"Thunderclap—"
The next instant, the world around him changed drastically.
Deafening thunder and crackling lightning swept through like a storm, instantly drowning out every other sound—the monsters' roars, crumbling stone, roaring flames—dominating the entire range of sound within sight like a tyrant.
A deep blue light enveloped Noah.
When she looked directly at it, the light seemed even more brilliant and intense than the midday sun.
But when Riveria looked away, she saw that the cavern all around them had suddenly turned pitch-black, as if every trace of light had been devoured.
The source of this visual contradiction was a deep, rich, flickering dark blue lightning arc.
Unlike the lightning Riveria had seen before, these dark blue arcs neither exploded violently nor crackled noisily.
Their silent, surging motion even possessed the crystalline beauty of deep-blue crystal melting.
But the elves' innate sensitivity to magic sent out a warning that rang like a great bell.
Even from hundreds of meters away, Ais and Riveria felt a heavy, suffocating pressure, as if a boulder had been placed on their chests.
They needed no one to warn them. They could both feel how dangerous those brilliant, crystalline arcs were!
A fight that looked fierce but earned a measly 250 Valis
In the gloom, lightning suddenly blazed around Noah, and his dense magical power burned like a raging flame.
His silver hair lifted in the wind. A touch of crimson surfaced in his azure eyes, while a golden brilliance shimmered and swayed, forming a dazzling, breathtaking kaleidoscope of color.
From afar, Riveria's vision as a high-level adventurer allowed her to see more details. A single dark Radiance arc, no thicker than a strand of hair, swept past and erased a stone pillar beside Noah.
Aside from the flash of light at the instant it erupted, the entire process was remarkably quiet and unobtrusive.
The destructive power of this magic was terrifying.
As Riveria marveled inwardly, she saw Noah adjust his stance and lean forward slightly. Then—
"Boom!"
Riveria couldn't quite make out what had happened. She only saw a flash of light, and Noah's figure disappeared from where he stood.
The rock slab beneath him shattered with a crash, as if it had been struck by an Earth Dragon known for its strength!
Cracks spread outward from the collapse, covering nearly a third of the chamber floor.
Turning her gaze to the monsters, Riveria caught sight of a streak of lightning darting among them. She could barely make out a human shape.
He didn't seem to do anything at all. It was as if a breeze had stirred a cloud of smoke. The lightning wrapped around Noah merely rippled, yet the masses of monsters caught in its wake exploded and disintegrated in an instant.
No—not just the monsters.
Every rock, wall, crystal, and stone pillar touched by the arcs around Noah shattered, vanished, and melted, before erupting in fierce explosions that sent flames soaring into the sky.
Thunder roared in fury as explosive arcs of lightning ravaged the whole area.
Wrapped in crackling lightning, Noah darted among the monsters.
Before this, the monsters hadn't been able to stop his swift slashes, but they had never been so completely unaware of their impending deaths.
It wasn't just the monsters. Everything in Noah's field of vision had slowed down.
The lightning arcs surged around him like fish in water. Shattered stones and dust drifted slowly through the air. He could even make out the shape of the expanding air currents that distorted the light.
Perhaps the things around him weren't moving slower. Perhaps he was moving faster.
Both his physical movements and his mental reactions were operating at three or four times their usual speed under the magic's influence.
In this brisk, clear world, Noah felt as though gravity's hold on him had vanished, and his body was about to merge with the lightning.
He didn't even need to swing his sword. Simply passing by the monsters sent out a shock wave imbued with lightning, erasing and electrocuting them before setting off violent explosions.
From time to time, Noah casually swung out a slash.
As the lightning sword wave cut through the air, it expanded a hundredfold in an instant, illuminating everything inside the cavern like a miniature sun.
Even so, its power didn't diminish in the slightest.
It destroyed everything in its path, then blasted through the rock wall, revealing even deeper caverns beyond.
Noah could only say one thing about this feeling—it was awesome!
So this was how wonderful it felt to overpower an enemy head-on?
Seriously, if you could send your enemy flying with a single sword strike, why bother with all that technical stuff about overcoming the strong while you were weak?
If he weren't worried about ruining his image, Noah would have loved to let out an excited monkey-like shriek!
As the battle—or rather, the one-sided slaughter—continued, the cavern's appearance quickly changed.
Along the path Noah took, the rocks turned into orange-red molten streams that slowly spread, while countless sparks of lightning blossomed in the air.
On top of that, the heated, expanding air formed an astonishing pressure wave, a colorless impact that filled his vision like a flash of light.
The scorching gale rushed through the narrow caverns, unleashing endless howls like those of evil spirits.
Powerful shock waves spread across the ground, making it tremble like an earthquake as chunks of rock rained down from above.
After wiping out the last dozen or so monsters in one go, Noah finally stopped and dispelled the lightning magic surrounding him.
Breathing in the scorching air, thick with a peculiar burnt smell, Noah lifted his eyes and stared blankly at the scene before him.
Perhaps because he could feel gravity's hold on him again and the mental fatigue of his exertions was setting in, he felt a little dazed.
The once dim, damp, gray-white chamber had become pitch-black, like charcoal tossed into a furnace but never fully burned.
