58 A Race Against Time

It was obvious that magic required extreme concentration and the correct chant to be cast.

Generally, the more powerful the magic output, the longer the chant. Casters needed to exercise more precise control to prevent the gradual transformation of magical energy into uncontrollable force, leading to failed magic activation or accidental magical energy explosions, potentially harming themselves and others.

So, whether it was a mage or anyone else, when using magic, they all stood in place, focusing on chanting, preparing to cast their magic with full concentration without exception.

However, there were those who could multitask, chanting magic while taking action in other aspects.

They could multitask, handling both chanting and combat, turning into high-powered mobile artillery, calmly and steadily destroying enemies.

This thrilling and special technique of multitasking, conducting both combat and magic simultaneously, was called 'Concurrent Chanting'.

Those who could flexibly use this skill were extremely rare experts, even among high-class adventurers.

It was equivalent to defusing a bomb with both hands while fighting, a dangerous technique that everyone knew was incredibly difficult to master.

But once mastered, even rearguard mages who typically required protection or someone's protection in battle could transform into mobile artillery that roamed the entire battlefield, becoming nightmares that haunted their enemies—a one-man army.

Now, in front of Loki Familia's members, there was such a formidable presence demonstrating this special technique.

"Arcs Ray!"

As Riezel deftly dodged another stream of acid shot, swiftly unleashing his magic to knock down yet another worm, the top executives of Loki Familia who watched this spectacle were utterly stunned.

Attacking, dodging, moving, chanting—Riezel handled four actions simultaneously, yet there was no sign of disorder in his magic. It was calmly unleashed, hitting one worm after another.

This scene left not only others but even Lefiya, who had always been with him, astonished.

Such proficient, calm, stable, and diversified concurrent chanting, even Lefiya had only seen it in her mentor, Riveria.

Thanks to this, Riezel alone overwhelmed the horde of worm monsters that rushed forward like war chariots, causing explosions to continuously erupt at the entrance of the passage, shattering the ceiling and walls into fragments piled up together.

*AAAKKKKKK—!!!*

The worm monsters growled in anger. Not only were they forced back by grand explosions time and again, but they were also hindered by the piled-up rubble.

"Rubble?" Finn's eyes light up, then shouted to Riezel. "There it is! Riezel! Hit above!"

Hearing that, Riezel paused, and shortly afterward, understood Finn's meaning. Without delay, he dashed like the wind, narrowly avoiding another acid shot, and raised his hand to cast short-chant magic that he had used countless times before.

"Arcs Ray!"

*BOOOM!!!*

This time, the tracking light arrow didn't hit the monsters but struck the ceiling, shattering it right at the entrance of the passage.

*Rumble—*

As a result, countless rubble fell, crashing to the ground. Gradually piling up, they formed a huge pile of stones, blocking the passage entirely.

*AAAAAKKKKK—!!!*

The worm monsters screamed, attempting to charge forward but failed.

The continuously falling rocks eventually completely blocked the entire passage, trapping the horde of worm monsters on the other side.

The roaring noise gradually diminished and soon disappeared completely.

"Yatta!" Tiona cheered.

"Captain!" Tione ran toward Finn's direction.

"Did we make it...?" Gareth breathed a sigh of relief.

"Fuck! At least we're rid of those disgusting shits." Bete spat in disdain.

Only Ais ran towards Riezel's direction.

"Are you okay?" Ais quickly asked and stared at his body intensely.

"I'm fine." Riezel shook his head, calmly setting Lefiya down from his arms.

"Mr. Riezel, for you." Lefiya quickly rummaged through her backpack, taking out a mind recovery potion and handing it to him.

It was her instinctive move.

In Lefiya's eyes, Riezel had just released so much magic that his mind was surely depleting fast.

"Ahh..."

After handing over the potion, she just realized that he might not actually need a mind recovery potion. With his highest-rank 'Spirit Healing' development ability, even if he carelessly cast magic, it was far from depleting his mind.

This made her feel a bit awkward. For a moment, she didn't know whether to continue offering the potion or retract it.

"Thanks."

Seeing Lefiya's awkwardness, Riezel smiled and accepted the mind recovery potion from her hand.

"Mr. Riezel..." Lefiya looked at him with a mix of gratitude and admiration. 'Indeed, Mr. Riezel is like Miss Ais! He seemed cold on the surface but was actually a kind and thoughtful person!'

The elf glanced at Riezel and then at Ais beside him, feeling a sense of double joy.

At this moment, Finn and the others finally caught up.

"Is everyone okay?" Finn glanced at everyone.

