WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 44: 044
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Actually, I had been trying out new magic whenever I had the time.
I had been combining the magical patterns I’d acquired so far, namely circles, diamonds, squares, and triangles, to create magic of my own.
That led to plenty of trial and error.
Still, I had managed to grasp the rough principles behind magic.
The magical arrays I used each represented a type of element.
‘Circles are gas, triangles are liquid, squares are solid, and diamonds are plasma.’
Fireball magic compressed flames, represented by diamonds, to the limit with air, represented by circles, then detonated them all at once.
Air Bullet magic compressed gas, represented by circles, and fired it.
Earth Manipulation Magic freely controlled solids, represented by squares.
Lightning magic condensed electricity, represented by thin diamonds, then fired it in a straight line.
The four states of matter were gas, liquid, solid, and plasma.
My magic was structured around controlling those four forms of matter.
After realizing that, I had repeatedly devised and discarded new spells whenever I had the chance.
I had even completed a few fairly decent ones.
Today, I planned to test the new magic I had created.
“New magic... You’ve been making it for a while, right? Then why haven’t you used it?”
“The efficiency sucked.”
“Efficiency?”
“Yeah. The power seems incredible, but... compared to the magic I already use, it’s less efficient. I didn’t feel the need to use it.”
In the end, it all came down to efficiency.
Even if I created new magic, it was excessive firepower against Orcs and wasted too much mana.
That was why I had kept using my existing spells.
But I couldn’t rely on the same old magic forever.
‘The Hunter special operations units in China and Russia are probably made up mostly of High Floor Hunters... I don’t know whether my magic will work against them.’
Hunter special operations units were elite Hunter units deployed by China and Russia.
Their members were mostly Hunters who had reached the High Floors or beyond.
Apparently, armed with all kinds of artifacts and modern weapons, they carried out missions such as kidnapping Hunters from other countries, suppressing rebels, assassinating specific targets, and deploying to war zones.
Honestly, with my current specs, I felt like I could easily beat a few High Floor Hunters...
But I didn’t know if I could beat people armed with high-grade artifacts and modern weaponry too.
I had never even seen a High Floor Hunter in person.
For now, I was making every preparation I could.
So.
“Today, I’ll mostly be using new magic. It might get a little loud, so bear with it.”
“...That makes me nervous. Don’t tell me it’s stronger than Fireball?”
“Yep.”
It wasn’t just a little stronger; it was a lot stronger.
“Alright, let’s go!”
-Iing!
At my command, Iing Iing’s telekinesis activated.
We flew up into the sky.
Today’s goal was a firepower demonstration.
* * *
The structure of Floor 17 was generally similar to Floor 12.
There was an Orc fortress somewhere on the map.
To advance to the next floor, we had to subjugate every enemy inside it.
It was practically identical to the map on Floor 12.
The difference was its scale.
“There’s the Orc fortress!”
After moving north with telekinesis for several minutes, we spotted a structure at the entrance of a canyon.
“That fortress is huge. It’s practically a palace.”
It was a massive fortress.
A sturdy structure made of stone bricks.
Its walls stood tall, its buildings rose as high as three stories, and convincing-looking spires had been built here and there.
A structure much larger than the small stronghold we had seen on Floor 12 blocked the canyon.
Na Hyeji muttered, “There are a thousand Orcs packed inside that fortress?”
Just as she said.
An enormous number of Orcs lurked within that Orc fortress.
There were a thousand of them, including ten Orc Shamans.
A party of only five Hunters from the Middle Floors couldn’t possibly face that many Orcs at once.
That was why the standard strategy for Floor 17 was “lure and eliminate.”
Just like on Floor 12, they would repeatedly lure out and kill small groups of Orcs.
Once only a few remained inside, they would break through the fortress and run into the canyon beyond it.
That was the standard strategy.
Of course.
I had no need to follow the standard strategy.
I had overwhelming firepower.
