[Book 1 Completed] Industrial Mage: Modernizing a Magical World [Kingdom Building LitRPG]
B2 | Chapter 29 – Gains and New Spell

Rufus POV

He knew this was how it would end, didn't he? He always did, somewhere in the cracks between training sessions and sleepless nights, buried under the weight of everything. Even after all those hours and ideas were put into creating something definitive and final, it was still insufficient. He had been training for decades to be able to stand above it all, palm on victory's throat, without hesitation or blinking.

And now, with an expression of indifference, a noble brat unraveled everything, piece by piece. As though he didn't care about all of this. That was the worst part. The boy didn't look smug, arrogant, or any emotion really. He was simply blank. Like Rufus's fury didn't matter. Like Rufus didn't matter.

Infuriating.

He couldn't stop now, however, could he? Not at all. Especially after all that had happened, he couldn't. He was still capable of doing this. He had to. Even if only to die standing. If only to let out a final cry into the quiet.

Was he bitter? No, that wasn't the word. That was far too gentle, too courteous, and far too forgiving. This was corrosion, not bitterness. Anger carved into the corners of his bones. He had destroyed everything, especially himself. He stepped over the remains of both enemies and friends. And now, after drinking the poison and calling it strength, after feeding on the ring until it turned his insides raw, he had to face this?

A boy who wouldn't die?

Yeah, he was furious.

When he gazed at Theodore, his only thought was, why you?

Someone else ought to have done it instead. Someone tested. Someone who had bled. Someone who understood what it meant. But no. It had to be a noble brat. A boy who wasn't worthy. A freak accident. He was just that. Luck in skin. That was Theodore.

Rufus detested him for it.

He detested the fact that this boy had evaded everything. He hated that Theodore could win without actually turning into a monster. It was unfair. This was all unfair. Layer by layer, Rufus had dismantled himself and remade himself until no humanity remained to feel sorry for. He had made his payment in memory, soul, and blood. It was still not enough.

So he'd make it enough.

He would kill this boy. Even if it meant burning the last remnants of his life. Even if what was left of him was shredded to ash by the ring.

The ax in his hands felt like his final moments. This whole nonsense would end if he swung it.

He lifted it, exhaling through his teeth as if he were attempting to contain his scream. And then—of course—his mind betrayed him.

Marvin. I'm sorry, I've failed you.

The true monster was his brother. More powerful than Rufus was ever. More powerful than Rufus had ever hoped to be. If Rufus was a blade honed by failure, Marvin was a guillotine shaped by conviction. The pride of White Fang. The height of fixation. Rufus was always seen as the one that posed a threat. They were mistaken. They hadn't seen Marvin lose his temper.

He would arrive. Not out of love, but because that's who he was. Because Rufus was his problem to bury. In a sense, he felt sorry for Theodore. If Marvin set his sights on the boy, there would be no story left to tell. There would be no resistance to mount, no last stand. There would just be judgment, and a demon who delivers it.

Rufus moved.

The world disappeared, and his focus narrowed to a point. His legs, arms, and the poisoned might of the ring roaring through his veins. For a heartbeat, it was ideal, perfect.

And then, Theodore—of course—ruined it.

Something seemed to have happened inside Theodore. Whatever it was, it ruptured, and there was a ripple. The moment cracked open, stretched, and folded in on itself.

He did not swing the ax, he simply wasn't able to do it.

There wasn't time. There wasn't space. There was only the white-hot wall cutting through the world and into his body. It was so tall, like a mountain, and it was not escapeable.

And it hurt, but not for long. Not in the typical manner that wounds hurt. There was no suffering here. It was erasure. Simply... erasure. There was no anger in the attack. It felt like nothing at all. It just was, and that was enough.

He knew, even as the light burned through him, that this wasn't an accident.

It appeared as though it might have been. As if the boy had gone crazy. Like a slip of power. However, no. No, no, no. Theodore chose that.

