Only My Magic Levels Up - Chapter 42



Only Noblemtl

Vanity Heat Wave (2)

Even after returning to Abaca, Galen remained Myra’s guest for the time being.

“Do you have any urgent need to go somewhere?”

“Nothing in particular?”

“Then, could you wait a few days? Things have gotten bigger than expected, so I think we’ll have to settle things differently.”

“Do whatever you want.”

In return for his gracious acceptance, Galen was granted a guest room in the church.

Of course, it was nothing compared to the facilities of the inn where Donnie had taken care of me before, but it wouldn’t make sense for a church building to be more luxurious than a top-class inn in the first place.

Galen had no complaints since he was staying for free in a reasonably good facility. It was a place where he no longer had to worry about things like room rates.

Since it was Myra who was busy, not Galen, he spent his time leisurely resting.

Of course, as always, I didn’t mean to say that I would just sit around doing nothing. In this world where there are only so many things to enjoy, I would get bored and unbearable if I spent my time like that.

“Haaam······.”

Galen yawned heavily, sinking into an easy chair in the guest room that doubled as a living room.

As we were going to and coming from the Devil’s Cradle, the weather became much colder as we entered what could be called late autumn.

It was a day when the fireplace had to be turned on at night, and it wasn’t strange to turn it on during the day. So, firewood was already piled up next to the fireplace.

Some of those logs were in the fireplace, but they weren’t lit.

Galen’s languid eyes turned toward the fireplace.

The moment he became aware of the magic within him, or more precisely, the magic of the heatwave, a change came over his vision.

Darkness fell over the logs. The inside of the unlit fireplace was originally dark, but it was a darkness separate from that. A false shadow that only Galen could see. Vanity.

‘bread.’

Galen muttered silently.

pop!

A fire broke out above the shadows with a much gentler sound than Galen had expected.

As the flames blazed, the magic power of the Vanity Flames also gushed out. Since the fuel that kept the flames burning was magic power, it felt like magic power was being poured instead of oil.

Hurrruk!

Soon, the flames from the fiery flame spread to the firewood.

As the magic power was withdrawn, the black shadow became silent. However, the fire that had already been lit did not automatically go out.

‘At first, I thought it was definitely a superior version of Redna······.’

Aside from a brief skirmish at Brother Bronn’s tavern, I’ve only had one proper encounter with a fire elemental, and that was when I promptly killed Redna, preventing me from exploring further.

However, when he drew a hypothetical match between Redna and Kane, Galen raised Kane’s hand.

Unlike the spirits that could only ‘spit’ fire like a flamethrower, the Vanity Flame could set fire to anything it saw. It was on a whole other level of convenience.

But after returning to Abaca and starting to practice in earnest, I realized that I couldn’t see it that way.

Why?

Galen, who had cleared the shadow from the firewood, extended his left hand forward.

A new area of ​​shadow appeared in the air above the palm, not directly above the skin, but about a finger joint away.

This time, let’s focus on flames instead of explosions.

hook!

The flames burned quietly, making only a small sound that could not be called an explosion. The flames burned without a wick, floating in the air.

But soon Galen had to frown. The flames went out immediately and Galen waved his left hand.

“Oh, it’s hot.”

The spirit moved urgently from his wrist and covered his palm. The cool sensation of the water soothed his flushed skin.

That’s right.

Even though Vanity Heat Wave itself is a fire attribute, it doesn’t have any features like immunity to fire attribute damage!

‘It’s not like I won’t drown just because I have a water gun, but…’

Redna carried a ball of fire the size of a child’s fist on her chest, and wrapped the flame around her hand like a glove. She would blow fire inside the bar, but not a single soot remained on the furniture.

She was completely unharmed by the spirit fire. I don’t know if that applies to all fires, but it seemed like she couldn’t be harmed by her own powers.

But what about the heatwave?

Even if it was an explosion or fire that he caused, he had no ability to distinguish between enemies, and he had no ability to put out fire that spread outside of his shadow.

If we have to be specific, yes.

This should have been seen as magic that caused an ‘explosion’, not magic that controlled ‘fire’. The fire was just a bonus.

An extreme magic that coolly ignores defense and focuses only on offense. A mindset that says you will be killed whether I die or not.

‘···Was the founder of the Burtain family a rather manly man?’

Galen shook his head.

In fact, if you consider that the magic of this world is a specialized ability rather than an all-purpose one, and that it tries to maximize its strengths while covering up its weaknesses with other elements, it is not hard to understand.

For example, the Oceanis family covered up the weakness of their water manipulation when there was no water by operating on the coast.

The Burtain family can cover up the disadvantage of being swept away when writing up close by saying that they should not write up close.

Originally, magicians themselves were not strong in close combat, so they usually moved with escorts.

Since I’m not even thinking about close combat anyway, what’s the big deal if there’s a problem when using it up close? Just kill them all before they get close.

It’s the same as not being able to put out a fire that has already started. Do you understand? If you were going to be that concerned as the attacker, you wouldn’t have started the fire in the first place.

If you ignore the shortcomings and only look at the advantages, you will only be left with a destructive power that would make even Galen terrified. Even if you only use it as a long-range bomber, it is enough to make a name for yourself as a magician.

‘Fortunately, I can compensate with my abilities.’

If you have no choice but to allow the enemy to approach, you can use safe water manipulation. Or, like this time, you can block their approach by hitting the wall with spirits. If the fire spreads indiscriminately? You can immediately put it out with water.

Galen only needed to take the overwhelming attack power of the Vanity Flame. It could be used for practical purposes in real life, such as lighting fires, which water, no matter how strong, cannot do.

