Joo Eun-jong barely held back the curse that surged up.
His thuggish nature hadn’t completely disappeared, but he could keep his wits in front of Choi Kangjoong.
Still, he couldn’t help letting harsh words slip.
“Look at the way you talk. How much have I helped you?”
“Don’t get angry over a joke.”
“You shouldn’t joke about someone else’s hard work!”
“Can’t we do that much as friends? You started speaking informally first!”
Joo Eun-jong, at a loss for words, shut his mouth.
Choi Yunseo didn’t stop there.
When she brought up Joo Eun-jong’s past deeds, he had nothing to say even if he had ten mouths.
“Stop it and let’s just grill the meat. I’m hungry.”
Only after Han Junghwa intervened did Choi Yunseo’s barrage end.
“We’re eating outside, right?”
“It tastes better that way.”
Choi Yunseo told Joo Eun-jong to bring the brazier.
Joo Eun-jong quietly brought the brazier he had stored in the corner of the garage.
It was the one he had bought to grill Anti-Magic Shells.
Choi Yunseo added charcoal and lit the fire.
Under the A-Class Flame Mage’s magic, the charcoal quickly turned bright red.
Joo Eun-jong and Han Junghwa did the carrying.
Choi Kangjoong just sat there.
It was the result of Joo Eun-jong and Han Junghwa repeatedly telling him not to do anything.
“It feels like it should be the other way around.”
Choi Kangjoong, who had become the one making the guest work, just watched Choi Yunseo grill the meat.
She placed thick sirloin on the griddle and lit a fire above it, so the meat cooked in an instant.
“Is it tasty grilled that way? It looks like it won’t be good.”
“The meat I’ve grilled is a hundred times more than the meat you’ve burned while eating.”
“It’s not that much.”
“It is.”
“That’s burned.”
“It’s not burned. How much I’ve practiced controlling the heat to grill meat well.”
“That’s why you’re still A-Class, because you don’t train in magic and only do things like that.”
“Grilling meat well is a Flame Mage’s destiny!”
If a Gale Mage is a fan on the battlefield.
A Flame Mage is a brazier that can be used anytime, anywhere.
+ Interest
“Whether it’s a company dinner, a workshop, or a trip, they always ask me to grill the meat. Is that all? If it’s cold, warm me up; if it’s dark, light a fire. There’s no end to what they want. Unni Jung-hwa even asked me to make a sauna on a trip once.”
Choi Yunseo poured out all her pent-up frustrations.
“If you don’t like it, you should have specialized in ice magic.”
“I don’t want to be a refrigerator.”
“Why a refrigerator?”
“Because their job is to make a thin layer of ice on alcohol and drinks. That’s why they’re called refrigerators.”
“Even without civilization, mages can live well when they gather.”
“That’s true. There’s fire, there’s a refrigerator, there’s a fan, combine the refrigerator and fan and you get an air conditioner, and there’s also Lightning Mouse.”
Lightning Mouse was a lightning-type mage.
With practice, they could charge auxiliary batteries, so there was never a shortage of electricity outdoors.
“Try it.”
Choi Yunseo cut the rested meat and gave it to Choi Kangjoong.
Choi Kangjoong tasted it and gave a thumbs up.
Choi Yunseo brought the side dishes and also handed a piece to Joo Eun-jong, who was seated.
“Hey, Fan! It’s grilled by the brazier.”
Joo Eun-jong chuckled and ate the meat.
His reaction was the same as Choi Kangjoong’s.
Han Junghwa sat down, and the drinking session began.
Joo Eun-jong mostly talked with Choi Yunseo or Han Junghwa.
It was as Choi Kangjoong had expected.
Choi Yunseo said that a Flame Mage’s pride wouldn’t allow others to grill meat, so she never let go of the tongs.
“Too bad there’s no refrigerator.”
“Just drink it all before it gets warm.”
Han Junghwa downed a can of beer in one go and let out an exclamation of admiration.
Seeing that, Choi Kangjoong felt he understood why she had become a beer commercial model.
“No Anti-Magic Shell?”
“If I find a habitat, I’ll get you some.”
“I heard elves can raise anything well, can’t they farm that?”
“It seems hard to raise because magic doesn’t work on them.”
As everyone got drunk, Choi Kangjoong told them about the conversation he had with Lagan.
Since Lagan had asked him not to reveal too much about the Dimension System to others, he glossed over it appropriately.
He omitted the purpose and creation of the Crystal, and only said that there are places in the world where waste energy gathers and demons are born from them.
The three people marveled at learning how demons are born.
“If there is waste, isn’t there an opposite? If there are demons, there should be angels too.”
“The Dimension System gives that to us.”
“To us?”
“Yeah. It reads an individual’s will and pushes them to move in that direction.”
“I thought it just randomly assigned classes. But there are people who don’t fit their class.”
There exist Awakened who are warriors but cowardly, mages but inaccurate, or summoners who fear their summoned beasts.
“Because what you want to do and what you’re good at are different.”
“That’s true. So the system doesn’t decide everything after all.”
“The system realizes the will to change oneself. It’s based on Root Magic.”
“So I’m important after all.”
Choi Kangjoong also explained about Root Magic.
“That’s how individuals change, society changes, and civilization develops.”
“Like Marsala?”
“Right.”
Marsala also had only a few Awakened in the past, similar to Earth.
As time passed, the number of Awakened increased, spirits spread throughout society, and they built a new civilization based on spirits.
•Choi Yunseo stared blankly at the blazing brazier.
The three people kept silent so she could organize her thoughts.
A gentle breeze passed by.
