Chapter 34 - Sunshine Maze III: Insanity

[Jayden POV]

We saw that mana beast in front of us, opening its eyes abnormally, with colors completely manipulated, as well as the full body of that beast.

"Corrupted..." Diamond said quietly to himself, but I could hear it because I was close to him.

I didn't understand what he meant by that, but possibly he was able to feel the intense mana coming from the Lava Serpent in front of us. That staring at us without attacking yet, made me grab my daggers and lengthen their blades with concentrated wind mana, turning them into small machetes.

"ATTACK!" The Water Augmenter yelled.

Some of us activated a mana shield around our bodies and walked along the walls of the arena. While I, Kaspian, Diamond and my brother ran towards the monster, but away, to make the snake attack one of us at a time, or that's what I expected from this plan.

The snake seemed to be aiming at Diamond and Al, who were in the center comparing our formation, it was advancing on Diamond with its mouth.

"Speed ​​Soul, Wind Style!" He cast a spell on himself, taking a 4 meter jump, which was a lot, but not that much, compared to the arena ceiling being 20 meters high. From his legs came an extremely dense black smoke that ended up reaching the beast's eyes.

"Skyfall Torrent!" The next to use an attack spell was Kaspian, who imbues his rapier with wind and starts shooting several sharp projectiles from the tip of it, while lunging for air.

The projectiles ended up hitting the areas close to the mana beast's eyes, causing it to shake and release a fireball in his direction. Kaspian made a powerful leap with his legs coated in wind mana, while my brother ran towards the fireball.

"ICE WALL!" He shouted the spell, making his big dark blade become bluish and denser, using the ice to deflect the fireball. It looked like Al had tried to reflect against the monster, but ended up hitting a wall.

I looked around and could see the Water, Earth and Fire conjurers preparing potent spells and just waiting for a good opportunity to attack. Meanwhile the Water Augmenter was concentrating hard, still at the entrance to the arena, with his body slowly covering himself with an ice armor.

"RAPID WIND!" Just as my brother did, I shouted my spell and stood in place, in a position I wouldn't back away, and aimed my two daggers at the beast, slamming the air several times, shooting gusts of wind in the shape of machete blades.

The monster was hit by the blows, the same way Kaspian did, I hit a little close to the creature's other eye. The enemy got agitated and used its own tail to hit us, all 3 of us went back while Diamond was landing on top of the enemy giving a head attack. I couldn't see it properly due to the smoke coming from his last spell, but it looked like he punched, as if a gauntlet had appeared, but that was impossible, after all he has a sword. I must be seeing things in the heat of the moment.

Our target was covered in smoke from the masked adventurer, but soon it disappeared, with him leaping away from the enemy. "NOW!" He said in that strong voice.

"Fireball!"

"Bubble Torrent!"

"Rock Sniper!"

The conjurers start shooting in the direction of our enemy, by the way they were arranged, the water attacks attacked his left while the earth and fire ones hit the right.

"Ice RUSH!" The Water Augmenter appeared, coming from behind us, he jumped, continuing to run when he landed and made an advance against the monster, the blow was strong enough to take it back a little.

That was a risky move, because in doing so, he was glued to the enemy, who threw a strong fireball directly at him, knocking him back a little, with the front part of the ice armor already melted.

"ITS FIRE! HOW IS IT SO INTENSE?!?!" The Water Augmenter exclaimed in disbelief that a fireball had caused this.

Seeing that, I looked at my brother and noticed that the blade of his equipment wasn't covered in ice in the area the fireball had touched earlier. The simplest fire from that thing apparently melts ice instantly.

But that didn't end, after receiving a fireball at point-blank range, he ended up being firmly grabbed by the monster's mouth. Carelessness was showing the consequences, with the water augmenter now being bitten hard by the snake in the torso area.

"AAAAAAAHHH!!" he screamed in pain.

Luckily, the bite didn't last long, as an arrow came and hit the snake directly in the eye, causing it to move away.

