[The previous chapter has been edited. I'm a little bit late on the bonus chapter so I'll upload them tomorrow together with the regular chapter. Thanks for reading],

[Ace POV],

After looking around for a few minutes for a place to test the last explosive I had—the one with the explode rune engraved on it—I was finally able to see another clearing down the mountain range. Since I didn't need to descend there to test the explosive up close, I simply decided to throw the explosive a little closer to the area so I could watch it from where I was.

As I contemplated this, I moved a little bit nearer to the clearing I had discovered. I stopped when I realised that the location I was in was ideal for observation before looking at the final metallic ball in my hand.

According to the primordial chronicle and my thoughts, the explosive with the explode rune should be powerful. Additionally, the information stated that because of the materials the rune was engraved on, the explosion results will be even more potent.

As a result, I had certain expectations. If it wasn't powerful to cause an impression, then going through the stress of making it wasn't worth it. At the very least, it should be more potent than what the ignite rune explosive could cause.

As I was considering this, I slowly injected mana into the metallic ball's magic gem. The activation of the rune was also the same as that of the ignite and most runes, but unlike the ignite rune, the explode rune does not immediately explode when it comes into contact with mana.

The rune is an active rune that requires the activation of another condition.

The first was to give it some mana, and the second was to let it come into physical contact with anything.

This simply meant that something other than my hand—which was holding the explosive—had to physically come into contact with the explode rune explosive.

The physical contact could mean touching another living thing or dropping it on the ground, so unlike the ignite rune, which had a timer, the explode rune did not.

However, this did not imply that it was better because I was essentially carrying a ticking time bomb that, if I made a mistake, could detonate at any moment.

With this in mind, I held the explosive in my hand, aimed it at the clearing, and threw it. I'd learned my lesson from the previous explosion, so as soon as I threw the explosive, I closed my ears and concentrated on the metallic ball in mid-air that was slowly falling.

BOOM!!!!!

A gust of wind passed me and ruffled my clothes as the explosion that resulted was much larger than the previous one. I then watched as a miniature mushroom of dust and flames rose into the air.

I had to close my eyes due to the dust that was carried by the wind, and when I opened them again, the mushroom that the explosion had created had already collapsed. However, because of the surrounding dust, I was unable to see the damage, so I had to wait a few more seconds. When the dust had finally settled, the scene in front of me had me taken back.

A large hole was present where the explosive had fallen, and within 20 meters of it, the area was completely different.

The explosion's damage was so severe that rocks within a 20-meter radius melted and some of them are still melting presently.

This explosion was much stronger compared to the previous one.

They could not even be compared.

With my current strength, if this explode rune explosive was thrown at me when I wasn't expecting it, I would undoubtedly be dancing with the reaper the very next second.

I might not die right away, but I will. This is without me taking the basic health pills, of course.

Even though one explosive performed significantly worse than the other, I was still satisfied with how well they both performed overall.

Both could be useful in future plans.

For one, if I used both explosives on the right target, I could already easily fulfil my fourth job requirement.

The issue now was which one to use.

The most powerful rune would be my choice if I wanted to keep things simple, but the explode rune was considerably more difficult to engrave than the ignite rune.

If I were to look at it another way, if I had multiple ignite runic explosives, the effect of the explosion would not be weaker than the explode runic explosive if I were to throw several at once in a single location, but because the ignite rune was easier to engrave than the explode rune, it would require more materials, resulting in greater costs.

It was obvious which of the two was better if I could make multiple explode runic explosives and multiple ignite runic explosives in the same amount.

I thought about this while walking back to the mansion, and in the end, decided to just make the two.

This choice was made after careful consideration.

For one, both explosives have uses that the other could not, even though one of them is superior to the other.

Based on the explosion I've seen from both the runic explode and ignite explosive, I can think of a few things they could and couldn't do.

For instance, it was possible to use the ignite runic explosive in a location that wasn't too close, but the explode runic explosive couldn't be used in the same situation as it would have been suicidal, and I wasn't suicidal.

Hmmm.

That can be argued.

Although the ignite rune may function well in a small area, its impact in a large area will be significantly less effective than the explode runic explosive.

There were a few other things I could think of besides the best location for each explosive, so I was justified in making the two.

Although this decision will indeed raise the cost of everything, I believe it was better if I could evolve in the end.

In any case, I had a tonne of magic gems in my storage ring, so I don't think poverty would return to me anytime soon unless I don't better at engraving runes. I might also have to go back to that slime dungeon and run it a few more times if it's still there.

With these thoughts in mind, I returned to the mansion and went to the basement.

Seeing my lab and the fact that I still had the energy to continue with alchemy, I was about to make some pills to rest before seeing if I could make a few more runic explosives when a certain item caught my eye and caused me to come to a halt.

It was the egg I had obtained from the beast tamer in the shop.

Seeing this, I reversed my previous path and made my way to the table where I had placed the egg, and when I got close to it, I raised it with my hands and brought it closer to my face while thinking of something.

'Should I try to hatch it?'

While I wasn't sure if the monster in the egg would be useful or not, I was still quite curious about the hatching process of the egg and the monster that was in it. After giving it some thought, I decided to simply hatch the egg now since it was something I had already planned to do and was just doing it early.

As I considered these things, I returned the egg to the table with my hands still on it, recalling the steps the beast tamer stated in the seller's remark about hatching the egg, but then realised she only mentioned taming the monster after it had hatched, not hatching the egg.

For a while, I was unsure of where to begin and simply decided to wrap my mana around the egg first and see what happened.

If the egg or the monster inside it experiences any negative effects as a result, then it happens. After all, I only brought it out of curiosity.historical

While contemplating this, I slowly continued to wrap my mana around the egg and waited for a reaction before realising abruptly that I was releasing my mana casually.

This meant that I was releasing my mana without thinking about whether I wanted to release the element-containing mana or the neutral one devoid of an element.

The mana I was releasing at the time was in its purest form, which meant I was releasing a combination of my fire and earth element mana, but it was too late as the egg finally gave out a reaction, with the lines on the egg emitting a dim blue light.

If that weren't enough, the egg or possibly the monster inside it began to quickly consume my mana. Unsure if stopping now would have any impact on the monster inside the egg, I just kept doing what I was doing and "fed" the egg more mana as the light it was emitting grew brighter by the second.

This continued for a while until I realised that I had been "feeding" this egg my mana for more than ten minutes and it didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

I wasn't sure if this was normal or if it was the result of my actions, but since I couldn't stop, I just kept going while taking some basic mana pills to replenish my mana.

Another thing to note was how hot the area was right now, but nothing in the basement caught fire, possibly because my mana release wasn't very strong.

It wasn't until 30 minutes later that the egg began to crack.