Orange Powder

Once he was done patching himself up, Kim Jae-hoon leaned back against the tree to rest for a bit and recuperate from the injuries that wasn't completely healed yet.

Meanwhile, Park Sun-jae did a round trip around the forest again and made sure that his friend is safe from any dangers. In his current state, he was not ready to fight another monster that might come his way.

Although he scouted the area before, he was still feeling anxious at night time. As they say – 'You can never be too sure about things.'

When the sun was up, Kim Jae-hoon started his day while cleaning his wounds properly and washing himself up using the cold water the river had. Afterwards, he bandaged himself again with the new leaves and gathered the things that he had acquired so far from the yesterday trip before examining each one of them carefully.

The first item was the Pulse Flower which was greyish in colour and along with it, there were two more types of flowers that were in fact relaxants in nature.

They were dark blue in colour and had a soothing smell unlike the former that was almost odourless.

The next item was a precious one that Kim Jae-hoon obtained while risking his life on the line at Mist Garden – 'The Flamingo Plant's Orb'.

It was an orange gemstone that had properties of fire and it can potentially be used to make explosives according to Park Sun-jae's statement.

However, the young man was still clueless on how are these items gonna be helpful to him since he never saw someone make an explosive through a singular stone or a drug like flower that is fatal to only animals and not humans. After experiencing unique and strange things so far during the journey, the young man realised that he had so much to learn about this world than expected and has a long way to go before he can adapt to this new environment.

While he was lost in thoughts, Park Sun-jae returned after patrolling the area and saw his friend sitting under the tree in a daze.

"What are you thinking about so deeply?" he asked in a straightforward manner.

"…." But Kim Jae-hoon didn't responded as his mind was elsewhere.

The ghost then waved his hands close to his face and asked again with a slightly louder voice. "Hello, you there! Are you alive?"

"Huh?"

Soon afterwards, the young man came to his senses and glanced at Park Sun-jae with a startled look on his face.

"When did you came back?" he asked.

"Just a moment ago. I tried to call you but you didn't respond. So, I had to wake you up that way." Park Sun-jae replied.

"Oh, sorry. There was a lot on my mind that I didn't see you coming."

"It's fine. Sometimes, it just happens. By the way, I patrolled the area within the fifteen metre radius distance and no dangers were detected which is a good news for us."

"Strange… How come there are no monsters around? It feels like something's amiss here." he wondered.

"Beats me. Forget about that. We should focus on our journey ahead. There are plenty of stuff we need to do before we can cross the river and enter the level two area."

"Yeah, about that… I still don't get it. How are we gonna make use of these things?" He picked the orange orb in his hand and showed it to Park Sun-jae. "And this tiny stone that I got from that plant! What do you mean by that you can make explosives out of it?"

The ghost smiled and explained everything step by step to him on what to do.

-------------

Sometime later, Kim Jae-hoon put the orb aside in his pouch and started a fire with the remaining firewood he had.

First, he threw a half dozen of relaxant flowers into the bornfire and suddenly, the colour of the flames changed into purple before growing in size to a certain limited amount.

He flinched back a bit upon experiencing such a thing.

But he quickly calm himself down and put a half dozen of Pulse Flowers into the fire next. As a result, the flames got bigger and it changed into red colour this time.

"What is this magic?" The young man mumbled to himself in astonishment.

"Hehe. Those are just chemical reactions happening into the fire and you haven't seen the real magic yet. Let it be. You're doing it right. No need to be afraid of such flames. Keep Going." Park Sun-jae said.

With his friend's reassurance to him and the instructions that he gave, Kim Jae-hoon kept throwing half a dozen of flowers into the fire within an interval period of time and after he was out of stock, he let the flames be and waited for them to be out on their own.

In the meantime, the young man sat under another tree which was far away from the fire and took out the orange orb in his hand before pouring water onto it.

According to Park Sun-jae, the orb had fire properties in it and even a single spark of fire can ignite it resulting in a big explosion. And, in order to make the raw material for the explosives, he needs to do a procedure that can result in a spark of flames out of it. Therefore, cooling down the temperature of the orb using the water was a priority before he could do anything to it.

After it became completely wet and soaked, Kim Jae-hoon took out the image crystal he had and started hammering the orb at one spot over and over again with its pointy edge.

With continuous repetition of the process, it made a crack onto the orb and some powdery substance came out of it which was orange in color.

That powder was the raw material Park Sun-jae mentioned when he said it can be used to make explosives and what not. It was basically gun-powder in a sense.

Once he procured enough gun-powder for the journey which was orangish in color, he placed it onto an open cloth before closing it up with a knot. In this way, he was able to obtain two bags full of gun powder in his possession which can be used in various ways in the future.