The next day, early morning.
Jun, having finished preparing to depart, stood up without hesitation.
There wasn’t much to pack anyway.
Just a small bag that wouldn’t hinder his movements, containing a few snacks and some books.
He did have a dimensional bracelet, so technically there was no need for a bag. But Jun wasn’t the type of mage who enjoyed flaunting the fact that he carried a space artifact.
Of course, now that he was a sixth-circle mage, he didn’t have to care about what others thought…
But this kind of cautiousness had become a habit by now.
“Hmph.”
With his preparations complete, he stepped outside his lodging.
“You’re here.”
“Good morning!”
Laness and Velles were already waiting for him with the carriage hitched and ready.
Seriously, is she really an eighth-circle mage?
It was a stark contrast to the cold, calculating version of Laness from the game, the one who had emerged after the Empire’s fall.
“Come, we’ve got a long way to go.”
“Where are we headed?”
“The sixth level.”
“…Huh?”
They didn’t even have time to reach the Fifth Level properly, and now they were going to the Sixth?
Was she seriously planning to throw him into the fire and send him back after a beating?
Perhaps noticing the bewildered look on Jun’s face, Velles spoke first.
“Haha… Don’t worry. This is the Laness Magic Tower we’re talking about. The principle of our Tower is to go wherever magic is needed, even from Blackout.”
“Ah…”
The sudden mention of the Sixth Level had thrown him off, but Jun quickly recalled the transportation method used by the Laness Tower and nodded in understanding.
Right… There was something like a magic car in Harry Potter.
In other words, a carriage that could fly through the sky.
And indeed, the one before his eyes was moving on its own, with no horses in sight.
“Whoa…”
Looking at it again through a mage’s eyes, it was an incredibly well-crafted artifact.
“Impressive. The Laness Tower’s capabilities are no joke.”
“Hmm? Oh no, this isn’t ours. It’s Shylock’s work.”
“Ah.”
It seemed now that Laness had a connection with Shylock as well.
Apparently, she had commissioned the carriage’s creation from him.
But thinking about the time when Shylock was most active…
That meant all the maintenance and any additional work on it were now being handled by the Laness Magic Tower.
“Well then, let’s talk while we travel. There’s much to discuss.”
“Understood.”
With that, the carriage carrying Jun, Velles, and Laness began to move down the road before soon lifting off the ground and soaring through the sky with a smooth glide.
While Jun briefly admired the scenery outside the carriage window, Laness spoke up first.
“First… there are two main reasons I’m taking you with me.”
“I’m listening.”
“The first is purely personal curiosity, you might say.”
“Curiosity?”
“I want to see how far someone like me can guide you… and which path you’ll take under that guidance. I’m curious.”
That was hardly a bad offer for Jun.
There was no reason not to accept.
Getting to visit the Sixth Level with an escort… I’m not likely to get another chance like this.
No matter how much experience he had from the game, real-life fieldwork was a different story.
As a party leader, seeing the place with his own eyes would be an incredibly valuable experience.
“The second reason is the Mage Assembly.”
“Ah, now that you mention it, the timing lines up.”
The Mage Assembly.
As the name suggested, it was a gathering where mages shared their research and achievements.
It was supposed to be a place to present how much magical knowledge one had accumulated over the past year and what kind of progress had been made. It was a forum of knowledge.
But expecting anything constructive from such a closed-off magical society was a tall order.
Indeed, Laness’s expression had turned sour the moment she mentioned the Mage Assembly.
“At the assembly, Jun, I plan to make your existence known.”
“What do you mean by ‘make my existence known’?”
“To show how far a mage who’s fought real battles can grow. And to expose how incompetent those mages who never leave their towers truly are.”
“…Whoa.”
Just hearing her say it made it clear…. this wasn’t going to be a light burden.
…So why am I excited?
Maybe it was because he’d always hated mages from the towers.
Or maybe it was due to all the scorn he’d endured over the years for being an outsider to the towers.
Though Jun didn’t show it outwardly, perhaps something had been quietly building up inside him all along.
“So the reason we’re going to the Sixth Level is…”
“Yes. I plan to record footage of a newly ascended sixth-circle mage handling the monsters of the Sixth Level on his own.”
“Hmm…”
The intention was good.
But Jun had [Mana Body]. Something not so easy to reveal.
If I’m going to do my best… that would mean releasing my seal spell and even entering my mutant form.
That was something he didn’t want to expose, not even in front of Laness.
…Maybe that very thought is the problem.
After all, if he was going to receive her teachings, he ought to give it his all.
But he wasn’t willing to let that effort be broadcast to the Mage Assembly.
Of course, Laness likely wouldn’t reveal anything about his [Mana Body] to the Assembly.
Whatever the case… I’ll have to face it head-on and figure it out as I go.
