Chapter 27

After the teachers left, Nick decided that he would actively restore mana all night, he hoped that the lack of sleep would not greatly affect his characteristics. For people, not sleeping was not an option at all, first mental characteristics dropped a little, then the speed of recovery of vitality and endurance, then physical characteristics dropped, the last was a decrease in the pool of vitality and endurance. Nick, as a mage, needed mental characteristics and so that he did not feel tired and inattentive. Nick estimated that now it was better to check how well he could endure a day without sleep with active mental stress than to do it later. And he would not refuse mana. Early in the evening, he spread out a sleeping bag and lay down in it, starting to collect mana. This time he was actively developing this skill, he collected as much mana as possible from the surrounding area and circulated it through his body as quickly as possible. Nick was sorry that he never fully understood how the mana output characteristic worked, of course he could pull 166 MP per second from the core, but he never fully understood how this characteristic affected the mana capacity of his body. He tried to collect as much mana as possible and over the course of several hours of active collection, he was able to fit 450 MP into his body, he felt that this was close to his maximum, but it did not cause a mana overload. He did not delve deeper into this issue, but assumed that in this case, the mana output characteristic and constitution are added together with something in order to give such a result. Continuously circulating mana around his body and condensing it near the core, he was able to achieve the maximum speed of mana recovery, namely 18.9 + 50% = 28.35 MP / hour. But this had its own big minus, he greatly strained his willpower and mental control. When the sun rose he was completely exhausted, his thoughts were moving slowly and he could not figure out exactly what he should do. After a few minutes, he was able to collect his thoughts and see how much MP he had recovered in 11 hours. It was 312 MP, looking at his total resource indicator, he was satisfied.

Health 1510/1510 HP 2.265 HP/hour

Mana 1121/2290 MP 1.89 MP/hour

Endurance 1573/1660 ST 24.9 ST/hour

Nick quickly grabbed a bite of the remaining meat, only now did Nick realize that yesterday he hadn't grabbed himself any tasty food from the roasted boar and deer.

Damn, what an oversight. Because of Teacher Elton, I completely forgot about this.

Looking around the camp, he could indeed see that people had yesterday we lit a fire. Now the prince was leading the others so that everyone could quickly leave the camp and set off to the approximate location of the river. Nick had not showered for several days, now he was in completely dirty armor and even he was starting to get tired of how he stank. Usually people did not feel it when they got used to their own smell, but due to his high perception, he easily felt it. In his thoughts, Nick simultaneously listened to what the prince was about to say.

"Dear classmates, today we will go from here and look for a decent place to set up camp. I want to send five groups of two people so that they can scout the direction ahead of us and, if possible, gain levels and bring us loot. Yesterday I thought about who it could be and chose ten people for this."

The prince named the four adepts who fought the ent, he also mentioned Cassandra, Linella, Seth, Ariana, Eugene the halberd adept and him. Due to his inhibited state, he did not immediately understand this, but of course answered to the prince's request.

"You may pair up as you wish, I hope our movement will remain unnoticed."

Everyone the prince named began to gather in a group, Nick was also among them. He tried to turn on logical thinking and tried to choose a partner for himself by qualities, but he did not have time to do it. Linella came up to him and hugged him around the waist.

"Cute, i'll be to you, you'll protect me, right?" She said, making touching eyes.

Nick wanted to refuse, but thinking that it would not be the worst option for him, he agreed. He wanted to gain experience, and Linella's magic could be very useful.

"Okay, so I will protect you." He said and winked. Linella smiled in response.

She held him tightly in her arms for a long time, until the others decided who would be in pairs with whom. The first pair consisted of the [Adept of the Sword and Shield] and the [Adept of the Spear], the second group had the [Adept of the Spear and Shield] and the [Adept of the Sword and Shield], the third pair had Cassandra and Seth, the fourth pair had the [Adept of the Halberd] and Ariana. The prince approached them again, they briefly discussed at what distance and where they would move, what would be considered a threat. Nick said goodbye to the others and went with Linella to the area assigned to them. He walked calmly ahead, and Linella walked two steps behind him, at first she behaved quietly and did not bother him at all, but after 10 minutes she stopped holding back.

"Dylan, how do you like our walk? Does this seem like a date to you?" She asked and walked up to him. Nick wanted not to answer, but then changed his mind.

"You'd be right if we weren't in a cursed forest, that's romantic to you?" Linella caught his eye and smiled seductively.

"Of course, with a guy like you, anywhere would be romantic." She said and gently ran her finger along his arm.

Nick held back his reaction as best he could. He was a teenager and couldn't shake off the influence of hormones. Besides, Lynella knew how to seduce guys, whether she did it like a complete and accessible idiot or she pretended to be one. He didn't know yet, which was surprising. He noticed that he saw her as a predator less and less now.

Treacherous.

He thought with a smile, Linella thought that he smiled at her and she responded with her even more seductive smile. Nick decided that something had to be done about this topic of conversation and asked his question.

"Linella, tell me about yourself, I heard that you are the daughter of a baron, how did you become an [Illusion Mage]?"

