Puk─! Puuuk─!
The goblins and kobolds struck directly by Lightning Strike couldn't withstand it and burst apart.
Electric currents spread throughout the room in an instant. Without a moment to recover, the entire body of the Orc Clown burned black.
Among the countless mages like grains of sand, only a handful could wield high-tier attributes.
Lightning Strike was the lowest among the lightning spells, but in terms of power, it ranked among the top of third-tier attribute magic.
No mere clowns, let alone high-tier species, could possibly endure it.
"..."
But they weren't all dead.
Two Trolls, even larger in build than orcs, grabbed the scorched corpses and shoved them into their mouths. In the blink of an eye, their wounds healed.
Even for demi-humans specialized in regeneration, this was unnaturally fast.
This time, he tried burning them.
A troll hit directly staggered for a moment, but soon walked out of the flames as if nothing had happened. Yellow eyes, drenched in madness.
────Kwaang!
A corpse came flying and crashed beside Verden.
'Third-tier spells won't cut it.'
To be perfectly fine after taking Lightning Strike and Fireball head-on—both their endurance and regeneration were beyond normal.
Of course, it wasn't as if there was no way. If he reduced the scattered corpses to ashes and slowly cornered them, he could surely kill them.
But that would take far too long.
Then—Kwaang!—his staff moved in a dazzling arc, deflecting the troll's punch.
Gathering mana, he slammed the ugly jaw hard, then aimed the staff at the troll charging in from behind.
A sharp pillar pierced the troll's abdomen. The creature, skewered like a spit, thrashed wildly. The pillar cracked under its monstrous strength.
'That's one for now.'
Boom! The troll struck earlier with the staff regained its senses and slammed into the mana barrier.
Its movements, at best, could be described as sluggish. Aside from its regeneration, it was about on par with an orc—a typical demi-human.
Knees, face, and neck—Verden's triple strikes made the troll groan and collapse to the ground. It couldn't feel pain, but that didn't mean it didn't need to breathe.
The next troll, knocked back by a shockwave, collided with the other. The pillar broke, entangling the two creatures.
'Now!'
Five blades of wind. And with Triple Casting.
A total of fifteen wind blades flew at the trolls like a storm. Their skin tore, and joints were severed. Unless they consumed corpses, their natural regeneration alone couldn't possibly recover from those many wounds.
Bang...! Solid waves engulfed the trolls, forming a rounded dome.
Verden clenched his hand tightly. As the dome slowly compressed, cracks began to form, and through the gaps, the troll's blood spurted out.
But this wouldn't kill them. Before long, they'd heal and smash through the walls again.
This was only a preliminary step. The trolls' execution platform, built with no small amount of mana.
He gathered his mana and transformed it into an attribute.
A massive boulder floated into the air.
Verden didn't stop there.
He poured out mana faster than it could scatter.
As it reached the limit, exceeding capacity, a crack ran through the boulder. Soon it trembled violently, on the verge of exploding—a bomb in an unstable state.
Whoooong──── The air split as the boulder shot forth.
By the time it reached the wall containing the trolls, the single crack had multiplied into dozens. At that moment, the boulder exploded into thousands of fragments.
Kwakwagwagwa!
A massive impact filled the space. Verden quickly blocked the aftershock with a mana barrier. As the floating dust in the center cleared, no life remained within.
All that was left was a troll's leg buried under rubble. It hadn't even begun to regenerate—its upper body had been scraped away by the shards.
Verden exhaled heavily.
The lightning attribute, as powerful as it was, consumed tremendous mana. On top of that, he had just unleashed a series of spells from Terrain Manipulation to Stone Slam. No matter how vast his mana reserve, it was only natural to feel fatigue.
'Still, I bought some time.'
Just ten minutes, at most. He didn't believe the doctor could have erased all traces and escaped in that short span.
Then where did he go? The answer was obvious.
Because Verden had lived in the magic tower, he knew.
What a researcher valued more than their own life was the results of their experiments.
No doubt, the doctor had gone to retrieve data he hadn't managed to collect.
Breaking through the transparent wall, he followed the path where the doctor had disappeared.
***
The doctor had sent assassins to kill him—he'd make him pay dearly for that. Wherever he went, he would not be allowed to leave this place.
The doctor arrived at the innermost part of the laboratory. Unlike the other areas, this place was spotless.
For here lay his greatest masterpiece, the result of decades of experiments and relentless research. It wasn't yet complete, but if he brought it to Gluttony, he was sure he'd rise above the others and become one of the "Five Fangs."
The doctor was certain.
"Kukukuk, I wonder what kind of expression those worn-out fangs will make."
Things had gone awry at the last moment because of his useless subordinates, but it didn't matter.
He simply couldn't use the humans from Martes as sacrifices. He'd go elsewhere and complete it slowly.
The doctor pressed a hidden button. The floor opened, revealing a massive test tube.
Inside it, a sleeping human. His special and visionary precious child. The doctor gently stroked the test tube with affection and opened the door.
Chwaaaak! Like amniotic fluid pouring out, the liquid inside spilled onto the floor.
Along with it, the human that had been inside fell to the ground. The doctor approached and pulled a syringe from his coat.
"It's time to wake up, child."
Puk. The needle pierced the spine.
Worried it might cause harm, the doctor gently pressed and slowly injected the stimulant. Just then, with a burst of blood, the doctor's right arm flew through the air.
"Kyaaaaaaaaah?!"
