Chapter 3: Magical Cloudburst Bomb

The warehouse’s rotting wooden door shattered with a thunderous crash, splinters and dust flying everywhere.

Three figures in deep blue robes edged with silver stood in the light of the doorway, their malice unhidden.

At their head was the blond-haired Kain. Beside him stood Roger, and a burly, rough-faced follower known as Anvil—Brook.

The blinding light made Lin En instinctively narrow his eyes. His pupils quickly adjusted.

Without a word, he slipped the charcoal pencil and Notebook—filled with critical Formulas—into the inner pocket of his tattered Apprentice Robe. He shifted slightly, blocking the crude but significant Three-Dimensional Coordinate System and scorch marks on the floor behind him.

“Yo, look who it is?”

Roger exaggerated his tone, scanning the dark, messy warehouse heavy with the smell of burning and ozone. Disgust twisted his face.

“Isn’t this our Lin En, creator of tiny miracles? Hiding in this trash heap, trying to smoke himself stinkier?”

He pinched his nose, idly tossing a pure blue Magic Crystal between his fingers as usual.

Kain ignored Lin En entirely, his sharp gaze fixed on a chunk of metal on the wall—blackened and melted at the edges.

That scorching trace, the lingering surge of wild fire elements in the air—there’s no way that was caused by a cheap Magic Crystal Shard!

His eyes sharpened, voice icy.

“Who gave you the Magic Crystal?”

Anvil Brook crossed his arms, thick muscles bulging beneath his leather armor, and rumbled:

“Trash. Spill it. Whose stuff did you steal? Touching Elite Class resources—breaking your legs is too lenient!”

!

With just a few words, they’d branded Lin En a thief of Elite Class resources.

Lin En slowly straightened, brushing dust from his Apprentice Robe.

His eyes were abnormally calm—like a deep pool.

He spoke, voice low but cutting through the warehouse noise with clarity:

“Magic Crystal? Not needed.”

He raised his right hand slightly, fingers spread naturally, pointing toward the trio.

“Knowledge is power.”

The calm statement instantly lit Roger’s rage. A mere commoner—he wasn’t groveling or begging, but daring to argue back?

“You arrogant trash! Looking for death!”

Spirit energy surged within him.

His right hand shot up, finger pointed at Lin En, as sharp syllables erupted from his mouth.

“Rocket Spell.”

It was one of the signature magics of the Roger family.

Tss tss tss———!

Three slender red flames shot toward Lin En in a triangle.

Just as the last syllable left Roger’s lips, a glint flashed in Lin En’s eyes!

A thought flashed through his mind like lightning: Since he already understood the essence of magical energy convergence and Mental Power Field guidance—could he interfere with another’s spellcasting process?

He didn’t dodge.

Instead, he focused his faint mental power into a sharp spike, stabbing at the most unstable node of Roger’s Mental Power Field as he cast his spell—a fragile interface where energy channels were formed, connecting to the spell’s high-energy dimension.

Buzz!

A faint yet precise interference wave instantly disrupted Roger’s Mental Power Field.

The energy channel constructed by his mental power collapsed in a split second.

Roger’s head buzzed—as if a needle had jabbed his temple.

His spirit guide was instantly severed!

The three forming fire arrows shuddered violently, their energy paths scattering.

One burst less than half a meter from Lin En, exploding into a tiny fireball. The other two veered off, striking the wall and a pile of debris, leaving scorched marks.

Three fire arrows—destroyed before they flew!

The warehouse fell deathly silent.

Roger’s cruel grin froze, replaced by shock and humiliation.

Clutching his aching temple, he glared at Lin En in disbelief.

“You…what did you do?!”

Lin En hadn’t moved.

His calm gaze rested on Roger’s face as he spoke in an even tone.

“Unstable Mental Power Field construction. Weak node. A little interference, and the magic collapses. Seems your foundation isn’t as solid as your mouth.”

