Chapter 507 Fireball!

Reaching class Level 5 was a critical milestone where certain spellcasting classes achieved a qualitative leap, transforming into what people called "Master Mages."

The primary reason was that spellcasters who reached this tier finally gained the ability to independently cast 3rd Circle Spells.

"Flight Spell," "Remove Curse," "Speak with Dead," "Mass Healing Word"...

A multitude of incredibly powerful and practical spells converged at this tier, elevating the versatility and utility of spellcasters to another level. Whether facing high-intensity combat or complex situations during quests, they now possessed countless new solutions.

A Level 5 mage with a complete spell list, given ample preparation, could handle almost any trouble that didn't exceed their class level by too much.

And if protected by a few reliable teammates, they even stood a chance against ferocious monsters with high Challenge Ratings.

They could almost single-handedly elevate a squad's overall strength to a higher tier.

Of course, limited by their own energy, talent, time, and the ever-expanding spell repository that came with higher class levels, not every Spellcaster possessed the ability to memorize a massive number of spells.

Perhaps in the beginning, they would spread their rain and dew equally, learning a bit of everything to find their strengths and interests. But as they delved deeper into the arcane path, the types of spells they memorized evolved in a more vertical, specialized direction based on their chosen schools of magic.

More often than not, they would specialize in a single category, at most picking up a few widely applicable and powerful spells from other schools to supplement their arsenal.

And within that spell list, vaster than the stars in the sky, existed one famously renowned, immensely powerful spell. Almost every mage who reached Level 5 included it on their must-learn list, and its very name struck terror into the hearts of countless non-spellcasters.

—"Fireball"!

Admittedly, its resounding fame across the Aifala Continent was partly due to the influence of bards. The wildly exaggerated spell effects they sang about helped fuel the widespread renown of the Fireball name.

At the same time, the fact that it was so highly praised by countless non-spellcasters—and even non-Class Holders—among the pragmatic Adventurer community, who regularly faced extreme danger, spoke to the spell's overpowered nature.

It could not heal wounds, nor could it control minds. It possessed no extra special effects whatsoever.

The brilliance of "Fireball" lay in one thing only:

—Damage!

The most unadorned, devastating damage.

Centering on the spell's point of impact, it inflicted explosive fire damage on all creatures within a 20-chi radius, letting a blazing torrent of flames devour everything in its range.

Standing in the warehouse right now, guarding the three crates of goods behind him, Xia Nan was experiencing the terrifying might of "Fireball" most profoundly.

Thanks to his outstanding Perception and Agility attributes, his reaction was the fastest on the field.

Precisely because of this, Xia Nan avoided the horrifying possibility of taking the Fireball head-on. With unparalleled speed, he adjusted his position and braced for defense.

Even so, limited by the size of the warehouse and the quest items he needed to protect, Xia Nan only barely escaped the spell's twenty-chi damage radius. He stood roughly twenty-one or twenty-two chi away from the epicenter.

Along with the sudden eruption of orange-red flames, the first thing to surge forward was a searing gale wrapped in countless splinters and sparks.

As the massive concussive force slammed into the Snake-Scale Arm Shield, Xia Nan felt as if his entire arm and body had plunged into an invisible, scorching current that violently yanked him backward.

Fortunately, his excellent physical constitution, combined with the [Gravity Control] he secretly cast to increase his own weight, allowed Xia Nan to firmly control his center of gravity and keep from being swept away by the fiery torrent.

Then came the orange-red flames that blasted outward in every direction.

Xia Nan didn't know the exact temperature of the fire, but he could see the wooden crates and supplies caught in the blast radius turning into black ash and cinders in an instant, before they even had time to burn, alongside the air blurring and distorting from the intense heat.

Against such terrifying lethal power, a normal person and a newly minted Class Holder adventurer would meet the exact same fate under the churning flames of the blast radius.

Even standing on the very edge of the radius would likely result in immediate, severe burns and the loss of all combat capability.

Under these circumstances, the accumulation of Xia Nan's nearly two years since transmigrating invisibly manifested into three solid layers of protection.

The first layer, [Darkscale Coiled Guard].

A blue Rare piece of equipment forged primarily from the scales of a Secret Realm serpent corpse. Even though its main defensive attributes targeted "corrosion" and "acid damage," that didn't mean it lacked the ability to ward off fire.

