Mission: Return

[Jaque POV]

"You're bad at teaching!"

Have you ever gotten that anger when someone clearly doesn't appreciate what you've done for them and you just want to give them a knuckle sandwich for their efforts? You know what? This is actually a good 'teaching' opportunity.

"Alright. Arius, let me teach you something else then. I'll teach you to appreciate your teachers!"

"W-wait, why are you coming closer?"

"Oh, don't worry, Arius. It will all be over in an instant!"

"Wait! WAIT!! AAAAA-"

It was not over in an instant.

...

After a very satisfying and therapeutic teaching session, Arius was finally calm enough for me to show him how to extract the Fonotavic dust.

"Alright, let me show you how to get your precious Fonotavic Dust.

"Owkay..."

Laying the cracked-opened body of the stone monster in front of me over a piece of cloth, I took out an ocean-blue ball from the rock before slowly breaking all the pieces of the monster.

"First, you gotta take out this mana core. It's kind of like the monster's heart. It's a very useful material and usually the most valuable part of monsters that have them. You'll learn more about it from Master Doherty. Secondly, we're going to actually start extracting the Fonotavic Dust. These monsters use Fonotavic Dust to move their bodies, like our nerves. So you just need to crack open the rocks, and you'll see these beautiful veins. Just like this."

Breaking open a larger piece of the monster, many thin lines of sparkling silver dust are visible, they are spread out almost like the veins of a leaf. Taking my pickaxe, I gently scraped the veins until all the dust had fallen on the cloth below.

After repeating the process a few more times with Arius' help, I was left with a bag full of Fonotavic dust and tiny rock fragments.

"Alright, once it gets to this point, it's all we can do here. We got to go back to the workshop to separate the rocks out of the dust."

"Alright! What are we going to do now?"

"This small bag of dust is sufficient for now, plus I think they'll some extra at the workshop. Let's go back now."

"Ok, I'm tired too."

"Let's hurry up then."

...

...

'What is going on? Why am I picking up the presence of more monsters?"

As we walked back, I felt more and more uneasy. Ever since the goblin encounter in the forest awoke me from my slump, I started using my skill again. It is quite a unique skill but I never used it for its actual purpose, more for a vague sensory skill.

The skill is called Mana of the Brave. Essentially, the more enemies are around me and closer to me, the greater my mana generation becomes. It may sound pretty strong but before I awakened my other skill, I never needed to use my mana. Plus, even if I somehow gained mana spells, I would need to get up and personal with the enemy to utilize the skill. I would get slaughtered as most spells need some time to charge up.

The excess mana made my body more sensitive to my surroundings, I could hear a lot more sounds, the sounds of many things moving. There were so many sounds that they couldn't be fellow adventurers.

'What's going on? Normally, these monsters are smart enough to stay away from our settlement.'

"Big Brother? Why is there mana oozing out of you like those monsters?"

"It's a racial skill I have. Whenever I'm anxious, I start oozing mana."

"Why are you anxious?"

"I just don't want to get ambushed like in the forest, ok? Also, don't try to understand or ask about someone's skills, it's rude and people could get angry. Also, don't tell anyone else about your skill as well."

"Hmmm, Ok."

'Man, why is nothing sticking to the norm? First the goblins, now this. Perhaps the Prophecy isn't all superstition.'

...

As we continued back on our path, having many close encounters with large groups of stone monsters, we finally reached the exit of our branching tunnel. With our backs against the walk, I gesture to Arius to stay quiet as I slowly go to take a peek at what goes on outside. Taking a peek over a rock, the sight that was presented would strike fear in any normal adventurer.

In front of me were hundreds of stone monsters, all of them constantly moving forward with a steady stream of them coming from within the fog.

'It seems like monsters from the Superior Zone are leaking through.'

