36 – Overflow – 3

Light embraced all things, promoted growth, dispelled darkness, and delivered warmth.

Salvation, and sometimes, even God.

And light, symbolizing the starting point of all things.

Just as so many meanings were nested within the concept of light, fire also possessed countless meanings.

Since humans acquired fire and established civilization for the first time, it could be seen as the origin of human society; and since fire could not be separated from any of human productive activities, it could also be viewed as a symbol of creation.

“Ur.”

—Kiiiiit!

However, what everyone first thought of when it came to fire was, of course.

Destruction and annihilation.

—Fwoosh!

—Boom!

The fireball that landed right in the center of the crowd of humans caused a violent explosion, first burning to death the archer who had shot an arrow at Gi-jun’s head.

—You have obtained 512 points.

—Updating civilization information.

—You have obtained 512 points.

—Updating civilization information.

The red flames, blazing as brightly as the sun, scattered in all directions, inflicting severe injuries on several nearby people.

Gi-jun continuously fired bullets of flame created by overlapping light mana and Ur’s spirit power in his outstretched right hand, piercing the legs of the humans fleeing to escape the fire.

“Aaargh!”

“I-I was wrong, I was wrong! Please spare my life, just think of it as saving us human worms once— Gwaaah!”

“Run—!”

Was there no one who tried to resist?

However, whether they shot arrows, threw daggers, swung weapons infused and strengthened with mana, blocked with shields, or struggled to escape the attacks using skills that temporarily increased their speed—

they were all slower and weaker than the flame bullets Gi-jun fired.

—Kiiiii!

Ur, having eaten his fill of spiritual power, emitted fire spirit power and let out a cry that only Gi-jun could hear.

Everything about the flames Gi-jun created was far too fast and strong to be considered a Rare-grade spirit art.

The speed was due to him having spent ten years synchronizing with the Spirit of Light, Lucy, and learning how to draw out and control a partner’s spirit power, in addition to the presence of Salutaris, the mana circulation method that constantly circulated by drawing in both mana and spiritual power.

The strength was because his spiritual power, which had reached the Legendary grade, and his light mana, which had also reached the Legendary grade, had an incredibly good compatibility with the fire spirit power.

To add one more thing, it was also thanks to the half-mask he was wearing, which increased flame attack power by 20%.

—Whoosh, fwoosh!

“R-Run…”

“It’s too late, we messed with the wrong—”

“Ah, Boss.”

Gi-jun did not personally take the lives of anyone except the archer who had directly sniped at him.

However, that did not mean he had gone out of his way to keep them alive; rather, it meant he had focused on quickly neutralizing the mobility of all the bandits.

Naturally, casualties piled up one after another, and even those who barely survived would find it difficult to live a normal life in the future because their wounds were too severe.

“You guys.”

Gi-jun, who had pierced the lower body of every single one of them with flame bullets so they could not escape, quickly identified the leader among the humans crawling on the ground and asked.

“Why did you attack?”

“Just kill me!”

“Fine.”

Gi-jun fired a flame bullet, piercing through his head.

—You have obtained 1,875 points.

—You have obtained 1,875 points.

The other humans, who had been desperately trying to gauge Gi-jun’s strength even while crawling on the ground, stopped thinking altogether as they watched their leader—who possessed a whopping Rare-grade endurance—get pierced and die instantly from a flame lightly shot by the enemy.

They had realized the fact that he was an opponent they could not face, no matter what they did.

“Next. Why did you attack?”

“T-That…!”

Seeing Gi-jun’s finger, from which a heat haze rose, pointing at him, the man stammered and squirmed.

All the surrounding humans turned to look at him, exerting silent pressure, but when the forehead of one of them was pierced, everyone quickly turned their gazes away again.

The man opened his mouth.

“I-If I speak, will you spare my life?”

This meant they had not attacked simply because they wanted to commit banditry.

Gi-jun’s eyes flashed, but one guy managed to shout in a sharp voice to try and stop him.

“Paul!”

“Quiet.”

Another person’s head exploded.

Although nothing in this world was lighter than the death of a human, the peculiar atmosphere surrounding the masked Gi-jun made it feel even more chilling.

When there was no one left to make a sound, the man said while trembling.

“It’s because we found a way to conquer an unconquered dungeon.”

“Suddenly?”

Too absurd a statement to be believed, but seeing the remaining people flinch, bite their lips, or wear harsh expressions, it seemed to be the truth after all.

And if it was conquering an unconquered dungeon… could it be the Unique-grade dungeon left uncompleted for three years that the Orc Chabambesh had mentioned earlier?

“A Unique dungeon? I heard the expedition party all died.”

“Someone made it out alive—in our clan.”

In this world, Leta, guilds and clans had slightly different meanings.

