"Why do we need to drink mana recovery potions? And why do we need to drink it for usage?" – Klane asks.
Yena Ori raises her hand, "To recover mana and to consume the liquid, we need to swallow them and wait for the body digestion."
"Good, then which one we shall not drink?"
She follows up, "The inorganic ones or the mineral ones, we can't digest them if they are not organic."
"Good good, then why do the alchemists always know which amount and type of the potions that they consume is perfect?" – Now comes the hard part.
"I think… they might have some techniques."
"But what should those techniques be used for? Guess one." – Klane snaps her fingers.
"Perhaps… to test how much their bodies can consume in a specific amount of time, I think?" – She guesses.
"Another thing."
"I don't know."
"Good, whatever, you can sit down." – Klane points to the next girl, but she just shakes her head.
Up to Talia's turn, "Use their blood drops as test samples for the potion samples. The difference is based on their goals, element, amount, purity… Repeating the process to get the best option. Testing the capacity of the body based on the ratio with the blood sample, then multiplying it by one half or twice."
"Good, why are multipliers by one half or twice used so often?" – Klane feels like she is currently like a strict teacher with high expectations. Yet, it's nothing better than teasing a young boy with one and a half meter height. Yes, you heard it right. Talia's true height is actually 1m5, the height that he used in the enrollment day and fights was just the adjusted one.
"The veins' capacity and durability, they can be extended, but not too much. The blood veins which are developed well to contain 50% to 100% more energy than normal. Just for maximization." – Basic knowledge, it would be strange if a nerd like him doesn't know this one.
"Good, now we start today's lesson. At the end of the class, I should see at least three samples to prove that you guys actually did something today, okay?" – She asks, but it doesn't matter, because the grade book is right in her left hand, nice and neat.
At the end of the day, he got back to his room after two more hours in the combat practice field. Yes, the end of the day already, what are you even expecting? This is the life of academy students, going to class, doing work and projects, resting then repeating until graduating. Simple, clear and fair. There's no beautiful or rainbow experience at this place–
*Knock* – This is the custom sound effect only activated when someone rings his doorbell. Talia slightly puts the mark between two pages of the book, then closes it before walking to the door.
He talks via an intercom in his room, "How can I help you."
He also looks through the screen, which shows who's here. With the cyan hair tied as a swordsman, Talia also realizes the guest's name is Kitane, who he met a day before.
"Do you have free time? We are doing a small exploration of a dungeon sweep."
"Which rank are you all going to do?" – Talia needs to make sure of the danger rate.
"Rank 3, biome: Savage Wilds, the first reconnaissance team reported the size is about to be three chunks in total." – Kitane replies with all the information.
"Rank 3? How many people are we going to have?"
"Counting you, we have nine in total. One sophomore took the quest to take care of us, so don't worry." – Kitane knows why Talia asks like that, whatever, it isn't a big deal.
"I need Iron Claws, around five kilograms. Two kilograms of Blade Fangs and a Phantom Heart." – Offering the rewards, Talia makes a deal.
"We won't hunt for those items so it's up to you. I can personally help but it will not be considered as the first priority." – Kitane clarifies the issue.
"Good, I'll come, one minute."
"See you there."
*Noise* – Whenever a team or group goes to clear a dungeon or more, they have to come to the nearest hunter pub to register. The reason for the nearest one is if they went to another farther location, they might have a chance that the dungeon they aimed for isn't included in the list of that pub. The nearest ones of the dungeons always have the newest list for the newest available dungeons around. It's just common sense, nothing special.
And for the reason why hunter pubs are the registering points, they are stated under the authority of The Hunters Council. They are the official intermediaries between hunters, those who are going to be hunters, non-hunter people or others to contact with at least one pub nearby and an upper one. Whenever the small pubs report issues, the nearby pubs can get access to that information for preparation. The upper offices can send forces there also in the shortest amount of time for operational tasks.
That's why they have more forces than the rest of the Big Forces to do other missions across the entire Niliphon continent. Throughout those four forces, only The Hunters Council can train the new troops fastest and nearest to the standard. It doesn't mean the rest of the Big Forces can't train new troops but to maximize both quality and quantity in a short time process of two to four years, they just can't compare to The Hunters Council. Spell and magic fields require too much to create a good mage, the holy power shall not be given to those who seek for power only, they must have a clear mind and an unshakable belief and the alchemy is purely diabolical to compete.
Back to the group of nine people, the sophomore is called Celior, a commoner. He's a rank-5 hunter already, which Aranta and Paragon were rated at the first time they did the test. Don't just look at them to underrate this rank-5 feat. As a normal human and a commoner, it took Celior three years of pre-training before the age of fifteen and two years of hard training at the Cala academy to reach this far.
For a comparison, experienced Azure Class mage is equal to this rank-5 of hunters. They can destroy a small building easily or a standard building with less than five attacks just by raw physical strength. And as I said, the body and power development is related at youth, training sooner than others only give some of them a better start than the rest, not always stronger as a principle. After all, training more still makes them better, but shouldn't be seen as a mandatory activity.
"Celior, rank-5 hunter, dungeon number 8, I warrant this group of nine people." – He talks to the officer of the pub, who has a slender body fit in a black suit, her ivory hair sways in the wind, how delicate.
"Uh oh~ look who we have right here? Our muscle maniac finally gets out of his training room? How honor it is for me to witness this miracle." – She teases him with a soft touch and a slight swipe at the left muscle of his chest.
"Is that your girlfriend or something?" – Zoa whispers.
"A vixen." – Celior picks her up at her head, shifting her away with Aura.
"Oh~ how cruel." – Nonchalantly, she takes out a flattened rock with special features. Giving it to Celior, she asked for a goodbye kiss yet got refused immediately. That's it, now they can go to the registered dungeon to start the clearing action.
"Let's go guys." – He leads them to the small teleportation portal nearby, outside the pub. This is how the Cala Academy treats their students, whenever they need to clear dungeons, the office will give them the equal missions if they want to do it this way. If they complete and return the complete missions with requirements, all the cost of travel will be covered totally by the academy no matter what.
How long since the last time we saw a dungeon or a rift? It should be the moment that both Paragon and Aranta were forced to escape from the second Aetheria via a red rift – the first time they met Aetheria the Knight. I still remember that was the first time I put the high hypersonic+ speed tier into the story line. And now we again get back to the tier of subsonic speed in the fights, which is around 34 to 273 meters per second.
*Clash* – Parrying a heavy slam of an iron-claw bear, Kitane finished it off with a clean slash right at the belly. He knows that it should've been able to throw some last strikes, so following up with a stab at the heart position, forth from the back – finally taking it down.
