Chapter 430 - Mana Desert

Dealing with venomclaws has gained me another level and a few for Min-Jae, who I had to carry back, thrown over my shoulder.

Even though all of my stat investment is in the best stat, my body is quite powerful, so I barely feel his weight. I wonder how much I could bench or deadlift currently. Maybe I should test it one day just for fun. A ton? Half a ton? Probably even more?

During the tournament, I noticed plenty of people from Hard difficulty having trouble getting used to their bodies. By mistake, they hurt much weaker people from Easy difficulty just by, for example, nudging their side with an elbow. There were some broken limbs and such.

Some kept constantly destroying things like doors and cars; some people from Easy had taken a lot of beating.

Most of the things we find on the floors are made from tougher materials, or there are some ways to make them stronger. Alloys, trees that seem much tougher and grow in a world where ambient mana exists.

It could be said the world we visited probably went through hundreds of years of having mana, so it's different.

Meanwhile, Earth's stuff is just weak.

Another difference is control. I barely noticed anyone from Hell difficulty having such a problem. Maybe just a tiny bit because of some surprising situation. Otherwise, people from Hell difficulty have much better control over their strength. They did not bend the spoons like some other attendees did. They did not hurt much weaker people.

It's a difference in talent and maybe in us as well. Another reason why we ended where we ended, our bodies almost naturally taking in all these abilities and minds quickly dealing with increased stats.

I consider it very fascinating and worth observing.

That's why it's fun when I lift Min-Jae and just carry him like a little kitten. Someone would say an Angry little Kitten because of our group name... damn it.

When I throw him onto the couch, which is a stone slab with a few furs and pieces of cloth covering it, he finally regains consciousness.

“Fuck...” he mutters his very first word.

“It was fine,” I wave my hand.

“Did you kill all of them after I passed out? There were thousands of them.”

“Such a dumb question. And no, I left a few alive with my anchors. I will track them later in case they have some hidey hole with more of them.”

He slowly sits up, and every movement seems like he is after a hangover. It's the effect that depleting all your mana gives you or when you overuse it.

Before he can say something, I ask more, “I wonder, did Tess also mention difficulty change to you?”

He freezes at that but shakes his head, “She just told me we will train together a bit more as she thinks she can get more out of me. But I heard about Dennis, Aaron, and your deal. Would you really make them change difficulty?”

“Yup.”

“Just like that?”

“Would you prefer them dying here in case we get split again?” I ask curiously.

“What? No. Hell no! I like both of them. I just thought there could be a different way. You, Tess, and Lily are all very strong. We could…”

“Probably. Any of the three of us could help a few people survive, but then would come the floor where we get split again, just like this one. What do you think would happen to them if they were left here alone?”

“I know. I just don’t like it.”

I have noticed it, but some people, especially from lower difficulties, tend to romanticize the tutorial, system, and all of this stuff. It's not bad to take it as fun and as something you can go through your way, but they shouldn’t underestimate the system and the fuckery that can happen on the floor. They also shouldn’t have too pink glasses.

There is still several years left, so they will see during the other tournaments.

To Min-Jae, I answer, “Then become stronger so you can do whatever you want. This is not Earth where things like that would be impossible.”

The silence ensues for a while as I start practicing with the orbs according to the schedule I set for myself, and he watches me.

After half an hour, he asks the question he wanted to ask, “Aren't you worried about your sister?”

It's one of the dumbest things he ever said, I bet. Worrying about Vic? Such a joke.

“You saw her against Lily,” I tell him instead.

“I did, but anything can happen.”

“Yup, but it doesn’t matter.”

In my mind, I do realize such trust is probably highly influenced by how I grew up and looking up to her for such a long time. It's probably illogical and childish. As Min-Jae said, anything can happen even to very powerful people. Lissandra and Whitey come to mind as examples. Both very powerful, yet both failing. Lissandra not becoming a a Rulerr like she wanted and Whitey dying on the 1st floor.

But Vic is different.

“You said you have siblings; what difficulty do you think they would get to?” I ask.

The boy hesitates for a moment, “If you asked me before, I would have said Hard difficulty, but I don’t know now. I would also never have expected me to end in Hell.”

“Your parents would probably be disappointed in them if they didn’t get to Hell difficulty and then Beyond. Just imagine if they ended in Easy,” I throw in.

The attempt at a joke doesn’t seem to land, and he just nods with a weak smile. The room becomes awkwardly quiet.

Tess, help.

***

The other day, I let Tess’s lightning hit me. It's not enough to damage me seriously, just a bit to make the experiment work. I feed the glove on my right hand with mana and let myself be led by the item as before in the fight against Whitey.

Yup, I will call it a fight.

I fought.

I didn’t get steamrolled.

The glove activates, and I shoot the similar lightning back at Tess.

“So what do you think?” I ask.

