Exhausted from their last battle, the party decided to rest for a good time before raiding their third tower. They cleaned up the first floor as best as they could and set their tents inside. The place was pretty good, but everyone was feeling a little uneasy because of their limited [Mana Sense]. Luckily, Beet offered them some comfort as he sent one of his shades to guard the courtyard and another to the tunnel that led to shelter, commanding them both to warn them in case of an attack.

They made a small circle with their tents and sat in the middle, waiting for Hayley’s tea to be ready. Despite their worn-out looks, they were all eyeing Carl with concerned looks since he was the one in the worst condition. The second-degree burns on his skin were demanding something more powerful than Hayley's herbs, but sadly the only thing that might be useful was Ethan's high-grade potion, which he had no intention to use.

It was true that the man was in constant pain, but considering their regenerations, all he needed was a few hours of cultivation. No matter how much Ethan pitied him, he wasn’t going to waste the potion on Carl when it could save someone else's life later on.

Liam threw a wry look at his bandaged friend. ‘’I’m sorry, Carl. I was too late to help you.’’

Carl winced a little before speaking hoarsely, ‘’No. It’s no one's fault. Everyone’s hands were full at the time.’’

Ethan looked at Liam, raising an eyebrow. ‘’Speaking of it, how do you avoid those flames every time? I saw that your skill could cut through the fireballs, but even those dispersing flames should’ve hurt you, no?’’

‘’What do you mean?’’ Liam asked, confused. ‘’I’m a fire elemental. How could a mere fireball hurt me?’’

Ethan’s eyes opened wide. ‘’You… What?! You’re an elemental? How? You aren’t like that girl in the tournament.’’

‘’The earth elemental? That girl was a pure amateur. She was wasting her mana to shape the ground so crudely without a technique at all,’’ Liam said before creating a spinning fire ring above his palm. He made the fire ring spin faster and reduced its size at the same time until it became a small spark. Then, he threw the spark toward the ceiling and let it flare up. The blazing flames covered the whole ceiling for a second, but there wasn’t any heat coming from it. ‘’You see, instead of doing this parlor trick, I can create a dozen [Ring of Fire] which I optimized countless times to improve their lethality. That girl had no idea what kind of power she wields. It was fun to watch, but still a child’s play.’’

Ethan switched his gaze from the ceiling to Liam as he leaned forward, intrigued. ‘’So that’s why you hold yourself back at tier 3. You don’t have to worry about breakthroughs and you even have the luxury to wait for better ones.’’

Liam scratched the back of his head with a sheepish smile. ‘’Hehe. I wouldn’t say I don’t have any worries. It’s still hard work to make improvements, you know. It would take too much time to figure out without these deadly battles. The elementals who grow in a safe environment could never unleash their full potential.’’

‘’Huh… Then, you’re immune to flames? What happens if you fight with another fire elemental?’’

‘’More accurately, I’m immune to flames without a will, like the fireballs of goblin shamans, and if I fight against another elemental, it becomes a battle of wills and comprehension. Like, if I fight with a tier-9 fire elemental, they might even use my own skills to kill me.’’

‘’Don’t worry about it,’’ Fraeya snarked. ‘’We have the Voidwalker with us, the face slapper of tier-9s.’’

‘’Voidwalker?’’ Hayley asked as she started serving the tea.

Ethan rolled his eyes at Fraeya, avoiding the question. ‘’Y’all knew about him being an elemental?’’

‘’Yeah. He told us a few weeks ago,’’ Vivian replied. ‘’Otherwise, I wouldn’t notice either. His skills are too precise and his style is quite different from other elementals. I guess the only hint would be everyone treating him way too good from the first sight.’’

Ethan turned his head abruptly. ‘’W-What’s that got to do with the elementals?’’

Vivian smiled slightly as she stared at him. ‘’Interesting. You’re well trained, you don’t lack any money, and you have all these rare skills, but you don’t even know this basic information that every noble family teaches their children.’’

Ethan chuckled wryly. ‘’Don’t throw the ball at me. We’re talking about the elementals.’’

‘’It’s like mind magic,’’ Fraeya said, extending her hand to fetch the teacup from Hayley.

‘’No, it’s not!’’ Liam rebuked, glaring at her.

