Chapter 420 - We don’t want to go there (Patreon)

The first floor so far shows no other danger than lurkers.

Sure, the gravity here is much stronger than on the other floors in Hell difficulty, requiring constant use of kinetic energy from me. Higher physical stats could probably deal with it easily, but that would mean less mana.

We can't have that.

The same as on the surface, there is also a pull on me that tries to steal my mana and send it into the ground below me. So far, my Mantle deals with that quite easily, and it only makes external usage of mana more difficult. That isn’t bad as well because it helps me stay focused and improve.

Shayna and I are currently inside an old cathedral-like building, hiding our mana signatures, both of us adding to the barrier around us.

The reason is three lurkers moving nearby who detected us and headed our way.

Shayna said the more lurkers we kill, the more others are able to sense us. It’s an interesting fact as it’s something I can’t even detect, meaning it’s either directly set by the system with no way I would be able to do anything about it. The second option is that the lurkers and everything about them aren’t set by the system; instead, it is a secondary effect caused by the setting of this floor.

It makes me curious and excited about the options it offers. With a good group, this place could become an amazing spot to farm some items. Every one of the lurkers is a Beyonder, meaning they have items fitting their status and with some luck, some of them even may be damaged arcane.

Could I go out on my own and do it?

Not currently; I’m just not strong enough. Well, maybe it’s not that I’m not strong, but that the lurkers are also powerful, and the more you kill, the easier you are to find, and more hunt you, which adds difficulty to it.

Both warrior and mage from before were very powerful. Not as much as me, but as the winner of our round’s tournament, I should be above average. But with Tess and Lily, we would bulldoze even through bigger than three member groups.

That is also where the problem lies - bigger groups. The deeper into the floor we are and closer to the safe zone, the more lurkers... well... lurk around.

Currently, it’s 2-5 zombies strong groups, but according to Shayna, there are groups of 10, and as much as I dislike accepting it, that would be too much even for me. Even a group of 5, I’m not sure if I could deal with.

I always look at it from the point if I would be able to defeat some of our Beyonders. Gareth? Tess? Savant? Lily? For sure. Tacita? Probably yes, but as my archenemy, I have respect towards her, and after her loss against Savant, there is no way she doesn’t go into a training arc and power up like crazy.

So, could I defeat Lily and Tess attacking me at once? I think yes. Savant and Tess? There I’m not so sure.

Even though our Beyonders seem to be above average, a group of 3 of them would probably be enough for the fight to become dangerous. The only difference would be me pulling off some sneaky attack.

That’s why my crown is already activated, and I do not work hard on hiding my abilities, and Shayna doesn’t ask about it.

“A few more minutes, and I will send my probe into the area,” she whispers.

“Let’s give it five minutes to be sure,” I answer back.

She nods. This time her hair is blue, and her eyes are as well. There is a bit of white mixed into them. Through my kinetic energy, I can sense her heart beating wildly.

Is this a normal reaction to being scared like this? Sure, we are close to a group of 3 lurkers, and even killing them would make our survival much more difficult as we are hours away from the safe zone.

Yet, even though I’m feeling fear, it’s not to the point she does. It makes me feel lightheaded, and my arms and legs are cold, sweat running down my back. With curiosity, I also lift my hand and look at it.

It shakes slightly, fingers twitching. As I close it into a fist, it really feels cold, and I take a deep breath.

My mind feels so sharp, and my body so ready to attack and move. Even subconsciously, I notice myself keeping my mana running through my body.

I love it. I love that feeling of tension and fear washing over my mind.

“Careful with your mana,” Shayna whispers.

I check it, and she is right; there is a bit of leakage, my excitement getting the better of me. I quickly take it back under my control and force it into my body and check on the barrier around it.

Doing some changes, I use [Resonance] to a higher level, and it keeps disrupting leftover mana that leaves our bodies. The skill destroys it into tiny particles that make it difficult to notice when checking for mana.

I’m also using thermal energy and [Redistribution] to try to wipe out the signature of heat our bodies radiate.

Shayna is lowering the presence of our minds and maintains a field that nullifies sound, our movements, and heartbeats.

There are so many ways to detect someone. Heat, mana, movement, sound, emotions, sheer presence; there are even monsters that could feel you looking at them.

At higher levels, you could detect people just from hearing their breathing even through multiple walls and far away. Or feeling the presence of their mind.

As much as lurkers aren’t as powerful as they were alive, they are quite close to it. I would say 90-95% from what I heard. Their use of abilities is great as well. So that’s why we are hiding, and I don’t consider it too insulting. I just know sooner or later I will come back here, and that day, a few explosions will shake the place, and dozens of lurkers will die to respawn again in one year.

“Sending probe,” Shayna announces.

She then uses her mental skill, trait, or whatever it is. I can’t sense it that much as it’s not where my talent lies, but she waits tensely.

It takes a few more seconds, and she breathes out, a small smile appearing on her face.

“Fuck,” is the only word she says.

Immediately I extend my domain and place an anchor, grabbing her hand, and while she lets me, I teleport us both.

Appearing high in the air, I watch as the building where we were hiding gets bombarded by attacks, stone turning into dust.

