Claiming the Eternal Flame
I stomped down hard on the writhing soldier’s chest with a crunch.
“Is this bastard the last one?”
Phew.
This is fucking exhausting.
I expanded my senses through the Primordial Dragon Heart, but nothing else registered.
–Didn’t you miss one just a moment ago?
“I can detect them if they have their feet planted on the ground.”
You keep insisting I was unlucky.
I had spread my mana several times, yet nothing triggered. It really was over now.
I collapsed flat on my back right where I stood.
Ugh.
So damn tired.
“This is nice and toasty. I like it.”
It felt exactly like lying spread-eagled in a jjimjilbang.
“You pushed yourself rather hard.”
Nyx had manifested and now sat primly beside me.
“Don’t even talk about it.”
First Ariel, now an entire division of burning soldiers.
My luck really was dogshit.
Anything strong enough to slaughter a saint-dragon-class beast shouldn’t be something I had to trade blows with. Lately it felt like I was only ever walking a path of thorns.
“Consider the fortune you have seized in your grasp.”
“It’s all thanks to the regression perks, you know?”
“Do you truly believe acquiring an unforeseen boon is not luck?”
Ugh.
Direct hit. Please stop.
“Are you hurting somewhere? Shall I offer my lap as a pillow?”
“I’m fine.”
It wasn’t like giving medicine after poison.
Sigh.
Still lying down, I checked the skill I had gained from devouring the Ten-Thousand-Man General’s essence.
Burning Stigma
Grade: ★★★★
Type: Active
When striking a target with your bare body, a flame brand is engraved upon them.
The brand stacks up to 10 times. When a fire-attribute attack lands, it deals up to 500% damage.
A four-star skill. The effect resembled the Flame Tracking that had sealed off escape routes, yet it was slightly different.
“Quite the drastic ability.”
“I put it to good use in my previous life too.”
“You were never particularly friendly with magic back then, yet you handled fire attributes remarkably well.”
“I just enchanted my aura blade with support magic.”
The bare-body restriction wasn’t much of a penalty. I could prepare a means to grant fire attributes just like before.
After stacking ten brands, I could finish them off with Solar Explosion or Ignis.
“This chance meeting has benefited you as well.”
“If I get any more benefits I might actually drop dead.”
“Set your worries aside. Am I not here with you?”
“Your help is so overwhelming I’m actually crying. Sob, sob.”
Perhaps the emotion was too much; tears literally poured from my mouth like a waterfall.
After running into that division-sized force, I gave up on flying.
Walking on the ground let me read the ley-line flows and avoid danger, but while flying I couldn’t detect the sudden bursts of flame energy.
My pace had slowed a little, but my bloated stats still let me cross the Land of Fire at high speed.
“Grrrk.”
“Annoying. Just come at me all at once.”
Devouring the essence of the Burning Soldier – Thousand-Man General.
Essence Devoured: 100%
Skill – Burning Hand has been added.
Burning Hand
Grade: ★★★
Type: Active
Grants fire attribute to your hands. Can be condensed to the limit and detonated.
Even a corps-sized force couldn’t stand against me anymore. I had already ground through over thirty thousand division-level troops; a mere thousand was nothing.
–This essence seems to pair excellently with the Ten-Thousand-Man General’s ability.
“That’s how I used it in my previous life too.”
The number of options available to me had grown considerably.
The concept of condensing mana and detonating it was quite useful. If I fused it with hand-related abilities through Fusion Qigong, I was sure a decent skill would emerge.
I covered fifty kilometers in less than a day and finally reached the entrance of Mount Saint Helens, which endlessly spewed red lava.
“If I hadn’t run into that division I would’ve gotten here much faster.”
–You gained an outstanding essence. Why are you pouting?
“Hardship is still hardship.”
–The greater the hardship, the greater the reward.
Since when did you start preaching the gospel of grit and effort?
–But will this be all right? Those children do not seem particularly pleased by their guest’s visit.
The mountain peak continuously vomited lava. Between the acrid smoke, burning monstrous birds shrieked and screamed.
Not a single tree grew on the slopes. Charging up without a plan would turn me into their lunchbox.
“I’m not going that way.”
–Is the volcano not your destination?
“There’s more than one path, you know.”
The demonic-realm version of Mount Saint Helens had mutated beyond recognition. Enormous ley-line energy kept tearing and resealing the mountain, creating numerous tunnels leading inside.
–I thought you would insist on charging straight in to obtain the essence.
Then get torn apart letter by letter as Yu Jin-ho?
No thanks. There were so many monstrous birds that even splitting every consonant and vowel wouldn’t be enough.
I easily located a side path leading to the volcano.
–Do you remember this route as well?
“Not in that much detail.”
Regression isn’t omnipotent.
There were over a hundred tunnels and side paths around Mount Saint Helens. The minor downside was that they weren’t guaranteed to be safe.
If one collapsed, I could always use Dig to escape. Whatever.
–You speak of such ominous things so casually.
I ignored the goddess’s grumbling and stepped into the side tunnel where lava flowed.
Squelch. Squelch.
Even the bright-yellow lava couldn’t penetrate the True Dragon Armor.
Heh.
Lava was actually the weakest thing in a volcano. I didn’t have to worry about the path being cut off midway.
I had amplified Ultrasound several times to map out the interior structure. It had been a while since I made solo use of the Big Bat’s essence.
How far had I traveled upstream along the river of lava?
–Oh. Such abundant fire energy.
Nyx let out a sigh of admiration.
