Chapter 323 - First Win

Reivyn turned his focus to what Kefira was doing with the teleportation device. The spires were covered in unfamiliar runes, and he could sense the Space Mana flowing through them. Even though the multiple spires weren’t physically connected, the Space Mana seemed to be intertwined. He could see some of the Mana flowing along one Spire pop up on another seamlessly. There was no break or jump. It was just in one location, flowing along, then it was in another.

Kefira knew much more about the nature of Space Mana than Reivyn did, even though he did have an Affinity for it. His Affinity was nowhere near as broad and encompassing as Kefira’s, though.

Kefira was siphoning the Space Mana away from the spires into herself. It had the same space-bending effect with her, as well. It didn’t travel across the distance between her and the device. Instead, Reivyn could see it was pulled toward her, like plucking a thread, but then it was just entering her Mana Channels.

It was a more advanced application of the Mana Absorption Skill. Usually, Mana Absorption just pulled in all the natural ambient Mana in the environment, but Kefira was actually isolating the ambient Mana. She was only pulling the pure Space Mana and incorporating it into her own.

Reivyn didn’t want to destroy the device while Kefira was actively siphoning the Mana away. He didn’t know what kind of consequence that would have for her, so he and the others waited patiently. There were no more threats in the small encampment. Two of the 4-man teams from the Special Unit were patrolling outside the palisade to make sure nothing snuck up on them, either.

“This thing has an incredible amount of Mana in it,” Kefira suddenly said, not taking her gaze off of the construct. “I won’t be able to absorb all of it, so you should go ahead and get ready to destroy it. Once I stop siphoning the Mana, there will be a short window where there could possibly be a teleportation activated, but you’d be able to destroy the device before whatever’s on the other side could manage to complete the connection and jump over here.”

“Alright, sounds good,” Reivyn acknowledged.

He motioned for the other mercenaries to stand back. None of them were Mages. He didn’t think they had the firepower to damage the spires, much less destroy them in a timely manner. He would handle the task, personally, with Kefira helping out if needed. He had already destrohyed one such device, so he knew he could do it, but he didn’t want to use too much power and cause unnecessary collateral damage.

The mercenaries backed up with Teilon and Serilla as Reivyn gathered his Mana. He wove several different Affinities together, with Plasma and its Ability to empower itself with foreign energy as the main base. He had been using Plasma more and more often, he noted, but that just showed how effective it was, in his opinion. There wasn’t much that could survive the super-heated Magic beams, even before he reached Transcendence with the Affinity.

Reivyn coughed as pain wracked his body, bending over at the waist from the sudden sensation. His muscles spasmed all across his body. There were sharp pains like he was being stabbed in various parts of his larger muscles, and there was a slight burning sensation across all of his muscles. Even his bones were aching.

“Are you alright?” Kefira asked in concern.

“I’m fine,” Rievyn wheezed out. His Health wasn’t going down or anything, so he wasn’t in any danger. “Let’s get this teleportation device destroyed first.”

Kefira eyed him skeptically before turning back. Despite the sudden pain, Reivyn hadn’t lost concentration on his Spell Form, so they just picked up where they left off. Kefira began siphoning the Space Mana into her own Spell instead of pulling it into her body, ready to assist Reivyn as quickly as possible if needed.

Kefira glanced at Reivyn. He nodded his readiness, and she took a deep breath and several steps back.

“Three. Two. One…”

Kefira released her hold on the Spires’ Mana. Reivyn immediately unleashed his built up power. A beam as thick as he was struck the first Spire. The Spire turned red with the heat, and Reivyn could see it start to melt after only a couple of seconds. The Plasma Beam absorbed the Spire’s own Mana to increase its effectiveness.

A Space Blade screamed through the air and sliced right through the Spire at the epicenter of the super heating. It met no resistance, the runes, Mana, and material having been degraded to such a degree as to be defenseless. Reivyn suspected that if Kefira had attacked one of the Spires like that before their preparation, it would have simply scratched the metal.

Reivyn cut off his Beam Spell, recycling most of the Mana he hadn’t expended to direct to the next Spire. The first one collapsed on top of itself, the ends melting like wax.

The duo repeated the same process for the other two Spires, then they combined their Magical might together to melt the whole crumbled mess together into a giant pile of worthless slag. Reivyn had already memorized the runes and Mana patterns with his close inspection using his Divine Sense. There was no reason to try and bring a sample back with them.

“I love it when a plan goes off without a hitch,” Reivyn said when they were finally done. “All of that coordination might not have been necessary, but you never know. This is the exact timing Aeriella showed up last time, after all.”

“And that’s exactly the reason it was most definitely necessary,” Kefira said, a sweet smile beneath a dagger gaze said to Reivyn. “We don’t need Jezebel popping up on us unexpected, now do we?”

Reivyn rolled his eyes at Kefira’s theatrics. He agreed with removing any possibilities of complications, though.

“Our job here is done,” he said. “Teilon, round up the Special Unit members. Kefira, if you would?”

