***

“Interesting,” said the demon grinding his teeth, “I have only seen a handful of people who can move at such speed but yours was not a movement, but a teleportation instead.”

Narrowing my eyes down. I thought to myself that this situation, ‘Might be bad,’ I’m not ready to face an opponent whose power I can’t measure. If only I still have Appraisal on me. Both Six Sense and Piercer are out of commission.

[Essence Summoning] might come in clutch but I don’t want a witness. Seeing a promising mage suddenly using Tier 8 magic, I won’t be able to bullshit my way out of that one.

“April.”

My comrade, “Fang,” he’s trustworthy and don’t pry too much into my abilities despite knowing how unordinary I am. Still, “Help me out would ya. This baggage heavier than he looks.”

Quickly, he took Piercer off my shoulder and asked, “What do we do now?”

“Don’t you worry. I’ll handle it.”

“Bwahahaha,” sinister laughter from the demon, “You will ‘handle it’, you say? Handle me? You piqued my interest, kid. How are you going to do that?”

‘Kid?’

Not many words of insult can get into this head, but that one, made me crack my neck.

“Heh, for a demon like you. A single spell will do.”

“Oho? And what might that be, I wonder?”

“Depends, care to give away your level?”

Flapping his wings as he chuckles, “Why would anyone tell theirs to others, but then again, all of you are dead men. Rejoice, as you puny human will now know the level of this great Granda. Three hundred and—”

“Alright, you talk too much so you must be weak then.”

Dropping 100000 Mana in an instant, I use it to cast a variant of the skill I use to get here. As arcane particles flew around my right arm, circling as it twists towards my palm. Casting a preset [Phased Intrusion – v1.5b] beside me, I created a portal connected to a place I really don’t want to go to.

*Bwoosh*

His eyes lightened red, “Haha, hahaha, a broken portal? So, you were planning to escape.”

It requires a lot more mana to make a complete portal of that spell which I cannot afford right now, but this is enough. Heheh, I wonder what's his face gonna look like in a sec, “AYOOOO! THAT'S A DEMON, AIN'T IT?!”

Tilting its head, “Huh? What are you—"

*BAKS*

Looks as if it was a projectile considering how fast it went piercing the center of the demon’s chest. He sees its real shape, and it was neither an arrow nor a spear, but a tentacle. Blood started to leak out of its mouth as some dripped from its chest.

Confused, fear started top seeps in, “What… is this.”

*Swoosh *C-R-A-S-H

When the demon got pulled inside, my broken portal shattered like a glass. A pair of ominous yet bright orange-colored eyes belonging to a shadowy figure looking at the sky can be seen through it. Her voice seethed in rage, “Don’t make me drag you here.”

{Replica | Lv. 9770}

Cutesy, “Ehe, be coming there as soon as my task is done up here, ma’am.”

Her eyes shifted towards me. Sweat dripped as every shattered piece of the portal soon disappears. I then swallowed my saliva. These are not because of the fear of getting spanked, I exert too much Mana in such a short amount of time. Never had this kind of thing before I reach this level nor when I passed it in my past life, so I call this phenomenon as… Overheat. Just need a little time to cool off and I’ll be fine.

“April.”

Looking back, “Fang.”

“Six Sense has…”

Right. I hurried over to the fainted dark elf and check on her condition. Some of her bones were dislocated. She bled but nothing life-threatening, after finding out she was still breathing, I quickly set up a healing array. Thankfully, the spell uses very little mana. It’s been a while since I treat someone else’s bones but I suppose I don’t have much choice right now.

*Crack --- *Crack --- *Crack

I have Six Sense hanging on my back while I hold her arms on my shoulders. I can feel her tiddies pushing up against me. All of us walked back toward the rest, Horgan, Kian, and Aegghan.

“Thought it was a goblin quest,” I muttered.

Fang chuckled, “It’s not a long story, but I will explain it later. More importantly, how have you been? It’s been a week since the last time we see you.”

“Well, since I reached Master Rank – thought I should learn something new.”

“Like that Portal?”

“As imperfect as it was, yep.”

“Was that your teacher? She has really outdone herself.”

“Heheh, it gets the job done though?”

Or so I said, the truth is I’ve never been honest with them, blurring some of the stuff I said, and I know it’s not fair. But whenever I’m with these guys, it’s always been the most fun I had. They’re my companions, and I intend to cherish them. I want to protect them. Even though, I won’t be able to all the time. I’ll make the most of the time I’m able to.

We then saw the shades of three different height people, and the little one ran at us while crying their eyes, “Gwaaaaah,” hugging Misty Fang tightly, “U-Uncle Fang. You, you…”

The cat man chuckled as he strokes Kian’s hair.

In the meantime, I went to Horgan and Aegghan, the former asked, “How’s the demon?”

“Welp, it was too strong for me to handle so I sent it somewhere I can guarantee it won’t be a problem to anyone anymore.”

