Chapter 226: Breaking the Record (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 226: Breaking the Record (2)
A scorching wind blasted us the moment we stepped into the dungeon.
Befitting the lair of Fire Lizards wreathed in intense flames, the environment was unbearably hot.
This environment was one of the factors that slowed down a dungeon conquest.
It was so hot that even the slightest movement made you sweat buckets and tire out quickly.
Especially for…
“Gasp, gasp…!”
For the tankers, clad head to toe in heavy metal, it was nothing short of hell.
Couldn't be helped.
「Chilling Touch.」
I shaped a mass of cold air into the form of my hand and pushed it inside the tanker's armor.
“Uwaaaah…?!”
I mean… I get how you feel, but you don't have to make sounds like that.
“Feeling a bit better now?”
“Huh? Ah, yes! Thank you…?”
“It was nothing.”
With the party members having recovered some of their stamina, we moved deeper into the dungeon.
The archer, who had the best eyesight among us, gave the signal to stop.
“Four Fire Lizards, fifty meters ahead.”
Beyond the settled darkness, I could clearly sense their presence.
I focused on them and immediately drew up my mana.
In this cave filled with heat, I scraped together every last bit of mana containing the faintest trace of moisture.
「Ice Spear.」
Crack!
Four spears, formed by freezing the mana I had gathered.
I shot one toward each of the four presences I could feel.
Swoosh!
The four spears of ice flew forward, cleanly erasing the surrounding heat as they went.
Soon, four impact sounds followed.
Pshk! Pshk! Pshk! Pshk!
Kieeeeh…!
Kishishishi!
And then, the death throes of the Fire Lizards, their necks pierced by the ice spears.
The archer, who had watched it all unfold, swallowed dryly and parted his lips.
“…Situation clear.”
Perhaps because this same scene had repeated itself several times already, the party members weren't particularly surprised.
“Uh… let’s start harvesting the byproducts right away.”
The two melee dealers and the archer, everyone except me and the healer, headed toward the Fire Lizards' corpses.
The part to be harvested was the mane on the back of the Fire Lizard's neck.
It had excellent fire resistance, making it a versatile material for crafting armor or for mages' research, so it sold for a pretty high price.
How much was it per 100 grams again?
The market price fluctuated a bit with demand, but I think it was around 300,000 won.
If I do a rough calculation of our profits from this dungeon…
“Excuse me, Mage?”
While I was busy calculating, the healer, who had been stealing glances at me, struck up a conversation.
It seemed she had something she was curious about.
“Um… I have a question, if you don’t mind me asking…”
“Go ahead.”
A faint smile appeared on the healer's lips.
“From what I understand, in a place like this where the fire energy is so strong, the use of ice magic is supposed to be severely restricted…”
“That's generally true, yes.”
Fire, water, wind, earth, and so on. Mana is composed of the particles of the various elements that make up this world.
The composition of these particles in the mana differs slightly from place to place.
For example, what about a cave like this one, where scorching winds blow from all directions?
It might sound obvious, but this place has the highest concentration of fire element particles.
That's why the environment here is so hot in the first place.
The second most abundant are earth element particles.
Since the surroundings are made up entirely of hard rock and soil, this is also natural.
Conversely, the scarcest are water element particles.
It's common sense that water would dry up and disappear in a place blasted by hot winds, right?
Magic is the principle of using one's own mana as a power source to extract the necessary elemental particles from the ambient mana and manifest a supernatural phenomenon.
If there are few water element particles nearby, you have to draw them from a much wider area, which consumes more mana and significantly lowers the spell's success rate.
“But, um… Mage Kim Do-jin, you don’t seem to be having any trouble at all.”
The healer seemed puzzled by how easily I was handling ice magic under such adverse conditions.
She'd been staring at me so intently since the start of the dungeon. So this is what she wanted to ask.
When I paused for a moment, the healer's face filled with alarm, and she waved her hands dismissively.
“Oh, if my question was out of line, I apologize.”
“No, it’s not that…”
I'm still not used to reactions like this.
The moment I hesitate, they jump to the conclusion that I'm offended and shrink back. Sheesh.
“You can just think of it as me being a little more unique than others.”
“Ah, I… see.”
That is, in fact, the reason.
This body is extremely sensitive to mana, allowing it to draw in elemental particles from an incomparably vast range with far less mana than others.
That's why I can use ice magic so easily even in an environment like this.
Ah, but if you were to ask if there's no risk at all, that wouldn't be true either.
Since the water element particles are so scarce, I do have to use a bit more mana than usual to compensate.
Of course, even then, it's just a drop in the bucket compared to what others would need.
Just as our conversation was ending, the party members who had left to harvest returned.
