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Chapter 189: Treasure Hunt (4)
Fwoooosh!
The deeper I descended the long corridor, the fiercer the heat beca.
I squinted my eyes against the searing sensation that seed to burn my entire body.
‘So this is the heat of the Primordial Ember.’
Indeed, the intensity that made it worthy of its legendary na was suffocatingly overwhelming.
But yes, while it was undeniable that this heat was extraordinary from an “objective” perspective...
[Who... what are you?]
Grace, squinting her eyes at in disbelief, posed the question.
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
[No reason.]
Grace frowned as if grappling with sothing incomprehensible.
[Even though I’m in a spiritual form and cannot feel pain, the heat in here is intense enough to incinerate an ordinary person in an instant. Yet...]
She stared at , her eyes blinking, as if to ask why I seed completely unaffected.
“Well, I’m used to it,”
I replied with a casual shrug and a calm expression.
Exactly.
This heat filling the corridor was sothing deeply familiar to —after all, I regularly trained by ending my life to provoke the Primordial Fla.
‘If anything, this feels almost refreshing.’
Perhaps because this was rely an ember, the heat in the surrounding space felt far weaker than the heat of the Primordial Fla I experienced daily.
Of course, that was just by my standards.
As Grace had pointed out, an ordinary person would writhe in agony and burn to ashes the mont they stepped in here.
[You’re used to this? This?]
Grace looked around at the corridor, which was lting from the scorching heat, her expression full of disbelief.
[Well… maybe you have so sort of power that allows you to withstand flas.]
“...”
I had no idea what this “power to extinguish flas” she referred to was, but my ability to endure the heat of the Primordial Fla stemd from nothing more than constant exposure.
There was no need to correct her, though.
[We’ve arrived.]
After several more minutes of descending, we ca to a vast chamber that glowed red like the inside of a blazing furnace.
Fwoooosh!
At the center of the chamber stood an enormous fla, fiercely roaring.
No—more precisely...
“…Is that really an ember?”
It was far too massive to simply call it an “ember,” a house-sized blaze roaring violently.
[Hmm. These days, it seems candidates don’t learn much about mythology, huh?]
Grace clicked her tongue, beginning a sentence in the vein of a “back in my day” lecture.
[The Primordial Fla is the force that once burned the ‘Tree of Creation,’ which ford this continent and its gods. Even if it’s just an ember, of course, it’d be that big.]
“I an, I know that much…”
[The actual Primordial Fla would probably be waaaay bigger than that.]
Grace gestured dramatically, spreading her arms wide to illustrate the size of the Primordial Fla.
I chuckled quietly at her exaggeration.
‘The real Primordial Fla was only about the size of a fist, though.’
Of course, its small size belied the sheer power contained within, far surpassing that of the ember before .
‘This feels more like molten tal than a sharpened blade.’
If the Primordial Fla was a finely crafted sword, this ember was more like molten steel—lacking any form or precision, doing nothing but scorching its surroundings.
I took a step toward the Primordial Ember.
[Careful…!]
“It’s fine.”
Fwoooosh!
As I approached, the ember surged like a wild beast spotting prey, unleashing waves of fla as if to devour .
[No, stop!]
Grace shouted urgently as she saw engulfed by the flas.
The white glow of her spiritual form flared as she tried to fly to , but...
Fwoooosh!
[Urgh…!]
The ember’s heat seed to affect even her incorporeal form, repelling her.
Sizzle! Hiss!
The flas coiled around , burning my flesh and releasing acrid smoke.
I looked at the fire consuming my body and smirked.
“You’re being insolent.”
Boom!
I stomped down fiercely, standing tall despite being wreathed in flas.
“Little punk.”
Drawing a deep breath, I awakened the Primordial Fla dormant within my heart.
Ssssssssss!
The excruciating pain of burning flesh.
It was as if molten steel was coursing through my veins instead of blood.
The agony was almost too much to bear.
“Heh.”
Yes.
This was it.
This pain.
‘It hurts like hell.’
Experiencing it firsthand made it clear: the heat of this raging ember was laughable compared to the Primordial Fla’s.
Fwoooosh!
The ember that had been engulfing my body suddenly flared up, as if startled, and attempted to escape.
"Where do you think you're going?"
I curled my lips into a feral grin and reached out toward the dissipating flas.
The ashen smoke emanating from my body wrapped around the ember.
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“Tsk.”
Closing my eyes, I focused my mind.
