Chapter Six, EXPLOSION! Cold Heart.

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  They had been on countless dives before. From clearing F-rank Dungeon Mobrooms, to fledgling E-rank and even real D-rank Dungeons.

  They had even ran through a low C-rank dungeon, avoiding the boss but still farming within it.

  And they had never been so endangered.

  They had never been so close to death.

  She glanced towards Ryan, his body strung in the air and seemingly lifeless. Lucas continued to protect her, tanking the [Thread Spears] that consistently rained down on his shield before he could get any real break. Arjae had rolled away from their actual foe, Clara taking his place in the clash.

  She was the only one not doing anything impactful. Sure, she fed buffs to Lucas, but that was only for the sake of keeping her protected.

  He could be in the front, assisting their damage dealers, lightening their load.

  But he was stuck guarding her.

  Like always.

  Tears fell from her eyes, her focus glancing towards her mana pool for just a brief second.

  "Water, abide by my commands..." She murmured, "Condense. Solidify. Sharpen." With each word, the water within the air bent to her will. Mana flowed from her raised palms, proliferating into the air, guiding, and controlling the ambient magic.

  "Hasten. Strengthen...World, destroy my foe. [WATER SPEAR]!" A beam of liquid stabbed through the Orbweavers abdomen, exiting out the other side.

  It skidded past Clara's head, cutting a piece of her hair off.

  Jess dropped to the ground, her body pale, sweat exiting every pore. Blood leaked from her nose, her eyes hanging low enough to nearly close. She couldn't see, but that didn't matter.

  She could hear.

  Luke screamed her name. The [Thread Spears] seemed to stop. Clara let out a gasp. There was a gushing noise, the familiar one of a sword digging deep into flesh.

  "[EXPLOSION]!" -was the last thing she heard, before she succumbed to the darkness of the world.

  And the chime of a screen.

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  A massive [Water Spear] cut through the Orbweaver, the groups eyes all widening in shock.

  For a moment, the Boss faltered, the endless [Thread Warping] ceasing, while it groaned in pain. Clara ignored the cut on her face, continuing to battle the spindly legs for the split second.

  And then... She noticed someone behind the spider.

  Arjae was in stride, his sword glowing orange, indecipherable words escaping his lips.

  And then he rose, leaping into the air, sword above his head.

  Clara slashed her dagger at the Orbweaver, the low D-rank weapon shattering from the force.

  She only had one blade left, but a smile crept onto her face.

  For she wouldn't need it any longer.

  "[EXPLOSION]!"

  Arjae's sword dug deep into the Orbweavers spindle, jamming it's [Thread Warping] and causing massive damage.

  The internal explosion was a massive bonus.

  BOOM!

  Both Arjae and Clara were blown away, the entire back half of the Orbweaver having exploded into a shower of blue rain.

  It's head, and the three remaining front legs it had, tumbled onto the ground.

  Silence filled the room.

  Blood dripped from Arjae's nose, having poured nearly all of his mana into the attack upon seeing the massive damage Jess did.

  Clara laid sprawled out on the ground, her chest heaving up and down.

  Luke kneeled over Jess, the wear and tear on his physical clearly noticeable.

  "Ryan!" Arjae blasted to his feet, fighting the exhaustion. He ran past the Boss's corpse, ignoring his cracked sword and sliding towards his comrade.

  His friend.

  Ryan was strewn on the ground, his face covered in silk webbing, his body lying motionlessly.

  Hurriedly, Arjae gripped at the strings, ripped them away and carving a way towards Ryan's face.

  And there he saw it.

  Arjae’s jaw hung agape. Tears started to fall. Frustration. Sadness. Disappointment. Regret.

  A lifeless corpse was all that stared back.

  The color drained from both Ryan’s face and his eyes.

  Seventeen years spent in this world, and that was all.

  Cries came from all those conscious, Clara stumbling towards the two men, snot dripping from her nose.

  ”No no, no Arjae. Please. Help him! You know magic I’m begging there has to be something!” Clara’s exhausted body collided with Arjae’s back, her fists gripping at his leather.

  “Ry-Ryan?” Luke came stumbling over, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

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  Arjae wiped his tears, brushing Clara off of his back and standing up.

  He ignored all his surroundings, letting his friends mourn the one they had lost.

  He would do that himself once they had gotten out of here.

  Ryan was a year younger than he and Luke, and a year older than Jess.

  Clara was assigned to their party by his father, she was a family friend that he had grown up around.

  In all, considering that all of them minus Clara had attended classes together, horse played in the town… They had even become the rising stars of the settlement! Like they had always dreamed!

