Chapter 98
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: 10th Floor - Lv. 335 Emperor's Guard (3)
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"You're pulling off quite the stunt. How do you even know about something like this?"
The applications of magic are endlessly diverse, to say nothing of its versatility.
But even an orc shaman as ancient as they come had never imagined it could be used this way.
The basics, he knew.
Handling flames in an enclosed space depletes the air.
Grind sand into fine powder, scatter it, then ignite it, and it explodes.
No matter how sturdy something is, alternating heat and cold wears it down.
These were things learned through experience.
Anything from even further back, from the mythic eras passed down only in legends, who knows.
Nowadays, that was the extent of what most mages knew.
Talented mages rarely had the mindset for experiments.
Their status pulled them into other duties.
Trdongt had been the same. No matter how much he swung an axe and rampaged like a warrior, it was just nostalgia.
In other words, sentimentality. He knew it himself. But he just wanted to do it.
The mantle of Great Shaman had weighed that heavily on him.
He couldn't even remember the last time he'd purely immersed himself in studying and researching shamanism.
"Thermal expansion, huh. Hm. Fascinating."
It was compelling enough to ignite a scholarly passion he never had before.
Trdongt thought this as he watched the raging heatwave battering the transparent barrier in front of him.
Let me recap the process.
It started with the shockwave bursting out.
A shockwave propagating through the air in all directions.
One massive blast.
Taking that head-on would consume far too much mana.
Mjolnir and the Grove Fairy archer had dug into the ground together. The party slipped inside, and they sealed the top with a magical barrier.
Just in case, the youngest stood ready with his shield.
A deafening roar? An explosion? Whatever it was, the massive shockwave passed first.
Trdongt knew what that was. It was the phenomenon that sometimes occurred when orc heroes, famed for their speed, hurled something too fast.
Of course, what they were seeing now packed far more destructive power.
If caught defenseless, it might feel like taking a full-force swing from a berserk troll's club right to the face.
Then came the horrific heat.
In the confined space, the air superheated in an instant and expanded violently.
The initial shockwave had merely been its precursor.
It had already cooled somewhat since then, yet the heat still scorched from all sides.
He'd seen blacksmith forges often. It wasn't quite that intense, but the temperature seemed hot enough to make iron glow cherry-red.
Of course, there was no spell to maintain the heated air's temperature. It cooled rapidly.
Yet it was still an enclosed space.
The frenzied heatwave, sweeping outward and scouring the labyrinth corridors clean while incinerating everything, raged on for a while.
"I knew heat makes air expand. But I never dreamed it could unleash this much power."
A moment later, the devastation raging inside the labyrinth finally began to subside.
The Grove Fairy archer, who had simply watched in silence, spoke up brightly.
"Amazing, isn't it? So, how do we get out now?"
"Can't you handle some magic yourself?"
Was it truly free of prejudice against orcs, or was her faith in the God of Nature that devout?
The fairy nodded with a smile.
"They say air doesn't conduct heat well. So if you weave magic like this..."
Trdongt relayed to the fairy what the Exile man—now his party's leader—had taught him.
The fairy listened in wonder, then successfully formed a fixed air barrier around her body.
Inside it, mana circulated with chilling cold.
It was delicately crafted to block heat as much as possible.
"Maintaining this manually would be tough, so I engraved it into a spell formula ahead of time."
Too crude to call a magic scroll, but any mage at his level could handle it easily.
Trdongt applied it to himself and the youngest; the fairy to the Hunter and herself.
Thus, the magic took hold.
They dispelled the barrier of their shelter.
A sweltering heat rushed in. Not like midsummer air, but the air from a charcoal kiln.
"Hot. Unbearably so."
"I'll make it a bit cooler."
At the Hunter's grumbling, the fairy kindly lowered the temperature further.
"Ah, I should've grabbed the sword!"
"It seemed like a really good sword. Maybe it's still around?"
The two were shivering as they waited out the heatwave.
In the midst of it, the Girl lamented the dead fairy's gear.
The signal had dropped before they could even think of looting.
"But wouldn't it be too hot to pick up right now?"
"Hmm."
The little mage tried to tear a strip from her robe hem but couldn't. The Girl grabbed and ripped it for her.
"Why this?"
"Wouldn't wrapping it work?"
The Girl brightened. Her current dagger was nearing the end of its durability anyway.
Direct combat had been surprisingly sparse since the 8th floor, so she was still using the weapon he'd given her long ago.
"Whew."
As the Girl giggled to herself thinking of her new weapon, a dreamy moan-like sound came.
Looking over, the little mage had flushed cheeks and was licking her lips.
It was oddly seductive—enough to make her jealous—but that wasn't the point. She was sweating buckets.
"Water! Drink some water."
The little mage, who'd gone all-in on Intelligence, had stamina closer to a normal person's than an Exile's.
She was investing in Strength now, but her level itself wasn't that high.
Gulping it down like a baby bird, the little mage expressed her thanks with her eyes.
Thanks to the fairy priestess's robe, the Girl didn't feel the heat as badly.
Her big little sister suddenly seemed awfully cute. A sense of fulfillment welled up in the Girl's heart from looking after her.
Once the heatwave passed, they climbed out from the dug-out earth.
The floor was so hot their shoes stuck with every step.
It was a hellish environment.