Joo Eun-jong cast an Air Shield to block any strong wind or noise that might disturb Choi Yunseo.
After a moment, Choi Yunseo raised her head.
“Why are you all like that?”
“It’s because of you. Do you want to go inside?”
“No. I’ll do it later. I never forget things like this. But the Air Shield, you didn’t do that, did you, Fan?”
“Who else would do it but me?”
“Oh. I can take one letter off ‘thug’.”
The drinking session started again.
Choi Kangjoong, who was watching the three play around, asked.
“What are the weaknesses of humans?”
“Why suddenly? Are you thinking of invading Earth?”
Han Junghwa said.
“No, it’s because I might have to fight humans from another world.”
“How many?”
“At least 300 million.”
“Your scale is ridiculous. I thought in my head it would be a thousand or at most ten thousand.”
“I’ve killed over 100 million orcs alone.”
“That’s stored in my head, but it’s so unrealistic it doesn’t come out.”
Han Junghwa shook her head.
“Anyway, what do you think are the weaknesses of humans?”
“With that scale, extremes of heat or cold?”
“That would be bad for other races too.”
“No. Elves can be protected by spirits, so they can operate well in boiling deserts or places at -50°C. I heard Metra are fine even above 100°C.”
Choi Kangjoong thought it was a useful idea.
If he turned the battlefield into a sea of fire when fighting the world Iselin was watching, it could become very advantageous.
Because humans wouldn’t be able to act properly, and Apocalid would become stronger thanks to the evolution code Flame Absorption.
“Not bad. Anything else?”
“Causing division seems good too. If you cut off the head, they can’t unite their strength.”
Joo Eun-jong said.
Choi Yunseo scolded him, asking why think so much when you can just sweep them away.
The drinking party continued all night.
Choi Yunseo and Joo Eun-jong, who had relatively lower stamina, went to sleep after seeing the dawn.
Han Junghwa cleaned up, lingered in the living room, ate lunch, and then left saying she had an appointment.
‘So that’s the life of a social butterfly.’
Choi Kangjoong thought it was impressive and went into his room.
‘Come to think of it, fighting in low temperatures is also hard for Apocalid.’
Extreme cold was the worst battlefield for Apocalid.
Since they can’t perform heat-generating metabolism, if their body temperature drops, muscles stiffen and they fall into forced hibernation.
To prevent that, they have to move constantly, but if all stored nutrients are consumed, it’s over.
‘To compensate for that, I need to equip a heat-generating evolution code or a cold resistance one.’
Choi Kangjoong preferred cold resistance evolution codes.
Heat-generating evolution codes had the advantage of guaranteeing a certain level of activity in moderate environments.
However, they consumed a lot of nutrients and had even worse adaptability to extreme environments.
That was fatal when fighting spirits or transcendent beasts.
The performance of the Flame Absorption evolution code he currently had would also deteriorate.
So he only obtained heat-generating evolution codes when he didn’t have cold resistance ones.
‘What cold resistance evolution codes are there?’
Choi Kangjoong accessed Dimensionnet and looked at the monster types.
‘This is it.’
The mouse cursor stopped on [Dimension Kraken].
It was a monster that lived everywhere in the Dimensional Sea, and large ones could exceed 10 km.
The exact evolution code was not cold resistance but cold utilization, but anyway, it could prevent heat from being taken away.
‘I have to go far.’
Krakens attack dimension ships as prey, so they’ve been wiped out near the Enterprise Union.
It was a different reason from the Anti-Magic Shells that disappeared because they were tasty.
“It’s said that if attacked, they call a bigger one, so cargo ships just run away.”
That was a bad habit for traders, but the opposite for Choi Kangjoong.
Because if he caught one, a bigger one would come.
Catch a bigger one, and an even bigger one would come, and then an even bigger one.
‘A Dimension Kraken party. What would this taste like?’
Choi Kangjoong wondered which cephalopod the taste of Dimension Kraken would be similar to.
‘I’ll head out in a bit.’
•Choi Kangjoong stayed on the bed for a while, then opened a Gate.
*
“Human history is struggle and war.”
A man stood on a podium.
His eyes were sharp, his build large, and just standing there, he exuded a dignity that could bring others to their knees.
His name was Duselduf.
He was the ruler of the world Iselin was monitoring.
Beneath him, countless warriors were lined up without a single error.
All wore the same uniform and had identical expressions, so they could be mistaken for clones.
“It is natural for the strong to take, and it is providence for the weak to be ruled. This is a providence that applies not only to humans but to all races in the Dimensional Sea. Demons are no different.”
Duselduf patted the head of a demon kneeling beside him.
It was a Demon Duke he had captured and tamed into a slave.
“And there is a world over there.”
Duselduf pointed in the direction where the Enterprise Union was.
“There are 15 billion of various races living there. That’s five times our number. But they shackle each other with poor harmony. Do you think we, united as one, will lose to such creatures?”
-No!
“Do you think I, who have even subjugated demons, will be defeated?”
-No!
“Good. I, Duselduf, the Ruler of Magrain, the Great Conqueror, the Savior of the Dangerous World, and the Master of You All, declare! We will devour the Enterprise Union, make all of them slaves, scatter them among you, and distribute land and wealth according to military merit! Prepare for war!”
The warriors cheered.
A vibration that seemed like the speech hall would collapse occurred.
Under Duselduf’s orders, they produced weapons and dimension ships and stockpiled war supplies.
The vanguard boarded small, fast dimension ships and headed for the Enterprise Union.
It was to conduct reconnaissance while hiding the purpose of invasion.
Not long after, those disguised as envoys made contact with the elves of Marsala.