quickly. "How can we trust that this man is not also using us?", he inquired.

Dubs stepped over to Drocai swiftly, and a look of surprise came across his face. "So fast!", he thought. "I could barely even follow his movements!"

Dubs looked Drocai up and down, and swiftly stepped behind him. Drocai turned around as soon as he realized that Dubs had disappeared from his sight. "How is he so quick!? Is he mocking me?"

Dubs held up a finger and pointed over to a mine-cart filled with sulfur, the one that the dwarves had spent their efforts to fill and transport to the entrance.

"You see that cart over there, Drocai? What is inside it?", Dubs asked with arrogance in his voice.

Drocai looked over. "Its a cart of sulfur. What's your point?"

"Sulfur is a very flammable object. If I were to light it on fire, and it were to explode, that wouldn't be very impressive, right?", Dubs questioned.

"Even an extremely small flame spell used for light purposes would be able to light that batch of sulfur. What of it?" Drocai replied.

"But what if I were to set it ablaze with a water spell?"

Silence filled the camp.

The dwarves all glanced at each other, and even the knights began whispering among themselves.

"Lord Dubs, we understand that you are strong, but surely there is no way to light a batch of sulfur on fire using a water spell. It simply doesn't make sense.", Arctus remarked.

All the dwarves nodded in agreement, and Drocai began to boast.

"Are you trying to bluff your way into making me think you are powerful!? You may have fooled my father, but you cannot fool me! Very well, I will hold you to your word. If you can use a water spell to set that batch of sulfur ablaze, I will accept that you are strong enough to lead even an empire, and follow you. If you cannot however, you will let me go free!"

"When did I ever say anything about keeping you captive, or not allowing you to be free?" Dubs retorted.

Drocar looked very nervous, and put his hand over his head. "How could my son be so rude to someone so powerful... if he angers Lord Dubs, he surely will lose his life..."

Dubs once more appeared behind Drocai, and whispered into his ear sinisterly.

"But now that you've proposed a deal to me, you cannot go back on your word. Anyone who goes back on their word is nothing more than a piece of trash who needs to be eliminated..."

In an instant, Dubs reappeared in his previous position, as if he teleported behind Drocai for just a moment to whisper him something and then teleported back.

Drocai began to sweat nervously, and began to think to himself. "This man... is clearly bluffing... right? RIGHT!? He has to be bluffing! There is no way he could light a batch of sulfur with a water spell... yes... he will fail and then I will leave back to live with my cousin, Drodus in the neighboring village. I will train, become strong, and be able to fight against the knights and even this man in front of me if he threatens me or my family..."

Dubs smiled sadistically. "Then, I'll get started."

Drocai gained a crooked smile on his face.

"That's right... he will fail... I have nothing to worry about..."

Dubs held up his hands, and an orb of water formed that had a radius of about 1 foot. Slowly the water contracted, and the radius decreased to the point where it was only about a couple millimeters.

"You all clearly can see that this is a water spell, right!?", Dubs asked, his eyes bloodshot.

The dwarves all nodded after taking a look, and after inspecting the orb, Drocai agreed.

"Yes, its a water spell. You won't be able to set that sulfur on fire though..." Drodus stated.

"If magic was dominated by some unknown forces or randomized principles...", Dubs began to rant.

"Then it would be impossible for humans to master... but magic is not something of that nature... magic is nothing more than an expansion of science!! The laws of the universe are what govern the principles behind the magic I can perform... which means that magic can be enhanced, if one can figure out these governing laws!!"

Drocai shivered with worry, but continued telling himself that Dubs was bluffing.

"This guy is nuts... he things that magic and science are one and the same? Absurd! He will certainly fail!"

"And that also means... that if there are scientific laws that govern magic... that the other scientific laws of the universe will also apply to magic... particularly the law of friction."

"..."

The dwarves began to whisper again among themselves.

"He is going to try to use friction to light the sulfur on fire!?"

"Its a sphere of water! How could it possibly produce enough friction to overcome the effect of dowsing the sulfur with water? The sphere would have to be rotating at an incredibly high speed!"

Dubs guided the small sphere over to the cart of sulfur. "Stand back if you don't want any burn marks", he exclaimed.

The sphere of water grazed the sulfur and immediately an explosion occurred. The radius of the explosion was enormous, and a ball of flame the size of a large building engulfed the terrain.

The sphere of fire expanded in all directions, except for one.

The direction that Dubs was standing.

The dwarves and knights were all standing behind Dubs, and an arc of the explosion had been completely blocked and nullified, and the dwarves and knights were all left completely unharmed.

Dubs stood, with his arms spread, and began to laugh hysterically.

"AHAHA!!! What a thrill!! How did that feel, Alt!? Did I get you good over there!?", Dubs shouted.

Alt, who was on the mountaintop, had been slightly singed by the fire, as he was on the outer radius.

"HAHA!! So you manipulated the radius of your water spell so that the explosion would reach exactly the distance I was standing at!! Interesting! I didn't think you had the intuition in you to make a decision so precise!!", Alt replied.

Drocar, the leader of the dwarf clan, and Arctus, rushed over to Dubs.

"My Lord, are you alright!? Surely you cannot be unscarred after defending us all from such a violent explosion!?", Arctus exclaimed.

"I am terribly sorry for the rudeness of my son! To think you would go through such an ordeal to prove your strength to him! I beg of you, if you wish to punish him take it out on me!"

The others began to talk among themselves.

"Who is this man? He can create such a violent explosion and even survive and protect others from it!"

"I do not wish to punish anyone who keeps their word. As long as your son follows his promise and becomes a member of my coming empire, I do not intend to demean him.", Dubs told Drocar with a kind voice.

Drocar kneeled and thanked Dubs. "You are truly a kind leader, Lord Dubs! I will serve you to the end of my days!"

Drocai fell down, defeated.

"I have lost. Do with me as you will, Lord Dubs.", he stated, drearily, with blank eyes.

Dubs looked down at himself, and gave a sigh.

"It looks like even I couldn't get out of this one completely unscathed...", he proclaimed.

Turning around, Dubs revealed that his shirt and pants had been torn and singed, but his body remained perfectly intact.

"It looks like I wasn't able to stop the explosion from ruining my clothes!"