All moisture had evaporated, leaving only bone-dry heat.
The Girl hurried to find the sword. The twin blades, swept by the heatwave, were nearby. Their edges had just started to heat up.
The gruesome corpse was gone who-knows-where. Good riddance.
The little mage gave up entirely on conserving mana. Just enduring here was a task in itself.
No fights seemed likely anyway.
One wrong breath, and her lungs would burn.
The ruins were tougher than expected. He'd thought this pressure would collapse them, but even the epicenter held.
Still, a few more explosions to the labyrinth ceiling made it cave in from the center.
Magic was oddly resilient against purely physical attacks that felt utterly unmagical.
Mana itself resisted simple physical impacts by nature.
The little one diligently wove the barrier around herself as practiced, fully sealing the air and dampening thermal conduction.
It looked a bit shaky, but she was a vampire anyway—no life-or-death stakes there.
Same for me.
This was near the epicenter, so the temperature was boiling over. Four digits, probably?
In this environment, burns were an issue, but cooling breathable air was the real challenge. Vampires just didn't breathe.
Seal the air completely—easy.
Temperature? No problem. Ever seen a heat-stricken corpse? Unless the body itself ignited, body heat was irrelevant.
Even so, it was a scorching hellscape, so he moved cautiously.
The charred, desolate labyrinth interior evoked Chernobyl.
Enter without a hazmat suit, and you're dead.
The magic circle from the fairy empire delivered beyond expectations.
He'd overheated it for a one-time blaze of glory, rendering it unusable now—but no matter.
The entire labyrinth was already a nightmarish trap.
A well-roasted troll corpse came into view.
This one had kept regenerating even as it turned to ash mid-flight, until its breath finally gave out.
At least some form remained.
Orcs or goblins? Not even shapes left.
Vast pressure had twisted and cracked the corridors. Many paths were blocked by collapses.
Any survivors? Unlikely, but...
He had the little one use mana detection. His own range was too narrow.
She couldn't maintain multiples yet. Cautiously, she stuck close and slipped into his magical hazmat suit.
Handling it without mana leakage—pure talent. Even seasoned battle mages often lacked such finesse.
The little one paused. She pondered, tried a few things, then asked. Dead end, apparently.
"If I release mana carelessly now, won't it break the air seal around us?"
The future little one had said she hated learning magic at first.
Didn't look lacking in curiosity. Different standards, maybe.
"Right, if done normally. Mana is just mana flow, after all. So instead of drawing from the start with body mana..."
Mana detection wasn't even proper magic. More like echolocation with mana—a technique, really.
Lots of tricks to it.
The little one scowled in concentration for 10 more seconds, then nailed it. Impressive.
"Uh, um. More survivors than I thought."
"How many?"
"Twelve... or so?"
That was fewer than expected, actually.
The little one, seeing the devastation, seemed amazed anyone survived at all.
The firepower had exceeded predictions a bit.
Then, as if on cue, a detection pinged back from their side.
The attitude screamed they'd pinpointed who caused this mess.
Emperor's Guard, right.
Balanced across Greenskin races for interspecies politics—even dim Greenskins had that much.
First up.
Bam!
An ogre charged in.
The wall's reinforcement magic, already weakened from the overload and blast, shattered.
Big even for an ogre. Nearly troll-sized.
The little one bolted. He'd told her to stay back during fights.
I didn't bother blocking the initial steel club swing.
A full swing punch. Mana visibly gathered at the fist's end.
Spell activation speed not lagging behind high-level warriors.
A martial mage's spells, unless attributed, were neutral-element.
Pure mana explosion translated to physical impact.
A directed blast toward the foe met the ogre's club.
A boom echoed. I was pushed back decently. Pure strength couldn't match that mass.
The ogre didn't budge and pressed the attack.
But it was in deep trouble.
The blow had vaporized its protective barrier—like a spacesuit tearing in vacuum.
Skin blistering from burns. It held its breath—visible.
Retreating, I unleashed a few more blasts.
The ogre showed no will to live. It aimed to crush me and die together.
A dream that'd never happen.
The vigorous motion broke my protective magic. But a bit of burning? No impact.
The ogre finally clutched its throat and collapsed. Couldn't hold the breath. Lungs searing, body igniting from within.
The fallen ogre's body warped in the heat.
The little one pinged mana detection again.
The other Emperor's Guard survivors were rapidly retreating.
Situation clear.
Sitting on the throne for the first time didn't feel all that alien.
Not much different from a strategy sim game.
Except the units didn't obey perfectly.
The God of War knew unearthing this ruin was key to dominating this server.
Prime mission objective.
So they'd been watching.
Wary another Exile who'd tormented them endlessly might show.
That ogre came on divine orders to scout, test if it could kill me.
Struggling, so it'd awaken the sealed ancient warriors first.
"Can't let that happen."
Wonder how shocked the God of War was seeing my face through the ogre's eyes.
[The God of Nature says the God of War was spoken to but did not respond.]
"Seems pretty pissed?"
[The God of Nature says the Goddess of Chaos is currently teasing the God of War mercilessly.]
Looks like she's having a blast. Acquainted with the God of War too?
Makes sense—she knew he was a troll, and as a veteran god, connections would be inevitable.
[The God of Nature looks fondly upon the delighted Goddess of Chaos.]