‘···To do that, I need to level up quickly.’

Galen glanced at the status window and smiled bitterly.

[ Vanity Heat Lv.9 ]

[ 12% progress to next level ]

It’s the first half, so it’s going smoothly and quickly, but it’s still not at a level that can be used in actual combat. It’s even worse because my standards have been raised due to water flow manipulation.

If you stick with it for at least a month, you’ll be able to get by with it.

Chomp!

Galen, who had fired a grenade to put out the fire in the fireplace, cast his shadow over the firewood again.

Hurrah!

Naturally, the fire would not start because it was wet firewood. Galen continued to use the Vanity Flame with the idea of ​​drying out the moisture.

As I continued practicing, my magical power was starting to run out.

Knock knock.

Someone knocked on the door.

I opened it in the morning, wondering if Liliara had come to play, but it was a man I didn’t know.

“Are you Galen?”

“Yes. Who are you?”

“I’m from the Mercenary Guild. Your request has been completed······.”

“Can I go right now?”

“Of course.”

It was a good thing that he couldn’t play with fire because he was too tired. Galen immediately followed his staff.

“Brother Galen!”

About halfway across the church grounds, I heard a familiar voice.

Lilia, who was walking somewhere quickly, suddenly came running towards me.

“Where are you going? This person?”

“I am an employee of the Mercenary Guild. I have some business for the Mercenary Guild.”

“Oh, then can I go with you?”

“Weren’t you going somewhere?”

“I was going to see my brother!”

“Well, whatever you like.”

As Galen nodded willingly, Lilia quickly followed him. The group of three headed to the union.

Since everything had been discussed in advance, Galen and Lilia skipped all the formalities and were taken straight to the union leader’s office.

“Welcome, Duke Galen.”

A middle-aged man who seemed to be Galen’s father bowed deeply.

“Duke Lilia is here too?”

“I came to see!”

“I just followed you, so don’t worry about it.”

“Yes, yes.”

Galen sat down after receiving the union leader’s greetings appropriately.

When I met the union leader in Niger, of course I was respected then too, but not to this extent.

The leader of Abaca’s union was clearly having a hard time with Galen, both in his attitude and his tone of speech.

The difference between Baek Eun, who had just debuted, and Hwang Geum, who had returned after breaking the devil’s head, was that huge.

“We have completed reviewing the materials submitted by the church.”

“Is there any problem?”

“Huh?! I checked it several times!”

“Oh, no. How could that be? The Church… Princess Lilia would never make such a mistake.”

The leader smiled, clearly practiced. His face was distorted in a somewhat bizarre way, clearly a grim expression from his past as a mercenary, but I decided to let it slide since he must have put in some effort.

By the way, the ‘church data’ that the leader mentioned was not something that Lilia had written herself… It was a list of evil species that had been hunted in the pioneer zone, written by Jenny and assisted by Lilia.

In addition, it seems that Myra came to us personally and subtly told us about Galen’s activities in the Cradle of the Devil.

In fact, at this point, even if the church had given false information, it would have been necessary to believe it. It was obvious that they were supporting Galen to that extent.

Of course, even if there was no data, the mercenary guild had been receiving rumors floating around the pioneer zone for a long time and did not doubt Galen’s skills.

“We, the Abaca Mercenary Guild, have unanimously decided to recognize Duke Galen as a gold-ranked warrior!”

“Wow, congratulations!”

“thank you.”

Lilia was delighted as if it were her own business. Galen greeted her gracefully. The union leader added.

“I should have announced it a little sooner, but you’ve been in the pioneer zone all this time… and after returning to Abaca, you went straight to Elta….”

“I’ve been a bit busy lately. I haven’t had time to stop by the union.”

“Oh, I don’t mean to blame Duke Galen at all!”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

Galen shrugged. The guild leader, grinning, eventually pulled out a stack of papers and a shiny metal badge from his desk drawer.

The badge was offered first. As expected, it had a much more luxurious design than the mercenary badge of the silver level.

Although it was already golden in terms of level, it felt different to have evidence that could be shown to others like this. It felt like I had achieved success.

Galen, who had received the mercenary badge and was looking at it from all sides, asked.

“By the way, what will happen to the mercenary card I received from Niger?”

“You can do whatever you want with it. Usually, people keep it as a souvenir, but you can throw it away or whatever. We will send a message to the Nigerte Association. The official rank of the Duke of Galen will be ‘Silver of Nigerte and Gold of Abaca’. If it is lost in the future, either association can reissue it.”

“I see. I understand.”

Galen nodded and put the mercenary card in his bosom.

Then the union leader handed over a bundle of documents. He glanced at Lilia and said.

“And here is the item you asked for. That··· The fact that it came from our side means that it wouldn’t be a big problem if it were to leak out, but if possible······.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not planning on causing any trouble with this. It’s just for reference.”

“Yes, yes. Please.”

The union leader bowed. Galen, who had paid the commission fee, put the documents in his bosom and left the office.

Lilia tilted her head and asked.

“What are you trying to do?”

“I’ll let you know later.”

“A secret that can’t be told?!”

“Rather than a secret… I don’t have high expectations, but I still want to try it. If I succeed, I’ll brag about it later.”

“Then please let me know then!”

“I will do that.”

Galen answered with a bitter smile on his face.

I’m not just beating around the bush, I really don’t have high hopes, but I guess I’ll have to check anyway.

Before leaving this place where you can most commonly see wizards.

‘The mechanism of the status window.’

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