23 Umbrella-shaped Cecropia

The distance between Levi's shuttle pod and the ruins of Irupax was almost 100 kilometres. It took more than five hours to reach their destination.

But it wasn't a peaceful journey. They had been attacked by the beasts multiple times. But every time they fought, Aiden took the back seat until the fight was over. It was natural that some of them were not happy with Aiden's approach.

"We're going to have a break here," Lyla said, taking out a mana potion and drinking it all.

The others did the same thing quickly. Aiden was different, though. While others need to buff their magic, Aiden didn't have a hard time keeping up his pace. With his agility of 50, he felt that others were too slow.

"Captain, shouldn't everyone be helping to prevent the beast from attacking?" Elijah said again.

Aiden could understand what was going on here, and so did the others. Sara stole a glance at him, while Asher was acting like he didn't care about it.

Lyla wasn't an exception. She frowned, "What about it?"

"Why wasn't Aiden fighting at all?"

Rather than answering it, Lyla turned to Aiden, "I also want to know about it."

Aiden smiled at them, "Maybe you don't know that I can't use magic anymore." He pulled the shirt and showed them a deep scar in his abdomen. "How do you expect me to fight?"

"You can't use magic?" Sara sucked a cold breath.

"Then why are you even here?" Aiden wasn't sure if it was because she knew that Aiden couldn't use magic or any other reason, but now Elijah seemed more confident.

"Didn't you say that Owen is deadweight? You're more like that. "Elijah said," Lyla, you're required to cut him off from the team. Asher was going to be a better choice as an officer."

Aiden was just smiling without saying anything. Lyla, on the other hand, was also confused. She did not dare to believe that what Aiden had said was true, but the proof was in front of her.

'Then how could he have been exploring the mine? Could there not be a monster close to it?' The more Lyla thought about it, the more confused she became, 'there never was a case like that. Mines are bound to have at least one, if not more, grade B beast. Yet he's survived.'

"You are trying to tell me that you can't fight?" Lyla's voice was cold as usual.

"I have never said that?" Aiden smiled.

"Then what? Why are you not helping?"

"There was no condition in the mission that said I had to fight." Aiden shrugged his shoulders, angering Elijah more.

"Then what do you want? Free credit point?" Elijah yelled.

"You shouldn't scream in the forest." Aiden took a deep breath before saying, "If you want me to fight then assign me another mission."

"You, you." Elijah couldn't find the correct words to say. Before she could scream again Lyla stopped her again.

"Aiden. This is not the time to hold grudges over past events. One wrong step and we all could die. Stop joking and help during the fight."

"Grudge? Past events?" Aiden shook his head, "Do you think I'm kidding? I could have stayed in the shuttle pod and could have survived until the end of the task period. But I've come out to help you out, and you're telling me I'm joking?"

Aiden's smile grew bigger, "Pay me and I'm going to fight for you. Do you think I'm willing to cooperate with the people who wanted to kill me without payment?" Aiden looked straight at Lyla's eyes, "Do I look so forgiving?"

It wasn't just Elijah, even Lyla had a hard time to suppress the anger in her heart. She wanted to beat some sense into him.

'You idiot. Why didn't you check his condition first before letting him join the mission?' Lyla couldn't help but curse herself. And an awkward silence followed.

Aiden smiled and checked his belongings for the last time. There were a couple of energy bars, mana potions in his bag, and a spare blade. For some reason, he became fond of Adi's blade and kept it within the reach of his hand.

They left soon enough for the ruins. But the more Aiden closed, the uneasiness inside him became stronger. Whether it was for what the map showed or for any other reason, Aiden had no idea.

On the map, there were many red dots too closely clustered to count. And they were colliding with the thick blue line.

'There are people in the city. And the beasts?' Aiden had a hard time believing that there could be a human settlement deep in the forest. And they can survive for 20 years.

'But why aren't we stopping?'Aiden was confused. Though they were still one kilometre away from the city, Aiden could hear the battle cry of the humans and beasts.

"Have you ever come here?"

Aiden's question had surprised every one of them. Lyla turned to look at him but didn't provide him with an answer.

"If not then why are you going towards the fight? It will drag us into the fight" Aiden added. Still, there was no answer. Aiden asked, 'ESS, is there any record of the ruins of Irupax?'

[Previously, eight operatives had made contact with the ruined city of Irupax.]

'What happened to them?'

[Classified information.]

'Again classified? I am the 1st officer of the team.' But the ESS provided him with no answer. 'Could it be a Captain exclusive mission?' Aiden didn't know but he was tempted.