“AAHHHH!!”

Utter humiliation drowned Roger.

His noble pride was shredded by a ‘trash’ before witnesses.

Madness and rage devoured his sanity.

Eyes bloodshot, he seemed deranged.

“Lowly worm! I’ll kill you! Die now!”

He yanked a crimson metal orb inscribed with arcane runes from his robe.

As the orb appeared, fire elements in the air thickened violently—a suffocating sense of destruction spreading.

“Roger! Stop! That’s an Explosive Orb! You can’t control it!”

Kain’s face changed, his shout sharp.

That was a Roger family lifesaving secret treasure—containing powerful Explosive Spell magic.

But Roger was nowhere near the level to control it!

Roger didn’t listen.

Cackling, he poured all his mental power into the crimson orb.

Runes blazed with blinding light, the orb emitting a deep, volcanic hum.

“Die! Explosive Spell!!”

BOOM!!!

Terrifying energy, more than ten times the size of Roger’s earlier fireballs, gathered before the orb.

A gigantic Explosive Spell fireball, nearly a meter across and radiating destructive heat, was forming rapidly.

The warehouse air seemed sucked dry—heat climbing to searing intensity.

Rampant energy storms shredded everything, scattering debris and scorching rust off the walls.

The entire warehouse shook violently, groaning under the strain.

This wasn’t magic anymore—it was an out-of-control energy storm, enough to blast the warehouse and everything inside sky-high.

Facing annihilation, Lin En’s eyes grew razor sharp.

Rather than fear, a cold resolve and desire to try something new surged within him.

If interference was possible—could he…seize control?

As the destructive Explosive Spell fireball finished forming, seconds from breaking free of the orb—

Lin En moved!

Both hands lifted, ten fingers moving in a flurry like dancing butterflies.

With extreme precision and speed, he wove his mental power into a complex web.

Not a shield, but a network that pierced the fireball’s energy core and the mental control circuit connecting it to the orb.

“Analysis complete! Energy core coordinates locked! Mental guide trajectory…overlay!”

He thought silently, streams of data flashing through his mind.

He abandoned constructing his own spell—instead, he drove every shred of his precise mental power into the magic core the other was building.

He would try to seize control.

Buzz!!!

Invisible will enveloped the fireball, taking over the mental guidance channel.

Like a master hacker, he hijacked admin privileges in an instant.

The massive, surging fireball froze—its wild energy gripped by an invisible giant hand.

Roger’s manic frenzy solidified.

Like a bucket of ice water dumped over his head, clarity shocked him.

He sensed the link between himself and the Explosive Orb sever instantly.

His mental power poured in, but vanished like water into sand—he could no longer control the destructive force.

“No……………..impossible!”

Roger howled in despair.

But Lin En ignored him—lost in overwhelming elation.

He’d succeeded! His theory was right!

The forcibly hijacked Explosive Spell fireball shrank under Lin En’s control, its color shifting from wild gold-red to a heart-stopping white.

The air at its edge warped with scorching heat.

It hovered silently before Lin En’s hands, radiating a solar brilliance and heat—a force of destruction tamed by physical law and absolute will.

Time seemed frozen.

Kain’s pupils contracted to pinpoints. Brook’s huge frame trembled uncontrollably.

Lin En’s icy gaze fixed on the collapsed, ashen-faced Roger.

Both hands pushed forward, steady and firm, establishing the fireball’s trajectory.

“Returning it to you.”

Fwoosh!

The white-hot sphere tore through the air—blindingly fast—striking Roger with unerring precision.

“No!”

Kain’s eyes widened in terror. Desperately, he managed to pull Roger aside at the last instant.

BOOM!!!

A deafening blast rocked the ruined warehouse like an earthquake.

White light engulfed everything.

At the explosion’s core, the spot where Roger had been sitting—and the ground and wall behind him—detonated.

A massive, meter-wide crater, its edges glowing red, appeared.

