Taking a moment to gather myself, I cast corrupting bolts at the next mage in line. Once again, the bolt passes through the barrier, and I can damage one of the mages. It didn't take long before I was able to kill it. With the collapse of the third mage, the mana gathering has started to slowly push away from where it was being gathered. The number of summoned soldiers again drops; now, only two are left on the field to deal with. Overall, the amount of mana hasn't increased or decreased by much since the start of the combat.

I am trying to figure out how to get one more mana type to finish off the remaining mage. Xelyphe approaches me and asks, "Do you think you can defeat the last mage?"

"I don't know," I answer honestly, "I need another type of ranged mana to damage it, but I am out of options currently."

"Then try and figure out how to cast another type of mana!" They try to encourage me.

Sighing, I instead focus on meditating, as Laxreal taught me the few times we could work on mana control. Thinking about how I made the corrupting bolt, I try to focus on one of the other two elements for which I don't have a range option. Trying to remember what I did when I created the corrupting bolt, I find it easy to remember the scenario but hard to remember the feeling of making the spell.

Instead of remembering how to create the corrupting bolt, I experimented with the different mana affinities to incorporate the different motes in my mana heart into the spell. It takes several attempts, but I can finally fuse an affinity with the arcane bolt.

- Death Bolt 1000 MP Level 1: Cast a bolt of death affinity mana at the target, dealing 1 - 4 damage and having a 0.01% chance to kill the target instantly. It can instantly kill targets up to 2 tiers above the caster.-

Looking at the spell I learned, I can only sigh. I could cast it, but the spell's cost is inhibitive to what I need to do. Instead of draining my mana to cast it only 3 times, I focus on getting a spell from the nature side. It doesn't take as long to get a nature affinity ranged spell after I had the immediate experience of getting the Death Bolt.

- Nature's Seed 3 MP Level 1: Summons and launches a seed at a target, dealing 1 - 10 damage nature damage. -

With the new spell that will work, I start to cast it. It doesn't take long before I have dealt enough damage to kill the final mage. With the final mage dying, the gathered mana entirely dissipated, and the soldiers who were still summoned also dissipated from the lack of mana. Not long after the last mage dies, I get a notification.

- Congratulations, you have slain 4 X Ghost Mage Soldier Level 5 (Elite). You received 16 experience. -

"Finally," Xelyphe cries out, and that is the moment they fall on their back from exhaustion. I guess they were drained. It doesn't take long before I receive a notification.

- Quest Complete: The Folly of War

You have chosen the side of the commoners over the soldiers. During their lives, the Kingdom of Sharus declared war on their neighbors. Due to the excessive strength of the inhabitants, it took hundreds of soldiers to conquer one village. Because of this, the mages of Sharus came up with the idea to use the death-attuned mana surrounding these villages to summon undead soldiers to fight for them, creating a wave of unliving soldiers that could only be stopped by slaying all the mages.

Having slain the mages in this ancient battle, you have prevented the continued torture of these souls, allowing them to move on to their next lives.

Reward: Crystal of Death-attuned mana X 1, Chest of the Fog X 5, Large Bag of Experience X 2

Bonus: For saving more than 50% of the souls in this battle. Received 1 X Token of the Fog, 1 X Elixir of Strength.

Note: These rewards have been sent to your Lord's Chest. -

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We noted that the rest of the souls disappeared after completing the quest. The small village we are next to has started to turn decrepit. Houses showed their actual collapse status; the dirt path leading to the forest was overgrown with weeds, and only a few rusty farming implements were left around us. Looking at Xelyphe, I asked, "Shall we look around? You never know what could be lying around a place like this!"

"You mean dig through these houses to see if there is any additional loot?" They respond.

"Yea...I mean, they aren't going to need it, right?" I say with a bit of skepticism in my voice.

I didn't find anything worth finding among the wreckage, but Xelyphe did manage to find another chest in one of the buildings. There wasn't much else we could see that would be worth bringing back with us. Figuring it would be best to continue our journey, we look around for any signs of our parents.

After looking around, I found a trace of our mother's clothing, and claw marks were on some trees. "It would appear that Mom and Dad went into the forest."

Nodding in agreement, Xelyphe takes the lead and heads into the forest. It doesn't take long before we stumble upon some plants that will work for my enchanting.

