Chapter 513 - I will crush your pride

I rest against one of the huge pillars and apply pressure with my hand on the wound on my stomach to keep my organs inside. There are no more healing marks to activate, so I cycle some thermal energy through my body.

One day I will find the person who caused my healing passive to be left behind at only mid epic grade.

The most annoying part is that I can't even use proper armor or weave mana because of the grown mana and still applying mid-arcane passive. I think I might have been warned about too high mana because of situations like this one. Maybe these people knew what they were talking about.

"Healing?" Lily asks me as she moves closer.

"No need to."

She confirms I mean it and rushes to heal others, reattaching the leg Sophie lost during one of the fights.

Gareth's wide-area healing aura helps me enough, and my passive will finish the rest. Plus, I let some of that pain reach me. It helps me to focus, and it's a reminder to myself.

I want my mind and my body to feel what will happen if I lack control, which is something that could happen at any time. It's just that I was fortunate enough to get through it. Currently, most of my constructs are back to working properly. Well, "properly" might be too strong a word, but they are patched up.

My increased mana also causes fewer problems now, moving such big amounts of it feels somewhat familiar. There were always situations where I had a lot of mana flowing through my body or was using a lot of it at once.

This is akin to that, just having to deal with it constantly. My mind isn't the problem, just that body of mine—a weakness I know about and have traded in for all these things I can do that others cannot.

(You might want to stop doing whatever you are doing, Nat. Your mana affects surrounding mana too much,) I get a message from Sophie.

(What do you mean?)

(Your mana feels like it's taking control of the mana around you, even the ambient one. I have felt it for the past hour and it continues to increase in effect. I think Leticia felt it as well and just didn't show it.)

(Will check it, thanks.)

With that, I try to focus on what my passive does—something I haven't done so far as I had other problems, and the passive applies only gradually. Even now I feel the pain that is proof of that. As Sophie said and as the description shows, it seems to impose myself into the surrounding environment. It's a weird mix of [Eclipse], [Mana Domain], and black mana. Each of these effects is much weaker than their active version but it has that feeling.

Something I really need to play with when I have some free time, as well as my active skill I still haven't used so far.

As Sophie recommends, I turn off my passive. I will have to find a more fitting time to explore the effects of the passive. With it turned off the pain stays as it continues to apply but slightly weakens.

Then we have to move again, warned by Tess who sees the monsters even before Luna can sense them.

***

Two days.

That's how long it takes me to get fully used to the changes and for the pain to disappear. It seems like this passive is stronger than my other mid-arcane one—plenty stronger if the pain is something I can judge it by.

Tess's scouting and likely Lily's powerful healing are the only reasons no one died.

I think every one of us came to realize how unprepared we were when we came to the zone between the 1st and 2nd safe zones. Confident after easily reaching the 1st safe zone. Confident after killing the fish. Thinking we have all the information we need and the numbers required to pass it easily.

The entire time we haven't seen a single lurker; all of them were skeletal monsters. Extremely durable, possessing those skills, mana, or whatever it is that slows down healing and leaves open wounds. Their attacks causing powerful explosions. Powerful at ranged concentrated attacks, powerful at bombardment, extremely durable, and with sharp bones at close range.

I'm sure the second time I come here it will be much easier, already knowing what to expect and used to my powers, but just for this time I happily enter the safe zone with the others who think the same.

All of us hurt, and Lily and Gareth the most exhausted of all of us. We are happy, but none of us lets our guard down.

The second safe zone we have reached is called the Sphere and is likely one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. Its shape is that of... well... a perfect sphere. It is made out of black stone with an amazingly smooth surface.

The area surrounding The Sphere is incredibly striking, made even more so by its sheer size. The Sphere itself towers as high as one of Earth’s tallest skyscrapers, and its spherical shape makes it just as wide.

Looking at it, it looks like you could just push it and send it rolling, yet it stands there unmoving. Even though it doesn't reach the ceiling and cannot compare to the height of the stone pillars that connect the ground with the ceiling, it's huge.

Through it, tunnels are drilled, leading inside where the safe zone is—the hollowed center with buildings built from the walls. At the exact center, a smaller sphere of water floats—this one is apartment-building big. Inside of it, like sparks, white, orange, and red lights move, letting out a gentle glow that is dispersed by the water.

What I notice is that there are some attendees who sit on the small terraces of houses built into the walls, watching the sphere and the light inside of it. It doesn't seem just like normal watching; it's more akin to observing, studying—as if they are trying to learn something from it.

