Chapter 95

Posted by Kuze, ? Views, Released on February 22, 2025

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Pinterest Telegram

[Title: Wow, Haha, Feeling Good]

Author: ZL Storm Magician

(A meme of a fishing rod being dipped into water)

(A meme of a Merfolk popping up floating)

I don’t feel any mana flowing through my hands.

There’s no real fuss, nor any casting either.

I just brought the stick over, and boom, they’re dead, haha, this is insane! Hahahaha!

[Upvotes: 4731] [Downvotes: 412]

– Damn, let me try some too!

– Wow, haha, that really clears my insides!

– Feels cleanse~

– But how did you pack great magic into that steel?? What’s the principle?

ZL Storm Magician: Must be working on mana.

(A confused Elf Con with mouth agape)

At first, everyone was in a laughing mood.

There’s no way the weak would see the Merfolk that swooped in during a surprise like this in a good light.

When one of them floated up, most reactions were supportive.

[Title: Uh, Wait a Minute]

Author: ZL Storm Magician

(A meme of several more Merfolk floating nearby)

I was only submerged for, like, 2 seconds!

I just pulled it out for the test, so why are you guys floating up?

– Um…

– Oh, wait, that’s actually good, haha.

– Isn’t it all good stuff?

But as a few more started to float up, the mood began to settle down a bit.

[Title: What the hell is this?]

Author: ZL Storm Magician

(A meme of a flabbergasted ZL Storm Magician with a fishing rod)

(A meme of dozens of Merfolk corpses being washed ashore)

Aaaah, what the hell is happening here?!

What am I doing right now?!

I’m so sorry!!

[Upvotes: 5232] [Downvotes: 0]

– ?

– Hey, why do they keep coming up…?

– (Elf meme with wide eyes)

– You can stop coming up now, you know?

When all the Merfolk finally floated up, covering the lake’s surface.

In the gallery, an inexplicable chill and eeriness swept through the comments.

– What the… this is a bit creepy.

– Floating up silently? It feels like something out of hell, seriously chilling.

N: No, no, listen closely, you can hear the sound of electric current.

N: (Trembling Elf Con)

N: Holy crap, is that the sound of a death sentence?

N: That’s even scarier.

The current didn’t discriminate between Merfolk hiding beneath rocks or those lurking in the water.

The calm lightning spreading through the pond killed everything it brushed against.

ZL Storm Magician and Derrick dropped the fishing rod they were holding.

“Is this real lightning magic…?”

After all, he was a Storm Magician.

The moment it touched the water, he felt it, even just a little.

The energy of high voltage penetrating the pond.

It was on a whole different level compared to his own magic, which merely mimicked lightning through the consumption of mana.

“I didn’t feel any mana at all.”

Could it really be true of a Great Magician?

He couldn’t detect any essence of mana whatsoever.

As if it were pure electricity.

And just as he recognized that, a dangerous thought crossed Derrick’s mind.

– Hey, what’s he doing?

– Why are you staring so hard at the lightning magic condenser?

– That dude looks like he’s thinking something weird.

That fleeting moment captured in the meme went up in the gallery, unaware, Derrick’s eyes glittering with excitement.

“There’s the essence of Great Magic contained within this…”

What does it mean to be a magician?

They were scholars so close to lunacy that they’d risk their lives just to see higher magic.

Moreover, lightning magic had always been treated as a loose screw.

How many flaws did it actually have?

It was pretty much limited to mimicking lightning with mana or summoning it on stormy days.

“I could never truly handle lightning.”

To Derrick, this little iron box seemed a dream of lightning magic research.

– Ah, I get what he’s up to now.

At that moment, a chaotic magician who had been arguing with Derrick recognized his state.

A lunatic can always recognize another lunatic.

– You madman, stop!!!

N: Why, what’s the issue?

N: Don’t ask me, just stop and help me out!!!

N: I don’t really know what’s going on, but okay.

N: ZL Storm Magician, you strange fool!

N: You absolute loser without a proper magic tower!

N: Lightning magician x bathing water wizard o

N: You guys are relentless, haha!

Thinking it was the perfect time, a crowd began to swarm in, hurling invectives, haha.

Numerous kind-hearted Gallums, including wizards, worried for him, tried to dissuade him.

“Perhaps, just maybe, I could gain insight through this.”

Derrick had lost half his reason already.

Before his eyes, there lay the fragments of magic from the Great Magician, possibly a transcendent being, the Head of the Gallery.

Shaking with tension, Derrick soon wore a broad smile and muttered.

“I can’t hold back anymore.”

Driven by his craving for magical growth, Derrick’s instincts overpowered his rationality.

He looked at the fishing rod that had nearly slipped from his grasp in fear.

The conduit of great magic that obliterated the pond’s delicate ecosystem in mere seconds.

After a moment of hesitation, he grasped the end of it…

– Thud

With his bare hands.

“Gah!”

