Chapter 57

Far off in the distance, the battle was completely visible to Kanzaki Rei.

The War Elephant of War had its four limbs severed. Its massive body toppled toward the ground as a beam of overwhelming force pierced straight through it.

It looked like an arrow...

Yet it punched a gigantic hole straight through the creature’s belly.

Looks like they won.

But...

The beast tide didn’t seem any smaller.

Which brought up the next problem.

How long did they have to hold the line?

For now, the results of the battle were fairly promising.

With everyone covering one another and coordinating their efforts, there had been almost no casualties.

But the real issue was beginning to emerge.

A mage’s mana would eventually run dry.

A warrior’s stamina would be exhausted.

Even the healing casters would run out of spell power.

Not every mage could cast endlessly like Kanzaki Rei.

"Normally... how long does a beast tide last?"

Rei turned and asked the Level 4 mage beside him.

Only then did he notice how grim the man’s expression was.

"I don’t know..."

"Short ones might just be a minor wave. Sometimes they stop after ten or twenty minutes."

"But the longer ones..." the mage swallowed, "...can last for months."

"They can drain an entire kingdom until it runs out of supplies."

Rei blinked.

"...Huh?"

"Doesn’t the beast tide have some kind of source?"

The Level 4 mage shook his head.

"If we knew where it came from, we’d have destroyed it immediately."

"Monsters form from an invisible monster tide. They appear out of nowhere in places people can’t see."

"In the gaps between forests. In the blind spots created by other monsters."

"New monsters are constantly forming."

"So... they’re endless?"

"They can be wiped out."

The mage paused.

"If the monster tide eventually thins out... then they can be killed faster than they appear."

"Tch..."

Rei flicked his hand.

「Fire Wall (LV: 191) — Distant Fire Wall. Spreading flames, infectious burning, greater width, longer duration.」

Fwoosh—

Fwoooosh—

Eighteen walls of flame erupted in formation, linking together into a towering inferno stretching across the battlefield.

It was practically a Great Wall of Fire.

Unfortunately, Rei’s casting range still limited him.

Originally, a single Fire Wall could extend 300 meters in length.

But because of his maximum casting distance, the total wall he could lay down only stretched about 1.6 kilometers.

"Heh... what a terrifying magic prodigy."

Watching Rei’s actions, the Level 4 mage’s expression dimmed.

His level was higher than Rei’s.

Yet Rei’s magical talent made the difference between them feel like an uncrossable chasm.

He had personally witnessed Rei transform Flame Belt step by step into the current Fire Wall.

The whole process...

Could only be described as transcendence.

"Are these... all transcendence-level spells?"

"...Could you teach me?"

Rei nodded.

Then shook his head.

"I don’t know how to teach it."

"I just know how to cast it."

Back when Iz had asked him how he cast the spell, Rei had given the same answer.

"It just feels like it should be cast this way."

As for how exactly he did it...

Even Rei himself couldn’t explain.

Once proficiency reached a certain level and the skill evolved, an intuitive understanding simply appeared in his mind.

As his proficiency grew, Rei’s comprehension of these spells became incredibly deep.

But understanding something in your own mind didn’t mean you could explain it to someone else.

It was like sensing your blood flowing through certain vessels or your energy circulating through unseen meridians.

Rei could feel it clearly—

But he had no idea which vessels they were, or what they were called.

Teaching someone else was impossible.

Hearing this answer, the Level 4 mage’s face twisted with disbelief.

So this is what genius looks like...

Reaching heights others couldn’t even imagine—

Without effort.

"If you weren’t here..."

"We probably would’ve lost the wall already."

Rei looked toward the Level 4 adventurers fighting farther out.

Beyond them, even Level 5 adventurers were battling.

"If I weren’t here, they would be."

"No."

"They’re dealing with their own battlefield."

"If they came here to stop the charging monsters, no one would be able to deal with the Lord-class monsters."

Rei fell silent.

That was true.

Palie had been right.

If he hadn’t been here—

The town probably would’ve fallen already.

Oh.

Fire Wall reached Level 200.

Rei’s mind moved.

「Fire Wall Skill Evolution Direction: Range」

He chose Range again.

