Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

A true fire that's just fire, the original one.

What do we call 'fire'?

A burning light powered by a particular fuel in the presence of great oxygen?

If that's fire, then where does the word fire come from?

It's strange but, a fire is something far stronger thing than just those flames and light.

It has different kinds, like a raging fire, a sorrowful fire, a fire of hatred, and a fire of different emotions like these.

A pure blue flame powered by just oxygen and with no greater impurity while the fire of unique attributes also exists in this world.

One can make fire from water attribute too, or water from fire attribute, and many people in this world know that much already.

[Elemental conversion] is a high-level subject of magic and something few in the world studied.

But conversion and 'recreation' is different.

My master... she didn't just convert an element from her fire. What she usually and so casually did was something unreal in itself. But that topic was not something to think about right now.

The rune I just used was the rune of a true fire.

Fire. Just fire that can't be converted to something else.

Fire is usually born when enough heat is applied to an energy source in the presence of enough oxygen.

That's the standard fire, and there are countless different energies to use as fuel.

I used Solnova, something as pure as Aether and far lighter than Mana, almost something of a gracious state... though it's more of a light, beam, ray state but, here, it's just the fuel.

No need to think about the elemental particles, waves, and strings stuff... that would be for later.

So just as this suggests, a true fire is the produced heat and light in the process of this energy or fuel's conversion into results.

But that's what happened with the first spell headmaster cast.

He used his Mana and Aether, the sky blue flames that would burn with high heat were produced and as a 'result' an explosive was formed.

But when using a Rune... the 'result' is not something like a spell, some output like energy, or even the gases and water produced in the process.

A rune produces what the actual thing is.

Be it a simple fire, water, or other such basic elements, or a natural 'order' that carries out on its own.

It's something complicated when defined with words so, the best way to actually understand runes was to perform and observe them.

The meaning, the effect, the reason, and the questions.

That was the best way to understand what a rune was, and the best way to become a (Runekeeper), one of the rarest mage professions.

The true fire I cast was the lowest ranking rune but... Its casting was perfect.

And with how well the casting of a rune usually is, the effect it gives increases.

And just because my casting was so perfect this time, the two-word rune, a simple thing powered by my extraordinary Solnova… created a river of pure flames.

Pure, orange flames devoid of any other color and just the color of their own.

The river of flames directly fell down towards the headmaster who had just stood there, awe-struck by the rune's appearance.

I knew he knew about runes too, and learning a rune required someone who actually can use them as a teacher.

One would need a long, really, really long time to learn runes on their own, even if they are genius without any kind of prior clue.

And he and I both had someone to teach us at least the basics of this amazing language.

The previous headmaster was a runekeeper himself, and I knew he had a deep relationship with the one before me.

So the headmaster knew a lot about runes, and I knew he knew just how amazing a feat was just to be able to cast one... even more with this much proficiency.

And this was all thanks to my master. Without her, maybe I wouldn't even know what these things called runes were in that life-taking forest.

The power of runes was undeniable but, there were definitely many downfalls of using them when you aren't strong enough.

Just like right now... just this simple basic one took almost all of my concentration even when I was in the [ZONE].

But thankfully I knew how to 'use' the zone to recover the lost concentration or else I would have fallen to the ground with a severe headache.

And I also had this golden fruit that recovered concentration stamina and Mana, so I was alright but... I can't say the same for the one who was going to receive this attack.

He had to come out of that awe-struck state if he wanted to be alive after that river of flames hit him.

But he... what the hell was that crazy old man doing?!

He should understand just from the pure energy and the heat just how dangerous this was.

His superhuman body can handle those pure flames but not his clothes but… he just stood there, admiring the flames.

My eyes widened at this foolishness, and I wasn't the only one.

From Rein to all our grandparents found these actions foolish, but even after knowing all this, he just stood there, reminiscing about the past. (?)

It even worried me for a moment, but my heart was calm and I knew... that person wasn't going to get even a scratch from a rune of mere (tier-6) power.

But his simple clothing was definitely not going to be intact after getting burned by the fire, either.

'Crazy bastard...'

A deep sigh escaped my mouth and I just helplessly flew dawn while shaking my head as the slow river of fire collided with the bare body of this archmage.

The pure orange flames born from this glowing two-word rune looked amazing.

And… as I knew, he was perfectly fine even after being in this river of pure flames.

He was fine, unscratched, and there was no harm to his physical body aside from the bad black burning spots all over his body after his clothes burned down completely.

And he was still in that trance, just blankly staring into the sky.

All clothes he wore burned down, and after that, his bare body was revealed which… was too much to even talk about!!!

His body was healing at a fast speed on its own but, his clothes weren't going to come back on their own.

Yes, his body looked perfect, from those amazingly perfect strong hard muscles and 'stuff' but I didn't want to torture others by showing this scene so...

[Shadow curtain].

A dark fog covered the whole area before the clothing on his 'parts' was burned down too, and thankfully, I was just in time.

No ladies in this family gave a shict to this old one's body but, it was genuinely embarrassing even enraging, just how an honorable person like him could do such a thing.

From all I have heard until now from his owl, no story mentions him being an exhibitionist.

So I had no fucking idea just what the hell had just happened with this crazy old man, but this was nothing normal.

But I definitely knew one thing.

I'm... offended by this behavior.

He did something bad once again, and this time, it was intolerable.

He has to be punished… as severely as possible.

Taking a deep breath, covering my fist with dense Aura, standing before this fool headmaster that clearly knew just what things were happening around him, I took a special stance.

'Energy circulation arts. Stance zero: Express... anger.'

The energy throughout my body, be it Mana in my nucleus, the Solnova in my whole body to the Aura in my mind, every one of them aligned in a certain configuration, and the muscles on my right arm with Aura cover fiestas… strengthened.

I knew he knew I was really angry about this inappropriate behavior before my whole family, and this was his punishment.

I never wanted to use this thing, not in a place where it was never needed.

Not in the test that the great headmaster of the greatest school of this world was taking.

I didn't know the reason behind his behavior but, this was inevitable now.

'Well... this will really hurt.'

-Booooooom!