"Let us begin"
KASPIAN BLADEHEART POV
As soon as those words left my mouth, I had accelerated at full speed towards Note. I couldn't feel his core, so I knew he was most likely more powerful than me. Not a reason not to try my best
I started off with a flurry of slashes to determine my opponent's strength. He blocked my attacks effortlessly, slashing back with inhuman precision. After the swift trade of slashes, I prepared numerous wind spheres that would annoy my opponent and put him off balance by regulating the currents of wind around him to my favor. This seemed to partly work because his slashes got a little slower.
Note suddenly backed off.
Cracking his knuckles, he exclaimed, "Good warmup, hope you're ready."
Warmup? Heh, what he called a warmup was the equivalent of a very tough fight for me.
Black lightning suddenly enveloped him, and various ice spears appeared next to him. He stomped on the ground created a dome of water around us, flooding the dome with water until about 25 centimeters. Vortexes appeared all around this surface, strong enough to easily put me off balance.
Two elemental affinities, and deviant in both. What a monster.
It was checkmate. But I want to see what else he's got.
I made a dome of wind around myself that would hopefully be powerful enough to push all the water away from my feet. Being able to walk on solid ground without water obstructing my movement is vital, even if it takes a lot of mana. Note had done something similar, only difference was that he was using water magic to do so.
I swiftly approached, using wind updrafts to keep my movements nimble while trading sword blows. I had quickly learned that I was better off dodging, because his sword swings had too much sheer power behind them.
The only reason why I was able to keep dodging was because Note wasn't even close to actually trying. He had set just the right amount of speed for me to be able to dodge.
Various thoughts raced in my head, strategies I could use to at least mildly annoy him.
I started expending all my mana firing wind blades at his legs and into the path of his blade. This seemed to annoy him a little, but he just sped up.
"I give up. I'm all out of mana. I will gran-"
"A rank will be enough."
"Alright" I nodded
I turned to the crowd "Note - rank A adventurer"
ARTHUR POV
That was a fun fight.
Just before disappearing into the passageway he had come from, Kaspian turned his head and looked me in the eye, one of the lenses on his glasses cracked. "This was informative. Thank you for the fight."
I merely nodded my head, watching him walk out of sight down the dark corridor.
"That was the last examination for today! Please go to the front desk to receive your adventurer's card. Everyone is dismissed!" the augmenter examiner shouted out as he and the other examiner both rushed after their boss.
I returned back to Jasmine, and together we left the guild hall.
a few hours later
After me and Jasmine had gotten to the camp, it was very late at night, so she went to sleep. By this point, I had grown about 150 centimeters tall, my skin still very pale, almost white and hair very slightly wheat colored. I also rarely needed sleep, only every few days for a couple hours was enough now.
I started meditating. White core was close, I could feel it.
About ten minutes after starting the meditation, I felt a surge of energy and power all throughout my body. Afterwards, I passed out.
"Good morning"
I woke up, opened my eyes and saw it is daytime already. Was I seriously passed out for so long?
I immediately looked inwards, and what I saw was a bright white core, without flaw, burning like a small sun. I felt much physically stronger, as if before I had tapped into just a small amount of potential of this body. My mana capacity improved at least tenfold, while my control was unparalleled.
I chuckled when I noticed my mana core immediately started to purify itself, as if still trying to go further - to the stage beyond white core that Sylvia told me about.
"Good morning! You should've woken me up, Jasmine. There's no need for you to do all of the chores on your own."
"...I tried waking you up... You wouldn't budge." Her half-closed eyes that give off an apathetic stare regarded me with concern. "If I didn't hear you breathing, I would've mistaken you for a corpse."
"Haha..." I let out an awkward chuckle. "I'm sorry, I really need to fix that."
After devouring the grilled fish for breakfast, we put out the fire. Using the nearby stream to wash myself and my clothes, I put on my mask and swords, assuming we'd go hunting for some mana beasts around the area, when Jasmine stopped me.
"Your opponent for these few days will be me."
"Huh?" I couldn't help but be surprised at the turn of events. We came all the way here to spar?