  Considering that…

  Arjae’s heart faltered once more, wiping his face as he knelt down over Jess.

  Considering all of that. This was a massive loss.

  Not just to him and the group. But to the entire town. Perhaps most of all, it would weigh on Jess.

  ”I hope she continues after this… Her talent is too… I can’t let it go to waste. He would want her to continue… There’s not many that can endlessly chant and just… increase their output like that.” He lamented.

  A hand caressed her cheek. A tear dripped down her face. Not her own, but his.

  ”Fuck fuck! Come on, pull yourself together!” He slapped his cheeks.

  With resolution, he lifted Jess onto his shoulder, carefully handling her as he didn’t fail to notice the pained expression on her face.

  If she wasn’t [Blessed by Mana] her heart would have surely exploded from that spell of course.

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  Jora followed the trail of battle, his eyes scanning each and every point of damage to the surroundings.

  Scorch marks, frozen shards, stoned cleaved through, holes in the ground.

  The countless silk threads. This party had been forced into a retreat, barely surviving it seemed.

  And then, the signs of battle slowly started to dwindle.

  No more fire.

  No more craters.

  No more slashes.

  Just threads, and ice.

  A small bit of confusion grew on his face.

  “They left their comrade?” He had taken note of the countless branching pathways. Each tunnel had them. Dead ends, splitting routes, secret holes.

  ”Or maybe it was lured away…” At that thought, he started to slow.

  He was approaching an anomaly, something he hadn’t encountered yet.

  His steps slowed to a walk.

  And then to a standstill.

  His hand reached out towards the cold formation.

  ”A wall of ice…” His fingers grazed the freezing wall. He could see the dimly lit room past it. A clearing.

  More importantly, he could see a body.

  "[Stab]." His hand poked through the wall like it was paper.

  Obviously it wasn't, and as a result, the attack hurt him slightly, but that was no bother.

  With a whole poked through, he peered in.

  It was a dead body.

  A dead body that was stabbed through the mouth, blood pooled around its head.

  And it's hands were frozen in ice.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  He kicked and punched at the wall, sending shards of ice flying as a gap large enough for him to crouch through was finally made.

  He stepped into the room, glancing around.

  There were ice formations all about, each of them having melted a great deal. As a result, the floor was rather wet.

  Noticeably...

  "You aren't here..." Jora muttered. His target was nowhere to be found, only traces of its silk left behind.

  He noticed the threads wrapped around the corpses feet, it seemed that the spider tripped up it's opponent and took that moment to attack.

  "Smarter than the Jumpers for sure..." He noted, stepping forward and approaching the body.

  It smelled, dead, but still tasteful.

  "[Devour]. [Integrate]."

  The surging memories knocked his head back, his mind hazing for just a moment.

  And then he was back, quickly of course.

  [[Household Magic] Level MAX: Manipulate mana to do simple tasks with the utmost ease. From pure drinking water, to sweeping the floors, even perhaps lighting a small flame.

  [[Novice Ice Magic] Level 4: Turn mana into ice, manipulating and controlling it on a low level. Allows casting of Basic Ice Magic, Novice Spells.

  Information burst into his mind with the acquisition of both the skills. Countless recollections of the spells that Boreus Dimitriou knew how to cast with these two magics.

  From the memories that he had consumed, he could tell that having [Household Magic] maxed out was far less common than even having water magic. Plus it was simple enough that he figured he could easily retain all skill levels.

  Thankfully his intuition was correct.

  Unfortunately, due to his lacking of the [Cold Heart] skill, he wasn't able to gain any more levels or spells from his ice magic. Only a few, but worthwhile ones. He figured he would be able to advance the skill himself anyway.

  Another unfortunate thing was that he was still limited to only two skills per integration... He would have loved to obtain [Quick Cast] upon understanding how magic really worked...

  The voice was used to ease the process of connecting with the elements within the air, imposing ones will onto the world, and communing with mana. Without [Quick Cast], powerful spells were harder to cast quickly, since they would require a deeper connection with the world.

  The world wasn't willing to intermingle with a persons mana unless they proved their worth, therefore more mana was required to be emitted into the surroundings, to entertain and entrance the will of the earths mana.

  Only the most powerful of the powerful could rely on themselves. Mana was very finite, and very hard to control.

  Skills did ease that process however.

  Jora glanced up towards the only exit out of this place, considering the spider couldn't have gone anywhere else...

  "I hope I can track you through this one still." He murmured, stepping through the puddle of blood and entering the dark tunnel before him.

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