Everyone shook their heads one after another, except for Bete, who smirked.

"We had a narrow escape, but this guy we're dragging along might not make it."

Bete was, of course, referring to Raul, slung over his back.

"Ugh... urgh..." Raul unconsciously groaned, his body still emitting smoke and a foul odor, looking very miserable.

"Why aren't you guys helping him recover?" Tiona was getting anxious.

"Lefiya, elixir." Tione urged.

"Here!" Lefiya immediately took out an elixir from her backpack.

"Give it to me." Gareth took it, pulled open the bottle cap, and poured the potion over Raul's body.

"We've lost all our items..." Finn sighed and shook his head. "Raul is the supporter of our party, but unfortunately, he got drenched by those monsters' acid. Look at him now; everything on his body is basically impossible to survive, all instantly dissolved."

"All of it?" Tione was stunned.

"Yeah..." Bete said through gritted teeth. "Not just our items, even our weapons got dissolved. Those fucking monsters are basically the bane of close combatants like us."

Upon closer inspection, whether it was Finn, Gareth, or Bete, their weapons were all gone. Especially Bete, his boots were still emitting smoke, obviously completely dissolved.

"Thank goodness I didn't charge in and hack at them..." Tiona's forehead was dripping with sweat.

Even Riezel had his eyes twitched.

No choice.

Finn's, Gareth's, and Bete's weapons weren't ordinary equipment; each one was almost first-class equipment, and it was basically impossible to obtain them for less than a hundred million valis on the market.

Now they were all dissolved, the cost of loss would be quite hefty.

"I messed up this time..." Finn said in reflection. "If we had a mage in our party, our situation would definitely be much better."

Dealing with those worm monsters could only be done from far away as Riezel did. Otherwise, once you got close, your weapons would dissolve.

Injuring those worm monsters in close proximity was the same as injuring yourself. Finn's mistake was not having a mage in his party, leaving them helpless against those worm monsters. They had no other choice but to flee.

"Thanks to you this time, Riezel." Finn shifted his mood and looked at Riezel with a grateful expression. "It's really impressive how you did concurrent chanting so effortlessly."

Riezel only gave a slight smile, appearing calm in response to Finn's praise.

Indeed, concurrent chanting was a sophisticated skill, but its main core trick was actually quite simple.

It was all about keeping a calm mind.

As long as your mind was calm and could stay composed in the face of danger, achieving concurrent chanting wasn't as difficult as it seemed. A bit of practice was all it took.

Riezel had a natural advantage in this aspect.

Facing imminent danger, he never panicked or got nervous. Instead, he became more excited and thrilled, probably because of the circumstances of his previous life that made him this way.

Therefore, while concurrent chanting might seem like an advanced technique to others, for him, it was almost like a natural thing.

This made Riezel not particularly proud or happy with accomplishing concurrent chanting. Even when praised by Finn and looked at admiringly by others, he didn't make a big deal out of it.

"Let's quickly head back to the camp."

More concerned with the situation at hand, Riezel changed the topic.

Finn also understood his implication.

"...Is the camp in danger?" Finn's expression turned serious.

""The camp in danger?""

Everyone was equally surprised.

"I have a bad feeling, feel like something is going to happen over there." Riezel said calmly to everyone.

Of course, this was just a way to brush off some questions. In reality, he was sure that something had happened at the camp.

During this expedition, Loki Familia encountered a new species of monster, facing many irregulars that could devour even the strong dragon, Cadmus. This was an incident mentioned in the original work.

After confirming that this expedition matched the one mentioned in the original work, Riezel was almost certain that the camp, like their current situation, had been attacked by these monsters.

"Oy, is this for real or what?" Bete asked, somewhat skeptical.

"Don't tell me these monsters could actually go to the safe floor, climb down from the 51st Floor to the 50th Floor?" Tiona blurted out something beyond her wildest imagination.

"Strengthened species have this uncontrollable craving for magic stones, so they often cross floors to devour other monsters to get stronger or even attack adventurers carrying magic stones. We've been slaying monsters and collecting magic stones all the way here, and all those magic stones are piled up in the camp..."

Tione said her assumption while biting her nails, causing a widespread sense of unease among everyone.

"Don't say that..." Finn said solemnly. "My thumb is throbbing in pain... Let's get back as soon as possible."

Everyone agreed and nodded simultaneously.

Without a word, they all started running toward their camp location.

*Psssttt—*

At the same time, the pile of rocks blocking the passage began emitting black smoke, gradually dissolving and revealing the slowly emerging bodies of yellow-green worms.

A life-and-death race against time was about to begin.