"This area is close to the dungeon we will be exploring, but for these days, I want you to focus on fighting me. I noticed that your fighting style seems... awkward at times. Like, you know it in your head, but your body doesn't listen to you... or something like that."
My body is more powerful than ever, but I'm still not used to being almost 40 cm shorter than I was in my old world.
Unsheathing her two daggers, she pointed one at me, continuing, "We won't use any kind of mana for these next few days while sparring."
"Good idea," I replied, unsheathing my shortsword.
"Use your other sword..." Jasmine's eyes flickered toward Dawn's Ballad.
"How did you know this was a sword?" I wasn't planning on hiding my weapon from her but I was still caught off guard.
"Knowing you, that black stick should be something more than just a cane or a practice stick," she shrugged, walking a few steps closer to me.
Giving her a confirming nod, I tossed the shortsword near the campfire.
As the sword soundlessly glided out from its scabbard, the translucent blade glowed a light teal as it reflected the sun's strong rays.
Holding it out in front me, I positioned myself. "Ready when you are."
"Y-Yeah," Jasmine stuttered as her eyes remained glued to Dawn's Ballad.
two years later
"We're here," Jasmine announced, snapping me out of my thoughts. At her signal, the two of us brought our horses to a slow trot into a small clearing in the woods.
The clearing that was surrounded by tall trees, and where the dungeon entrance was located, was littered with a group of adventurers clearing their camp, some checking their weapons as they got ready to go in.
"I guess we're stuck with more augmenters," an all-too-familiar voice rang as he clicked his tongue. Getting off of my mount, I made my way towards the group of adventurers when the blond fire conjurer from the examination site shot me a distasteful look. Jasmine followed behind me as an armored augmenter stepped forth and held out his hand in front of him, gesturing for a shake.
"Please don't mind Lucas and let me introduce you to the party. My name is Reginald Brooks, and I'm an A-class augmenter. I am an earth attribute yellow stage core that specializes in using a hammer." He pointed at the giant war hammer lying on the ground where the group stood.
After the augmenters introduced themselves, the conjurers stepped up. Including Lucas, there were four other conjurers. One of them was a lanky man and the other, a girl, while the last one was the serious-looking, bespectacled black-haired boy that I had seen at the examination site.
"My name is Elijah Knight. A-class, dark orange stage conjurer... single specialization in Earth," he said tersely.
I couldn't help but eye him carefully. There had to be more than that. He wouldn't be able to get by with skipping the exam and being placed into B rank by just being an earth conjurer, no matter how young he was.
The beady-eyed lanky man that looked well into his thirties came forth next. He had a smug look on his face despite his less than attractive appearance, with his crooked nose and greasy brown hair parted down the middle. "Ahem! I go by Oliver and I am an A-class, dark yellow stage conjurer. I am an emitter deviant, specializing in healing." He stuck his jaw out smugly as he crossed his arms in content.
Despite his attitude, it was reassuring to have a healer in the party.
"Hi! My name is Samantha but you guys can just call me Sammy! Dark yellow stage, A-class conjurer with a single specialization in water at your service!" She threw in a wink in my direction. Samantha looked to be around her mid-twenties and was an attractive woman but by her attitude, I'm sure she was aware.
"Jasmine, light-yellow stage, AA-class augmenter. Wind attribute with dual swords," my partner said without batting an eye.
"Note, solid silver stage, AA-class augmenter. Water and fire deviant, and a swordsman" I added impatiently.
Brald smiled at us, "Welcome, you two! I'm certainly glad to have another two AA classes in the group!" The other two augmenters nodded in agreement while Oliver and Lucas's apathetic faces showed they didn't care.
inside the dungeon
First, we ran into a huge worm, that I proceeded to skewer into the cavern wall with some huge ice spikes.
We had reached a beautiful meadow, with fields of grass glowing like polished emeralds.
"Wow! It's so pretty!" Samantha gasped, her head constantly turning to take in the view.
"Something's off. I feel something powerful. Keep your guards up, everyone." I remained vigilant with my shortsword out and my left hand on the grip of Dawn's Ballad, which was still sheathed.
A large amount of mist started congregating in front of us, when I heard
"Clara? Is that you? H-How are you alive?"
