Chapter 246: Level up
Alex looked at the three tunnels for a moment before making his decision. There was no reason to send everyone forward blindly when he could check the paths himself, especially since the Mana Sphere Spell gave him a much better way to detect hidden enemies.
"I’ll check the tunnels first. Stay here and be ready in case something comes out," Alex said.
He created a Mana Bullet between his fingers and then formed a small Mana Sphere on its tip. Instead of allowing the sphere to remain unstable, Alex used his Will to harden it slightly, although he kept the reinforcement weak because he didn’t want the construct to remain hardened for a long duration.
Alex fired the Mana Bullet into the leftmost tunnel. The projectile flew through the darkness before striking the wall near the end of the passage, and the impact caused the Mana Bullet to break apart while the Mana Sphere opened up and expanded through the tunnel.
Alex focused on the information returning through the sphere, but he couldn’t sense any monsters. He repeated the same process with the second tunnel and then the third one, but neither contained any hidden badgers.
"Looks like we’ve dealt with all the monsters here. Now only those in the very depths should be left," Alex said.
Emma frowned as she looked toward the tunnels. "The badgers here clearly planned that ambush after we let our guard down following the first fight. If they had enough intelligence to prepare something like that, then why weren’t all of them here? Why would they leave some of their forces resting in the deeper areas?"
"Yes, that is weird," Joseph muttered. "In the Titan Reef Crab Dungeon, the crabs in the deepest area were planning to eat me, so they didn’t come out immediately after you guys entered. But what about this place? The badgers should have had a reason for staying back."
Yulia silently clenched her fists when Joseph mentioned the Titan Reef Crab Dungeon. The reminder of how close Joseph had come to dying seemed to affect her more than it affected him, and she lowered her gaze while trying to hide her reaction.
Joseph noticed Yulia’s reaction just like Alex did. "I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up."
Yulia shook her head and gave him a small nod, letting him know that she was fine. Still, the atmosphere had become noticeably quieter, and Alex didn’t want everyone to start thinking too much about what had already happened.
He clapped his hands once to draw their attention. "Alright, we don’t know why the monsters in the deepest part didn’t come here, but there must be a reason. We can think about it later, so let’s move forward and stay alert."
Everyone nodded before they began moving again. After considering the three paths, they chose the middle tunnel because the Origin Energy inside it was noticeably thicker than in the other two passages, making it the most likely path toward the Boss Monster.
Alex continued using the combination of Mana Bullet and Mana Sphere as they moved. The badgers would probably notice the expanding mana, but Alex would notice them as well, and that was far better than suddenly encountering a monster around a corner and allowing it to attack them from close range.
The process also gave Alex an opportunity to continue training his Mana Sphere Spell. He kept adjusting the density and structure of the sphere while sending it farther ahead, and after several attempts, a familiar notification appeared in his mind.
[Mana Sphere Spell has leveled up. Level 2 → Level 3.]
Alex smiled faintly when he saw the notification. One of the best things about the System was being able to see his progress in real time, because before the apocalypse, he could study for hours while constantly wondering whether his efforts were actually improving anything, whereas now he could see the results directly.
Another Mana Sphere expanded through the tunnel while Alex continued walking with the others. This time, he sensed that the passage was coming to an end, and the sphere revealed a massive boulder blocking the tunnel with two figures standing beside it.
Alex immediately recognized them. "Two Ninja Badgers."
The two badgers reacted almost instantly and melted into the surrounding shadows, disappearing from Alex’s direct vision as they tried to use the darkness to hide themselves. However, Alex continued using Mana Sphere, and the expanding field revealed their positions even while they moved through the shadows.
The badgers seemed to realize that their greatest advantage had been taken away. Instead of waiting for Alex to locate them, both creatures suddenly accelerated, using the shadows to rush toward the group at high speed.
Alex remained calm and prepared his spells. He had already decided that this was a good opportunity to test the combination of Mana Shuriken Spell and Mana Disruption Blade Spell, which would also help him determine whether the two spells could eventually be fused.
