I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 547: Hero of Flame 1

Han Se-ah's proposal to burn down the entire forest was taken more seriously by the party than I expected. I was ready to dismiss it as just her latest obsession with bombs, gas, and arson, but to my companions it sounded like a reasonable plan offered by a genius mage.

Even in a world where superhumans exceed human limits with mana and holy power, and monsters transcend the boundaries of living creatures, fire remained terrifying.

Speaking of superhumans who wield auras, a superhuman is literally a human who exceeds normal human standards. Their skin is tougher than leather armor, their bones harder than steel, and their mana-enhanced muscles possess strength comparable to heavy machinery.

But even superhumans obviously have weaknesses.

A superhuman will... die if they can't breathe!

It's similar to the weakness from that comic where someone dies if their head is separated from their body, but the implications are different. A mana-enhanced body can minimize feelings of fatigue even after days without sleep, and can squeeze out energy despite lacking food and water... but it can't create oxygen.

Feeling tired from lack of sleep?

Force yourself awake by enhancing your brain with mana.

Short on food and water?

Burn mana for energy to keep moving.

Can't breathe due to lack of oxygen?

Well, hold your breath as long as possible, then ultimately die.

This isn't to say superhumans collapse in three minutes without air like ordinary people, but even they will die without oxygen. When lacking sleep or food, they can endure by pushing their bodies to the limit and accepting the consequences, but without oxygen, there's nothing to draw upon.

And since most living creatures die from respiratory failure due to gas rather than burning to death in large fires, Han Se-ah's arson plan seemed reasonable at first glance.

Beast-type monsters were literally monsters based on predatory animals. Unless they were skeletons or zombies, they needed to breathe too, so if a large forest fire broke out, they would either flee or suffocate.

The problem was the wraith-type monsters...

"If they're spirits dwelling in the forest, wouldn't they have some medium or object they're attached to? Ghosts don't just float around in empty space."

"That's true... there might be ghost-inhabited objects, cursed items, or something like a lich's life vessel."

This was the very logic viewers had used to convince Han Se-ah, citing historical records and the like.

In Heroes Chronicle, undead like zombies were created from accumulated dark magic, so these forest spirits must also have some medium allowing them to appear. Since there were no safe zones in the forest until the Temple knights arrived anyway, why not burn everything and see what remained?

Environmental groups would be horrified by such talk, but this was a medieval fantasy world. More specifically, the inside of a Tower where a centuries-old primeval forest completely regenerated within weeks.

Burn first, ask questions later.

In the unique space of the Tower, even such an irresponsible approach could be considered a valid strategy.

"Still, we should make absolutely sure there are no fairy villages before burning anything."

"True, it seems like the 62nd floor only has monsters from what we've seen... but we can't be certain."

With this reasoning, my companions gradually warmed to Han Se-ah's arson theory. There was nothing inherently wrong with burning everything to see what remained, as long as there were no forest fairy villages.

Katie nodded, agreeing it made sense. Irene nodded too, suggesting there must be some core object in the forest that the ghost monsters were connected to. Grace insisted we verify there were no fairy villages, but didn't particularly object to the burning itself.

Naturally, everyone's gaze turned to me.

"What do you think, Roland?"

"Me?"

Even after thinking it through, while I felt somewhat swept up in the momentum, I couldn't find a good reason to object.

The only possible concern was that valuable objects like the seed the shadow fang tiger brought back might be destroyed. But hadn't we already turned both the "forest master" and "secret terror" mentioned in the quest window against us?

There couldn't possibly be another hidden trigger on the 62nd floor that would suddenly make them allies again. We'd already retrieved one mysterious seed from the 62nd floor—surely there couldn't be triggers scattered all over a single layer.

"I think it's fine. This guy already brought us what seems to be an important seed."

"Ah, neutral objects. I suppose they wouldn't be densely clustered in one place."

With my approval granted, Han Se-ah's mouth curved into a smile that reached her ears.

Since we'd spent the day in the city, she eagerly strode forward, suggesting we head to the stone dwarf city—as excited as a child going to an amusement park.

...Could bomb shopping really be that enjoyable?

※

The stone dwarf city remained unchanged from our last visit.