‘’It’s more of an instinct,’’ Vivian said. ‘’Our mana is capable of wielding many elements and there is a deep connection between them. While the elementals, the beloved children of nature, have the potential to turn into their elements completely. When our mana contacts with theirs, we regard them fondly without even knowing them, to the point of dropping our guards altogether if their comprehension is high enough.’’

‘’Oh, stop exaggerating,’’ Liam said, his cheeks turning reddish. ‘’That’s only true in the higher realms. There must be an immense difference in cultivation for that to happen. In a lower realm, there could be only a subtle feeling of closeness.’’

Ethan listened with attention, finding it all a bit surreal. ‘’Is that why I chose to join your caravan? Maybe I would’ve walked away if someone else had asked.’’

‘’I told you the effect is not that powerful!’’ Liam said, gritting his teeth. ‘’And you only decided to join us after seeing Vivian. Your weakness is clearly beauties, not elementals!’’

Everyone laughed until Carl started groaning. ‘’You bastards, stop making me laugh.’’

Hayley put the last cup of tea in front of Ethan and went to check on Carl in haste. ‘’Why didn’t you start cultivating already? You’re not drinking any tea in this condition.’’

‘’Tea? I’d be happy if I could just sit like you guys. I tried to cultivate but I can’t focus on the manual like this. I think I need time to rest before that. Don’t worry about me, though, I’ll be fine in no time.’’

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

It happened as he guessed. After an hour of rest, Carl was able to cultivate bit by bit. His pain lessened a great deal but still continued for a few hours more, and even after that he wasn’t fully healed. The deformation on his skin was healing very slowly. Fortunately, Hayley assured him that he’d be good as new in a week or so, and even with how strict she was, she didn’t oppose when he said he was ready to fight again.

Meanwhile, the others spent their time casually chatting with each other. After learning that Liam was an elemental, Ethan tried to corner him more to learn if he was missing something when it came to comprehension, but just like before, Liam offered nothing useful. He kept saying that it was a personal journey, and the cornerstones of his journey were either meaningless for Ethan or in the worst case, completely detrimental. The best advice he gave was similar to Evelyn’s; If you couldn’t make any progress with a skill for a long time, just set it aside for a period and switch to another one. The understanding will come to you when you least expect it.

It was frustrating, but Ethan wasn’t expecting much anyway. For now, he had to make do with his routine exercises, risky battles, and constant ponderings. Though, he was glad that he wasn’t stuck at the peak of the tier. He still needed to gather a lot of essence till then, and currently, there were many priceless artifacts waiting for them.

That was the main topic of the next conservation. Just like in the old times, Ethan asked everyone their opinion about the best course of action, but for the first time, he wasn’t treating others as his subordinates. As he tried to create a dynamic discussion, even he was surprised by the outcome, because he realized that he wasn’t acting, instead, he was genuinely valuing their judgments. Rather than his times in the VR, he found the experience vaguely similar to his times in the sewers, as they were all working toward the same goal and the stakes were just as high. The reason for the vagueness was the lack of pressure and stress, caused by the backstabbing concerns and the imposter syndrome.

He did enjoy the change, that was for sure, yet he was also aware of the double-edged sword. Unlike the times he ruled that little gang, now, he was caring for everyone's well-being, and so, a failure would be much more devastating.

Hours of planning turned out quite fruitful. They created simple signals for communication, short-term tactics to combine their strong suits, deceptions that served a bigger scheme, and backup plans for the unexpected. Once everyone was on the same page, they started their wholesale slaughter in the solemn black towers of Imperial City, and stormed the ancient city like a trenchant calamity.

With every floor they cleared, they became more familiar with each other. They got rid of the team’s weaknesses and focused on efficiency. The improvement was gradual but clear. Though that didn’t mean fighting against peak tier-5 hobgoblins and goblins shamans was easy. The higher floors of the towers were always a challenge, but also the most rewarding.

Among the other towers, they found many different artifacts, but it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Some of the towers didn’t have any artifacts, and some of them had only broken ones. Still, after a week of mad grinding, they ended up with more than a dozen artifacts and each of them was priceless in today’s Azora.