Teilon barked orders to his subordinates who scrambled to recall those patrolling outside the palisade while Kefira gathered her Mana to teleport back to the base. Reivyn maintained a neutral expression on his face, but his body was still suffering from the same pain that had assaulted him out of nowhere a short while ago. His powerful willpower allowed him to ignore it for the most part.

The mercenaries quickly formed up behind Teilon. Kefira had to summon a bit more Mana than previously to account for the additional distances they had covered after the initial teleport earlier in the morning, but she was so well-versed in the area around the fort, she didn’t need to consult a map to anchor her Spell to the proper location.

After only a few minutes, Kefira Cast her Spell and the familiar tunnel formed in front of them. Reivyn gestured for Teilon to lead the mercenaries ahead. They Marched forward, and Reivyn followed alongside Kefira and Serilla in the rear.

As the three were stepping through the portal, the world around them shook as a powerful Mana signature exploded in the distance. Reivyn could perceive the agitation of the ambient Mana as it was affected by the blast. There was no direction to the Mana, though. It was just someone releasing their Mana in a fury.

Reivyn shared a look with Kefira and Serilla.

“It appears someone already figured out what happened, and they’re not happy,” Reivyn said. There was an unmistakable rage infused in the Mana. “Quickly.”

The three picked up their pace and raced forward. The mercenaries had been isolated from the Realm, so they hadn’t felt the Mana, but they heard Reivyn say “quickly,” and so they also broke into double-time.

Kefira turned back as they jogged forward. She manipulated her Spell and did something to tie off the entrance to the Portal they had just stepped through, turning it into a powerful barrier without removing the anchor. Reivyn didn’t know what would happen to the tunnel if it didn’t have two separate anchors, but he assumed it wouldn’t be anything good, at least not until Kefira had more practice and proficiency in both the Spell and her Affinity.

The tunnel was only several hundred yards long, so the Special Unit quickly made their way to the end. Reivyn could feel a powerful blow assault the barrier at the other end of the tunnel as they reached the end. He could feel the strain on Kefira as she held the barrier in place.

They stepped out of the tunnel into the sunlight once more, surrounded by the familiar walls and buildings of the mountain fort. Kefira quickly turned and began to dispel the anchors of the Spell. Reivyn reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Wait,” he said, a sly smirk appearing on his face. “This is another opportunity handed to us on a silver platter. Instead of dismissing the teleport tunnel right away, let them get inside, first. In fact, one they’re in, randomly shift the anchor points in case they can trace them, and then release the Spell.”

Kefira stared at Reivyn for a moment before she smiled in return.

“Oh, that’s devious,” she said. “I’ll weaken my hold on the barrier preventing them from entering, but only a little bit. If I suddenly get rid of it, they might grow suspicious.”

“It’ll only take them a few seconds to traverse the tunnel, I’m guessing based on that Mana signature, so you’ll have to be quick with the shift and dispel,” Reivyn reminded her.

“I know,” Kefira nodded.

Reivyn kept his silence after that, letting Kefira concentrate on her task. Sweat beaded her brow as she threaded the needle between resistance and letting the enemy succeed in forcing their way through. It went on for another minute of silent struggle.

“They’re in!” Kefira suddenly shouted. The teleport entrance winked out of existence as she shifted the anchor to some random location, and then she collapsed into Reivyn’s arms as all the tension fled her body.

“It’s done,” she said with a smile.

“Excellent,” Reivyn said, holding her tight. “Unless that person has a good enough Space Affinity, that’s another obstacle removed from the board.

“You know, that gives me an idea for a Spell,” he said, looking down into Kefira’s eyes.

“Oh? What would that be?” She asked.

“Just directly banishing something to the Void,” Reivyn answered. “If we run into something too powerful we can’t beat, but we can’t escape, either, we could Banish it.”

“Hmm, I’d have to overcome its Spell Resistance as a direct application,” Kefira replied, “otherwise we’d have to somehow trick it into stepping into a tunnel.”

“We can work out the details later, but it’s something to consider.”

“Sure.”

Kefira had regained her footing, but she didn’t make a move to extricate herself from Reivyn’s grasp. He was content to hold her for as long as possible, but he still had duties to see to.

“Alright, I’ve gotta go report to the commander about our operation,” Reivyn reluctantly said. “I’ll join you after lunch. We’ll have a couple days off to relax after I’m done with this one last thing.”

“Ok~ay,” Kefira pouted, stepping back. Reivyn leaned down and gave her a quick peck on the lips, though. She smiled up at him before turning to walk off with Serilla.

But even before that, let me check out these Notifications, Reivyn thought.

[Enemies Defeated]
[Exp +337]
[Exp +349]
[Exp +361]
[Exp +352]
[Exp +550]
[Exp +2,712]
[Combat Resolved. Calculating…]
[Total Experience: 4,661]
[Experience: 24,144/30,900]

[WARNING!]
[Qi Overload]
[The Mortal Body is unable to handle the stress of excessive Qi without either Tempering or a Qi Cultivation Skill]
[-20% Physical Stats Penalty Regeneration is halted for 3 months]
[Helpful Hint: Continuing to flood your body with Qi will result in further degradation of Physical Stats.]

