The next day, as Mia was leading the knights and Ethan westward toward the small village of Verafgelegen to resupply, she noticed footprints on the ground. They were not human footprints; they belonged to lizard-people, an intelligent reptilian monster that walked on two legs, organized themselves in tribes, and were known for sometimes carrying out large scale raids against human settlements. There was even a rumor that some lizard-people had learned human languages like the Vorbei language.

"Everyone, stay alert! There may be lizard-people nearby!" Mia ordered.

[These tracks are not that fresh, so the lizard people could be far away from here by now, but all the same, I'd like to get to Verafgelegen as quickly and safely as possible. We don't have very much mana potion left, as we had to use a lot of mana in that fight against that dragon and Ethan used more mana potion than I would have expected him to use. Who would have thought that he would have exceptional mana capacity? Anyway, we'll need to buy a lot of mana potion from the alchemist at Verafgelegen if we want to continue the journey. It would also be nice to buy some more health potion as well.] Mia thought.

The knights all kept their hands near the hilts of their swords, and quickened their pace. They were on edge, but they did not see any lizard-people. Before long they reached the four meter tall wooden defensive walls of the Village of Verafgelegen.

"Open the gate!" Mia ordered at the people inside the village walls.

Few moments later the gates opened, and the group went inside with the gates shutting behind them. Shortly after they entered, Mia was greeted by the Lord of Verafgelegen, an older gentleman with grey hair.

"I am Pieter Von Verafgelegen. I am the lord of this village. Frankly, I didn't expect a response from the capital so soon, nor did I expect that they would send the elite Sun Knights or the legendary Mia Von Ritter to our aid. Are you not here as a response to the messenger that we sent to the capital to ask for aid because our alchemist has abandoned us and we have been facing frequent attacks from lizardmen whenever we go outside of the village walls?" Asked Pieter.

"So you recognized me? Well, in short, we are not here as a response to the messenger that you sent to the capital, but rather we are in the Ancient Forest for another mission. We are returning home now, and we were hoping to resupply in your village. What is this about your alchemist leaving though? That could pose a problem as we really need mana potions, and only a skilled alchemist can make them." Mia said.

"Yes, he left two days ago in the middle of the night. His name is Johan Alchemis. He took all of his mana potions and health potions with him, but left behind all of the raw materials in his workshop. He had been growing in discontentment for a while, especially when my daughter, Sofia, rejected his marriage proposal three days ago. His leaving has left us without a safe source of mana, making it more difficult to fight off the lizard-people who have been harassing us whenever we leave the village. It would be very difficult to fight off the lizard people anyway, as I only have three knights under my command, and we don't even know how many lizard-people there are." The old lord said.

"This is not good. Lizard-people typically harass humans surrounding a settlement that they are planning to besiege soon. This means that the lizard-people are preparing for a large scale raid of this village. Answer me honestly: How much mana potion do you have in this village, and how many people here aside from you and your three knights are capable of fighting?" Mia said.

"This is an impoverished village out in a remote area, so we don't have much mana potion. I have in my private stores ten standard units of mana potion. There are less than one hundred villagers here who have at most one mana potion for every family of five people. In total, there are about thirty mana potions between us all in this village. There are four C-ranked adventurers staying here who can fight, but don't have much mana between them. They had apparently come here to resupply yesterday, but because our alchemist was gone by then, they were unable to do so, and they can not safely leave the village without mana, so they have been staying here since then. We have twenty able bodied young men who are at the age in which they could fight, but they are only villagers, and have no fighting experience. In truth, we are very grateful that you and your Sun Knights are here, and I beg you to help me defend this village." Said Pieter on bended knee.

"Of course I will help you to defend this village, but that is easier said than done. Bring me these twenty able bodied young men and tell them to bring their pitchforks. My knights will give them a crash course in spearmanship. Also, bring your own knights and the C-ranked adventurers. That much alone won't be enough though if the lizard-people bring a force of hundreds of fighters. We don't have enough mana to do many complex spells. If only there were a good way to defeat a much larger force without using magic." Mia said.

"I may know a way to defeat a much larger force without using magic." Ethan said upon hearing the two of them having that conversation.

Mia was sceptical of what Ethan was saying, but allowed him to continue. [ On the one hand, I doubt that Ethan has any military knowledge, but on the other hand, if anyone knows how to survive without magic, it's Ethan] Mia thought.

"Continue." she said to Ethan.

"Lord Verafgelegen, how much charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter do you have in this village?"Ethan asked.

Looking back and forth between Ethan and Mia, Pieter left them quickly before returning a few minutes later and answered "Charcoal is the easiest of those three to get. Our blacksmith has over 400 kilograms of charcoal in his shop. As for sulfur and saltpeter, the alchemist left those materials behind when he abandoned the village. There are twenty kilograms of saltpeter and ten kilograms of sulfur in his abandoned workshop." Said Pieter.

Ethan thought for a moment and said "Alright. Not as much as much as I would have liked, but we'll deal with what we have. I suppose that we have just enough raw materials to make 26.25 kilograms of the substance, with saltpeter being our limiting factor." Ethan said.

"What in the world are you planning to make with sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal?!" asked Mia.

"A powerful weapon from Earth known as gunpowder." Ethan answered.