"Talia."
"Got it." – Stepping forth, he landed two slashes nicely into the joint of each claw and the corresponding toe segment. Iron-claw bear is only the common beast in this wild forest biome, the reason it gives humans high rewards is the flawless iron claws collected in the correct way.
Each claw of each bear has a different inner line, that's where Talia should cut into to totally split the claws from the toe segments. Also, the first cut must be strong to determine the shape of the cut, the second one is for finishing. Avoiding doing the work in only one slash is reasonable since the claws are hard and easily bent if the cutting force is not too overwhelming. Each bear has two best claws, usually the middle one of each front foot. It weighs from one to one and a half kilogram for each, which means Talia needs at least four claws in this exploration.
Unfortunately, this bear only gives him one good iron claw at 1.72 kilograms, the rest are all around one point two or below, not worth it.
"Do you need something from it?" – Talia asks.
"Nope, I only need wind element materials to forge two rings and upgrade my katana. It's not that ideal to find them in this biome, so I'm here for fights and experience only." – Kitane scratches his head.
"I see, I can sense the wind element quite well, I think I can help." – Talia offers.
"That'd be great. Luck based issue."
*Thud* – Three more corpses are thrown nearby, it's Celior. He personally killed the biggest bears for Talia. They are still far from the final destination, so helping some members finish their quests or demands is not that hard.
"Thanks." – Doing the work, after two minutes, three more claws have been collected. Three bears but only two of them are actually useful, the last one was damaged in the fight so seriously.
"Can I have the red eye?" – Kitane asks.
Talia takes it out, "I currently don't need this one."
Celior also refuses to take it, flowing as water, naturally that epic item for alchemy work is taken by the swordsman. Zoa, Daheng and Daniel also come back after defeating three bears. Oh, have I said the iron-claw bears usually stick together from seven to twelve individuals already? Whatever, now you got that information.
Returning from a short reconnaissance mission in the next chunk, Kinyo and Hugo came back with a draft of the terrain. There are three red lines with different starting points and ending points, one of them is connected to a blue line, leading to a black spot far away.
"We have a general map already, do we have to do anything else?" – Kinyo asks.
Celior also replies, "Finish your quests first, Skar should be close to finishing his own already. I'll search for him, you guys stay together, help each other and camp at this point."
He points at the zone near the first red line, that's a place near a cave, a river and some bushes.
"We should come back after half an hour, if there's an issue, I'll contact you all as soon as possible" – Celior covers himself with a dense Aura layer, swiftly moving a round at mach three.
Talia is shocked with that speed, with his reaction speed, at the first fifty meters, he couldn't catch a blur sign of him. Yet, after one hundred meters, he finally caught something moving. At the exact 103.5 meters of distance, he saw the first clear silhouette of Celior.
Murmuring, "Is that the gap of true Azure mage and Ivory?"
*Pat* – Touching his right shoulder, "Travel speed is different from combat speed, in a fight, if you can predict well, you have a chance."
"Doesn't matter, I can't one-shot him with any spell. That assumption needs at least two advantages for me to make sense. It's just too meaningless." – Talia knows well how strong and how weak he is. Gaslighting himself just to have a chance of winning the stronger ones doesn't make any sense.
"I know right, his sword techniques are better than mine. So if at least two more of us the eight guys could reach Azure class mages or rank-4 hunters, we should be able to stand a chance just by now." – Kitane also cleans his sword.
"Why not later but now?" – Talia knows that even if Celior was at rank-6 right in that case, under the jump of eight people while at least three rank-4 or Azure class, they should have a chance. The strong rank-5 hunter and a weak or standard rank-6 isn't that different in stats.
Unless–
"Did he unlock the maximum output technique already?" – Talia guesses.
"That's the reason, stat gap isn't the issue, but with the maximum output technique, he can slay us all in some slashes." – While talking, they're moving to the mentioned spot on the map in the meantime.
"Indeed, he can currently collapse the entire large building with twenty floors into the ground with one maximum output Aura slash." – Kinyo makes it clear.
"That strong?" – Talia's maximum attack potency in one strike is only able to blow away a dense and big wall with a massive fire ball.
"Honestly, I can also do the same with the small building with the requirement of five seconds accumulating power." – He flexes his power by the way, in a very important and necessary way that probably contributes to the dialogue.
"Shut up bro, no one will wait for you to stretch your ass for five seconds." – Instant attack! Hugo slanders his friend immediately.
"You shut up, I can beat your ass with that strike."
"Guess who begged me to wait for an extra two seconds that day."
"Stfu."
They actually talk as normally as commoners. Without the mask of nobleness in important events, there are not only a few of them who want to go ape whenever they want as commoners for releasing stress. Talia also realizes this fact since their group was about three nobles and four commoners. He doesn't know well about them but behaved without pride and intentionally hid the rank work in introducing their names before Talia can make sure that they are at least different from the classists.
Without Celior and with the help of Kinyo and Hugo, eight more bears were slayed. Besides that, three Fang Tigers and a Horned Lion were also killed – completing all the missions for this free trip.
"Done." – Daniel's turn is already the last mission that must be completed for today.
"No one needs these fangs right?" – Talia points to the three tooth-blades on the ground.
"Ye, you can take them." – Hugo shifts them toward Talia while talking, but he also challenges the new teammate in a small fight. Covering three tooth-blades inside a sealing cube magic each, he again seals all of them inside a bigger one – the total of four seals.
"Unseal them."
Touching the cube, Talia spreads his mana into the object as waves. This action helps him read the structure at first. The next step is slowly breaking down the loaded structure in the right way. As for solving a puzzle, if the previous steps are messed up, the mages must rewind the actions to make some changes. Barrier technique is the base for sealing spells; at the entry level, it only gives users the power to draw a closed box in three dimensions. It can be crushed by force or solved by removing the edge(s) of the geometric-shaped seals.
As such, this cube is a cubic seal, of course, what are we even expecting? So Talia has two ways to deal with this challenge. Crushing it down is too brutal, also the cost of mana is too high. So probably removing the edge is the better option. And now the question is how to remove the edge with less force and effort.
It's quite easy according to Talia. Each cubic seal is drawn in a specific and same direction for easier work. It also gives others easier work to unseal the cube by following those lines with a concentrated and thin blade. Actually that removing technique is still about using force, the true edge removing one requires users a specific knowledge and sense to deal with.