"Wait... Arrow? There's no one in our group who uses a bow." I thought and looked at where the arrow came from.

I noticed Diamond had a dark red bow in his hand. How the hell did he get that? I could only assume he took it from his dimensional ring.

He was pulling the string firmly, causing an abnormal arrow to appear, its structure was a vibrant green, possibly from wind mana, but the arrowhead was black and the feathers on the back were a faint purple. It seemed that he was reciting a silent incantation for the time it took to form the arrow and shoot it.

The arrows seemed to affect the mana beast quite a bit, but it starts to get more aggressive as well, with its red belly glowing brightly.

"Back now!!" Kaspian warned and everyone who was nearby walked away with an augmented jump.

The Lava Serpent did what its name showed, it released an intense lava jet that was surrounding it, destroying part of the landscape of the arena, thus demonstrating that it was its first fight in that place, as there were no signs of disaster like this before.

"Augmenters who don't have ranged weapons, stand back and protect those who can attack at this range!" Kaspian ordered the new formation.

Kaspian was with the Fire Conjurer, I was with Diane, Al was with Diamond, and the Healer was healing the Water Augmenter who was currently in the arena entrance area, the Earth Conjurer was with them for protection.

"Fireball!"

"Bubble Torrent!"

"Rock Sniper!"

Again the conjurers launched their respective long-distance spells in the direction of the enemy, now from our position, we hit the front areas more, the fire one hit the belly area, the earth one was hitting close to the mouth and the water one in the area From the eyes. But what really seemed to do damage were the arrows Diamond was shooting at it.

Another arrow was shot and it didn't seem to hit the target, but it ended up hitting at least part of the tail, making the monster release more lava through its mouth to keep us away.

"What?!?" I could hear my brother exclaiming and looked at him and Diamond.

I was too far away to hear what they were saying, it seemed that they were having an idea that my brother didn't like, but I soon saw the masked adventurer jumping high, grabbing the wall and starting to... Run?

Yes! Was he running on the wall?! He really specializes in movement spells, as Diane reported. But I could tell what he was thinking about, finding new angles to shoot. He kept running until he had completely circled the arena, having shot two more arrows that hit the sides of the monster's back.

"Bubble Torrent!" Diane spoke next to me this time releasing the spell in a strong voice, releasing another strong burst of water-filled bubbles. She seemed to want to get the snake's attention so that our colleague could attack. Due to this, I activated a denser mana shield in my body, after all, I was helping her.

But that's when I realised, Diamond leaping high up the wall and landing on top of the monster's back.

"SSSSSHHAAAAAAA!!!" the Lava Serpent made a high-pitched noise that irritated the ears.

It was shrouded in dark mana that seemed to be directed towards the back, towards our colleague above it. The enemy kept thrashing around like crazy until Diamond jumped off the monster, trying to land where my brother was, but the beast released a fireball that hit him in the back and sent him falling a few meters between Al and me.

He seemed to get up slowly, his clothes didn't look like he was hit with the fire, but soon he took off the cloak that covered part of his body, revealing a beige tank top. His body looked well defined, even with his short stature.

"Ha...haha..." Did he start to...laugh?

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[Diane Whitehall POV]

I saw my mystery friend jumping off the wall and starting to run into it as if to go around the arena. With a beautiful bow of dark red and purple colors being held tightly in his right hand while his left hand pulled a string that magically appeared, thus releasing two arrows of three colors that hit the Lava Serpent's back.

It reminded me well of the first dungeon I went with him, that cloak was very agitated, but in a smooth way, each time he accelerated and hit the mana beasts with firm movements, using two swords in his hands, one red and elegant and another being common.

But I would never imagine him using a bow, is he really a one-man party?

I noticed the Serpent looking at him as if he was going to try to attack him so I released my spell to distract it.

"Bubble Torrent!" The various bubbles hit one of the mana beast's eyes and mouth, and soon after my companion jumped and landed on her back.

