Episode 780
Episode 780
Pop!
<Ogonin's Thin Mist> and <Bagrak's Instant Foresight> were cast instantly without incantations. The <Lesser Magic Storage>, which allowed the immediate casting of two stored spells of the 3rd-circle or lower, had successfully activated.
Lee Han should have been overjoyed at flawlessly executing a spell he hadn't fully mastered, but he had no time for such relief.
Behind him, the Frost Giant was in pursuit.
-...Wait, are they actually running away?
The Frost Giant shouted in disbelief.
But no matter how much the Frost Giant denied reality, the fact remained that the mages were rapidly fleeing into the distance.
-How!? Why would an honorable challenger recognized by the King flee!?
"We'll spar another time when I'm free! I'll come visit you properly!"
Lee Han shouted in a tone that sounded more like 'Let's grab a meal together sometime.'
This might have worked on Gainando or Einrogard's giants, but unfortunately, his opponent was an intelligent Frost Giant. It immediately saw through Lee Han's ploy.
-So you're running away from me now! You insolent mage—even if the King recognizes you as a worthy opponent, I refuse! I'll make you change that mindset!
Lee Han wanted to retort, but he was too busy holding his breath and running to spare the effort.
Fortunately, Ogonin's Thin Mist was enveloping Lee Han and his friends, obstructing the enemy's vision—otherwise, the situation would have been far more dangerous.
"Gainando! To the left! Princess! To the right! By my command... freeze!"
With the incantation, <Pengerin's Frost Element Doppelganger> shot forth.
The abundant frost elemental energy in the surroundings gave Lee Han some mental breathing room. For a moment, he had the intuition that he could create another doppelganger.
"By my command, freeze!"
'Thank goodness it's the Ice Void Realm!'
He wasn't sure if this counted as an advantage, but at least it was something.
-Hmph!
The Frost Giant let out an indignant snort, bent its waist, and leaped forward.
Then, it began bulldozing its way down the slope with sheer brute force. Its strategy was to devastate everything in its path, regardless of illusions or doppelgangers disrupting its vision.
It was simple-minded but undeniably effective. Watching this, Lee Han clicked his tongue as he gathered mana for his next spell.
'Should I cancel and block?'
If he canceled the spell he was preparing now, he'd be ceding the initiative to the Frost Giant again.
But he couldn't just let it close the distance so quickly...
"Go! Cut off its path!"
"!"
Lee Han was startled by Gainando's incantation.
Gainando, who had been keeping his distance while fleeing, must have sensed the urgency and joined in. Seeing the large undead summon and corrosive poison he summoned, it was clear he intended to destroy part of the icy slope.
The Frost Giant had formidable physical prowess, but that also meant it carried significant weight.
Though the thick, iceberg-formed slope looked sturdy, once a crack formed, even a minor impact could destabilize it.
"Faster! Faster!"
Gainando frantically issued commands.
Normally, bombarding a contracted undead summon with such aggressive orders in succession could provoke rebellion later, but right now, Gainando couldn't care less.
'Even used my expensive penguin-hunting poison, and these bastards—!'
The ice-corrosive poison he had prepared for the Ice Void Realm cost as much as a week's worth of snacks.
And even after using it, the ice had barely cracked.
"Fly forth!"
"W-wahk!"
Gainando yelped in surprise as an artifact shaped like a chakram came flying toward him.
It was an artifact summoned by Adenart for support.
"Hey! What are you planning to do with that!? Summon something big, you idiot!"
Gainando flailed in frustration, thinking a mere circular weapon wouldn't accomplish much, but Adenart paid him no heed.
The power of the chakram artifact wasn't the important part.
Clang!
The potion hanging from the artifact dropped precisely and landed right on Gainando's undead summon, the Thorn Revenant.
As expected of the top student of the Alchemy School, Lee Han immediately recognized what kind of potion it was.
That was... 'An Undead Explosion Potion!'
A potent potion created by imperial alchemists during the Undead Uprising, designed to make any undead it touches explode, dealing damage to the surrounding area.
It was notoriously difficult to brew, unstable, and had a short shelf life—there was no reason to keep it unless you were exterminating undead...
'It couldn't be because of Gainando, could it?'
BOOM!
The effect was spectacular.
The Thorn Revenant—a massive undead covered in spiked armor—reacted violently to the potion and exploded on the spot.
Unable to withstand the shockwave, the icy slope they stood on began to crack and crumble. Gainando screamed.
"You! You!!"
How dare they reverse-summon his undead?!
"Have you lost your mind?!?!?!"
"W-wasn't that why you sent the undead in the first place?"
Adenart replied in a bewildered tone.
Given the time constraints, it had been impossible for Gainando's undead and poison to destroy the slope.
Naturally, she had assumed he had deployed the undead with the intention of making it explode...?
"What kind of insane Black Mage would throw their undead away expecting it to explode?!"
"While spirits might resent being reverse-summoned, they usually understand if you explain the situation—"
"Undead are different!!"
Spirits had the grace to listen to explanations even if they were forcibly sent back, but undead were inherently petty and resentful creatures—most of them were just waiting for a chance to stab their summoner in the back.
Unless you intimidated and threatened them like Lee Han did, undead were far too volatile to handle recklessly.
"Do you even know how I contracted that thing?! You... you ignorant fool who knows nothing about Black Magic!"
