Chapter 157 Reuniting

Lucas separated from his group and headed for the Pool of Dark. The shortest way would be to cross the volcano since the pools were on opposite sides of the island. According to his progress he should have plenty of time to achieve all his goals. 

'Why couldn't we wait to see what happened? We went through so much trouble just to run away?!'

'Why would we? The parasite wouldn't give such a delicious snack out of charity. We just won't experience the pain since we're already cured. Plus, we have other things to attend to.'

'Lou might've gotten infected because she was weak and tired, what would happen when the person is in perfect health? Then the parasite might not be strong enough? Then our entire plan would fall apart!'

'You worry too much, in nature, the health of the creature does not matter. If the parasite found its way in, it's already too late. As long as the others don't have antidotes we're fine. And even if they found out, what evidence can they use against us?'

'You did hide the vial pretty good. Argh, but still, I don't like it.'

'Of course I hid it well, if I screwed that up we would be done for. Now imagine, a Peak Rank 1 mutated human that has their strength boosted by the parasite. That should near Rank 2, right?'

'We've unleashed absolute three monsters onto the island. The seeds have been planted.'

'Exactly! Now the Rank 2 students are going to have to team up to take care of them.'

'The monsters are going to kill a bunch of students stealing their tokens and the Rank 2 students will take those tokens back. We just need to be ready to harvest.'

Lucas moved towards the volcano and started to climb it. He started to think about what happened when they were with the mantis. Part of him had been just thinking of a way to survive while the other focussed on the battle, giving him room to experiment. 

'The energy we absorbed was immense, way larger than any of our subjects, yet we're barely halfway there.'

'The guest teacher told us that using cores as an energy source was somewhat cheating and rushed the process, making our core stronger at first, but requiring more energy to stabilize itself.'

'We did this to ourselves, but I already hate it.'

'Every action has consequences, we should be happy to still live.'

'Sure buddy, I'll start working on our core and make our body get used to it.'

With increased power, the core seemed to have fattened up a bit, but only slightly. The mana particles contained within it didn't change a lot, but they did have a stronger structure. Part of Lucas spread the magic around to cool his body down.

'How does the core feel?'

'It's different, the magic feels stronger but lumpier to move around. It'll take some time for me to get used to it. I'll focus on cooling us down, you look at the muscle enhancement.'

As one half forced the magic forward and the other let it flow naturally, they both needed to get used to the lumpier magic. 

With both halves working in unison Lucas learned how to control his core efficiently in record time. Climbing the volcano proved to be quite a hassle, not because he was tired, but because of how steep the ground was. The ground was uneven, covered with coarse volcanic ash and hardened lava rocks. Jagged rocks and craters formed the only path he could follow.

The Sabertooth mountain was steep, but there was a beaten down path, here, there was nothing. Lucas looked down and felt uncomfortable so high up without any security. He wished he could simply fly and avoid all these troubles.

To change things up, he used magic through his feet to create small platforms from the ground. Now he just had to be careful that the surrounding ground wasn't all that loose, or he would create a landslide. 

The environment around a volcano was characterized by a mix of raw power, intense heat, and the constant rumbling of the Earth. Lucas needed moments to stabilize himself. He could see the massive pillar of smoke above him.

'This volcano will explode, it won't be long.'

'Well, the mission was to survive for 5 days. Considering the timing, I don't think this is a coincidence.'

As Lucas approached the volcano, the air became thick with the scent of sulfur. The breathable air became thin, too thin for him to breathe normally. He had to waste a bunch of energy just creating air in his own body. Using wind to remove the smoke in front of him he still needed normal air to live, making him waste a bunch of energy moving air from down below towards him. 

After some time he reached the top, the ring surrounding the pit of the volcano was quite broad. He walked forward to see the depths of the volcano and the sight was incredible. Active lava seemed to flow over one another, Lucas focussed his eyes and spread his willpower because...

'What in the actual..'

'I knew it!'

