The power and range of attack magic are normally inversely proportional.
Due to the limited amount of magical power available for spells, focusing on power reduces range, and focusing on range reduces power.
However, the magic unleashed here on the shore of Parayan Island deviated from this law.
The force needed to devastate several dozen meters in radius and pulverize pirates beyond leaving corpses required only enough magical power to recover after a few breaths and a handful of black powder.
As Turan dusted off his blackened palm, he could truly appreciate how powerful and dangerous fire spirits were.
'This really mustn't be shared with other houses.'
Though he had dramatically widened the explosion range by combining wind magic, the power was still absurd even considering that.
At this level, it was practically no different from a disposable magical device.
Of course, considering the manufacturing method, the chance of someone accidentally creating it was nearly zero.
The condition of combining three substances in exact proportions and then having a wizard expend magical power to mix them was too demanding.
'Besides me, who knows about this... just those House Kamain nobles who killed Obil together?'
Among them, the others weren't very interested, and only Bisen, who was the leader, had looked at the notebook out of curiosity and copied its contents.
They were focused on the ritual to gain pyromania ability, and considering how saltpeter and sulfur weren't easily obtainable resources, though they probably hadn't created fire spirits, it seemed necessary to maintain some vigilance.
Turan landed on the ground while comforting Bize, who was whining about her ears hurting, and confirmed kills on the surviving pirates one by one.
There were about thirty more who had stayed inside buildings, either sleeping or too lazy to come out.
"P-please spare me, please-"
"Die!"
"Please take me as your subordinate, I'll be loyal!"
The reactions of those who had holed up were varied.
Some immediately begged after seeing the destroyed shoreline, some bravely resisted, and others immediately switched sides and submitted.
Turan selected a few who seemed relatively docile and instead of killing them, buried them in the ground using earth transformation magic.
The longest resistance came from two knights stationed to protect the island, but Turan neutralized them by sending a bit of fire spirit with wind magic and detonating it.
He could have killed them without using it, but he wanted to see how much was needed to deal with knight-level wizards.
"Urgh..."
The experiment resulted in one instant death, while the other was fatally wounded with all internal organs ruptured.
Thanks to this, he could roughly gauge what power was needed at what distance.
The surviving one, seeming to understand he would soon die, spewed curses while bleeding profusely.
"Be prepared, our captain... will... take revenge...!"
"I was planning to visit him soon anyway. To tell him to stop this nonsense."
Turan replied thus before kicking his head to end his life.
While there was no doubt this Cobinus fellow was a noble-level wizard, he surely wasn't stronger than Turan.
If he were that skilled, he wouldn't be doing piracy.
While focused on this work, Turan sensed over a dozen presences gathered in one building.
A foul stench wafted from inside, piercing through the acrid smell of fire spirits.
Breaking down the door of what seemed to be a large warehouse, he found, as expected, women gathered like livestock in wretched conditions.
"P-please spare us. We'll do anything, please..."
"Were you all kidnapped by the pirates?"
"Yes!"
"Then get organized and come out. You're free."
After saying this, Turan went outside without looking at them.
Many were quite disheveled in various ways, and unless they had Rida's personality, they probably wouldn't welcome his gaze.
The women who hesitantly came out of the warehouse later either gasped or screamed at the sight of pirates' corpses strewn about.
Several needed support just to walk, seemingly unable to properly control their bodies after long periods of abuse.
"There, there's a mine! The kidnapped men there-"
"I've already removed their shackles too. How many pirates were here?"
"I'm not sure exactly, but probably sixty or seventy."
Turan nodded after counting those he'd swept away with the wide-area explosion and those he'd killed personally or buried.
The numbers roughly matched, and even if there were some who had gone out on errands and hadn't returned, it would probably only be one or two.
Anyway, with only one sailing ship at the village port, they couldn't escape with those numbers.
"Then go wash up and rest for now. Don't kill those I buried, I have use for them."
==
After directing the women to clean themselves up and find clothes to wear, Turan immediately returned to the mine.
The miners were all gathered with anxious expressions beside the brutally torn corpse of the supervisor.
Their faces brightened upon seeing Turan.
"Ah, the wizard has returned!"
"You're safe! How, how did things go in the village?"
Their brightening expressions at his sight reminded him of the citizens of Kalamaf.
The appearance of weak sheep seeking stability while looking only to him.
Turan now admitted to himself that he secretly enjoyed being protected and worshipped by such people.
Though he wouldn't reveal this to anyone even if his mouth was torn apart.
"I've dealt with all the pirates."
"Yes! Ah, we've prepared something here!"
"Prepared?"
"Well, since you said you came for saltpeter... if you need them, we can transport everything else to the village too."
What they meant was, while Turan was sweeping away the pirates, the miners had organized the minerals mined from the cave so they could be taken out.
"I'll handle this myself, so go wash up and rest first. I've rescued the women too, so take care of them."
"Women...? Ah!"
"Please just be alive, Teiya..."
Some men who had relationships with the women in the village ran straight there without even taking time to wash.
After confirming everyone had left, Turan first reached toward the rocks mixed with ore.
He melted rocks containing gold and silver with intense flames, separated them by levitating the liquid, and crushed the saltpeter entirely before dividing it with telekinetic magic.
Amusingly, this consumed hundreds of times more magical power than devastating a village and killing dozens of pirates.
After all, he had to carefully control the heat melting the gold and silver to prevent it from spreading elsewhere.