Chapter 149 - The True Beginning (12)

Three hours had passed since Basil started fighting the horde alone, but Caesar hadn't finished the Barrier yet. Despite so, Basil didn't frown or complaint.

In truth, the Barrier had been finished half an hour ago. However, seeing that Basil held his ground well, Caesar had asked Basil whether he could be given some more time, so he could build a stronger Magic Barrier.

Basil's answer to it had been yes.

Due to that, Basil had been fighting ceaselessly for three hours. His stamina was already trained enough by his Ceaseless Battle with Caesar that lasted for three days straight before stopping to eat.

However, the amount of enemies were too much for him to fight leisurely. There were already many kinds of Demons arriving, and they were all troublesome to deal with.

Nightcrawlers, for example. They are a Lower Middle Class Demon that had a body of a 1 meter wide and 7 meters long worm, with sharp blades around its skin.

They bothered Basil, who was being ganged up on, the most; their ability to enter the ground was really dangerous

Basil had to constantly check the ground everytime to avoid getting attacked by them. It was Mana consuming, since he had to let the Spell active all the time.

Rumble.

The ground briefly shook, before a Nightcrawler emerged from the ground right behind Basil. All of the blades surrounding its skin were spinning, and it was ready to shred Basil with them.

However, even before it managed to graze him, a flying sword came at it and beheaded its head cleanly. It dropped to the ground lifelessly, and Basil was left unscathed.

Of course, killing it wasn't as easy as how it looked.

The spinning blades covering Nightcrawlers' skin are not only used for attack purpose, but also defense. Therefore, cutting right through them was difficult, if one didn't have a high quality weapon.

However, Basil, as someone with experience, knew how to kill it easily. Nightcrawler had around 130 to 170 segments. To kill them in one swoop, one needed to cut them right in their segment joints.

Of course, it doesn't mean cutting a random segment would kill them. Counted from their head, one needed to cut the thirteenth segment to kill them in one swoop.

If any other than that was cut, they would still be alive, and able to regenerate themselves.

Needless to say, one's meticulousness to quickly find the thirteenth segment was also needed. Basil, as a veteran, could spot it at a glance.

Still, it didn't make the situation any easier; nothing would be easy in fighting a horde of Demons alone.

Boom!

Basil's fist punched through the head of a Minotaur, and it quickly fell to the ground lifelessly. Not stopping to admire his strength even in a moment, Basil turned around and brandished his sword again.

Slash!

A Minotaur was beheaded, and Basil kicked the cut head as hard as he could toward a Gutter that was a few meters away from him.

The Minotaur's head hit the Gutter right in its chest, caving its chest, and throwing it back due to the momentum. It didn't take long, until the Gutter exploded its innards outward.

Quickly slashing his sword downward, Basil cleanly bisected a Goblin. Seeing another Minotaur ready to but him from the corner of his eyes, he quickly jumped back, and took a distance away from the crowd of Demons.

The Minotaur ended up butting the tunnel's wall.

Boom!

Basil clicked his tongue. "Tsk. I only have 6% Qi remaining. It's not even adequate to maintain Aura for the next five minutes. I still have around 20% Mana remaining, but the consumption rate is inefficiently great."

He looked down to his body; it was perfectly covered in the blood of the Demons he had killed. Of course, that wasn't where he paid his attention to. He was looking at the faint steam coming out of his body.

He had over-Reinforced his body with his inefficiently controlled Mana. Thus, his body was close to its limit.

Despite the pain his body was enduring though, he wasn't really bothered by it.

'Guide, how long can my body last until it lost its mobility?'

Instead, he made sure how long he could last.

[Ding!]

[Analyzing the Host's body ...]

[Given the current condition, the Host's body will last for, at the very least, another 20 minutes, before it completely lost its mobility. It is advised that the Host stopped pushing his body immediately.]

Basil frowned lightly. He had asked the Guide to confirm the calculation he had made. However, the Guide's calculation result was different than his. The Guide had assumed that the fatigue would leave Basil completely immobile.

Basil, in the other hand, was calculating the time needed until his muscles were completely ruptured: the moment when he would be truly immobile. In his calculation, there was at least 50 minutes until it happened.

In times like this, Basil chose to believe his calculation instead. Therefore, he would stop using Qi for the time being, and fight with his pure physical prowess. He would slowly recover his Qi, and use [Synchronization] once it was recovered.

Basil exhaled softly. "Huuh... This will be a hard fight." Despite saying so, he had a small smile on his face. "Let's test my limit."

Basil withdrew his twenty flying swords, and stopped using Qi. He undid the [Reinforcement] on his body to minimize the waste of Mana, before firming his stance on the ground.

