I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 548: Hero of Flame 2

When millions of people gather in one place, there will inevitably be those who genuinely know their stuff, those who pretend to know while being overly enthusiastic, and those who quickly search the internet to fake expertise.

So it was only a matter of time before Han Se-ah learned about the napalm bombs the viewers were excitedly discussing.

"So you're saying this is like napalm? Since its performance is guaranteed, should we just buy it all?"

-Oil+catalyst=napalm just buy it all, worst case you can throw it on a boss and get your money's worth

-I'm concerned about quality but if stone dwarves made it as war supplies, shouldn't the quality be solid? Take my money and buy the whole stock!

-Wow! You know about napalm! It's an oil-based flame mixed with catalyst so it doesn't extinguish easily even in water, if you're sure about this give me a thumbs up

-What kind of world did the stone dwarves come from that they pour napalm to capture fortresses? That's seriously terrifying LOLOL

-I bet if we looked hard enough they'd sell missiles too, which is kind of scary LOL

Napalm

Reading what the viewers had copied from the wiki, napalm was apparently named by combining the first syllables of naphthenic acid and palmitic acid. Filtering out the wiki's characteristically long explanations, ellipses, and strikethroughs, the essence was quite simple.

Napalm itself was just a white powder that, when mixed with gasoline or other oils, transformed into a sticky gel-like substance that adhered to surfaces and resisted extinguishing.

Therefore, the "sticky oil" offered by the stone dwarf could legitimately be called napalm. Created to combat the Demon Lord's army by mixing holy oil with furnace fuel and alchemical ignition catalysts... it was literally holy-napalm.

"Roland, what do you think of this?"

"Something that can melt even stone sounds good to me. Handle it wrong, and even a forge will have holes blown through it!"

"...Sounds perfect."

I couldn't help but nod at Han Se-ah's sparkling eyes.

Why? Because I was curious.

While napalm bombs might seem obscure, anyone who's played a decent number of games would recognize the name. It's sometimes mentioned by characters who use fire-based skills, and anyone who's played FPS games would be familiar with it.

'We can always reset a day or so if things go to hell anyway.'

No matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn't envision a scenario where setting the forest on fire with napalm would completely ruin the game.

Even if we used napalm in the forest, flames starting on the 62nd floor couldn't possibly reach the fairy villages hundreds, maybe thousands of kilometers away. Even if we brought in a nuclear bomb instead of napalm, it would be difficult for the fire to cross from one layer to another.

So buying all that oil would at most burn a certain section of the 62nd floor. It seemed perfect to use before the Imperial Temple knights arrived to build a ghost-proof base camp.

'Honestly, napalm made with holy oil sounds intriguing.'

"Alright! I'll take all of that sticky oil!"

-Teacher approved arson LOLOLOLOLOL

-In the royal chronicles you wouldn't approve this but here you're giving full permission LOLOL

-I think he's just curious too, like birds of a feather flock together

-I don't think it's the sticky oil he's curious about, but how far Han Se-ah will go LOLOL

As I nodded with these thoughts, Han Se-ah flashed a bright smile and quickly pulled out a pouch of gold coins from her inventory.

Though it was war material, it was ultimately excess stock that had lost its buyers when the stone dwarves crossed over to this world. Factoring in that we were the "Hero Squishy" who had saved the city, we could purchase a large quantity for a cheaper price than expected.

We stuffed enough into the inventory to burn down any decent-sized forest even if the barrels had contained ordinary gasoline instead of holy-napalm.

"This means I can't use my inventory until we use up the oil."

"We can keep mana stones separately and simplify our meals, so it's not a problem."

"It's a bit disappointing that we won't get to eat Irene's soup."

Apparently, I wasn't the only one influenced by Han Se-ah, as the rest of the party discussed burning the forest even at the cost of reducing meal quality. Their reaction wasn't particularly strange since they had no other way to deal with the wraiths.

