Soon after, Henry ordered double portions for dinner. Just after finishing his meal, Drummond had everything ready - he had prepared 200 pounds of TNT and 40 delayed electric detonators loaded in three boxes in a carriage at the bar entrance.
The total cost was less than $10. Henry continued running a tab, then drove the carriage back to his house, stored the three boxes in his space, and returned the carriage to the bar.
After returning the carriage, he began his night patrol, focusing on the area around Linda's house.
Over an hour later, approaching midnight, Henry returned home - ending an hour earlier than usual.
At home, Henry tallied today's money pouches, gaining $1,023.8 - a decent supplement.
Henry's biggest headache now was dogs.
As long as the enemy had dogs, he couldn't sneak in quietly.
The guy who had drugged the border collie Paul hadn't contributed any release pearls containing drugging skills either.
He had found five bottles and jars on that person, but without any labels, they couldn't be used for now.
He'd have to test them on animals when he had time later to roughly understand their purposes, since Henry didn't know the specific usage methods and might not be able to properly utilize their effects.
Since he couldn't infiltrate, he could only charge straight through.
Having already formed a blood feud, Henry couldn't possibly spare these old foxes and let them continue scheming in the shadows.
Look at how many assassination attempts Henry had faced these past few days!
First release Sean, then shut down the mine operations, then release Brendan while escorting Linda to catch the train in Denver.
This was Henry's adjusted plan.
Since he wasn't clear what demons and monsters were behind the mine, he'd let them come find him instead.
At least after releasing Sean and Brendan, the situation wouldn't get worse.
Henry might temporarily be unable to officially seize the mine, but at least he could ensure that without his approval, no one could mine it.
When those people understood this point, there would naturally be room for negotiation.
The only risk was that Henry himself might attract even more frenzied attacks, but would Henry fear these fresh release materials?
Henry spent less than half an hour installing the TNT explosives with delayed electric detonators, dividing them into 5 portions of 20 pounds and 20 portions of 5 pounds, tying them securely with rope.
Hand grenades in this era were still primitive and almost no civilians used them - they weren't practical either.
So Henry could only manually DIY cluster bombs, making the 5-pound ones with 3-second delay detonators and the 20-pound ones with 5-second delay detonators.
Although they lacked the steel fragments of later grenades to enhance power, the high-temperature, high-pressure shock waves were equally formidable.
After finishing, Henry used that white pearl containing skills he'd gained today.
Instantly, he was surrounded by warmth appearing from nowhere. He found that from childhood he had been very interested in magic, learning various escape, teleportation, and item manifestation techniques, plus extensive practice experience.
A minute later, Henry regained consciousness and found he had gained the skill Magic LV3.
Henry treasured this skill like a precious gem.
Europeans and Americans of this era were extremely obsessed with magic, producing many renowned magicians.
Napoleon III in 1856 had even sent French magician Robert-Houdin to quell a rebellion, believing his magic was real.
Robert-Houdin had actually succeeded with his "lifting box" trick.
Robert-Houdin was the first to develop magic from simple street entertainment into a legitimate art form acceptable to high society.
From then on, magicians began wearing tailcoats to perform in high society venues.
In England, the Maskelyne family of magicians had been performing for over a century, with the contemporary John Nevil Maskelyne also being highly renowned.
Conjuring eggs and coins from thin air had become quite ordinary magic.
Tricks like invulnerability, body separation, decapitation, mind transfer, and catching bullets barehanded or with teeth were already widespread.
Some magicians had even successfully disguised themselves as contemporary witches, able to summon ancestral spirits.
But the original Henry knew these were all deceptive tricks.
This was told to him personally by his cousin George Bruce.
George was the only relative the original Henry had ever met. He had visited the town twice, staying about a month each time.
The most recent visit was five years ago.
He looked remarkably like George Clooney from Henry's previous timeline - also a playboy, thirty years old that year.
According to his own claims, he was a great magician.
He was very fond of Henry and had taught him magic.
Unfortunately, the original Henry's personality was like his grandfather's - he disliked such deceptive tricks and hadn't learned seriously at all.
Now with this skill, Henry could have sufficient reason to suddenly produce pistols, daggers, or throwing knives in future emergencies.
Moreover, this reason had very clear origins and development.
This greatly increased the occasions where Henry could appropriately use his storage space, providing tremendous improvement to his surface-level safety.
Although Henry was already very careful daily, it was still hard to avoid naturally taking weapons from storage space during future dangerous moments.
Aside from occasionally using this to amuse children and girls while providing cover for his storage space usage, Henry had no interest in becoming a professional magician - LV3 was sufficient for now.
Setting his alarm clock, Henry reined in his excitement and quickly went to sleep - he could only sleep less than 3 hours.
At 4 AM, Henry woke up on time. After washing and eating something, he rode out.
About forty minutes later, Henry reached the fork to Devonshire Manor's private mountain road.
He stopped his horse, dismounted, and walked alone toward the manor along the mountain path.
Currently, below the release progress bar were 46 gray pearls, 32 white pearls, 2 green pearls, plus 174 gray pearl shells, 58 white pearl shells, and 12 green pearl shells.
These release pearl shells could withstand 30 machine gun bullets.
After consideration, Henry used 25 white pearls and 36 gray pearls. Combined with the previously used 3 green pearls and 1 white pearl, energy equivalent to 196 gray pearls accumulated in his panel, making all LV3 skills begin flashing - they could be upgraded to LV4.
Henry didn't upgrade anything, saving them up.
Now the release pearl shells could withstand 37 machine gun bullets - should be very safe.
Too bad this era lacked steel helmets to enhance head protection - Henry made a mental note to see if he could design some and apply for patents later.
Henry put on his mask and quietly walked toward the manor. In over ten minutes he reached the final corner.
The sky was still pitch black.
Henry took off his high boots and changed into cloth shoes.
On this final straight path, gas lamps were hung at roughly 50-meter intervals on the left-side rocks and eight specially preserved trees on the right - eighteen lamps total.
While not bright as daylight, it was sufficient for sentries on guard posts to spot and begin machine gun fire on enemies.
Henry took out his "one-in-a-thousand" Winchester rifle at the corner and began shooting, first targeting two tower sentries exposed outside.
(End of Chapter)
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