Published: January 22, 2026
I landed near where everyone was gathered.
Immediately, I took out a necklace with processed magic stones attached from my storage magical tool and put it around my neck.
“Ms. Selma, I’ll handle this guy, so you leaders give your all to protect the newcomers. The rookies might be scared, but just stay still. I’ll definitely protect you!”
“H-hey! Orun—”
Ms. Selma tried to say something, but I ignored her.
The black dragon lifted its head.
I slowly ran counterclockwise around it, keeping my distance from everyone.
The black dragon followed my movement, turning its head to keep me right in its line of sight, not letting me escape.
Good, I’m gaining proper aggro.
Without changing my leisurely pace, after moving about a third of the way around, the black dragon made its move.
Impatient with my maneuvering, it fired the same fire bullet attack it used when it appeared.
“Do you think such a simple attack will work on me?!”
I directed the palm of my left hand toward the black dragon and channeled mana into the magic technique I had already prepared.
Then, my original magic activated.
“[Reflective Barrier]!”
A grayish translucent wall appeared in front of my left palm.
When the fire bullet touched the barrier, it reversed direction and flew back toward the black dragon.
[Reflective Barrier] is a magic that forcibly changes the direction of any force touching the wall to be perpendicular to it.
In other words, it creates a wall that reflects anything that touches it.
The black dragon, caught off guard by its own fire bullet returning, couldn’t react and took a direct hit to its face.
“Eat your own flames.”
While the black dragon’s vision was blocked by the explosion, I thrust my left hand into the ground.
I constructed another original technique and channeled mana into it.
“I’m not sure if I’ll get to use this, but it’s good to have insurance.”
I lifted my hand from the ground and stood up.
The smoke in front of me cleared, revealing the black dragon’s form.
Its face was unharmed.
“I knew it, but wouldn’t it be okay to take a bit of damage? That’s your signature attack, right? Ha... I guess I have to steel myself... Ah... I hate this...”
Muttering to myself, I constructed another technique, channeled mana, and activated the magic.
“...[All Status Up][Quintuple Stacking]!”
[All Status Up] is a combined support magic that simultaneously activates the six basic buffs: strength up, vitality up, magic power up, resistance up, technical skill up, and agility up.
It’s more like the name for simultaneous activation rather than a single magic skill.
The difficulty of activation increases, but since they activate simultaneously, all buff durations align, making management easier.
Then there’s [stacking].
This is a technique established by exploiting a bug—essentially cheating.
Normally, applying the same support magic buff while it’s already active just resets the duration.
My support magic doubles the effect roughly.
But with [stacking], the already doubled buff can be doubled again.
In other words, it quadruples.
With [quintuple stacking], it repeats this three more times, resulting in a roughly 32-fold increase.
In this state, even if Oliver were receiving Ms. Selma’s support magic, I would be strong enough to handle him easily.
However, there are drawbacks.
For some reason, it can’t be used on others.
I tried several times during my hero party days, but it never worked on anyone else.
Also, it heavily burdens the brain.
[Stacking] requires constructing techniques in parallel and activating them almost simultaneously.
So just now, to buff myself, I built thirty techniques simultaneously.
Constructing techniques requires vast calculations in the brain.
Using too much magic is basically overworking your brain.
If you overdo it, your brain screams in pain, causing headaches.
If you continue using magic in that state, standing becomes difficult for some time.
My support magic buffs last exactly three minutes.
Because I need to repeat this every three minutes, it’s not suitable for long battles.