Chapter 95
[Title: Wow lol, Feeling Good]
Author: Supreme Storm Mage
(A GIF of him holding the pole to the water)
(A GIF of a fishman floating up)
I don't feel any mana flowing through my hand.
It isn't particularly flashy, and there's no casting or anything.
I just put the pole against it, and it dies lol. This is fucking awesome lol.
[Recommended 4731] [Not Recommended 412]
- Let me use it too, fuck
- Wow lol, I feel so refreshed inside
- Feels so refreshing~
- But how did you put archmage magic inside that steel? What's the principle?
ㄴ Supreme Storm Mage) I guess it runs on mana
ㄴ (An open-mouthed, dumbfounded elf emote)
At first, everyone was in a joking mood.
It wasn't as if anyone could feel favorably toward fishmen who waited for the right moment to swarm out and ambush people despite being weak.
When one floated up, most of the reactions were along the lines of, “Serves it right.”
[Title: Oh, wait a second]
Author: Supreme Storm Mage
(A GIF of several more fishmen floating up nearby)
I only dipped it in for two seconds.
I put it in and took it out just to test it, so why are you guys coming up?
- Um...
- Oh, huh, it works pretty well lol
- Isn't a good thing a good thing?
But when several more came floating up in a steady stream, the mood gradually quieted down, until
[Title: Fuck, what is this?]
Author: Supreme Storm Mage
(A GIF of the Lightning Mage holding the pole and looking bewildered)
(A GIF of several—no, dozens—of fishmen floating up dead and washing ashore)
Aaaagh, fuck
What's happening? How does this work?
What am I doing right now?
I'm sorry!!
[Recommended 5232] [Not Recommended 0]
- ?
- Uh, why do they keep floating up...?
- (A wide-eyed elf GIF)
You can stop coming out now, you know?
Eventually, when every fishman beneath the lake floated up and covered the surface,
An inexplicable chill and eerie feeling spread through the Gallery's comment section.
- No, this is kind of creepy
- The way they all float up silently is something straight out of hell. It's seriously fucking creepy
ㄴ No, no, listen carefully. You can hear the sound of electricity flowing
ㄴ (A trembling elf emote)
ㄴ Fuck, is that the sound of a death sentence?
ㄴ That's even scarier
The current made no distinction between the fishmen beneath the water and those hiding in the cracks between the rocks.
The silent lightning that spread through the pond upon contact killed everything it brushed against.
Supreme Storm Mage—Derek—finally dropped the pole he had been holding.
“Is this really lightning magic...?”
He was, in any case, a lightning mage.
The moment he touched it to the water, he sensed it, however faintly.
The high-voltage energy coursing through the pond via the water.
It was on an entirely different level from his own magic, which merely imitated lightning by consuming mana.
“I couldn't feel any mana at all.”
Could he really be an archmage, after all?
He couldn't find even the slightest trace of mana.
It was as if it were pure electricity itself.
And when he sensed that, Derek's mind was struck by one dangerous thought.
- Uh, what is he doing?
- Why is this bastard staring at the lightning magic condenser?
- I think this guy's having a weird thought
Without realizing that the moment had been captured in a GIF and uploaded to the Gallery, Derek's eyes filled with excitement.
“The essence of archmage magic is contained inside this...”
What was a mage?
They were scholars bordering on madmen, willing to throw away their lives for a glimpse of higher magic.
On top of that, lightning magic had always been treated as an oddball field with a few screws loose.
And how many flaws did magic itself have, really?
At best, it could imitate lightning with mana or call down lightning on days when thunderstorms raged.
“We could never control real lightning.”
To Derek, this little iron box looked like the ideal of lightning magic research.
- Ah, fuck, I know what he's about to do
The fire mage who had been arguing with him in the Gallery realized what state Derek was in.
It takes one madman to recognize another.
- You crazy bastard, stop!!!
ㄴ Why? What is it?
ㄴ Fuck, don't ask. Just help stop him!!!
ㄴ I don't really know what it is, but okay
ㄴ Lightning Mage, you fucking idiot
ㄴ You loser without a Mage Tower Master, a one-trick heatstone producer
ㄴ Lightning mage ❌ Bathwater-heating mage ✅
ㄴ You bastards are being way too harsh lol
ㄴ You all came swarming in the moment you got the chance to pile on lol
Many kind-hearted Gallery users who were worried about him, including the mages, tried to stop him, but
“Maybe—just maybe—I could gain enlightenment through this, too.”
Derek had already lost half his reason.
Before his eyes was a fragment of magic from the Head Mod, a great archmage who might even be a transcendent being.
Trembling from the tension, Derek soon grinned broadly and muttered,
“Ah, I can't resist.”
His desire for magical growth had finally allowed instinct to overcome reason.
He looked at the pole connected to the battery, which he had dropped in fear.
The medium of archmage magic that had annihilated the pond's small ecosystem in mere seconds.
After a moment's hesitation, Derek took its tip...
-Thup
in his bare hand.
“Gasp.”
At that moment, the high voltage contained in the battery traveled through the hand holding it and straight into Derek's body.
A shock beyond words soon swept through his entire body.
“Nngh, aaaaaaargh!!!”
He had no thoughts at first.
There was only a distant sensation, as if his consciousness were about to fly away.
The next thought he had, after barely managing to hold on to his sanity, was, Ah, fuck, I shouldn't have done this! And...
Finally, by burning through all the mana in his body and all his knowledge of lightning magic, Derek succeeded in seeing beyond his own wall.
“Nngh, aaargh!”
- Bzzzt... KABOOM!
