Chương 20

My heart pounded with adrenaline, standing over Fellia's unmoving body. I still half expected a laugh to hit me, Fellia telling me that I'd fallen for a trick, but none of the sort happened. Her presence dwindled, mana core unstable. Do I kill her? Vora's side of my head screamed at me to finish her off. Fellia was utterly evil, the worst mage of Ellaris. The larger part of my brain was uncertain. I didn't have any evidence that would say she deserved to die.

Sure, Fellia had tried to kill me, but in her perspective, she was attacking a gang of terrorists who had just captured her sister. If I was in her position, I wouldn't have hesitated to use force. She could have tried to capture us instead of killing us, but it wasn't like she was obligated to risk her life just to capture a violent gang alive. As far as I knew, Fellia was just doing her job. While I was thinking, her mana core began cracking. Its walls were unstable, like an inflatable pool that slowly lost air.

I blinked at that. I'd seen how mana cores looked like when unconscious. No amount of damage would make them look like that, not unless the person suffered something fatal. A bad feeling in my stomach, I tested for her pulse. I felt nothing. She wasn't breathing. Her mana core was rapidly losing its presence. Fuck, did I already kill her? I thought. I had hit my Mind Blast with all the force I could muster. It wouldn't be the first time I had accidentally killed something by using too much force with that spell.

I once hunted deer with it and killed the animal with Mind Blasts alone. And even though Fellia was a mage, it wasn't like her brain itself was strengthened. After her barrier was broken, her mind was just as fragile as everyone else's. Fucking hell, Fellia was already dead. I'd killed her by accident. And in front of me was her level three crimson core. A bonded mana core was like a house with the doors locked. From the outside, I could merely observe and admire the shape of Fellia's beautiful level three core.

Only the wielder itself could access their mana core, and outsiders could only feel their outward presence, judging their power based off of that. With Fellia dead, the doors opened. The mana inside her core was visible just like my own. I felt like I could have drawn mana if I wanted to. In fact, I sensed four orbs inside, thicker concentrations of mana. Their presence induced a feeling I'd never felt. An intuitive desire to draw mana from the foreign core. Each orb felt like a hook I could latch onto.

These were core upgrades. Three of them were crimson, all different sizes. The first one must have been her level one crimson core. The second was the level two core upgrade, and the largest one I presumed could only be the level three upgrade. The fourth orb… it was white. I wasn't sure what it was. It sat above the three crimson ones, like some dim flower that hadn't yet sprouted. The books warned me that grabbing random core upgrades could be deadly.

They'd also warned me that even regular core upgrades required caution and planning. But it wasn't like I had time for decisions and preparations. Vora's instincts told me to take it. Fellia was one of the vilest people in the city, and Vora was sure of that. I wasn't so sure. This was now my second time killing someone I didn't want to. I couldn't just use the excuse of an accident to kill someone.

If I were to kill someone for their core upgrade, I wanted to make the world a better place by removing a tyrant from a position of power. She enjoyed hunting me, I thought. She deliberately tried to make me afraid. She grinned when she attacked Rend, and she has a reputation for being a murderous mage. It wasn't just Vora who feared Fellia. The general consensus in Asterra was that Fellia was a mage to be feared for all the wrong reasons. Fuck it.

I drew mana, not from my own core, but from Fellia's, as I latched onto the level two core upgrade. A sharp wave of pain hit me. The impact hit my mana core immediately. The orb transferred from her large core to my small one, forcing itself into a space where it didn't fit. The pressure pushed confines of my mana core, stretching it by force, and with that came pain that reached my physical body, as if my organs were being ripped apart.

I collapsed on the ground, unable to move, very close to screaming out in pain. Was this normal? The books had warned that even a successful core upgrade was a dangerous process. I crawled through the pain, fully aware that more mage officers were still out there. If their senses weren't completely crippled, they'd feel what was going on. Any second now, I could be captured or killed, or even just murdered by a random magical beast. My core didn't let me draw mana at all.

I felt like I was in a supercar with the throttle stuck to the floor. I had no control over anything at all that happened. My core kept expanding, and the pain increased. Something explosive resounded behind me. My sixth sense was clouded by the insanity happening in my own core, but with some effort, I focused my sense past that. The tunnel above was being blasted with magic; so many spells that I could hardly differentiate them. There were at least five mana cores with barriers and mental protection up.

