-If It Freezes, It Bursts
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-boom!
As the underground cell expanded and began bursting apart with a thunderous roar, the dwarves gathered above it panicked and shouted.
“It’s bursting! The cell’s frozen solid and it’s bursting!”
“It’s freezing magic!”
“Run! It’s going to explode!”
I looked up and answered them.
“That’s right. If it freezes, it bursts. Basic science.”
Once the trigger called trauma was set off, the waves of mana energy within my body surged violently, and my golden vision sharpened like a blade.
Thanks to that, I was quickly able to find the gaps in the force field that was disrupting the waves.
The rest was not difficult. Once I pierced through the disruption, casting magic inside the cell was simple, and I chose freezing magic.
First, I filled the space with frost. The frost froze over with crackling sounds and spread in every direction.
Every wave within the space transformed into freezing energy, expanding into a massive block of ice.
At last, the space, having expanded as far as it could, broke through its own restraints and burst apart with an enormous roar.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-boom!
The thunderous blasts continued a few more times, and then the sky opened up above me.
The underground cell that had imprisoned me was now gone without a trace.
It had merely frozen and expanded, yet it had completely destroyed the space as if a bomb had gone off.
Shards of ice flew in all directions along with fragments of the materials that had formed the underground cell.
I examined the substances scattering to pieces. I quickly analyzed the circuit that had woven the materials together.
‘Obsidian, earth, and tetrium. They designed the circuit to maximize the properties of the materials. An excellent device.’
Honestly, I was impressed. It was the optimal circuit that could be designed with the small amount of mana the dwarves possessed. It was possible only because of their outstanding craftsmanship in making equipment.
The dwarves had their own perspective and method.
‘It’s quite a good idea. Distinctive, too.’
The way humans view the world is not the only absolute way.
Not only other races, but even insects view and interpret the world in ways humans would never imagine, finding paths that help them survive.
When you think about it, magic was also a new perspective and method.
Magic allows humans to step outside their own framework and reinterpret the world.
It teaches them to see everything in the world not as clumps of matter, but as waves.
‘If I apply this well, it could help in designing magic circuits too.’
It would be enjoyable to think about ways to use the dwarves’ perspective and methods in magic circuits, but for now, I first had to find the dwarf who had stabbed me in the back and clear up the little misunderstanding between us.
I stepped on the heaps of ice piled layer upon layer and climbed up to the surface.
The central square had a huge, gaping hole in it. The dwarves were already fleeing far away.
I looked for Yantu first. From behind, all the dwarves looked similar, but that did not mean it would be hard to find Yantu.
Even without using detection magic, I could feel Yantu’s bodily signature over there.
I swiftly chased after him and snatched him by the scruff of the neck.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
“Th-this is impossible! How did you use magic in there? Why didn’t the magic-blocking device work properly?”
Yantu flailed his squat body and looked at me with an expression of disbelief.
“Because my magic is better than your device, obviously.”
“Amazing! Truly amazing!”
“That’s why you should have resolved this through conversation like civilized people. What is this? Your precious device is the only thing that got smashed.”
“No, I was going to. Of course we should resolve it through conversation. I told you to stay in there only until tomorrow morning.”
“Hah! Do you want to get beaten only until tomorrow morning too? Then shall we have a conversation afterward?”
“I was wrong. But could you let go of me first before we talk?”
Yantu said, gasping exaggeratedly.
He did not look particularly like he was suffocating. What a drama queen.
Still, I let go of the hand gripping Yantu’s nape for the time being. I had no intention of continuing to fight this dwarf.
What mattered was getting the backup information as initially promised.
“Thanks. Now let’s settle this through conversation like civilized people.”
“Hand over the backup information you promised.”
“All right. Let’s go to my house and……”
Just as Yantu raised his arm as if to point in the direction of his house—
A thunderous roar of shouting suddenly rang out, and many things came pouring down from the sky all at once.
Chunks of mud came tumbling down, large stones fell, arrows rained down, and lassos flew in, whirring as if they were dancing.
“Let Yantu go!”
“We fight to the death!”
“We won’t lose to a human mage!”
I sighed and quickly spread a barrier over our heads.
“Oh, come on. Are you dwarves seriously trying to have a go at me?”
The sound of all sorts of things clattering down onto the barrier rang like drums on a rainy day.
All of a sudden, Yantu and I looked like lovers sharing an umbrella in a downpour.
“Wait! Master Mage, don’t just lose your temper for no reason. I’ll talk to them, so please hold back for a little while.”
Perhaps frightened to be alone with me inside the barrier, Yantu spoke restlessly.
In truth, I was not that angry. The dwarves’ attack was so crude and chaotic that it was almost laughable.
Before I knew it, the dwarves had formed ranks around the central square.
They were attacking with devices, but the fact that those devices merely shot and hurled mud piles, stones, and arrows was absurd.