“Hyeji. I’ll show you something amazing.”
“Something amazing?”
“A magic trick that makes that fortress disappear in one hit.”
“...Is that even possible?”
Hyeji looked doubtful.
She thought I was bluffing.
Well.
The magic I had shown her so far had only been powerful enough to kill a few dozen Orcs at once.
There was no way she could believe I could one-shot a fortress that big.
But that had all been because of efficiency.
If I ignored efficiency completely and poured in a massive amount of mana...
I could unleash truly terrifying power.
“Whew...”
I slowly steadied my breathing.
Then I drew up the Blue Motes in my heart.
‘First, a Fireball.’
-Fwoosh.
A single Fireball rose over my staff.
One Fireball array, created from overlapping diamonds and circles.
I traced the same array over it again.
‘Keep trapping and compressing the flames with air.’
Fwoosh. Fwoooosh. Fwoooooosh! Fwoooooooooosh!
The wavering Fireball began to overlap, its color steadily deepening.
What I was doing was ultra-compressing the Fireball.
Not dozens of times more than before, but hundreds of times more flame, trapped in a space the size of my head.
-Fwoooooooooooosh!
The Fireball flickered with an ominous blaze as its color gradually darkened.
It had gone beyond red and was beginning to look black.
Na Hyeji, who had been watching, muttered, “What is that? It’s about the same size as a normal Fireball... but it feels completely different.”
“It’s not done yet.”
I was only halfway there.
After compressing the Fireball more than a hundred times, I could no longer compress it any further with air.
Maybe that was the limit of my magical skill.
Or maybe it was simply the limit of magic itself.
But that was fine.
Even if it was a little less efficient than air...
I had another element that could compress even more flame.
‘The element of solid.’
Crunch.
I changed the circular array that compressed the Fireball into a square, then continued compressing the flames.
I began compressing the flames with solid matter instead of gas.
Fwoosh. Fwoosh. Fwoosh! Fwoooosh!
More flames were layered on, then rock covered them.
I continued stacking the altered Fireball.
At last.
-Rumble...
Over my staff floated a black-burning sphere the size of a human head.
It looked like a black bowling ball wrapped in flames.
It had taken roughly one minute to get this far.
For magic I used, that was a considerable preparation time.
I muttered quietly, “Three hundred Fireballs compressed.”
The black sphere I had created was a spell made by compressing no fewer than three hundred Fireballs.
If I had to name it, maybe Super-Fireball?
I clicked my tongue.
“The firepower is definitely strong... but one shot burns through seventy percent of my mana.”
My current mana pool was worth roughly four hundred Fireballs.
I had consumed 75 percent of it on this one spell.
I had poured all the mana I could have used to fire three hundred Fireballs into this!
There was a reason I only used my usual magic.
Wasn’t that far too much mana to spend on Orcs?
Still, this was fine.
“This floor is a map where Orcs are packed into a fortress, so it won’t be that inefficient.”
Against Orcs scattered over a wide area, it would clearly be excessive firepower and a waste.
But against Orcs gathered inside a sturdy building, it seemed plenty useful.
With one shot, even a fortress that sturdy...
I should be able to destroy it in an instant.
I slowly extended my staff forward.
Filled with anticipation, I shouted, “Try nerfing this too!”
Whoooosh!
I fired Super-Fireball.
Maybe because it was such a heavy projectile.
It didn’t fly particularly fast.
But the moment the black sphere struck the fortress.
-Flash.
A blinding burst of light erupted.
-KWAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!
A massive explosion followed.
A deafening roar that seemed to shake heaven and earth.
A pillar of fire surged high into the sky.
An enormous fireball swallowed the fortress, then rose into the sky as a huge mushroom cloud.
Shockwaves spread far and wide.
The shattered remains of the fortress were swept up in the blast and scattered into the distance.
It was a sight like the world itself was collapsing.
For a moment, the sky and earth were dyed red.
-KWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAK!
