When the sword clashed with the stone, brilliant sparks spread out rapidly like a spider web.
A sudden sense of unease filled Blaine's mind, but before he could react, everything in front of him was engulfed by the leaping firelight!
Boom~
The violent explosion echoed through the silent lower town. Lynn, who wasn't far away, was also blown to the ground by the shockwave of the explosion. At the same time, the brain's prompt tone sounded.
[Energy depleted, overload mode ended...]
"Cough, cough..." Lynn clambered up from the ground in a sorry state, then immediately felt a void. The continuous casting had drained his magic power dry.
Compared to Lynn, who was affected by the blast, Blaine, who was in the center of the explosion, looked much more miserable...
As the dust settled, Lynn couldn't help but take a sharp breath. Blaine, at the center of the explosion, looked inhuman. Half of his sword-wielding right arm was blown off, his exposed skin was black and red, his chest armor was shattered and cracked, and one could faintly see putrefied flesh and white bones inside...
Even more terrifying, the intense explosion instantly drained the surrounding oxygen. Blaine's shrill screams lasted only a few seconds before abruptly stopping.
Lynn couldn't help but feel a pang of fear. He had heard of the power of methane explosions on TV news, but it was the first time he saw it firsthand, especially since this time, he had created it himself.
If Blaine hadn't been too far away, and the trajectory of the "Fireball Technique" easy to predict and avoid, he wouldn't have taken the risky approach, using the principle of a methane explosion to lure and kill his opponent.
It was thanks to the wondrous magic power that allowed him to manipulate the flow of air to some extent. Plus, the lower town wasn't lacking in "materials," so reaching a concentration sufficient to cause an explosion wasn't an easy feat.
Lynn picked up the long sword that had fallen to the ground and cautiously approached to check Blaine's condition.
Despite such severe injuries, Blaine hadn't instantly died. The two eyeballs that were barely attached to their sockets stared at him, his mouth making a "clucking" sound, indicating that his vocal cords had also been damaged.
"Let me send you off. No need to thank me!" Lynn said coldly. He couldn't help but hate Blaine for barging into the house and forcing him into a desperate situation, but he had no intention of torturing him. In this state, he probably couldn't extract any information anyway.
So death was the best end for him!
Lynn raised the long sword and precisely thrust it into Blaine's heart, watching as the latter's body trembled violently before once again falling silent.
Perhaps it was the influence of hatred, or perhaps it was Carl's original body's influence. In addition to the psychological discomfort, Lynn didn't feel excessively uncomfortable after personally ending a life. In fact, the aftereffects of casting spells back to back made his brain throb with pain occasionally.
Confirming that Blaine was truly dead, Lynn's tightly wound expression finally relaxed. His body swayed, and he used the long sword in his right hand as a crutch to keep from collapsing.
"071..." Lynn called softly in his mind but received no response. Remembering the earlier prompt, he understood that the brain had likely shut down due to excessive energy consumption.
In response, Lynn had no solution but to wait for 071 to replenish its energy. At this moment, his mind was filled with confusion.
What exactly was the magic power used by wizards, and why could it manipulate chemical elements?
And those strange runes that appeared inexplicably in his mind just now...
What left Lynn most perplexed was that, under the overload mode of the brain, he could even directly convert magic power into hydrogen and oxygen.
Did this mean that magic power could be converted into any other element?
If so, the wonder of this thing would far exceed his expectations.
[Follow me! I will reveal the truth of this world to you!]
Recalling what his mentor Kro had said when they met half a year ago, Lynn couldn't help but tremble.
Perhaps the old wizard wasn't just fooling him back then!
It was no wonder Carl's original body would give up a stable life of food and clothing to become a Wizard Apprentice...
Unfortunately, Carl's original body had studied magic for too short a time. Plus, Kro had more than one apprentice, and teaching time was limited, so Lynn hadn't had access to more secrets.
The aftereffect of overconsuming magic power left Lynn terrified. During the last spell cast, he almost thought his brain was going to explode, and his body felt as weak as if he had just suffered a severe illness, urgently wanting to lie down and sleep.
But Lynn knew this wasn't the time to rest. Though he had dealt with two enemies, the commotion from the battle in the slums would likely be reported to the local tribunal soon, which would surely send more people to capture him.
The immediate priority was to quickly find a place to hide and figure out a way to contact a wizard...
Lynn glanced down at Blaine's corpse, prodded it with the sword, and cut open the damaged pouch at his waist, causing a small pile of coins to spill out.
A Sears gold coin, seven silver coins, and more than a dozen copper coins.
Seeing that these well-crafted coins had not been damaged by the explosion, Lynn's mood improved slightly.
As a noble's illegitimate child, Carl's original body had never been wealthy. After running away from home for more than three months, occasionally funding his mentor's research, he could barely afford to eat...
With this windfall, he wouldn't have to risk returning to that dilapidated house, which was likely a dead end now.
"Hmm?" Lynn bent down to gather the coins and unexpectedly found a piece of parchment that had fallen out alongside them.
Underneath the scorching heat, most of the writing was completely unreadable, leaving only faint characters like [Wuer Town], [Moonlit Day], [Johnny], and [Seventeen copper coins].
"Wuer Town?" Lynn muttered to himself, and out of caution, he didn't destroy it on the spot but instead kept the burned parchment.
He needed someone who could answer his questions. Heading to Wuer Town to find other apprentices might be a good choice.
At least it would be more reliable than him searching alone for those hidden wizards...
As Lynn pondered, he grabbed Blaine's ankle and dragged the body toward the foul-smelling Seep River not far away.
In this medieval world of magic and divine arts, even the dead couldn't be trusted. If the church of this world possessed the Resurrection Technique, his information could be leaked.
The safest method was to dispose of the body entirely!
(PS: Thanks to the readers Bloodstained Underworld Sun, Starstream Maple, and Vast Starry Sky for the reward of 100 wake-up coins.)