In that instant, the high voltage contained within surged through Derrick’s body.

A shock indescribable coursed through him.

“Ugh, aah!”

The first thought he had vanished.

Only a dizzying sensation remained.

Then, finally clinging to his sanity, the thought came: I shouldn’t have done this!

In the end, Derrick burned away all his mana and knowledge of lightning magic and succeeded in seeing beyond his own limits.

“Ugh, aah!”

– Zzzzt… Kbang!

At last, he successfully discharged the condensed high voltage threatening to explode from his body with his other hand.

The current unleashed from Derrick’s other hand sharpened and intensified when combined with his mana.

It shot off like a small streak of lightning, pouring down with his will.

This was real lightning, unlike the third-rate magic that had merely imitated it.

– Zzzzt…

“Haah, haah.”

In the thick smog of burnt hair, he collapsed to the ground, exhausted, having dropped the fishing rod.

Yet his expression was soaked in rapture and bliss.

“Aah, is this… is this Great Magic?”

It felt like he had tasted, even if just a fragment, the omnipotence of the mentor he had always respected, the Head of the Gallery.

And instinctively, he sensed that through this recent enlightenment, a circle that had long bound him had been broken.

“Is this the omniscience the great magician, the Head of the Gallery, feels on a daily basis!!!”

And within the gallery, as everyone focused their attention on the sight of Derrick’s rise in power.

The Head of the Gallery slowly typed, taking pride in his growth…

– Head of the Gallery*) No, you idiot.

It was yet another one of the Head of the Gallery’s nth curses, too lazy to bother counting the season numbers.

—

Affectionate Konik ZL Storm Magician.

This madman grabbed a high voltage battery bare-handed.

And maybe he lost his mind, because now he started thanking me in the comments over and over.

– ZL Storm Magician: Aaaah, Master, mentor! I shall honor you as my ideal for life!!!

N: Head of the Gallery*) Don’t.

– ZL Storm Magician: I thought you refused every time, but giving me this realization… ugh…

– I’ll honor you as my lifelong mentor!!!

– I’m so damn jealous of the lightning magician…

– Wow, usually magic isn’t taught so easily…

N: Is the Head of the Gallery an angel? He just lets someone experience such high-level magic without reason…

– Grant me enlightenment too!

– Head of the Gallery*) No, you idiot.

At first, I tried to clear up the misunderstanding.

Of course, it didn’t work.

So I threw in some curses as well, but they started crying and thanked me for my teachings.

“I’m so so mad, Konik.”

Was it because my head was overheating?

Words from the gallery started pouring out in reality.

But how many disruptions had I seen given the Head of the Gallery’s position?

The surprise worship disruptions of the Head of the Gallery still existed in the modern era.

I calmed my mind and observed the situation.

“So is it then all good with the Merfolk?”

The battery fishing strategy was incredibly effective.

It turned the Merfolk into cooked fish even before they could come out of the water.

– Oooh…

– That’s why the Head of the Gallery is so remarkable.jpg

– God.jpg

– Mama, when I grow up, I want to be the Head of the Gallery! Mama, when I grow up, I want to be the Head of the Gallery! Mama, when I grow up, I want to be the Head of the Gallery!

Just as the gallery was in a festive mood.

It was at that moment I thought, surely the Merfolk issue has been resolved.

– But what do we do now?

Then, a post that contrasted sharply with the festive atmosphere appeared.

N: …?

N: What?

In the cold reaction to what was like a splash of cold water, the fellow Gallum did not stop and steadfastly continued his speech.

N: No, to be honest, we’ve fixed one or two small ponds. There’s still the rift under the deep lakes or seas that remains untouched, right?

The battery fishing method had its clear limits.

Though it could roast a small, contaminated pond with electricity, what would be done about the sea or lake?

If such a massive ecosystem were to be wiped out by high voltage, that’d be exactly what the rift desired.

“That’s a fact.”

That’s true.

But it was a harsh truth to those on cloud nine in the gallery.

– Pfft.

– Why are you the only one being a wet blanket when everyone is fine?

– Isn’t this dude a ‘Marketplace Stockpiling Troublemaker’?

N: No, but seriously, it’s a bit off that head bashing is already happening while the problem with the Merfolk from the sea and lakes still isn’t resolved, right?

In fact, merfolk with shark features had come up from the ocean.

And huge catfish and carp merfolk occasionally surfaced from the lakes…

– Hiss!!!!!

– You bastard! How dare you doubt the Head of the Gallery!!!

N: Head of the Gallery*) Well, it is true, though…

N: Who’s the troublemaker right now?

The gallery didn’t take it lightly.

It made sense; the Gallums had spent half a lifetime as losers in a collapsing world.

They didn’t want to relinquish this feeling of the victory of joy to face the truth.

But even if they wanted to turn a blind eye, the truth is still the truth.

There was still no way for knights or magicians to go down hundreds of meters underwater to capture the merfolk.

– Sigh…