"My father is Baron Rhythm Mei [Sound Mage] [Rare] 200 Lvl, [Baron] [Rare] 256 Lvl. When I was a child, I really liked his magic and I also decided to became a mage, during my growing up I began to understand magic easily, but I owned the best at illusion magic. Then when my father found out about this, he invested all the money into training me and buying alchemical mixtures to increase my characteristics. After years of practice, I was able to choose the [Illusion Mage][Rare] class."

"Interesting, my story is somewhat similar, I think you've heard about my family. My father was disappointed at first that I wanted to become a mage, but after we agreed that if I couldn't become a full-fledged mage by the age of 15, I would take [Adept of the Art Phantom Sword] [Rare] as my main class. But I was able and now he doesn't object to my choice."

"Seeing you, I would never doubt that you would become a good mage." She said with a smile.

As they walked through the forest, Nick examined it for tracks, he tried to listen to sounds and relied on his sense of smell. He noticed something that smelled like blood. Nick signaled Linella to be quiet and stopped. Relying on his sense of smell, he went in the direction from which the wind was blowing. Walking very quietly, he noticed between the trees 150 meters away a flock of crows that were eating a dead deer, assessing them, he was very surprised.

Race: Cunning Mana Raven [Rare] 23 Lvl

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Race: Cunning Mana Raven [Rare] 29 Lvl

Race: Cunning Mana Raven [Rare] 27 Lvl

Race: Cunning Mana Raven [Rare] 40 Lvl

Race: Cunning Mana Raven [Rare] 13 Lvl

Race: Cunning Mana Raven [Rare] 24 Lvl

Race: Intelligent Mana Raven [Rare] 30 Lvl

Class: Hidden Assassin [Rare] 18 Lvl

Class: Leader Cunning Crow [Rare] Lvl 34

There were about 40 ravens and they were eating a deer, Nick was surprised that among them there was someone with classes. These ravens fell under the category of mana beasts, and of course over time many can develop classes, but for it to be at such a low level, it was rare. Usually such beasts could use basic mana manipulation in order to get some minor features. For example, cover themselves with shadow mana to better hide, or manipulate the air for better maneuverability, maybe strengthen their body with mana. Usually all this was not a problem, but considering that they had a leader and that they were most likely almost intelligent, it could mean a great danger. Nick assessed his chances and thought that he could deal with them using his mana. He leaned towards Linella and gently whispered in her ear.

"Look ahead there is a group of almost intelligent ravens with an intelligent leader. We will go there and if they attack us, we will fight back. I hope you have enough strength to resist them."

Lynella nodded decisively and prepared for battle. Nick began to move much faster using the weak movement technique "Silent Step". Lynella ran after him using a spell that completely neutralized the sound. They were able to approach unnoticed and they still had 30 meters to the ravens, but one of them noticed them. He began to caw loudly and quickly flew up, which alerted the whole group. The ravens flew up into the trees and watched them silently assessing them. Nick at first lost sight of the leader, but assessing everyone in a row was able to quickly find him. Nick knew that some birds could learn human speech and he was curious if a raven could talk.

"Hello to you, I don't think you're going to attack us?"

There was silence in response, Nick hoped for two possible outcomes: first, the crows would attack them, second, the leader would start a conversation with him. But apparently, if he did not provoke them, they would not attack him. The leader of the crows croaked a couple of times and the whole flock flew away from them.

Well, the crows were indeed smart, too bad.

Shrugging, he went on, Linella no longer started a conversation with him, but calmly wandered through the forest. Nick was sure that they should have met more large animals, but they did not meet anyone larger and stronger than a squirrel of the [Uncommon] level. Their journey took about five hours, every two hours they returned to the prince and reported on what they managed to find. After five hours, Nick heard the sound of water in the distance and was incredibly happy about it. They came to a river, it ran between large stones, where for the nearest 20 meters from the river there were no trees, Nick really liked what they found. He wanted to go back to the prince to report this, but near the nearest tree he noticed a shadow. A moment later he saw something fall on Linella and she dissolved in pink smoke. Nick expanded his [Aura Mage of Arcane Will] and turned on [Ghost Awakening], [Parallel Thinking], [Accelerated Perception], he was ready to rush at the enemy, but noticed Linella at the edge of his aura who was invisible. When the fog cleared, he saw an unknown creature, it was humanoid, about his height with thick fur had sharp claws like a sloth, its head was disproportionately small in relation to body, he did not see its eyes, but a large mouth with a bunch of sharp fangs and a nose like a noseless monkey slightly frightened him. The appearance of this creature was very wild and predatory. Nick assessed it.