"!"
Adenart was so shocked that her already pale face turned ghostly white.
To be called ignorant and clueless about magic by this half-brother of hers!
"Lee Han! Tell this idiot who doesn't understand Black Magic what's what!"
But Lee Han couldn't answer.
He was in the middle of completing his spell.
"Flames, rise as a barrier and bloom!"
Whoosh!
Flames erupted from the shattered cliff slope.
This fierce blaze would undoubtedly serve as a solid barrier to keep the Frost Giants from advancing.
Adenart hesitated, about to ask, 'Should I study a bit of Black Magic?' before stopping herself.
'Isn't this... strange?'
The power of the Flame Barrier spell seemed far stronger than expected...
Even with excessive mana input, was this level of force really possible with a <Low-Tier Flame Barrier>?
"Guys, run!!"
"Huh? Why? Can't they get past it?"
Gainando asked in confusion, but he quickly realized why.
The wide-spreading flame barrier had begun expanding wildly, its range surging outward like an out-of-control wildfire.
It was moving much faster than the Frost Giants.
"D-do Flame Barriers normally attack like this...?"
"Just run!"
"O-okay!"
The three of them sprinted like mad.
Only then did Adenart realize what Lee Han had done.
He had cast <Low-Tier Flame Barrier> to form a structure over the cliff slope—then poured an insane amount of mana into it, deliberately making the spell go berserk.
While this kind of magical overload was uncontrollable even for the caster, it undeniably produced power beyond normal limits. The raging inferno surging behind them was proof.
"How... did you keep feeding mana... until it went berserk?"
Even in the midst of running, Adenart couldn't suppress her curiosity about magic.
Inducing a magical overload intentionally was extremely difficult.
"First of all, even providing the cause is difficult, and even if Wardanaz used his characteristic overflowing mana to overcharge it, maintaining the form of the magic until it went berserk is no ordinary feat either."
'Is such magical control really possible?'
Since Adenart didn't know that Lee Han had been frantically suppressing and controlling the fire element magic every time he cast it until relatively recently, she couldn't help but be astonished.
"Huh? I didn't quite catch that."
"Until it went berserk, the mana... how..."
"Let's talk about it later!"
"......"
At Lee Han's blatant evasion, Adenart couldn't help but wonder why he was acting this way...
'Is this guy deflecting because he thinks I'm scolding him right now?'
"I'm not trying to bla—"
"Challenger! Just you wait! I'll make you acknowledge me without fail. Keep our duel stored away until then!"
"...I really need to avoid frost dimensions from now on."
Ashan and Lafadell moved through the Rainforest Realm, sweating profusely.
This dimensional zone, filled with all kinds of giant plants, was humid and hot, easily exhausting the mages.
"Ugh... I think we got stuck in the hardest place..."
"...I agree."
The Summoning Magic students who joined later nodded in agreement as if to say the same.
Listing the hardships each student who fell into the Rainforest Realm endured would truly be beyond comparison.
First, Ashan had landed right next to carnivorous plants the moment he fell and had to scramble out in a panic. Had he not prepared a fire artifact, it would have been truly dangerous.
Lafadell had lost his supplies due to dimensional instability and nearly drank poisoned water while trying to secure drinking water. It was only because the Black Magic school carried antidotes that he avoided immediate disqualification.
Another student had tried to steal a giant turtle's eggs for food and was nearly buried alive in a pit, while yet another was chased by an angry pack of velociraptors and had to flee up a tree...
"The forest ends. Look over there!"
The students pointed with relieved voices.
As if signaling the end of the Rainforest Realm, the central zone of the dimension came into view.
The central zone was a massive rocky plateau shrouded in magical mist and clouds, marked as "relatively safe" on the map.
It was at least a suitable place to set up camp with the other students.
"There's Wardanaz!"
"Wardanaz! Over here!"
Spotting Wardanaz's group walking in the distance, the students cheered and fired a signal spell into the air.
Noticing the response, a spell shot up in reply from their direction. Forgetting their exhaustion, the students hurried over to join them.
"Everyone's had it rough. I didn't expect we'd regroup this quickly. Lucky us."
"Lucky? Wardanaz, do you have any idea how much we suffered?"
Lafadell spoke in a weary voice.
Considering the misfortunes they'd endured since falling into the dimension, this bit of luck wasn't nearly enough to satisfy them.
"Yeah. The Rainforest Realm has a lot of giant plants, so it must've been tough."
No sooner had Lee Han finished speaking than the students began pouring out their grievances as if in agreement.
They'd been through so much that they couldn't bear it unless they vented to Lee Han at least.
"Exactly, Wardanaz! That damn turtle kept chasing me just because I stole one egg—"
"Do you know how annoying those raptors are?"
"Thankfully, I had a fire dagger prepared, or I would've been subdued right away—"
Thanks to the first complaint, while his friends chattered, Lafadell, who had been standing quietly, looked at Gainando and asked.
Gainando was still sulking because of the reverse-summoned undead summon.
"Didn't you guys run into anything?"
"We met a frost giant and ran away."
"...How?"
"By shattering the iceberg and burning everything around us to escape, obviously..."
"......"
Lafadell was stunned.
'Th-this bastard... He waited for us to speak first on purpose...!'
Just to make Lafadell's group look like they were whining about trivial hardships!