However, he had no intention of being careless. He only followed them because he wanted to find the location of the city.

Although he asked ESS for the location, ESS had refused to give him anything, saying it was classified information. This is the first time he's been given any information about the city.

'Do you want me to go into the city without knowing anything?' It was wrong to say Aiden wasn't frustrated but he couldn't help it, "Going by that way will be problematic."

This time Lyla didn't even turn towards him. He understood that Lyla had some kind of plan but he had no intention to follow them without knowing it.

'It will be better if I take a different way,' Aiden took a deep breath and said, "If you have a plan, then tell me. If you are not going to tell me then…"

Aiden couldn't finish his words and he had to jump back. 7 shadow jaguars attacked them out of the shadow.

[The host has activated innate skill [Light Foot]]

Two of the jaguars, who were pouncing toward Aiden, bit nothing but air. Other than Aiden, Lyla was the first to respond. In an instant, her whole body flared up, burning half of the jaguar that had attacked from the front.

Others were surprised for a while but soon assembled into formation. Asher and Lyla were both fire mages, so they had no problem attacking. Each time a jaguar approached them, it was either charred by Lyla's flame or burned by Asher [FireBall].

But there was no sign of an end to the number of jaguars. But the person who kept the whole situation under control was not Lyla, but Elijah.

Every time a jaguar appeared out of the shadow, it was cut half by the [Wind Blade] that Elijah had thrown before it could come out of the shadow.

Even if Lyla could take care of 3 jaguars at the same time with ease, she would still have been overwhelmed with more without Elijah's support.

By the time they had stopped fighting, there were almost 13 bodies around them. Though they had fought more, all those beasts who could move had already vanished in the shadows.

After the fight with the beasts was over, Sara's wand glowed in pale blue, covering each of them in a blue cover.

In a flash, their tiredness vanished. Although Sara was weak in the offence, she was best at healing. This is also the reason why Lyla, even before anyone else, was looking for her.

"Where is Aiden? Did he run away?" Elijah was the first to react.

Lyla shook her head, "Looks like he is trying to enter the city." Lyla confirmed from the map.

"What should we do about him? Won't he create any problem in the plan?" Sara was a little worried.

But Elijah laughed it off, "If he can enter the city that will be his good luck."

"Don't waste any more time. If we miss the window we have to wait for a week again." With Lyla's order, everyone followed her.

Around 472 meters from them, Aiden was approaching the ruins. Yet the more he progressed, the more uneasiness he felt.

'Some is wrong about the place.' There was a stench of blood in the air but that was not the problem.

'It's like the place is rejecting me. Pushing me away.' Aiden felt the effect but couldn't find the cause. 'ESS, can you check the air for any abnormality?'

[The mana concentration is 17% higher than normal.]

'Higher amount of mana? Could higher mana concentration have a rejection effect?'

[Effect of the mana is dependent on the composition. Depending on the composition of it can produce wind, fire or can enhance the characteristics of living or inanimate objects.]

'Does it look like I want a lesson from you? Just tell me what type of mana is this?'

[Unable to identify.]

'There were at least 8 people that had come before me still you are telling me that you can't identify?'

Aiden was a little confused about that. The feeling was different, but he could not feel any hostility. Step by step Aiden came out of the forest, and he was too shocked by what he had seen.

He could see the city, but it wasn't ruined. It's been in perfect condition. And people moved inside without worrying about what was lurking a few meters away from them.

'It wasn't the ruin I had expected.' He thought of something before asking, 'ESS what is the concentration of mana?'

[The mana concentration is 42% higher than normal.]

Even without the notification, Aiden could feel the effect. He felt his body was like lead, unable to move under his will.

'Could the mana concentration be lower in this direction? Perhaps that's why Lyla was moving in the direction.'

Aiden could guess the reason, still, he was reluctant to go in the direction. 'Instead of going in the direction where the concentration of the beast is higher, it is better to pay back 100 credit points.'

After deciding that he would leave if he could not find an entrance, Aiden moved in the other direction. He continued to move along the perimeter of the city to find a place where the concentration of mana was lower.

[41%]

[44%]

[39%]

…

No matter how much he moved, he couldn't find a place, but he had observed a strange thing.

There was a single type of tree around the city. The tree barrier isolated the city from the whole world.

A long trunk with a perfect crown on top of it. There was a distance of almost 20 meters between the umbrella-shaped tree and the forest, and there was no grass between them.

'Could there be some kind of relation between the tree and the mana?' Aiden asked, 'ESS can you identify the tree?'

[Name: Umbrella-shaped cecropia

Mutation: None.

Comment: A normal tree.]