'How are we even going to do that?'

'I have a few ideas.'

Confirming his theory he quickly moved away from the top. He wasted almost a quarter of his energy just trying to breathe. He was only up there for a few moments, yet it sapped his core fast.

Lucas moved and sped up to circle around the crater. Coming from above he could see some students fighting in the distance. 

'If they used a strong earth spell, could they activate the volcano?'

'Hmm, perhaps, according to the books in Elam's bookcase the lava comes from within the earth, so dropping in some rocks shouldn't really change a lot. But you never know I guess, want to experiment?'

'For once, I'm gonna have to pass on that one, thanks.'

'Hold on for a second? Are those Mana Swords?'

'Yup, the smart ass is back.'

Looking in the distance he could see Asta fighting against a few students, Lucas had absolutely no idea who they were or what they were fighting over, but he couldn't care less. He erased his presence and sneaked up behind one of them. 

Asta was fighting three students at once, they were all around the same level, so Asta should be done for in mere moments. Yet he stood strong, combining his mana shields with mana swords to fend off any attacks. He wasn't going on the offensive, but he definitely wasn't losing any ground.

One mage was using a staff conducting electricity around it, he was meant to be the main damage dealer, but Asta's shields redirected the electricity.

The other was a tank with a short sword and a broad shield, meant to defend the mages from any random attacks, but the mana swords never moved until they did. They kept their distance until one of them got too close to Asta.

The final had a longsword and was proficient in his wind magic, making him the fastest of the group. He ran around Asta trying to find a weak spot, but there was none. 

"Guys! Put the pressure on him!", he was behind Asta, he just needed Asta to falter for a second. 

The tank moved in close, using earth to protect his skin, he rushed into the mana swords. The mage in the back fired multiple spells containing electricity and wind. Asta had to divide his attention between both of them, giving him barely any strength to focus on the final one. 

The mage carrying the longsword was about to rush in!

"Krgh", a hand grabbed his throat and clamped it completely shut tight. He barely had any time to struggle before another hand pierced right through his chest. He could see a malformed hand combining his own flesh with sharp stones. 

"STEVEN!", the mage was distraught seeing his companion get killed in such a brutal manner. During that slight moment of distraction a Mana Sword flew towards him. He tried to dodge, but it still cut off his entire arm. "Ah!", the mage screamed out in pain. 

The pain was unbearable, he could barely look up, yet all he could see was a ball of Blue Fire right in front of his eyes. The mage couldn't even scream before his head exploded.

The tank, now alone, was destined to fail. Surprisingly, or just not, he was the hardest to take down. His skin was covered with hardened dirt that almost was as strong as clay. It functioned as armor, blocking the mana sword when they slipped through his defense. 

Lucas fired a few Blue Fireballs at him, but he didn't look like he took a lot of damage. Lucas erased his presence again and attacked out of the blue with water spears, they didn't pierce his armor, but degraded it considerably. 

The more the dirt became wet, the easier it was for the mana swords to puncture his defenses. Only a few minutes later and his body was pierced by multiple swords.

The battle was fast and easily taken care off. Asta dusted himself off before staring at Lucas.

"You know you didn't have to help me, right? They were already running low on energy."

"And you weren't?", Lucas was kneeling down near the one he killed first, inspecting his longsword. 

"Of course not! My Mana Manifestations don't require a lot of energy to maintain, I could easily block multiple attacks of theirs and win in a battle of attrition."

Lucas didn't answer as he picked the corpses of the recently killed students clean.

"Stealing from the dead isn't setting a good precedence, Conrad.", Asta couldn't help but feel it wasn't normal to loot the dead. Lucas on the other hand felt that was the most normal thing in the world. 

"They're dead, how could they possibly need their stuff now? Anyway, how did you even get into a fight with them?"

