The Search

The third area was large spring . Land was minimal here and ahead was spring water . The water was clear and one could see beneath it. No creature resided here.

The depth of the spring water in itself wasn't much as it only reached Mia's waist . The spring water however wasn't completely normal.

It had a high concentration of spiritual energy . This would be a literal safe haven for both martial artists and mages but the current level of concentration was so high that saint level being could only withstand 3 minutes before they exploded from within let alone other lower level beings.

Every rank had the ability to absorb and hold a certain amount of mana in their aperture . The stronger one got the more amount of spiritual energy a person could absorb and store. And if the person exceeded the said limits , they would burst in a small explosion leaving a bloody mess or if they are lucky to survive get completely crippled.

Of course their was exceptions to this . Such as Mia the world's ' Protagonists ' and Cole , an anomaly.

Gena and Priscilla stood dumbfounded near the spring as they saw Cole's floating body drift across as Mia caught it. 

What dumbfounded the two was their capacity to hold mana. One could always feel limitations when absorbing and at that moment so could the people close two you. However both Cole and Mia seemed to have an endless aperture as their bodies greedily absorbed the springs energy.

" This " Gena was at a loss of words.

Suddenly the holographic video once again appeared . 

" Well this is quite interesting. " The strange person said as Mia dragged Cole's body to land . She gave a small slight glare at Gena to which she responded with a sheepish smile before directing her attention to the holograph.

The person gave a wide and amusing smile .

" Well fellow adventurers , it seems another will be joining us. " She said and just then a portal appeared . The person who entered through the portal made everyone shake in fear. 

Especially Gena who this new person directed her killing intent. This was Jasmine , the former queen of the demons. She wore a simple battle armor designed for female soldiers.

Gena's battle instincts kicked and she quickly equipped her spear and swung it as if hitting something. 

BANG!! 

Gena was slightly thrown back , her foot touching the water. Her energy surged from master to grandmaster as the spring greedily diffused its concentrated energy into her.

' Of course , my aperture is peak saint level and when placed in this spring my body will convert the spiritual energy to mana . However I should not be complacent because my body is still not accustomed to converting such large spiritual energy to mana at a go.

Suddenly her battle instincts kicked in and she once again swung the spear . It intercepted the invisible force 

BANG!!

' She is a mage so close combat is her weakness. ' She thought.

She threw her spear towards Jasmine . A spear temporary fused that could one shot a peak level saint was easily dodged and caught by Jasmine.

Jasmine darkly chuckled .

" You think am a mage ?" She asked .

Gena's eyes widened as Jasmine sped up towards her .

" Not good " Gena said as she had little time to react at Jasmine speed. 

 Boom !!

A large boulder hit Jasmine

She flew to the spring. Her energy spiked but she felt if she stayed longer than 7 minutes here, she would die . 

She felt another incoming rock and she dodged it easily before looking at the thrower . 

' Tch am not used to fighting multiple people at once . This will be a problem . ' She thought. 

Gena used this opportunity to throw the spear but once again Jasmine caught it. But just then she summoned her strongest magical attack [ Lightning god ] 

A flash of lightning hit the spear followed by the accompanying sound of thunder.

Jasmine gritted in pain. The attack was obviously laced with divine attributes. If this attack had landed thrice on Jake especially after being weakened she was certain he would have died.

Her not using that attack on Jake was proof that she couldn't spam it. 

However this lady who tried to kill her son was terribly matched with her. 

Jasmine bore the pain as she utilized the mana that she was hit with and directed it to her spear. 

Gena's eyes widened . That was physically impossible . You couldn't just take someone's magical attack and redirect it using only your ki . Even someone using magic couldn't achieve this.

She once again felt danger. She jumped sideways and...

SWISH!!

BOOM!!!

She narrowly dodged the spear as it hit the cave. A huge chunk of the cave wall of about 40 metre radius was destroyed leaving debris flying and a giant web like dent. Gena knew clearly that the cave was quite dense as if it were normal the cave would be long gone with the first trial . 

So destroying a large potion of the wall with a single throw was disturbing to think off .

" Auntie watched out !! " Gena felt someone from her side . It was Jasmine and she had surrounded her fist with qi . Gena felt death looming in . Was this how she was going to end ?

Bang !!!

A shockwave erupted . Gena was thrown to land rolling to the side due to the shockwave created.

Mia and Priscilla held their ground as debris flew everywhere .

They looked to see what had gone own . Cole had stopped the punch. His hand was fully covered in thick coated mana .

However something was terribly long with him . His ears had elongated to that of an elf and his eyes had turned scarlet . However what came as terribly wrong was not his new features but rather his grin . 

Mia felt dread looking at that face . Her entire core shivered but she wasn't the only one Gena and Priscilla too felt it . How could they not ? 

His face had contorted into a maniacal grin . His teeth currently looked as sharp and full of bloodthirst as it could ever be . His eyes showed a hint of playfulness and sadism .

Generally his whole expression conveyed that a sadistic torture session was about to occur