This Clueless Hero

At the last moment, I noticed that the peppers were falling to the ground because the stalk was withering away. Unfortunately, it was already too late at that point.

In the first split second of realization, there was no panic. I simply didn't think that anything would happen other than the peppers landing on the ground. However, there was a voice in the back of my mind that called me an idiot for thinking that way.

After all, they were the peppers that naturally turned any snow that touched it into water. Once put into a pool of ice-cold water, it heated it up fast enough to turn that water into steam.

Once put into a really large lizard, they essentially caused him to blow up entirely.

So why could I possibly think nothing would happen when the peppers touched the ground?

A clear sizzling sound filled the air.

The peppers landed on the ground.

Then, a full-blown flame rose from the ground. I began to panic. My skin tore open while mana rapidly gathered into water spells within my body.

One after another, balls of water appeared out of my palm.

However, in the second it took to cast those balls of water, the flame spread immensely and soared high into the skies. By the time the water landed on the flame, it barely did anything to slow it.

I was forced to backpedal in order to not be caught up by the flames.

My eyes narrowed.

It seemed the result of my actions led to some pretty bad consequences, but I was unwilling to give up on the peppers. After all, they were my ticket towards gaining a huge surge of power that would help greatly in and further endeavors.

Countless thoughts flashed through my mind.

Until a rather insane plan formed.

I casted another water spell, but didn't attempt to put out the flame. Instead, I let it splash on top of me, getting myself wet. It was uncomfortable, but I could hardly care about that now.

Then, I casted a variation of the encase spell. It was one I made by combining the strange deformed diagram in the control vines spell with the original encase spell.

After a few moments, a thin layer of ice covered my hands. It was terribly cold, making it feel as though my hands were actually burning. However, I was still able to move my hands.

Enough to grab something.

As the flames continued to spread, I stepped forward. Right when the flame was about to reach me, my eyes widened and my pupils constricted.

I teleported right where the peppers were, or the center of the flame.

Almost immediately, I could feel my flesh burning. The water did not even prevent the pain for more than a single second. Yet, I still reached down and picked up each pepper with one hand.

The layer of ice that coated my hand lasted even shorter than the water. The chilling sensation that felt like burning suddenly became a real burning feeling.

With clenched teeth, I endured the pain despite it nearly overloading my mind.

My eyes widened while my pupils constricted once again.

I teleported a little far from the fire and thankfully didn't teleport into any trees. My jacket had caught aflame while the skin on the palm of my hand turned black.

The moment I reappeared, I tossed the peppers into the air. Then, I recklessly gathered the mana to cast two encase spells.

One encase spell finished, catching the red pepper while it was in the air. Then, right before the yellow pepper hit the ground, I caught it too.

Though it was a success, there was no time to celebrate.

I hurriedly cast a water spell to put out the fire that formed on my coat, then coughed out blood.

For a moment, I thought I was attacked, but quickly realized that it was actually the consequence of casting so many spells consecutively.

This body was still weak.

I hurriedly cast the healing spell and upon completing it, my consciousness nearly disappeared. Normally, I would've just let my consciousness go at this point.

The only issue was the flames behind me that were rapidly spreading.

And so, I forcefully endured the agonizing pain my mind went through to retain consciousness.

My body was shaking.

I grit my teeth as hard as I could.

I even began foaming at the mouth.

But I was conscious.

My ears picked up on the crackle of flame right behind me. Smoke had already filled the air, making me cough. I hurriedly picked up the peppers that were now encased with ice. If I forgot them at this point, it would simply be too much.

I teleported forth once more, feeling a bit of flame lick my back.

Due to curiosity, I couldn't help but look over my shoulder. Although the source of the flames, the peppers, were gone, the flames continued to spread out rapidly.

They forced me to flee.

My hands were sending me several mixed signals of pain consisting of excessive cold and hot. Even when I put the encased peppers into my pocket, this remained true.

It was as though my hands couldn't make up their mind on what kind of pain they wanted to transmit to my brain. I guess it might've been because of the number of times they shifted between touching ice and burning.

Nonetheless, I had no time to lament over the pain as the fire was catching up.

The only thing left for me was to continue running.

...However, I ended up having to run for a long time.

At first, it was the residual heat that ended up hurting the most. My coughs became more violent because of the smoke I began breathing in.

I began teleporting to get farther from the fire. From the occasional glances over my shoulder, I was able to see how fast the fire was traveling.

And while I wasn't experienced in the spreading of fire, this was definitely faster than what it should've been. The only saving grace was that the fire behind me gave off plenty of light.

The constant use of teleportation quickly brought a burden on my mind. My vision was getting blurry, which was really bad when needing to determine a safe location to teleport.

However, I kept going despite the risk.

Yet, I found myself unable to teleport with such frequency after only a few minutes of running. Not to mention, having my mind so muddled would make it hard for me to reach my desired destination.

The cave that housed all those black lizards.

And so, I began running with all I had. My eyes were strained to their limits to make sense of the terrain around me.

However, the difference between a snowy forest and one filled with vegetation was quite big already. It wasn't like one of the trees was my pal Jeremy that would give me directions.

Though I tried to use the information of my terrain, I ended up having to use my intuition for the most part.

Eventually, the sun peeked over the horizon, slowly rising into the air. In other words, I had been running for the majority of the night.

By now, it was not the burning sensation that hurt the most or my mind, but simply physical exhaustion.

That was not to say I didn't teleport, because I did. The catch was I only teleported when I believed my mind could handle it.

Upon looking up into the air, I could catch a few snowflakes falling from the sky. It gave me a little hope that the cold would be able to put out the fire. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to slow it down at all, at least not for now.

Yet, as bad as the situation was, it wasn't hopeless.

Suddenly, my eyes widened while a jolt passed through me.

A familiar hill was before me, the one that had the entryway to those black lizards and the canyon. I took one last glance over my shoulder before searching for some sort of hole I could within.

My eyes scanned the side of the hill while my feet continued to slam down against the ground. A hint of despair began seeping in.

Because the hole wasn't there.

The crackle of flame got closer and closer, but I stubbornly continued searching. However, this also meant the flames caught up.

The fire caught onto my hair and jacket.

Yet, right when I thought it was all over, my body phased right through the ground underneath me.

My body spun a few times in the air. I quickly regained myself and covered the back of my head with my hands. My back slammed hard onto the cave floor, knocking the wind out of me.

However, the fire on my clothes disappeared. Up above, the flames passed by but didn't enter.

I was about to let out a sigh of relief, but that was when I saw a three-horned demon dragging its mace towards me.