And that technique will be shown by Talia right now. Imagine magic is codes, casting spells is coding and removing seals is equal to removing some codes. Mages can load spells, translating the "event" as a fireball into a bunch of "data" as codes. Reading data, getting access to that data, then removing that data by either disabling it by inserting nonsense data into the codes to cause chaos in that data pack or just directly deleting the data over time. The faster a mage breaks the data of one's spell, the better soul and mental strength that mage is. On the other hand, the operation rate also affects the process speed.
Zero points three seconds, the total amount of time it took Talia to remove all twelve lines of the first cube. Due to the fact that all these seals were made unitedly, Talia also needs zero point two seconds to solve them all by spreading the target range to three at once. Don't forget these things, because mages always work on this world's logics and codes even more in higher ranks. And because you all will see these kinds of fights in future.
"Half a second in total, your operation rate should be above one hundred and fifty calculations per second." – Hugo tries to guess. He didn't put that many codes into the seals but half a second was just too fast.
"Isn't it the same level as yours?" – Talia asks back.
He only shrugs, "Who knows?"
"Move!" – Hugo bursts a gale orb between them to shift them both aside from the approaching object. He swiftly gets back the balance and takes out the staff, a rare item. Talia at the same time has also taken out his items, two staff rings and a bracelet. These items are purely for amplifying the output, because it's already here.
A black coat of thin fur, four legs with claws, it's a Phantom Leopard. Observing its appearance, Hugo determines the speed passive it has is around level seven to eight – which is above standard.
"Stay away from the darkness and shade." – He warns the teammates while casting light orbs around to avoid any sneaky strikes from the beast.
Based on the encyclopaedia of beasts and monsters, Phantom Leopard is related to leopard species obviously. Which gives it the trait of 40% faster than the same-rank beasts. Combining with the level seven to eight of speed trait, an addition of 35% to 40% stat is also about its own speed boost.
The standard speed of rank-3 beasts is 0.25 Mach, with all the trait buffs, it reaches 0.45 Mach. With the multiplier of 2.5 to 5 times by Aura boost, the final speed is definitely between the range of 1.125 Mach to 2.25 Mach. This is the fastest speed of this phantom leopard individual estimated personally by Hugo, also the worst case they'll have to face.
"Guys, back up." – He requests.
*Clash* – Kitane volunteers with a direct block against the swift strike of that leopard; that move shook his hands a bit. His base speed is actually 150 meters per second, with the multiplier of 3.5 times by Aura Boosting Technique – he reaches the speed of 1.53 Mach in the approximation. Talia, Kinyo and Hugo are mages, they aren't that fast compared to swordsmen or fighters as Kitane or the rest. That's why a standard team is which gives mages and healers at least two protections behind the frontline.
"Unseen and free, the winds will answer me." – Chanting the incantation for the wind element, Talia casts a level 4 spell: Wind Boost into the katana of Kitane.
"Falling Rocks!" – Via three magic circles, Hugo quickly casts a bunch of rocks falling down just to limit the space around that leopard.
*Swish* – Yet, with the speed at Mach 2, it just nonchalantly escaped the trap.
*Smack* – Waiting since then, Zoa instantly throws a preemptive strike with his left fist. Into the right side of its face, he landed a rapid strike to drive it right at the range of another strike.
*Smash* – Following that construction, Daniel slams his two hands straight onto that head. He shot it down to the ground, where Kinyo's thunder spears were already planted straight forward.
"Fireball" – Both Hugo and Talia casted that spell via a circle zone set right above the leopard, which they shared together by opening the codes.
*Boom - Splash* – Taking two fireballs and a spear into its left shoulder, the leopard swiftly activated its Speed Burst move to dashes out of the danger zone. Zoa predicted that move, he also tried to catch up yet got outspeeded after two steps. Consequently, he stopped before getting out of the lightened zone, where that phantom leopard is negated in two moves and an environmental advantage.
"You need this one right, Talia?" – Kitana gets into his low stance and the katana is covered all by Aura.
"I'll pay you back later." – Casting the level two spell: Wind Burst to boost the speed of his teammates by 10% each. Which directly helps Kitane gain more 0.15 Mach in his final speed.
This is the basic sword technique with Aura, by concentrating everything into a thin and sharp slash, Kitane can throw a flying slash forward. This attack usually takes him a second to charge for max power and shooting itself at his maximum speed also.
*Clash* – The leopard also uses its claws to directly break that slash apart, which gave Talia's team evidence that it's not been weakened yet.
"Ready?" – Kinyo casts three more light orbs with a variant of circle zone. It requires a lot of data for the feature of automatically tracking a single target without manual operations – which people call "independent zones."
Unfortunately, he's only able to maintain one zone like that with a few resources for loading the terrain around. Of course, he doesn't want to be passive and unaware of anything in a high speed fight like this. The only limit that he currently has right now is grouping those three light orbs together. In other words, that leopard can destroy them easily.
So just in case, "Don't let it have that chance! Hugo backs me up."
Following that call of Kinyo, Hugo spreads his zone larger for a better range of loading. They know that the leopard can activate a skill to be invisible, even under the loading power of the Zone. However, with the light power of three light orbs tracking it, they can avoid that scenario. And with three more orbs floating around them, in five more minutes, they are quite safe.
With a dash, Kitane leaves his position to cut in the movement of the beast. He swings his sword quickly to the right to cut that throat, yet misses. To avoid the scenario that he might be attacked, Zoa also followed with a kick to force that leopard to dodge away.
*Boom* – A fireball was thrown to block the heading in the mid-action of the beast. Talia slows down one pace to cast Wind Boost on both fighters before switching to his own hybrid fighting style.
Catching that sign, the beast instantly approaches with its maximum speed at 2.36 Mach. Its claws all shine up with silver lights, this is the observable sign of activated move: Phantom Claws. Yet, due to those three light orbs non-stop revealing the leopard, it can't hide into the darkness as a phantom – that move only boosted its attack potency. With the shortest way, I just want to say this strike can blow away a four-floor building into scarps.
*Clash* – Of course, Talia doesn't have a chance to block or parry that strike, so he needs Kitane to cover him. Being here not to play around, Talia swiftly casts a rock stake shooting from the ground at the heart position of the leopard. With a slight touch, it rapidly used that spike for a stepping stone leaping away. Even though it's still fast, the limit in angle and time consequently limited the final output determining its dashing speed. Which opened up a chance for Zoa and Daniel to approach with their gauntlets full of Aura.
Besides abilities and spells, we also have techniques. There's a phenomenon that can only be activated when the Aura of two or more users synchronize themselves before both of them land the strike together. And to make that chance become higher, Zoa and Daniel switched their Aura to the most basic form on their fists just for this one. And by cheating with a special technique that transfers the strikes' impact into waves – they can synchronize easily, yet with a weaker output.