He formed a Mana Shuriken without adding Fire Element Mana to increase its speed. Since he was experimenting with a new combination, Alex wanted to begin with the simplest version of the spell so he could understand how the two techniques interacted.
The Mana Shuriken formed smoothly in his hand, and Alex then began incorporating Mana Disruption Blade into it. The process wasn’t particularly difficult because Mana Disruption Blade only required him to give the mana around the edge a unique frequency that could interfere with the energy of another spell or construct.
Alex launched the Mana Shuriken toward one of the shadows. The spinning blade ripped through the air and struck the shadow of the hidden badger, but nothing happened, and the creature continued moving through the darkness without being affected.
Alex clicked his tongue when he realized what had gone wrong. Normally, he needed to actively control the unique frequency after it entered another person’s mana, allowing him to stimulate the mana and force it to interfere with the target’s energy, but the Mana Shuriken had already traveled beyond his mana control range.
The frequency remained inside the Mana Shuriken, but Alex could no longer control it. Without his control, the Mana Disruption Blade effect couldn’t properly invade the Shadow Element Origin Energy of the Ninja Badger.
Before Alex could think of another solution, the two Ninja Badgers reached the group. A hand suddenly emerged from the ground beneath them, followed by the body of a badger holding a black spear, and the monster shot upward like a missile while thrusting the spear toward Frank.
Frank reacted immediately and raised his shield to block the attack. The impact pushed him several meters backward, and his feet scraped against the ground, but he managed to remain standing despite the force behind the attack.
The Ninja Badger bounced away from the shield and crashed against the wall. Its body immediately began melting into the stone, disappearing into the shadows once again before Frank could counterattack.
At almost the same moment, the second badger emerged from Petra’s shadow. However, this time Petra was properly protected, and the moment the creature appeared, Yulia immediately moved toward the little girl.
She kicked downward with her leg fused with Aura, and the force seemed to travel through the shadow itself, similar to how the force of her attacks could move through water.
The force struck something inside the shadow, and the Ninja Badger was suddenly thrown out while screeching in pain. Before it could recover, Emma’s Mana Arrow flew toward its face, forcing the monster to twist its body and barely dodge the attack.
Yulia didn’t give it any time to recover and immediately followed after it. Sarah followed. The duo continued attacking while keeping the Ninja Badger away from Petra, making sure the monster couldn’t use the little girl’s shadow to attack her again.
Alex watched them for a moment and confirmed that his team could handle the Ninja Badgers. The monsters had already realized that Alex could detect them even while they were inside the shadows, and they seemed to believe that the others could now sense them as well, so they were no longer relying on surprise attacks.
Instead, the badgers were rushing forward and fighting directly, which allowed Alex to focus on the first Ninja Badger.
The monster suddenly emerged from Alex’s shadow like a cannonball, its body flying forward with its spear pointed directly at his neck. Alex took a step backward, released his Mana Sword, and allowed it to float beside him before punching forward with his armored hand.
His fist struck the badger and sent it flying backward with considerable force. The monster rolled across the ground before crashing into the large boulder, and smoke rose from its fur where the Fire Element Mana from Alex’s armor had burned it.
The badger hissed as it stood up, but it didn’t rush forward again. It seemed to have realized that fighting Alex at close range was dangerous, especially after being thrown away so easily by a single punch.
Alex smiled faintly when he saw the monster pull another spear from its back. This was exactly what he wanted, because he had been trying to figure out how to use Mana Disruption Blade from a distance, and the Ninja Badgers clearly had a way to apply the technique to their spears.
Alex poured more mana into his Mind and Soul, causing his mana control and focus to rise sharply. The sounds around him gradually became less noticeable, and his attention narrowed until he was focused almost entirely on the Ninja Badger.
He carefully watched the monster’s movements. He observed how it pulled its arm backward, shifted its leg, adjusted its center of balance, and changed the position of its fingers around the spear before finally throwing it.
The spear flew toward him.
Alex’s focus was at its peak, but the spear was so fast that it almost seemed to teleport directly in front of his face. His reflexes and instincts reacted before he could think, and he tilted his head just enough for the spear to pass beside him.
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