A strange, black aura began to appear around the serpent. It seemed to be aimed at his back, as if that elf was sucking the energy. This caused a loud noise coming from the mana beast, for soon after my friend was thrown and hit by a fireball, landing a few meters away from where I was.

I couldn't seem to react, I was in shock when he started to slowly get up, taking off his beautiful starry robe.

"Ha...haha..." Did he start to laugh? At a time like this?

"Hahahah....Ha..." He continued to laugh.

What looked like a form of mockery like "That didn't do anything" ended up turning into a loud, intense laugh, cackling incessantly. Catching sight of the others, they were wide-eyed in shock. But soon the laughter stopped.

"You... It's interesting... Give me more!!!" Diamond yelled looking towards the mana beast.

The serpent released a fireball towards him again, but he ended up with his hands full of wind mana, cutting the attack with a fist swing.

"Hold it! THIS FUCKING SNAKE IS MINE!" he screamed in a frightening voice and I could feel a dense presence coming from him.

"Earth Chain!" The Earth Conjurer cast his spell, using the rocks on the walls to form a large chain that lashed out at the Serpent like a whip and then wrapped around our target.

"Fire Dive!" The Fire Conjurer was next, creating a blast of fire that went upwards, but did an arcing motion and hit the target's back.

"Water Splash!" I threw a set of 3 water spheres, which when they hit the target, completely wet it. I was trying to cool the Lava Serpent's body so Diamond wouldn't worry so much.

His hair started to float, gaining some color, as he launched himself up with a different sword than the old one he used, that sword had a dark red scabbard and its blade was a bright purple, as if it was pure energy.

Alexander and his brother followed, propelling themselves with wind mana as well. Alexander appeared to be holding his equipment with both hands, while the other held a dagger in each hand.

"BLIZZARD STRIKER!" Alexander's dark blade was starting to turn bluish from the cold contained in it, with wind mana around it.

"LIGHTNING DUO SLASH!" The other adventurer's daggers had the longest blades made of wind mana, while they were surrounded by several yellow lightning.

Both Wind Augmenters seem to be advancing their attacks towards the snake as they fall, but something unforeseen occurs. Time seemed to start to pass slowly as I watched it.

Diamond had jumped higher than the two of them and looked like he was going to do a top-down lunge on the Lava Serpent. The blade of his sword was shining more willingly, I could feel it sucking some of my mana, no... It wasn't just me.

Al and Jay's blades also stopped being affected by the spells they cast, as if Diamond's sword was sucking their energy. A black aura surrounded the mana beast and part of it seemed to go towards the masked adventurer's blade as well, being absorbed.

The blade seemed to want to suck even the colors around it into itself as it was wielded towards the target.

"MANA SLASH!!" Diamond screamed aloud and distorted his spell until his arms were surrounded by mana, which was being sucked into his own sword.

And so Alexander and Jayden ended up hitting the serpent with their common blades while the masked adventurer hit our enemy in the face, with a clean and powerful cut, with a strong purple and black aura that followed the blade.

The snake instantly threw itself back, letting out a terrifying and extremely painful scream, it crawled away from the adventurer who did the most damage, and tried to enter a hole in the wall.

"No... You're not going...anywhere!" Diamond said in a heavy voice as his presence grew thicker so that the mana beast couldn't escape.

It was hard to breathe for everyone, but especially for Jayden and Alexander who were beside him. With Jayden falling to his knees on the floor trying to get up and Alexander looking like he was still standing but having trouble filling his lungs with air.

"EVERYONE! GET BACK NOW!" Diamond exclaimed to us, I wanted to do as he was told, I wanted to get out of that arena now. But I couldn't leave them there.

"I won't let you take all the glory!" Alexander exclaimed, really that hollow head didn't understand that this wasn't a competition.

"You idiot, my sword is sucking your mana little by little! Theoretically, everyone will get credit for my attacks!" Diamond said exclaiming and still exhaling that strong presence.