However, it doesn't matter since those waves can pass through the entire body of the beast, then shock everything inside per wave. This phenomenon is usually described with a term, "leveraging power to boost power" between the users. In short, it upscale the weaker ones to the same level of the strongest one in the synchronization group. Also obeying the laws of energy conversation, when the total output raises, the total input is also required the same – distributed equally across the group.
*Crrt* – Not the strong breaking sound, they all know that the strike was only enough to cause some fractures on the ribs of the leopard.
*Zrrt!* – A sharp sound clangs over with the company of a sonic bomb, that's the thunder strike Kinyo has been preparing. His job is backing up Hugo, it doesn't mean he must do it for the entire time. Being flexible between roles in a team fight is also one of the criteria determining one's utility. Of course, that strike pierced through the leopard's heart position and left a burnt hole there.
Beasts don't have Guard technique like humans, but they are able to cover themselves with Aura in the most basic way. It isn't at the same level as Guard in protection power, but still able to reduce the damage at a specific amount.
On the contrary, Kinyo shot that spell with the goal to pierce through that protection. Reasonably he turned most of the power into the piercing feature, leaving the strike not that strong.
*Splash* – However, it can be used as a stepping stone for Daheng to stab into the burnt wound. With the much weaker protection at that spot, his arming sword is obviously enough to actually damage it deeply into the heart. And to make sure that it has no chance to burst Aura to maintain the wounded body any longer, Talia also approaches with his hand sign – which you should know his next move already.
*Fsh~* – A hiss crosses over the winds, he aims straight at its belly position. If you wonder, our two fighters have been holding the leopard after landing their strikes already. This action also opened up the chance for the rest to throw their strikes.
*Bang* – With the huge impact of air explosion shifting into the viscera of the beast, it vomited a bucket of red blood outside from its throat, which was mixed with small red scraps of the internal organs.
"Nice one guys." – He swiftly takes out the phantom heart and puts it into the green liquid container.
"Did I damage it too heavily?" – Catching an obvious trace of a strike on that heart, Daheng feels like he stabbed it too recklessly.
"It's fine, I have this liquid. After a day, it might be totally recovered." – Swaying the container, Talia makes sure that the heart is already well-soaked before recalling it back to the space ring.
"Should we do a barbeque?" – Kitane and Hugo have already split the leather from the corpse already. Three is the amount of pieces they cut the leopard into, one for the up-coming party, one for saving food until they leave this dungeon and the last one is for another barbeque party after that.
"I didn't bring any spices, I saw some mushrooms and nutrient vegetables. Perhaps I'll prepare the salad." – Talia leaves.
"Alright, I'll do the sauce then. Hugo, do you have some lemon?" – Just after asking, Kinyo instantly gets two lemons. That's fast, it seems like they are all hungry.
"Well, then we'll do the building. If any of you finish the job, lend us one hand." – Daniel and Zoa seek for the rocks first. Of course they'll build a safe base among this forest full of monsters, wood only wouldn't be an option. And in the dark corner of the truth, Kitane is passed the work of preliminary processing the meat at the point he couldn't ignore.
"Wait, hold on." – He tries to call them, yet all left for their work.
"Bro, are we serious?"
"Yo yo yo yo, look what we've brought here for you guys…" – Celior drags a giant tiger back to the base, but the barbeque of phantom leopard meat just breaks all his plan of a tiger skewers.
"You're late, just throw that tiger away." – Kinyo flips the meat cubes.
"Nah, that's a waste. I'll keep it."
"Come on man, are you that starving?" – The fang tiger's meat is one of the lowest ranked meat dishes on his table everyday, according to Kinyo de Amon.
"A noble like you can't imagine how good it tastes." – Stroking his hair, Celior slightly puts the corpse into his space ring.
*Space ring: the hidden inventory inside a ring-shaped item – usually uncommon+ tier.
*Sizzle* – Talia coats the meat with butter. Flipping them, letting the fat flow down slowly.
"Want some mushrooms also?" – He asks the rest.
"Do it." – Celior throws him a bottle of spicy sauce, which is made of two special kinds of chilies and pepper intertwined with fat and salt. I don't know what it should taste like, but Celior would say it's delicious no matter what.
*Roar!* – Afar, the unknown creature suddenly releases its wrath via a roar. Celior instantly realizes it's a boosting move from a leader monster.
Spreading his zone outside to connect to the items attached around the base, which work as radars, "West, fifty silver wolves, one leader beast, two elites."
All of them immediately stop eating, Kitane and Daheng grab their swords, Zoa and Daniel put on their gauntlets while Talia, Hugo and Kinyo have to call out their magic staff and enhancement items. How about Celior? At the point he announced the location, he instantly dashed forward to catch the greatsword he put there before – rushing straight toward the wolves at the speed of Mach 3 after only two steps of acceleration.
"Wind Boost" – Expanding the target selection to multiple targets, our three mages swiftly cast a speed-boosting spell on all eight members here. Ten percent boost stacks thrice is equal to a thirty percent boost on all the team.
"I'll support this time, fire spells aren't ideal in this field of trees." – Talia from now on will use wind elements only until the battlefield changes to another location with no flammable material.
"Do you know the light orb spell?" – Hugo casts a quick spell for Talia to load the data.
"Got it, I'll try to flash bang them as much as possible." – Using his left eye to load the data of mana flows and mana operation, he archives it then swiftly analyzes everything by number and symbols.
His background, as I said, his family was destroyed along the clan by a Semi-Calamity Rank Rift. So it's nothing strange if some parts of his body were also replaced by items or metal structure to keep him alive with full features. His left eye is an epic item that works as a helpful article of intelligence and a storage device. In short, he can force his brain to load a spell immediately with no delay, even the spells he didn't learn, just by loading the archived data inside that eye. Of course, this kind of work always puts a high pressure on his brain, so he can't abuse it anytime and anywhere without a tactic.
*Bling* – He calls out a light orb on his left hand while moving to the battlefield, after a second, the article intelligence instantly breaks down the spell to basic codes and additional codes. Based on those basic codes, Talia knows exactly how to split the light orb into multiple ones.
*Fsh* – He shoots those orbs toward Celior. He also sets there three separated circle zones, which will detonate the light orbs while directing the light particles away from his teammate – only applying flashbang on the nearby enemies.
*Splash* – Swinging his greatsword, Celior takes down one elite with a strong and heavy strike. That was made with the support of the flashbang all of a sudden by Talia.