- Acquired 3 X Shield Flowers

Acquired 4 X Feathers -

After I put these items into my bag, we continued to walk through the forest. Trees rustled around us as small animals scampered up trees and dived into their burrows. Continuing through the forest becomes more challenging the further we go in; the bushes and trees start to get more compact, and the ground becomes covered in roots. It takes us another 30 minutes before we finally see a clearing in front of us.

Upon closer inspection of the clearing, I can see that the ground has been churned up like something large has come through here, and deep claw marks score the ground, making it difficult to traverse. Stepping into the clearing, we see a hint of a demon's tail on the other side as we start crossing. Recognizing it as our mother's, we decided to go for it. The ground is not only scored but pretty muddy, and it is challenging to keep our feet from slipping on all of the mud, which would explain the deep scores from claws. It took us a while, and by the time we had reached the halfway point, we heard a commotion from one of the other sides of the clearing.

The foliage gives way as a deer with a huge rack jumps through, and not far behind it are 2 worgs. With the footing being hazardous, the deer slips, and the worgs pounce, killing it. Just as they start eating their fill, one of the two worgs puts their nose into the air and sniffs. Bringing its face down, it faces us directly.

- Worg Level 5 (Elite)

HP: 105/120 -

- Worg Level 5 (Elite)

HP: 102/120-

Seeing the damage already done, I can only think that the deer could put up a small fight before trying to escape from them. "Looks like we can't just wait for them to be done. We need to fight." Xelyphe states.

"Obviously," I reply, casting Nature's Grasp underneath the two worgs. Right away, I started to see their health go down from the spell, but they could quickly get out of the spell after a couple of seconds, enough time for Xelyphe to get in between us. With shield raised, Xelyphe steps closer to them, and I continue to cast spells.

The next one I cast is a shield. I don't want to see pain come to my sibling, so anything that I can do to help is for the best. Next, I start casting my corrupting bolts. They take more mana, but I figured the damage effect over time would be beneficial in this scenario. After the spells hit, I look at their health once again.

- Worg Level 5 (Elite)

HP: 68/120

Corrupted: 19 Seconds Remain

Worg Level 5 (Elite)

HP: 63/120

Corrupted: 20 Seconds Remain -

With the damage done by those three spells, I have 152/300 mana remaining. Someone of my level shouldn't have that much mana, but I have a much larger mana pool thanks to the mana heart, veins, and the four affinities. Going to my generic arcane shot to try and keep as much mana available as possible, I see the worgs health go down once again as they continue to make their way out of the brambles. This is the last time, as they were already close to leaving them after the first bound.

When one of the worgs leaps again, as it lands, it ends up in a deep part of this muddy terrain, getting stuck and can't move without it being a challenge. The other worg still makes its way toward us. Its speed has slowed down because of the mud. It has been about 5 seconds since the combat started, and purple veins have started to appear on the worg's faces. They both took damage from the damage over time, and they took some more damage.

With this damage, both of them have fallen to less than half-health. The one approaching us is now close enough for Xelyphe to attack with their blade. They are slashing at its face, powering up a heavy slash. Taking a heavy step forward and slashing directly down on the head of the warg, she takes a chunk out of the worg's health pool. Due to the heaviness of the blow, the worg sinks into the mud a little, getting stuck just like its companion.

With easy targets, I cast my spells without worrying about whether they will hit. It doesn't take long for us to finish the battle when another notification comes up.

- Congratulations, you have slain 2 X Worg Level 5 (Elite). You received 8 experience. -

We looked around the clearing and did not see or hear anything else. We proceeded to get out of the mud as fast as we could. It took us several minutes to get through the mud, and by the time we arrived at the other side, we were covered with hardly any part of us, not at least a little bit muddy.

After getting as much mud off of our bodies as we can so we aren't weighed down, we continue the trek through the woods. We run into spider webs and get our clothes caught on different bushes or low-hanging tree branches. When we run into a wooden wall inside the forest, we are tired and frustrated with the whole scenario. Stopping to rest for a couple of minutes, I sit to meditate, not only to cool my head but to try and get some of the mana I have used so far back. With that, Xelyphe stands guard and waits with me, calming down as time passes.

Wanting to be done with all this running around, it doesn't take us long to go around the gate of this little fort.