The Lowest-Ranked Hero Has Returned

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Chapter 189: Treasure Hunt (4)

Fwoooosh!n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The deeper I descended the long corridor, the fiercer the heat became.

I squinted my eyes against the searing sensation that seemed to burn my entire body.

‘So this is the heat of the Primordial Ember.’

Indeed, the intensity that made it worthy of its legendary name was suffocatingly overwhelming.

But yes, while it was undeniable that this heat was extraordinary from an “objective” perspective...

[Who... what are you?]

Grace, squinting her eyes at me in disbelief, posed the question.

“Why are you suddenly asking that?”

[No reason.]

Grace frowned as if grappling with something incomprehensible.

[Even though I’m in a spiritual form and cannot feel pain, the heat in here is intense enough to incinerate an ordinary person in an instant. Yet...]

She stared at me, her eyes blinking, as if to ask why I seemed completely unaffected.

“Well, I’m used to it,”

I replied with a casual shrug and a calm expression.

Exactly.

This heat filling the corridor was something deeply familiar to me—after all, I regularly trained by ending my life to provoke the Primordial Flame.

‘If anything, this feels almost refreshing.’

Perhaps because this was merely an ember, the heat in the surrounding space felt far weaker than the heat of the Primordial Flame I experienced daily.

Of course, that was just by my standards.

As Grace had pointed out, an ordinary person would writhe in agony and burn to ashes the moment they stepped in here.

[You’re used to this? This?]

Grace looked around at the corridor, which was melting from the scorching heat, her expression full of disbelief.

[Well… maybe you have some sort of power that allows you to withstand flames.]

“...”

I had no idea what this “power to extinguish flames” she referred to was, but my ability to endure the heat of the Primordial Flame stemmed from nothing more than constant exposure.

There was no need to correct her, though.

[We’ve arrived.]

After several more minutes of descending, we came to a vast chamber that glowed red like the inside of a blazing furnace.

Fwoooosh!

At the center of the chamber stood an enormous flame, fiercely roaring.

No—more precisely...

“…Is that really an ember?”

It was far too massive to simply call it an “ember,” a house-sized blaze roaring violently.

[Hmm. These days, it seems candidates don’t learn much about mythology, huh?]

Grace clicked her tongue, beginning a sentence in the vein of a “back in my day” lecture.

[The Primordial Flame is the force that once burned the ‘Tree of Creation,’ which formed this continent and its gods. Even if it’s just an ember, of course, it’d be that big.]

“I mean, I know that much…”

[The actual Primordial Flame would probably be waaaay bigger than that.]

Grace gestured dramatically, spreading her arms wide to illustrate the size of the Primordial Flame.

I chuckled quietly at her exaggeration.

‘The real Primordial Flame was only about the size of a fist, though.’

Of course, its small size belied the sheer power contained within, far surpassing that of the ember before me.

‘This feels more like molten metal than a sharpened blade.’

If the Primordial Flame was a finely crafted sword, this ember was more like molten steel—lacking any form or precision, doing nothing but scorching its surroundings.

I took a step toward the Primordial Ember.

[Careful…!]

“It’s fine.”

Fwoooosh!

As I approached, the ember surged like a wild beast spotting prey, unleashing waves of flame as if to devour me.

[No, stop!]

Grace shouted urgently as she saw me engulfed by the flames.

The white glow of her spiritual form flared as she tried to fly to me, but...

Fwoooosh!

[Urgh…!]

The ember’s heat seemed to affect even her incorporeal form, repelling her.

Sizzle! Hiss!

The flames coiled around me, burning my flesh and releasing acrid smoke.

I looked at the fire consuming my body and smirked.

“You’re being insolent.”

Boom!

I stomped down fiercely, standing tall despite being wreathed in flames.

“Little punk.”

Drawing a deep breath, I awakened the Primordial Flame dormant within my heart.

Ssssssssss!

The excruciating pain of burning flesh.

It was as if molten steel was coursing through my veins instead of blood.

The agony was almost too much to bear.

“Heh.”

Yes.

This was it.

This pain.

‘It hurts like hell.’

Experiencing it firsthand made it clear: the heat of this raging ember was laughable compared to the Primordial Flame’s.

Fwoooosh!

The ember that had been engulfing my body suddenly flared up, as if startled, and attempted to escape.

"Where do you think you're going?"

I curled my lips into a feral grin and reached out toward the dissipating flames.

The ashen smoke emanating from my body wrapped around the ember.

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“Tsk.”

Closing my eyes, I focused my mind.