Even if Grace's arrows could penetrate vital points, where exactly were the vital points on a wraith's ethereal body? And even if Katie's aura could slow or freeze enemies, would an incorporeal ghost even feel the cold? Only Irene, who used holy power, might be able to confront the wraiths, but her talents lay more in maintaining sturdy defenses than in tracking and eliminating enemies.

So with no objections to the hero genius mage's opinion, preparations for the 62nd floor arson plan steadily progressed.

※

"This seed? It seems to be a fairy seed. Ah, I don't mean us forest fairies... but the kind of fairies that humans call 'fae'."

Are we really sure burning is okay...?

After purchasing sticky oil from the stone dwarves, renting equipment like sprayers to spread it more efficiently, and confirming with camera drones and minimaps that the 62nd floor forest was extremely far from the 61st floor fairy villages.

We finally discovered what the seed brought by the shadow fang tiger actually was.

"A fae seed...?"

"Yes. I don't know where you found this precious thing... but I'm glad it survived the dimensional shift caused by the Demon Lord's schemes. Oh, we plan to raise this child in our village along with the flowers."

"Ah, I see. As long as it's not a plant seed."

From the forest fairies' explanation, it seemed that forest fairies were closer to what we'd consider elves—tall, slender archers with pointed ears—while fae were tiny butterfly-winged creatures smaller than a palm, like Tinkerbell.

It sounded suspiciously like the 62nd floor gimmick, but apparently, while forest fairies were daughters of the world tree living in forests, fae were like forest spirits born from nature who tended the forest before disappearing. The fae's role was essentially that of gardeners who cultivated rare and precious plants to offer to the world tree.

"So the forest master and secret terror were either trying to eat the fae or targeting the flowers they would grow?"

"If we hadn't stolen the fae seed, could we have negotiated with honey or something?"

And here we were, after sending the 62nd floor's gardener to the 61st floor, preparing to burn down the 62nd floor... When I put it that way, we really did sound like psychopathic arsonists.

Anyway, thanks to our scheming cat's quick grab-and-run, the peaceful route had been half-destroyed. But as they say, all's well that ends well—we'd rescued the fae, so burning the place down shouldn't be a problem. From what the forest fairy said, fae weren't born in large groups.

That's how nature spirits worked. Being a race born from condensed energy, when one fae was born, nothing else could emerge nearby.

"Then we should head to the 62nd floor."

"I'm glad we didn't leave the seed with the Magic Tower. If they'd mistaken it for a plant seed and used it for experiments, ugh..."

"The forest, the forest will burn... This is strange, I'm telling you it's strange!"

"You've been anxious a lot lately. There, there, it's okay. You're just feeling uneasy because the World Tree isn't here."

After naturally entrusting the fae seed to the forest fairy village and heading toward the gate guided by the minimap and the finch, I heard sobbing behind us. Hmm, this made me worry about sparks accidentally reaching the 61st floor.

Maybe I should search the internet about forest fires. There was something used to prevent forest fires, but I couldn't remember the term. With this thought, I casually asked Grace, who came from a mountain village.

"Grace, how did your village prevent forest fires?"

"Hmm? Our village was small so we didn't do much... Oh! I heard from my father that larger villages and fortresses create what they call firebreaks."

"Firebreaks?"

"Since flames spread through branches and fallen leaves, they clear those away in advance. Large fortresses might dig trenches, but ranger cabins in the mountains don't have those, so it's more like creating escape routes."

Ah, so that's what firebreaks are.

After hearing Grace's explanation and searching online, I found information about creating clearings in advance to prevent forest fires from spreading.

Han Se-ah and Katie were excitedly discussing the potential power of the sticky oil, while Irene had concluded after much deliberation that burning the forest would be acceptable since it contained neither small animals nor insects, just wraiths.

Consequently, every time I heard the sobbing from behind us, an ominous feeling crept up my spine that the fire might somehow turn into a catastrophe. Maybe I should use the holy sword to clear the forest for a couple of days before applying the sticky oil.

At the very least, we needed to prevent the fire from reaching the gate.

Enjoy the chappy!