Kora POV

It had been almost a week since Julius had gone missing, and while Elder Huan didn’t show it, she knew that he was stressing out about it. She knew that Julius had a unique relationship with the sect, but perhaps it was even more unique than she suspected.

That wasn’t to say that she wasn’t worried either. She found herself liking the younger man, and despite the rumors, he was very kind and considerate. He also had a lot of delicious food and a cute spirit on top of that.

Going missing in the Scorched Wastelands wasn’t unheard of. There were plenty of rifts and other special areas around that he might have found and gotten lost exploring. But a week was a long time, and the more time that passed without word from him, the lower his chances of coming back alive.

It wasn’t like they could go and search for him either. They were stretched thin as is, and no matter how important he may be, they couldn’t delay their preparations for a single Tier 4.

She glanced over at the newly arrived airship. Now that they had established a base of sorts, they had more of the sect’s resources and disciples come over. A number of outer disciples were given the chance to come. They wouldn’t be given many important tasks, but it was more of a learning experience than anything else. It would get them comfortable before they took on more dangerous Tier 4 missions. She had done the same thing when she was in Tier 3 and helped her prepare accordingly.

A larger number of elders also joined them, which was a relief. Three elders were a lot to send on a regular mission, but this exploration was massive, and the more Tier 5s they had to help them, the better.

Most of these elders were quite young. They were likely some of the sect’s newly advanced Tier 5s or ones who specialized in this sort of thing. However, she was surprised when she spotted an elder who normally wouldn’t come out for this sort of thing.

It was Elder Gui, of the Medical Hall. The man was one of the sect’s best healers and definitely didn’t come out for these sorts of things. He was almost always stationed at the Medical Hall to either manage it or to help with severe injuries.

In fact, she grew concerned because it seemed that Elder Gui was heading directly toward her. She tensed up and quickly thought of reasons why someone like that would be heading for her. However, there was only one real reason.

“Elder Gui, it is an honor to see you make the trip out here,” she greeted the elder with a respectful bow.

The elder was barely looking at her; instead, his eyes were focused on the entire camp. His senses were spreading out everywhere. The man had his trademark frown on his face, but she dared say it was even more severe than usual.

“Disciple Kora, Elder Huan told me that one of my Hall’s members went missing and that your group was the one who was working with him,” the elder finally addressed her.

She paused. She hadn’t known that Julius was a part of any hall. She knew that he was a healer, but from what she understood, he was a guest and wasn’t extended the same privilege of belonging to a hall. However, she wasn’t foolish enough to bring up such semantics to Elder Gui at the moment.

“Yes, sir, we had just returned from a mission, and during the night, we believe he went exploring something he had taken note of during our time in the wastelands,” she explained quickly.

“And you haven’t had any contact with him since?”

“No, sir.”

“Take me to the place where this happened,” Healer Gui instructed her coldly.

She was going to tell the man that she had to get ready with her group for another mission, but based on the man’s glare, he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“Understood.”

He nodded and took out a large sword from his storage ring. Seeing that he was serious about being fast about it, she told him about the location, and before she could do anything, he grabbed a hold of her with his mana and flew off with her by his side.

They got there fast, and the healer immediately got to work. He pulled out several instruments and deployed several skills around the area. For the next few minutes, she just stood on the side as he did his investigation.

She noticed him frowning a few times, pointing his instruments in the same direction

When he was done, he grabbed hold of her again and quickly brought them back to the camp. All in all, it took less than an hour for them to get there and back. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

“Thank you for your help,” he said to her.

She was surprised at the thanks; he had been so focused on his task that she didn’t expect it. Not because he was rude or anything, but because he was clearly distracted.

“No worries. Did you find anything?” A hint of concern crept into her tone.

“Not as much as I would hope. But I’m going to head over and investigate once I talk to Elder Huan. In the meantime, you should head back to your group, as I understand it, you have another mission coming up.”

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He leaned over and placed a hand on her shoulder. She felt his life mana charge through her body, and all of the fatigue she’d been accumulating over the past week or two vanished like it never existed. Not only that, but she felt herself affected by a buffing skill.

She was going to thank the elder, but before she could, she felt the ground shake and frowned, wondering what it could have been. Healer Gui, on the other hand, had an alarmed expression on his face, and his body exploded with power unlike she’d ever experienced so up close.

His entire domain extended around the camp, and it wasn’t the only domain that did this. At least two other domains were also activated. Then all hell broke loose. Countless enchantments placed around the camp started to go wild, and the alarms all rang out.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re under attack.”

Kora frowned. Under attack? Who would attack them in the Scorched Wastelands? Was it an opposing sect, or perhaps one of the monster clans that roamed the wastelands?

“Go rendezvous with your team. Get them ready and coordinate with the other elders. Don’t leave the camp and don’t waste your stamina, understand?” His voice was commanding, in a way that only a healer could have. She had no other choice but to nod.

