Chapter 56: Is the Fire Element a "Loose" Girl? (Please Keep Reading!)

Chapter 56: Is the Fire Element a "Toxic" Woman? (Please support with reads!)

The battle ended. Soldiers cleared stones and logs blocking the road.

Taking advantage of the lull, Alan gathered the mages for instruction.

"No fog spells against enemies."

"Shortly, to facilitate coordination, I will assign you numbers. During combat, cast within designated zones."

...

Alan announced numerous new rules, drawing murmurs of discontent.

Mages, already proud by nature, had grumbled at being grouped into units.

Now, Alan’s measures blatantly ignored their simmering resentment.

He noticed the sour atmosphere in the crowd. Gazing sternly, he declared:

"This is war. Only unity shapes the battlefield—lone fighters walk only toward death!"

"On the field, isolated mages are the easiest prey for enemies."

"We must stand as one, hearts united like a fortress!"

The muttering subsided.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Reyna rode up on her warhorse, halting beside Alan. "Mage Alan, the path ahead is clear. The column will advance."

Alan nodded. "Understood."

At his command, everyone returned to their carts, following the convoy onward.

Per Alan’s orders, mages of each element clustered together.

Livi parted from Guze, joining Rota and George on a lizard-drawn wagon.

On the adjacent cart sat fire mages from the Mage Instructor Corps.

Draes complained, "Alan wants us obeying like common soldiers—then what use are we?"

"The strength of mages lies in versatile magic, yet he forces us all to cast identical spells."

"Isn’t that erasing everything that makes us powerful?"

He hadn’t wanted to join this war—dragged here against his will—and his bitterness ran deeper than others'.

George, eyes closed, said, "Enough. Stop whining."

Hearing George speak, Draes fell silent.

Livi glanced at them, then turned toward the city lord’s mages nearby.

They showed little complaint. Earlier, he’d noticed their seamless coordination.

Clearly, they’d undergone specialized training.

Livi pulled out his mage insignia. Three contribution points glowed—two daily base points, one bonus for repelling the orcs.

No wonder so many mages willingly joined wars—contribution was so easily earned.

The more people present, the easier to blend in and gain credit.

Pocketing the insignia, Livi found himself hoping for more clueless orc raiders.

Alas, until dusk settled upon their arrival at Frostsand City, no second battle came.

Rumble. Rumble.

Wheels rolled to a stop. Livi stepped down, waiting by the city gate as supply wagons entered.

He looked up. The walls bore scars of brutal combat; broken arrows jutted from stone.

Nearby, orc corpses piled high—workers doused them in oil, preparing pyres to prevent plague.

Outside the city lay chaos: shattered armor, snapped swords, splintered shafts, blood blackened by time—scattered everywhere.

This place had endured fierce battle.

Upon Maple City’s forces arriving, defense duties were swiftly assumed.

After marching over a hundred kilometers, exhaustion gripped all.

The supernaturals retired to rest.

Livi ate dinner early, then returned to his room.

Each mage received a private chamber—unlike other classes sharing doubles or quads.

"I’ve never cast *Fireball* in reality. What did Master Guze mean by 'earning elemental recognition'?"

He extended his spiritual sense. It pierced the wall, revealing the world within ten meters.

Confirming solitude, he cast *Fireball*.

His first real-world casting of a first-tier spell.

The spell framework formed. Fire elements began to fill.

As vast quantities converged, coalescing into a blazing sphere.

Livi sensed subtle shifts within the fire element—a flicker, as if it lived.

Faint, yet undeniable: a trace of life stirred in the flame.

Simply put—it moved.

When enough fire elements gathered, they pulsed faintly, like a living organism breathing.

"What *are* magical elements? Aren't god particles the most fundamental? Why exhibit life?"

Livi was utterly bewildered.

He quickly snapped back. Probing magic’s essence was too distant for him now.

Burying the question deep, he focused on the present.

"If dense fire elements display lifelike behavior, it resembles fungal life—spores clustering to form mushrooms."

"This likely lacks self-awareness, driven only by primal instinct."

"How does one earn the instinctual approval of fire? Perhaps that is the key to Elemental Awakening."

After long contemplation, he reached a conclusion—follow instinct.

Undoubtedly, aligning with the fire element’s innate instinct would most easily win its favor, triggering supernatural awakening.

But what *was* fire’s primal instinct?

Burn? Explode? Replicate?

"Never mind. Too profound. Can’t figure it out. Anyway, just grind—eventually I’ll awaken."

How long had the mage class existed? At least thousands of years.

Yet after millennia, no one had solved this. Livi didn’t expect to crack it now.

It was merely his Earth-born mindset—his different lens—that allowed him to glimpse truths others overlooked.

Perhaps it was nothing more than his wishful thinking, an unfounded fantasy.

Li Wei practiced the fireball spell and noticed that each time he cast it, the fire element responded a fraction faster.

As if the fire element were gradually falling in love with him.

From never replying to messages, to responding the instant one arrived.

The sensation was exquisitely subtle.

“So this is what dating feels like?”

“But wait—does the fire element fall for everyone it meets? Isn’t that kind of… a player?”

“Then again, ‘player’ is a human concept. What if the fire element loves all beings like Aelicia does? Then it’s not being a player—it’s loving universally!”

Late at night, Li Wei slipped into the dream realm.

The room resembled his chamber in the mage tower, but upon opening the door, he found himself in the corridor of a hostel in Hansha City.

He walked to the end of the hall and stood by a window, gazing outside.

The dim sky dominated the dreamscape; the entire city seemed shrouded beneath thick, suffocating clouds. In the distance, light flickered faintly, blurred and indistinct.

Looking down at the street below, Li Wei saw nightmare orcs hunting humans.

Now and then, people burst from rooms, fighting back against the invading beasts.

No one knew exactly when Hansha City had fallen.

Nightmares revealed the deepest fears within people’s hearts.

And so, in their dreams, they saw a Hansha already lost.

Wrapped in his invisibility cloak, Li Wei stepped out of the hostel.

He remembered that the mages Martin, Allen, Arlen, and Marina had stayed behind in the military camp beside the city walls.

He made his way toward the ramparts.

Hardly had he reached the wall when he spotted a familiar figure.

Arlen commanded serpents of flame, devouring the surrounding orcs.

(End of Chapter)