"Also, I want you to stay away so you won't be so affected by me! I'm going to activate my 'Berserk mode', and I don't want anyone in this Party getting hurt because of me!" He continued to say, looking at me, Alexander, Jayden and also seemed to look at the Kaspian who was further away.

"Everyone come here and gather your mana so we can activate a protective barrier! Let Diamond take care of it!" Kaspian spoke very loudly so that everyone could understand and we were all approaching him.

As I went to the guild leader, I turned my face to see the masked adventurer, he was looking a little at me, slightly shaking his head and then facing the beast.

"Are you so scared of me?!?! Well! Of course you would be, I cut through your dense scales with a single cut! Now come on, you bastard! Give me all your power!!!" Diamond said this followed by an insane laugh.

The Earth Conjurer used long-distance magic, causing the hole the Lava Serpent wanted to escape through, closed. The mana beast answered this with a loud, high-pitched noise, while the adventurer raised one hand showing a thumbs-up, as if in gratitude for someone having helped.

With all of us together and using mana to create a protective barrier for us, we could see that masked man covered himself in 4 colors, Red, Green, Blue and Black. His hair began to float more violently through the air as he firmly gripped his sword with both hands.

The aura he exuded was passively tearing a little of his tank top. With him striking an offensive pose while holding the sword, aiming in the direction of the monster as if expecting to be attacked. The mana beast soon launched a ball of lava towards the adventurer.

"Soul Speed!" He dodged it with a mist coming out of his legs and, instead of using his sword, he did a kicking motion in the air with his left leg.

"Ice Body Extension!" Suddenly a pillar of ice appeared on the ground, following the movement of the kick. That pillar was so fast that it ended up throwing the snake to the right.

Wait... Ice?!?!

"A pure elf who uses ICE?!? Is that even possible?!?!" The Healer exclaimed as we watched Diamond continue his attacks.

Without delay, the adventurer turned with the momentum of the kick, and ended up with his back to the beast, kicking back. A new pillar of ice appeared, hitting the enemy hard and knocking it to the ceiling.

"Airborn!" He spoke a spell I'd never heard of, and then he lunged at the beast, propelling himself in midair towards the ceiling.

"Ignition!" His body filled with... Flames?!?! And he also made a powerful horizontal cut in the beast.

"Ice?!? And FIRE?!?! He's definitely not an Elf!" The Fire Conjurer said in disbelief.

"But he uses plant magic! This can only be done by pure elves!" The Earth Conjurer continued.

"SHUT UP! You are taking his concentration!" Kaspian yelled at the Conjurers.

"I don't think he can even hear us anymore..." I said, still watching that scene, mesmerized by the appearance of lightning together with the flames around him.

"Thunderclap Impulse!" Black lightning appeared in place of the dark smoke, while flames danced around the adventurer's body, making another powerful cut with the sword towards the beast, flinging it from various sides.

"Hero's Thunder!" The fifth continuous spell was released by him, more lightning appeared around him, and his presence passed through our protections. The healer and another Conjurer started coughing up blood from the size of the intensity.

"With the driving heat, the wind being my essence, all the force of thunder and the speed that my soul will guarantee. I invoke you! Show yourself to everyone, show your beauty! The beauty of a world where a night and day passes in a second! A WORLD WHERE A YEAR HAPPENS IN A BLINK! SPEED FORCE!"

"Wait, those 5 spells were all made for a combo of their own?!?!" was my thought, with my eyes extremely wide.

I saw a new aura appearing around him, it was white, the blade kept trying to suck his mana, but it was not possible to absorb that new white aura.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!"

He started laughing insanely as the serpent had fallen to the ground after being thrown numerous times, the intensity made his mask shift, revealing only his mouth, having an insane and extremely wide smile, his eyes had a great light that shifted between green, blue, red and yellow.

He advanced against the serpent with an intense force, going with everything downwards and numerous cuts began to appear in the air and on the enemy, it was as if he cut everything in front of him, but he didn't seem to move his arm...

