Serum - C184 (Patreon)

Yumia tilted her head at him.

“Not just one weapon?”

“I train all weapons and forms of combat.”

“Ah, you’re one of those. Very well. Whatever it is you need right now, just let me know. As for this meeting…”

Yumia looked back, her body flickering as she landed on top of the table. 

She paced around a few times, looking across the different landmarks before clapping her hands. 

“We’re going to save the Rank 7s. I’ll be participating personally. Prepare a rapid extraction team, no more than 8 people.”

“Your Majesty, it could be a trap. There are no doubt Tier 8’s there.”

“I don’t care. We suddenly have a new card to play and I’d be an idiot not to use it. Get the team ready by tonight. We will have this Rank 7 in our hands before sunrise tomorrow.”

“...Understood.”

Everyone could only nod. Then, Yumia waved, her and Dirk disappearing to another room. 

It was a large study that was awfully close to being a full on home. There weren’t many bookshelves, but there were thousands of huge pieces of parchment sprawled out across tables, boards, and the air. 

“Tell me, Dirk. What’s my niece up to right now?”

“...I have no idea. We got split up not long after entering the Otherworld. I was captured at Tallico City. My guesses are though that she’s beginning to stir some chaos. Best way to do that would be to devastate an elven city.”

“Hm, sounds like her. I’ll keep my ears peeled. Now, I plan to use you for this upcoming mission. I want your stealth abilities so that you can sneak into another camp and cause some chaos of your own. With my help, of course.”

She tossed a rectangular device over. It looked like a box, but there were several conduits across its lid made of pure mana crystals. 

“That’s a very powerful bomb. The camp we’re looking at has an administrative building containing most of the elven combat power. I simply want you to infiltrate, plant the bomb, and detonate it when you’re out. It’ll be confined to a spherical space about… 80 meters wide. Anything and everything within that radius will be annihilated, so you can’t be in it when it goes off. Think you can do that?”

“...How did you know about my stealth abilities?”

Dirks asked curiously. It’s not like he showed her any of his magic. 

But she just snickered. 

“What, you thought I wasn’t watching my soldiers save the convoy? I wasn’t there, but I watched you sneak in, and I was impressed. Your ability to hide is uncanny. Of course, not the best I’ve seen, but for a self made technique, it’s almost unbelievable, not to mention your Domain.”

“Not completely self made. I had some help from Asura.”

“Heh, I suppose that’s true. Now, tell me. Where the hell did you get a Tier 8 Geode Heart Core?”

“Oh, this.”

Dirk smiled and slipped the core off his back, setting it on the wood floor which creaked under the weight. 

“The mine that collapsed at my camp was due to me removing this thing.”

“No shit. Heart Cores create and support the entire vein they’re found in. Taking that away is like removing the foundation from a tower. But what I find impossible is the fact that you managed to remove it at all.”

“Better believe it. I almost died.”

Dirk smiled as Yumia walked over, uncovering the Heart Core and inspecting it. 

The spike from Dirk’s railgun had popped open the outer shell of the core even more, destroying its protective layer and disrupting its abilities enough to cause that catastrophic breakdown. Now, about half of the bright crystal within was exposed. The half of the outer layer of the core that snapped off was currently inside Obsidius. 

As for the crystal…

It was the true Heart of this Core

The crystal was an odd bright black. It was like there was a star of light encased in deep obsidian. And within that obsidian there were formations that were illuminated by the star of light, glowing white within the crystal for Dirk to see. 

The most obvious formation was in the shape of a dodecahedron which seemed to be written into the surface of the crystal. Then, on the faces of that dodecahedron were various geometrical formations, many of which Dirk recognized from the huge cube around the core. 

Since Dirk wasn’t half dead and being attacked by mana, he was actually able to look into the crystal now. Thus he was also able to see the clusters of runes within, ones that lied deep within that dodecahedron around the center, most brightly illuminated by the star of light at the center. 

The formations at the core of the dodecahedron were confusing, packed tightly in a lattice formation that propagated outward. 

Within this crystal were all the natural formations that created this powerful masterpiece. It was the perfect material to study from, and Dirk couldn’t wait to do so. Even now he was having Spyte record everything he saw. 

Yumia, seeing him so engrossed, chuckled. 

