The Fire Spirit King's Legacy

"Holy crap..."

My jaw dropped at the sight of an honest-to-goodness S-rank item. While I had seen a branch of the World Tree housed within my subspace, finding an S-rank treasure resting naturally inside an active gate was a first. The World Tree branch was undeniably invaluable—it was the very linchpin keeping our entire elixir garden flourishing—but this artifact felt entirely different in hand.

The description is brief, but the raw power radiating from it is off the charts.

Even if you scooped up every river of molten magma churning beneath this mountain, it wouldn't match the terrifying concentration of energy sealed within that core. Even now, the scalding thermal currents rising from below flowed directly into the essence. Strangely enough, while it drank in the magma's heat, it was simultaneously acting as a heavy lid, pinning down the volatile subterranean reservoir beneath it. Just as I had feared, the moment that essence was dislodged from its pedestal, the entire volcano would blow.

Taking it right now is out of the question.

What unsettled me most was the complete absence of any system warning regarding the environmental ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fallout. Was the system practically telling me to grab it and perish in the lava? Shaking my head, I turned back to regroup with the others.

"Wh-what was down there?"

Wilted by the oppressive subterranean heat, the professor rushed forward the instant he spotted me. The rest of the research party leaned in with eager eyes. When Uncle noticed my empty hands, he tilted his head in mild confusion.

"There weren't any ancient murals or forgotten inscriptions like you'd hoped," I said.

"Then what was it?"

"Only the Essence of Hwarba."

"It actually exists?! What did it look like? Did you bring it with you?" Brimming with academic frenzy, the professor fired off questions without pausing for breath. Beside him, his assistant, Proni, and my guild members leaned forward, their eyes gleaming. After all, it wasn't just any relic—it was the crystallized core of the ancient Fire Spirit King.

"It looked like a fist-sized orb of dancing flame," I answered. "Unfortunately, I couldn't bring it up."

"Why ever not?"

"Because the moment it's removed, this volcano will erupt."

"Erupt?" Proni tilted her head, her round glasses catching the ambient glow. "How could you possibly know that?"

"I could feel it. Its essence is intrinsically bound to the volcanic roots of this peak. It draws upon the mountain's magma while acting as the keystone keeping it suppressed."

"If the Essence of Hwarba is an authentic entity rather than allegorical poetry, the young man's words make complete sense," the professor chimed in, lending historical weight to my warning. "Though recorded as myth, archaic scriptures claim... the Fire Spirit King forged landmasses from molten magma to expand the terrestrial realm."

A deep pang of regret washed over the scholar's face as he spoke, clearly mourning the fact that he wouldn't be able to inspect the primordial wonder firsthand. My guild members, on the other hand, merely studied my calm expression. Knowing me, they figured I already had a scheme cooking.

"In that case, as devastating as it is, we must leave it undisturbed..." the professor sighed.

"No. Now that we know what's down there, leaving it behind isn't an option. We're taking it."

"Didn't you just insist the volcano will explode?"

"You took substantial funding from the aristocracy, didn't you? It won't be long before someone else comes along to plunder this place."

There hadn't been any high-born nobles in our expedition party—only their ruthless enforcers sent along to keep watch. That was precisely why those cutthroats had turned on the researchers earlier.

"That is... undeniably true."

"Whether those mercenaries managed to retrieve it or died trying, you'd be the one hauled before the nobles and punished for the failure, Professor."

"Mm." The professor lapsed into deep thought before giving a solemn nod. "I cannot refute that. Even though those vipers struck at us first, my testimony wouldn't carry an ounce of weight against the word of the nobility."

"There's only one clean way out."

"And that would be?"

"I'll retrieve the essence myself. But before I pull it, all of you need to evacuate as far from Mount Hwarba as your legs will carry you."

The professor's eyes went wide. "Didn't you say the mountain will erupt? Is that even humanly survivable?"

"It is for me. In fact, that's the whole point."

"What do you mean?"

"Cast aside your academic titles and live quietly elsewhere under new names. If word spreads that an unexpected volcanic cataclysm wiped out the entire expedition, no one will come looking for ghosts, will they?"

Truthfully, I could have shoved the researchers out by force and walked off with the prize regardless. Offering them an escape hatch was purely a matter of personal conscience. I had wrestled with similar thoughts back in the frozen plains. Even if these gate realms were merely dimensional echo chambers restructured by the Erosion of Mana, the people breathing in front of me felt unmistakably alive. Abandoning them to be slaughtered or hunted down by corrupt nobles left a foul taste in my mouth.

"Perhaps that is indeed our only recourse," the professor murmured, his shoulders sinking in acceptance. "And you must be the one to claim the essence. Such primordial power is far too perilous for ordinary scholars like us."

He hadn't earned his scholarly credentials for nothing; he was remarkably quick to grasp reality.

"You couldn't carry it even if you tried," I agreed with a nod. "An ordinary human would be burned to a crisp the second their skin brushed against it."

After a fleeting hesitation, the professor bowed his head respectfully. "Then I place our fates in your hands."

