Dwelling of the Mad Mage (2)

That's because, even with the ability to heal everyone, Lucy still felt like she hadn't been contributing enough to the team.

She felt like she had been almost useless in all the fights they had so far. Seeing herself always being guarded and protected caused her to subconsciously believe herself to be a burden.

So when the chance came to actually contribute in an important way, Lucy couldn't help but get excited.

With an excited glow in her eyes, Lucy turned toward Leon.

"So, what do you want me to do?"

Seeing Lucy so onboard, Leon nodded.

"What you have to do is simple, but also very important. I need you to lead the way and reel me if you feel anything slightly off. Please, Lucy, only you can do this."

As Lucy heard this, a wide smile appeared on her face.

But before she could agree to anything, Lucas burst in between them.

"I refuse."

"If you want someone to lead the way, then I'll do it! I'm not gonna let Lucy endanger herself for your own benefit-"

But before Lucas could continue, Lucy interrupted.

"It's okay Lucas, I'm the only one who can do this. It's my responsibility!"

Seeing the proud and innocent expression on Lucy's face, Leon felt a little bad.

Using a little girl's innocence and insecurity for his own benefit was quite the scummy thing to do.

But in Leon's defence, he never planned to put Lucy in actual danger. He was just using her to identify the danger beforehand.

But this didn't change the fact that if, for some reason, Lucy messed up, there was a high chance of her getting injured or potentially even losing her life.

No matter what excuse Leon came up with internally, he knew it was scummy.

But if that's what it took to grow stronger, then Leon wouldn't hesitate to do it over and over again.

In the end, even after many minutes of arguing with Lucas, Lucy didn't back down, so Lucas could only scowl as he walked grumpily behind Leon and Lucy, with the rest of them following close behind.

...

Minutes had passed and Leon and the rest of the group were still walking down the winding, marble glowing hallways of the strange laboratory.

The faint hum of machinery could be heard in the walls all around them.

Suddenly Leon and the group came up to a crossroads, two identical pathways, one heading left and one heading right.

Without hesitation, Leon turned to Lucy as he asked.

"So Lucy, which direction would you go?"

Lucy just took a brief look towards the right path before a terrifying shudder ran down her spine.

Lucy didn't know why, but she was certain that whatever lay down on the right path only led to a horrible fate.

"Left!"

Leon just nodded as he instantly led the group down the right direction.

The group only managed to walk down the left hallway for a few minutes before Lucy came to a quick halt.

"Leon… something's not right."

Leon just nodded as he slowly withdrew his spear.

Lucy had done her part, and now it was his.

Turning back around, Leon instructed the rest of them to wait as he strode forward.

With his guard up, Leon took a light step forward and…

Nothing?

But Leon didn't let his guard down just yet. With his sense on edge, Leon carefully continued the process.

1 step… 2 steps … 3 steps….

Leon continued the process until the distance he covered wasn't just a few steps, he had covered a whopping 3 metres and yet there was still no change.

It was at this point that doubts were starting to form in Leon's mind.

After coming all this far and nothing seemingly happening, it seemed like Lucy may have gotten this one wrong.

She was just a kid after all and wasn't completely familiar with her innate trait. Leon wouldn't be surprised if she made at least some mistakes.

But despite these doubts, Leon still concentrated and took one step forward.

And that's when he heard it.

"Click."

As soon as Leon's foot touched the floor, the light clicking sound could be heard as the floor tile Leon stepped on sunk a few millimetres.

'Shit!!'

As Leon looked to the side, he could see that for at least two metres ahead and behind him, the walls had opened up, showing countless little tubes.

All this took some time to describe, but it had actually happened in just a few milliseconds!

Leon's mind began to whirl as desperately tried to find a way to defend himself.

Rapidly brandishing his spear, Leon quickly deduced that his best bet at survival was just to deflect each attack. But just at before his spear hit the first arrow, Leon suddenly noticed a faint orange glow on the arrow tip.

'Shit! These aren't normal arrows. They've all been enchanted!'

As the name suggested, enchanted arrows, we're arrows that had all been imbued with magical.

But by the time Leon reacted, it was already too late.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A symphony of explosions rang out as Leon was sent smashing into the wall.

As if that wasn't enough to deal with, an ocean of fire soon exploded around Leon, bathing everywhere that the arrows landed in flames.

The rest of the group could only watch in horror as the scene took place.

In front of this terrifying scene, Lucy couldn't help but mutter.

"You don't think he's…. dead?"

Lucas had no words.

He could only just squint as he stared into the flames.

Suddenly the flames began to swirl as a flaming figure could be seen dashing out!

Of course, this person was Leon.

If you looked closer, you could still see a faint layer of blue light coating his skin.