Its incredibly unique and tough material allowed the Arm Shield to maintain its dark, cold luster even as it faced the surging orange-red flames head-on, much like a cobblestone washed by flowing water.

Only the metal and leather connecting the equipment to his arm showed obvious signs of scorching and melting.

The Snake-Scale Arm Shield blocked the most intense fire damage brought by the Fireball for Xia Nan.

The second layer, [Gravity Control].

His innate talent and instinct for combat meant Xia Nan didn't even need to think. The moment he raised his shield to defend, he focused his attention and adjusted the surrounding gravity.

He guided the erupting flames ahead of him, which should have completely engulfed his body, straight onto the Arm Shield.

Then, using the edges of the Arm Shield as a starting point, he extended the field outward, channeling the fiery torrent shattered by the shield's surface away to both sides.

From a distance, Xia Nan currently looked like the center of some vortex made of fire. The blazing orange-red flames were drawn in, concentrated, and then dispersed outward.

This maneuver maximized the defensive performance of the [Darkscale Coiled Guard] while doing everything possible to prevent his own body from being scorched by the stray flames.

But Xia Nan's proficiency with [Gravity Control] was still only at Level 1, and the Snake-Scale Arm Shield was, after all, just an Arm Shield with a limited defensive area.

No matter how he manipulated gravity to concentrate the flames and channel them away, wisps of fire still penetrated his defensive perimeter and landed on him.

What took effect next was his third layer of protection—the [Abyssal Current] armor.

This armor set, crafted primarily from Shark Beast materials, featured a two-piece structure consisting of a close-fitting inner lining and an outer layer of protection, providing a defensive area far exceeding that of ordinary armor.

More importantly, thanks to the unique nature of its main material and the superb craftsmanship of the blacksmith during forging, the armor possessed a "+25% Fire Resistance." It seemed unremarkable on normal days, but right now, it played the most vital role.

One could see the orange-red flames that slipped past the outer defensive ring land on the armor's surface. The slightly recessed vortex pattern right in the middle of the [Abyssal Current]'s chest suddenly shimmered with a faint blue light.

Damp moisture instantly thickened the air!

"Sizzle!"

The searing flames had barely touched the armor before they were swallowed by the fine dew condensing on its surface, turning into wisps of hot white smoke that lingered around Xia Nan before slowly dissipating into the air.

Thus, the three layers of protection activated one by one.

This near-perfect response to the crisis meant that Xia Nan, who already stood outside the Fireball's radius, only suffered minor burns on exposed areas like his cheeks and hands from such a devastating strike. It didn't affect his combat capabilities, nor did it even require active healing. Relying purely on his body's autonomous recovery, he would heal without a trace in a few days.

The combination of equipment, combat techniques, and physical constitution had shielded him from this sudden descent of fire magic.

On the other side, however, the members of the Shield of Iron Rock Squad were not nearly as composed as Xia Nan.

Their class levels might have been the same as his, but their complete inferiority in the three aforementioned aspects left the squad in an incredibly dire state when facing the bombardment of the Fireball.

The dwarf Habik had received Xia Nan's warning, and though he didn't quite understand why, he had raised his shield in time to defend.

Facts proved this was the most correct action he had taken in this entire battle.

He was closer to the Fireball's epicenter than Xia Nan, roughly nineteen to twenty chi away, practically right on the edge of the fire damage radius.

The stocky dwarf looked as though he were carrying a solid wall, pressing his entire body against the back of the massive heavy steel tower shield in front of him.

The flames scraping past the sides of the shield scorched the dwarf's already thick body hair. Even the braided beard resting on his chest was nearly ignited, sending up curls of white smoke.

The skin beneath his dense hair flushed bright red from the stray flames, clearly leaving him with severe burns.

The two teammates behind the dwarf weren't faring any better.

Even though Habik's tower shield had absorbed the brunt of the fire damage, the two were still scorched by the searing gale.

Seli, the human ranger, disregarded her image completely and fell to her knees, hugging her wooden bow tightly with both hands as she sprawled behind the tower shield in a highly ungraceful posture.

She did this solely to minimize the surface area of her body exposed to the incoming heat wave.