A moment later, the explosion’s violent blast wave rushed toward us with a cloud of dust.
“Eek!”
-Iiiiiing!
Hyeji and the fairy staggered as the blast wave hit them.
The explosion had been so huge that even the wind pressure reaching us was powerful.
They couldn’t keep their balance.
Still, we had it easy.
Whoooosh...
Once the blast wave passed and the dust settled, we could see.
“Wow...!”
The medium-sized fortress before us, where a thousand Orcs had been lurking, had completely vanished.
My magic had deleted that enormous, sturdy structure in one shot!
Where the fortress had stood, countless pieces of stone rubble and mangled chunks of Orc bodies lay scattered everywhere.
I couldn’t hold back my amazement.
“Damn... That rush is incredible! Explosions really are art!”
It was as if I had fired a tactical nuke.
That huge, sturdy fortress had been wiped off the map!
A sense of omnipotence and exhilaration surged through me.
It felt like I could erase anything if I wanted to!
The dopamine was pumping!
“This is crazy...! Jiho! Is that for real? Is that power a human can have?!”
“Ta-da! The magic trick where the Orc fortress disappears! Now, everybody, please applaud! Clap clap clap clap clap!”
-Iing iing iing iing iing!
Clap clap clap clap clap!
The fairy applauded.
What a sweet little thing. She went along with it.
Unlike her owner, Hyeji, who didn’t clap.
That was a little disappointing.
Hyeji muttered with a dazed expression, “Wow... No way... This is unbelievable.”
“Hehe. If you’re the Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter, you should be able to one-shot an Orc fortress.”
“...”
Overwhelmed by my commanding presence, Hyeji had nothing to say.
Honestly, that was understandable.
Even I was shocked by the power after using it myself. How stunned must a mere mortal like Hyeji have been?
Anyway.
I had deleted the Orcs’ fortress.
I glanced over the place where the fortress had stood moments ago.
Then I muttered, “Those Orc bastards are really tough. They survived that massive explosion?”
I had completely destroyed the fortress in one hit.
Still, whether because Orcs were inherently tough or because they had simply been lucky, I could see quite a few still alive.
Of course, they weren’t in good shape.
-Grrrk... Kuaaaah...!
-Uaaaaaah!
-Grrk... Grrk...
Orcs that had lost parts of their limbs, had their entire bodies shattered, or crawled across the ground with blood pouring from their eyes, noses, and mouths.
They had been on the outskirts of the fortress.
Out of the thousand Orcs that had been inside it, several hundred had barely managed to survive by avoiding the direct hit.
Well, perfect.
I had devised an area-of-effect spell for a situation just like this.
I raised my staff and said, “Hyeji, did you know? I’m actually a high-ranking knight. Or, as you’d say in English, a High Templar.”
“...What are you trying to do now?”
“Khassar de Templari! For Aiur!”
“...?”
Hyeji tilted her head as if she didn’t understand.
Apparently, she had no idea what I was copying.
Tsk tsk tsk.
I clicked my tongue.
“Hyeji, you need to cultivate some culture. What did you even do in school if you never played our country’s national game? Did you just study all day? Are you really Korean, Hyeji?”
“...”
How could she have never played the national folk game?
This was the problem with bookworms.
Hadn’t she ever played on a Fastest map back in school?
Anyway.
-Crack! Crackle! Crack!
I arranged the Blue Motes and created a Lightning Orb.
But the array was somewhat different from usual.
Instead of concentrating the slender diamonds representing lightning at a single point, I shaped them to spread over a wide area.
This wasn’t magic that sniped a single target from long range like my usual lightning magic.
It was magic that suppressed multiple targets across a wide area in one blow.
Lightning magic unleashed by a High Templar.
An area suppression skill.
Wasn’t it obvious?
“Psionic Storm!!!”
I fired the prepared Lightning Orb.
-KWARRRRRRRROOOOM!!!
Thunder and lightning began raging across a vast area.