Amongst them, was Tonir's presence. He fought with two allies against mage officers. He was on the losing side, being overpowered. His presence descended, approaching me. By now, he should have sensed my presence from the violent core upgrade taking place. He ran down. He spotted me, pausing in surprise for just a moment, before he quickly turned to Fellia's body.

"Protect me!" he shouted, and my brother reached for Fellia's third core upgrade without a second thought. Greedy dumbass! I screamed in my head. Not because he'd stolen my upgrade—I would be on my way to getting captured if he hadn't arrived—but because the attackers were rapidly approaching. Tonir screamed just as I did, collapsing on the ground. He had just locked himself out of defending us. Two cloaked gang members held the choke point.

One of them was Norin, still somehow alive, and the second one was the slime from Rend's team who'd assaulted Vaela. Norin was a watchman, barely proficient in combat, and the slime wasn't much stronger. They were weak enough that the pursuing mage officer walked through their Mana Darts, tanking the attacks with just his Mana Barrier. The officer held out his palm, fingers wide, and a cloud of mana enveloped Norin. The officer clenched his fist, and his mana solidified, pushing pressure on Norin's Mana Shield.

His physical barrier cracked to pieces. Then his shoulders squished inward, bones cracking from pressure, and he collapsed unconscious. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. My body still burned like hell, but it had calmed enough that I could force myself up to my knees. I grabbed the fallen mask and snuck it straight back. I then pushed with my arms, one foot firmly on the ground, then the second.

I stood, and spotted the face of the officer attacking us with a composed, deadly expression. Vora's father. Tonir groaned in pain, forcing himself to his feet. His mana core was a mess.

"Defend!" he ordered. The slime fired a weak Arcane Discharge at my father's shield, which covered his face. That snapped me out of the shock. I tried to draw mana, but that was still impossible. My core was nearly empty regardless. The confines had increased by taking a core upgrade, but not my reserves. Tonir held my shoulder and said, "Run." With an unstable step, he wobbled forward. The next one was faster, but he still had to hold onto the wall for balance.

The slime was all that defended us as Tonir abandoned the hideout, running into the cavern. I tried to cast mana once more, finding it impossible. There was nothing I could do to help, short of revealing my face to induce shock in my father. If Erden was the one under attack, I would have done it in a heartbeat, but I wasn't about to get myself captured to help a stranger who just molested a young girl minutes prior. Forcing my muscles to move, I threw my leg forward. The first few steps hurt like hell.

The third was easier, and I realized my calves weren't actually exhausted yet. I hadn't sprinted for that long. It was only my mana core that had caused all of that pain, and it hadn't affected my pain levels. My ability to run was still there. The caverns were utterly unfamiliar. I'd never been here, and I couldn't guess what would come next. I didn't care though and ran for my life in whichever direction I could. The blue glowing flowers gave me just enough light to see where to step. A crossroad came.

I tried to sense which direction Tonir had taken, but his presence had already disappeared. Through gritted teeth, I picked left and kept running. Tonir just abandoned his crew, I noted. So did I, but Vora's brother did it deliberately. He would have very well had the ability to fight, perhaps defeat our father, but he grabbed the level three core upgrade instead. That locked his use of mana. I kept running with the image of Vora's dad attacking us clear in my mind.

I'd had my mask on, but my grey woolen coat was the same as I'd left the house with. My dad could have easily recognized the outfit and my body shape. Fellia's death would most definitely complicate things. I clutched my satchel and kept running. Survival was the immediate worry. I kept my senses open to feel the way ahead; hoping to avoid a dead end and get warnings of magical beasts ahead of time. It didn't take five seconds for one of those to appear. A bright, twirling mana core of a beast in the dungeon.

There were no detours. Fuck. I sped up the pace, sprinting at max speed into the cavern. From the side of my eye, I saw a blue insect-like creature glowing with its claws held defensively, protecting what looked like the corpse of another beast. An enimus mantis I guessed. I didn't pay it a second glance and sprinted past it with the hopes and prayers of a man with literally no resources for any intelligent options. If my mana core didn't allow me to cast again soon, I could very well die here.

I entered another tunnel, when I felt a massive cavern ahead. The ambient mana reached far into the sky, opening into a much larger space, the size of the library. And just like in the library, magical presences filled the space, from more mana cores of enimus beasts to thick vegetation. I ran in, and my breath caught from the sight. A massive, wide-open underground forest. The ceiling reached at least a few hundred feet.