"Nice one! Two fighters deal with the last elite, the rest kill the wolves." – Team calling, he parries a strong slam of the leader wolf while moving to the right side.
*Clash* – Also a parry from that wolf, it deflects the heavy blade by its claws to open a space. Now both of them have an open space on their sides, whoever can drive the next strike faster will take that advantage.
*Thud* – No matter how fast the wolf was to launch that strike, it still got a heavy strike toward its torso. This is the utility of a human body, better in close range movements compared to a beast like the wolf.
*Smack* – Another swift strike by his palm, he aimed it straight at the wolf's torso to lift it up suddenly. Losing the balance, the leader wolf of course is quite diffident in tracking the field. Which means it shouldn't be able to think normally right now, especially when the greatsword of Celior is approaching with the power that's enough to level the entire large building.
*Clash* – Wind Claws! Enhancing its own six front claws by the wind Aura, the wolf directly clashes that swing of Celior mid-air. And because the clash happened when it's mid-air, the wolf took advantage of that reaction force to leap back.
*Bling* – Flashbang! Talia detonated three light orbs, especially near the right eye of the wolf only. Due to the information both eyes got were different, it caused a deadly stun to its brain and awareness system – sensory asymmetry. If Talia caused the visual whiteout on both eyes of the wolf, it might react even faster to randomly devastate everything around – potentially causing disadvantages to Celior, who might try to approach for attacks.
*Splash* – A deep wound has been cut straight into its neck. Celior pushes the sword even harder just to slowly stretch the damage, even all his arm muscles have been stretched overside. However, a second after reaching the strongest output, he instantly leaves the position by a dash.
*Crumble* – The wolf has been enraged. This is the hidden passive of a dire wolf at leader class, which is only activated when it's near death. Berserk: double all the stats of the wolf until dead.
Celior also takes a look around real quick, all the silver wolves have been slayed. Talia actually did well in bombing others' vision with sensory whiteout and his teammates are actually good at animal abuse too. Which means they are now free to jump this wolf to death from now on.
"As I said, I'll do the support."
"Wind Boost." – Three mages again chant the spell, for both renewing the buff and boosting Celior at the same time.
*Crumble* – Dashing away, they all dodged that assault strike. Daniel and Zoa approach with their strikes synchronized, spreading the wave of Aura and stirring up the viscera inside the beast. But they soon realized the dense Aura protection it had coated over itself was too impossible for their waves to pass through – they all withdrew.
*Clash* – Kitane comes up with a swift slash, which is stopped by the claws. At the moment it tried to enhance the claws with the wind element Aura, Daheng distracted it with a sudden stab. The same clashing sound clanged over, which proved the density of the protection around the wolf is too overpowered for them.
"–answer me, Wind Burst II." – Finishing the incantation, Talia shoots a massive shockwave toward the wolf. He noticed that none of them except Celior had the potential chance to pierce through that dense Aura protection, so he came up with another way. As he said, he would be here for support only. Exchanging the attack potency for a massive impact on a wide cross-section – he made the wolf lose its balance temporarily again.
This is the advantage of fighting with at least a mage in the team when you are also a mage, whenever a spell hits the target, the mana particles haven't been neutralized into the air yet. And via a circle zone technique, Kinyo instantly cast his spell over those leftover particles for a faster start up.
Wind Bomb – level 2 spell, set right at the left side of the wolf.
Hugo also chants with a level 3 spell at the same time, "Shockwave."
*Bang* – Double detonations, double elations! That enhanced bomb actually damaged the wolf quite hard. Just look at its left front leg, the claws are broken already.
After leaving there an afterimage, the leader wolf disappeared just by a leap. Celior from the start has been using Sight to track the beast, and he saw the green winds slightly flew along it.
"It's Wind Shift!" – He instantly rushes toward Talia.
*Clash* – Stretching his legs, Talia instantly dodges that swing of his teammate, also the assault claws from behind. He flicks three light orbs toward the wolf's head.
*Fsh* – But it's just bait, Celior grabs Talia then moves aside right after that. Following up that action, Zoa and Daniel swiftly drive their strikes forth with a stronger technique this time.
Rising Fists: The second stage of the synchronization technique, which doubles their attack potency by hitting at one point, at the same time, with synchronized impacts.
*Smack* – At the moment their fists landed, Zoa instantly activated his Ability: Second Impact to double the impact for one more time. That movement actually swallowed their Aura quite much, yet well fair.
The total force is enough to level the entire large building with over six floors itself, yet, to compare with the max strength swing of Celior, it's still one tenth after all. Despite that fact, the piercing power is still enough to leave a bloody wound at the ribs of the wolf. An instant back up from Kitane, he swings his strongest Aura slash just to buy them time to withdraw. He also risks his safety to bait one more swing from the beast. Looking at Talia, his gaze has told all the plan.
Light orbs have been launched, but right before they can detonate, the wolf instantly closes its eyes while moving forth. With the doubled base stats, its speed is currently at Mach 3.5 without a doubt. Its fighting style is also about rushing forth with maximum speed, so the attack potency is obviously at the city block level.
"Don't try to block it!" – Celior also approaches them with the max speed of Mach 3 after two steps of acceleration. With this one, he could reach the destination by swinging his sword, he must be faster.
*Splash – Crack* – If you wonder why Talia was standing still until now, the answer is these three rock stakes. By concentrating mana to a specific level, these rocks can't be destroyed that easily as before. Yet, because of the concentrated mana particles, his teammates can't cast spells over his spell anymore.
At the same time the wolf tore itself by rushing into the stakes, it also bursted them broken by the impact later. Meanwhile, Celior has driven another deep slash into its body – the wolf is already weakened even more. They both dash aside to draw an open space for them.
"Crack the silence, shatter this firmament!" – Kinyo chants the incantation.
"Thunder Spear" – Following up with a level two spell, Hugo shoots a spear toward the wolf at the speed of mach 10, that's the fastest speed but still in range of his reaction rate already.
Setting the circle zone right two meters in front of the beast, Kinyo chants over the spear with a level 3 spell – Thunder Kestrel. It works as it sounds, a kestrel that all of a sudden flaps its wings, pushing it straight upward to the sky above – where Hugo set another circle zone before.
Because he was free, chanting another incantation for the thunder element spell at the same time casting the spell of course makes sense. At the point mid-air, Kinyo cuts the connection between him and the spell – letting it rush to the circle zone freely.
Level five spell: Thunder Pillar – the spell that will summon a pillar full of thunder dropping down onto the target then shock it to death. Yet, it seems like a level five spell is quite advanced for Hugo to handle alone. That's why Kinyo is always here to help.