It was as if lightning itself was whipping through the space.
A torrent of lightning raced through the area, burning the Orcs crawling across the ground.
-KWOOOOOAAAH!
-KAAAAAAH!
-Krrrk...!
Those Garroshes were roasted golden brown in the storm of thunder and lightning.
They screamed miserably as they died.
I kept casting Psionic Storm wherever Orcs were clustered.
-KWARRRRRROOOM! KWARRRRRROOOM!
-Crack! Crack! Crackle!
Every time I threw a Lightning Orb, Orcs over a wide area were electrocuted.
One by one, they gave off acrid smoke and planted their faces into the ground.
After I’d burned every Orc within my senses crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, silence fell.
“Whew.”
I quietly let out a breath.
Then I gauged the amount of Blue Motes in my heart.
‘Hmm. I used almost all my mana.’
The Blue Motes in my heart were nearly exhausted.
It couldn’t be helped.
I had started by deleting the fortress with an ultra-high-powered Fireball worth three hundred Fireballs.
Then I had repeatedly cast Psionic Storm, each cast costing mana worth ten Fireballs.
My mana had run dry in an instant.
The hollow feeling in my heart was a little unfamiliar.
I always kept at least 20 percent of my mana in reserve.
But this time, I had used almost all of it.
It had been a long time since my chest had felt so empty.
Yet despite the emptiness in my heart, my chest was full of joy.
“Damn... That felt great!”
The pleasure of slaughtering Orcs with powerful magic!
It was incredibly satisfying!
It was nice to continuously throw Fireballs and grind enemies to pieces.
But wiping them out with one huge blast like this had its own refreshing charm.
It felt like something had opened up inside my chest.
Now I was certain.
“Let the Chinese scum and Russkies come. I’ll blow every last one of them up and roast them golden brown...!”
With this much raw power, couldn’t I deal with the Hunter special operations units of China and Russia too?
Then something suddenly occurred to me.
‘But if I use this in the middle of a city, it’ll cause a disaster.’
I was satisfied with its power.
But if I used it in a city, it would wreck not only the enemy but every building nearby.
Civilians might get caught up in it too.
Later, I should research powerful magic for a single target as well.
Anyway.
I had blown up and roasted every Orc on Floor 17!
The conquest of Floor 17 was complete.
I gave Hyeji an order.
“There are no more enemies. Hyeji, collect the loot.”
“Okay.”
-Iing!
After the massacre came loot collection time.
Hyeji nodded and busily moved through the rubble with Iing Iing.
There were too many Orc corpses.
And heaps of rubble everywhere.
But with Iing Iing, they should be able to collect the loot quickly.
I was waiting for them to finish collecting everything when.
“Um... Jiho?”
“Yes?”
Trudge, trudge.
Hyeji, who should have been collecting loot, walked over.
She spoke to me.
“Jiho. You know the loot...”
“Yes.”
“We can’t find it all. I think some of it got blown far away because the explosion you fired was too strong. Or maybe it got completely destroyed...”
“...”
“You know that incredibly powerful explosion magic? I think it would be better not to use it normally.”
“...”
That was an unexpected drawback.
Because its firepower was too strong, we had lost some of the loot we should have collected.
I had no choice but to make my decision through tears.
‘Super-Fireball is sealed for the time being...!’
The rush of wiping everything out in one hit had been incredible.
But that changed if I lost the loot.
Yeah. I should just use normal Fireballs against Orcs.
I had to... make money.
We finished gathering the loot.
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 17)]
[You have completed Tower Floor 17.]
[You have defeated 946 Orcs (10).]
[You have defeated 68 Orc Warriors (100).]
[You have defeated 10 Orc Shamans (300).]
[Points are being calculated.]
[Tower Floor 18 has been unlocked.]
[Returning.]
I had cleared Floor 17.
I had killed 1,024 Orcs in total, counting the Orc Warriors and Orc Shamans.
Footnotes:
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