“It's not Primordial lightning for sure. It's also weaker; we will need to test it a few more times to see just how much weaker it is. Also I feel as if it tries to mimic Primordial lightning, but it cannot. Did it have a similar problem with Isabella’s flames?”

“No, it copied them nicely. Weaker, but her flames aren’t Primordial. I think it just cannot replicate Primordial energies and instead tries something similar that isn’t Primordial.”

“That again brings up the question of why the heck this stuff is called Primordial energies and how they are different from similar abilities.”

“Please let me know when the system tells you.”

“Will do so, Nat. So do you think you can make the counterattack stronger than the attack that you are copying?”

I check the description again.

Echo Gauntlet (Arcane, Damaged) - The Echo Gauntlet could up to a certain level replicate any spell or ability it encountered. Though its power has waned, it can mimic nearby magical effects with unpredictable precision.

“I think in its current state it can at most equal the power I’m replicating, maybe not even that as the glove is damaged.”

“Any progress with fixing it?”

“No chance. I never worked with the materials the glove is made of. I think I can fix or resmelt Flamebearer, and I have a suspicion that given enough blood, Bloodthirst can fix itself. But that might require a lot. As for the ring, I don’t think I can do it. I’m not interested in such cursed abilities.”

“And the golem heart?”

“That thing is weird. I had Sophie test it, and she does so much better with it. She already asked me if she can buy it and slowly pay me off; she also liked the ring.”

“Damn, imagine Sophie with her [Manipulation] moving around invisible and attacking out of nowhere.”

“I fucking know, right?! Scary stuff.”

“Please, find some javelins next time you go out to risk your life, Nat.”

“I will make sure to look for some. Any preferences for color?”

“Not really, but lightning-conductive and very durable would be nice. Maybe from very pure endurium? If you can, try to find a set. Just a single one is not it.”

“Got it. Pink color. Low durability and lightning resistance.”

I let a small lightning bolt she shoots at me crash against my forearm and then replicate the ability using my glove.

“So what's the plan with your five items?” she asks.

"I will keep Flamebearer and Bloodthirst to either fix them or resmelt them into new items. I will sell the golem heart to Sophie or exchange it for some help in the future. I will experiment with the glove a bit and then decide. As for the ring, I’m not sure yet. Either sell it or pass it to someone in our group in exchange for something.”

“Sounds like a good plan, but Maya will be sad. She quite likes the claymore.”

I shrug, “I did spar with her. She is much more dangerous when she uses her mana weapons and keeps changing its shape or turns it into a different weapon. Maybe there is some kind of conductive metal that would allow her to keep changing its shape. Or maybe she can get a skill to help her with that.”

“With that, I agree with you. Still, you can’t blame the girl for liking nice weapons. If you are on a treasure hunt again, please add some shape-changing weapons to your list together with two javelins for me. Low arcane would be nice, but I won’t complain about mid arcane.”

“Got it.” I let a bit of silence build up then, and Tess doesn’t mind and lets it go on for a while.

Out of everyone here, she still knows me the best.

“Are you worried about what will come after we split into two groups?” She asks after a while.

“I wouldn’t say worried. I just think there is plenty to mess up.”

“Mind explaining?”

“Usually, there’s you dealing with them or even Izzy acting like a knockoff psychiatrist. Dennis, Aaron, and Lily all clearly look up to me and will consider me akin to the leader of our group.”

“And you don’t like that? You don't like responsibility and prefer acting like an eminence in the shadow, right?”

“Totally.”

“I think that you tend to overthink some things, Nat. You always were a pessimist.”

“For a good reason.”

“Yes, for a good reason,” Tess agrees. “You spending months being a leader of your small group sounds scary, to be honest.”

“But?”

“But I think it will work out just fine.” She smiles.

“Well, that’s something to be bothered with in two weeks. So what’s the next plan?”

“We will leave in three days after taking everything useful and getting all the information we can. Along our way towards the central region, we will wake up a few powerful hibernating monsters to gain some experience and move mostly during the day to kill weaker ones.”

“And then?”

“There is a place called The Last Rest, the last ‘safe’ place before we enter the Mana Desert.”

“Huh, what’s with the name? It’s a desert with a lot of ambient mana?”

“Quite the opposite. It's a plain that stretches for days, where you can't regenerate your mana due to some phenomenon caused by an unknown force. The suspicion is a clash of Absolutes that happened before this place was turned into a Prison, an experiment going awry, a powerful group trying to escape this place and something going very, very wrong, or some powerful monster around.”

My imagination starts going wild right away.

“I knew it would catch your interest,” Tess smiles. “So yeah, fill your crown. We already started filling all the mana batteries we have so we can explore that place for a bit. In a week, there will be a ‘Caravan’ going there made of people trying to get closer to the central region. So be prepared for bunch of dangerous and treacherous people too.”

***

Next Chapter