Stuck in a tree waiting for a monster that seemed to have no intentions of leaving anytime soon, Verdell found himself growing increasingly panicked as he realized that he might really end up having to deal with the side effects from the strengthening mixture he had consumed earlier if things continued like this. Problem was, even though he knew this and wanted to get the night phantom cat below to finish its little meal as fast as possible and leave so he could continue on his journey towards the dungeon core, he couldn’t do much given how even a small movement in his current situation ran the risk of him being discovered by the night phantom cat below.
In the end, the only solution he could think of after having observed the night phantom cat down below for a good five minutes, was to distract it by throwing something into the distance that would catch the attention of the night phantom cat. Drawing it away from the tree he was hiding inside of in the process. Buying time for him to descend the tree and escape before the night phantom cat could return after finding nothing.
But... Throwing something capable of drawing the attention of the large cat below wasn’t exactly simple, as he would also have to make sure he didn’t create any noise in the process that could make the cat in question investigate the tree he was hiding in. At the same time, the thing he threw also had to be something that would be able to create a loud enough sound to draw the night phantom cat away when it landed, something that was more difficult than it sounded given the fact he also had to ensure whatever he threw went at least a few hundred meters away from him to ensure he would be able to safely descend the tree without being detected by the night phantom cat in the process.
Because of this, the original few metal pieces and weapons he had originally felt would be good options for what to throw given how he could bundle them together and ensure they caused a commotion while landing and moving through the air, had to be shelved. After all, though his strength had increased significantly thanks to the mixture that was now causing him to worry about being discovered by the big cat directly below him, it hadn’t increased to the point where he would be able to throw so many heavy things hundreds of meters into the distance. Especially silently without drawing any unwanted attention from the big cat below.
If anything, the only real solution he could think about that seemed doable without drawing the attention from the big cat down below was for him to rely on his fire magic to throw out a fireball and have it land somewhere. Allowing the explosion to draw the attention of all the surrounding monsters, big cat included.
Of course, he couldn’t do this, as the fireball would undoubtedly ignite the tall grass when it landed. Ushering the grass field into an age of fire, consuming every living being within the grass field, Verdell himself included.
Still, as his thoughts shifted away from throwing something heavy into the distance and instead began focusing on the different kinds of magic he had learnt over the years, it didn’t take long before he came up with what he thought to be a perfect compromise that would be able to solve the current predicament he had found himself in. Using his fire magic to draw the attention of the big cat, but instead of having the fire magic be a fireball that would explode upon landing on the ground to create a loud enough disturbance to draw the attention of the night phantom cat, he instead decided to experiment a bit with a new kind of fireball that wouldn’t explode upon contact but would instead explode after a certain period of time had passed. Essentially allowing him to make the fireball blow up in the air and draw the attention of the night phantom cat in this manner without causing any damage to the tall grass in the process.
Difficult as this was given how he couldn’t exactly be sure no sparks would end up landing on the tall grass and ignite the entire grass field in the process; he still decided to go down this path in the end. Not just because it was the only way out of the current situation in his eyes, but also because he didn’t feel too bad even if the worst-case scenario ended up taking place and the tall grass caught fire. The reason why being that the fire would start nowhere near him and would give him time to escape.
The only real worry was the dungeon core noticing the situation and decided to investigate, but... Even if it did, he wasn’t exactly easy to spot and should be able to easily avoid detection.
The only problem left for him to solve was to figure out a way to conjure up a fireball without being noticed by the night phantom cat below- or that was at least what he would have said if the night phantom cat in question didn’t already have its entire head buried in the poor monster it was in the process of slowly enjoying.
If he placed a bit more of his mana into the newly developed delayed explosion fireball of his, he would be able to ensure that it was silent from start to finish. The only real worry about being discovered by the big cat down below came from how bright it was and easy to notice it would be once it took shape.
Luckily for him, the night phantom cat was truly fully occupied with its meal and didn’t seem to suspect anyone hiding in the tree that it had conveniently decided to use for shade while enjoying its meal. Allowing Verdell to slowly inch higher up the tree before peeking his head up above the canopy where he slowly began forming the new kind of fireball he had just come up with, a task that for obvious reasons took far longer than forming a normal fireball as he also had to include a kind of magical fuse into the fireball in question, a task that was far more difficult than he had originally anticipated and essentially made the mana cost of a single fireball almost twenty times that of a normal one... And that was without adding on the extra mana he was forced to burn through to ensure the formation of the fireball was silent.
Unsurprisingly, this single fireball that normally wouldn’t have ever affected him in the past almost instantly drained most of his mana as it silently shot through the sky above the tall grass-
BOOOM-!
Exploding into a glorious explosion a few hundred meters away from the tree he was hiding in. Looking like another small sun to the nearby monsters that saw the fireball up close, the night phantom cat included, as there was no way it wouldn’t have heard the loud explosion.
Now, all Verdell had to do was wait, as the night phantom cat began shifting unnaturally below before finally having come to some kind of decision as it left the monster corpse it had been nibbling on behind and rushed towards the area above which the fireball had exploded.
The entire process was seen by Verdell, though the person in question was feeling far more worried about a small patch of tall grass that seemed to have been severely damaged by the shockwave of the explosion and worse than that, had been hit by some of the flames that had spread out centered on where the fireball had exploded.
Luckily, the tall grass proved to not ignite as easily as he had expected, though a few sparks had landed and ended up creating what looked like a disaster waiting to happen, as they could potentially ignite the tall grass at any moment with only a light breeze, something that wasn’t exactly uncommon within the large grass field.
Still, things ended up working out to some extent, as after ensuring that nothing had been lit on fire, Verdell quickly climbed down the tree before the night phantom cat could get back and escaped in the direction of the dungeon core. Having made sure to throw out the fireball so that both the path to the dungeon core and the outer edge of the tall grass field was clear in case he needed to escape.
Even better, with the loud commotion, the monsters that would have originally blocked his path towards the dungeon core had either been drawn over towards the explosion or had been scared silly. Making them hide away within the tall grass. Not even daring to poke out their heads when he passed by them. Afraid that doing so might end up with them losing their little lives to whatever had caused the loud explosion earlier.