Chapter 141 - Two question mark monsters (Patreon)

Tess receives five javelins made from my mana. I made them a bit denser this time so they should last around twenty minutes. She says they're a bit harder to control because they're made of mana that isn't hers, but it's not that bad.

I also give around a hundred small orbs to Kim, which are also made of my mana, and Hadwin gets a mace. That's how we reach the wall and stop in front of it.

I can feel mana all over its surface and it's towering like a skyscraper over us, all around the horizon. There are no holes, no gate, the wall is smooth and it doesn't even seem like it was made from bricks. It's just a single massive piece of… something. To test it out, I create and shoot one javelin at it and it burrows itself into the wall, yet the damage is minimal.

“Okay, as we said before. Nathaniel and I go first, Tess will support us. Kim, if you will.” Hadwin says.

For the last time, he checks if everyone is ready and then we stand on the massive piece of iron platform that Tess and Hadwin did twist and connect from multiple iron doors, pieces of the roof, and materials we found.

Kim then uses his [Gravity Well] and everyone gets affected by it, feeling lighter as well as the platform that he now starts moving slowly up, controlling it so no one will lose balance.

I grab Hadwin and propel us far high into the air, much quicker than the platform. Transforming the kinetic energy of my heart, I propel us a few more times until we reach the top of the wall where I lower the output and we land softly. Quickly joined by Tess further away from us who did something similar with her [Psychokinesis].

Then I look at what lies behind the wall.

Down there are beautiful vast fields full of flowers and with white trees that have almost golden-like leaves. There are no houses as far as I can see and in the distance, yet another wall towers towards the sky. This one is of a beautiful blue and intertwined by veins of lighter blue, seemingly all of this creating some patterns.

There is also something a bit more interesting. A shallow stream of water that flows through vibrant green fields full of colorful flowers and golden leafed trees. But there might be a problem.

[Undead Deer- lvl ??]

[Undead Bear - lvl ??]

[Undead Wolf - lvl ?]

[Undead Wolf - lvl ?]

[Undead Boar - lvl ?]

Damned system.

*****

“I can take them,” I say.

“You just said two of them seem to be around level 150, Nat.”

“Yup, I can take them.”

All of us are already on top of the wall, looking deep down at beautiful fields and immensely strong undead monsters that continue to walk around in the distance, some of them powerful enough to kill all of us if caught unprepared.

“Can't we just jump down, get some water and run away?” Hadwin asks.

“Where is the fun in that?” I ask.

“Nathaniel, we came here to get some water and maybe some food,” the older man ads.

Oh, that's true, isn't it. My eyes move towards Lily and her parched lips. Out of all of us, she drinks the least of our remaining water. The silly girl probably feels that it might be because of her that we lost our source of water.

“One question mark shouldn't be a problem for me and Nat. Or maybe we can have Sophie controlling them and send them to distract the two question marks while we get some water,” Tess says.

Tess, are you maybe a genius?

“I should be able to control the wolves for a bit, but I'm not sure about the boar. And there is no chance for me to control two question marks. At most i can stop them for a second or two.” Sophie adds.

There are five monsters in the area we can see. Closest to us are two Undead wolves, the boar is a bit more to our left and closest to the stream and then two question mark Deer and Bear are further in the distance, each of them as big as a house and similarly strong to the undead aberrant weredeer.

“How about we have Sophie manipulate the wolves and have them ready in case the two question marks come closer. Meanwhile, we will kill the boar and get some water before climbing back on the wall?” Hadwin offers.

“I wouldn't rely on the wolves being able to stop the Bear or Deer. Maybe for a few seconds, but not much longer.” I say.

“Well, that complicates things…” the older man sighs while I continue to observe the Deer and Bear.

How strong they are, I want to hunt them. I want to trick them in a similar way I did before and I want them to push me even more than the undead aberrant deer did.

Should I try to snipe them from up here? I'm far enough and if I create an attack strong enough I might be able to one-shot them. But in such a case, how would the remaining two question marks react? Would they rush at us? Climb the wall? Would I be able to fight back, probably tired after killing the first one?

