Led by Cole, Vivian and her two companions arrived at a small door tucked into a corner of the first-floor lobby.
A sign hanging beside the door frame read: “Security Room.”
At the front of the group, Cole took a deep breath, trying to steady his trembling heart.
Immediately after, he pushed open the door to the security room.
The first thing that caught his eye was a trail of dried, dark-red blood. It looked like the roots of a great tree, flowing along the cracks of the stone tiles across the floor.
Lifting his gaze, he saw five men dressed in cloth armor lying in the corner of the room. Two black, kettle-style helmets lay discarded beside them.
Cole remained silent, walking wordlessly to the corpses and crouching down to examine their condition.
After a moment, Cole shook his head despondently.
‘Whether it’s Tomin or the others… they’ve all stopped breathing…’
Vivian followed him and crouched down as well. Under the expectant gazes of the others, she reached out her hand.
A faint, red orb of light flickered in her palm.
A moment later, she stood up with a look of disappointment, her voice low.
“Their souls have already departed for the underworld.”
If it were just external injuries or blood loss, Vivian could have tried to save them using blood magic. However, if the soul had already dissipated, she was powerless.
Unless they could find a Necromancer to perform a ritual of undead resurrection.
But even then, it would not be a true resurrection.
“I see…”
Cole responded softly. He wasn’t surprised by the result.
He simply reached out in silence, slowly closing the eyelids of the guards who had died with their eyes open.
Then, he knelt on the floor, closed his eyes, and whispered a prayer for their journey into the afterlife.
Behind him, Vivian and the other two did not make a sound to disturb him.
Inside the small security room, the only sound that remained was the low murmur of Cole’s prayer.
A short while later, Cole, who had not yet finished his prayer, opened his eyes in confusion.
‘Huh? What’s going on?’
His keen magic perception seemed to detect a strange magical fluctuation.
Suddenly, he had an ominous feeling…
He thought for a moment, and realization seemed to strike him.
Cole immediately straightened his back and stood up, an expression of undeniable panic flooding his face.
He shouted urgently to Vivian and the others, “Quick! Quick!”
“Get to the lobby! There’s a violent surge of magical energy there!”
“I don’t know what kind of foul thing that bastard Shawn is up to now!”
With that, he rushed out of the security room with hurried steps, sprinting toward the center of the lobby.
Vivian and her two companions glanced at each other before following close behind.
—
The center of the lobby.
“Was your conversation with Lord Cole pleasant, Masters?”
“Please forgive me if my previous welcoming gift was a bit meager.”
The fat man, Shawn, who had been tightly bound with hemp rope, had somehow managed to break free from his restraints.
At that moment, he stood in the center of the hall, holding a scroll that pulsed with magical energy.
Seeing Vivian and the others arrive, Shawn showed no sign of panic.
Instead, he tilted his head back triumphantly and laughed loudly at them.
“Now, allow me to present my dear Masters with another…”
His large, round face—covered in torn skin and mangled flesh—was twisted with madness.
“A massive gift!!”
Having finished his sentence, Shawn suddenly snapped his remaining eye wide and hoisted the scroll high into the air.
*Rip!*
The crisp sound of paper being torn echoed through the hall.
“That’s a Level 5 magic scroll, Great Fireball!” Cole shouted, warning his companions.
Having some experience in magic studies, he recognized the scroll in Shawn’s hand at a single glance.
The Fireball spell was one of the most common spells used by mages. That spell could only summon a fist-sized fireball, though its power was enough to destroy a small shack.
The Great Fireball, however, was the upgraded version of the standard spell.
As the name suggested, it was a spell capable of summoning a much larger and more powerful sphere of flame.
The scroll, torn in half, ignited in mid-air and subsequently turned to ash, dissipating into the atmosphere.
A pillar of crimson flames rose from beneath Shawn’s feet, enveloping his bloated body.
The fire seemed to possess a life of its own, climbing up Shawn’s legs.
Finally, it converged on Shawn’s raised right hand, forming a fireball with a radius of over 1 meter.
Looking from a distance, it appeared as though Shawn was holding a sun above his head.
“Are you insane, Shawn?!” Cole shouted, pointing at him.