A guild could be seen as a mutual association formed on a large scale by like-minded people; while the binding force on its members was not extremely strong, it was a legal and public group that had to strictly follow discipline as long as they operated under the guild’s name.

On the other hand, a clan was a small to medium-sized group tightly knit under a single strong individual; not only was its binding force strong, but they also treated each member like family, and the master’s influence was so absolute that the operation policy was decided by a single person’s will, making it an excessively private group.

To put it a bit harshly, it was no different from a gang of thugs.

“They said a lot of sacrifices are needed. That’s why Big Sister… our leader, said that if we fill the sacrifices with the hearts of Orcs, we can conquer the dungeon…”

“Ah…”

“That bastard…!”

He had roughly expected it, but it was still a sickening story.

The bastards sighing and saying it was all over after hearing him speak were just as ridiculous.

What did they think Gi-jun would do after hearing this?

That he would kill the Orcs instead of these thugs and rip out their hearts?

Or that he would sacrifice the hearts of the humans here instead to conquer the dungeon?

Don’t make me laugh.

Gi-jun had not trained for ten years just to do something like that.

“Why Orcs? They are stronger than you guys.”

“So, if a small number of them are traveling and we attack in a group…”

“Because Big Sister hates Orcs.”

Those words came from somewhere else.

Rather than the words the guy spoke, Gi-jun’s gaze fell upon a familiarly shaped sphere held in his hand.

It looked like a grenade.

The moment he thought that, a click resounded as the safety pin was released.

“Because we were violated and lost everything to damn other races like you, you bastard! Let’s die together!”

“That crazy bastard!”

“Stop!”

—Boom!

The grenade detonated, releasing the fire explosion magic sealed within.

Of course, unlike Earth’s grenades, it was a type of consumable magic tool containing a fairly high level of sealed magic, and the casing was also made of a special metal that split into tens of thousands of fragments at the moment of explosion, sweeping the surroundings.

—Rumble…

His ears rang from the excessively loud explosion and the sound of showering shrapnel.

It was an incredible explosive force, enough to cleanly kill all the humans in the area, including the man who had been talking to Gi-jun.

Was the reason he hadn’t thrown it immediately earlier because he was waiting for a surer opportunity to kill Gi-jun?

Of course, even so, he was perfectly fine.

—Are you okay, Contractor?

—Kihit!

“I’m fine. Not a single scratch.”

There was no need to draw out Lucy’s protective shield of light.

Due to his contract with Ur, Gi-jun’s resistance to all types of flames had increased, and because [Unfailing Body Clock] also heavily corrected his resistance to all attributes, the damage that finally got through was merely the physical impact from the explosion and the rapidly flying shrapnel.

Even that, he was able to block entirely with the shield he quickly drew.

Gi-jun, who blocked and deflected all the fragments striking his entire body with Moonlight Blood Fangs using only a shield that barely covered his upper body, shook the shield to brush off the fragments embedded in it and let out a sigh.

“Still, I never imagined that kind of magic tool existed. I shouldn’t let my guard down, no matter how weak they seem.”

—You blocked all of it in an instant with a shield, yet you talk about letting your guard down…

“Jun! Are you okay!”

Just as Lucy was muttering in disbelief at Gi-jun’s words, the Orcs, who had been watching Gi-jun’s performance from behind, ran toward him in shock.

Then, seeing Gi-jun perfectly fine without a single scratch in the middle of that massive explosion, they wore expressions of disbelief just like Lucy’s.

“What a relief. As expected, Jun is indeed a truly incredible warrior.”

“Do you know what that last thing that exploded was?”

“I know. It is an item developed by a famous magic engineer who betrayed the sacred Magic Tower and turned into a black mage. It is called a mana bomb. It is very expensive. Very, very expensive.”

Chabambesh nodded repeatedly, mentioning that if they had looted it, they would have easily received hundreds of gold coins for it.

Judging by the fact that the surroundings were quiet during this explosion, it seemed that only one person had possessed a mana bomb.

One Orc looking around luckily found a coin pouch that had fallen outside the blast radius and brought it to Gi-jun.

“It seems it was blown away by the impact beforehand and remained intact.”

“Thank you.”

“I am the one who should thank you for showing us such a wonderful battle! Well, although it was too overwhelming to be called a battle.”

“Whew, it would have been nice if there was something to prove their identity. It seems there is a group running around doing dirty deeds behind the scenes…”

Gi-jun clicked his tongue as he opened the coin pouch he received from the Orc.

Since anything important would have been stored in their inventories, he hadn’t really expected much from the coin pouch, but surprisingly, it was full of gold coins.

“Are these guys idiots? Why are they carrying so much money around?”

When Gi-jun wore a puzzled expression, the Orc wore a deeply moved expression for some reason.

He was soon able to hear the reason.

“Jun, you have lived in this world for over a year, yet you have never forcibly taken another’s belongings. You are indeed an honorable warrior.”