He had finally succeeded in discharging through his other hand the high voltage condensed inside him to the point that it seemed ready to burst his entire body.
The current discharged from Derek's other hand merged with his mana, becoming clearer and more powerful.
It flew out like a tiny bolt of lightning and poured forth according to his will.
It was true lightning, on an entirely different level from the third-rate magic that had merely imitated lightning until now.
- Sizzle...
“Haaah, haaah.”
Amid the thick smell of burning, he collapsed inelegantly onto the ground from exhaustion, letting go of the pole.
But his expression was drenched in ecstasy and pleasure.
“Ahh, this is... this is archmage magic...?”
He felt as if he had tasted even a fragment of the omnipotence of the Head Mod, the teacher he had always revered in his heart.
And he instinctively sensed it.
Through the enlightenment he had just gained, one of the circles that had bound him for so long had been liberated.
“Is this the omnipotence that the great archmage, Head Mod-nim, feels all the time?!!!”
And within the Gallery, where everyone had witnessed the rise in his mage rank,
With everyone's attention focused on him, the Head Mod slowly left a chat message, as if proud of Derek's growth...
- Head Mod*) No, fuck no
It was yet another one of the Head Mod's profanities, too many to bother counting by season.
*
A well-liked Gallery regular, Supreme Storm Mage.
This lunatic had grabbed a high-voltage battery with his bare hand.
And perhaps because he had finally lost his mind, he began leaving comments thanking me over and over.
-Supreme Storm Mage) Aaaagh, teacher, master! I will honor you as my ideal for the rest of my life!!!
ㄴ Head Mod*) Don't
ㄴ Supreme Storm Mage) I thought you rejected me every time, but you gave me such enlightenment... Sob...
ㄴ I will honor you as my master for the rest of my life!!!
- I'm so fucking jealous, you lightning bastards...
- Wow, magic normally isn't taught so easily...
ㄴ Is the Head Mod some kind of angel? He lets us feel magic of that level for no reason...
ㄴ Give me enlightenment too!
ㄴ Head Mod*) No, fuck no
At first, I tried to clear up the misunderstanding.
Of course, it didn't work.
So I hurled a string of vicious insults at him, but he just thanked me for the teaching with tears in his eyes.
“I'm so, so angry” emote.
Had his brain overheated too much?
Gallery-speak had spilled out in reality.
But how many trolls had I seen since becoming the Head Mod?
Trolls who suddenly worshipped the Head Mod had existed even in the modern world.
I calmed myself down and assessed the situation.
“So, does that mean the fishman problem is solved now?”
The battery-fishing method was tremendously effective.
It had turned the fishmen into grilled fish before they could even crawl out of the water.
- Nngh~
- The real reason the Head Mod is fucking awesome.jpg
- God.jpg
MomIWantToBeHeadModWhenIGrowUp!MomIWantToBeHeadModWhenIGrowUp!MomIWantToBeHeadModWhenIGrowUp!
The Gallery happened to be in a festive mood, too.
It was just when I naturally thought the problem involving the fishmen was over that
- But what do we do now?
Just then, a post that didn't match the festive mood appeared.
ㄴ ...?
ㄴ What?
A chill response naturally greeted the post that had thrown cold water on the festivities.
But the Gallery user didn't stop, stubbornly continuing to speak his mind.
ㄴ No, honestly, we only solved one or two small ponds. The rifts in the deep lakes and the sea are still there, aren't they?
The battery-fishing method had clear limitations.
Even if we electrically grilled an entire small, polluted pond, what were we supposed to do about the sea or the lakes?
If we erased even those massive ecosystems with high voltage, that would be exactly what the rifts wanted.
“That's a fact.”
He was right.
But it was a hard truth to hear for a Gallery basking in the joy of victory.
- ㅗ
- Everyone else is fine, so why are you making a fuss?
- Isn't that guy a “Marketplace-Hoarding Troll”?
ㄴ No; putting it bluntly, the sea and lake fishman problems haven't been solved, so isn't it a little early to get our heads smashed in?
In fact, shark fishmen had come up from the sea.
And catfish and giant carp fishmen were crawling out of the lakes, but...
- 喝!!!!!
- You there! How dare you doubt the Head Mod!!!
ㄴ Head Mod*) No, he's kind of right?
ㄴ Hang the troll immediately, right?
ㄴ Seriously disgusting. Can't you read the mood?
ㄴ Head Mod*) No, I'm telling you, he's right, guys
ㄴ No, Head Mod, go over there for a minute
ㄴ The person involved can fuck off
ㄴ Head Mod*) Fuck?
The Gallery couldn't accept it easily.
And understandably so—the Gallery users had spent half their lives as losers in a world that had been destroyed.
They didn't want to let go of this feeling, this intoxication of victory, just yet.
But even if they wanted to ignore it, the truth was still the truth.
The knights and mages still had no way to descend hundreds of meters below the surface and catch the fishmen.
- Sigh...
- We can't even go down below the water...
- Should we just burn them all to death?
- Is there no underwater-breathing magic or something?
ㄴ Fuck, would there be?
It didn't take long for everyone to forget their joy and for the mood to spiral into despair.
People—and life itself—couldn't breathe underwater.
But then the answer was simple.
- Head Mod*) Then wouldn't breathing underwater solve it?
“If we need to go underwater, then we just go.”
Can't breathe?
[Category/Swimming, Water Sports]
[10L Air Tank] - 250p
“Then just breathe.”
[The item has been safely delivered!]
- Head Mod*) I'll turn you into fishmen hehe
An underwater knight? I can't pass that up.
I immediately bought an air tank and several other pieces of equipment from the marketplace.