Another loud explosion occurred, and this time she spotted a huge plume of dust and sand rising in the distance. When the dust finally cleared, she spotted what looked like a sea of black specks coming up from the ground, and when they got closer, she finally got a good look at them. They resembled ants, but larger, and they emitted this pitch-black energy that she didn’t recognize. It felt disgusting, though.

“What are those things?” Her anxiety was rising. Even from this distance, she could feel the strength of these creatures.

“Those are Deepcore Ants,” Healer Gui answered for her.

“Deepcore Ants? But those don’t look like what I read about.” She had done research into the species of monsters that thrived in the wastelands. Deepcore Ants were one of them, but they almost always hid deep in the ground, and there were rarely any attacks on humans.

“These ones looked like they had been infected and corrupted,” Healer Gui explained. He was outwardly calm, but she could feel the intensity of his aura, and that only reaffirmed her suspicions. These creatures were dangerous.

“Go, get everyone prepared. We don’t have a lot of time.”

She knew better than to hesitate at moments like this and ran off to her team. The entire camp was in a panic; people were running around, not knowing what to do.

She didn’t know what the purpose behind this development was, but she had a feeling that this exploration mission had just gotten a hell of a lot more dangerous.

***

Julius POV

He was going to have to evaluate his assessment. He had been hoping that he could break through the ant’s shell with a few more attacks, but he was very wrong. That was too optimistic; he’d barely made any progress since he first cracked it.

He needed something closer to like a hundred more attacks before he made it through. And that was with him using [Void Strike].

He grimaced as he frantically backed away from the relentless aggression. It was pretty obvious that he needed a better plan. The creature's shell was too strong, and it was now aware of his strategy. It was aggressive, not stupid.

He barely managed to duck underneath the ant’s wild swing. The wall behind him exploded, the debris splashing against his face. It was even angrier than before, and its speed had increased accordingly.

Fortunately, he had another idea he wanted to try. When it came crashing toward him again, he teleported, this time low and at the ant’s legs. A fist infused with all the accumulated kinetic energy lashed out and crashed into the ant’s limb.

Unlike before, this yielded much better results. The limb wasn’t as hard as the shell, and for the first time, he actually did some damage. The ant let out a cry, and Julius let out a grunt as the telekinetic force rippled out, catching him by surprise. He went flying toward the walls and barely managed to siphon enough kinetic energy from it that he didn’t splatter everywhere. It still cracked some of his bones, though.

There was a bright side to fighting something so much stronger than him. It was that he was never lacking kinetic energy. That is, as long as he was willing to take some hits. And if there was one thing he wasn’t scared of, it was getting hurt.

He dragged himself up and beckoned to the ant once more. “Well, come on then! Is that all you got?”

The ant growled at him, and its body flickered with corruption. The black energy, doing its best to infect Julius. But thanks to his time down here, he’d gotten pretty good at resisting it.

Sadly, the ant didn’t really care and attacked him anyway.

What followed was a total slugfest. Unfortunately, Julius was completely outclassed in almost every aspect. For every hit he got in, he received five of his own.

If he cracked the ant’s shell, he busted half of his ribs. That was just the sad consequence of fighting a Tier 5, and despite getting beaten within an inch of his existence, he was having the time of his life. Because he had at least one thing going for him.

He had a pretty good healing skill.

He found himself laughing manically as his arm snapped in half while blocking an overhead strike. He kicked out and discharged the kinetic energy, blasting himself away. His life technique was coming in handy; the increased durability allowed him to absorb more blows than he typically could.

But more importantly, the technique had really good synergy with his healing skill. He was still tearing himself to pieces, but it didn’t really matter because he could tell that he was making progress.

The ant didn’t have a powerful healing skill as he did. In fact, it was already flagging and moving more slowly than it had in the beginning, and he could feel the uneasy pulsations in its aura. Even the way it used its domain and other skills was showing some fatigue.

He was slowly whittling down this Tier 5, and he wasn’t about to let up the pressure. If anything, he pushed harder, taking another crushing blow to his shoulder so that he could smash his fist into its face. He let out an explosion of ruinflames right in its face, and it staggered back.

His shoulder was a mess of mangled flesh, but he didn’t pay it any mind. He let it heal, and before it could recover, he was on top of it again. A blast of telekinetic force crushed into his chest, but he tanked it and grabbed a hold of the ant’s neck. More ruinflames rushed out of his hands and his crown, scorching the ant even more.

Then, with all the force he could bring to bear, he wrapped his skull around with [Void Strike] and started to slam his head into the ants. It wasn’t his brightest idea, but with both hands busy, he didn’t really have many other options. He used every skill and every bit of willpower to do as much damage as he could.

He channeled his fury, letting his focus skill blunt the pain, and went wild. He didn’t care that his skull was fracturing more than the ant’s shell; he had a healing skill, and this thing didn’t. He wondered what would give out first. His face or this ant?

He laughed. He didn’t know, but he was going to see for himself.