Wait.. The name of this combo is "Speed ​​Force"... I wonder if he's moving more than I can even see?!?

I couldn't think straight, I just stared in horror at the amount of power. The Lava Serpent had several bright white cut marks on its body, while Diamond put his hand firmly on its back and that dark aura came back around our enemy.

The dark aura was flowing into his body, seeming to be absorbed as before, it took a few seconds and then it stopped, along with the white aura around his body and that overwhelming presence. The mana beast had died there.

Some were too terrified to break out of cover as Kaspian and I walked over to him. We started to see blood oozing out of the only exposed part of his face, his mouth. Then he fell backwards to the ground. We both approached him running and took him to the Healer.

"We need a cure here!" Kaspian was talking loudly, the Healer seemed to tremble with fear just seeing Diamond.

"What's the matter with you? Do your job!" I said complaining about the delay.

"Job?! My job is to heal the Party members, not heal this monstrosity!" the Healer said still shaking with fear.

"Stop this BULLSHIT! And heal him!" Kaspian said oppressively as he aimed the rapier in the Healer's direction.

Finally he started healing Diamond. He was trying to take his mask off to see the state of his face, but I slapped his hand. After all, if I were Diamond, I'd hate to have my identity revealed just because I was hurt, so I fixed his mask in place.

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An hour passed, and everyone seemed to have calmed down from the initial shock of what we saw. Diamond was still passed out, he was lying on the floor with my lap serving as a pillow for him, while one of my hands was resting on his colored hair. Kaspian had asked me to take care of him, as I had worked with him longer than the others.

And speaking of Kaspian, he was a little distant from all of us, complaining to our Healer for saying things like that to someone who had just defeated a mana beast, using all the mana in his body.

"Hmm... Is he okay?" the Fire Conjurer said approaching me while I took care of Diamond.

"Apparently so....Hmmm?" I looked at him for a minute.. It can't be...

"What's it?" Alexander said approaching us when he saw my facial expression.

"I-is this serious?!" I ended up thinking out loud.

"Hmm...?" Jayden approached.

"H-he.. But how?! He was in the same core stage as me. And now I can't even see his stage anymore!" I exclaimed.

"Ha! Is this surprise that the person who saved us is at a higher mana core stage than yours? Really?" Jayden chuckled.

"No! I had seen him yesterday when we arrived. He was still in the Solid Orange Core before we entered the boss room... If I can't see his core anymore, that means...."

"Don't tell me... He purified his core... In the middle of THE BATTLE?!?" Alexander said amazed and taking a few steps back.

"W-well... If that's true... That might explain the fact that he laughs like crazy, or his intense presence..." Jayden said with some nervous laughs.

"And the white aura... All that was a form of stage-breaking explosion, like when you form a mana core... That means the consequence happens again when you purify yourself while using extreme mana like spells. .. It's not something that just happens the first time..." I said putting my thoughts out, this theory was... Interesting.

Before I could complete my thought, feel a movement, it was Diamond shaking his head and slowly placing his right hand on his forehead.

"Argh... What the... Hell..." he said trying to sit up but didn't seem to be able to, so I went to help him.

"How do you feel?" Jay asked.

"I'm... Well I guess... Shit, I've never been berserk like that..."

"Uh... What do you mean?" I asked, tilting my head

"No big deal... It's just that I really got excited about the fight and used some theoretical techniques...."

"Did you say... 'Theoretical Techniques'? So does that mean that... None of that you've done before?!?" Alexander asked, looking at Diamond as we all got wide-eyed.

"Well... Yeah, more or less that..." He said as he settled there on the floor, with his right hand still supporting his head.

"Oh my..." I ended up speaking quietly.

"Well folks. Don't get so on top of him. He needs air to breathe." Kaspian said, walking towards us and bending down to talk to Diamond.

"Can you walk?" He asked extending his hand to the masked adventurer.

"Maybe..." he said, accepting to hold Kaspian's hand, I was helping him to stand.