“Look at you, getting all enlightened. I don’t blame you. This is perhaps the best teacher in the world right here. This rock was created by the magical laws of the world. For an Earth mage like you, its invaluable. Unfortunately, I don’t have anyone who can forge with such material. This would take a Dwarven Grandmaster like that pipsqueak King at the Haven to forge.”

“...”

Dirk slowly turned and looked at Yumia incredulously. Who was calling who a pipsqueak?

Her brow raised. 

“Got something to say?”

“...No, not at all.”

“Good. Now, I suggest you keep this thing in here. You can come and study it whenever you want since it sure as shit isn’t going into a pocket ring. These doors will be open to you.”

“I appreciate it.”

“Mm. But in exchange you’ll be doing some work for me, which includes tonight's mission. Let’s go back to the war room and I’ll explain some things to you.”

“Alright.”

Dirk nodded, the two being taken back to the room they were in originally. There, Yumia gave a lecture, ignoring everyone else as she spilled important information all over Dirk. 

And he soaked it up. It was a lot of information that he had specifically come here for, so he listened intently, getting a grasp on not just this upcoming battle, but the entire war. 

……

…

The plans were made and put into action quickly. 

When midnight came, Dirk and Yumia deployed to the target base. They arrived using the little vampire’s teleportation, so their arrival was soundless and easy. 

Once there though, Yumia brought out a chair, placing it on a vantage point that allowed her to overlook the base, and reclined back in it. 

“Alright, pretty boy. Use the remote to detonate the bomb and kill as many as you can with it. The others and myself will step in once that’s done. If there’s a Tier 8 here, they’re not currently present, so you should be safe for now.”

“Okay…”

Dirk let out a long breath, looking down at the base. He had already memorized its layout with Spyte’s help. 

Speaking of, the cat appeared on his shoulder not long after he started verifying his plan of action. They could both see the densest concentration of power among the base, which was precisely in the huge administrative building to the side of the camp. The two were separated by gates, meaning Dirk didn’t have to worry about collateral damage. 

With that information, he activated his Domain and his stealth. The surrounding few meters around him went dark as black fire wrapped around his person, making him vanish completely. 

Yumia looked to where he was, her eyes following him as he started running toward the building. While she could sense him, that was only because she had the highest attunement to the dark element in the world, alongside only a few other monsters. Even then, what made Dirk’s stealth even slightly effective against her was what she quickly discovered to be Source Mana. He must’ve gotten that from the Dark Dragon Primordial, something she knew about since she too had received reports on what happened at the Advent of the Dark Dragon. After all, it was what kickstarted War Cataclysma. 

She smiled as he continued into the distance. He was quite the incredible specimen. So much power packed into that tiny body, not to mention his connection to her niece. Then again, given his abilities, those Traits and Skills, it was no wonder she latched onto him. Even then, she didn’t think the little demon Pandora Vanadis would have formed a blood pact with anyone. That either meant she was opening up, or Dirk hid even more than she could see. 

Either way, she was going to keep an eye on him. How fortunate that he fell into her lap all of a sudden.

She giggled a bit, a glass of wine appearing in her hand for her to take sips from. That’s when she was suddenly interrupted by a surge of spatial fluctuations. 

Her glance shifted to the administrative building. There, a massive black hole opened up, everything that was overtaken by it completely reduced to a mere point in space, obliterated in the greatest sense of the word. Over 90% of the combat power of this camp, including two Rank 7s and one Tier 7, were annihilated alongside that building. 

The black hole vanished as rapidly as it came, leaving mere fragments of the building behind, which crumbled soon after. All the guards across the camp were startled to attention. More than that, the Tier 8 hiding in the shadows was spurred into action. 

Yumia saw Dirk start running back to her position. With a pulse of mana though, the oncoming Tier 8 found him, a massive spell formation filled with potent air mana threatening to reach across the atmosphere and reduce him to gore. 

“Tsk, he works fast. I didn’t even get to finish my glass.”

Yumia clicked her tongue before bringing up her hand and snapping her fingers. Dirk appeared, fully armored in some kind of scale mail, right next to her chair. He flipped around, a bit disoriented before quickly figuring out what happened. 

“Thanks.”