"Good heavens..."

Upon stepping outside the ruins, the professor had hoped to round up the auxiliary camp he had hired, but there was nobody left to rescue. The traitorous faction that had ambushed us in the depths had systematically butchered the surface camp before venturing into the ruins.

"Heartless bastards."

"How could human beings be so cruel?"

Even my hardened guildmates grimaced at the gruesome sight. It was not a scene worth lingering over, so I motioned for the group to quicken their pace. "Let's move."

We marched briskly until we had put an enormous amount of distance between ourselves and Mount Hwarba. Eventually, our retreat hit an invisible wall shimmering faintly in the midair. Unlike us, the professor and his assistants slipped straight through the dimensional partition without resistance. This was the boundary line where our paths had to part.

"Keep going," I told them. "We'll wait here."

"Will you truly be safe, young master?"

"Don't worry about us. Go."

Once the researchers dwindled into tiny specks against the horizon, Uncle leaned over with a cautious frown. "Are we really going to be all right standing here?"

"Should be fine. The gate wouldn't trap us here just to incinerate us in a script-locked explosion, right?"

"You never know with these godforsaken dungeons."

"I'll make it back before the lava reaches this far. If things get ugly, I can just stand on top of a subspace portal. Since I can maintain two at once, I'll use the second one as an umbrella to catch any flying magma."

Just in case things went completely haywire, I opened my inventory and distributed heavy-duty gas masks and heat-resistant cloaks to the rest of the team. As he strapped on his gear, Uncle snapped his fingers as if recalling something vital.

"Right! You never told us—how was that essence thing?"

"It's S-rank."

"What?! S-rank?!" Uncle roared in pure disbelief.

Minjae and Lee Shinhee whipped their heads toward me simultaneously, eyes saucer-wide.

"Are you serious?"

"An actual S-rank artifact?!"

"Yeah. It's not a forged weapon or an armor piece, and the system description was a bit vague, but the rank was unmistakable."

"Holy hell..."

"Once I haul it out, you can all take a look," I said with a smirk.

Leaving my shell-shocked companions to process the news, I whistled toward Yongyong, who had been lazily sunning himself nearby. "Oh, by the way, I'm taking Yongyong with me."

"You're taking Yongyong?" Uncle asked.

"I'm going to ride him back out once I grab the essence. No matter how fast my legs are, outrunning an exploding supervolcano on foot isn't something I care to practice."

"Makes sense. There aren't any hostiles left around here anyway, so take him."

Minjae puffed out his chest and raised a fist. "Even if an enemy ambush shows up, leave it to me! I'll hold the line!"

"Hey, you little brat. Even without Yongyong, I'm still the vanguard of this guild."

"Aren't your combat skills completely sealed in this gate, Uncle?"

Uncle wilted instantly at Minjae's blunt counter. "Well... that might be true, but I still have my raw physical stats, don't I?!"

"I'll protect you with everything I've got, Uncle!"

"I said I'm fine, you damn punk!"

"There's no shame in relying on the youth!"

Leaving the two of them to their usual bickering, I swung myself onto Yongyong's broad back. As I settled into place, Lee Shinhee approached with gentle concern softening her features.

"Please be careful. I've never experienced an active eruption either, but one triggered by magical phenomena will likely be far more destructive than anything on Earth."

She wasn't wrong. This was the primordial resting ground of an ancient Fire Spirit King; the catastrophic fallout would be leagues beyond any natural disaster.

"I've got Leap and my Amulet of Protection, so I'll manage."

"I trust you," she whispered, raising her hands to cast another sequence of high-grade protective and restorative buffs over me. A surge of crisp, invigorating vitality washed through my veins, sharpening my focus. "If things look truly dangerous on your end, don't hesitate to tear your escape scroll."

"Understood!"

With a powerful beat of his wings, Yongyong took to the sky, carving a fiery trail back toward the ruins. Flying cut the grueling trek down to mere minutes. While I had ridden Yongyong on plenty of test flights, soaring through the airspace of an active gate was a brand-new thrill.

Man... Uncle was hoarding all this fun for himself this whole time?

Krrr-krrr!

As the searing volcanic drafts grew thicker, Yongyong let out a contented, rumbling purr. In all the time I had raised him, I had never seen him this ecstatic. I had already installed a high-output magic heater inside the subspace for his enclosure, but seeing his sheer joy in this sweltering heat made me realize I needed to splurge on an even bigger model.

"We're here. Drop me off right by that ridge."

Before I knew it, the jagged entrance to the ruins came into view. Leaping down, I retraced our earlier path through the subterranean corridors, extending my spatial awareness outward like an invisible net. The underground complex was far deeper and more winding than it had felt on our initial descent. Considering that the Essence of Hwarba rested virtually at the molten core of the mountain, sprinting through these twisting tunnels on foot after the eruption triggered would be cutting it dangerously close. I had to map out the absolute shortest vector of retreat.

"Wait a second..."