The massive, majestic city carved entirely from the interior of a stone mountain was overwhelming to behold, brilliantly illuminated by all manner of lights despite not a ray of sunlight penetrating its depths.

"Hey, squishies... it's the Hero Squishy! Welcome!"

"Haven't seen you in a while. Got any interesting items or tasty rocks?"

"I, uh, actually brought some forest stones just in case."

The stone dwarves, who had been busy with their work while observing the bustling humans, turned their attention at the mention of "Hero Squishy."

Though they lacked not only eyeballs but any facial features, they rotated the boulders atop their necks with grinding sounds and gathered around us. Apparently, while Han Se-ah had been exploring and illuminating the minimap, she'd been building relationships by distributing rocks from various layers.

With her spacious inventory, she could easily stuff a few stones into empty food sacks even while setting up camp. And since stone dwarves ate rocks, Han Se-ah's gifts of stones from different layers probably felt like receiving foreign snacks.

"So, what are you here to buy today?"

"We're going to set fire to a huge forest, and we want to make it big."

"How big are we talking? You came to us because magic won't be enough, right?"

Han Se-ah naturally wandered into an alley and began conversing with an unfamiliar stone dwarf. Apparently, she'd built a relationship with this NPC by purchasing alchemical catalysts and incendiary fuels while I wasn't around.

Their interaction didn't resemble a hero and a grateful member of another race, but rather a black market weapons dealer and their regular assassin customer.

Nevertheless, true to their reputation as an artisan race, the stone dwarf alchemist nodded in understanding at Han Se-ah's bizarre request. Being a race made of pebbles and rocks, and perhaps having no experience with elf-like races in their original world, the stone dwarf proceeded to ask Han Se-ah questions without hesitation.

"Hero Squishy, you said you want to set fire to the forest. How big are we talking?"

"Hmm... bigger than this city?"

"...Are you fighting a war or something? Well, I suppose heroes do such things. So how dense is the forest? Plenty of fuel available?"

"The trees are thicker than an adult man's waist, and there are quite a few dry branches and fallen leaves on the ground."

-I didn't realize how savage this was until she mentioned burning an area larger than the city LOL

-So the Empire-protecting hero plans to burn down a vast forest to exterminate the natives? LMAO

-Is this a broadcast about an imperialist activating plantations to exploit forest fairies and forest dwellers after burning everything down? ROFL

-A hero who gets emblems from forest fairies, extracts honey from walking flowers, poaches animals for mana stones, and now burns the forest? LOL Stop lying

-To the person who cried about the hero burning the forest: you were right, O Prophet...

Of course, the conversation was quite brutal, prompting swift reactions from viewers. After fundraising for arson, they now mocked her when she actually tried to set the fire—typical behavior for Han Se-ah's audience.

Well, despite their words, once Han Se-ah actually set the fire, progressed through the quest, and defeated the wraiths, they'd surely cheer that this was the right answer all along. ...Or would they? Maybe they'd mock her for "easy mode" again?

"Driving out beasts and ghosts, clearing forest to find paths—what an unusual combination. Try this."

"What's this?"

"It was custom-ordered material for pushing back a Demon Lord army fortress, but all my fuzzy potential customers disappeared, leaving me with dead stock. I'll give you a good price if you take it all in that inventory of yours."

As I pondered this, the stone dwarf brought out a large oil barrel from the back of the shop. The wooden barrel, about the size of an adult man's upper body, had a glossy appearance as if coated with tar. From the outside, it resembled the kind of container bombs in RPGs that explode when shot with arrows.

But the stone dwarf's explanation was even more sinister than I'd imagined.

"It's 'Sticky Flame' mixed with holy oil. Basically an oil-based substance that water can't extinguish once ignited. It's the catalyst we use to light our furnaces, reinforced with holy oil—hot enough to melt stone."

"...Wait, what? Napalm?"

"It has the drawback of being difficult to ignite due to its mixed composition... but once lit, it's sticky and doesn't detach easily. It'll thoroughly clear out the forest trees without them collapsing or the flames dying from lack of air, little squishy."

What the barrel contained was holy-napalm that the stone dwarves had created to incinerate the Demon Lord army's forest stronghold.

Enjoy the chappy!