I form a dense barrier around us and infuse kinetic energy through, and a dozen metal projectiles crash into it, the kinetic energy and [Redistribution] absorbing most of the impact.

Someone tries to put a mark on us, and Shayna disrupts it while sending an attack towards where the attack came from.

Boosting us with kinetic energy, I fly at full speed, constantly adding to it.

Shayna uses her weird field created by her wings, and it becomes easier.

Much further away, I land, and a mana javelin appears over my shoulder. I start adding more and more mana to it until it becomes much denser and heavier, and then I start channeling kinetic energy. Shayna does some preparation of her own.

“Stun one of them. Just a split second is enough,” I say, starting to where we came from.

“One of them is protecting their minds; I won’t be able to.”

“Which one?”

“Lynthari woman; human with a blue shirt is using [Metal Manipulation] and a feylith man is using some wide bombardment skill.”

The feylith man is of the same race as Shayna, meaning it’s called feyliths. Nice find.

“I will disrupt Lynthari’s mana for a moment; try to attack her then with a stun.” I tell Shayna.

Saying that I create another javelin, this one much thinner, and infuse it with the disrupting effect of [Resonance]. I do not save my mana that much to make sure it has the intended effect. Then I add some more.

[Infusion - lvl 33 > Infusion - lvl 34]

It’s manageable but more difficult to keep both of them at once, mainly because of how much I’m packing into them.

Not given more time, two figures reach us, a feylith and a human with a blue shirt.

Blue shirt has pieces of metal following him - some iron door, anvil, old sword, and more. These pieces are bending and changing their shape as if they are made out of clay. He shoots these projectiles towards us, and adding to my workload, I use [Redistribution] to absorb their kinetic energy, adding it to the one waiting to launch my compressed javelin.

Feylith flies into the air, multiple shining orbs made of blinding light forming around him. Lynthari is hiding.

Shayna grabs my arm and points towards somewhere.

Extending my domain, I place an anchor and teleport, repeating it two more times until they succeed in disrupting my anchor; the rest of the distance, I fly.

“In the house with the red roof.”

Some mental attack crashes against us, blocked by Shayna, and I launch the disrupting javelin. It pierces into the house, and a strong wave of disrupting mana covers the area. It can be felt even up here but much weaker.

Shayna reaches down, and lynthari, who tried to escape, freezes in place, and I release my other javelin. It disappears with a loud boom, leaving no trail behind and no explosion as it hits. It just burrows deep into the ground, piercing through everything in its way.

The Lynthari is one of these pierced things, the sheer impact nearly evaporating the entirety of her chest.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 269]

I grab Shayna’s arm and boost us to the side, dodging the barrage of metal projectiles and soon even the slower feylith bombarder reaching the blue-shirt human.

“We should run; killing more will only attract more of them,” I hear.

Why worry so much? Such useless thoughts? I will just kill all of them. I haven’t even warmed up yet.

Bombardment attack? I will show you a bombardment attack.

That human with [Metal Manipulation]? Let’s see how he will deal with my [Mana Manipulation].

As much as even this strained my mind, it’s far from enough. I will…

Then I feel that presence. A single beat of a heart far, far away from here. And then another one, and the presence reaching towards me, to my strongly beating heart and to the kinetic energy I’m using.

Then the presence disappears.

“Yeah, let’s go.” I block another barrage of projectiles and shoot a few of my own at the flying feylith to make him busy and start flying.

“Wrong direction, you should…”

“Trust me, we don’t want to go there.”

The presence appears again with another powerful heartbeat, this time much closer.

I change direction and head towards where I think the expedition of the traitorous group is, and I give it a lot, not caring about leaving tracks in our way.

“What are you doing, we should…” Shayna keeps talking, but I ignore her.

She doesn’t seem to be feeling that presence at the moment, but soon she will, and she will understand.

Getting far enough from the duo, I land on the ground and stop using kinetic energy, even completely making my heart stop generating it. Instead, I change it to thermal and keep my Mantle manually strengthened. Not skipping a beat, I boost my body this time with mana, something I haven’t done for weeks but quickly get into.

Shayna runs by my side as quickly as, and probably even faster than, me, passing under the trees, through the huge broken bridge and destroyed city that once used to be glorious, yet now a stone-cold reminder of old times.

“Any powerful named one with kinetic energy?” I ask as we run. I don’t know anymore how far the presence is, and it probably has a much more difficult time tracking me.

“Two or three, but none should be so close to this area; they are much deeper.”

“So?”

“Metal Bitch, Owl, and Whitey, I know of these three.”

“Which one do we not want to meet?”

“Fucking none of them. Any could kill us both and another 10 like us with ease.”

“Which one do we really, really not want to meet?”

“Is it," she pauses, her gears spinning, "… fuck. Please don’t tell me...”

“Probably.”

“Damn it…,” she nimbly jumps over the crater and then onto the roof of the house that cracks as she uses much more force to run.

I increase my speed as well, sensing she is using her abilities to find the group as well. She might not be as good as Rat, but probably decent for shorter distances.

“If it’s a male demon with long white hair, then start hoping we will by some miracle meet a freakishly powerful C rank or some B rank deciding to visit this goddamned place.”

I have nothing to say to that jinx and check the timer instead.

18 hours remaining.

***

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