The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 189

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 189. Treasure Hunt (4)
Whoooosh!
The deeper I descended through the long corridor, the more intense the heat became.
I squinted my eyes as I felt the searing warmth that seemed to incinerate my very body.
‘Is this the heat of the Primordial Flame?’
Indeed, the heat that constricted my breath was so overwhelmingly intense that it lived up to its name as the Primordial Flame—almost unbearable to endure.
Yes.
Objectively speaking, I couldn’t deny that this was an extraordinary level of heat.
[You… what exactly are you?]
Grace stared at me with narrowed eyes.
“Why are you suddenly asking what I am?”
[…Never mind.]
Grace furrowed her eyes in incomprehension.
[Even if I don’t feel pain because I’m in spirit form, the heat in here is powerful enough that an ordinary person would burn to death in an instant….]
Grace blinked at me, clearly bewildered as to why I seemed completely unaffected.
“Well, I’m used to it.”
I shrugged and answered with a composed expression.
That’s right.
The heat filling this corridor was an energy I’d grown intimately familiar with through my daily training—deliberately ending my own life to provoke the Primordial Flame.
‘If anything, this feels almost cool.’
Perhaps because it was still only a spark.
The heat permeating the surrounding space felt considerably weaker than the Primordial Flame’s heat I normally experienced.
Of course.
That was only how it felt by my standards.
By Grace’s account, an ordinary person would writhe in agony and burn to death the moment they entered—and that wouldn’t be surprising given the intensity of this heat.
[Used to it…? This?]
Grace looked around the corridor, which seemed to melt in the shimmering heat, clearly unable to comprehend.
[Maybe you have some ability that extinguishes fire or makes you resistant to it or something.]
….
I didn’t know what this “power to extinguish fire” within me was.
The real reason I could endure the Primordial Flame’s heat was simply that I’d experienced it so many times, but I saw no point in clarifying that.
[We’re here.]
After descending through the corridor for several minutes.
A vast cavern appeared, engulfed in brilliant red flames as if we’d entered a blazing furnace.
Whoooooosh!
At the center of the cavern.
A spark burned ferociously.
Or rather, to be precise….
“…Is that really a spark?”
A house-sized flame raged wildly—far too enormous to be called a mere spark.
[Hmm. It seems the Candidates in the Candidate Program these days don’t learn much about mythology?]
Grace clicked her tongue disapprovingly and continued with a nostalgic tone. [Back in my day~]
[The Primordial Flame is the power that once burned the ‘Tree of Creation’ which forged this Continent and the gods themselves. Even if it’s merely an ember, it’s only natural for it to be this size.]
“But I already knew that….”
[I bet the real ‘Primordial Flame’ itself would be sooooo much bigger than this?]
Grace continued her explanation with a boastful air.
I watched her spread both arms wide to express the size of the Primordial Flame and let out a soft chuckle.
‘The actual Primordial Flame was only about the size of a fist, though.’
Of course, despite its small size, the power dwelling within the Primordial Flame was incomparably stronger than the ember before my eyes.
‘The power feels unrefined and raging wildly.’
If the Primordial Flame were a well-honed blade, then this ember was molten metal heated to incandescence.
Molten metal that couldn’t even hold its own form properly, capable only of burning everything around it.
I take a step toward such a Primordial Flame ember.
[Be careful…!]
“I’m fine.”
Whoooosh!
As I approach, the ember writhes fiercely like a beast that has found prey.
Spewing massive flames in all directions, a tidal wave of fire crashes down to swallow me whole.
[No, this can’t be!]
Grace cries out urgently as she watches me consumed by the flames.
Grace attempted to fly toward me, radiating pure white light.
Whoooosh!
[Ugh…!]
The heat from the ember affects her even in her spectral form, and Grace’s body is repelled by the flames as she tries to approach.
Sizzle! Sizzzzle!
The flames wrapping around my body burn through flesh, releasing acrid smoke.
Watching my body burn in the flames, I curl my lips into a slight smile.
“How presumptuous.”
Boom!
I roll my feet roughly, my body engulfed in flames.
“You little brat.”
I breathe in slowly and awaken the Primordial Flame slumbering within my heart.
Sizzzzzzle!
A terrible, excruciating pain as flesh burns away.
So hot it feels like molten metal flows through my veins instead of blood.
The pain is so intense I can barely maintain consciousness.
“Hah.”
Yes.
This sensation.
This agony.
‘Damn, this hurts.’
The direct comparison made it unmistakably clear.
The savage heat of the flickering ember was nothing but a hollow laugh compared to the heat possessed by the Primordial Flame.
Whoosh!
The ember that had been burning around my body startled and writhed, attempting to escape.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I bared my teeth in a savage grin and reached toward the scattering flames.
The ashen smoke flowing from my body coiled around the ember.
Hiss.
I closed my eyes and focused my consciousness.
As if undergoing an out-of-body experience, my body felt weightless while my awareness gradually sank into deeper depths.
The Mental Realm painted itself across my mind’s eye.
Whoosh! Whoooosh!