Others become too noisy as they start talking and brainstorming ideas, so I stand up and move a bit further away from them. I sit on the the wall, my legs hanging from the edge, and I swing them a bit while I observe the monsters far in the distance and the beautiful fields down there.

A few minutes pass, and they're still going on, so I filter out the background noise and only focus on observing my body after the upgrade, especially my left arm. There's something weird with it, some disruption in mana flow in the palm of my restored hand. I've felt it ever since the start of the third floor but mostly ignored it because I thought it was a tiny mistake that happened because of the low level of Lily's skill.

It also doesn't affect me or my mana at all, so I didn't pay much attention to it and only came to observe it once in a while. But now, after the body upgrade, it becomes worse. It's still not affecting my body at all; it's just this weird feeling, as if the palm of my left hand is itching slightly. It's weird and hard to describe.

Anyway, I can cut off my hand if it becomes weird or dangerous. I can have Lily slowly regrow it in the worst case. For now, I'll continue to observe it.

I stop filtering out the background noise, and they're still brainstorming, worried about the monsters or unexpected situations. Even though they all are getting weaker as time passes. Most of us are thin, lips parched as we go without much water for days. I even notice that Lily is barely keeping herself awake and is trying to hide her suffering by constantly using some of her mana to heal her body.

The heck, why are all of you so careful? You need to be a bit more adventurous. You're in Hell difficulty. A strong will and decisiveness to take risks are a must.

I stand up, and a javelin appears over my head, and I start feeding it with mana. The first one to notice is Sophie, and she immediately pokes Tess, and both of them turn to me.

"Nathaniel?" Tess asks.

The javelin is already getting denser and longer, easily twice my length.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

Wisps of light blue mana start flowing through the weapon as I infuse more and more mana into it.

"Sparrow Obliterator 4000."

"..."

Wisps of purple mana appear, and I feel the javelin becoming heavier, the weapon as thick as my upper arm and longer than ever before. I [Focus] a bit more and twist it, shape it a bit so when it flies through the air, it will start spinning, the spinning stabilizing its trajectory. I also add a bit more weight to the middle to balance it better.

"It's easy, get ready to jump off the wall to get back behind us, Mrs. Mindblender will control the wolves in case they all rush us and somehow climb the wall. Twin jerks can use their skill to create some illusions to our right in case the monsters get up top," I say.

"That's not a very detailed plan," Hadwin joins, but I see him stretching slightly.

"Nothing ever goes according to plan, Haddy, just get ready to bullshit our way out of it if something happens."

"Haddy…" the older man shakes his head.

The javelin starts humming, and I put all of my attention to holding its shape and stop the mana from exploding while I redistribute and infuse more into it. The tricolored mana wildly swirls inside the weapon, and I realize that I've reached my current limit, so I release my Mana Regulator a bit more, and my heart beats loudly.

I control both, the kinetic energy flowing through my body as well as the javelin that threatens to explode and probably kill us all.

"They don't seem to feel your mana," Tess says.

"That's quite good, isn't it?"

Now then, slowly breathe in, infuse a bit more, a tiny bit more. Good.

Ignore the notification. Good.

Grab all the kinetic energy. Good.

And this time, don't push the javelin from behind, try to apply all the energy to the front of the javelin where it's heaviest to make the kinetic energy pull it instead of pushing and wasting so much of it. No, not like this, this is way too inefficient. I quickly correct the way I do it. Now anchor it, let the mana flow.

Oh, and control the mana a bit more, the weapon almost exploded. Good.

NOW.

The javelin disappears, and I get thrown to the side almost falling down from the edge of the wall because of the shockwave from shooting the weapon. Hadwin grabs me and helps me stop, and while changing my regulator again, I look towards the javelin that is already stabbed inside the deer's hind leg, glowing white and about to explode.

The undead deer's antlers start glowing too and his eyes turn towards the top of the wall where we are, and then he takes a step and disappears into his own shadow, leaving the javelin behind to explode in the place where the deer used to stand.

My eyes immediately turn to my own shadow, and it starts growing bigger, much bigger, and I spot one of the Undead deer's giant eyes appear inside of it.

***

Next Chapter