From the deepest recesses of his being, he realized that he had always been inferior as he stopped existing. Right from the start, he had been inferior, to his brother, to others, and now this... boy. And only this time, it wasn't because of a lack of training. Not even because of a lack of skill. Not even because of that monstrous mana pool Theodore kept throwing around like nothing.

It was much simpler than that. It was because Theodore had stopped holding back, and that made him unstoppable.

This kid... is a monster.

***

Theodore POV

Your race, [Human], has leveled up – Lvl 15 > Lvl 17!

Your class, [Runic Mage], has leveled up – Lvl 0 > Lvl 1!

[Mana Control] has leveled up! – Lvl 2 > Lvl 5!

[Mana Reinforcement] has leveled up! – Lvl 5 > Lvl 6!

[Elemental Mastery] has leveled up! – Lvl 3 > Lvl 5!

[Mana Shield] has leveled up! - Lvl 16 > Lvl 18!

Congratulations! You have learned a new spell: [Thermal Release]!

[Elemental Mastery] has leveled up! – Lvl 5 > Lvl 6!

Theodore couldn't help but smile as he gazed at the notifications that were floating in front of him. He'd gotten them throughout the fight and only now did he have a moment to take a look, and oh boy was he glad.

Two race levels in one fight. His first class level. Numerous skill levels, such as the enormous three-level spike in [Mana Control]. That's in addition to the new spell. Dangerous battles or situations really were the way to get levels quickly, weren't they?

With a mental flick, he threw off the notifications and absorbed the aftermath of what he already considered to be [Thermal Release] before the system even registered a spell.

He had to admit that the destruction was quite amazing. What little light came down here from the lightstones in the walls was caught by the twisted, glass-like patterns made by the melted stone that dominated the cave where Rufus had been standing. An even larger hole burnt clean through the rock of the farther wall, as if someone had brought a giant's torch to it.

Rufus was nowhere in sight.

Did he get burned into nothing? Theodore shuddered at the thought. He hadn't exactly been aiming for that. Of course, the intention had been to kill the man, but total disintegration seemed a bit much. In the future, he would need to use [Thermal Release] with greater caution. He had misjudged the output and the last thing he needed was to unintentionally vaporize an innocent bystander.

On another note, he wondered whether kinetic energy could be used in a similar way. The idea appeared to be sound enough. Absorb, store, concentrate, and then let loose in a targeted burst. He had been considering combining thermal and kinetic energy to create a hybrid attack that combined the raw destructive potential of thermal energy with the penetrating power of concentrated force anyway. Or perhaps he could absorb both forms of energy at the same time and re-distribute them in different ways.

If he could work out the mechanics, the applications were virtually limitless. An exaggeration, surely, but he was looking forward to playing with it regardless.

He was still pondering the possibilities when he heard footsteps and saw Roland, who was cautiously navigating around the worst of the rubble with the foresight that indicated he had witnessed a lot of magical aftermath in his lifetime.

"That was quite something," Roland said.

Theodore smiled as he turned to face Roland.

"It was quite effective."

"Effective how?"

"Levels, obviously." Theodore gestured vaguely at the crater. "Two race levels, first—Rank 2?—class level, bunch of skill improvements. New spell, too. [Thermal Release]. Pretty sure that's what did all this. Pretty neat, if I say so myself."

"Let's just get out of here." Roland rolled his eyes.

With a shrug, Theodore dropped into step next to him. Fair enough. Theodore couldn't really blame Roland for wanting to leave the cave, and he had never been very interested in the technical aspects of Theodore's magical research in the first place.

They were walking toward the entrance to the cave when Theodore noticed that everyone but Roland was avoiding him. All of the other members of Rufus's small band were gathered together, and they were all staring at him with faces that ranged from cautious to downright terrified.

A few of them actually stepped back when he got too close.

He could understand their reaction, he supposed. After all, to them he'd just transformed into some kind of slime monster and then proceeded to kill their former leader with what amounted to a miniature sun. The fact that Rufus had abandoned them and been trying to murder Theodore probably didn't factor into their emotional calculus. People tended to focus on the immediate and visceral rather than the logical when it came to displays of power.