It seemed not all dwarven devices were intricate and outstanding.
It was not even the Middle Ages, honestly. The atmosphere was unbearably old-fashioned.
“Let Yantu go!”
“Attack the mage!”
“He might use magic again. Hurry and activate the disruption device!”
The sight of the dwarves busily running here and there as they attacked looked, in a way, as if they were so excited they did not know what to do with themselves.
‘Are they playing around?’
Or perhaps they could not launch a more violent attack because I had Yantu with me.
In any case, I could not just stand here and be pelted with stones.
Just as I quietly drew up my mana and raised one hand, a woman suddenly rushed out into the middle of the square and shouted.
“Wait! Everyone, please stop attacking! This mage is absolutely not a bad human. He’s a mage who once saved me. I’m sure he didn’t come here to spy on us.”
I tilted my head and examined the woman.
No matter how I looked at her, she was a woman I did not know. It was a face I had never seen before in my life.
To begin with, I did not have any dwarves I knew personally.
‘You say I saved you? You?’
Then, from beside me, Yantu looked back and forth between the woman and me and asked.
“Master Mage, you knew Lily?”
I did not answer and quietly extended detection magic. I thought she might have been someone Oudyn knew but I did not remember, so I tried to check.
But at that moment, I immediately realized who the woman was.
The mana lines I had spread earlier to track Ren came back to life. The silver lines following Ren’s trail were gathering toward her.
‘That woman is Ren?’
It was so hard to believe that I cast detection magic once more. This time, I concentrated and extended new mana lines with precision.
There was no mistake. The newly extended mana lines were clearly detecting Ren’s bodily signature.
That woman was Ren.
‘Why on earth is Ren in the form of a dwarf? Could she have undergone another biological modification surgery in the meantime?’
That could not be. It had not been that long since I met Ren. It made no sense that she had undergone biological modification surgery and even recovered in that time.
“Aha! So the missing person you said you were looking for was Lily? But you say you saved her before? When did that happen?”
Yantu addressed her by the name Lily once again as he spoke to me.
‘Lily? What is going on?’
Yantu was calling that woman Lily, the mana detection was telling me she was Ren, and my eyes were telling me she was a woman I did not know.
In the meantime, the woman approached me. Coming up to the barrier, she held out her hand to me.
I quickly checked her fingernails. They were green. Those nails proved that she was Ren.
‘Yes. It really was Ren.’
For the moment, I dispelled the barrier so I could approach her.
Then Yantu immediately stepped forward and raised his voice.
“Stop attacking! Everyone, stop it. We agreed to settle things with the mage through conversation, so why are you all attacking out of nowhere?”
Even without Yantu’s words, the dwarves had already stopped attacking.
They all looked bewildered at the woman’s appearance, but it seemed they had decided to watch the situation for now.
The standoff ended like that.
While Yantu went to speak with the dwarves, I moved closer to the woman and looked at her with an expression that demanded an answer.
The woman opened her mouth.
“Master Mage, it’s me, Ren. You were startled because my appearance is different from last time, right? There are circumstances.”
“I see. What circumstances?”
“That’s……”
Ren hesitated and could not continue.
“In any case, thank you. For stepping forward for me. Though there was no need to go that far.”
“I did it because everyone seemed to be misunderstanding you, Master Mage. You aren’t affiliated with the government.”
Ren looked at me as she spoke.
Since she had seen how I dealt with the people from the Chinatown underground organization when we met last time, she must have been certain that I was not a government-affiliated mage.
“Of course not. The dwarves misunderstood. But how are you here, Ren? And that appearance……”
It seemed like a difficult matter for her to talk about, but I had no choice but to ask.
“Before I explain, may I ask you a question first? Master Mage, did you perhaps come here to find me? Did Vanaheim request that you track me down?”
I could feel Ren tense up sharply.
Even though she knew it was a dangerous question, she was asking it directly.
With this, it became certain that Ren had fled from Vanaheim.
“It’s true that I came to find you. But……”
As I carefully chose my words to answer, Yantu, who had returned at some point, abruptly cut in.
“No, if the person you were looking for was a dwarf, you should have told me so from the start. Then I wouldn’t have suspected you, Master Mage.”
With a puzzled expression, Yantu looked back and forth between Ren and me and asked.
“But who is Ren? Why are you calling Lily Ren? And what is this talk about Vanaheim?”
“We shouldn’t talk about this here. Let’s move somewhere else.”
I looked around as I spoke. This was not a conversation to have in a place open on all sides, with dwarves peeking over at us.
“Oh, right. Let’s go to my house and talk. It’s not far from here.”
“That would be best.”
When I agreed, Yantu set off with Ren and me on either side of him.
The dwarves who had gathered and were watching us split apart like the Red Sea, opening a path.