I could see the Primordial Flame and the ember locked in combat.
‘No.’
Calling this a “fight” would be inaccurate.
The Primordial Flame had seized the desperately fleeing ember and was crushing it with overwhelming force.
Whoosh, whoooosh….
Perhaps the disparity in power was simply too vast.
The ember couldn’t endure long before being completely consumed by the Primordial Flame and vanishing.
‘It ended faster than expected.’
Though the outcome was somewhat anticlimactic.
The power gap was so immense that the battle concluded far more easily than I’d anticipated.
‘Time to return.’
After confirming the ember’s complete absorption.
I was about to open my eyes to exit the Mental Realm when—
Whoooooosh!
The Primordial Flame erupted with savage ferocity.
Like a beast straining against its chains, it began to thrash violently.
‘Ugh…!’
Terrible agony engulfed my body alongside the raging inferno.
‘What is… this?’
I lifted my head and turned toward the Primordial Flame.
A colossal blaze burned with savage intensity, as if devouring the world itself.
‘That’s….’
Had it grown stronger after absorbing the ember?
The Primordial Flame, which had been docilely dormant, now erupted with savage fury and descended upon me.
When the massive inferno—incomparably greater than the earlier ember—began to consume my body—
Crack!
The earth of the Mental Realm split with a deafening sound as something colossal surged upward.
Like stamping out a raging inferno beneath my feet.
The primordial flame, which had been thrashing wildly, was pushed back by something surging upward.
‘Ugh.’
I gazed at the ‘something’ overwhelming the primordial flame while catching my breath in ragged gasps.
Shrouded in ashen smoke, I couldn’t discern its exact form—only that it was immeasurably vast.
‘Is that… the power to extinguish flames that Grace mentioned?’
The something that had instantly suppressed the inferno withdrew back into the fractured earth as if its task were complete.
‘Phew.’
Watching the primordial flame lose its momentum, I exhaled a breath of relief.
‘Carelessly absorbing the flame essence would be dangerous.’
The heat of the flame essence itself posed no great problem to me, but the issue lay with the primordial flame that absorbed that power.
The moment it absorbed the flame essence, the primordial flame—which had been suppressed without a sound by the ‘power to extinguish flames’ dwelling within me—began to rampage like a hound slipped from its leash.
Fortunately, it hadn’t yet gained enough strength to overcome the suppressive force of the ‘power to extinguish flames,’ but there was no guarantee that would remain true.
‘Dangerous as it is, what I’ve gained is substantial.’
I reached my hand toward the roaring flames.
The inferno flowed across my palm like a docile lamb.
The quantity of flame responding to my will had clearly increased compared to before absorbing the flame essence.
‘If this is the case…’
Whoooosh!
I wrapped my body in the roaring flames.
From ignition to escalation.
The inferno enveloping my body grew progressively fiercer.
Ordinarily, this was the limit of what I could draw from the primordial flame—save for the state of the Fire God, which I couldn’t control by my own will.
‘One step further from here.’
I exhaled slowly and drew the flames up even higher.
Whoooosh!
The inferno enveloping my body spread wide, consuming the surrounding earth.
Snap.
With a light flick of my hand, a colossal flame erupted in empty air.
The inferno ignited and extinguished in response to my gestures.
‘Does my control over the primordial flame increase within regions engulfed by flames?’
Until now, using the primordial flame had always required channeling it through my ‘body.’
Even when wreathing a blade in flame, I first had to envelop my own body, then transfer it to the blade.
But within a region formed by roaring flames like this, I could ignite the primordial flame anywhere, anytime—without necessarily channeling it through my physical form.
‘It feels like deploying a domain of sorts.’
Now that I thought about it, I’d heard of such things before.
Certain ‘blessings’ could influence the surrounding environment, transforming a specific area to favor the user.
‘Lanez was like that before.’
Currently, she couldn’t fully control her blessing’s power—only enough to conjure blizzards around her—but in her past life, Lanez would transform the surrounding earth into the Snowy Wasteland whenever she used her blessing, creating an environment advantageous to herself.
In other words.
I had progressed beyond ignition and conflagration—those initial stages of setting my body ablaze—to reach a new realm where I could incinerate the very earth itself.
‘Of course, what truly matters is how effectively I can wield this in reality, not just in the Mental Realm.’
Like conflagration before it, with repeated training, this technique would become fully controllable.
‘First came ignition, then conflagration.’
Just as when I had awakened my blessing.
The name of this newly acquired technique surfaced in my mind as naturally as remembering something I’d forgotten.
‘Calamity Fire.’
This was the moment I ascended to yet another stage beyond ignition and conflagration.
‘I’ve stumbled upon a treasure I never anticipated.’
I gazed at the inferno consuming my surroundings, my lips curling into a smile.
It was entirely unexpected.
Yet it was equivalent to discovering a treasure incomparably more precious than the “Divine Grace” offered as the first-place reward in this treasure hunt.
‘Though I won’t earn bonus points for it….’
Hm?
Wait.
‘Ah.’
My bonus points.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————