At the end of the path, bubbling lava surged upward endlessly. I had arrived at the hottest place in the entire region—the very source of the Land of Fire.
Heat Lv 132
Burn Lv 117
Hisssss!
The True Dragon Armor was melting.
Even the ultimate skin-type essence that absorbed siege-weapon-level flames and blocked heat could not endure in front of the concentrated fire essence filling the open-ceiling space.
“I won’t last long.”
I had reached Mount Saint Helens earlier than in my previous life. I thought I had met the entry conditions, but holding on was still difficult.
–Are you all right?
“For now. Let’s get what we need and leave quickly.”
I plunged my hand deep into the bubbling lava at the ley-line eruption point.
“Ugh.”
It was hot.
What boiled at the bottom of the volcano was no ordinary lava. Mere thousand-degree heat could never melt True Dragon Armor. This was a crystallized mass containing pure fire essence—the Eternal Flame that sustained the Land of Fire.
Activating Devour.
Grrrrk.
I’d been suffering plenty lately—why did my body have to hurt so much on top of it?
The hand submerged in magma had gone completely numb from the heat. The fiery energy rising from the point of contact circulated through my entire body, roasting every inch of me evenly.
–Partner.
Nyx’s worried voice called out, but I shook my head.
I had to devour the essence quickly so the pain of my whole body burning would end.
Devoured the source of the Land of Fire.
Essence Devoured: 2.5% → 5.3% → 7.1%…….
Essence fully devoured.
Skill – Eternal Flame has been added.
Eternal Flame
Grade: 5-star
Type: Passive
The first flame that bloomed alongside the birth of the world.
It never extinguishes, burns for eternity, and incinerates all that is impure.
*Maintains peak condition at all times.
*All stats increased by 10%.
The moment I absorbed the essence I yanked my hand out. Even though Ultra Regeneration kept restoring it, the hand had melted beyond recognition. The scales covering my body repeatedly melted and reformed.
–You worked hard.
“Extremely hard. Absolutely.”
Thrusting your hand into a pit of fire while fully conscious wasn’t easy, regeneration or not. Enduring that kind of pain yourself was no simple matter.
The grotesquely twisted hand refused to return to normal even under continuous use of Ultra Regeneration. The high heat and flames had warped it beyond modern science’s ability to restore.
“This won’t do. Simple recovery won’t solve it.”
–Then what will you do?
“Like this.”
Crackle!
I sliced off my right hand with the aura blade residing in my left. The grotesquely swollen hand fell into the lava with a wet plop.
A portion of my melted flesh vanished amid acrid smoke.
Activating Ultra Regeneration.
Bone, muscle, and skin grew over the severed wrist. My right hand returned in a single second.
Nyx let out a short sigh.
–It is an excellent option, yet I still do not understand why acquiring it requires such conditions.
“The spec-up process doesn’t end there.”
The first flame that appeared with the birth of the world. To forge the essences even stronger, the Eternal Flame was necessary.
When altering the body, exposing it to the Eternal Flame raised both efficiency and stability.
Of course, it couldn’t be used for body alteration without any conditions. I had to devour the essences I mentioned earlier before I could safely wield the Eternal Flame.
The Brazier of Extinguished Ashes resonates with the source of the Land of Fire.
Due to the synergy effect, impurities generated during the devouring process are burned away, granting additional stat increases.
Huh?
What kind of effect was this?
The Brazier of Extinguished Ashes was a fake holy relic sent by the Sinister—the villains secretly operating in the world of the gods. In my previous life it had caused all sorts of incidents. In this second life I had used the Black Network’s help to collect every last one and devoured them.
I never dreamed it would resonate with the Eternal Flame.
“An additional effect on top of devouring.”
I had thought I finished all the preparations before descending into the Tower’s basement. Apparently there was still one piece left.
Since it was something I had never experienced before my regression, I was even more pleased.
–Have you obtained everything you came for?
“For now.”
There were still things left to take—the legion commander’s essence, the monstrous birds’ essences, and so on—but my current ability made it too dangerous. I would come back later.
The moment I finished restoring my hand completely and was about to leave, something abruptly appeared from the open volcanic peak.
Thump— Thump—
Instinct has detected danger.
Instinct has detected danger.
The user’s emotions are fluctuating violently.
Cold Blood skill has activated. A calm mind is maintained.
A powerful presence interferes. Cold Blood is cancelled.
A massive object blocked the peak. Looking closely, I could see eyes, a nose, and a mouth. A face shaped like a human’s—only the face itself was over a hundred meters tall—stared straight at me.
–Partner. I will buy you time. Retreat immediately.
“No. It’s fine.”
I shook my head.
There was no way I wouldn’t recognize the colossal being that had just poked its face out from the peak.
The monster that had burned the entire western United States in my first round. The master of the demonic realm created by replicating Surtr—the Apocalypse Giant.
It possessed power on par with a group of Challenger-rank players and rivaled the boss monsters of the 90th-floor trials. If I fought it, I wouldn’t last ten seconds.
The giant stared down at me for a long time before vanishing as suddenly as it had appeared.
“……The Apocalypse Giant doesn’t bother attacking first.”
–So that is why you remained calm.
Calm?
If I had been calm, the Cold Blood activation wouldn’t have been cancelled. Even though I knew it with my head, I couldn’t stop my heart from shrinking before that overwhelming presence.
Sigh.
First a surprise attack from division-level troops, then running into the Apocalypse Giant. If I stayed in the Land of Fire any longer my heart would probably give out from sheer terror.
“Let’s go home.”
–I agree.
The goddess immediately approved of my suggestion.