Rune Matrix: Programming Magic After Transmigration-Chapter 118: Smoker

The plan was simple: use fire to create smoke, forcing the rabbits to move away or die.

Sane rabbits that were not in a berserk state would leave when they sensed smoke. But the others would most likely die since they had no concept of self-preservation. Then, the mass death of those rabbits would make the remaining ones go berserk, and the cycle would continue.

"A better analogy would be... like a moth flying to a fire, the rabbits will die." Zephyr ended his explanation.

He could have spent extra time teaching what oxygen is, what carbon monoxide is, why it is poisonous, what carbon dioxide is, why the rabbits would suffocate, and everything related. But he ignored all that for the time being.

It was not the right time or place to introduce the periodic table.

"But there is no way to get enough smoke to cover the entire hill," Aurelia countered. "Even if we burn all the grass, leaves, and shrubs, it wouldn’t make enough smoke. And the wind would blow it away in a few minutes."

"You are wrong. We have enough material to make smoke." Zephyr shook his head. "What we’re going to do is the controlled burning of fuel. By limiting the air supplied to the flame, we can make as much smoke as we want. A smoke containment spell can capture the smoke and release it in a single second. Covering the entire village won’t be a problem."

What Zephyr said made sense. Aurelia nodded. Though she had never heard of the term "controlled burning of fuel" and such, she could understand what it was. After all, everyone had at one point in life seen smoldering fires. The principle behind it was easy to grasp.

However, she never would have thought of using something like that to their advantage.

She looked at Zephyr, appreciating his intelligence. As he said, they were relying too much on magic. The thought of using smoke to eliminate the rabbits hadn’t even crossed her mind. She silently asked herself to remember this lesson.

Meanwhile, Zephyr glanced over the expansive land before him. The village stretched hundreds of meters. Because they had moved the people to elevated platforms, the rabbits were huddled together around them. They didn’t have to cover the entire village to create significant damage.

"First, we will bait the rabbits to a single location by moving everyone here."

Zephyr and the rest were right in the middle of the village. By moving everyone together, the rabbits would follow them there.

"Then, we release the smoke into the holes down below. At the same time, we will create fires all around, sealing the escape routes. The smoke will spread over the ground, suffocating the rabbits. In a minute or two, they will all die," Zephyr explained.

"You still need magic."

"Yes, but not much. Anyway, everything I said can be done without magic. The only caveat is that without the smoke containment spell, we would have to burn a lot more fuel."

Zephyr shrugged.

An optimal solution was to use both magic and science in tandem. Having a brain and thinking harder meant knowing when to use what tools. If magic could save considerable time and effort, it needed to be used. That was what was called a smart decision.

"The sloped hill, heavy morning air, limited wind. It is the perfect time to execute the plan. We need to do it now."

Zephyr glanced over in the direction of the forest.

"We need to do it before the monsters attack," he added.

"Okay, let’s do it."

Finally, Aurelia agreed. Even Elenor, who had said his idea was crazy, began to realize it was not that crazy.

Smoking rabbit burrows to catch them was an old method hunters used. She had seen them do it before.

Normal rabbits would instantly run away from smoke when they sensed it, but the berserk rabbits were incapable of such thought. Even when they rained down hundreds of spells, they stood without fear.

Their fearless nature meant they would fall into the trap Zephyr devised.

She agreed with it and joined in the preparation. Sleep had to be postponed a few more hours.

—

An hour later, everyone was brought to a large stone platform, taller and wider than the rest, capable of holding 200 people. They stood, huddled together, in the middle of it.

Zephyr used Moss to convey their plan to the chief and villagers.

The chief was concerned. Zephyr was asking to use the firewood and flax field as fuel to create smoke. He was literally asking to burn their livelihood.

Initially, some voices rose in protest. However, when Aurelia agreed to pay them for it, they quieted down.

Soon after, the preparation was complete, and Zephyr decided to execute it.

Aurelia was taking on the role of fire starter.

Elenor would control the air around it, creating smoke.

Zephyr took the role of containing the smoke and pumping it underground. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

With each taking their role, they moved.

With the villagers on a tall, elevated platform, two dozen meters into the sky, they really had nothing to worry about.

Zephyr was flown to a small pillar near a vast flax field. Aurelia cast a fireball into the middle of the field.

Immediately, a flaming ball as wide as a person formed in front of her, moving to the field in a downward arc.

"BOOM!"

It exploded, sending flickering sparks far and wide. The sparks fell on the dry shrubs, rolling over their leaves, lighting a trail of fire in their wake.

Immediately, everything in the field began to smoke and burn. The flickering flames spread outwards within seconds.

With Aurelia completing her side of the work, she flew up and disappeared. The next job she had to do was just as important. To trap the rabbits, she was going to light fires on the perimeter of the village.

Zephyr watched her disappear and closed his eyes.

Taking a deep breath, he clenched his fist.

"Elenor, it’s yours," he said, looking at the burning field.

Elenor nodded, lifting her hands in the air.

A wave of mana formed over her hand, flowing into the field. Although it was invisible, Zephyr could sense the change in air pressure.

A thin layer of air was flowing out of her hands, covering the field, blocking the movement of air above.

What she was casting was technically not a spell. It was just pure mana, willed into a form using her wind affinity to stop air from moving above the fire.

She was blocking the flow of air, and thus oxygen.

Soon, they began to notice plumes of smoke darkening under the controlled sector of air. The flame underneath it was suffocating. Without oxygen, smoke continued to form underneath it.

It was Zephyr’s time to act.

He placed his hand above, casting the smoke containment spell.

The spell created a giant bubble around the fire, blocking the smoke from moving out of it. The hot air expanded the bubble, forcing Zephyr to concentrate and compress it, containing the smoke in a smaller area.

’Luckily, Aurelia gave me this spell. It’s quite useful,’ Zephyr said in his mind.

The smoke containment spell was more useful than he expected. It did not consume that much mana and could be sustained for a long time.

’The smoke that I cannot contain is moving over the hill. It’s as expected.’

The wind was not strong. The smoke was slowly moving downhill, into the area where the rabbits were.

’This is a massacre. It’s not pleasant, but it is what we have to do to survive; we must do it.’

Zephyr was not really an animal lover or a paragon of kindness. He was a survivor.

Doing everything possible to live one more day was engraved into his very existence. That meant he was willing to sacrifice animals for his own life.

The rabbits chose the wrong enemy that day.

—-

Aurelia flew out to the edge of the village. As expected, the rabbits were nowhere to be seen. Every one of them was at the center of the village.

She took a deep breath and began to do her work.

Zephyr had asked her to light fires all around the village, creating as much smoke and chaos as she could. That way, the rabbits wouldn’t have an easy time finding their way out.

So, she did what she was told and began to throw fireballs at every pile of leaves and grass she could find.

In just a few minutes, she went around the village, burning everything in her way. She was literally covering the hill in fire.

This alerted a few rabbits, making them run away in fear. She didn’t go after them.

__

Zephyr contained the smoke, forcing it into an imaginary sphere. As time passed, the sphere was turning dark as the density of the gray smoke increased.

Zephyr noticed it precipitating and condensing inside. The smoke contained hot vapor and carbon particles.

When the heat from it disappeared, it shifted to liquids and solids.

Zephyr couldn’t allow it. He moved the sphere above the flame, increasing its size to a dozen meters in diameter.