The trees weren't tall or imposing—closer to saplings, with each leaf breathing in ambient mana from the air. That spread the sparkling blue glow all around the forest. A color that I immediately found much more beautiful than the green of earthly forests. Pretty as it was, everything was unfamiliar, and I had no idea what could kill me here. Running in would be stupid. I didn't have much of an option with mage officers after me.

The forest would give me a chance to live, while the mage officers behind me would carve my new level two core out of me. The dungeon gets more dangerous the deeper you go, I thought. What was the sweet spot? How deep did I need to run to escape officers, without getting killed by magical beasts? I took the most open path past trees, avoiding any thickets or bushes, when the answer came right in front of me. I was already too deep. An abnormal amount of mana gathered around one of the thicker trees ahead of me.

I sensed a mana core near it, assuming that a monster was behind the tree, until a branch of the tree itself turned, pointing at me. The branch was cut in half with something blue glowing inside it. Patterns. A small ritual circle. The tree fired its attack, and a blue burst of arcane magic fired out like a missile from a ballista. I jumped out of the way. A small clump of papers fell out from my satchel, but I had no time to catch what I'd lost. The fucking trees here fired magic!

It fired the same attack again and missed. If I saw right, the tree had a ritual ring inside the branch. Pushing mana into that fired a spell. I hoped and assumed that the tree wouldn't be intelligent enough to form more patterns inside its core. I ran further, only to feel mana gathering on two more trees ahead of me. Goddammit, there were more. Looking around for cover, I spotted a piece of ground jutting out, forming a boulder-like wall, and ran there.

The beams of arcane magic crashed against it with the sound of sizzling hot oil burning in a pan. Where can I find a safe spot? I wondered. Probably nowhere. I feared I'd need to create safety myself. That wouldn't be good for a mage whose mana core currently wasn't working. I needed to somehow find a different way up and escape into the city, away from the lower levels of the dungeon.

I stood behind the boulder for a good ten seconds, thinking, for that to be interrupted by another magical presence running at me from ahead. I caught a glimpse of the pack of enimus wolves charging me. My heart dropped. Their fur was pitch black with their eyes leaving behind a trail of mana, teeth magically enhanced. They ran far faster than I could outrun. I knew I'd get caught in seconds even if I ran at full speed, but that logic was overpowered by the final desperate push of adrenaline.

I bolted to my feet, back into the trees' line of sight. The wolves chased, their cores closing the gap three times faster than I could run. I was dead. This was the extent of my ten years of practice. Dead to some goddamned wolves. I screamed incomprehensibly and drove all of my attention to my mana core. Mana still thrashed wildly and uncontrollably inside, refusing to cooperate normally. I pulled with all of my force, exerting everything I had just to pull some mana out of the stream.

I drew the pattern for a desperate bluff: Void Monster. A tiny amount of mana found the spell, the rest slipping back into the uncontrollable chaos that was my core. Dark void-like mana formed an aura around me, causing the wolves to pause for a second. The trees definitely didn't pause. I ran aimlessly in search of the next cover, and the only thing that kept me alive was the trees' terrible aim. My Void Monster ran out of mana already, and the wolves kept chasing.

Two boulders next to each other led the way to the next tunnel. I bolted there, jumping to avoid a javeling hitting my feet. One more attack landed behind me, I ran into the foliage at the start of the tunnel. The ground under my step cracked like twigs, and my foot dipped into the ground. The rest of my body followed as I fell into a hole, hidden with leaves and twigs. The momentum of my run sent me crashing against the wall.

I tumbled uncontrollably, until I crashed againt the bottom, just barely getting my hands down in time to avoid hitting my head. My view was black for a moment, before the sight of my snapped left arm connected me to new pains almost as bad as the core upgrade itself. The world spun. The wolves didn't jump down. Their presences gathered up there, poking their snouts down and snarling. I coughed a laugh. Did I just get saved by a trap? My arms didn't move. At least a few ribs were broken.

I clung to my consciousness by sheer willpower. If I closed my eyes, I was fairly sure I would pass out. That would most likely lead to death. If I was lucky, the mage officers would catch up and save me. I lay still, fighting my body's desire to pass out. Maybe I could cast magic again, however long that took. Crimson cores couldn't cast healing magic, but maybe I could attach a stick to my wrists for a makeshift fix for a fracture. I had a few rations in my satchel. It didn't come to that.

To my left, a ward disappeared. The illusion of a stone wall disappeared, and a metal bar faced me instead. A figure was there. Not a human. Its skin was dark with the texture of tree bark. My vision spun too much to see further details. He frowned at me.

"An odd shape for a meal today, huh."