“Alright, let’s get moving again!”
If we want to clear this dungeon in two and a half hours, we have to pick up the pace.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
About two hours after we began the dungeon conquest.
We finally reached the end of the Fire Lizard's lair.
All that remained was to take down the boss.
The boss here was a giant Fire Lizard, roughly ten times the size of the others.
Its name was Salamandra.
Thanks to its ferocious flames, which were incomparable to a regular Fire Lizard's, it was a tricky boss that couldn't be meaningfully damaged by ordinary ice magic.
“Um… Mage. For this one, maybe you should coordinate with us…”
The tanker, also concerned about that, made the suggestion.
To ease his worries, I gave him a cheerful smile and shook my head.
“Don't worry, Tanker.”
As if I'd use ordinary magic on a special monster.
“I have a trump card prepared.”
“Ah… I see.”
The tanker nodded, his expression slightly dubious.
He looks completely unconvinced.
“If my trump card fails, I'll coordinate with the rest of you.”
Only after hearing that addition did the tanker's faintly furrowed brow relax.
“Then let's go.”
I immediately pushed open the door to the boss room.
Through the gradually opening doorway, I could see a massive flame—no, a giant lizard wreathed in massive flames.
Krrrrraaaaaaa-!
A roar that echoed thunderously through the vast space pierced my ears.
It was a deafening, bloodthirsty sound that would have paralyzed a low-ranked Hunter with fear.
Before it goes on a rampage, shall I pull out my trump card?
I reached a hand inside my robe and shook it, and a squishy something clung to my fingers as if it had been waiting.
That's right. The trump card I'd prepared was my pet… no, my pet slime, Kkamseul-i.
Of course, Kkamseul-i itself wasn't the trump card.
“Kkamseul-i, transform into a handle.”
The shape of Kkamseul-i, which had been resting on my palm, slowly changed, its texture altering as well.
From a squishy lump of slime into something incredibly hard.
Gripping the transformed creature, I extended my hand out from my robe.
Seeing this, the healer and the archer tilted their heads in confusion.
“A handle…?”
The form Kkamseul-i had taken was a sword hilt.
I planned to cut down that Fire Lizard with this.
How can I cut anything with just a hilt, you ask?
Don't you worry.
The blade is about to be made.
“Hoo…”
I released an amount of mana into my surroundings that was incomparable to anything before.
Simultaneously, I scraped together every faint particle of the water element from places too far to be seen, concentrated them in one spot, and froze them.
K-k-k-crack! Crack!
As the water froze, its volume increased exponentially.
I forcibly compressed it again and again, shaping the ice that kept jutting out with a loud noise.
Now, if I just extend this into the shape of a thin blade above the hilt in my hand…
Shhh-ing!
With a sound completely different from before, a wave of cold air swirled out into the surroundings.
Whoooosh!
It spread out so far that it even put the Salamandra, which was stomping its feet and getting into a battle stance, on high alert.
Krrrrrarak!
A fierce roar, as if to shake off the sudden sense of foreboding.
At the same time, a torrent of flame erupted from its maw.
Fwoooosh!
I swung the sword toward the ferocious flames, which looked like they would do far more than just burn me if they hit.
The northern blizzard that raged along the sword's trajectory not only swallowed the creature's flames but also froze its snout solid as it was breathing fire.
Krak… Kahak!
Its snout frozen shut, the beast couldn't even let out a roar.
I immediately approached it and swung my sword once more.
This was no simple strike.
It was the move of Boris, the hero who had saved Russia from crisis time and time again.
I perfectly replicated the movement he used to freeze hundreds of Russian mafiosos who had risen up to seize power, all with a single sword strike.
「Snow Bringer.」
A frigid wind, incomparable to the one before, engulfed the Salamandra's massive body.
K-k-k-krack!
The beast was trapped within a giant block of ice.
The attack wasn't over yet.
A continuous barrage of blade-like winds shattered the massive block of ice into tiny pieces.
Along with the hulking body of the Salamandra trapped within.
Thud! Thud!
Chunks of ice containing the creature's remains fell to the floor.
Looking at the result, I couldn't help but be impressed.
“Hah… This has to be at least A-rank, if not higher, right?”
This was powerful enough to be considered the hidden ultimate skill of an A-rank Hunter.
It consumed a lot of mana, but I was feeling satisfied with its outstanding power when...
『Hmph… How utterly crude.』
“……?”
An unknown voice echoed out.
Tracing the voice to its source, I was shocked to find it was coming from the transparent blade extending from the hilt.
『With such pathetic power, you dare claim to have used me, boy?』
“Uh, um.”
It seemed something utterly absurd had just happened.