“With the range of that spell, you won’t be able to escape either!”
“There is no need for Lord Cole to worry about me. I have my ways!”
Shawn pulled out another magic scroll with his other hand and gripped it tightly in his palm.
“What is that?”
Cole’s face filled with confusion. The magic runes on that scroll were unlike anything he had ever seen.
Adopting the mindset of a diligent student, he asked Shawn out of curiosity.
After all, he was merely a magic apprentice who had been expelled; he hadn’t been exposed to every type of magic.
Thus, he couldn’t recognize what kind of spell was contained in the new scroll Shawn had produced.
“A Random Short-Distance Teleportation spell,” Shawn replied. Like a qualified villain who answered every question, he patiently explained it to the group of country bumpkins.
“This spell can randomly teleport the caster to an empty area within a five-mile radius.”
“Note: Prohibited for use in front of high-level demons!!!” Shawn suddenly raised his voice, shouting the final words.
Cole was speechless.
At that moment, he felt that if Shawn were to become a teacher, he might actually be quite suited for it…
In the blink of any eye, the fireball above Shawn’s head had swelled to a radius of 2 meters.
The terrifying heat sent waves of hot air crashing through the room, constantly blowing against Vivian’s fluttering hair.
Vivian felt as though she had been placed inside an oven, her entire body being roasted by the high temperature.
‘Perhaps in a moment, I’ll turn into a soft and sweet little cupcake.’
“What do we do?” Vivian asked, reaching down to press her short skirt against the heat waves to prevent herself from being exposed.
“How about we just run?” Nolan said very seriously.
“I say we just hit him!” The simple-minded orc, Black, rubbed his hands together.
“Too late!” Shawn, still hoisting his “sun,” suddenly interrupted them.
A cold glint flashed in his eyes, and the crazed expression on his face became even more distorted.
“Well then… goodbye forever!”
He suddenly swung his right hand downward and quickly tore the teleportation scroll in his other hand.
With a flash of azure light, Shawn’s fat body vanished instantly from where he stood.
“Dammit!”
Vivian couldn’t help but curse.
First, a blindingly intense red light swallowed all shadows.
The next second…
*BOOM!*
A deafening roar like muffled thunder exploded within the lobby, causing a stinging, tearing pain in everyone’s eardrums.
Then, a wave of orange-red fire swept through the entire room.
Whether it was the unconscious guards of Shawn’s merchant group still tied up in the hall or the four of them—Vivian, Nolan, Black, and Cole—everyone was swallowed by the wave of flames.
The entire building of the Blue Whale Chamber of Commerce was shredded in an instant. The roof was blasted into the air, and the walls were pushed outward.
In this area, nothing remained but a sky full of sparks, drifting debris, and a plume of thick smoke billowing toward the heavens…
***
Some time passed.
Once the remaining sparks in the air had vanished and the last of the dust had settled, a pile of rubble within the ruins of the Blue Whale Chamber of Commerce shifted.
*Shhh!*
Suddenly, a small, fair, and tender hand reached out.
The little hand scrambled around the pile of stones for a moment, finally finding a spot for leverage.
The sound of tumbling stones echoed through the silence.
Vivian’s soot-covered little head popped out from the rubble like a new sprout in spring.
“Ugh, pfft, pfft!”
Like a kitten that had just crawled out of the water, she vigorously shook her fluffy hair, sending the dust and ash flying off her head.
Vivian spread her hands, bracing herself against the surrounding rubble, and pulled her lower half out of the debris.
She shook her dizzy head once more.
Then, she scanned the ruins with bewildered eyes.
Not long ago, several large stones had slammed into her head, and it still throbbed with a dull pain.
‘Oh no! Is my husband blown to bits?!’
Vivian’s mind suddenly jolted awake.
She hurriedly looked around, searching for Nolan’s figure.
At that moment, a familiar voice drifted over from behind her.
“Where did this thing teleport me to?”
“Why does it look like some kind of ruin? I didn’t get sent outside the city, did I?”
A fat man covered in blood was standing beside a charred black shelf.
He was also peeking around with a bewildered gaze, scanning his surroundings.