Chapter 33: Destiny is Mine

"This guy..."

Master Seda thought back to how Gao De had been his apprentice for so many years, yet only today had he exposed everything, never having shown any flaws before.

Gao De's depth of planning and his capacity for endurance were truly inconsistent with his age, making Master Seda feel more fearful the more he thought about it.

"You truly are full of schemes, and you've made me suffer a loss."

Having sorted all this out, Master Seda suddenly regained his composure.

He said to the depths of the black fog where he could not see a figure: "But if you have no other trump cards, let this farce end here today."

"You still underestimated my knowledge and overestimated your supernatural item."

"A 1st-circle alchemical creation cannot bridge the huge gap between you and me."

Master Seda endured the intense, continuous pain from his sole and sneered: "Fog Cloud, although a 1st-circle spell, has no lethality after all, and it has great limitations."

"And as it happens, I know its limitations."

"It's over!" Master Seda shouted loudly.

Why was he in a dilemma? Wasn't it because of this fog? Then let this fog disappear, and everything would be solved.

A Gao De whose mana was already exhausted, having lost the cover of the Fog Cloud spell, wouldn't he be at his mercy? And he knew two ways to counter the Fog Cloud spell.

Strong wind and fire! Among cantrips, there were no strong wind spells, but there were plenty of fire spells.

And he happened to master one.

A red light flickered in his hand, and a scorching temperature followed.

An arrow formed of fire took shape again, and as he swung his arm, it shot out, turning into a rocket burning with raging flames the moment it left his hand.

"Burn away your fog..."

Bang! Bang! Bang!!! Before his words had even fully faded, an astonishing explosion rang out abruptly, completely beyond Master Seda's expectations.

Explosion! Explosion! In the blink of an eye, flames erupted inexplicably in the space centered on Master Seda.

At the moment the explosion occurred, it formed a high-pressure, high-temperature shockwave.

The massive shockwave expanded outward, violently colliding with surrounding objects and structures, and Master Seda was the "object" closest to the center of the explosion.

The remaining effect of the Shield spell was instantly destroyed.

The immense impact force swept across Master Seda's body, tearing apart the robe he wore—which was a 1st-circle supernatural item—and then tore at his aging, frail flesh.

And the burning flames, mixed with rolling thick smoke, did not stop their raging momentum, continuing to expand and swallow everything in the room, including the fog released by the Fog Cloud spell.

In just an instant, the fog of the Fog Cloud spell was swallowed up by the flames.

With the disappearance of the fog, the obstructed vision finally returned to clarity.

The room was now a complete mess: a layer of smoke permeated the air, and light distorted in the murky atmosphere, forming hazy pillars of light that sliced the chaotic scene in the room into irregular patches of light and shadow.

The immense pressure generated by the explosion left the walls covered in mottled marks, and a thick crack ran through the entire wall.

The furniture in the room had been overturned and damaged by the shockwave of the explosion.

Chairs were broken, tables were shattered, and the books on the shelves were blown into paper scraps, with the remnants also burning.

Various fragments were scattered on the ground.

Two figures lay horizontally in this mess, their clothes charred and tattered.

The two lay there, motionless, not knowing if they were dead or alive.

It was terrifyingly quiet.

Except for the occasional crackle of embers, almost no other sound could be heard.

Whoosh~ whoosh~ whoosh! A moment later, heavy breathing sounded in the room.

Of the two figures lying on the ground, one figure slowly began to squirm.

Gao De!

He regained a bit of consciousness, feeling only a stinging pain all over his body, and his limbs felt incomparably heavy.

Gao De used all his strength, struggling to crawl up, each movement accompanied by intense pain and gasping.

Although the center of the explosion was Master Seda, and although he had tried his best to keep his distance and had lunged toward the outside of the room the moment the explosion occurred.

But the room was only so big, and the speed at which the aftermath of the explosion expanded was so fast that no matter what, he could not avoid being harmed.

A thousand wounds to the enemy, six hundred to oneself.

At this moment, Gao De felt as if every breath required immense effort, barely dragging air into his exhausted lungs; when exhaling, it was slow and sluggish, like the last wisp of airflow from an old bellows, carrying a bit of slowness and reluctance.

He managed to support himself with his arms to sit up, then stood up shakily.

