As the sword struck the firestone, brilliant sparks spread rapidly like a web in all directions.
A sudden sense of dread filled Blaney's mind, but before he could react, his entire vision was consumed by the leaping flames!
Boom!
The deafening explosion shattered the silence of the lower district. Not far away, Lynn was thrown to the ground by the shockwave. At the same time, a mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
"Energy depleted. Overload mode terminated..."
"Cough, cough..." Lynn struggled to his feet, feeling a deep emptiness within him. The consecutive spellcasting had completely drained his mana.
Compared to Lynn, who was merely caught in the blast's periphery, Blaney—at the explosion's epicenter—was in far worse condition.
As the dust settled, Lynn couldn't help but gasp. Blaney, now barely recognizable, stood at the center of the blast. His sword arm was severed halfway, his exposed skin charred black and red, and his chest armor shattered, revealing festering flesh and stark white bones.
More horrifying still, the explosion had instantly drained the surrounding oxygen. Blaney's agonized screams lasted only a few seconds before they abruptly ceased.
Lynn felt a pang of fear. He had heard of the destructive power of methane explosions on the news, but this was the first time he had witnessed it firsthand—especially one that he had orchestrated himself.
Had Blaney not been so far away, and the trajectory of the fireball so easy to predict and avoid, Lynn would never have resorted to such a desperate plan, using the principles of methane explosion to kill his foe.
It was only thanks to the mystical properties of mana that he could manipulate the flow of air to some extent. Coupled with the lower district's abundance of "raw materials," achieving a concentration sufficient to trigger an explosion had not been an easy task.
Lynn cautiously retrieved the fallen sword and approached Blaney's body to check his condition.
Despite his grievous injuries, Blaney hadn't died instantly. His two eyes, still attached by threads of flesh, stared fixedly at Lynn, his mouth emitting a garbled sound—his vocal cords clearly destroyed.
"Let me send you on your way. No need to thank me," Lynn said coldly. He bore no small hatred for the man who had invaded his home and driven him to the brink, but he had no intention of torturing Blaney. In this state, he wouldn't be able to extract any useful information anyway.
Death would be the kindest outcome.
Lynn raised the sword and precisely pierced Blaney's heart, watching as the man's body convulsed briefly before falling still.
Perhaps it was the influence of Carl, the original owner of his body, or perhaps it was the lingering hatred, but Lynn felt little discomfort from ending a life with his own hands. The only thing that troubled him was the residual pain in his head from the aftereffects of casting spells.
Once he was certain Blaney was truly dead, Lynn's tense expression finally relaxed. His legs nearly gave out, and he had to lean on the sword to stay upright.
"071..." Lynn called out in his mind, but there was no response. Recalling the earlier notification, he realized that the intelligence system had likely shut down due to energy exhaustion.
There was nothing he could do but wait for 071 to replenish its energy. In the meantime, his mind was full of questions.
What exactly is the mana used by wizards? Why does it allow the manipulation of chemical elements?
And what about the strange runes that had suddenly appeared in his mind...
What puzzled Lynn the most was the realization that, under 071's overload mode, he could directly convert mana into hydrogen and oxygen.
Could it be possible, then, that mana could be transformed into any element?
If so, the potential of this power might far exceed his expectations.
**"Come with me! I will reveal to you the truth of this world!"**
Recalling the words of his mentor, Koru, from six months ago, Lynn couldn't help but feel a tremor in his soul.
Perhaps the old wizard hadn't been deceiving him after all!
No wonder Carl had abandoned his relatively stable life, with food and shelter, to become an apprentice wizard...
The only pity was that Carl had too little time to study magic, and with Koru having multiple apprentices to teach, there had been little opportunity to delve into deeper secrets.
The aftereffects of mana overuse also left Lynn deeply uneasy. During his final spell, he had nearly believed his brain would explode. His body now felt as weak as if he had been gravely ill, and all he wanted was to lie down and sleep.
But Lynn knew this was no time to rest. Although he had dealt with two enemies, the noise of the battle in the slums would soon reach the local Inquisition. They would undoubtedly send more men to capture him.
His immediate priority was to find a safe place to hide and a way to make contact with another wizard...
Lynn glanced down at Blaney's corpse, poking at it with the sword until a tattered pouch split open, spilling out a small pile of coins.
One Secas gold coin, seven silver coins, and over a dozen copper coins.
Protected by the pouch, the finely minted coins hadn't melted, which improved Lynn's mood somewhat.
As the illegitimate son of a noble, Carl had never been wealthy, and after running away from home for over three months—occasionally funding his mentor's research—he had nearly run out of money.
This unexpected windfall meant Lynn wouldn't have to risk returning to that decrepit hut, a place that was now a likely death trap.
"Hm?" Lynn bent down to collect the coins and discovered a rolled parchment among them.
Most of the writing had been burned away by the intense heat, leaving only fragments of words like **"Ur Town," "Moonlit Day," "Joni,"** and **"seventeen copper coins"** barely visible.
"Ur Town?" Lynn muttered to himself. Out of caution, he didn't destroy the parchment on the spot but carefully stowed it away.
He needed someone who could answer his questions. Seeking out other apprentices in Ur Town might be a good choice.
At the very least, it would be more reliable than trying to find hidden wizards on his own...
With these thoughts in mind, Lynn grabbed Blaney's ankle and began dragging the corpse towards the nearby, foul-smelling Yinne River.
In this medieval world, filled with magic and divine rituals, even the dead couldn't be trusted. If the Church of this world possessed resurrection magic, his secrets might be revealed.
The safest course was to dispose of the body entirely!