"Why do you think? They wanted my knowledge.", Asta looked upwards and closed his eyes in a beautiful pose, yet didn't hear a single response from Lucas. He looked back, and could see him putting things in his ring. Asta knew perfectly well how expensive those items were and couldn't help but wonder what Lucas had been doing on this island.

"Did you seriously pillage every noble you killed?"

"What? Of course not, not all of them had reasonable items for me to care."

Asta shook his head, to think he teamed up with someone so strange. "Anyway, what's the plan? Have you figured something out yet?"

"I do have some ideas on how to secure victory, but before that I need to visit the Dark Pool."

"Why would you need to- Oh, now that's something I didn't expect. To think you had a Black Core.", although Dark Magic was allowed in the Frigus Kingdom, that didn't mean that there were a lot of people born with a Black Core.

'Those were already rare in the first place, and after the purge of the Holy Kingdom, there shouldn't be any Black Cores out there anymore. Although I guess that was a foolish endeavor in the first place. Aurora isn't even fully discovered yet, it would be a fool's errand to remove all Black Cores.'

Lucas stood back up with a fresh new sword in his hands. The bodies were robbed of their items, not that Lucas would use them, but they could fetch a good price later on. 

"You do know that looting the nobles will turn their anger towards you?"

"If I killed them and didn't loot them, would I not have their anger?", although Asta could understand Lucas's point, it still felt weird to agree. 

They moved on towards the Dark Pool, it would still take quite some time to reach it, but Lucas wasn't that much in a hurry anymore. 

"By the way, I saw your hand, how did you do that?", Asta knew that spells that covered one's body in a certain element were quite widespread, and even the tank used a similar spell. He was curious as to how his hand looked completely normal right now. Fusing stones in one's skin would make it sit there for quite some time, unless they had a complex healing spell removing them.

"It's a spell I learned from one of the nobles.", with that excuse they moved on. In reality, Lucas fused stone with his fingers and simply poured Darkness wherever there was stone.

Before the local school's competition he almost blasted his own hand away. After that he learned how to perfectly remove any foreign object from his body through the Dark element.

Normal mages wouldn't be capable of such a thing. To manipulate mana freely through the body was something only Lucas could do due to his unique body. Normal mages would have to create a new spell that had to take in a bunch of variables, Lucas just had to learn how to move his own energy. 

Since Darkness energy was extremely destructive he couldn't just guide it towards the stones in his skin, he needed a little pocket of pure mana to transport it. It took longer and more attention, but Lucas was lucky enough to put that burden on his other self. 

They ventured forward, there were still many things that they needed to do. 

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Simon had been sending out scouts to gather as much info as possible. He wasn't expecting such a hassle during this competition.

'Everything was perfectly planned out, why did this have to happen now? What bastard had to interfere?', Simon looked at the surrounding papers, a bunch of info was written down at the cost of a few lives. He sat down on a makeshift chair inside a tent reading the papers with a sharp look. 

A student entered the tent and bowed once. "Sire Simon, one of the Mutated Humans has been spotted nearby."

"Which one?", Simon didn't look at the man, he was too focussed on reading the papers in front of him.

"The one the students dubbed The Nature Witch, she only targets nobles and has a perfect control of the nature around her." 

Simon had read up on the different mutated humans. For now, only three were found, but he was preparing for more. The Nature Witch was dubbed so due to her crazy laugh after she killed someone. Besides her, there was the Silent Ice Giant and the Rampaging Golem. 

Their strength was at the end of Rank 1, bordering Rank 2, so there was no use sending out squadrons, since those lives would've been wasted. Simon placed the papers back on the table and calmed himself down.

"I'll take care of this myself, and get in contact with the Ice Princess, we'll need her help.", as a Rank 2, he had absolutely no problem fighting someone at the Peak of Rank 1. He wouldn't ask her help for something so simple. No, Simon wasn't looking for aid for the current issue, but to fight against the hidden player ruining his plans. 

"Yes, Sire! I'll immediately send someone!" 