As I descended past an ancient cross-section of masonry, my spatial perception pinged a thin ceiling of bedrock directly above. If I triggered Leap at this precise coordinate, I could bypass thirty meters of solid basalt and phase straight onto the mountain's outer ridge. While it wasn't right next to the innermost altar, shaving off half the return trek was more than enough. I immediately carved a glowing spatial anchor into the rock face. In a panicked sprint through collapsing rubble, losing one's bearings was a death sentence.

Standing once again before the molten chasm, I locked eyes with the Essence of Hwarba.

"Phew."

I couldn't help letting out a shaky breath. That ominous warning from earlier was still ringing in my head.

—Any unqualified individual who touches it risks catastrophic injury or death.

The part about being 'unqualified' was what really set my teeth on edge. There was no guarantee the system considered me worthy. Chunbae had been uncharacteristically hesitant on the matter as well. Still, if worst came to absolute worst, I could always dump the damn thing into my subspace the microsecond my skin started blistering.

Wuuuung—

Just in case, I snapped open a miniature subspace rift hovering inches from my right forearm. The moment agonizing pain flared, I was pitching the core straight into the void. Steeling my nerves, I reached out and pressed my bare palm against the blazing heart of the Essence of Hwarba.

—...Who disturbs my slumber?

There was no blinding flash of agony. Instead, a solemn, resonant voice reverberated straight through my consciousness. It was an eerie, familiar sensation—uncannily similar to the mental presence of the Evil God I had confronted beneath Mount Cheongwan.

"Are you Hwarba?" I asked within my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mind.

—I am. And who stands before me?

"Han Hye. An Awakener from a world currently fighting for its life against the Erosion of Mana."

—...

Hwarba fell completely silent. I had deliberately led with that truth because this primordial spirit was fundamentally different from that grotesque, desecrated deity. The ancient scriptures had made it clear: Hwarba was a warrior who had incinerated his own world's mana to the bitter end to resist the creeping corruption. If those legends were true, identifying myself as a fellow resister was far more likely to win his goodwill than introducing myself as some nameless kid.

—I see. You are an empowered mortal hailing from another endangered sphere?

Thankfully, the gambit paid off. His tone softened, carrying an archaic warmth that lacked the earlier hostility.

"An empowered mortal? If you mean an Awakener, then yes."

—...Ah. Then it is as I feared. If even my undying flames were extinguished, my homeland must have been utterly consumed.

"What exactly is the Erosion of Mana?" I pressed urgently, capitalizing on his receptive mood. "Can you tell me what we're truly up against?"

Unlike the twisted Evil God, this fallen Spirit King might actually possess the answers humanity so desperately needed.

—Who can say? It is simply an inexorable calamity that devours reality itself. Even I cannot fathom its absolute truth. Indeed, even these lingering embers of my memory may be fractured and incomplete.

"Is that so..."

—Regardless, my final legacy shall become your boon. It is a stroke of fortune that you possess the minimum threshold required to receive it.

"The minimum threshold?" What was he talking about?

—I sense a dormant solar radiance coursing through your vessels. You have previously consumed an essence of solar purity, have you not? Though its scale is modest, it has tempered your flesh to withstand the weight of my flames.

The Sun Flower flashed through my mind. Of all the fire-aspected panaceas I had ingested throughout my awakening, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Sun Flower was by far the supreme elixir.

—You cannot inherit the entirety of my mantle, but you may claim a worthy fragment. What a pity. Had your natural affinity for the flame been greater, you could have inherited so much more.

At that moment, the blazing core of the Essence of Hwarba dissolved into swirling streams of molten light, coiling gracefully around my right hand. A surging tide of blistering heat flooded through my skin.

It was white-hot, yet miraculously painless. Guided by Hwarba's benevolent consciousness, the primordial fire flowed into my meridians with astonishing gentleness.

—May this ember grant you the strength to resist the encroaching Erosion. Though whether a mortal realm can truly withstand the inevitable... remains to be seen.

"...Is the calamity really that absolute?"

—From what remains of my scattered memories, yes. Even so, mortal... struggle. Struggle with every breath, for struggle is the sacred instinct of all living things. Who knows what dawn awaits at the end of the blood-soaked road?

"I intend to," I answered with unwavering resolve.

Whether Chunbae kept secrets because he judged me unready or because his ancient programming forbade him from speaking, I wasn't about to roll over and wait for death. I already had a grim inkling of what the Erosion meant. But I wasn't the kind of person who collapsed under the weight of harsh truths. If I were that fragile, I would have starved to death on the cold pavement as a penniless orphan years ago.

—Take one final piece of counsel: the moment this power settles, run. Run with all your might if you wish to see ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tomorrow. What awakens behind you is far worse than a simple volcanic eruption.

With those parting words, Hwarba's divine presence dissolved into the ether. In his place, the swirling flame condensed into my marrow, flooding my core with an ocean of fierce, untamed heat.

Fire Resistance leaped by three entire levels at once? And I gained an A-rank offensive skill on top of it?

My jaw dropped in sheer astonishment, but the notifications weren't finished.

What?!