It felt as though I was experiencing astral projection, my consciousness sinking deeper and deeper as my body seed to float weightlessly.
In the inner world forming within my mind—
Whoosh! Crackle!
The primordial fla and the ember were tangled together in a fierce struggle.
‘No.’
Calling it a "struggle" would be inaccurate.
The primordial fla was overwhelmingly dominating the ember, which was desperately trying to escape.
Crackle, crackle...
The difference in their innate strength was so imnse that the ember barely lasted before being consud entirely by the primordial fla.
‘That ended more quickly than I expected.’
The result was anticlimactic, to say the least.
Given the vast disparity in their power, the conclusion ca surprisingly swiftly.
‘Ti to return.’
Having confird the ember was fully absorbed, I prepared to leave the inner world and opened my eyes.
Whoooosh!
The primordial fla roared violently.
Like a beast breaking free from its chains, it thrashed uncontrollably.
‘Urgh…!’
As the flas raged, excruciating pain engulfed my body.
‘What is… this?’
Looking toward the primordial fla, I saw a monstrous inferno raging as if it intended to consu the world.
‘That’s….’
Had it grown stronger by absorbing the ember?
The once-dormant primordial fla now burned savagely, threatening to engulf .
When the colossal blaze, incomparable to the ember, surged toward —
Crash!
The ground of the inner world split apart with a thunderous sound, and sothing massive erged.
Like a boot stomping out a fla, the imnse presence suppressed the raging Primordial Fla.
‘Argh.’
Panting heavily, I looked at the 'sothing' overwhelming the primordial fla.
Shrouded in ashen smoke, it was so massive that its exact form was indiscernible.
‘Is that the power to extinguish flas that Grace ntioned?’
The imnse presence, having quelled the flas in an instant, receded back into the cracked earth as if its task was complete.
‘Phew.’
I let out a sigh of relief as I watched the now-subdued primordial fla.
‘I can’t recklessly absorb embers.’
While the heat from the ember itself posed no significant threat, the real issue lay with the primordial fla that absorbed its power.
Normally subdued under the influence of the "power to extinguish flas" within , the primordial fla had erupted like an unleashed beast the mont it consud the ember.
Fortunately, it still hadn’t grown strong enough to overpower the suppressive force, but there was no guarantee this would remain the case.
‘It’s dangerous, but the gain is undeniable.’
I extended my hand toward the burning flas.
The fire, now ta like a docile lamb, moved at my command.
The amount of fire I could manipulate had noticeably increased compared to before absorbing the ember.
‘With this….’
Whooosh!
Flas engulfed my body.
From Ignition to Flare.
The fire surrounding began to burn more fiercely.
Previously, the uncontrollable Incarnation of Fla state was the only ti I could draw this much power from the primordial fla.
‘Let’s go one step further.’
I exhaled slowly and drew even more power from the flas.
Crackling!
The fire encircling expanded, spreading out to cover the surrounding ground.
Snap.
With a light flick of my fingers, a massive blaze ignited in mid-air.
The flas roared and extinguished at my command, moving as I directed.
‘Within this fla-engulfed domain, my control over the primordial fla increases?’
Until now, I could only wield the primordial fla through my body.
Even when imbuing fire onto a sword, it first had to pass through before being transferred to the blade.
But within this fla-filled domain, I no longer needed to channel it through my body; I could ignite the primordial fla wherever I pleased.
‘It feels like I’m deploying a domain.’
Now that I think about it, I’ve heard of such things before.
Certain “blessings” allow the wielder to influence their surroundings, turning an area into a favorable environnt.
‘Like Lanez once did.’
Currently, Lanez can only summon snowstorms to a limited extent, but in her past life, her blessing transford entire landscapes into snowy fields, granting her an overwhelming advantage.
In other words—
I had reached a new stage, surpassing re ignition and intensification, where I could ignite the very land itself.
‘Of course, what matters is how much I can control it in the real world.’
Just like with intensification, training should enable to master this new technique.
‘Ignition first, then Flare.’
As if I had awakened a blessing, the na of the new technique naturally surfaced in my mind as though I was recalling sothing forgotten.
‘Calamity Fire.’
It marked the mont I ascended to a higher stage.
‘This… is an unexpected treasure.’
I smirked as I gazed at the flas consuming the ground.
The result was completely unanticipated.
Still, this discovery was far more valuable than the “Divine Grace” offered as the first-place reward for this treasure hunt.
‘Though I won’t get any bonus points….’
Wait a second.
‘Ah.’
My bonus points.
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