Still, these people shouldn't be entirely unfamiliar with the idea of Body Familiars, should they?

Even though Body Familiars were a bit rare, Theodore was fairly certain they were aware of them. After all, Body Familiars weren't that rare. Many people had Body Familiars from their Constellations, although there were very few Constellations that offered them.

Furthermore, it wasn't as though he had eaten people or anything similarly heinous.

In order to keep his skull from being sliced off, he had simply... momentarily turned slime. Which seemed like a perfectly reasonable response to attempted decapitation.

But it wasn't as if Theodore really cared that people considered him a monster of some sort. These people were fundamentally irrelevant to him. They had thrown their lot in with a leader who didn't care about them, and now that their leader was dead and they were facing someone who might easily murder them, they were starting to have second thoughts in their minds.

By all accounts, their fear was probably healthy.

"You're making them nervous," Roland said quietly as they went along.

"Good," Theodore replied. "Nervous people don't usually try to stab you in the back." When he looked at the huddled gathering, he noticed a large man with anxious eyes quickly averting his gaze. Grigor, was it? "Though I suppose they might try to run away and cause problems later. Should we be worried about that?"

"Doubt it," Roland said. "Where are they going to go? Rufus was their meal ticket. They're regular guild members. Most of them will probably scatter to the four winds and try to disappear into whatever holes they crawled out of originally."

That made sense. Still, it might be worth keeping an eye on them for a while, just in case any of them decided that revenge was more important than self-preservation. Humans were rarely rational, therefore Theodore wouldn't put it beyond them to do whatever they saw fit, even if he had been the one to save them and Rufus had abandoned them to perish.

When one of the group, Alira, the [Mage], plucked up the confidence to approach them, they were nearly at the entrance. Grigor followed, muttering a little curse.

"What... what are you?" She stayed well out of arm's reach, but her voice was clear enough.

Theodore paused to think about the question. What exactly was he? Officially, he was a human, now a [Runic Mage], but that didn't really capture the full picture, did it? The shape-changing thing was new, for one.

"Someone you don't want to cross," he joked finally, which appeared to startle her for a second before she noticed his face and pouted.

"I'm Alira, by the way, a [Mage]," she said, though he was pretty sure she'd introduced herself before, but he could be wrong. She extended a hand with a smile that was just a touch too warm for the circumstances. "And you are absolutely fascinating."

Startled by the introduction and the way she was staring at him, Theodore blinked.

"I'm... Theodore."

"Theodore," she repeated. "Tell me, how exactly did you manage that thermal manipulation? Because what I saw shouldn't be possible with standard elemental magic! The energy concentration alone should have killed you, but instead you somehow channeled it into a directed release that—" She caught herself, laughing. "Sorry, I get excited about magical theory. It's a weakness of mine."

Grigor let out a nervous laugh from behind Alira. "She's been like this since you melted half the cave. Won't shut up about—"

"Grigor," Alira said without turning around, "hush. The adults are talking." She stepped closer to Theodore. "So? The thermal release. How did you do it?"

Theodore was momentarily at a loss for words as he stared at her. She was standing close enough that he could see the genuine fascination in her eyes, mixed with something that might have been admiration. Or interest of an entirely different sort. He wasn't entirely sure which was more unsettling.

"I..." he started, then stopped. How did he explain something he barely understood himself?

"Wait," Alira said suddenly, holding up a hand. "Stop! Don't answer! I'll figure it out." Her eyes lit up with the kind of madness Theodore usually associated with Aunt Karmicheal. "This is so much better as a puzzle."

She began pacing in a small circle, gesturing animatedly as she spoke. "Okay, so standard thermal magic works by manipulating existing heat sources or generating small amounts of thermal energy through mana conversion. But what you did was orders of magnitude beyond that. The crater alone suggests you released enough concentrated thermal energy to melt stone, which means either you have mana reserves that dwarf most, or..." She paused, tapping her lip with one finger. "Or you found a way to store and amplify thermal energy rather than generating it from scratch."

That was... actually pretty close to correct.