“No problem. We can take care of the rest. Go ahead and head back to the study. You’ve earned some downtime with your Heart Core after making this operation such a breeze.”

“Alright. Thanks again.”

“Mm.”

Yumia waved, a portal appearing for Dirk to walkthrough. He didn’t mind leaving so he jumped through to leave. 

Like that, Yumia was left with the ire of the Tier 8, a pompous elven man standing at over 7 feet tall. 

“Ah, Yumia, you tiny dwarf. I knew you’d be here.”

The man drifted down form the skies, fluttering white robes with long draping blonde hair making him look like some kind of god. Yumia only sneered, one of her legs crossing over the other. 

“Asscheek, it’s good to see you again. How has your prestige handled after I exposed you in front of your entire army?”

“My prestige will be immortal after I tear your fucking head off.”

“There’s the venomous tongue I love. Be careful though. I wouldn’t mind getting another juicy shot of your perky little butt. Your fellows at the Tree would surely get a kick out of it again.”

“Childish bitch…”

The elf seethed a bit before casting a grand 17 circle spell. As it formed, Yumia downed the rest of her glass, standing from her chair before thinking for a second. 

And right when the spell activated, she vanished, appearing right behind the elf and throwing up his robes. 

The sight of what she found made her cackle. 

“You actually wore skin-tight leggings!”

“Fuck!”

“Bahahaha!”

Yumia’s hysterical laughs echoed across the camp as their battle finally began. 

……

While the battle was ongoing…

[Almost got it all.]

“Very nice.”

Dirk smiled, his Domain focused almost solely on the Heart Core and mana pulses flashing through its structure. In his mind, there was an evergrowing formation, one that he found both complex yet incredibly simple. 

After his last advancement where he attained a Mana Body, he hadn’t done much in the way of analyzing formations. He left not long after the advancement so most of his time had been spent on the fact that he was about to jump head first into the deep end of this War’s conspiracies, not to mention that with the Sky King, it didn’t take long at all to get to the Otherworld. They could cross the world in weeks instead of months. Downtime was minimized. 

This was all to say that he had yet to really exercise his full abilities. They were still relatively new and he needed to apply them to a variety of situations in order to realize how they changed the way he did things.

His Mana Body made him the perfect conduit for all things magical. It seemed that included analyzing and comprehending formations. 

Dirk thought it would take weeks or months to get a proper simulation of the Heart Core’s formations, and then even longer to comprehend it. But after actually doing it, he found himself absorbing everything on the fly. It was a bit slow since the information was dense, and some things were completely new to him since this was a natural formation. But let alone weeks or months, this wouldn’t take any longer than a day or two. 

The biggest help in forming a proper simulation of everything was actually his new Mana Manipulation. By sending out pulses of mana into the Heart Core, he could essentially power it and make the formations active. This interfered with his mana, which Spyte could pick up on and simulate. It was much more efficient than simply looking at it. It was like trying to get a feel for the texture of a wall by staring at it rather than actually feeling it with your hands. 

Dirk was rapidly realizing that he had underestimated his Mana Body and Mana Manipulation. He thought his magic was still supplementary to his Anima. While martial arts would still be his go-to for fighting, he understood that the room for integrating mana into everything he did was blown open. 

Suddenly, he thought about his fight with Eleanor not that long ago. 

That last move he pulled off, and the surge of mana that shot through his body…

The lightning through his muscles, the metal that reinforced the floor under his feet, it all happened so naturally. He had barely been thinking about those things, and yet they happened so seamlessly. He still suffered some major injuries, but if it had been before his advancement, he would’ve been killed without question. That battle would’ve been spent simply running, much less fighting and winning. 

Dirk got a taste of what talent around his level was like to fight. It was exhilarating, though dangerous. 

But it taught him a lot, and not just in the way of martial arts. 

Dirk looked back down at the Heart Core, his smile glowing as he urged a huge chunk of his mana into it. 

The surrounding gravity warped a bit, and Dirk’s mind surged with information on the formations. Yet it flowed as smoothly as water through a canal, the reservoir that was his mind endlessly accepting of all the runic information that came into it. 

He smiled, laughing as Spyte finished up the simulation. 

Once she was done, the formation in his mind flashed, looking exactly like the Heart Core in front of him. 

Things were about to change.