Skill: Exoskeleton

Type: defence

Quality: uncommon

Description: upon activation, the skill causes a small layer of mana to coat the user's skin, acting as a tight exoskeleton suit.

Mana cost: 4 per cast

Leon had to thank this skill for enabling him to survive that entire ordeal.

His own armour had been blasted into smithereens. The only thing left protecting him was the skill.

And even with that, there were still some bruises and burns that could be seen all over his body.

Taking such a bombardment at such a low level was anything but easy.

"Lucy… heal me." Croaked Leon as he sat on the floor.

He then quickly rummaged through his pockets to find the low grade healing potion he had been rewarded from the regular daily monster raids.

Although they were nothing as effective as the superior healing potion he had used on Lucas, only having roughly the same quality of healing as Lucy's cure skill but their abundance and relative ease to acquire made up for it.

Eventually, with the help of potions and some heals from Lucy, Leon managed to recover to his original state but that mean he escaped unscathed.

His chest plate had been completely annihilated, causing him to lose the three constitution points that came with it.

Leon could only sigh as he continued travelling, but this time, his guard was turned up even higher.

Unfortunately for Leon, things didn't get better as they travelled through the hallways.

As the strongest person on the team, Leon took the responsibility of disarming the traps once Lucy found them, causing him to be bombarded by all sorts of attacks.

Spikes pits, acid traps, even electrocution, Leon had had to deal with it all.

Right now, Leon was pulling out several arrows from his arm and backs.

Fortunately, these arrows weren't poison arrows. They were just enchanted ones with extra piercing qualities, allowing them to break through his exoskeleton skill.

It's just that after taking such a constant beating from various traps, anyone would become agitated, and Leon was no different.

The rest of the group, other than Lucy, had even stopped asking him redundant questions, almost as if they could see the dark cloud of frustration that was starting to form around Leon.

If after all going through all this torture and burning through his healing and mana potions, Leon was only greeted with mediocre rewards, Leon didn't know how he would handle it! He'd probably just go crazy on the spot!

"Whirr!"

As he was thinking this, Leon seemed to hear the faint sound of gears turning.

Suddenly, in-front of the group, the walls started to open up as tall human sized puppets started pouring out.

"Wooden puppets"

A simple magical creation used by lots of mages as guards and assistants.

Don't look at their simple design and janky movements and underestimate them.

These puppets could easily crush low tier goblins that they had been fighting before.

They were constructs, meaning that they had none of the normal weaknesses that would be associated with living creatures.

But for Leon, this was perfect.

For the last hour, he had just constantly been harassed by traps continually taking all sorts of beatings.

Now they had appeared they were the perfect way to blow off some steam.

With a slightly scary smile on his face, Leon charged straight into the crowd of puppets.

Leon weaved through the crowd as his movements were swift.

His new Silk step boots had boosted his agility to an almost ridiculous level, allowing him to easily move past his opponents and the benefits they had didn't just end there.

The ability to stick to any surface was more impactful in combat than one would usually imagine.

His ability to walk on anything added a whole new dimension to his combat fighting style.

Leon could be seen bouncing off walls, and sometimes even the roof itself, as he attacked the puppets from every direction imaginable.

Even Lucas and the others didn't know how to react when they saw this ridiculous fighting style.

In the end, not warning to be completely useless, the others quickly joined in with Leon, quickly dismantling the once intimidating puppet army.

….

"Bang!"

Leon brutally kicked the head of the puppet, sending it crashing into the wall.

All around Leon and the group were the scattered, fragmented bodies of the wooden puppets.

Just as the crowd of wooden puppets was beginning to shrink, Leon froze.

"Clank!" "Clank!"

The strange sound of metal scratching against a surface could be heard, but the only problem was that it was so light that Leon couldn't quite make out where it was coming from over the chaos of the battlefield.

Leon kept looking around all over the battlefield and that's when he noticed a shadow swiftly flowing past the wooden puppets.

From the looks of things, it was rushing straight towards Jessica.

"Jessica, watch out!" Roared Leon in an effort to warn her.

But by the time Jessica reacted, it was already too late.

The deep black metallic shadow was already pouncing on her.

Jessica could do nothing other than brace herself for the impact.

But fortunately for her, Leon wasn't done yet.

Quickly calculating the distance, Leon brought back his spear, bending his arms and launching his spear!

Instantly, there was a shrill scream as Leon's spear shot out with unprecedented speed, soaring through the air and crashing into the metallic creature.

"Bang!"

The creature recoiled back, as Leon's blow sent it rolling into a nearby wall.

Seconds later, Leon appeared beside the creature.

Leon could help but admire the strange beast.

Jagged protrusions of metal and strange inscriptions and connections could be seen forming a strange feline type body.