"Ah... About that earlier... I..." He was trying to say something, but he still seemed to have a headache.

"Alright... Kaspian explained to us... An elf noble who can use human magic thanks to a B-rank beast will. How interesting." The Water Augmenter said, still with the bare torso, having several bandages there due to the Lava Serpent's bite.

"Hmm...? Oh... Yes, yes, that's right... Anyway, thanks for explaining already, Kaspian." Diamond spoke while seeming to use to pull out of one of his rings a kind of stylized staff, using it as a cane.

"It was nothing... Oh, and I used one of my emergency scrolls to inform my secretary to call the Adventurer Note and Jasmine Flamesworth to the Guild. That way you'll be in the care of your group." Kaspian said smiling.

"Thank you..." Diamond said and then looked at me "Will you return to the group?"

"Hmmm... Maybe I'll hang out with you for a bit, but for now I want to continue on missions where there are always different people." I told him, smiling.

"Alright... Anyway, you know who to count on..." He spoke in a friendly way with a childish voice, by any chance he was shaping his voice for me to see myself as a big sister???

"But... When will we get out of the dungeon?" he asked looking around.

"Well, now we've decided to take a break, but actually we're only 2 hours away from walking." the Water Augmenter said.

"Okay.. The last thing I have to ask you is... Where's the mana core?" Diamond said in a serious voice.

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[Luz Leywin POV]

"Where's the mana core?" I asked seriously, until Jayden showed me a greenish cloth wrapped in something.

I took the cloth and unrolled what was there, seeing a strong red mana core... And the best part, there was nothing dark about it.

"The purification process was a success..." I thought.

"That's great! Really my power is superior to whoever did this poor imitation!" Zalgnity said excitedly.

I was staring at that fiery mana core and thinking a few things, giving an extreme smile under my mask. "I think that way Reynolds won't be thinking we're leaving him behind."

"Your foster father? Really? Hmmm... True, it would be nice if the man who takes care of your family while you're having fun being an adventurer got stronger." Zalgnity said irritatingly.

"Ahhh! Ouch ouch!" Zalgnity looked like he was being attacked by Sylvia.

"Oh! It's a great choice for you to hand this over to your father, after all you and Art have some advantages. Why not help the people around? Isn't that right?" Sylvia's voice was soft in my mind, but I knew she was probably beating up Zalgnity for saying those things to me.

"Can I have this?" I asked looking at Kaspian.

"Well, I know we have our contract. But you deserve it well, but you also deserve something else..." Kaspian said looking at me with a smile.

"What would....?" I looked at him confused, and soon he gave me a gold card with my adventurer name.

"You've been promoted. For defeating an S-Class beast with such passion and strength, you are now considered an S-Class as well."

"WHAT?!?!" Everyone, including me, exclaimed.

"What's the surprise? I mean, I told you guys he'd get a promotion if all went well." Kaspian said with a confused look.

"That's not it! Mr.Bladeheart, you said about that being a Mana Beast Class S?!?" Diane spoke in amazement.

"Oh! Yes... I found out why the Healer was so amazed, much more than all of you... During the battle he analyzed that Lava Serpent, even though it was a Class A mana beast, the Dark Guild that was here changed its mana core so much that it could be considered 2 ranks above normal." Kaspian said adjusting his clothes.

"Wait, but wouldn't the right thing be for him as a Class SS adventurer? I mean, according to the rules and how ranks work, the minimum number of Adventurers needed to defeat a monster of the same Class is 10!" Alexander pointed out this fact, which I barely remembered.

"True, but also by my own analysis, even though that mana beast was Class S, it still acted like a Class A. Only the physical stats and amount of mana had increased. But that still used common moves of its kind. That is. ...that mana beast had barely really been trained to fight yet at its full potential." Kaspian explained.

"So... It was physically an S Class, but it acted like Class A... In that case, are you looking at things like it's actually a Mana Beast Class AA?" I asked confused and received a statement from Kaspian.

