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As if the ever-increasing earthquake were not enough, a message appeared directly in Avan's field of vision that made him click his tongue in annoyance.
[System quest initalized!]
Prevent the infection of the Miasma on the continent of Eos!
A group of beastmen were seen carrying a container of unknown origin with a dangerous aura to the center of the battlefield of the true vampire and the true dragon. This container sprays a baleful mana against all natural order and is in the process of corrupting the residual energy signatures of the true vampire and the true dragon!
Prevent this at all costs, otherwise Eos will be lost as it is known today.
Reward: 1 soul level
Optional Reward: The Legacy of the True Vampire Xavier & the True Dragon Draul
- Non-shareable -
"Oh fuck you guys..." He groaned, shaking his head, as he read the cliche message to save the world, or continent, in front of him.
"What?!" Jen whispered to him from the side, while Dani and Patris also asked him the same thing almost at the same time.
Avan, who was scratching the back of his head and letting out a loud gasp, looked over at the assembled beastmen again. "I just got a system quest, not shareable, and it's exactly about these guys up there who are doing this dangerous looking ritual right now."
[Lionman - 171]
[Lionman - 156]
[Cat Man - 154]
[Lizard Man - 148]
[Bear Woman - 148]
Of course, Avan had long since identified the five people on the hill and had ruled them out as a danger for the time being, but he didn't know what to do with the goose bumps that came over him at the sight of the miasma-tried sphere.
*Wherever it comes from, it's not something these people should have in the level area, that's for sure. And the concentration of this weird mana is so huge that I'm not sure if I could trump it with celestial mana or if it would corrupt me myself afterwards.* And turning to the others. "Those five seem to be performing a ritual that could lead to the corruption of the whole continent, if not stopped. That's basically what the system quest says." He finished his explanation with a sigh. Why exactly the appearance of this system quest bothered him so much, Avan didn't really know how to put it. But it did leave a bad taste in his mouth when he was given the task of saving an entire continent without having a choice. And then to have to live with the failure or rejection of this quest.
"Shit!" Came from the only other male besides Avan in the group. "This is fucked up! Can we do this?! Because it doesn't at all look like we have time to get the commander, or reinforcements in general."
And as if Patris had tempted fate, the first crystal formations on the right shattered further away from the group and a small earth fissure swallowed everything in place only a few seconds later.
The earthquake seemed to have reached its peak and the whole group, including Avan with his [Steady] skill, had to struggle to stay on their feet. Mana rushed in from the surrounding area as the blood red and midnight black mana began to fight like two consciousnesses of their own against the invasive miasma that was fighting a two front war with the other two mana signatures.
The lion man himself was already wobbling on his feet from exhaustion and had to be held down by two rushing comrades on either side of him, while the miasma-laden ball in his hands spun and vibrated faster and faster as the corruption grew in density.
"Do we have a choice?!" Jen shouted, almost screaming, as the screeching and shaking had become deafeningly loud.
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"Let's get this over with." Avan yelled against the noise and nodded his head toward the hill. The first steps were the most uncomfortable, as the ground shook and shook so hard that it took a few meters for the [Steady] skill to slowly kick in and Avan could see a real benefit to it for the first time.
The steps became more secure with each step, and his footsteps found a better and firmer grip on the stony ground. The others also knew that there was no time to make big plans and followed Avan on wobbly legs.
Arriving at the foot of the hill, and much sooner than Avan had hoped, the first beastman noticed the troublemakers and frantically informed his comrades. The bear-woman, who had just supported the lion-man with the ball, turned around and barked something in another language to the others. They seemed to agree on something, and the bear-woman herself went into the vanguard opposite the newcomers.
"Patris! Can you take the bear?!" Avan yelled against the noise over his left shoulder, sensing more than seeing the young warrior's nod. With tower shield in hand and still on unsteady feet, he walked past Avan and took on the tank-looking she-bear.
Jen stopped, continued to wobble from side to side, but pulled out her focus and prepared the first buffs and healing over time spell. Again, Avan noticed that the young woman was reciting an incantation and that these phrases seemed to serve as concentration to guide the spell and give the mana a purpose.
Dani herself drew an arrow and did not take long before the first arrow flew from her string and the next was drawn. A crash of claws and a sickening squeal as it scratched the metal of the tower shield briefly broke through the background noise. Patris staggered back a step, momentarily overwhelmed by the force and brute strength of the bear-woman. A war cry rang out from his throat, and one of the other swordsmen lunged at him as if out of his mind when the taunt shout began to have some effect.
Avan himself reverted to his old method and summoned 25 Akkalon forms to sic them on the enemy and finish the fight more quickly. After all, the contaminated object of the system quest was still waiting for the group on the hill itself.
But as the first forms began to take shape, something happened that Avan himself had never observed before.
Threads of mana pulled themselves out of the unstable form and turned towards the scene of the three mana signatures. And not just one thread came loose from the mana constructs, but many, and in each of the Akkalon forms!
*Because the mana of the surroundings is drawn there with such a strong pull?* was the only explanation that raced through his consciousness.
Cursing the system and the creator of this miasma, Avan also only now noticed how his own robe of the same celestial mana was fraying at the edges and was annoyed at himself for not noticing it before due to the distraction.
With the greatest possible concentration, he managed to stop the robe from completely disintegrating, but was unable to repair the mana that had already disappeared for the moment. Two time-honored battle gloves of celestial mana materialized around his hands, as it was just enough to keep his concentration without losing focus and form.
Meanwhile, the golden mana threads of his half-finished constructs continued to waft and the last remnants of the celestial mana flowed in liquid threads toward the center of the collision at the top of the hill. At the top, while Avan took on the other melee fighter and Dani shot at the opponents' mage, his frayed mana flowed into the contact point between Miasma and the other two mana signatures.
A wave of cold sweat of fear suddenly spread through Avan, the images flashing before him in his mind's cinema. Scenes of what had happened to Haipu's dungeon core when he had freed it from the miasma with his Celestial mana. Not only the dungeon core itself had decided to explode, but also the apparent opposites of this plague and the celestial mana that was considered one of the two strongest mana types on Aorus. A paradox of the existence of mana and the non-existence thanks to the miasma.
And as he watched in slow motion, the vast and gigantic amounts of celestial mana flowed now directly into the clash of forces.
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