Solomon looked down at the paper-wood in front of him. There should be a way to turn it into a fuse. Obviously, making a tube filled with powder wasn't going to work. He needed to do something to slow the reaction down.

He could try using less powder or spreading it out more, but that didn't feel right. It wasn't like he had really packed the powder in very tightly on his first attempt. What he needed was some kind of systematic barrier to interrupt the powder from directly igniting its neighbor. If he delayed it too much the magic needed for ignition might fade away, but he thought a brief delay would be fine.

He racked his brain, trying to remember anything he could. He'd seen homemade fuses a couple of times, but had never taken a close look. As far as he remembered, they were simple twists of paper mixed with black powder somehow. Not for the first time, he wished his phone still worked. The Internet, too.

Wait, a twist!

Solomon pulled another monkey core out of his inventory, and once more laid a line of powder down the length of the rectangle of paper-wood. He folded it over, making sure to settle the powder down in the crease of the fold. Then he started working from the bottom left corner of the folded paper-wood, rolling it up on the diagonal.

It was painstaking work. He could see the fuse he wanted starting to take shape, but keeping everything together with one hand was difficult. Very difficult. Just on the edge of what he could manage. Or maybe just past it.

When his hand slipped off for the third time, he decided to take a break and make a point investment that he'd been putting off for a while. He'd wanted to save his grid points for the shooting grids, but he had stockpiled quite a few points. He could fill out the next grid and still have enough points in his pocket to fill out the first shooting grid.

The next level after the Duelist grid presented him with an easy choice: one handed or two-handed weapons. Solomon went ahead and spent eleven grid points to buy One Handed Weapons out in one go, and then added the resulting attribute points to Dexterity.

His character sheet was starting to look a little impressive, if he did say so himself.

Name: Solomon Gragg

Skills: Pain Tolerance (MAX), Improvised Weapons Mastery (6), Bladed Weapons Mastery (5)

Grids: Tutorial (6/6)

Field Engineering (7/7), Personal Equipment (9/9), Weapons (11/11), Projectile Weapons (13/13), Firearms (15/15)

Bladed Weapons (7/7), Duelist (9/9), One-handed Weapons (11/11)

Free grid points: 9

Strength: 19

Constitution: 20

Dexterity: 25

M. Capacity: 5

M. Intensity: 10

Free attribute points: 0

HP: 200/200

MP: 50/50

The attribute points were nice, but what he really expected to help him out were the special abilities. The One-Handed Weapon grid had offered two: Nimble Hands and Quick Thrust. His first thought was that his ex might have appreciated the abilities more than he would.

Setting the system's naming sense aside, Quick Thrust required him to spend mana to launch a quick, straightforward attack. Nimble Hands was a passive boost like his Enhanced Endurance and Keen Eye. In this case, it improved his manual dexterity.

He waited a moment in case the changes needed time to settle in. He didn't feel any different, but when he tried tackling the fuse again the process was downright smooth. It was still difficult to keep the thing together with one hand and one hook, but Solomon was able to stay on top of it. He twisted the wood-paper up as tightly as he could and used his attachment ability to prevent it from unraveling.

Now it was time for the moment of truth. He cut the fuse in half, set one half to the side, and laid the half he was going to test on his shield.

This time, when he lit the end of the fuse, the flame moved from one end to the other at a rate he could follow with his eye. Maybe three or four seconds to cover five or six inches. Still quick enough that he'd have to be decisive once he decided to use the bomb he'd built, but not the nigh suicidal speed of the first fuse.

He fetched the bomb from where he'd left it and used his molding ability to poke a small hole in the casing. He then used the attachment ability to fix the fuse in place with one end tucked into the explosive powder. He used the last of the extra bone material to patch the hole and then cover most of the length of the fuse, leaving just the tip poking out for him to ignite.

He would have liked to test out the ability of the fuse to set off the explosive, just to be one hundred percent sure it would work, but he didn't want to waste all the time and material involved in building a bomb just to resolve a little uncertainty. He was down to a little over six hours left on the grace period. That was fine if all he had to do was beat the boss within the time limit, but Solomon was expecting the system to have a few more curveballs in store.

He hit the completed pipe bomb with an enchantment to enhance weapons damage. The enchantment had been straightforward enough when he used it on his hatchet. He wasn't sure it would do anything to the bomb, but he figured it couldn't hurt to try. He decided against putting a toughness enhancement on the bomb. It would probably be fine, but he didn't really know the limits of the toughness boost. The last thing he needed was to make the shell of the bomb strong enough to hold back the explosion.

With that done, Solomon shaped a loop to add to his belt and attached the bomb in place. He wanted to have quick access to it if he needed it, but he didn't want to lead off the fight with it. He attached the hatchet to the other side of his belt, strapped his shield in place, and took his spear in hand.

Finally, there was nothing left to do but approach the stone plinth and the waiting ball of light. Time to meet the boss.