The beast also tried to dash away, yet two fighters drove another synchronization attack to push it back to the located point.
*Splash* – Piercing his greatsword through the left front leg of the wolf, Celior splits it away without hesitation. Right after that wound, it takes another one by the katana of Kitane – Flying Slash.
*Roar!* – Being aware of its own life, the wolf bursts everything outside to at least take one enemy down before death may come. And no one else but Talia is targeted. The eyes glow then the claws cut everything apart; the winds flow and nothing should remain.
*Rumble* – Manifesting the rock to form three big hands, he swiftly stuns the right front leg of the wolf. This is the difference that I said, beasts are always stronger in raw output, but humans are always better in utility and tricks. He then dashes under the entire body of the wolf – locking it down to the ground by Gale Burst the first phase.
"Talia!" – Shocked by that movement, Zoa takes a look at the spell above and his teammate below the wolf.
"Don't worry, I can handle it, hit it as heavily as possible to the right side!" – He calls for some help, but not for him.
*Thud* – Pinning the greatsword even deeper to the ground, Celior manifested five chains via Mold. He then threw a heavy knee strike toward the beast's left ribs, cracking them down even worse.
And to balance the impact, both Zoa and Daniel performed their strongest strike via synchronization to the opposite side of the wolf. Even though it's not even balanced to keep the beast from being flown away, those rock arms of Talia have done well to at least reduce the inertia. Due to the fact that those rock arms are attached to the ground, they're even better in transferring the impact before everything collapses.
So now, "Launch it!"
Following the call of Talia, Hugo and Kinyo shoot the entire pillar down onto his teammate and the beast. Talia at the mean time cancels his Gale Burst technique immediately, revealing the truth of his two arms.
These arms weren't damaged that much at the incident years ago, the mana veins were still good to use, but not the blood veins at his two hands. That's why Talia asked his grandfather to replace his two arms by mechanical components as a half-cyborg. The mana veins are still here, but the arms are even better than before. That's the key for him to get rid of this devastation.
Opening all the veins on his two cyborg arms, Talia hides away the mana veins to restructure everything to a couple of lightning rods connecting straight to the ground. Which means the only one here who'll take all the damage is the wolf, not him.
*Fsh* – The pillar falls down as a beam; it covers the entire zone of five meters with sparkling thunder.
*Crack* – The crackles are slowly painted over the ground, where a beast is trying its best not to collide and a human's lying down.
*Crumble* – Even the pressure is enough to crush the surface under them, crumbled to pieces then pieces yet smaller.
*Zrrt* – When the beam ends and among the dense smoke flows, a burnt wolf is swaying. It was trying to get back the balance, yet failed, then fell.
*Thud* – Celior is the first one to react and start his first step approaching the vestige of the fight. Thankfully, Talia is still here with his two metal arms pointing upward. The only damage he might get should be counted by looking at his clothes, they're all scorched.
"Don't touch me, my arms are still electrified." – He prevents Celior and Kitane from being shocked by the electric waves.
"Dude, that sonic bomb is so evil. My ears are now disabled, currently deaf right now." – Talia can't hear what his teammates say, he just yaps about his ears right now.
Laughing aside, Celior recalls his greatsword and sits on the ground nearby. He hasn't seen anyone fight like that as a mage, even forgot to protect his ears with Aura. At the same time, Skar has returned to the base. Observing the vestige, he somewhat gets what happened.
"I checked the terrains already." – He looks at the team, who are all covered by dirt and smoke. Then he looks at himself, he breathes a sigh of relief.
"What do you mean bro?" – Kinyo doesn't let it slide.
"Just a small thanks to god, for not to be dirtied." – Skar throws the full map toward Celior.
"I think we should return. We have eight chunks in total and two boss caves." – He then drops a bomb.
"Duo-bosses dungeon? Can't believe that one day I'd see this kind of rift." – Celior doesn't slow his hand just by being surprised for a bit. His experience tells him what to do currently.
After reporting, they all start healing for a bit then building more bases. This action might help the troops of the hunters later, just a side quest Celior took for a bit of rewards.
"Oh Celior, what was that silver dire wolf? Is it still a rank 3 monster?" – Talia asks after a while.
"Ah, you'd hear that the amount of chunks is directly proportional to the beast's standard right?"
He continues, "Usually, a big dungeon or a rift is about five to six chunks. Whenever it reaches eight, the dungeon is more likely rated wrong. In short, we are perhaps in a high-rank 4 rift. Which has two bosses."
"Do you think we are able to survive after taking down one boss only?" – Talia knows what he should know in books, but talking to an experienced one isn't unnecessary.
"No, if I sacrificed all of you to land one decisive strike. Perhaps I would have a chance to take it down without getting any wounds. But if I can't take it down, I would die instead of actually surviving alone."
He asks Talia, "You know which kind of boss we might have in this biome right?"
"Warrior Beast or a High Orc."
"Good, a 800kg orc can launch up to 1 MJ in a two-meter swing path. With the Aura support, normally 5 Megajoules, which is enough to level a small building. Also, a High Orc is 3.5 times taller than an elite orc. I can tell you just by a swing, it can take down a large building. Which is equal to me if I use maximum output technique."
Talia guesses, "Aura and stats difference. You can't use that technique many times and that high orc can oneshot you with its strength right?"
"That's what I want to say. Beasts are always stronger in raw stats and output, and I'm not even that strong to win that fight." – He strokes his hair, then gets back to build the fifth base.
After half an hour, the eleventh base was built. The troop has also arrived at the same time; Celior presents for the team, after doing the paperwork, they just leave with five million ACs as a reward.
Coming back to the academy, they head to a small midnight party at a sidewalk stall. The money is fairly distributed to the members. Celior led this exploration, so he took one fifth. Eight members, four million ACs, half a million each guy, fair enough. And to cheer this time up, Celior'll pay for this drinking session.
"I'm not old enough." – Talia denies.
"Then drink your soda." – Celior laughs at him.
"Ey, there's no rule for academy students about alcohol like the Cala Empire…" – Kitane slowly gives Talia a cup of beer.
"Nah bro, I'm good with my soda." – He denies.
"Come on man, just try once." – Kinyo also gives him a cup.
And when he's taking the bottle to pull out the beer, Talia takes it faster to pull his soda into the cup already. He denies, "As I said, soda is sweet and it's better."
"Oh hell nah, look at this dude, guys." – They all get back to their seats, for the food is served already.
Who says nobles can't eat this kind of cheap food? No one, on the contrary, Skar looks like he's addicted to this kind of fried and fast food. Half of the nearest dish toward him just got obliterated.