"This is how far you ran?"
Verden appeared, pointing his staff at the doctor.
The doctor quickly pressed his gown against the bleeding, groaning in pain as his entire body dripped with sweat.
"Ghh... H-How are you here...! No, more than that, how are you even alive?!"
"I should be the one asking that. Why did you assume I'd be dead?"
Among the doctor's failures, the trolls were exceptional.
Their base regenerative abilities, combined with healing through consumption, created monsters that were nearly impossible to kill.
Though their raw strength hadn't increased much, that ability alone made them worth keeping.
'Don't tell me… he wasn't a third-tier?'
Having received a report from Theon, the doctor was certain Verden was a third-tier mage.
Even if magical rank heavily depended on talent, age also played a role. Magic, as a scholarly discipline, was commonly understood to require long years of study to ascend.
The doctor strained to look at Verden.
Handling his trolls with third-tier spells was impossible with an ordinary third-tier mage's mana pool. He had confirmed that fact through countless experiments.
And yet, Verden not only killed both trolls and the other failures, but also caught up this quickly.
'He reached fourth-tier at that age?'
And a fully mature fourth-tier at that. If not, it couldn't be explained.
But the doctor couldn't believe it. At that age… How could the Ark hide a mage of such talent so completely?
It was as if he had dropped from the heavens.
As the doctor stared in shock, Verden asked,
"What's that next to you?"
"Ghhh...! That is, my life's greatest masterpiece, my child. Would you believe me if I said I gave everything I had to create it over the years?"
The doctor staggered to his feet.
"Why. Planning to kill it? You mustn't… absolutely not. Killing this would be a betrayal not only of Gluttony's ideals, but of humanity's ideal itself. Can't you feel it? The future of humanity emanating from this child."
Verden remained silent.
Because he didn't really know. Gluttony, its ideals—none of it was something he could infer.
He probed the doctor, focusing on key words.
"…You're saying that's humanity's future?"
"Exactly. A new evolved form of humanity, created for the weak human race unlike other species. A new form that transforms through consumption, the very root of life. Isn't that the very ideal we seek?"
Evolution, consumption, ideal.
Verden recalled those words, and thought back to the experiments the doctor had conducted. As he began to piece together the purpose of those experiments, the human lying on the floor began to twitch.
Instantly, the staff aimed at the creature, but in that brief gap, the doctor threw himself forward and plunged the syringe with force.
Chwaaaak! The delayed spell sliced off the doctor's remaining arm.
Yet the doctor laughed instead of screaming.
"Ghhk! Hahahaha! You mad mage, your mana—let it nourish my child while you're still alive!"
Flash. The human opened his eyes and rose to his feet.
As if just born, not a single hair existed on any part of his body. Like a model of the human form, he lacked anything a human should naturally possess.
The human turned his head toward Verden.
Then he smiled. A full, unnerving grin with perfectly aligned white teeth.
"Food."
"…Food?"
The strange word made Verden tilt his head.
In that moment, the human moved. His running form was clumsy, but very fast.
Should I kill it?
He hesitated for a moment but soon shook his head. He hadn't learned enough yet.
The doctor's masterpiece… Let's call it a human. Either way, it piqued his interest. As a researcher, he couldn't ignore it.
A light formed on Verden's staff.
A burst of blue mana exploded at long range.
Mana Burst was weak but fast. If it hit the head properly, it was quite effective as a suppression spell.
But...
'It dodged?'
Just before the explosion, the human twisted its body in a bizarre way and smirked at Verden. Then, the muscles throughout its body pulsed and it was enveloped in a red aura.
Body reinforcement.
A kind of technique only those who had awakened aura could use.
Knights of the Barony, a former thief turned adventurer, Sergen, even the assassin had used it.
Kuwoong! The floor shattered. The human, having begun to manipulate aura, was faster and heavier than anyone Verden had encountered since coming to the Duchy.
Bang!
The hastily erected mana barrier rang low. Dodging from all directions, the human attacked relentlessly. Verden had to maintain the barrier continuously.
Mana drained away with each passing moment. Reading the human's movements, Verden waited for an opening.
Then he heard a voice.
"Food. Weak."
Kikikik. A hideous, mocking laugh.
At that moment, Verden's gaze turned icy.
"…You're laughing?"
Verden prioritized logic over emotion. You had to, to survive in the magic tower. He sealed away every flare of anger and hatred deep inside.
Living that way brought change.
The hotter the rage burned inside, the colder his mind became. Reason and emotion, though opposites, coexisted without clashing.
Ironically, the more his emotions stirred, the clearer his head became.
Unshakable focus.
Though he tended to obsess over things, it was the best weapon when it came to observing phenomena.
Verden's mind raced.
Using past enemies as a benchmark, he gauged the abilities of the human before him.
It didn't take long.
Its reinforced physical abilities rivaled those of the Orc Clown, and so did its regeneration. Its abnormal elasticity and flexibility exceeded human limits.
'But that's all.'
Compared to trained knights, it lacked technique. Its movements were entirely instinct-driven. Though it responded instantly to magic, it couldn't distinguish even a basic feint.
It was like facing a beast wearing human skin.
In summary—
"You're not my match."
The mana barrier vanished and the punch missed.
The human lost balance and staggered.
────Bang-! Struck hard by the staff, the human was hurled far back.
Verden, veins bulging on the back of his hand gripping the staff, aimed the tip at the human.