Chapter 134. Battle Between Two Terraforming Specialists
In the Crystal Cube world.
One week ago, when the world had just leveled up.
The moment the world leveled up, both Lacius and Elisa felt a weight of pressure lift from them.
Almost simultaneously, both experienced their life levels advancing from peak Level 4 to Lower Level 5.
Noticing the change, Elisa reacts quite casually. She is mainly focused on testing her power and the increased maximum range of her abilities.
As for Lacius, he immediately broke free from his petrification and closed his eyes to feel the change in his body.
Except for the amount of faith energy that has been slowly collected throughout the years, Lacius felt the mana in his body increasing.
What’s happening? Why did I suddenly advance? What's with the unknown feeling of pressure that suddenly disappears? Lacius’s eyes unknowingly darted toward the ceiling of his secret room.
He then realized, “The creator… It seems the creator has made some kind of move.”
Leaving his secret room, Lacius visited the current High Priest to inquire about the recent situation.
In the High Priest’s study filled with books, Lacius sat down and started reading the thick records prepared by the High Priest. They detailed the overall changes in human territories, such as which kingdoms and empires have changed their leaders, or the rise of large organizations like the Adventurer Guild and the Magic Association, which seem to have appeared out of nowhere.
After reading the report, Lacius paused in thought. ‘There are no miraculous phenomena happening in human territory. Should I visit that giant tree beyond the mountain range to ask about that strange feeling when I leveled up? I guess she should have also reached Peak Level 4 a long time ago.'
As he tapped the table rhythmically, Lacius’s expression grew somewhat serious. ‘I suppose I should meet her.’
Lacius has thought of three possible reasons. Depending on the situation, he might need to change his future plans.
The first reason is the neutral situation; it's neither good nor bad. ‘If she has that feeling and has just advanced to Lower Level 5 too, it indicates some kind of change in the world itself. This change is likely beneficial, at least for living beings, because it enables us to reach higher levels.’
Lacius’s expression darkened slightly. 'If that tree doesn't experience the same sensation and has already reached Lower Level 5 before me, it suggests I might be facing a bottleneck due to my limited talent, or someone has deliberately sabotaging my progress. The latter is the worst-case scenario because only the creator could do that.' Lacius was aware he wasn't a particularly good person, which is why he suspected the creator of obstructing his advancement.
After all, he had been doing the same thing by limiting the strength of experts under his control to reduce potential threats. He even went a mile further by rooting out every troublesome person before they could grow.
‘If that tree didn't sense the feeling of pressure disappearing and hasn't reached Lower Level 5, it could mean my recent advancement was guided by the creator.’ After gathering his thoughts, Lacius promptly decided to visit Elisa.
Lacius used his faith energy to soar through the sky. Simultaneously, he cast a wind magic spell to increase his speed. Before long, he flew past the mountain range and reached the elves' territory.
Knowing Elisa’s location, Lacius flew directly in a straight path. By the time he saw Elisa’s massive tree crown, Lacius flew directly on top of the city.
Some wind-element elves fly into the sky to try and stop him, but suddenly Elisa’s voice rings out, saying, “He’s my guest. Guide him to me.”
Several elves then lead Lacius to Elisa, who quickly asks them to leave. “Why are you visiting this time?”
Elisa avoids small talk with Lacius, wary of his cunning and fearing he might extract information from her during their conversation.
By asking directly, Lacius shouldn't be able to pull too many tricks. After all, unlike their last meeting when Elisa’s mother was still alive, she's now alone, and her chance of being duped by Lacius has increased.
Thankfully, noticing Elisa's reluctance to chat, Lacius quickly gets to the point. “Have you reached Lower Level 5 yet?”
Elisa became cautious when she heard Lacius ask that. While tensing her body to prepare an attack, Elisa asked back, “Why did you ask?”
“Recently I've just advanced to Level 5 out of nowhere. Before and during the advancement, I felt some sort of pressure disappear from me. So, I am curious if you know about it.”
Elisa got straight to the point, “What’s in for me?”
“Tsk,” Lacius lightly clicked his tongue in annoyance, “I'll give you a new dual earth element spell I've just researched. In exchange, I want you to answer a few of my questions truthfully, and have a combat exchange with me.”
Elisa thought for a moment before nodding by bending her tree crown a few times.
With both having reached an agreement, Elisa promptly responded to Lacius’s question.
“I've indeed advanced to Lower Level 5.”
Lacius nodded. From the moment Elisa agreed to the deal, Lacius was already convinced that Elisa had also reached Level 5.
After all, unless Elisa is stupid, she definitely won't accept a combat exchange against someone at Level 5 while still at Level 4.
“Then, did you feel some sort of pressure disappearing when you leveled up?” Lacius asked once again.
“It's only for an extremely short time, but I indeed feel it.”
“When did you reach Level 5?”
“Less than a day ago.”
Lacius nodded, “Alright. How about we immediately start the exchange battle?”
“Alright. But let's do it a few kilometers to the Southwest of the city. There's an empty opening there.”