Looking at the incoming crowd of Demons, his eyes gleamed incomprehensibly. They didn't look like they were usually; they were significantly more expressive than usual.

The feeling they were conveying was slightly surprising coming from someone like Basil.

It was excitement.

...

Randalvine Magic Institute, Randalvine City, Braxtein Kingdom.

More than a month had passed since Basil was trapped in the Dungeon. Iliana, as the one who was taking care of Deacon, had been pestered so many times to contact Basil through him.

She always tried contacting Basil through Deacon in every chance she had, but Basil always ignored her attempt to reach her. Therefore, whenever someone pestered her about it, she would gladly punch them right in the face.

They made her look like she didn't even care about Basil's survival, and she was annoyed about it.

Still, despite not being able to reach Basil for the past month, the plan to rescue him was close to realisation. It wouldn't be long until they put the plan into action.

Iliana didn't have any thought to look down on Basil or anything. However, she was slightly amazed at Basil for not only being able to last that long, but also finding it more more fruitful than spending his time at Magic Institute.

She didn't know what Basil was actually doing with the Kinslayer. However, she was sure Basil would be fine ... Until today.

—Take my family with you to Randalvine.

That was the message Basil had conveyed through his [Link] with Deacon. Iliana didn't know what was actually happening, since Basil didn't give anymore explanation than that. She told Deacon to contact Basil, but he didn't respond.

"What is your Master doing, little guy?" Iliana turned to Deacon.

Woof!

Deacon shook his head negatively. Basil also didn't tell him what was going on.

Iliana clicked her tongue. "Tsk. He is too secretive for his own good."

Despite so, she decided to trust Basil and do him the favor. As she coincidentally hadn't taken any mission yet, she could easily take a leave from the Institute for a few days.

Still, she needed permission from Alcott that she was confident he would give her.

Upon arriving at his office however, Iliana was met with someone she rarely saw in Alcott's office. It was a young man with black hair, an average yet still attractive face, lean build, and a height of 181 centimeters.

The young man was also one of the students in Randalvine Magic Institute, but his maturity and stern face made people respect him like an adult. This young man was no other than the Student Council's President, Darius Ashbury.

"Good day, Iliana." Darius nodded at Iliana.

"What are you doing here, Darius?"

Darius glanced at Deacon who was walking beside Iliana briefly, before saying, "Why don't you sit down first?"

Iliana shrugged, and sat herself right beside him, in front of Alcott. Seeing that, Darius started talking. Alcott was just sitting there silently, as if anticipating something.

"Just a day ago, the palace received a report from the patrolling Mage that half of the Monster population in Ba-22 disappeared mysteriously. Today, a group of Royal Mages are sent to BA-22 to investigate this phenomenon."

Iliana quirked her eyebrow. "Your point?"

"Many of the Kingdom's officials suspect this might be a sign of an Obelisk Outbreak. Therefore, 200 of our Institute's best students are given the honor to aid the Kingdom by watching over the vulnerable areas."

"Well, look at that. We have to follow the whim of those old farts now?" Iliana snorted in disdain. "Let me guess, I am obligated to do it?"

"As expected of you, you get it pretty quick." Darius nodded his head. "However, that's not my point. This phenomenon also means that any Institute's external activity will be stopped. In other words, the plan to rescue Basil will be also put on hold."

"What are you talking about?" Iliana's eyes turned cold. "Just because BA-22 is close to the Dungeon Basil is trapped in, it doesn't become the reason to abandon him."

Darius shook his head. "You misunderstood me, Iliana. I said to put the plan on hold. I don't want to abandon my fellow student either." He looked at Iliana seriously. "However, at times like this, everyone is in danger; everyone's safety is our priority."

"That's funny." Iliana sneered. "Standing by at a random place while anticipating something that might never happen can never be a priority in my book."

Seeing that he couldn't convince Iliana the otherwise, Darius nodded his head lightly, and stood up. "I think I have conveyed everything, Professor Alcott." He turned his head to Iliana again. "I believe in your professionalism, Iliana."

Then, he left the office.

Alcott mildly looked at Iliana, expecting an outburst from her. He waited silently for a few minutes, but Iliana was merely brushing Deacon's fur, while looking at him intently.

He was slightly terrified by the gaze if he was to be honest.

"Professor, I want to take a three days leave."

"Where—"

"Don't ask."

"Okay." In the end, Alcott couldn't stop Iliana. When he saw Iliana was about to exit his office, he reminded her, "Don't forget to return in time."

Iliana gave a light nod, and left Alcott's office.

Her mind had already pieced the puzzle together. Now she knew why Basil had asked her to take his family to Randalvine. Once again, Basil managed to amaze her. He was really ahead of his peers, quite literally.

With that being said, a chaos would truly happen.