Around the pit, stone was melted to glass, the air twisted by heat, sizzling ominously.

The explosion hurled debris everywhere, blowing away half the warehouse—the rest half-destroyed and torn open.

At the pit’s edge, a shred of Roger’s robe sizzled to ash in the heat.

If Kain hadn’t pulled him at the last moment, the shockwave would’ve left nothing behind.

Now, Roger lay like a broken rag doll in a far corner, blackened and smoking, fate unknown.

Kain was flung against another wall by the blast, his expensive robe in tatters, blood trickling from his mouth and nose.

His handsome face was caked in dirt and blood, his eyes filled only with terror and emptiness.

Brook had been knocked unconscious, a mountain sprawled at the doorway.

After releasing that earth-shattering attack, Lin En staggered violently, his face turning deathly pale.

Forcibly seizing and compressing a spell far beyond his capacity had nearly drained the last of his mental power in an instant.

A wave of dizziness and piercing pain hit, vision going dark.

His temples throbbed, and he nearly blacked out.

He braced himself on his knees, gasping, sweat dripping from his forehead.

Yet the danger wasn’t over.

From outside the warehouse, several guards in matching leather armor, their presence fierce, stormed in.

They were Roger’s Family Guards—originally waiting at the alley, now alerted by the explosion.

Seeing their young master’s miserable state and the molten pit, the lead guard’s eyes went bloodshot.

He drew his sword and roared:

“Kill this wretch! Avenge the young master!”

The guards erupted with Combat Aura, leaping at the staggering Lin En like hungry wolves.

Alarms blared in Lin En’s mind.

His mental power was spent—he couldn’t cast normal magic.

And the light on the guards was proof of their mastery of Combat Aura.

Even with strength for a Fireball Spell, harming these battle-hardened guards would be nearly impossible.

Physics! He needed a physical solution.

The idea of modern thermal weapons flashed through his mind.

!

Cloud Bomb!

The key was fuel-air explosion—dispersing fuel as an aerosol cloud, then detonating it to produce an overpressure shockwave and violent combustion, draining oxygen in an instant.

“Fuel…oxygen…area kill!”

His scientist’s mind raced at max speed under extreme stress.

His gaze darted to the door.

There, at the original entrance, a half-man-high, discarded Alchemical Oil Drum had been knocked over by the earlier blast.

Waste oil had poured from a hole at the top, forming a pool of sticky, foul-smelling black grease.

It was one of the potential experimental materials he’d noted while testing Fireball Spell stability earlier!

And now, the air was saturated with oil vapor.

“This is it! The principle of a Cloud Bomb!”

A tactical plan, precise to the millisecond, formed instantly in Lin En’s mind.

He squeezed out the last wisp of mental power from his exhausted mind.

First step: create a minor explosion to disperse the fuel!

Lin En gathered the remnants of his mental power, aiming at the abandoned oil drum.

He didn’t need a big blast—just a directional, low-temperature explosion to spray the oil toward the oncoming guards.

“Detonate!”

He commanded silently.

Boom!

A muffled pop like a bursting airbag sounded.

Under the guidance of his mental power, air at the drum’s mouth compressed, then exploded.

A low-temperature, compressed-air blast sent the pooled oil splashing toward the guards, forming an expanding, oil-rich aerosol cloud that mixed thoroughly with air—just enough to engulf the charging attackers.

Second step: ignite the aerosol, creating a suffocating kill zone!

Almost the same instant the oil splashed and vapor rose, Lin En’s last scrap of mental power gave one final command.

Ignite!

Set ablaze the air before him, saturated with fuel.

“Burn!!!”

Lin En croaked, a rasping, deathlike growl.

BOOM!!!

This time, it was a true, earth-shattering explosion.

The newly formed oil vapor cloud erupted in a second blast under Lin En’s dying mental spark—like a spark igniting a gasoline drum.