Lacius agreed and flew outside of the city. Before leaving, he also taught Elisa the new dual Earth element spell he had just researched.
When he arrived at the place Elisa selected, A small plant grew into a message from Elisa, “Let's just fight for ten minutes. Don't affect the city during the battle.”
Lacius easily agreed. The main reason he asked for the battle is to test Elisa’s response speed when he asked his three questions, which allows him to guess whether Elisa answered truthfully.
The battle is not actually that important to him.
Still, he had paid for it, so Lacius decided to test his power in a fight against someone of the same level.
“Then, for the next ten minutes, you should try your best to repel me as I try to reach your city.” After saying this, Lacius started flying toward Elisa’s city.
Seeing Lacius's flight, Elisa started to attack him aggressively. Plants rapidly grew, transforming the empty space into a dense forest. This forest blocked Lacius’s way with a wooden wall that kept rising. Simultaneously, vines from the trees wriggled like living snakes, attempting to ensnare Lacius.
In response, Lacius waved his hand, causing the ground where the plants grew to sink. This instability made the tall trees topple over. As the trees fell, Lacius kept flying toward the city.
In response, Elisa began moving some magical plants she controlled to block Lacius’s path.
Those plants activated their magical abilities and began firing various elements, including thunder, wind blades, water, flames, and earth spikes.
Although most of their power was only comparable to Level 0 blessed, with only a few reaching Level 1 blessed’s strength, the volume of attacks still troubled Lacius.
Under Elisa’s command, they attacked sequentially to prevent their elements from clashing and wasting energy, which further increased Lacius’s burden.
After narrowly avoiding those plants for a minute, Lacius finally took a processed material and cast defensive spells. These spells summoned a cyclone filled with ice slabs that circulated around him.
Although the ice slabs disintegrated after three seconds, their shield enabled Lacius to launch a counterattack. Using his power, he caused multiple earth walls to rise from the ground before collapsing and crushing the magical plants.
Despite many of them surviving the attack. They continued to bombard Lacius, pushing him to descend to the ground where his earth-elemental blessings can be utilized.
Upon landing, Lacius maximized his blessed power, manipulating the ground beneath him to move like an ocean wave. He calmly stood atop the wave as if surfing, while summoning earth walls to shield himself from Elisa’s assault.
As he neared the city, Elisa’s final attack struck: she had gathered surrounding plants to form a dozen massive, tentacle-like plant pillars, similar to the one she had previously used against the last demon king.
Seeing the massive plant tentacles, Lacius cast multiple spells combining fire and wind. These spells allowed him to shoot high-speed fireballs that exploded instantly upon contact with the plant tentacles Elisa created.
While the fireballs burned several tentacles, about ten still remained. They waved downward from the sky, trying to squash Lacius, who had been surfing by manipulating the ground.
Almost ten giant plant tentacles, each nearly a hundred meters tall, whipped toward Lacius’s location almost simultaneously.
The impact caused a small earthquake at the palace those plants hit. Thankfully, Lacius used his faith energy combined with a wind spell to propel himself away from the epicenter.
After evading the attack, both Elisa and Lacius stopped.
“Alright, ten minutes is up. I suppose I lose because I failed to reach your city in time.” After casually saying that, Lacius left.
Far from the city center, many elves, dwarves, and some humans from the Magic Association gathered to observe the aftermath of Lacius and Elisa's recent battle.
The disturbance caused by their fight was felt even within the city, sparking curiosity among many residents.
From the city’s center, Elisa suddenly addressed the crowd. Her voice echoed throughout the city, amplified by a wind element spell, saying, “Alright, everyone, go back to your business. I am just exchanging a few small moves with an acquaintance.”
Although the battle between Lacius and Elisa caused a huge commotion, it was just a minor exchange.
Lacius’s full power derives from the faith energies he has gathered over millennia. In contrast, Elisa’s true strength comes from her enormous tree body, capable of whipping a branch with enough force to explode an elephant into minced meat. But during the exchange, neither has used their strongest power.
***
While Elisa cleansed the battlefield where they fought, Lacius traveled through the dwarven and elven territories to look for any signs of miraculous phenomena from the creator.
However, he failed to find anything of the sort. The only thing he gained is finally understanding that the Magic Association, which has been bothering the Temple, and the Adventurer Guild, which has suddenly sprouted like mushrooms after rain, actually have their main headquarters in the elven and dwarven territories.
Lacius knew it was their main headquarters because, according to the report he read, the Magic Association's headquarters and the Adventurer Guild's headquarters located in human territory are much smaller than those in dwarven and elven lands.
He conducted further investigation and discovered that Catherina was behind the Adventurer Guild and appeared to be one of the most influential members of the Magic Association.
Although having a dragon controlling that kind of force is surprising. Considering he has suspected that Catherina is a hero related to the creator, it doesn’t affect Lacius much.
Once he was satisfied with these findings, Lacius flew back and prepared to return to the human territory.