Chapter 10: Mana Clouds

'A player? He wants to turn me into an Undead? Has he seen what just happened?', these words echo in Alice's foggy mind. She tries to face Solol, hoping that it's all a twisted joke.

"Oh, thanks for the cooperation." he pulls out a bronze revolver with magic bullets—each bulleto emits a strong green glow.

She raises her arms in desperation, "W-WAIT! WAIT!", Solol only responds with an irritated grunt. "Why are you doing this? I don't want to become an Undead—"

"Not my problem." he pulls the trigger, shooting at the player—who narrowly dodges the projectile. Her audacity further disturbs the Necromancer, "Hey! You know how long it takes to make one of these?!"

The swordsman stares at him and screams angrily "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"What's so wrong about having a badass Zombie Army? Be thankful, freckles, you know how many people would kill just to have your opportunity?"

"Lower than zero? I am not an NPC, and even if I was, it would still be inhuman! You have no idea what your slaves suffer from."

"Slaves? Thanks to me, they will live forever. And in return, they obey me, it's an equivalent exchange. For example: Hey idiots, see this girl with a sword? Whoever rips her head off gets to be my right hand!"

Like machines, 6 Undeads advance towards the player. Not even giving her time to lift her sword.

And then… All the present Undeads fall to the ground and disintegrate—including those carrying Solol, making him fall to the ground. "Ouch! What the hell was this?!"

<'Necromancer' was nerfed: 55% increase in the amount of mana required for skills, their Undeads are now unable to use Berserk.>

<'Whisper Tamer' bugs were fixed.>

Seeing the message along with his practically null mana, he can only murmur "Shit......…". And in the blink of an eye, Alice was before him with a furious look. "HOLY— I mean…" he points his gun at her head "HA! I don't need an army to deal with you!"

The swordsman merely slaps Solol's hand, throwing his weapon to the ground. And then punches his face, easily knocking him down. He writhes on the ground while trying to contain the blood in his nose.

In muffled words, he yells "URGH! That was unnecessary, I was going to surrender!"

"You still deserved it."

"NO I DIDN'T! I put everything into mana, it hurts too much! ARGH MY NOSE!"

She puts her hand on her face stressed, murmuring to herself "Goddammit… I've wasted a lot of time thanks to this idiot, how I'm going to find that elf?"

"You mean the pink-haired one?"

"Yes— Wait!" she pulls the player by the collar "How do you know that? Have you seen her?!"

"Well, I heard some of these knights talking about a runaway elf. Is she a criminal or something? There are like, dozens of them looking for her."

"Of course not! Well, I guess… But Sophie is also a player, and you're going to help me find her." Alice takes the revolver and stores it in her inventory "Or you can test your luck, your choice."

If looks could kill, Alice would already be 6 feet under. The player who once had a powerful army, has now been reduced to a mere doormat. He gets up and grunts reluctantly agreeing to help the swordsman.

In a sarcastic tone, Alice repeats the Necromancer's words "Thanks for the cooperation." she points to her own eyes "You are technically a mage, right? You should have magical vision, so look around until you find Sophie."

"You lack a brain? I'm only level 6, my range is very low, how am I supposed to find someone specific in this cavern?"

"She can't be far away, I heard her voice coming from here."

Even without any confidence, Solol uses [Mana Vision], the iris of his eyes emit a blue glow. From his point of view, he only sees several 'mana clouds' scattered around the environment, most likely belonging to some creatures or knights in the chamber. But unfortunately, they all look the same to him, making it practically impossible to find a specific target.

He turns to Alice shrugging his shoulders, "I'm feeling the mana of dozens of living beings, but I don't know which one is your friend. Well, I tried. Can I have my gun now?"

"Of course not. You said those guys were after her, right? We just need to find one of them and ask a few 'questions'." As she vocalizes her plan, she carefully places the sleeping Fedora on her head—the irritation of Solol is immediately replaced by pure confusion upon seeing the girl putting a disgusting and sticky slime in her hair.

The two advance through the cavern, Solol goes first—at Alice's request, who follows behind him.

"So, do you have any plan? Or are we just going to walk up to them and say: 'Yo dudes, have you seen an Elf with Cotton Candy hair?'" Solol asks, with an evident tone of sarcasm in his voice.

She pauses for a moment, reflecting on the possibility of having to confront something different from creatures: humans. If what the cowboy hat said is true, a peaceful encounter would be practically impossible. But, even being NPCs, this thought still disturbs Alice's head.

Until her distraction is interrupted with the snapping of Solol's fingers. Before allowing her to even formulate a sentence, he makes a silence gesture while pointing to the Northwest.

Fearing that they have arrived at their destination, she stares in the direction with her weapon ready—and finds absolutely nothing. Alice looks annoyedly at Solol, who is confused by her reaction.

He whispers "Look properly you idiot, they're right there—"

A large black spot emerges from the fog, and as quick as lightning, collides with the Necromancer's head, instantly knocking him unconscious. Alice jumps back with the scare, and can contemplate the real form of that 'black spot'.

It was another Aerion Knight, looking at least 30 years old, but unlike the others, he was not wearing armor, but a tank top—with the symbol of Aerion—and long white pants. He was bald and had a huge scar on the back of his head, and his right eye is glass.

"Oops. Not a monster." says the unconcerned knight, as if he had just forgotten something at home. Alice runs to the ally to check his injuries, which luckily were not serious. He notices the armor that both were wearing "So you guys survived. What were your names again? Ah, who cares? It's me, Captain Barry. No, wait, it's Larry! No…" he slaps his head a few times, as if trying to turn on a computer by hitting it, "Oh! I remember, Gary! Or was it Mary? No wait, that's my sister's name, no, cousin. Anyway, before dying, Douglas told me that he felt the elf's energy outside the chamber, which means we've been walking in circles here for nothing."

Having ensured Solol's health, she shifts her attention to the bald man. She says while trying to maintain a firm soldier's voice, "Uh— sir, what happened to everyone else?"

"They died. All of them. And you know the worst? The fucker who killed them is still alive! Damn the mission, we're not leaving without that thing's head!"

"Do you mean the mission to capture the elf? Isn't it important?"

Suddenly, he becomes serious "Actually, no. Our mission was another, have you forgotten?"

Nervousness takes over Alice's speech "Uh— Well… Of course that…"

"HELP!" it was Sophie's voice.

In the distance, it was possible to see Sophie's silhouette in the fog. And like a torpedo, the guy jumps with his fist in front—using his skill [Fullmetal] to temporarily transform his arm into metal.

[Perfect Block]

[Stamina: 10/75]

Seeing her friend in danger, Alice advanced with a speed that surprised even herself and by pure instinct defended the attack, throwing the bald knight back.

Even surprised and receiving the impact of his own attack, his only reaction is to shake his arm to alleviate the slight pain he felt. "I can't believe they let an elf sympathizer join the army. But for the courage, I'll put in the record that you died to save the squadron. You're welcome!"

Alice shows no concern or fear, after all, with Sophie supporting her with long-range attacks, they can overwhelm the bald knight and easily defeat him. "Sophie, keep your distance and—"

But, what she didn't expect, was that she would receive a blow from behind. Feeling an immense pain in the abdomen, she looks down and sees the blade of a sword piercing her belly and her blood gushing out.

"Sophie…?"