Race: Ceros [Rare] Lvl 78

The name didn't mean anything to him, the creature was no longer confused and quickly attacked him. It was a lightning fast move that he barely managed to block, he bent heavily under the blow and almost dropped his sword. The strength of this creature, according to him, was about 350, and agility even more. The creature struck again and Nick could not block it with his sword, he poured all the mana he could into his left hand and took the blow. His barrier was cut along with his hand, his hand was hanging on by snot. Thanks to a large amount of adrenaline and the skill [High Pain Resistance], he barely felt how his hand was cut off. He managed to use the technique before the creature struck again and counterattacked. He was able to leave a deep cut on his hand, but the beast retreated too quickly. Nick feverishly thought about what he could do, pouring mana and will into the stone under his feet, he retreated a couple of steps. The creature screamed a very loud scream that made him disoriented, his head spinning and he would not have been able to dodge the next blow if sharp stones had not grown from the stone right at the creature's feet and shot upwards at the creature's feet. The beast received three small stone darts, two hit the legs and one hit the arm. When he was able to stand on his feet again, he used a weak healing spell to stop the bleeding and began to absorb all the life force that was in the sword.

Nick didn't have time for precise mana calculations and spell optimization, so he cast using only his will. A pink mist formed around him and he rethought everything that had happened. The creature had struck 4 times in just a few seconds and Linella had no chance to intervene earlier. Without wasting time, he left the sword between his legs and threw three daggers at the creature at once, because Linella's spell had not yet begun to work, the creature was able to block all of his daggers. It moved forward again, but abruptly took a step to the right and struck the air, the beast was not stupid at all and quickly retreated from the pink mist when it realized that it had attacked an empty shell. From outside it, it was watching them and waiting for an opportunity to attack. Nick once again quickly assessed what he could do. The most reasonable thing in his case was to use stone magic, but without a surprise attack, this beast would repel or dodge the projectiles as quickly as it did with the daggers. There was no point in using a power spell, they were very weak and were only good for buying time. Nick came to the conclusion that he had no weak spells that he could use to harm this creature at a long distance. He always relied on his superior speed, but now the enemy was faster than him. Without the illusion spell, he would already be dead. Nick activated the skill [Reincarnator's Madness] in the hope that it would tell him something, but it was empty. The creature had no noticeable weaknesses that his skill could find. Deciding to wait for Linella, he said what he should have asked much earlier.

"Linella, I hope you can create illusions of me that aren't in this fog so that they move at about my speed." Linella shook her head behind him and replied.

"No, I can't do that. You're too fast, I can create two copies of you outside the fog, but they won't move as fast as you." Nick nodded in response.

"I think I've come up with a plan, create a spell, I'll pour my mana into it and let's hope for the best."

The beast was still wandering outside the fog and waiting for it to dissipate, it made some unintelligible sounds and licked its huge teeth with a long tongue like a reptile. It took Linelle five seconds to create two copies of it, they looked identical to him, but they did not have his aura. They approached Nick, he put his remaining hand on one illusion and poured his mana and will into it, he did the same with the second one. He used up all his will on the last illusion, but now they looked alive. He thought it through the most successful techniques he knew and prepared to attack.

His illusions quickly jumped out of the fog and he was right behind them, the illusions moved with exactly the same grace as him and could reach even greater speeds, they were impossible to distinguish without using advanced mana senses, or something that accurately estimates the weight of a target. The beast dodged the lunge of his illusion and counterattacked, but his clone easily got out of the way. His second copy went around the beast from behind, and he attacked from the front. The beast could not tell who was who, and tried to break out of the encirclement, but his copies blocked his exit. They all attacked at the same time and the beast tried to block and dodge all the attacks. Nick quickly used one of his techniques and abruptly changed the direction of the blade. He was able to cut off the beast's arm, but it immediately realized that the rest were not dangerous, even ignoring the pain, he delivered his blow, which Nick blocked and rolled from the force of the blow, he twisted his arm and he felt it. He was quickly surrounded by fog, but the creature decided to finish him off and paid no attention to it. The beast attacked him, but struck half a meter ahead, Nick was very grateful for the well-timed illusion. With a quick movement, he set his hand and lunged, he created a weak spell of power on the end of his blade. His strike was blocked by claws, but the blue light that emanated from his blade caught the right eye of the beast. Straining his physique, he poured much more stamina than he could withstand into the next technique. His body blurred and with a quick swing of his sword, he cut the small neck of the creature. The beast panicked and broke out of the fog, his scream deafened him and made him fall, Linella also fell, but she was able to hold on to the fog spell. The beast retreated beyond the spell's range, but he did not have time to go too far, his movements slowed down, but he was able to get away. Nick was lying down and couldn't get up anymore, he had lost a lot of blood, his weak healing spell couldn't close the wounds completely. Using the mana that was in the sword, he healed his wound better, with the help of mana sense he noticed that his hand was torn away from his body, without the large amount of life force that he kept in the sword, he would definitely be dead already. Lying down he heard Linella get up and come to him. She checked his pulse and sighed in relief.

"I hope this creature dies, who knew that something so strong could live here."

Nick could no longer hold his attention and two minutes after the beast ran away he received a notification, seeing it he smiled and lost consciousness.

Congratulations, you have defeated [Ceros][Rare] Lvl 78 . You will receive less experience for winning in a group.

Congratulations, you have reached a new level in the [Mage of Arcane Will] [Rare] > Lv. 5 class.

Congratulations, you have reached a new level in the [Adept of the Art Phantom Sword] [Rare] > Lv. 5 class.