"But storage would require a containment matrix," Alira continued, warming to her theme, "and I didn't see any spell work or system runic work indicating that. So it has to be something else. Something more direct." She snapped her fingers. "Absorption! You were absorbing thermal energy from your surroundings, weren't you? That's why the air felt cold right before the blast. You were pulling heat out of everything around you and concentrating it."

She was practically bouncing on her toes now, clearly pleased with her deduction. "But that still doesn't explain the concentration. Unless... oh, that's clever. You used your own body as the containment vessel, didn't you? Crazy! That's crazy! Risky as hell, but if you could somehow compress the absorbed energy internally and then release it in a controlled burst..." She trailed off, staring at him with something approaching awe. "That's not standard magic at all! That's something completely new!" She then coughed. "Sorry! I get on tangents due to my skill sometimes! It helps me with this stuff."

Theodore realized his mouth was hanging open slightly and closed it with a snap. She'd essentially reverse-engineered his entire technique from a single observation, and she wasn't even entirely wrong about the theoretical framework.

What a nutjob.

"Am I close?" Alira asked, and there was definitely something more than academic interest in her tone now.

Behind her, Grigor let out another nervous laugh.

"Alira, maybe we should, uh, maybe we should give the man some space? He looks like he's seen a ghost."

Theodore wasn't entirely sure that was inaccurate. Furthermore, he wasn't sure he wanted her to show him this kind of interest. Or anyone, for that matter, there was a lot to do and no time for anything else. So he took a deliberate step back, creating more distance between them, and let his expression settle into something politely neutral.

"You're observant, but I think Grigor's right," Theodore said, casting a meaningful glance at Roland, who had been standing quietly close by, his eyes displaying patience of someone waiting for a conversation to end. "We should be moving along."

Alira's expression dimmed. She recovered swiftly, to her credit, though Theodore saw that her smile was getting more forced.

"Of course," she said, taking her own step back. "I didn't mean to keep you. It's just... well, it's not often you see magic like that. I got carried away."

"It happens."

Roland chose that moment to clear his throat meaningfully. "Theodore."

Right. Time to go. Roland fell into step next to him as he turned and started walking. He could hear Grigor speaking softly to Alira behind them, but he was unable to comprehend what he was saying. Most likely for the best. Theodore's life was complicated enough without having to deal with whatever that had been.

"Smooth," Roland said quietly when they were out of earshot.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Theodore replied dryly.

"Sure you don't." Roland's tone was deliberately neutral, but Theodore could hear a tinge of amusement beneath it. "She seemed nice enough."

"She seemed like a distraction I don't need."

"Fair point." Roland was quiet for a moment, then added, "Though you might want to work on your rejection technique. That was about as subtle as your thermal blast back there."

Theodore winced. Had it been that obvious? He felt like he'd handled it reasonably well, all things considered. But then again, he'd never been particularly good at navigating social situations.

"She'll get over it," he said finally.

"Probably," Roland agreed. "But you might not want to burn that bridge completely. She figured out your technique pretty quickly. Some sort of skill, she said, right? That kind of magical insight could be useful someday."

As they went, Theodore thought about that. Roland was not wrong. Alira's analytical abilities were impressive, and having someone who could understand the theoretical framework behind his more unusual techniques might prove valuable. But it would also mean explaining things he wasn't ready to discuss, and dealing with complications he definitely didn't have time for.

No. It's better to keep things simple. For now. He'd most likely get her in the fold later when he needed someone like her. She was too useful to just throw away.

At last, they passed the slime farms and got closer to the exit. As they went by, Theodore heard bits of whispered discussion behind him.

"—killed Rufus like it was nothing—"

"—turned into some kind of slime—"

"—should we tell someone?"

"—tell who? Who's going to believe this?"

That latter remark nearly made Theodore smile. They were probably right. If he hadn't experienced it himself, he'd have a hard time believing that someone could absorb enough thermal energy to create what amounted to a localized inferno and then direct it with such precision. The whole slime transformation thing was just the cherry on top of an already unbelievable story.

***

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