“Explain it to me.”

“On this continent of Leta, anything taken from another summoner cannot be put into the inventory until a week has passed. The only things that can be put in are things acquired entirely by one’s own power… and results obtained in self-defense.”

This was a clause that did not exist in the tutorial.

Recalling the time he had put the items obtained from killing the fairy into his inventory before, he understood immediately.

Thinking about it, it was certainly self-defense back then as well.

When he tried putting the pouch into his inventory as a test, it was drawn in naturally; it seemed that even if the statute of limitations on the money these bandits had stolen from its previous owner had not passed, it was treated as his acquisition because Gi-jun had dealt with the bandits in self-defense.

For some reason, he felt uneasy because it seemed there would be a way to abuse this rule too.

“It is best to spend this kind of money quickly. Once we arrive at the city, I will buy drinks.”

“Ooh! Jun is not only honorable but also a jovial warrior!”

“Drinks are waiting! Let’s hurry!”

As expected, the Orcs were simple.

This was because their steps toward the small city, after cleaning up the scene, had become twice as fast compared to before.

Gi-jun chuckled and thought as he walked behind them.

How could he have known that as soon as he arrived on the continent of Leta, he would kill humans who looked similar to him, and make plans to drink with Orcs, whom he had regarded as nothing but prey during the tutorial?

Gi-jun, who smiled bitterly at the irony, suddenly recalled the words of the guy who had committed the grenade suicide attack earlier, and his expression hardened slightly.

‘Because we were violated and lost everything to damn other races like you, you bastard! Let’s die together!’

Naturally, the Orcs led by Chabambesh would not have personally caused harm to the woman who was the clan master earlier.

She might have suffered damage from other Orcs, but even so, targeting other innocent Orcs to achieve her own goals—although using the expression ‘innocent’ for Orcs felt a bit awkward to Gi-jun as well—was a clear wrong.

“I must stop them.”

The Orcs did not look back at him as he muttered quietly.

This was because they knew their place.

And that night, the opportunity to stop the clan master came much faster than Gi-jun had expected.

—Swoosh

It happened while he was lying in his tent trying to sleep after finishing a simple dinner.

Lucy, who detected something flying from very far away—at least nearly three kilometers—and falling onto the campfire, let out a sharp cry.

—Contractor! That bomb from earlier—!

“Agh!”

Gi-jun, who was deeply connected to her spiritually, grasped the entire situation the moment he woke up, ran out of the tent, and shouted.

“Ur—!”

—Kiiiiit!

At that moment, Gi-jun’s vast spiritual power, which had recovered while he was resting, flowed entirely into Ur.

Although Ur had lost almost all his power and fallen to the Rare grade due to sleeping for a long time after suffering deep wounds, Gi-jun’s vast spiritual power succeeded in temporarily calling back the authority of the creature’s heyday from long ago.

That was none other than the domination of all flames.

—Roar—!

At the moment the mana bomb that fell onto the campfire was about to trigger a terrible explosion with a roaring sound—

Ur controlled all the flames generated by the explosion, spinning them violently on the spot—holding and melting all the bomb fragments that were trying to burst outward.

A fierce tornado of flames rose around the campfire.

There was an accident where the hair of the Orc standing guard in front of the fire was completely singed and he sat down panting in shock, but conversely, that was all.

“Lucy!”

—I’ve already pinpointed them! Fire cat, synchronize!

—Kiiit!

Ur, who had been dazed and unable to pull himself together like a cat hugging catnip after receiving all of Gi-jun’s massive spiritual power, hurriedly linked his mind with hers at Lucy’s loud voice.

With that, having succeeded in accurately pinpointing the location of the target who had thrown the mana bomb from three kilometers away aiming for Gi-jun’s party, Ur’s eyes flashed sharply.

—Kii…!

The flame tornado, which now possessed absurd firepower due to the mana bomb, eventually condensed into a single point in the air, and then—

—Boom!

shot straight toward the target like a laser.

Immediately after, Lucy reported calmly.

—It hit, Contractor. But they must have covered their entire body with protective artifacts, because they aren’t dead.

“They survived even though I poured in all my spiritual power…”

—Kiiii.

Having completed his mission, Ur, now fully intoxicated by the spiritual power, rubbed his head against Gi-jun’s cheek.

Gi-jun, who smiled faintly at the pleasant affection and stroked the creature’s head, was first relieved that there were no casualties among the Orcs, and immediately cast Salutaris to recover his depleted spiritual power.

“J-Jun.”

“I am glad you are alive. I will catch the culprit.”

“Thank you so much!”

The Orc, who had barely caught the mana bomb flying into the campfire, bowed his head to Gi-jun, amazed that he was still alive.

Gi-jun waved his hand lightly and kicked off the ground.

His two eyes, which had turned into fiery eyes under the mask, blazed eerily.