197 Against Sages (1)
The skill [Basic Evil Invasion] was finally called to play.
This was quite the strange Task for Skullius. He hadn’t thought that something like this would pop up and for the first time since he started completing these Tasks, he truly felt them become personal.
As for the skill required for this undertaking, Skullius had thought about it before. However, the reason he hadn’t used it was because of its cost.
It required 100 Mana Points per minute and before he had acquired the mana band, it was something that he hadn’t dreamed of using any time soon.
‘Well… let’s see what kind of monsters are in the Cluster first. I can then decide whether I can complete the Task here or not,’ Skullius thought.
He didn’t need to rush it anyway.
The four entered the Cluster, their faces being blasted by light trickles of moisture and fresh air spawned by a healthy and humid atmosphere.
The scene that appeared before them was very beautiful, almost making them loosen up their tense bodies as it felt unnatural to hold such hostility in such a pristine place.
White coloured vegetation covered every inch of the party’s vision. Grasses, leaves, bushes.
With the exception of wood and stems that remained with their natural shades of brown, everything was white, the lush forest ahead being very welcoming.
A mountain stood before them, in its middle, a waterfall of pure, crystal like water falling down to settle into a wide lake at the foot of it.
The water created a white mist, this soft cloud being from where the humidity came from.
“Ha. I’ll count this as one of the times I’ve been surprised by what’s behind a Cluster,” Stylla said, almost feeling guilty for welding her sword openly in this tranquil space.
“Yeah, as if some deadly beetle isn’t lurking around waiting for the chance to pounce at us,” Bron said with a frown, convincing himself that enemies were around. Always.
“You know, I agree with you there, but what’s with you and bugs,” Fore gave Bron a suspicious look.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” the bulky mercenaries said while turning to the side.
Skullius was equally shocked.
This wasn’t enough to allow him to let his guard down but he had momentarily forgotten where he was upon entering this place.
The four walked on slowly, scaling up the not so steep mountain with a steady pace while trying to detect the presence of monsters.
There was no sun in the sky once again, as for Clusters, developing worlds of that scale was rare, at least for low level Clusters.
The development of species and the environment usually took thousands of years, but due to distortions in time within Clusters, that process didn’t show in Aigas.
It was also theorised that when a Cluster broke through into Aigas, that distortion in time which multiplied it hundreds or even thousands fold within the minispaces would be stabilised by the overall stable energies of a complete world.
That’s why time would remain the same before and after raiding a Cluster for mercenaries.
The white vegetation crunched under the feet of the four.
As they moved deeper into the thickets of brown trees with white leaves…
Shashashashasha!
Everyone turned towards the sound but found nothing.
Shashashasha!
Once again, nothing.
The breeze made it difficult to tell whether something had passed or if the vegetation was simply responding to the motions of moving air.
Once the sound appeared again, Fore focused his sunken eyes and his vision let him see….
“The hell?” he spoke with mild surprise.
“What is it?” asked Stylla.
“I think it was a…. a white monkey wearing… robes of some kind?”
“Huh?” Bron uttered.
“Yes. I’m sure of it… It’s almost like it was praying or something. Its hands were pressed together while it passed by really fast.”
There were many strange things that happened in Clusters but this was hard to wrap a mind around.
Everyone continued to look while the sounds kept repeating themselves.
This was exceptionally creepy because no one actually sensed anything. They all had to rely on their basic senses to detect where the enemy was, which wasn’t working.
Soon, the sounds became very loud, clearly expressing that many of the enemies were around.
“Any ideas, Mage?” Bron called to Skullius.
The Discount Human thought hard.
This was not the best of situations. Using a devastating attack from the get go would be idiotic and thus, Skullius decided to try something else while budgeting his limited mana.
Skullius used [Basic Evil Production] and produced a small cloud of darkness that he then manipulated with [Basic Evil Weaving].
He dispersed it in a random direction as they all seemed to be surrounded anyway.
The cloud burst ahead, being very distinct from the white all around.
Stylla, Bron and Fore paid attention to the potential changes.
They had grown used to seeing this peculiar power that their distant partner wouldn’t share the details of and they would appreciate any opening he created.
The results…?
Gaps in the cloud of smoke started to appear as individuals zooming past could be spotted, creating trails in the cloud!
“Right there!” Fore called before he extended his hand towards a fallen branch on the white coloured grass, the item floating in the air immediately before it shot towards the gap in the moving cloud of darkness where an enemy was briskly passing!
The darting branch turned into a blur for a short moment as it was manipulated by the Basic expertise of the Mind Caster, psychokinesis, before it suddenly stopped when it faced the invisible but clearly tangible figure!
The figure also stopped moving, its body finally becoming visible.
What Fore had described before wasn’t too far from the real thing.
A white furred monkey stood with its blue eyes squinted at the party.
Its skin could barely be seen as most of the caramel coloured flesh was hidden by the spotless fur except its rough, crusty hands that were clasped together.
The creature wore a garment of white grasses and leaves spun together in a shockingly neat fashion making the four question their eyes.
What made the four vigilant towards this creature however was the branch that Fore had thrown which was still hanging in the air before the monkey, its momentum having been culled for some reason.
The monkey remained in its humble pose, hands clasped together.
Bron was the first to act, his body brimming with flaring mana from his blue core as he suddenly appeared right in front of the monkey, a trail of charred grasses and ground crust following after his speedy movement which impressed Skullius!
He pushed his palm with three fingers extended as with staggering force, he slammed right into the monkeys’ face!
POW!
The nearby trees were blown away in a wide arc of force that pushed everything a distance, Skullius having to erect his shield to remain standing!
Just as soon as the impact died down though, another resounded, hazy rings bashing against Bron who had slammed his palm onto the monkey just a second earlier!
The burly mercenary flew at high speed, his skin crumbling while his armour dented at the repulsive force that resembled his own!
…!
This was supposed to be the monkey, flying away after eating the attack or worse, but it seemed, Bron’s attack had just been redirected at him!