At the end of the arduous week, Ethan was a bit disappointed for not finding any good armor for himself, but Vivian was pretty sure that they had yet to discover the crown prince’s house, and there were still the regular houses they hadn’t checked in the city. He hoped that they could find something better than the jewelry that gives stats.

Even if they didn't, this adventure in the underground ancient city was already worthwhile. The constant battles pushed his familiarity with his skills to another degree, and he was shy away from level 45. It was an amazing accomplishment for such a short time, but nothing too surprising. The whole week, the party was in a constant murder fest. There was nothing but killing and resting in their schedule. Even the night activities with Vivian stopped as Ethan had been draining himself every day both physically and mentally. Not to mention, he was still making time for his routine exercises.

The others were also affected by the enthusiasm of Ethan and Beet, who were training on every break, and did their best to keep up with them. Soon, everyone was giving their best to contribute more to the battles, and the precious artifacts became only secondary. It was the joy of childish competition that pushed them forward.

On the middle floor of another tower, Ethan appeared in his [Void Wrap], hands grasping his daggers tightly and eyes wandering on the enemies like a predator. He dispersed the [Void Mute] that covered the lower floor only to surround this one the next second. The goblins naturally felt the skill with their [Mana Sense], but it was the dropping head of a goblin shaman that alerted them utterly.

Every head turned toward the corpse of their friend in shock, making it the perfect moment for [Shadow Spikes]. The materialized shadows passed through two different [Fabric Tear]s and pierced into the eyes of two goblin shamans, who were standing far away from the crowd.

Three shamans died in a blink and Ethan showed himself close to the group. The goblins charged without hesitation, but he wasn’t moving at all. With their enemy right in front of them, none of the goblins cared for the mana that was gathering beneath him. Ethan waited until the deadly claws of hobgoblins were only a few inches away from him and [Blink]ed behind another shaman who was trying to get a clear angle.

As he swiftly cut its throat with Devi, [Skeletal Hand] made an appearance at where he’d [Blink]ed from, grabbing two hobgoblins and injuring another one with the sharp nails. The stupefied goblins didn’t have a chance to react because the others were already there.

Fraeya, Carl, and four wendigo shades surround the group while Liam was bombarding them with [Ring of Fire]s as he ran in the air. He wasn’t trying to kill them, but to keep them close to each other as much as possible.

The raining fire kept the goblins in constant panic and disorganized. No matter how much it irritated Fraeya, giving the boots to Liam was worth it since their battles were all happening in limited spaces so far.

He noticed the last shaman was trying to escape to the upper floor and [Blink]ed at the stairs before kicking its chest with an [Overcharge]. The shaman crashed to the floor loudly and before it had a chance to move, Beet and his two copies were on top of him. His small but razor-sharp scythes slashed at its vital areas, and the struggles of the shaman decreased gradually but surely.

‘DING! You have leveled up!’

With a delighted smile, Ethan looked around and saw a heavily injured hobgoblin trying to get away from the balcony, but just when he was about to [Blink], Carl made a long sidestep to separate himself from the crowd and slashed his sword in the air. The sword gave a green hue and it intensified through the move until the green light split itself from the weapon and traveled toward the hobgoblin with increasing velocity, cutting the creature in half and disappearing right after.

Five goblin shamans and fourteen hobgoblins, all died in under two minutes.

‘’I fucking love this sword,’’ Carl said with an excited smile, admiring the artifact they’d recently gotten. ‘’Do you guys think my contributions are enough to keep this baby to myself so far?’’

‘’Depends on our total gains,’’ Liam replied, descending from the air step by step. ‘’But I think you’re not that far off.’’

‘’Since you’re the only sword user in the group, I think we can make some concessions,’’ Ethan added before noticing the mana inside the room was starting to move. He frowned and focused on his [Mana Sense]. There was some kind of a whirlwind of mana starting to shape. Following the pattern, he soon discovered that Beet was standing in the center of it.

He burst out laughing as Beet advanced to tier 4. ‘’Congrats, buddy! Which skill did you rank up?’’

Beet absorbed all the mana around like a sponge, looking at the others in thrill. Without a word, he used his skill and split himself in three.

‘’Whoa. [Spectral Division]? I wasn’t expecting that one. What changed?’’

For a second, Ethan felt like Beet was smiling cheekily.