"Argh.. How crazy... Well, let's go to the Guild, I have people waiting for me there, no?" I said still using the MW staff form to move.

"Let's go. And reminding you all.. What happened here, stays here! Understood!?" Kaspian said looking at everyone.

"Relax guys, you can say about me defeating a mana beast Class AA or however you want to interpret what Kaspian said before... But if you're going to talk about my elements... Just say about Wind and Plant..." I said still walking out of the dungeon, with Diane helping me.

"Hey! Don't forget about it!" Jayden said handing me my robe, I put it on me, cyan and green side out.

"Thanks JayJay." He seemed embarrassed by the nickname I gave him and we laughed a little.

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Arriving at the Xyrus Adventurers Guild building, I was greeted by Jasmine who gave me a tight hug and kept giving me light pats on the back. Arthur was right behind her, with Note's mask having a slight crack in the corner, but that was only noticeable if someone looks too hard, then I'd ask him why it got that way. Next to me were Diane and Kaspian, the two pairs were talking, while I noticed a small detail.

"Huh? Where's our Four-Eyes?" I asked looking around, looking for Elijah.

"He decided he wanted to be alone for now. Just like Diane asked." Arthur said this looking at the Whitehall girl.

"Oh, relax, this is going to be good for him, Note. I assure you of that, I mean... This experience is amazing for me." She said smiling, Jasmine looked at her and seemed to approve of what had been said.

Arthur and I decided to let Jasmine talk to the others as we walked a little way away from them, I created a soundproof dome around us. "So how's it been, little brother?" I told him smiling under the mask.

"It's going well, my sword training without using mana is making this current body get used to my old style. How about you, Luz?" Art said, cracking his fists.

"Very well, I trained a fighting style that consists of changing MW's forms. Besides, I impressed Kaspian so much with my solo adventures, that I've just been promoted to Class S." I said confidently, slowly lifting my mask so he could see my smug smile.

"Wow, and you said you didn't like being a show off." He laughed at me.

"Sometimes we have to act according to the age of our bodies. That way we make the most of this new chance." I still said with a smug smile and he agreed with me.

"Oh! And I got two things..." I show him a small bag of coins and a card.

"And what would that be?" He takes the small bag and sees that there is no money inside it, just the red mana core.

"It will be for our father, it was the Boss I defeated today." I said with the smile fading, but then I looked at the card in my hand.

"Fine, I guess from the amount of mana, if he absorbs it all, it will make him enter the same stage as Jasmine... But... what would it be... That in your hand?" He points to the card.

"This is the excess energy that was in the mana core and I knew our father couldn't receive it... The mana beast I faced looked 'rotten' so I took all the bad energy and turned it into something else... It will do. so that I can better control my abilities if I need to overdo it" I show him the card better.

"And did you overdo it?!" he was watching me, his voice worried.

"I had to, it was a beast that came out of nowhere... And I felt that I should defeat it as soon as possible..." That card was black with a Roman numeral written on it and an abstract illustration. "I call it... Arcana."

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{A/N: To everyone reading this, thank you so much for being here. During these three chapters related the first dungeon y'all could see, the Sunshine Maze Dungeon, we had 2 OCs that are from other TBATE Fanfics!!! Jayden is from "TBATE - Brother's Once More" written by IAmYourSenpaiLight (Senpai Light) and Alexander is from "tbate | The Storm Gods Chosen" written by tarmac19 (Canasian). I highly recommend you check out these fanfics, they really are amazing, I don't know if they are here in WebNovel, but I know very well that they are in Wattpad. At the moment one already has numerous chapters, about 125, while the other is still at the beginning of a "adventure arc". And yes, both writers gave me permission to use an alternative version of their MCs.}

{A/N²: And for those interested in why I put them as side characters like this. The reason is that, without me realizing it, Luz ended up looking like a mix of these two characters in some details. So why not put these 2 OCs that are Wind Augmenters to interact with someone similar? That and I wanted to spice things up by adding "surprise npcs".}