Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 57:First Mission (4)

It took them 1 hour and 47 minutes to clear the first section of the power lines. 1 hour and 23 minutes to clear the second section.

They were on their third section now after a brief rest, after getting used to fighting the swarms of hornets, all of the had quickly adapted. Learning better ways to kill them. Clearing them faster and more efficiently.

’Frost blast!’

Raymond’s spell emptied out another hundred or so hornets. He had already run out of his time-attuned mana and was already tapping into his dimensional-attuned mana. But that would run out soon.

Even with his much purer mana and his ability to absorb mana passively as a perfect human, he was using up more mana then he was replenishing it.

It also didn’t help that all his spells were much more mana hungry then a usual spell at his level—mainly because he modified them to be more powerful at the cost of needing more mana.

Gritting his teeth, he prepared to cast another spell when he felt the shield on Thomas and Lucy break in quick succession.

Whirling around, he cancelled his earlier spell and recast the shield for them. Mana flowing out of his cores and being used to fuel his spells.

Luckily Noelle didn’t require his shield spell, courtesy of her innate power.

Thomas and Lucy had barely even noticed the shield on them broke, only hearing a slight cracking sound. Which in their current situation was already impressive enough.

With how loud the thousands of hornets were, the constant sparks and snaps of electricity arcing through their bodies as they tried to sting them. The angry buzzing, all combined together made it difficult for any of them to even hear each other.

Not to mention Audrina’s black fog which was spread thinly throughout the whole dome of ice, creating a faint black haze in the air everywhere he could see.

He was resisting it pretty well, once again due to his race as a perfect human. But he could see the movements of the others growing slower. More sluggish then they should have been.

But he felt tired, his stamina was dangerously low. The three hours of straight fighting was starting to take its toll on him. His body felt shaky and his muscles weak. The only drawback of being a mage—his weak physique was starting to kick in now.

As much as Raymond would have loved to just sit and cast spells, these hornets weren’t dumb. They clearly recognized him as the source who killed the most of them, and they were angry. Constantly rushing at him the most out of anyone there.

So he had to keep running circles around them, relying on the others to essentially act as a wall between the hornets and him.

Several arcs of golden light flashed within a particular dense part of the hornets. Thomas’s blade whirling and spinning around with a glow as he cut as many of the hornets as he could. Somewhere next to him, Noelle and Lucy were both fighting with their backs to each other.

Noelle’s spear carved wide paths through dozens of hornets, while Lucy’s rapier would pierce through several within just one thrust, every once in a while. A stray hornet would pass through their attacks and land splat on the shield Raymond had casted.

Cador was much more unique, there was no shield spell on him. Rather, he simply just tanked through every sting and every jolt of electricity that hit him. His fists—or claws crushing and slicing through multiple hornets with each swing of his arms. His ash arts activating occasionally when the action got too intense

Raymond could feel his dome of ice shaking, not because of his magic being flawed in any way or because of his draining mana causing it to fail. But because it was being attacked by an outside force.

Looking at the part that was being attacked, he could see a metallic gray bear the size of a car furiously charging at the dome. Sharp barbs covered its body in a zig-zagging pattern.

He groaned, this was already the fourth barbed bear that had attacked them. Seeing these humans clear out the hornets had attracted several of these bears. Each aiming to try and steal the loot—that being the hornets nests. Now that there were others who were doing the work for them.

He turned, spotting Ellen firing off a barrage of arrows and shouted to her. "Ellen! I’m opening up the dome for a bit to let it in!"

She quickly got the signal, turning slightly so she was facing the part of the dome wall which was being attacked. She took a deep breath as a golden light manifested on her bow and arrow.

The mix of purple from the Kairos bow and gold from her arts made for a chilling sight. She was even using one of her more expensive arrows now, rather then just the basic ones for the hornets.

’River Crossing!’

Her multicoloured eyes glimmered briefly as she activated her own innate power. Her arrow flying along the path that only she could see.

Right into its left eye and partially through its skull, the tip of the arrow just barely entering its brain. The barbed bear roared in agony as the arrow pierced it—half blinding its vision.

Unfortunately, it didn’t kill it. But she had already done more then enough.

Ignoring the swarm of hornets coming at him, Raymond charged up a freeze ray with what little mana he could muster up. Ignoring his body’s screams, he forced his mana out and into and his spell.

A thin beam of blue flashed through the battlefield, the barbed bear didn’t even have time to react as it died. A long hole being formed in its body from head to tail, ice forming around the edges.