It felt as though I was experiencing astral projection, my consciousness sinking deeper and deeper as my body seemed to float weightlessly.

In the inner world forming within my mind—

Whoosh! Crackle!

The primordial flame and the ember were tangled together in a fierce struggle.

‘No.’

Calling it a "struggle" would be inaccurate.

The primordial flame was overwhelmingly dominating the ember, which was desperately trying to escape.

Crackle, crackle...

The difference in their innate strength was so immense that the ember barely lasted before being consumed entirely by the primordial flame.

‘That ended more quickly than I expected.’

The result was anticlimactic, to say the least.

Given the vast disparity in their power, the conclusion came surprisingly swiftly.

‘Time to return.’

Having confirmed the ember was fully absorbed, I prepared to leave the inner world and opened my eyes.

Whoooosh!

The primordial flame roared violently.

Like a beast breaking free from its chains, it thrashed uncontrollably.

‘Urgh…!’

As the flames raged, excruciating pain engulfed my body.

‘What is… this?’

Looking toward the primordial flame, I saw a monstrous inferno raging as if it intended to consume the world.

‘That’s….’

Had it grown stronger by absorbing the ember?

The once-dormant primordial flame now burned savagely, threatening to engulf me.

When the colossal blaze, incomparable to the ember, surged toward me—

Crash!

The ground of the inner world split apart with a thunderous sound, and something massive emerged.

Like a boot stomping out a flame, the immense presence suppressed the raging Primordial Flame.

‘Argh.’

Panting heavily, I looked at the 'something' overwhelming the primordial flame.

Shrouded in ashen smoke, it was so massive that its exact form was indiscernible.

‘Is that the power to extinguish flames that Grace mentioned?’

The immense presence, having quelled the flames in an instant, receded back into the cracked earth as if its task was complete.

‘Phew.’

I let out a sigh of relief as I watched the now-subdued primordial flame.

‘I can’t recklessly absorb embers.’

While the heat from the ember itself posed no significant threat, the real issue lay with the primordial flame that absorbed its power.

Normally subdued under the influence of the "power to extinguish flames" within me, the primordial flame had erupted like an unleashed beast the moment it consumed the ember.

Fortunately, it still hadn’t grown strong enough to overpower the suppressive force, but there was no guarantee this would remain the case.

‘It’s dangerous, but the gain is undeniable.’

I extended my hand toward the burning flames.

The fire, now tame like a docile lamb, moved at my command.

The amount of fire I could manipulate had noticeably increased compared to before absorbing the ember.

‘With this….’

Whooosh!

Flames engulfed my body.

From Ignition to Flare.

The fire surrounding me began to burn more fiercely.

Previously, the uncontrollable Incarnation of Flame state was the only time I could draw this much power from the primordial flame.

‘Let’s go one step further.’

I exhaled slowly and drew even more power from the flames.

Crackling!

The fire encircling me expanded, spreading out to cover the surrounding ground.

Snap.

With a light flick of my fingers, a massive blaze ignited in mid-air.

The flames roared and extinguished at my command, moving as I directed.

‘Within this flame-engulfed domain, my control over the primordial flame increases?’

Until now, I could only wield the primordial flame through my body.

Even when imbuing fire onto a sword, it first had to pass through me before being transferred to the blade.

But within this flame-filled domain, I no longer needed to channel it through my body; I could ignite the primordial flame wherever I pleased.

‘It feels like I’m deploying a domain.’

Now that I think about it, I’ve heard of such things before.

Certain “blessings” allow the wielder to influence their surroundings, turning an area into a favorable environment.

‘Like Lanez once did.’

Currently, Lanez can only summon snowstorms to a limited extent, but in her past life, her blessing transformed entire landscapes into snowy fields, granting her an overwhelming advantage.

In other words—

I had reached a new stage, surpassing mere ignition and intensification, where I could ignite the very land itself.

‘Of course, what matters is how much I can control it in the real world.’

Just like with intensification, training should enable me to master this new technique.

‘Ignition first, then Flare.’

As if I had awakened a blessing, the name of the new technique naturally surfaced in my mind as though I was recalling something forgotten.

‘Calamity Fire.’

It marked the moment I ascended to a higher stage.

‘This… is an unexpected treasure.’

I smirked as I gazed at the flames consuming the ground.

The result was completely unanticipated.

Still, this discovery was far more valuable than the “Divine Grace” offered as the first-place reward for this treasure hunt.

‘Though I won’t get any bonus points….’

Wait a second.

‘Ah.’

My bonus points.

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