But even so, the scalding torrent roasted her skin red, and her entire body trembled from the burning pain radiating across her flesh.

Agu, the gnome Rogue, fared slightly better. His already tiny body was practically plastered to Habik's back, letting his captain take the main damage and thereby avoiding the shockwave of the flames as much as possible.

Compared to Xia Nan or the other three members of the Shield of Iron Rock Squad, the half-orc Hogk... was not nearly so fortunate.

The muddy bloodline in his veins made his reactions half a beat slower to begin with. When Xia Nan threw Hogen out the window, quickly leaped in front of the goods to assume a defensive stance, and shouted for the others to raise their shields, the big oaf had only just pulled his head out of a crate packed with cured meat.

Even though he heard Habik's roar and belatedly scrambled toward the dwarf, it was already too late.

When the Fireball smashed into the floor and the blazing flames exploded outward, Hogk was only twelve chi from the epicenter.

He might not have taken a direct hit, but he fully experienced the terrifying might of a 3rd Circle Fireball.

"Ssss!"

The half-orc's clothing—including his leather pauldron, the stiff felt padding beneath it, and his durable trousers—were completely devoured by the flames in an instant, turning into unrecognizable black cinders that were blown far away.

Thanks to the orc blood in his veins, Hogk had always prided himself on his burly physique, which was far more robust than that of an ordinary human. But right now, that former advantage forced him to suffer a much larger surface area of burns in the fire.

The moisture in his exposed skin was baked dry. Much like the surface of charcoal, it turned a charred, dark brown and grew covered in cracks.

The totem tattoos he had once spent a fortune to have inked by an expert were no longer visible. Taking their place was a violent, bone-deep agony akin to being slashed by knives and pierced by needles.

"Ahhhhh!!!"

The half-orc Warrior, who had always boasted of his fearless courage, was now acting worse than the most cowardly, pain-fearing child. He writhed and thrashed on the ground, tearing shrill, miserable howls of pain from his throat.

Whether it was lucky or unlucky, his half-orc constitution was indeed robust. Even after being caught in the Fireball like that, Hogk didn't die on the spot; his screams were actually full of vigor.

But precisely because of this, he had to fully endure the absurd burning pain radiating from his entire body while remaining completely conscious.

The flames gradually dissipated, leaving residual hot winds in the air and a massive, pitch-black scorch mark on the floor in the exact center of the warehouse.

Ignoring the half-orc's shrill howls of agony ahead and to his side, Xia Nan turned his head slightly, catching the three crates of collectibles he was protecting out of the corner of his eye. Seeing that only their edges were charred and they were largely unharmed, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

He then shifted his gaze toward the warehouse wall that had been blasted open by the Fireball.

There, silhouetted against the pitch-black night, were several humanoid figures rapidly closing in.

His sharp Perception quietly took effect. Tracing the trajectory of the magic particles in the air that had been disturbed by the spellcasting, Xia Nan's dark eyes looked straight into the deepest part of the night, right at the very back of the dozens of enemies.

Appearing in his line of sight were two figures, one burly and one lean.

The burly one had a sinister face, a hooked nose, and triangular eyes. He had the appearance of an adult human male, about fifty years old with graying temples, and grasped a massive chopping axe in his hand.

The lean figure standing beside him, however, was a sahuagin—a creature Xia Nan was all too familiar with.

Or rather, a sahuagin priest.

Its lifeless, pitch-black fish eyes seemed to faintly retain the orange-red glow of the flames. Two of its arms hung down naturally, while the other two cradled a bone horn about half a meter long. One could see an extremely dense cluster of magic particles gathered in the air around the mouthpiece.

Without a doubt, this bone horn was its spellcasting tool.

"Damn it, when did they find out!?"

Beside his ear came Habik's furious, slightly panicked curses.

"'Carrion Vulture' Gerry? I knew it! The Ebb Tide Gang is definitely tied to these pirates!"

"Hogk, stop screaming! This damn half-orc... quick, give him a healing potion."

At this point, they couldn't afford to worry about the cost of a potion.

Hearing Captain Habik say this, Seli showed a hint of hesitation on her face. But ultimately, she pulled a small, test-tube-like vial from her belt pouch, took careful aim, and forcefully smashed it onto the writhing half-orc on the ground ahead.