I whipped my head to the direction of the voice in time to see that Kriol had dropped his gigantic shield and was holding his arms out, reaching desperately at something in the distance.
"I knew you couldn't be dead, Clara! Stay there! I'm coming to get you!" Kriol bolted off, leaving his shield behind him.
"Damn it, Kriol! Stop, it's dangerous!" I cursed, trying to warn him, but his figure faded out of sight within the ever-growing layer of fog.
All of a sudden, something grabbed ahold of my arm and jerked me.
"I think the mist is an illusion." I heard Jasmine's voice right next to me, but even with how close she was, it was becoming hard to make out details inside the haze.
"I thought so too." I clicked my tongue in frustration. "Everyone! Stick together! This mist is playing tricks on your senses. Samantha, barrier!"
Eventually, they were able to gather, using the sound of my voice as their destination. Huddling together, we discussed our plans for clearing through this cavern inside a sphere of water.
"Who's Clara?" Samantha asked, confusion evident on her face.
Reginald shook his head. "It...It's Kriol's fiancée. But it's impossible for her to be alive. I saw her get killed in a dungeon with my own two eyes. We even cremated and buried her ashes together!"
I tried to use water magic to condense the mist into water, but it seemed it wasn't water vapor.
"Jasmine, conjure up a blast strong enough to blow away the mist."
"I can make a path" She responded
"That's fine, do what you can."
"Clear my enemies from my path with an ever-raging howl," Jasmine chanted, struggling to keep the frenzied wind in tow.
[Storm's Gale]
The condensed whirlwinds swirling around Jasmine's arms collided as she clapped her hands together. The impact of the two tornadoes expanded and burst forward, shredding the mist into a clear path in front of us.
However, the once excited looks on everyone's faces turned pale at the sight before us. The tornado revealed a path, but also uncovered something else.
Tentacles of vines and branches were quickly making their way towards us.
I immediately cast a quick spreading fire spell upon the vines, which started quickly burning. The creature who was emitting these vines cut off the burning vines from the pack, so it stopped the burning. That is a evidence of high intelligence.
[Aqua Siphon]
Samantha fell to her knees as she released the powerful spell.
Aqua Siphon was a frightening spell that sucked the surrounding area of its water. The only drawback of this spell was the amount of mana it used for the limited amount of space it could affect.
The rampant vines that were crawling out of the crater Elijah had conjured began withering at a rapid pace as the moisture was sucked out from them.
"N-No way..." Samantha's face drained of color as she slumped in resignation.
The positive, however, was that the mist that had surrounded us was being absorbed into the huge wave of vines, clearing our limited view.
As the vines continued to hungrily consume the mist, we were all finally able to see what exactly it was we had been going up against.
Standing more than twenty meters tall, high above our heads was a colossal mana beast. With a humanoid structure that oddly resembled a centaur, it towered over us like a massive building.
While it seemed to be made up completely of densely packed and intertwined vines, the top half of its body was that of an armored man holding a drill-like lance that came to a menacing point just over our heads. Its lower body was that of a horse, but rather than legs, its limbs consisted of the countless vines we had been battling against. Two green eyes peered down at us, filled with unbridled enmity.
I swallowed hard, staring mindlessly up at the imposing figure. For the last hour, the seven of us had been literally battling against the toes of this mana beast.
"I-I've read about a monster that looked something like this," Samantha stuttered in horror, sinking to her knees in complete resignation. "I think th-that's an S class mana beast called the e-elderwood guardian!"
"We have to run." Jasmine yanked my hand, gesturing me to run back in the direction of the doors we had come from.
"No we don't. I can take that thing down, while you run."
Suddenly, the elderwood guardian thrusted his giant drill lance at us, creating a gale of wind just from its movement.
"Watch"
I shot off towards the drill lance at inhuman speeds. literally
"No! Ar-Note!" screamed Jasmine
"The idiot decided to sacrifice himself for us! run while you can, cause I won't wait for you!" scoffed Lucas
"Note.." said Samantha quietly
I then let out a whisper
"Phase Two, Dragon's Awakening"