From the floor to the walls and up to the rocky ceiling, countless irregular crystals were embedded everywhere, giving off an ominous glow.
That was some serious destructive power. As expected of me!
Noah sheathed his sword and walked toward Riveria and Ais, who were on a raised platform in the distance.
Even when Noah stood in front of them, they still looked dazed and wooden, staring at him without blinking.
Riveria seemed a little better. She looked as though she had simply fallen into thought.
Ais, on the other hand, had even parted her little lips. Through the gap, Noah could just make out her pink tongue and white teeth.
She kind of looked like a little hamster.
As he pictured Ais wearing a fluffy hamster costume in his mind, Noah reached out and closed the girl's mouth.
"With your mouth hanging open like that, aren't you worried about swallowing dust?"
Startled back to her senses, Ais hurriedly covered her mouth and lowered her head, her cheeks turning red.
After a long moment, she timidly raised her head.
In her golden eyes as she gazed at Noah, starlight seemed to shimmer.
"Noah, you're amazing."
Faced with such praise, Noah lifted his chin as if it were only natural.
"Not bad. I think I'm amazing too! I'm practically Orario's greatest swordsman!"
His utter lack of modesty drew a retort in a clear, cool voice, as melodious as a spring.
"Then tell me, esteemed greatest swordsman in Orario, after fighting for so long, how much did you actually accomplish?"
"Hm?"
Meeting Riveria's flawless emerald eyes, Noah realized what she meant and blinked.
Right. After magic powerful enough to reduce an entire chamber to ruins, what were the chances that any magic stones or drop items had survived?
Had he destroyed them all in the process?!
Clinging to a faint hope, he instinctively turned around and scanned the chamber.
Charcoal, crystals, charcoal, crystals, charcoal with every color of the rainbow...
Nothing.
There was nothing left.
Perhaps he could still find a few lucky magic stones or drop items buried under the ash and debris, but there was no doubt that the lightning magic's aftershocks had destroyed most of what he'd earned from the battle.
In other words, after all that exhilarating fighting, Noah had earned practically nothing!
Realizing this, Noah—already mentally exhausted from expending his magic—nearly blacked out.
Onward!
Once he realized that he'd fought like a tiger but earned just 250 Valis, Noah's heart ached. It took him over ten seconds to recover.
As he slowly turned around, Noah did his best to compose himself.
By the time he faced Riveria's clear, serious green eyes again—eyes that somehow seemed to hold a hint of teasing—he had regained his composure.
He raised his armored right hand and held his index finger and thumb a tiny distance apart.
"No big deal, just a tiny little problem. It's my first time, after all, so there were bound to be all sorts of problems. Too fast, too forceful, too impatient. Next time, I just need to be a little more patient, a little gentler..."
Riveria's expression changed dramatically as she glared at Noah.
"Idiot! What are you saying in front of Ais?!"
She raised her staff, her tone stern, as though she'd hit him over the head if he didn't explain himself.
Noah froze at the sudden scolding, even more bewildered than when he'd realized he'd destroyed all the drop items.
What had I done?
His hands remained frozen in the middle of their gesture, unsure what to do next.
After exchanging a confused glance with Ais, Noah tentatively spoke.
"I-I was talking about magic. It's my first time using it, so I couldn't control my output. I was too fast when I attacked, so I destroyed the magic stones and items too. But I can tell there are more precise ways to use this magic. If I practice more, it won't happen next time..."
Looking at Noah, who seemed like an innocent child being bullied by a villain, Riveria came to her senses.
Right. Noah wasn't Loki. Why would he deliberately say something like that to tease a woman?
Damn it, it was all that jerk Loki's fault!
She was always saying lewd old-man lines while harassing the female members of the familia!
It had made Riveria jumpy!
Awkwardly lowering her staff, Riveria noticed Noah and Ais looking at her in confusion, and felt her cheeks grow hot.
She raised a hand and tucked the strands of hair that had fallen beside her cheek behind her ear, using the gesture to hide her odd expression.
Explain? That was out of the question.
Otherwise, she'd probably have to endure looks that said, 'I never thought the serious-looking Riveria would know so much. She's unexpectedly adorable!', making her wish she could dig out a three-bedroom apartment with her toes.
Ugh, I've become the kind of despicable adult I used to hate most.
A faint sense of self-loathing rippled through Riveria.
"Ahem. S-since you know what you did wrong, hurry up and go train."
With a sweep of her arm, her robe fluttered. Riveria once again wore the composed, dignified expression befitting the First Mage of the City.
"Next time, remember not to cause too much damage to the Dungeon's surroundings, or you might trigger a disturbance... How much magic did you use?"
Noah was very curious about what Riveria had thought of to make her suddenly lose her temper, but he felt that if he kept asking, something very bad might happen.
"Um, I used about a tenth of my magic. But while we've been talking, I've recovered most of it."
You recovered that quickly?
Riveria looked again at the Pitch-Black Cavern, which had suffered so much destruction, and couldn't help feeling amazed.
Setting his recovery aside, did Noah have an astonishing amount of magic, or was the spell actually not very costly?
Before you continue