Chapter 17 The Way Of Fire

Greg and I had just finished clearing another trent map. It had been a while since I’d cleared a map—at least two weeks—and they needed another clear as the demand for these maps was rising.

The wood these monsters dropped was quite excellent for low-level adventurers. You could make anything that requires a bit of wood. Handles for different types of weapons, staffs, and staves, basically everything useful. They also got a trade deal with another large city in this world that was more focused on crafting, so they needed to expand their operation.

I suspected that our deal would stay in effect, but they could break it at any time now, as I was pretty sure they were hiring more people like me. This wasn’t, however, my main goal in doing this map. I needed some privacy, so currently, I was sitting near the portal. Near me was a stack of loot, and I was currently holding my staff with both of its ends burning.

I had purchased another healing potion just for this occasion, but I hoped that I wouldn’t need to use it. There were some things that I didn’t know about my fire immunity, so it was time to find out what was true and what wasn't. The planning for my new build was going well, but I couldn’t finish it properly if I didn’t know my capabilities.

So, while holding one of my hands out, palm up, with my other hand, I readied to strike it with the burning end of the staff. Now, I knew that I was immune to fire, but this skill was special—each attack penetrated into whatever it hit. I had tested it out on stone, and while it didn’t penetrate deep, it still did. It actually looked quite beautiful afterwards, but that didn’t matter right now—I was stalling.

I took a deep breath in and braced for pain. The staff fell quite fast, and I felt the hit—but only the blunt impact of the staff, not the penetrating fire. I looked at my palm. There didn’t seem to be any damage, but I did feel something else. I tried it again, this time holding my hand vertically so I could see if any fire made it through.

With another hit, I was amazed to see that the fire did penetrate through, but it didn’t hurt, and it penetrated a lot less than I expected it to. To be honest, I hadn’t expected anything like this. I hit different parts of my hand, but not even the arm hairs went up in flames. It was weird because the fire did penetrate, but it didn't feel bad; it was like my hand felt refreshed.

So, test one was a success. That opened up a lot of possibilities. Yet this wasn’t the only test. This time, I brought the burning end extremely close to my face. Damn it, I really didn’t want to do this, but I needed to.

With willpower I didn’t know I had, I positioned the flame so it would go straight into my eye. Reflexively, I closed my eyelids, but I forced them open to see the flames, the beautiful flames as I looked at flames from the inside for the first time.

Would my tears be immune to flame? Well, this was another successful test, and I would leave the tear part for last, as I can’t cry on command.

Next, I put the flame as close to my mouth as possible and breathed in as deeply as I could. It didn’t hurt, although I did start to cough, but that was more from the surprise. What’s more interesting, the flame actually had an interesting taste.

When I blew out, there were no longer any flames, but the heat was still quite strong. I did it a few more times, but it felt like I was running out of air. The flames burned up everything that was important, so I needed to breathe slowly to get my breath back. So I might be immune to fire, but I still needed to breathe in the correct mixture of air.

Now came probably the stupidest test. Just in case, I hit myself with the end of the stick multiple times and as hard as possible in different locations—even my throat, which hurt like hell, but not because of the flames. Another thing was that the flames definitely didn't heal any of my injuries. They still did some good. It felt like a good massage—if I didn’t hit myself too hard.

So the last test or at least what should have been the last test. Please work like I think it will and do not let anyone find me having killed myself.

I hit myself as hard as possible with the end of the staff against my head. The strike hurt quite badly, but not because of the flames. My hair seemed to be fine, my brain didn’t cook. I hit myself two more times in the head just in case, and all I managed to do was make my eyes water from the pain caused by the blunt impacts.

I managed to squeeze out a few tears and immediately started to test them. The fire didn’t seem to do anything to them while they were running down my face, so I caught one with my finger and then tried to burn that, but nothing happened.

I let that drop hit the end of the staff and watched as nothing happened for a few moments. Then I saw the tear slowly start to bubble at the edges.

It took way longer than it should have, but eventually, it evaporated away. I had one more tear—this time, I let it drop on the staff and then held the staff as far away from me as possible while still being able to see.

The tear definitely disappeared faster this time. So I’m guessing if some part of me gets separated from me, it will lose its immunity to fire, and the further away it is, the faster it will lose it.

Now, this certainly wasn’t enough testing to be entirely certain of that conclusion, but my head was hurting, I had bruises all over, and I didn’t want to hurt myself more just to cry even more.

I guess I could test it with blood, and after I did so, I think I can safely say that any part of me that is separated from me will lose its fire immunity—and the further away it is, the faster it will lose it.

Now, finally, I drank the healing potion, feeling all the bruises, the three cuts I made to get the blood, and my headache disappear. It felt so good, but now I had a better understanding of myself. And… well, I was a bit scared of myself.

Many skills would work so well for me, but the truly dangerous ones—the skills that would be destroyed if they were found, the ones that would make me a true terror to fight—I would need to find those in the black markets.

My best self-defense, especially while fighting when everything was on the line, would be something that would make me burn from the inside and also project that burning outside, destroying everything in a radius around me.

I could see some combinations like that working quite well, but that would be for the future. There were still quite a few skills that I would want and that I could purchase when I had the money.

Right now, my biggest weakness would be the lack of air if I were to set everything around me on fire. Also, that wouldn't be too good for loot, but I should still get a better skill to quickly set everything around me alight. That way, if something went wrong, I would be able to survive it, and at that point, loot didn’t matter—survival will.

I turned over a few options for an attack spell that would work well with my Flame Tips skill. It would give me a bit more range, but the focus would be on penetrating fire and not setting things on fire, which would be important to gain loot. With my current funds, it should be possible. It would also mean I would need to buy a few more items with sockets, but that was to be expected.

After I sell the loot here, I should probably hang out with Felwan and Tivet and do the shopping tomorrow. It has been a while since I’ve seen them, and Tivet has been speaking about his job and how to make maps.

While I could never get as accurate as people who specialize and have the crafting passive skill tree, I think the knowledge would still be good for the future, as he actually seems to be quite a genius at it.