Raymond fell down onto his knees, gasping for air. His already meagre reserves heavily drained by that freeze ray, at this rate. His current shield spells wouldn’t last another minute. While his ice dome would last, without his mana. It would slowly melt and be destroyed easier.

He really wished he had some sort of mana potion, but even low quality ones were hard to make and most were too inefficient to be used on him anyways.

Because every human had a different mana attunement, even if many functioned similarly. It was nearly impossible to create a universal mana potion. Even harder for people like Raymond with never before seen mana attunements. Since at least for common mana attunements, they were relatively easier to study.

Seeing Raymond collapse, all of them quickly stopped trying to wipe the hornets out. Instead moving to where Raymond was.

Raymond was their main condition to winning this fight, without his spells. There was hardly any point in continuing.

By the time they reached him. He had already dismissed his shield spells on Thomas and Lucy. Who started to visibly struggle more without his shield spell to cover them. A few parts of their bodies getting stung and electrocuted.

Noelle took over for them as much as she could, her armour from her innate power seemed to glow slightly as countless hornets crashed into her. Trying to find any gaps in her armour, the sound of electricity snapping constantly as they struck her.

With Ellen carrying him, the seven of them ran towards the hole created by the barbed bear when it tried to enter. A small amount of the electro-shocking hornets from the other parts had managed to enter from there, but it was still relatively clear.

Audrina’s black fog expanded as it covered them, slightly obscuring their vision. But not enough to truly impair their movements. Providing a small barrier against the hornets.

As the last to run out through the hole in the dome, Cador turned to the exit. Without so much as even a grunt, he raised his hands. Palms facing towards the opening as his Arts activated.

It was unknown what Arts Lucy and Cador were practicing exactly, but Cador’s Arts seemed to be ash related. Grey, still lightly smouldering ash poured out—creating a wall to block their pursuit.

Several thumping sounds occurred as the hornets crashed into the ash wall, it shook slightly. But still managed to hold against the barrage.

With the others quickly clearing out the few hornets that remained, they quickly made their way to the initial part they had already cleared.

Compared to previously when they had just started, the power lines were now completely repaired. Covered in large metallic cylinders, they radiated a menacing aura resembling that of a C-ranked monster.

Upon entering within the vicinity of the newly repaired power lines, the electro-shocking hornets soon left them alone. The workers still repairing the power lines soon saw them approaching,

Frowning slightly upon seeing Raymond being carried, one of them asked. "Is he alright?"

"Just drained of mana, I’ll fully recover in about five hours or so."

Normal F-ranks would usually fully recover in only two hours, but because of his body as the perfect human, it literally couldn’t function properly with low purity mana. This forcing him to absorb and purify a much larger quantity.

He also had two cores, which let him store more mana then usual. Forcing him to absorb, purify and convert the ambient mana before he could finally use it. Rather then others who only absorbed and then converted mana.

A golden light shone from behind him, Raymond couldn’t see but he could tell what it was.

Thomas was using his holy energy to heal their injuries.

Since holy energy and demonic energy were completely separate energies from mana, rather then being replenished by absorbing and converting mana. They could only be replenished by absorbing holy or demonic energy.

Humans or other races with holy energy cores and demonic energy cores were essentially out of luck. The concentration of these energies were so abysmally low that it would take days before even an E-rank could fully recover.

But angels and demons naturally recovered said energies even if they were in a completely baren environment by virtue of being an angel or demon.

In fact, compared to humans or other races who had to constantly absorb mana to get stronger. Angels and demons would just passively get stronger from existing.

If the other races had to work hard to earn money and get promotions to earn more money. Then angels and demons would be those kids born into rich families, earning without even having to work a single day in their lives. Being promoted because their parents were the CEO.

In this case, money would be mana and holy or demonic energy. While promotions would be the rank increases.

Even Raymond wasn’t free from this restriction, if he was in a poor mana region. He couldn’t do much. Which was actually the main reason he struggled within this dimension.

But that wasn’t to say it was all upsides.

Holy energy and demonic energy had a very special property which made them more difficult to use then mana.

Holy energy would cause the user to gradually lose their emotions, becoming more apathetic as their holy energy increased and they became stronger. Their thinking would grow more rational and logical. Losing their emotions and themselves.

Demonic energy does the exact opposite, users would grow more prone to their emotions. Acting more impulsive and losing themselves to their emotions. Becoming more temperamental and losing control often.

Which is why angels and demons had to regularly regulate their own energies. Making sure they didn’t have too much lest they lose themselves. Angels would train to feel more while demons would train to rein in their emotions.

Thus, they were the natural counter to each other. One that made your emotions go out of control and one that controlled your emotions. It was like a fated rivalry.