Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Like nothing, 5 days had passed.

Alex couldn't believe how fast the past few days had gone by.

He was running out of time and still had so much to do, with only 1 day left before the test would be ending.

'I have to hurry!'

The last five days had been a gruelling test of his endurance and will, as he knew he couldn't afford any more stupid mistakes like the ones he had made days beforehand.

The memory of his earlier blunders still stung, but he couldn't let that deter him. He had to focus on the task at hand, and that was to finally complete the bomb.

Alex had spent the last few days meticulously extracting and further refining his ingredients. Each day was a blur of labour and concentration, but he had finally managed to gather enough charcoal, sugar and potassium nitrate.

'It's almost time.'

The clay bowls he had crafted after his screw ups were now filled with the essential ingredients he needed to craft his black powder.

Most of Alex's time over the previous days had been spent juicing the sugarcane.

He had built a new, sturdier dome with his waterproof shirt to collect the juice more efficiently. Boiling the juice in his crude clay bowls had been a slow process, but he had managed to reduce it to a thick syrup, which he then dried to obtain crystalline sugar.

The potassium nitrate extraction was a painstaking process. After his initial mistake, he had crafted more clay containers to prevent the nitrate from being reabsorbed into the ground.

This time, he successfully evaporated the water in each pot, leaving behind a decent amount of potassium nitrate crystals.

With the potassium nitrate, the sugar and the charcoal all in hand, there was only one thing left he had to do.

'Oil!'

There were plenty of lush plants surrounding the temple, so he gathered a bunch and extracted a decent amount of oil into one of the empty clay pots he had.

This process didn't take nearly as long as it took for the other ingredients, as the oil didn't need to be pure, or edible or anything like that.

It just needed to be flammable.

Now that all of the ingredients were gathered, Alex gathered everything but the oil, and poured it into a clay bowl.

With no measuring equipment, Alex could only eye out the ratio of each ingredient he was pouring in, and hope that it wasn't too bad of a mixture.

This was a critical step, and he could only take it very slowly, as any unevenness could lead to an unstable or ineffective powder. He knew the ratios had to be close to perfect for the mixture to be effective.

'Finally, black powder!'

The past 5 days of his work had finally come to a satisfying end.

But he wasn't finished yet.

'Well, let's just hope nobody's watching…'

With nothing else as an alternative, Alex ripped off his pants, leaving his lower body exposed to the elements.

Shiver!

"Sssss…"

Naturally, Alex's little friend down there didn't bode well against the wind…

But he was forced to put up with it for the sake of his plan.

With his now torn apart pants, he separated them into two different sections — one much larger than the other.

He doused the small sections in the oil, then proceeded to pour the black powder into the larger pieces of cloth that used to be his pants.

The smaller pieces of cloth would act as an effective fuse, allowing him a small amount of time to move out of the way of the explosion before it is set off.

Alex decided to make two bombs: one small test bomb, and one larger bomb, roughly the size of his head.

The test bomb was crucial; he needed to ensure the mixture worked before risking everything in the temple.

'It's time!'

With the test bomb ready, Alex knew it was time to see if his hard work would pay off or not.

He chose a safe spot away from the temple and other potential hazards.

Placing the test bomb on the ground near one of the creepy looking trees, lit the fuse and proceeded to sprint away as quickly as he could.

Alex didn't have a clue how quickly or slowly the fuse would burn, and he wasn't willing to take any chances and die a stupid death before he could even assassinate The Whisperer.

His decision turned out to be the right one, as the fuse burned down rapidly.

For a tense moment, nothing happened.

'Did I mix it wrong?-'

Boom!

Then, with a sudden and satisfying burst, the test bomb exploded.

The sound was loud, reverberating throughout the empty forest for kilometres in each direction. The blast tore through the creepy tree he placed it under, and even a few of the other trees nearby.

'Such a small thing actually had a radius of 5 metres!'

The blast was very clearly powerful enough to confirm the effectiveness of the mixture.

'I couldn't have gotten it more perfect…'

Feeling a mixture of relief and anxiety, Alex returned to his work area.

He checked the main bomb one last time, ensuring everything was secure.

The fuse was soaked in oil, secured in place, and the powder was tightly packed.

'I wonder how strong this one will be…'

He was itching to just try it out, but he held himself back as this was his only chance now at assassinating The Whisperer and completing the assessment.

He bundled the bomb in his shirt, tying it up carefully to ensure it wouldn't come apart.

'This is it. Everything I've done over the last week led to this moment.'

With only around half a day left before the end of the test, it was now or never for him to complete the final part of his plan — killing The Whisperer.

'It's time to enter again!'

With the main bomb ready, Alex approached the temple cautiously.

He tied the blindfold over his eyes once more, relying on his other senses and his memory of the layout to guide him forwards.

'Open your eyessss….'

'Look at meee….'

The Whispers returned not long after he entered.

It seemed The Whisperer was becoming more and more unsettled, the longer Alex hadn't entered.