FOUR FIGURE STOOD in front of the entrance of a shady burrow. They were all dressed in a well-prepared battle posture. On the left was a burly figure over two metres tall and a spear of similar length stood on his shoulder. On his right was a slender figure contrasting to him—she was only about five feet, and had a beautiful wand in her arms. Next to her was another female figure with red hair and freckles on her face. Her expression was rather enthusiastic than the others. She was holding a wand too. And at last on the right was an Archer, holding a bow of medium size. On his back were all the arrows. His posture and expression showed his nervousness and excitement at the same time.
"Anybody has any second thoughts regarding this?" Michelle asked, looking at the other three of the party.
"Not in the slightest," Jacob confirmed, but his voice sounded a bit pressed.
It's been a week since the Phase-I of the Trial concluded. They all had grown considerably. Especially Jacob, with his innate talent in archery, he skipped many levels in archery, mastered the basics, even learned some of the complicated skills that were difficult for a novice. On the other hand, Kevin was silent as on the first day Byul had known him. He wasn't involved in most of the conversation, but he listened to almost everything. Sometimes he opened his mouth to indicate something he found disorganised or something he could not perceive.
"Let's leave then."
"Here goes nothing." surprisingly, Jacob was the first one that jumped into the burrow.
They all followed, leapt into the lair; it's been over a week they had found this entrance. And after examining a couple of days, they learned that it's the source of all the Infectors in this region. They never tried to think about venturing in this place in the first phase, well, apart from Michelle. But now their circumstances were better. They were in better conditions than the time they first came at the Trial. Not only were most of their injuries healed, they even progressed by leaps in Mahasaying. Not mentioning the growth in their attributes.
A notification greeted them the instant they landed on the lair as they exchanged glances at each other.
[You have entered the Infectors Nest.]
That was not all. The next message caught them a bit off-guard.
[You have triggered the main quest of the Trial, Phase-II]
[Main quest: Clear out the Infectors from the Infectors Nest.
The Infectors' Nest was the primary source of all the infectors in the Trail. You have taken the first step in locating the underground lair. Now the only thing left is to clean this lair out. Beware, there are more than a thousand Infectors here.
Rewards: Omega credits according to contribution to the mission's completion.
Omega points after the conclusion of the mission.
???]
"Now I'm excited," Jacob said.
"Aren't you overconfident?" Michelle, next to him, watered his expectations. "Haven't you read there are over a thousand Infectors here?"
Jacob's face sunk. He muttered. "It's not like they would all attack us together."
Byul couldn't help but smile a bit at hearing the two of them. She looked around, there's not much light here and the deeper they would go, the less light there would be. Well, the light was not the only problem. Their primary task was to clean up the Infectors here that were corrupting this region. And over a thousand infectors at that. It's going to be a tough job for anyone in the trial and would take days, if not weeks.
They advanced with enthusiasm and caution inside the lair. As she had expected earlier, the further they moved, the darkness strangled the further. Michelle brought out her blue lime lamp that helped considerably. Now they were quite adept in Mana sense, though it didn't allow them to see in the dark, sensing any movement or motions in the surrounding was child's play.
"Why are there no infectors here?" Jacob complained. The Archer seemed cocky after gaining a bit of confidence in himself.
"Someone is excited to show his strength," Michelle mused. "Wait a bit more, I think we'll encounter some soon."
As they continued, they did hear some growl—echoing in the tunnel. They all stood by on their advances and exchanged glances.
"Speak of the devil," Michelle readied her wand and asked Jacob. "Can you detect them?"
Jacob didn't respond, closed his eyes. His innate talent lets him detect anything within a few hundred metres of distances but he had to focus a lot; moreover, he was not well adept in it, thus it takes a lot more time.
After a good minute, Jacob replied, "Five, no at least six at three o'clock." He opened his eyes and continued pulling out an arrow from his shoulder. "They're advancing towards us."
"I can guess that," Michelle said.
Yes, the increasing pitch of its growl gave it away. Byul gripped the wand tight. She was excited too. She wanted to see how much progress she had made over the week.
"Then, let me show you a few things," Jacob said, as he started to pull the string of the bow, aiming at where the growls were coming from. That was not all, the arrow gleamed in light in the steelhead.
"Imbue?" Michelle mused. "It seems your progress isn't any less."
Imbue is a fundamental skill of archery. With this, the Archer can imbue mana to an arrow, making it sharper and colder with extra piercing power. Even though Jacob was not a master at imbuing, he's doing more than decent for a guy who picked up the bow only for a week.
They could finally see the ugly face of the horrible creatures as they rushed towards them from the right. It screeched in madness as it detected them.
"I still have a long way to go," Jacob released the string of his bow and arrow shot like a bullet. The head was still glowing as it pierced the growling mouth of an infector, making it quiet.
"Nice shot," Michelle praised as a ball of blazing flame appeared in her left arm. It was scarlet flame, burning with intensity. She flung the fireball towards its other companion that wasn't any less annoying. And the result wasn't any less satisfying than the arrow.
While Jacob didn't rest after finishing only one, he shot another, but this time a bit off shot, hitting it at the chest. It fell down to the ground while the other advanced towards them. Byul prepared her well known Wind Blade. Now it's sharper than before as her mana discharge progress by a level. She didn't bother with the acceleration circle, as the infector was quite close, barely a few metres away. With one shot, she severed its head from its neck.
Byul nodded as she looked at the new wand. While she glanced at the other to see that Jacob and Michelle already finished the other ones. But the whole time, Kevin just stood there, watching the whole process.
"That went quite easily," Jacob said in astonishment, collecting his arrows from the dead bodies of the Infectors. He couldn't believe the fact that he could easily finish an Infector. Barely a couple of weeks ago, he was at death's door against an Infector.
"This is how it should have been," Michelle said. "Let's continue then, we got a lot of infectors to kill."
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