"Do any of you have class tomorrow?" – Kitane asks.
"Probably I'll need to assist in two classes tomorrow." – Celior is quite busy on the last three days of a week.
On the contrary, except Daniel who has to make up his test tomorrow, no one has work to do. Kitane offers them with the budget of the half of million ACs he just got.
"Can you guys help me find any wind element ores or materials? I need them to upgrade my gears." – This is what he told Talia before.
"Probably, there's one dungeon. Spiritual Biome, high-rank 5, five chunks. It's located at the east side of the Cala Empire." – Celior checks the list, he actually found one option for Kitane.
"High-rank 5? That's too high." – Zoa talks slightly while eating.
"Same, you all shouldn't go there. Better ores make sense whenever you're still alive, death takes everything away from your life, don't get in risks." – Celior calls the waiter for five more mixed dishes.
"Do you really need it that much?" – Talia asks.
Kitane also has nothing to hide, "Yes, there's a tournament of exchange students in two more months. I'm the only commoner there. If my gears are too bad, I can't win. I need feats for my portfolio to lengthen this exchange course."
"I see, which kind of items do you need to upgrade?"
"Two rings, my katana and a necklace. All wind elements."
Talia takes out his advanced virtual glass, "Got it, in my business, I have three options for you."
"Alesym, this one should be for rings only. Perysm, not that ideal compared to the rest for necklace but still considerable due to its lower price. Wind Metals, these things are expensive but I recommend them for your katana. At least it is worth the payment." – Talia sends the information to Kitane's mailbox right away.
"I'll consider, thanks."
"Ye ye, just a fair trade. You can take a look at the ores if you want to, direct selection, direct evaluation. Especially we exploit the ores directly so your payment wouldn't be charged by anything else but mandatory tax for the empire." – Talia knows what he's on, this is how he makes deals and actually runs a business at this age. Honestly, he's still in debt because his maternal family used their money and reputation to guarantee this small business for him, but not over two months, everything will get back to the start – which means he can earn money steadily overtime soon for actual benefits to his network.
Same night but at another place, there's a golden hunter looking at their portfolio. His hair is dyed deep blue, so familiar. He picks up the folder of Celior Zorad, reads the first page, flips to the second one, then he closes it.
"He's worth investing in." – Alan puts that portfolio aside, to the silver box.
Due to the fact that The Hunters Council needs good troops, that's why upper-rank hunters like Alan have to periodically train new ones each year. It's January already, another time to work hard with his broken back.
Actually, national hunters like Alan don't need to train those under rank-5, so it's basically not that much to do. Until he was told that half of his co-workers were already sent to other places for extra missions. This situation will last for not less than two years, so his back will be degenerated twice faster these years.
"Oh my back, it's dying." – He almost fell asleep after three days of barely resting.
His assistance laughs quietly, "Oh mister, you will have to do this for three more days. Hurry up, hurry up."
"Hey, why don't you just stop shopping two hours per day to help me a bit." – He offers.
"No no no no no, it's my life, I can't sacrifice it." – She puts the new two piles of documents right next to Alan.
"Oh ye, that's right. Good for you, evil for my back." – Alan waves his left hand, telling her to go shopping for today. He can't do anything since his assistance is the successor of a Duke clan, and no one can stop a young girl from shopping when she has that addiction.
He stretches his shoulders, "Good grief."
"Do you want to be stronger?" – Right at the door, where Selena left, there's another guy in a black coat. It hides all the existence of his, a true legendary item.
Looking up, Alan replies tiredly, "Quit that umbrella outfit and take a seat. Help me do all these things first, then we can talk."
"That's the worst line you can say to me, I'm not paid for this." – But he still sits down after removing that cloth.
"For your orders, I've found four locations for three flames." – He puts the documents on the table.
"Why is it four?"
"Two flames are located exactly, the last one is intentionally faked into two different locations. Which means you will have to fight a strong force to get that flame." – Soka warns his customer first.
"Which flames have you found?" – Alan skips straight to the main issue.
"The first one was born under sea, it will grant you the power to control and summon water – Water Sapphire Flame."
"Why does it sound like…"
"Ye, a branch of the Ocean-Heart Flame. I think it's a by-product when the main flame was split by someone." – Soka serves himself a tea cup already.
"Fine, something is still better than nothing." – Alan is too tired right now, and even if not, he'd still accept that flame no matter what. His ability is all about flame, shall no flame be missed and denied.
"The second one is The Flame of the Winds, a branch of The Tempest Flame."
"Sounds like wind element power." – Alan opens another portfolio, slightly shakes his head, poor one.
"Yes, you can freely control winds with that flame no matter what." – Soka takes a sip of tea, that's sweet for the first taste.
Then he continues, "That's also the safest one for you to take alone, you should do it first before taking the other two."
"I see, I'll do the Water Sapphire, I'll pay more for you to do whatever you like. Just take that wind flame for me." – Alan puts twenty more million ACs toward Soka.
"This is for the information, this one is for the next mission." – He again puts a hundred million ACs right next to the first ring.
"I'll take it." – Soka swiftly puts them all into his space ring, safe work, high pay, best deal ever.
"But do you have a plan for taking the Water Sapphire Flame currently?"
"Nope, perhaps I'll sleep first before making any plan. Whatever, it's only eight hours late." – Alan thinks he should sleep right now, his brain is shutting down already.
"Fine, don't forget to bring some water resistant items." – Soka slightly laughs at Alan's life of drudgery.
"So what's the last one?" – He asks.
"That's what I want to warn you about before I leave. The Magma Flame: Jade Lotus." – Right after that line was said, Alan instantly sat up. He knows it, he knows that flame.
"The second generation? Is it still real in this era? Where's the Sages who never let goods slide from their private pockets?" – Alan just makes sure if he could hear something wrong or not.
"It's actually the second generation flame, but the first phase. It's not that strong for Sages to harvest and they don't really like that flame. But your opponents are still evil to fight against alone, find some help man." – Soka gives him advice, how nonchalant he is.
That's how he's right here, right at a rank-8 rift of ocean biome. He now understands why no one tries to get this flame. A weak flame that requires you to risk your life to fight under water in a rank-8 rift. That's not a good thing to deal with, not even worth a try. In Aurorize, not everyone can absorb and tame the Mystical Flames, and not all of who can tame them can
hold more than two. If they make this step already, those flames must have the same element or nature. Only exceptions like Alan with the support of his own Ability: The Lionheart of Flames might be able to control multiple mystical flames with different attributes. But no one knows how much is the price for that action.