After standing up unsteadily, Gao De used his powerful willpower to temporarily cast aside the injuries and pain on his body.

He moved his weak, powerless feet, step by step, to the side of the other figure lying in the room, and then squatted down.

"Why... why..." Master Seda was actually still breathing and had regained a bit of consciousness.

He sensed Gao De approaching and wanted to lift his finger, but after trying several times, he failed, only moving his lips to make a faint sound.

Compared to Gao De, Master Seda's injuries were far more severe.

His body was covered in fragments of clothing mixed with flour and blood, and large areas of his skin were burned, showing charred black and red swelling of varying depths.

Some skin had even peeled away due to the high temperature, revealing the pink raw flesh underneath.

Master Seda's eyes revealed emotions intertwined with pain and confusion.

"This is my trump card," Gao De grinned, laughing heartily, the most unbridled laugh since coming to this world, "You also underestimated my knowledge."

That night, he woke up Amy and entrusted him to help buy things in the city; it was the flour he threw out along with the acid bottles.

Dust explosion.

The flour dust contained in every cubic meter of air must not exceed 9.7 grams.

As long as the concentration of flour dust in the local air reaches this threshold, and it encounters a fire source of sufficient intensity, an explosion can occur! In his world, this was common safety knowledge.

But in this world, few people knew it.

After learning the effect of the Fog Cloud spell, Gao De knew that relying solely on the linkage effect of this spell and the enchantment of the Fang of Mist would absolutely not be enough to defeat Master Seda.

He was younger than Master Seda and had better physical fitness.

But the problem was, neither in his past life nor this one had he ever learned to fight.

Facing an old mage who mastered close-combat spells, that slight advantage in physical fitness could absolutely not bridge the advantage brought by spells.

It wasn't until he noticed that the Fog Cloud spell could be blown away by strong winds and burned away by fire that his plan fully took shape.

Gao De was betting that Master Seda was highly likely to know how to break the Fog Cloud spell, and he was certain that Master Seda possessed a fire spell.

Knowing how to break it and mastering a fire spell, Master Seda had no reason not to cast a fire spell to break his Fog Cloud spell.

And what Gao De had to do was to sprinkle flour in the room, which was a confined space, in advance to increase the dust concentration in the air before Master Seda cast the fire spell.

This was Gao De's final link in his calculations! Do one's best, and leave the rest to fate.

The so-called fate was whether Master Seda actually knew how to break the Fog Cloud spell.

If fate was not on his side, Gao De would have only one move left: rely on the enchanted Fang of Mist to "engage in a bayonet fight" with Master Seda.

Even in this worst-case scenario, the flour would not be useless.

The flour sprinkled on Master Seda would allow Gao De, whose vision was obstructed by the fog, to better locate Master Seda's position.

However, these things no longer needed to be considered.

Because, fate was on his side! While laughing wantonly, Gao De had already raised the Fang of Mist in his hand high.

Pfft!

Blood splashed out, spilling onto Gao De and mixing with the blood flowing from his own wounds.

Just like when he stabbed Yilan that night, Gao De raised the Fang of Mist, stabbed it into Master Seda's chest, and pulled it out, appearing exceptionally skilled.

Once was not enough.

He pulled out the Fang of Mist and stabbed again.

Then he pulled it out and stabbed again.

And so it repeated.

"How..."

Master Seda's breath grew weaker, his eyes wide as he looked at Gao De, his lips moving as he spat out an incomplete sentence intermittently.

Before he could finish, his head tilted to the side, and there was no more life left in him.

Although it was incomplete, Gao De knew what Master Seda wanted to ask.

He used his last bit of strength, focusing his attention on the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow.

Origin:

0-circle—【Human】 (2/7), 【Gray-eyed Rat】 (used), 【Dark Swamp Lurker】 (used), 【Wolf-rat】 (1/7).

Seeing the (2/7) after 【Human】, Gao De grinned and answered Master Seda's question with peace of mind.

He replied to the corpse on the ground that no longer looked much like a human: "How?"

"Because my life was picked up in the first place, while your life was your own. When it comes to gambling with your life, how could you ever outplay me?"

The person who walked out of this room alive was ultimately him.

The breath he had been holding in his heart relaxed, and Gao De could no longer control his consciousness; with a thud, his body fell to the ground again, and he lost all awareness.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 34 =====