“There’s still quite a bit of time until we arrive, so let’s talk more about it along the way.”
“Understood.”
***
Four days later, the three of them arrived at the Sixth Level, Dorca’s Wrath.
“This carriage… it’s truly amazing.”
They had traveled from the third to the sixth level in just four days.
By land, that same journey would’ve taken nearly four months.
Jun had known that such magical carriages existed, but he hadn’t expected one to be this effective.
“With your skills, you should be able to get one soon yourself.”
“Hmm. Thanks.”
Perhaps Jun’s envy was a bit too obvious because Velles offered him some encouragement.
Over the past few days, the two had become comfortable enough to drop formal speech during their conversations.
“By the way, Lady Laness… is there a particular reason you chose this place?”
Dorca’s Wrath was infamous for its difficult environmental effects.
An area filled with lava on all sides.
Jagged terrain and the sharp obsidian shards jutting out here and there made even walking a cautious task.
“This is where a Red Dragon once met its end.”
“Ah… so that’s why it’s like this.”
In Jun’s eyes, he could see a flow of magical power that looked somewhat unstable.
“For a mage, casting spells in a place like this is practically a death wish. The fire element in this area could burn out a mage’s entire mana circuit if they’re not careful.”
“Mhmm.”
“But it won’t affect you, will it?”
Laness had already noticed the fire element orbiting Jun’s circle like a satellite.
“You’ve separated the element from your circle and have it revolving around it, using it as needed. That’s an incredible achievement. Even I’ve never thought of doing something like that.”
“Truly never?”
“I’ve considered similar ideas. But they weren’t suitable for me to apply directly.”
In any case—
“And from what I can tell, you don’t seem content with just the fire element.”
“…That’s true.”
“That’s why you came here, isn’t it? To engrave a new element into your heart. It must be the water element, right?”
“There’s nothing you don’t know, is there?”
“Javier told me.”
Naturally, Jun’s gaze shifted toward his dimensional bracelet.
Inside it rested a piece of the Sea Serpent’s heart, gifted to him by the two imperial members.
“A fragment of a dragon heart. And since it came from a Sea Serpent that died of old age, it shouldn’t be too difficult to imbue it with a new element.”
Still, the risk involved was unspeakably high.
Even for Jun, separating the fire element from his circle had nearly killed him more than once.
“You chose this place to weaken the power of the water element, didn’t you?”
“That’s right. And also to help you get used to it.”
Why, then, had she brought him to Dorca’s Wrath, a place overflowing with fire energy, to adapt to the water element?
The answer wasn’t difficult.
“When you use water magic in a place where water energy is scarce like this, you naturally get better at it.”
The only problem was that the difficulty level was downright brutal.
Laness knew well that Jun would be able to handle that level of challenge without much difficulty.
“To start with… Yes. That Red Lava over there should be just right.”
Red Lava.
A monster shaped like a larva, made entirely of molten lava.
Calling it a larva might make it sound unimpressive, but its size was far beyond what one would typically imagine a larva to be.
That creature, roughly the size of a standard shipping container, was composed entirely of lava.
Any equipment without fire resistance would melt away like snow upon contact, and even in death, it had the trait of self-detonating in a massive explosion.
“I take it you’re not just telling me to go kill it.”
“That’s right. Kill it without letting it explode.”
“A tall order, that.”
To prevent the Red Lava from self-destructing, it had to be dealt with using an opposing element.
The reason Jun knew this was because, back when he played the game, he had tried clearing this specific condition.
I needed the essence that thing drops. It was a key material for crafting fire-element gear.
But that had been a tough task.
First of all, assembling a set of pure water-element gear wasn’t easy.
If it had even a hint of physical attribute, it would explode.
And now, in a place overflowing with fire energy, he was being told to channel only water energy to attack a Red Lava?
Any ordinary mage would have looked at Laness and wondered, “Is she doing this just to mess with me?”
That’s how difficult this was.
“Master. Would it be all right if I joined in as well?”
“Yes, go ahead. It’s about time you added an element to your circle too. It’ll be good practice.”
“Understood.”
And so Jun and Velles both of them began casting magic without a word of complaint about Laness’s conditions.
It didn’t take long before beads of sweat began forming on Velles’s forehead.
As expected. Just like Master said….this is no easy task.
He had understood it in theory.
And not just theory. Velles had even cast ice-element spells in environments like this before.
But back then, it didn’t require such a pure level of elemental force.
Even with some other elements mixed in, the spells had worked fine, and their performance had been solid.
But what his master expected now was far beyond that level.
To gather only the opposite element purely in a place saturated with fire energy….it was extremely difficult.
And yet—
[Water Bomb]
Jun who was standing right next to him managed to pull it off in under a minute.
What was even more surprising—
“You fail.”
—was that his master declared Jun had failed, even though the Red Lava had been defeated without exploding.
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