Reaching this place also solves the mystery of where Tacita was. She sits on one of the benches that are below the sphere and watches it, her head turned upwards. As she notices us she stops and stands up, just a few quick steps taking her near, totally not caring about Jean who tenses up, ready to fight.

Tacita passes by him and reaches Lily, who weakly rests against Tess. After looking at her curiously for a moment she shakes her head. She does a circling gesture with her finger near her temple and mimics a deep sigh.

After that, she is gone.

We each register our "spawn" point here and head to one of the houses. With this, our expedition ends and there should be just a few hours remaining on each of our tokens.

Gareth starts talking first. Even with his armor damaged, his silver crown gone, he is smiling optimistically, "I'm sure we will do better the next time! I can count on you, right, Miss Leticia?"

Leticia, whom he asks, nods, "Only if you do a better job healing the next time, as you promised. We can't have poor Grumpy handle it all."

Lily waves it off, "It's fine, I just need to rest a bit. My fights are usually much shorter."

From a terminator like her, it sounds more threatening than explaining.

"I also think Sset did an amazing job. Without her we would probably have lost someone here," Gareth continues as the bunch of extroverts decides it's time to compliment everyone now that we are safe.

"Everyone did their own part. Sure there were some hiccups, but our composition was nice and we were quick to adapt," Tess defends.

"Everyone other than Noname, that asshole only kept luring monsters to us with his mana," that little shit Spacewolf complains.

I immediately feel more comfortable than when the others were creating that flowery atmosphere.

"With all your whining, I'm starting to think 'Spacepuppy' suits you better."

"You... what?"

"Spacewhimper."

"You..."

"Spacewolf? Is that your gamer tag or your furry phase?"

"Noname."

"Did you name yourself Spacewolf because 'Crybaby Cosmo-Pup' was taken?"

"You asshole. Listen. I will..."

"Yes, I have been preparing them while we fought, you little shit."

"Did you pick Noname because 'No-Talent' was already taken?"

"Yes."

My answer makes him hesitate for a moment, just long enough for Leticia to move closer and grab him into a hug. That makes him blush while he tries to push her away, and in the meantime Luna stops in front of me, looking at me with that judging look.

I avert my eyes and make my mana-block chair recline and let them have fun, theorize, and plan what to do in the future. Tess is good at these kinds of things so I let her.

Gradually, the time approaches for everyone to return to their respective floors. Plans are made, promises exchanged, and pleasantries shared. Wishes of good luck echo among the group, carried by the relief of a somewhat successful end to the expedition. The promised shards from the fish likely add to the lighter mood as well.

After the goodbyes, people begin to leave, one by one.

Luna and Leticia disappear first. They are then followed by Gareth, all of them seemingly using their Stay Tokens to get to Beyond earlier than the rest.

Then Lily, Sophie, and Tess disappear as well.

But I stay. I just have used a one-day stay token to extend my duration.

Straightening from my leaned-back position, I return the chair to its original shape, my eyes fixed on Jean.

He quickly picks up on it. I wouldn’t call him the smartest, but in certain situations, he’s surprisingly quick to catch on. So when Lucien disappears, Jean is still there, expending a Stay Token the same way I did.

None of us says anything as we finish healing our wounds with our regeneration and collect our strength.

When the time feels right I stand up and head out, Jean following behind me. We pass under the water sphere, we pass through the tunnels dug into the safe zone, and we exit it, jumping down from the height onto the grassy surface. After a minute of walking, I stop and turn to him.

"I would declare a challenge and wager, but you rejected the Candidate title."

"My word carries more weight than anything enforced by the outcome of a challenge," Jean declares.

And I trust him.

"Good, if you defeat me, in the future I won't stop you when you try to kill her."

That makes him laugh, but at the same time he is stretching, warming up his body, "Such a friend, you would just stand there and watch it?"

"Does it matter? I'm not going to lose," I tell him.

He nods seriously, "So one of us will have to die now."

"Maybe," I bring his attention to me. "If I win you can't go behind me and touch anyone in my group. But I will face you anytime you want. No matter if you wake me up at midnight, no matter if you challenge me when I'm missing half of my body. You need to defeat me to get to them."

He pauses for a moment, then shakes his head, a hint of curiosity in his expression. "You really mean it."

"Yes. Because you will never beat me and if you’re not careful, you’ll die."

I let my mana flow through my body, the air around me seeming to hum with tension. "I will crush your pride," I say, my voice calm but deadly. "I will fuck you up."

***

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