“That’s good enough.”

I noticed Aegghan staring at me, so I responded with a smile. After Horgan chugged a bottle of blue potion to restore his Mana, he uses his [Vine Surge] spell to get us back to the top.

[Vine Surge / Tier 2 – Intermediate / Wood / Grow appropriate plants on any compatible surface. Growth adjustable / Cooldown: None / Costs: Up to 300 Mana per second / Requirement: Level 15, 50 Vitality, 40 Intelligence]

Upon reaching the top, we saw a battle nearing its end. It’s Aegghan’s companion, Tanya, and the guy who accompanied them, his butt on the ground about to be slashed by a hobgoblin. Swiftly, Aegghan saw it and threw an axe straight at the back of its head.

*BAKS*

Its brain splurts out blood as it falls.

Looking at the man though, he looks as if he’s a rape victim or something. Don’t have a lot of injuries but seems fine to me, same thing with Tanya. Aegghan checks her out to see if she’s okay, us too following soon after. Back to the carts.

The fainted guys were at the back while the conscious ones were at the front. Though Kian chose to stay at the back in case they woke up.

Tanya then asked, “Are they the only ones? I thought we were…” couldn’t get the energy to say the rest out loud. She’s a mess. I don’t see any arrows left in that quiver. Even that boy Dorian looks as if his soul got ripped out of his body.

Horgan scratches the back of his neck, but Misty Fang remains stern. With his calming voice and unique accent, he said, “At first, it looks to be a simple job. Cave has been searched, victims identified, and the layout was established. All we needed to do is go in there and get the victim out, eliminate everything in our way.”

***

Choking in her own blood, a dying woman kept jolting her entire body as Piercer tries to keep her alive by tending to her wound while Kian is healing her with a spell.

“Come on, come on, come on!”

Gritting his teeth as he opens the woman’s clothes. Something is wriggling inside her skin. From her chest going towards her stomach, he took out a knife and quickly cut its path, choking it as he pulled the thing out. It was a small crawler leaking out black substances mixed with the woman's blood. Piercer quickly slams it down and pounds it with the back of the knife, crushing it.

“Fang! Stagana’s out.”

Misty Fang, Horgan, and Six Sense were busy handling the swarm of goblins coming their way but Fang quickly swapped with Piercer and swiftly went on his knees. Praying to the god, “Oh, Witch of the Dawn, lend me your strength. Lacerated Manipulation!”

[Lacerated Manipulation / Level 1 / Reorganize the portion of bleed and wound inflicted by abnormal damage from the target / Cooldown: None / Costs: Up to 1.25 Mana per second, Up to 3 Stamina Mana per second / Requirement: 10 Dexterity, 10 Intelligence, 10 Faith]

A flow of mana particles swirls around the woman’s body, bringing all the black substance from the crawler out of her body through the cut Piercer has made. Suddenly the woman grabbed his wrist tightly, gritting her teeth as her eyes widened in fear. Her grip lessens when she put something in Fang’s palm, coughing blood, “M-My son. Tell him I—”

*BAKS*

Fang’s eyes widened. Seeing the woman’s face impaled from the ground by steel claws the size of a twice an adult hand. The head was pulled to the ground and her body gushed out blood from the decapitated neck, but emerged from the ground is a tall creature flapping its wings. In its hand is the woman’s head before the thing crushed her in its mouth.

***

In his palm, Fang stares at the bloodied necklace and said, “The other victims… Stagana got to them first before we can even do anything. I assume the team that was sent before us were done in by that demon. We… I should’ve known the moment that creature is around, something bigger than goblin must’ve been involved in this.”

I reached out to his shoulder, tapping his back.

Tanya then asked, “What’s a Stagana?”

Came across the details in the Grand Archive, so I decided to explain that myself even though I don’t have experience with it from my past life, “It’s a small demonic creature. Poisonous but not in the way you imagine it to be. It’s like a creature that oozes curses, and the thing breeds like a pest. The demon must’ve used them to clean up the cave.”

“From what?”

“The goblins of course. Don’t you know after they finish breeding the women, they—”

“Mage.”

Aegghan interrupted me all of a sudden. I wonder why, but after shifting my attention to Misty Fang, he glanced down. I sighed, “Right, sorry.” I admit I was a little too insensitive. Tanya and that guy just got out of an exhaustive battle. Fang and the others must’ve been through a lot too. At this moment, I can only rest my back while gazing at the sky.

There’s only silence, even the guy pulling the carts doesn’t talk much at all. Looking at the clouds made me think just how mixed feelings an adventure is. There are some fun times, the sense of enjoyment as we accomplished our job successfully, but then there is also this. Even a single failure can outweigh the many successes we did on the scale.

***

Within the emptiness of nothingness exist a single colorless globe of glass. The discomfort of being reminded what reality is, brought a crack to it.