Fire Wall → Sea of Fire

WHOOSH!

Flames surged upward—

And the space in front of the city walls transformed into a vast ocean of fire.

Originally, Fire Wall produced flames five meters tall.

After evolving into Sea of Fire, the flames were lower—only about one meter high.

But the area had expanded dramatically.

A single Sea of Fire covered a 200-meter radius.

The Level 4 mage’s mouth twitched again.

He had just watched Rei perform yet another spell transformation.

Seriously?

It can still get stronger?

The beast tide hasn’t stopped...

And neither has your growth rate.

Isn’t this a little too ridiculous?!

"Holy hell—who set the whole battlefield on fire?!"

"Damn it, that’s stealing our kills!"

One of the observers on the wall pointed straight at Rei.

Observers specialized in detecting traps, identifying monster weaknesses, and spotting hidden opportunities in battle.

On the battlefield, they managed the overall tactical view.

Whenever they noticed something important, they would shout it out.

They were also responsible for coordinating support between ranged fighters on the walls and melee fighters outside the walls.

But now...

All they could see was a sea of fire covering the ground.

And every trace of magical power within it...

Came from Kanzaki Rei.

The archers and mages on the wall all turned to stare at him.

Damn.

It was all him.

Before the Sea of Fire appeared, some monsters had still slipped through the gaps in the Fire Walls.

But once the Sea of Fire spread—

The ground itself had become pure flame.

Centered on Rei, everything within a 1.1-kilometer radius outside the city walls had turned into burning terrain.

To be fair, Sea of Fire’s damage wasn’t that high.

Even Second-Tier monsters could hop around in it for more than ten seconds before burning to death.

With Fire Wall, they would’ve died in two or three seconds.

But...

The area was absurdly large.

Running through it meant getting burned every step of the way.

Even Third-Tier elite monsters eventually died from the constant scorching.

「Sea of Fire (LV: 201) — Vast sea of flame, extremely long duration, continuously increasing burn damage」

The longer something stayed inside it—

The higher the damage climbed.

As for the Lord-class monsters that couldn’t be burned to death...

There were so few of them that the moment they entered Rei’s attack range, they were instantly killed by his other spells.

The beast tide that had once threatened to wipe out Rine Town...

Was now being crushed so completely by Rei that—

Other adventurers couldn’t even find monsters to kill.

Rei looked at the observer beside him.

"How many have I killed?"

"One hundred twenty-one thousand three hundred fifty-nine."

Oh.

That precise?

If he wasn’t just making up numbers, then the Level 4 Observer’s perception ability was truly impressive.

But still...

There were way too many monsters.

Even with reinforcements arriving from other places, the total number of adventurers in Rine Town was just over a thousand.

One hundred twenty thousand monsters...

That meant the average person would need to kill 120 monsters each just to keep up.

Rei glanced at the nearby Level 2 mages, whose Ice Spikes couldn’t even kill a single monster.

Yeah...

Rine Town really was in serious danger.

And the required kill count would only keep rising.

Watching Rei cast spells without the slightest restraint, the Level 4 mage couldn’t help asking worriedly:

"Your mana... are you sure it’s fine?"

"Oh... I’m fine."

Rei’s total mana pool was currently around 3.3 million.

Compared to yesterday, it had increased by another 10%.

His mana regeneration now recovered 330,000 mana per second.

Meanwhile, casting every spell he had in one second only consumed about 20,000 mana.

That level of consumption didn’t even count as a scratch compared to his regeneration.

Beyond the main battle line, scattered groups of monsters still remained.

But those stragglers posed little threat to the city walls.

The mages and archers also gradually spread out to areas farther away from Rei.

Otherwise they’d literally just stand there doing nothing.

If things continued like this, holding the line should be enough.

Rei didn’t really have anything else to do—

"Kanzaki Rei! Invisible assassin! Watch out!"

An observer suddenly shouted a sharp warning!

Rei’s mind snapped to full alert instantly.

Clang!

Sparks burst beside him!

Rei saw a dagger slicing downward, cutting through his barrier—

Stopping just millimeters from his eye.

「Repulsion Wind Burst」