Chapter 21: Adventuring Ends

ARTHUR LEYWIN'S POV:Mistral conjured an absurd amount of wind mana into her mouth and fired it towards the ceiling, completely obliterating the dungeon to the top floor, creating a 14 to 15-meter-long hole. Sunlight fell through as everything turned to dust.Jasmine and I looked dumbfounded at her astonishing power, our mouths agape.Mistral commented with a smirk, "Close your mouths. You might catch flies."Her words snapped Jasmine and me from our amazement, and we both looked at her like 'Seriously?'"You could have obliterated that monster in one swoop, all alone, and we had to fight for a whole hour to kill it, exhausting all our mana," I said still trying to process, how something like this was even possible and if according to what she had said about her being diminished due to being sealed for so long. Just how strong was she in her prime?Suddenly a black shadow covered the entire sky as darkness spread over the dungeon, Jasimine pulled out her draggers despite being exhausted, but I rested a hand on her shoulder and told her, "It's okay, looks like Sylvie arrived." Jasmine relaxed hearing that it was just Sylvie. I got off of Mistral and stood up waiting for SylvieSoon, the black spot that covered the sky and the sun cleared as my bond, Sylvie, a majestic, over 10-meter-tall dragon became clear. She made a round in the sky until she spotted us and landed beside me with an insane speed as the wind blew on our faces, fortunately, I had restored enough mana using mana rotation to reinforce my body and not blow away from the force of the gale of wind.I let out a whistle. "Wow, Sylv. You gained weight... and height, and width."She lowered her head and rubbed her face with me, 'I missed you'Haha, I missed you Sylv, I told her mentally, while patting her head."So, shall we get your party members out?" Mistral asked, bringing us back to the moment."Yeah, we need to hurry, though. It worked out well that Sylvie came when she did. Jasmine, you and Mistral should go to the guild hall and report what happened, also get some medics. Sylvie and I will get Elijah and others out." I told her, I didn't have much mana left in my body and going there with Sylvie won't be a good idea. But, since Mistral has already been reported as Jasmine's bond, although in her smaller, human-sized form, she would be able to get there fast."But, would you be safe? I mean the blast was pretty big, some stronger mana beast would probably come to check here.""I don't think, you need to be worried about me," Saying that I looked at Sylv, "Even if they do come, I think Sylvie would be enough to scare them just from her looks." In response to my statement, Sylvie let out a huge roar, as the entire dungeon shook, and more rubbles fell from the upper floor.Jasmine also thinking it was dumb, just climbed on Mistral and they both disappeared in the mist."Let's get the core and get our party members out Sylv." I moved to where the piles of vines left from the core of the elderwood guardian were. The vines that were burnt were almost as hot as molten lava. I conjured some water to cool down the vines and took out the core.Holding the core, I marveled at its size and energy. It was almost the size of a handball and pulsed with a deep green light. Carefully, I stowed it away and turned my attention to the shield where our party members were.Sylvie's keen eyes scanned the area as I approached the earthen shield Elijah had conjured. There was some heavy debris that probably fell during our battle with the elderwood guardian covering it, but otherwise, there didn't seem to be any damage done to it. With Sylvie's help, we were able to remove the debris without much effort.What surprised me was Elijah's spell. Despite the weight, there was no significant damage, only some cracks and holes, which I assumed he made to allow air to pass. Not thinking much about it, I touched the shield, dispelling the magic.What I saw was unexpected. There was a set of vertical metal rods lined next to each other coming out from the ground and a set of horizontal rods connected to the vertical ones, likely what supported the earthen shield.Elijah was unconscious, probably because of the aura Jasmine emitted when she released the first phase of her beast will.I remembered Virion telling me that only dwarves could manipulate metal, and even they couldn't conjure it. Elijah was the only one besides Reginald and me who could control earth magic. Seeing Reginald's state, it couldn't have been him, meaning Elijah did it. But how was that even possible? Bewildered, I wondered if Elijah had dwarven blood, allowing him to conjure metal. I shook my head, dismissing the thought. There were still many things I didn't know about this world, and speculating wouldn't help."Alright, Sylv, let's get them out of here. Do you think you can break the bars?" I asked. Sylvie let out a low grunt, dissatisfied that I doubted her, and crushed the bars with her legs without even reinforcing them with mana."Holy... looks like you've gotten stronger physically too, huh?" I said, proud of how strong she had become.'Hmph, don't underestimate Sylvie,' she replied telepathically."Haha, okay, okay, I get it. You are stronger. Now, get back into your cat form. We don't want anyone to know you're a dragon."'Okay,' she said, transforming into a small black cat with big yellow eyes and a long tail.I checked to see if anyone was injured badly. They were mostly safe with some bruises and light bleeding. The one with the most damage was Brald. He not only lost his right hand but his legs were mangled with vines of the elderwood guardian. I poured a small amount of water on everyone to wake them up, except for Brald.They were all shocked to see the 15-meter-wide hole directly in the sky. I told them that I would tell them after treating Brald. I had left Brald unconscious because I was going to remove the mangled vines from his legs. Despite being unconscious, he grunted from time to time. I used one of the three green healing crystals from my gloves, which my mother gave me, to heal his legs. While his legs were not back to normal, the first aid was almost done. If medics arrived on time, his legs should be treated back to normal.I decided not to wake Brald and waited for Jasmine, the guild hall members, and the medics to arrive.Once they were all present, everyone began asking about what had transpired, including details about Sylvie and the enormous hole that Mistral had created. I explained how Jasmine and I had fought the elderwood guardian, utilizing her beast will to ultimately defeat it. To cover for Mistral's true nature, I attributed the massive hole to the collision of our combined attack with that of the elderwood guardian. This explanation left everyone in awe of the power of an S-class mana beast.When I introduced Sylvie as my bond, they accepted it without question. I then brought out the elderwood guardian's core and suggested we could split the money after selling it at the guild hall. However, the group unanimously decided that Jasmine and I deserved the reward for our efforts and insisted I keep the core. I thanked them, and they expressed their gratitude for saving their lives, also thanking Elijah for his protective shielding. Elijah, clearly embarrassed, mumbled his appreciation.Given that it would take at least four hours for the message to be sent and for them to return, I planned to absorb some mana from the elderwood guardian's core. With the help of this powerful core and my body already assimilated with Sylvia's will, I expected to make at least half a recovery by the time they came back.~~A/N: With this the Adventuring Arc for this series comes to an end, I may make some one-shots from the time skips later when my brain has some free time. I won't be writing any of that Lucas bullsh*t and whole hearing thing, as most of you don't want copy-paste. The next chapter will take some time maybe a day to a week, depending on how soon I get 250 votes overall on the story. Jokes aside, I will be taking a week-long break to plan Xyrus's arc, but please like the chapters, it takes time and effort to make such chapters, and your votes are what keeps me motivated to write better. Comment anything you would like to see in future chapters.