Just then, Brook, having woken up, watched in horror as a searing orange fireball consumed the area.

A massive sphere of flame expanded, radiating destructive heat and overpressure.

Yet the most lethal effect came next—the intense burning in the half-ruined warehouse’s semi-enclosed space devoured oxygen, forming a deadly, instantaneous vacuum that rapidly spread from the fire’s core.

A suffocating, scalding wind swept out—Brook blacked out again before he could even scream.

The guards lunging at Lin En were the first to be hit by the fiery shockwave.

Their Combat Aura shields shattered like paper, followed by a crushing, choking pain.

An icy grip seized their throats and lungs.

“Urgh—hngh!!”

Pain and terror twisted the guards’ faces.

Scalding air burned their skin and throats, but what filled their lungs was despair and suffocation.

Their faces turned a terrifying purple, eyes bulging from lack of oxygen.

Even screams died in their throats, replaced by ragged gasps.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

One after another, they crashed to the ground, bodies writhing in agony and oxygen-starved spasms, blood bubbling from their mouths and noses before consciousness faded entirely.

The air was thick with the stench of burning oil and a deathly silence.

After unleashing this final attack, Lin En’s body could no longer hold out.

He himself was on the blast’s edge—though spared the direct flames, the overpressure and suffocation slammed into his exhausted body.

“Ugh………………”

He collapsed onto the cold ground, unconscious.

At that moment, Kain, who had come to after the second explosion, a glint of ruthless intent in his eyes, saw his chance.

Lin En was helpless—a perfect target.

Forcing down pain and fear, Kain drove his mental power, conjuring a razor-sharp ice spike at his fingertip, aiming for Lin En’s defenseless back.

“Die, trash!”

He growled, ready to launch the spike.

“Enough!”

A voice thundered through the warehouse—filled with overwhelming authority and will.

The sound carried an odd force that shattered Kain’s ice spike instantly.

His surging mental power froze, and a crushing, mountain-like pressure pinned him in place.

He couldn’t move.

At the ruined warehouse entrance, a figure had appeared—no one knew when.

White hair neatly combed, expression stern, and a spotless deep blue mage’s robe.

It was Vice Dean Morton.

He

His gaze, sharp as a hawk despite its weariness, swept the ruined warehouse—the shattered debris, massive blast crater, unconscious guards, charred and dying Roger, battered Kain and Brook.

Finally.

His eyes fixed on Lin En, long unconscious.

Morton’s eyes burned with anger, a bottomless curiosity—and a barely concealed shock.

He saw the lingering scars on the wall—and sensed the two conflicting yet equally wild fire element surges in the air, both pointing to the same source.

One chaotic and uncontrolled; the other, cold and precise to the extreme.

His gaze fell on the dusty floor behind Lin En.

There, the crude Three-Dimensional Coordinate System was still visible—beside it, the faint trace of a Formula scrawled in charcoal.

Morton’s pupils contracted, almost imperceptibly.

The warehouse was silent, save for the heavy footsteps of Vice Dean Morton as he walked in.

Morton looked down at the unconscious Lin En for a long moment.

Then his voice rang out, filled with authority.

“Treat the wounded immediately. Roger Howard, Kain Eli, and their guards—detain them in the confinement chamber pending investigation. As for him…”

Morton’s gaze lingered on Lin En’s pale face.

“Take him to my Meditation Chamber.”

At the mouth of the alley, the crowd that had gathered was silent, cowed by Morton’s presence.

All they saw was the Vice Dean personally lifting the unconscious commoner apprentice and issuing an order that sent chills down their spines.

Kain’s face was ghostly pale, lips trembling—unable to utter a word.

He knew—it was all over.

His gaze at Lin En was filled with unprecedented fear and hatred.

Morton ignored everyone else.

He lifted Lin En as carefully as if carrying a fragile treasure and, under the awed and curious eyes of all, walked out of the wasteland born of both magic and physics.