Simon exited his camp and flew towards the direction the Nature Witch should've been according to the reports. Due to his speed, he arrived at the place much faster than anyone else on the island.

He spread his willpower and easily found her. He wasn't sure whether to kill her or not, if she was as powerful as people said, couldn't he use her?

'She's not hiding her power in the slightest, the arrogance.'

Simon moved so quickly in the air the Nature Witch was easy to find. Looking down on her, he noticed the small horns that grew on her arms and neck. Her long blond hair looked nice, but this wasn't the time to be appreciative.

"Nature Witch! My name is Simon, I am the Ruler of the Winds! If you're still conscious then stop this act of vengeance at once! If you don't, I'll have to put you down!"

"All these stupid nobles with their stupid arrogance! Get down here!", she waved her hands and the nearby trees grew new branches that tried to grab Simon. They reached high up in the sky and grew without stopping. The speed at which the tree branches grew was something spectacular, but in the eyes of Simon, it was nothing more than a party trick. 

"Tch, she's already gone, huh?", Simon wasn't worried in the slightest, he simply spread his aura. The branches that had almost reached Simon were obliterated in mere seconds due to his powerful aura. The girl was being pushed into the ground, making her face covered in dirt. 

"Witch! You have no chance of winning against me! I'm a Rank 2, your powers are nothing in front of me! If you're still somewhat in there, tell me who did this! I'll take revenge for you!", Simon declared, hoping that the shock would wake her up.

She gritted her teeth and tried everything in her power to stand up, yet she couldn't move at all. She could barely even speak, everything was forced down. The horns seemed to have sensed her being in peril. The Witch's eyes started to turn red, and an unknown power coursed through her veins. 

"Hmm?", slowly but surely the girl was standing back up. 'So she was very close to Rank 2? Too bad.'

Simon lifted his arm and a dozen extremely fast and sharp wind slashes came out, completely destroying the entire forest beneath him. A massive gridlike shape cut deep into the ground.

The girl was cut in pieces as the unknown power dissipated. Floating back down he investigated the girl's body. 

He knew that she wouldn't ever speak normally and giving her time to recover from his pressure wasn't a risk he wanted to take. He found her slate and the amount of tokens she gathered was quite a benefit to his current position.

'Considering I lost a squadron or two, this is still a profit in the end, interesting.'

Tearing the horns from her, he found the roots beneath. After some inspecting he put the pieces together and moved back to his headquarters. 

Not long after did he find his way back to the camp. "Sire Simon, welcome back! Have you found her?", the same student was back, he had a letter in his hands. 

"The Nature Witch is dead, and I know how she got mutated, both goals have been accomplished. What's that letter?"

"The Ice Princess has agreed to working together with you, only if she can take the tokens from The Silent Ice Giant."

"The other Mutated Human, huh?", Simon was deep in thought, he did just get a bunch of tokens from the Witch. There were still two other monsters roaming around the island. Suddenly, a hint of inspiration struck. 

"Hmm, that's not a bad idea. Tell the Princess I want to change the conditions, but it'll be better for both of us.", Simon had a devious smile on his face as he described the new deal. 

'If the Mutated Humans are so great at collecting tokens, might as well make use of them until the end. Those humans have long lost their mind, using their jade would be an impossible task.' 

Simon sent the student away to contact the Ice Princess agian, while the remaining students awaited his next orders. Simon was a ruler, he has long created a loyal group of soldiers that were willing to die for him. 

"Get someone to track the other Mutated Humans and follow their trail, collect any token the monsters forgot to pick up and let them keep their distance. Make sure the squadrons stay clear of the areas where they are and keep in contact!" 

The students all sprung up in action following the new orders. 

'I don't know who you are, creating new variables in this little game. But you've made the great mistake of revealing those monsters too soon. If you kept them hidden and fed them enough, they could've reached Rank 2. Now, they're easily disposable and will collect tokens for me, you lost this round, mysterious player. Let's see what other tricks you have up your sleeve.'