Hmm, that didn’t happen last time, Reivyn pondered. It was probably because I wasn’t already hurt, and I didn’t use enough Qi to reach that point. If I had continued to use it, I might have run into this problem then.

A halt of three months isn’t the end of the world. It’s annoying, but it’s not that bad, all things considered. I can still feel my Regeneration Skill working, so it’s not it’s not like the System is punishing me directly. It’s just overloaded the strain. The time frame should reduce as my Skill Level improves, just like with the Stat Penalty itself.

Also, no wonder I haven’t been able to figure out how to use Qi outside of dire situations and just flooding my body with it. I don’t have the Skill for it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess the Cultivation Skills are Class Skills, too…

Reivyn would think about that some other time. He would have to experiment with different ways of manipulating the Qi energy to figure out whether or not he could create a General Skill for it, but just being able to use the Qi in a more directed way seemed to require the Skill in question. It was a negative feedback loop.

Reivyn shook his head and dismissed the thoughts from his head. He knew there would be a solution, or forming Qi as a non-Cultivator Class wouldn’t be a requirement for a “Perfect Foundation” as the System called it when he advanced to Tier 3. There wouldn’t be a requirement to reduce his Stamina and Mana Pools to create something worthless. That was the opposite of building a foundation.

Having solved the issue of where the pain was coming from, Reivyn made his way to the headquarters building. He acknowledged the salutes and greetings from the soldiers on duty as he made his way to the commanding general’s office. The aide sitting outside the office spotted him right away and waved him through without hesitation. Reivyn gave the older man a nod as he walked past.

The commanding general looked up as Reivyn entered the office and closed the door behind him. He indicated for Reivyn to take a seat across the desk from him.

“I’m guessing good news?” The general raised an eyebrow in anticipation.

“Of course,” Reivyn replied with a smile. “Did you have any doubt?”

“Honestly? A little,” the man shrugged. “Not only was it the first time seeing your mercenaries in action, it was the first mission of your Special Unit. Like, ever. Am I right?”

Reivyn nodded his head.

“Yes, sir, that’s right. First ever mission, not just the first mission of this conflict.”

“Then you can see why I would have some doubts, no?”

“I guess? From your perspective, I can understand it,” Reivyn shrugged, “but I knew my men.”

“It’s good to be confident,” the general nodded. “Just don’t let yourself get overconfident.”

“Complacency is the number one killer on the battlefield,” Reivyn agreed.

“Isn’t that the truth,” the older man snorted. “I like that saying. I’m going to take it for myself, if you don’t mind.

Reivyn waved his hand in dismissal.

“Of course, I didn’t come up with it.

“Anyway, to get back on track, the mission was a success,” Reivyn continued. “In fact, it was more of a success than we could have hoped for.”

“Oh?”

“So, remember how I told you about the powerful Classers they have in reserve for certain situations? The cloaked guys?” The general nodded. “One of those guys was there guarding the camp. We took him out, so there’s one less hidden powerhouse on their side.

“Though, to be fair, the guy was a lot weaker than I expected. That’s not to say he wasn’t weak, but my Identify Skill placed him at almost Tier 6, Level 100. He didn’t fight that way. He was definitely Skilled. He had at least one Transcendent Ability, but he was nothing compared to the others I fought previously.”

“Ahh, nepotism,” the general replied.

“What’s that?” Reivyn looked up in surprise.

“Nepotism,” the older man repeated. “He was probably someone related to an actual powerhouse. Think about it. He was the only one there, and it wasn’t a heavily fortified base, despite its importance. He was probably placed in charge of it because he didn’t actually match expectations for his station, and as the one in charge, he was pretty lax in his defense of the camp.

“His leadership, location, and combat competency point to nepotism.”

“That makes sense,” Reivyn considered the blast of Mana infused with rage as they made their escape. “That leads me to my next point, the one that makes it a better success than we expected.

“So we killed the cloaked guy, took out the local guards, and destroyed the teleport device. On our way back, a Mana signature exploded in the distance, obviously in response to the death of the cloaked guy. We ran into the tunnel, and Kefira sealed off the entrance, preventing them from chasing after us.

“Well, after we made it back to the fort, Kefira let them blast through her barrier into the teleport tunnel, and then released the Spell. At least one, maybe more, powerhouses are now floating about in the Void.”

The general stared at Reivyn for several seconds before a wide smile broke on his face. He slammed his palm down on the desk.

“Hah! That is excellent news! I’ll have to send the reports out to the other commanders as soon as possible.

“With the success of this mission and the unexpected gain along with it, we might have a real shot at winning this thing!”

Reivyn smiled at the actual joy radiating from the older man at the news. The man had always been polite and good company, but there had been an undertone of worry and anxiety. The shadow of the invaders, and the news of their repeated conquests had hung over their heads. This was the first time Reivyn had seen the man truly happy, and that made Reivyn happy.