The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard-Chapter 73: The Soul Ages, Not the Body (1)

Could this be the properly completed Soul of Fire?

Turan gathered information about the substance by carefully rubbing, smelling, and lightly tasting a tiny amount he picked up with his finger.

’Something seems... different.’

The first noticeable difference was the texture.

Though he had certainly ground the three substances into completely fine powder just before, it had become coarser and rougher.

Moreover, it was strange that the pungent smell and rotten egg odor from before were completely gone, replaced only by a faint burnt smell.

Rather than a simple chemical change, it felt as if someone had switched it with a different substance halfway through...

Looking down at the powder, Turan soon placed it in the bowl and lit it with magic.

Along with this, he accelerated his thoughts to observe what reaction the flame would cause.

The flame appearing over the black powder, and the tremendously fast combustion reaction and... explosion.

With a bang, the bowl shattered into pieces as faint smoke rose.

"Oh."

Such power just from lighting a small flame to such a tiny amount.

Though far from enough to damage a noble of his level, it was a substance with great advantages just for being able to produce this much power while consuming almost no mana.

The first method that came to mind was using it like Obil had—placing it pretending to be an ordinary object then detonating it when someone came close.

If properly distributed and arranged to have explosions trigger other explosions, it could cause tremendous scale explosions with little mana consumption.

He could imagine several other methods too.

Using the explosive force to move quickly by scattering and detonating it beside his body, dropping large amounts of powder from the sky onto the ground and detonating it, or blowing powder at opponents with wind and detonating it.

It didn’t need to be used only for combat.

In places with many mountains and winding roads like the Grey Zone, it could be used to make paths by detonating lots of powder to break rocks, or help with mining by detonating it in mines.

At least it would clearly be much more efficient than breaking rocks directly with magic.

Of course, there was an important condition for doing such things.

Namely, being able to stably obtain large quantities of this black powder, the Soul of Fire.

’Sulfur can be obtained from the hot springs in the east, and charcoal powder can be made anytime there’s wood... saltpeter is the problem.’

The amount of saltpeter in his pouch now was just three lumps slightly larger than a fist.

When made into powder, it couldn’t really be considered much.

Hadn’t that merchant said saltpeter came from the South Sea?

Since the South Sea was what appeared going east from the Siraf Wetlands, it seemed good to check it out.

==

After combining all the remaining half of sulfur into Soul of Fire, Turan moved east with Bize.

He walked this time too, thinking he might accidentally pass the hot springs if flying.

Of course, a high noble’s walking was on a different dimension from commoners’, so he was able to cover the distance said to take over three or four days by late night.

"This must be it."

According to locals he asked, the hot spring area was located at the foot of a mountain they called the back mountain.

They warned several times that if he planned to use the hot springs, he shouldn’t be rude to the Monkey King.

Though it wouldn’t harm humans carelessly, it wouldn’t forgive those who were rude or harmed its fellow monkeys, they said.

’Monkey King...’

Though that dark elf, the Undead King, had been defeated by Meisa, he was still strong enough that Turan would struggle to face him alone.

Yet for a countryside monkey magical beast to be called not just king but great king—wasn’t that too grand a title?

Turan rode Bize straight up the mountain and circled around looking for where the sulfur was.

And simultaneously expanded his holy relic’s senses.

It would be safer to approach after finding out how powerful this being called the Monkey King was.

But—

"Huh?"

At his surprised voice, Bize flying above tilted its head as if asking what was wrong.

But Turan didn’t even have the presence of mind to tell Bize it was nothing.

’Both the magical beast and person... are ridiculously strong?’

The magical beast that seemed to be a monkey judging by its form was surprisingly stronger in mana than Turan but weaker than Meisa.

Though not quite mythical level, it was the next tier down—a monster that could devastate several small cities upon appearing.

This must be the Monkey King.

And opposite that magical beast sat a wizard of similar level to Turan.

Judging by height and body outline it seemed to be a woman, and she appeared to be unconscious with her neck stretched back.

Though he had heard from the villagers below that the Monkey King didn’t harm humans, it felt uncomfortable to just watch.

Like with Asiz and Tilly before, the magical beast might just be guarding a person, unable to know how to help.

"Bize, sorry but would you wait up there for a bit? I think I need to check this out alone."

Bize chirped dissatisfied but seemed to read the serious tone in his voice and nodded.

Releasing his grip on its legs, Turan immediately used flight and concealment magic to approach where he sensed the holy relic’s perception.

’This is...’

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They were in a deep valley halfway up the mountain, in a place where sulfur smell wafted particularly strongly.

Approaching closer, his vision piercing darkness revealed the forms of a magical beast and human.

The Monkey King had a huge body the size of two or three people combined, with a black face and bright red fur.

Its skeleton and appearance were alien not only to the monkey magical beast he had seen before, but also to ordinary monkeys seen in magical beast guides.

It sat with eyes closed while soaking in steaming water.

And the woman sitting opposite had her lower body soaking in the hot spring like the Monkey King, but with nothing worn above, her brown upper body was completely exposed.

Her pose of resting her arms on rocks and laying her head back looked more like lounging half-reclined rather than having fainted.

’She was just bathing...’

Realizing his misunderstanding, Turan tried to stop his body that had been slowly advancing with wind power.

At that moment, suddenly a sharp beeping sound rang out in all directions.

The source was a small mirror placed beside the water.

It seemed to be a magic device given the mana sensed, probably set to sound when someone meeting certain conditions approached.

Startled, Turan backed away and when the sound stopped, the slumped woman awoke and turned her head around.

"Hmm? What? Did someone come close?"

Along with the woman’s puzzled voice, the Monkey King leapt from the water and roared with all its might.

As the thunderous roar echoed all around, the woman in the water scolded such a magical beast.

"Don’t be so temperamental, Aikul. This hot spring isn’t just for us to use. Hey there! I won’t harm you so come out! This old woman won’t get angry just because you saw her body!"

Though her appearance and voice glimpsed didn’t look old at all, the woman’s manner of speech was like that of a seventy-year-old granny.