So far, there were generally three sizes of stone monsters present. The small ones like what Arius faced took up the majority. There were then ones between the size 1m to 10m in diameter. They would be the elites in the Inferior Zone and common folk in the Superior Zone. Then there are the largest ones. With diameters of over 10m, they would be considered the elites from the Superior Zone.

Due to the erratic movement of mana with S.T.A.'s, there are often special regions that appear from these special mana phenomenons. In this S.T.A., it's the fog. Separating the Inferior Zone and the Superior Zone, it's a layer of steam and dust, isolated and manaless, stuck in between two large mana currents that flow on both sides. It's an area that the stone monsters avoid as the large mana currents mess with their bodies and the manaless nature of the fog prevents them from absorbing mana, rendering them immobile.

'Something must have disturbed the mana flow, the fog is a lot clearer than before.'

'We just to get back to the portal.'

Thankfully, it seemed like our defences were up to code. I see a bright blue dome surrounding the settlement, acting as a barrier against all the stone monsters attacking.

Returning back into the safety of the cave, I go back to Arius, who was still clueless about what's going on.

...

[Arius POV]

'Man, I wonder what's taking Big Brother Jaque so long. At least, my eyes are not tingly anymore.'

'Arius, don't panic.'

'What do you mean, Dakria? I'm not panicking.'

Seeing Big Brother Jaque coming over, I quickly run up to him. Before I could say anything though, he covered my mouth with his hand.

"Arius, the situation in this S.T.A. is dire. Don't scream, don't make a sound. There are hundreds of monsters out there right now."

!!!!!!

With my mouth still covered, my eyes widen as I look past Big Brother's back. Of course, I trust that he wouldn't lie to me but I had to see it for myself.

RRMMMMMBBBBB!!!!

Making my way to the entrance of the cave, I hear a loud rumble and look to see a giant stone monster walking away.

'Dakria, w-what's going on?'

'Seems like the mana flow was disturbed along with something forcing the monsters toward the portal.'

'What are we going to do?!!!'

'I think you Big Brother already has a plan.'

With hope burning in my chest, I run back into the cave and look up at Big Brother, he always has a plan.

"Big Brother, you got a plan right?"

"I do. While it ain't pretty, we don't have much of an option."

"Don't worry, Big Brother. I believe in you!"

"Thanks, Arius. Even in this dire situation, you bring a smile to my face."

Big Brother Jaque flashed me a smile before returning back to his serious face and begins explaining the plan.

"The barrier over there can hold out for at most 3 days, it prevents monsters from coming in but allows anyone with their adventurer card to come in. So our job is just to get there...The key to our plan is taking advantage of the stone monster's weakness."

"We're going to kill them all!"

"No, of course not, not that weakness. We're going to take advantage of their senses. The primary sense of the stone monsters is hearing while sight is a weak secondary sense. So we're going to slowly crawl our way toward safety, you just need to follow where I'm going while making as little sound as possible. The stone monsters shouldn't see us when the barrier is like a fire in the night."

"We're going to c-crawl."

"Yep, don't worry. You WILL make it, I'll make sure of it. You stay here for now, I'll go take a look at a path to take."

With that, Big Brother Jaque went back toward the entrance leaving me by myself to accept the situation we were in.

"Dakria, I don't think I'm ready for this."

'Don't worry, when the time comes, you will be.'

"W-what if we die?"

'Now now, keep the tears in. You and your Big Brother won't die. He certainly has some tricks and so do I.'

"Yo, Arius! Why are you glooming in the corner? Don't worry, we can do this. Let's get going."

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Name: Jaque

Race: Demi-onic Salamander

Age: 13

Official Titles: 2-star Copper craftsman, 4-star Copper Adventurer

Titles:???

Stats:

...

Skills:

Mana of the Brave: Increased mana generation when the user is closer to a group of enemies. Increase scales with the strength and numbers of the enemy. Excess mana will simply leak out of the body.

Mana Combustion: Allows for the capability of combusting the user's mana. The flames produced can be changed based on the amount/quality of mana combusted.

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