It's been weeks since the day the destruction of The Holy Council, and Alan was also able to tame two more flames. The first one is White Flame, just a normal core fused with flame essence at the large graveyard – an Unnatural Flame, which is not even able to stay at the same stage with Mystical Flames for one second. However, he won't deny anything about the flame, as I told you all. Besides the power to burn normally, it only fears the weak by releasing a feeling of coldness in temperature, not even a fear effect literally.
The second one is one of the third generation of mystical flames. With the color of light yellow, it's called The Pale Gleam Flame. Nothing but a normal burning effect and a power to switch between light and fire. The process isn't an instance so that's why it's not be upscaled to the second generation.
Here's another gift for him. When he returned the Frost Flame back to the national hunter office, they told him to keep it until he had enough reputation and contribution to buy it. Which means he has early access but not for free for a mystical flame himself. This is just a small present from his superior – who knows his ability well.
In the general way to describe, he's the only one who can hold up to two mystical flames across the golden hunters currently. That's also what builds up his confidence for being right here, right at this rank-8 dungeon.
"You ready?" – Alan looks at his companion, she's in a gigantic armored robot right now. Yes she is, nothing but Selena val Uruka – his assistant in his own office.
"Yes, mister! Can I have some fish there to put in our office's fish tank?" – Her eyes are glowing.
"Selena… a normal fish here is about twenty kilograms, and they are aggressive."
"Twenty kilograms is twenty kilograms, I can buy a larger tank."
"But we can't have a bigger room you fool." – Doesn't even want to look at his assistant, Alan silently gears up himself and walks into the rift. Selena, she also stops goofing around to lock in.
Following her superior into the rift, she's instantly shocked by the view full of clear water and sea creatures.
Starfishes! – She yells, "I love them!"
Tunas! – "I love sushi so much, oh lo–."
"Corals! Corals! There are a bunch of alive corals. Do you see them, mister?" – She almost jumps out of her armored robot to shove those colorful things up.
"Mis…ter?" – She looks aside, where a bunch of dark green ugly fishes are looking at her. Following it, there are a bunch more waiting behind.
"Bloody Piranha? Oh, not that hyped for me." – She actually looks away to find her superior as if those bloodlust piranhas are nothing but a bunch of chill guys, who will let her slide away after that.
Wait… Piranha!? Instantly she plugs three canons out from the robot's left arm.
"Die die die die die die!" Shooting a bunch of beams forward, she doesn't know if they're dead already but she'll keep shooting until she thinks it's enough.
It's five minutes already, "Die die die die, ugh! Die!" – She actually chokes for a bit.
*Clang* – A metal sound but quite deep and murky because they are under water, someone is knocking the robot's right side.
She looks to the right side after shooting randomly two more beams to the left. Then she saw a guy with deep blue hair, who was in a water-resistant outfit.
She is just like "Ohhh" and she turns back to shooting beams.
Wait…
"Who even are you!?" – Shooting beams toward that dude, she swiftly moves backward.
*Boom* – Splitting the beam into pieces and explosions, Alan feels like he's almost crazed by her.
"Should I mark you for intentionally harming the superior in the portfolio?" – He slowly, gently and surely threatens.
"Oa! You don't know what I just saw mister! There were a lot of Bloody Piranhas which actually almost killed me! I was near death."
"It's been six minutes since I saw the first beam being launched." – He says a fact.
"Is it? But it's still not guaranteed that all the monsters were killed already. I was making sure o–"
Alan holds tight his sword, "How could you stay alive if they're not killed during those six minutes?"
"Oh… erm… uh. I mean, wait! Hold on, I can explain for you.., mis– mister!"
"Should I tell your father to close your bank account for a month?"
"No please mister! You'll kill me! I can give you everything but not that." – Selena, who is in a giant robot, is now begging just not to be prohibited from going shopping daily.
From heaven, where his ancestors sent a message to calm down onto him, he slightly tells her to get back out of the rift. Because he had the mystical flame already, thanks to her, who wasted a bunch of energy in random and various ways – he found The Water Sapphire Flame just in a small cave.
"Fortune favors the simple-minded… no, it should be 'the bother-minded' instead." – He can't believe that his plan was just crossed out because of luck and Selena. That's technically impressive to be the shortest story about a mystical flame on this continent ever.
*Crackle* – A normal sound of flame but more deep because they are underwater, common sense. Alan looks at the mystical flame, he knows that it's announcing something. At the same time, he also tracks a fast object, which is shooting straight toward his place.
Kicking Selena outside the rift, Alan grabs his longsword and transfers two mystical flames and an unnatural flame into the blade. It's now colorized by three flames – white light blue, yellow and white. And after this, it would be one more cyan color also.
"So you are the boss of this rift?" – His ability can track exactly the location of a flame if he holds a part of it or somewhat has the same nature on his hands. And via that power, he knows half of this mystical flame is already carved into the giant black eel in front.
"Coercively absorbing a mystical flame different from your nature, that's not a wise choice." – Swinging his blazing sword, the attack potency that's able to level a small town now is upscaled straight to a standard one in raw physic output. With the maximum output technique and Aura boost, this attack reaches exactly the city level.
*Splash* – Split to half, the eel remains nothing but a mess of blood and flesh. This is the damage caused by the chaos flows of water, which Alan's attack drew by just a swing. He also recalls the missing part of The Water Sapphire Flame into its core – fusing them into the flawless one and absorbing them into his heart via the Ability.
"Should be good enough to exploit." – Alan gets out of the rift and calls the hunters to solve the rest, his job of clearing the dungeon is now done.
"Mister!" – Selena swiftly rushes straight toward Alan and hugs his left arm, slightly swinging. She makes a cute face, she looks at him and she also rubs her face against his arm.
He knows what she wants, "I won't report you to your father."
"Yay! Mister, I love you so much!" – She jumps for joy, hugging Alan even tighter for that.
"You know what Selena. If you keep teasing a man like that, his instinct will be woken up no matter how hard he tries to seal it." – Alan looks at Selena, whose shirt is wet for the major parts – revealing some of her body parts.
"I don't care mister, you can do whatever you want." – Selena hops away while recalling her robot suit into the space ring. She'll go shopping right now.
"I know why your father asked me to take care of you already."
"Do you want to go with me, mister?" – She laughs, then she offers.
"Nah, I'll head on collecting another flame right now. They should be on their way already." – He denies and also uses Aura to evaporate all the water on her clothes while warming up her body in general.
"Alright, take care. I'll buy you a boba later, don't get back too late."
"See you." – To the hottest volcano of the east, he summons a travelling boat and rushes there.
"Fifteen minutes, shouldn't be late, right?"