Chương 236: Hidden Dangers

"It is a matter of weight," Thomas said before Damion could answer.

"Damion could make the sword bigger, but that would also make it thinner and then it probably wouldn't be able to support all of us. Right?"

"Pretty much," Damion replied. It was clear that Thomas was trying to worm his way into the leader position of their group by answering everyone's questions, but he did not particularly care.

"I could use Summon Ice instead. I can control it at will and the chunk of ice I can make is two cubic meters now."

"Is that the spell you made all those icicles with?" Yuri asked.

"Yes, I can manipulate the ice at will. I should be able to shape the ice chunk into a chair or something for you all to sit on and then we can all sort of fly out of here."

"Can you afford to use so much mana for so long?" Thomas questioned.

"I mean, Ice Sword only takes 10 mana per second right? But Summon Ice requires 25. That is a lot of mana to be burning constantly."

"You are right," Damion told him. Now he felt that Thomas was fishing for information and Damion did not want to give up anything unless he had to.

"We might as well just rest for a bit. Then we can start again. No sense in risking being exhausted and running into a Demonic Beast." The group agreed with Damion's caution in the matter. The last Demonic Beast they had encountered was quite unexpected. None of them wanted to face something similar while running empty. Most of the group started to sit on the ground, when it was decided they would rest.

Not wanting to sit on the ground, Damion pulled out his table and chair from his personal spatial storage and took a seat. Ignoring the jealous looks his teammates gave him, he pulled out a ration pack for himself and another one for Phil. The Snow Hawk landed on the table and the pair began to eat. After a few moments of bewildered staring, the rest of the team started to pull out ration packs of their own to satisfy their hunger. When Damion finished his meal he watched his team for a few moments.

Inara was sitting in quiet meditation, having already finished her own ration pack. Thomas, Yuri and Geoffrey were off to one side joking with each other. A quick look at Ronald brought back memories Damion would have rather forgotten. The Wood mage had also taken out a ration pack, but the food the young man was snacking on, had the same packaging as the rations Damion had first bought.

He remembered well how those rations, while fine when only eating them, caused him immense troubles with his stomach when he switched back to real food. Damion recalled Thelma Gerrard telling him it was a rite of passage for new adventurers. Most new adventurers, like he had been at the time, bought the cheapest rations to save money when they started out. Shaking his head for a moment, Damion decided not to warn the Wood mage, doing so would just put the young man off eating his rations.

Instead, he just fumbled around in his storage pouch for the medicine he had bought years ago, just in case he ever ended up with cheap rations again. The unpleasantness of the cheap rations would go away on their own, but he decided to be a bit nicer to Ronald than Gerrard had been to him. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"You are going to need those after the exam is over," Damion told the Wood mage. Ronald took the bottle and looked at it but was just confused after reading the label. He did not understand why he would need medicine to settle his stomach when the exam finished. However, Damion had been nice to him, and so far, had not led him astray, so he decided to pocket the medicine and worry about it after the exam.

"Everyone ready to move out?" Damion asked as he stood up and pulled his furniture back into his personal spatial storage.

"As ready as we'll ever be," Thomas answered, getting to his feet with his friends. By Damion's estimation, they were more than halfway back to the Breach opening and it should not take them too long to get there. A short time later, as the group was finally nearing the exit point, Damion received a warning from Phil, who had been flying above them scouting the way and secretly snacking on a few stray Slash Rats.

'Big prey. Close.'

"Something is coming," Damion shouted to his teammates. Damion could not detect the threat with True Sight, but he believed Phil's warning. The Demonic Beast was likely out of range of his spell, but that could change very quickly, depending on the type of beast.

'What kind of prey?' Damion questioned Phil through their bond.

'Lizard.' The simple description was nice, but hardly helpful. Phil said first that it was big prey, did that mean they were now going to be facing a large lizard? A giant lizard? The bigger question was, how strong was it. If it was another D Rank Demonic Beast, they should not have issues, but if it was stronger than that, Damion did not want to risk his team getting injured.

While debating if Phil meant a Deinosuchus as the big lizard approaching them, Damion spotted the Rank of the Demonic Beast, though he still could not see it. C Rank. Since it was a C Rank Demonic Beast, it could potentially overpower the protective wards on his classmates' uniforms. Still, it was not a B Rank and since he was the same Rank, they should be able to defeat it, as long as no one did anything foolish.

The problem was, even though he could see the Rank through True Sight, he still could not spot the Demonic Beast.

"It is a C Rank Demonic Beast, with a Wood affinity," Damion told the others. Other than seeing the Rank through True Sight slowly getting closer though, he had no idea where it was or what type of creature they were facing.

"What kind of Demonic Beast is it?" Thomas asked.

"Some kind of lizard," Damion told him. He was sure that Phil would not have given him the wrong information.

"I don't see anything."

"Neither do I." Damion's teammates were scanning the area trying to locate the Demonic Beast, but not having any luck. He watched as the Demonic Beast's Rank continued to grow closer. When he still could not see the creature, Damion finally had an idea of why.

'Attack it,' Damion told Phil. The Snow Hawk could spot the Demonic Beast for whatever reason. Perhaps it was Phil's superior vision or maybe it was its vantage point. Whatever the reason, it did not matter, what mattered was making the Demonic Beast visible for the team. Phil quickly swooped down and cast Ice Breath on the area a few meters ahead of the group. When the cold air of the attack passed over a certain point they saw it strangely go up, like it was hitting a wall, before dropping off the other side.

"It's invisible!" Exclaimed Ronald, sounding rather terrified of fighting an invisible Demonic Beast.

"No, it isn't," said Inara.

"It is some kind of camouflage."

"It's a chameleon," Ronald shouted again, this time with excitement instead of fear. If you are reading this novel anywhere except Royal Road you are reading a pirated copy. Support authors and their mediums by reading on the original hosting site.