24 Battle Of The Beginning (2)

The city of Oculus was made to withstand all possible attacks that aren't straight up nuclear bomb level threats. The three walls surrounded the city in three phases, the one in the middle being 500 meters in radius while the succeeding ones are 1000 and 1500 meters. This wasn't hard to plan but it was hard to construct.

With the materials having to be transported to an island that's 20 kilometers away from the nearest civilization, it gets very expensive. The good news was that their commissions from a single mission were so high that it could have made even Zel be ashamed of his previous salary.

If he was making $20,000 a day before then they now made a $1,000,000 in a week. With how much money they were making, it was easy to finance their operations. The whole plan was relying on Charles being able to do what he does best, 'Permanent Imbued Storage'.

The imbued ability can be learned when you get the 'Basic Mana Control' skill, however Charles' skill 'Earth Mana Wall' did something more special. It wasn't like is a skill that only temporarily placed mana but instead made wall that has something like a battery that can be filled up by a source of mana, usually his, but the presence of mana crystals that have appeared all over the point of contacts made all that better.

It's like they're making metal walls but instead of using precious metal on very, very tall walls that reach a height of 100 meters at the tallest, only the soil on the island was used. All this was done by one boy, a Level 4 boy that's only placed his Skill Points in mana related skills. They can do a lot in a few days just like they did now, the only reason they ran out of time was to accommodate the plans for the more advanced plans so that future expansions would be easier.

So even though level 5 abdicates have appeared, there is no fear or concern in Zel's eyes. Right now, he was in the center of the island where his King's Manor was built, and he would have to travel a kilometer and a half just to get there. The world record for that distance is 3 and a half minutes but he could reach it in half a minute which would put even 'Runner' to shame if she knew that someone who didn't specialize in speed made her whole skill set redundant.

His mana control was now at a level where his conjuration basically made him invincible if his mana didn't run out. This dream was a practice of what he could achieve so he wanted to push everything to the maximum possible power. By pushing his body to its limits, his stats doubled in numbers. At that point his body would start to break down if his amplification exceeded his limits, that's why the system showed a Vessel Limit.

However, by activating conjuration to create a 'mana body' that's covering his whole body and placing all the strain of mana overload would produce while simultaneously using his unarmed active skill which won't burden him and instead increase more of his stats, this happens.

Zel was just saying goodbye to Emilia when the whole room started to tremble. The two people present didn't seem to mind though, because they knew it was just Zel activating his skills. A layer of mana visible to the naked eye spread out from his body, it moved like a flowing clay that started from his back to his chest and then spreading over all his limbs until finally closing it all off on his head. When the whole thing finished, Zel was now wearing a 'cloak' of mana that was a few centimeters thick.

He moved his hand to wave Emilia goodbye and left the room but Emilia and Karl was still seeing his trademark smile in the air before realizing he had left already as his speed was now something that can be tracked by using the naked eye. He passed through the gates, no, he leaped over them and all three 100-meter walls as if they didn't pose a problem for Zel.

By the time he reached the north sector, he had already scanned the surroundings for all possible threats by spreading his cloak to tiny threads that were like small tendrils that passed through all matter, but he only saw one possible threat. A large egg the size of a few tens of meters had its shell broken to two parts along the middle with sticky liquid flowing everywhere. It was sitting in front of him, but he just couldn't believe that this was something that he had never seen before but he had an idea which nailed him on the ground while his mana that was checking the liquid as it has covered the surroundings suddenly formed back into a cloak.

'It was sucking everything out while a liquid came from the pores on its body, like some kind of mucus.'

"I can feel it moving, a single creature that seems to be growing bigger. It's already reached a ton in weight."

While Zel was trying to remember what he read in the forums in his previous dreams, he heard Matty who was 'sliding' towards him. Matty's long black hair was tied to a ponytail while he wore a tight-fitting sleeveless shirt and a pair of exercise shorts. He was just about to follow the abdicate but he came to a stop when he felt Zel's familiar aura. After all, he couldn't see it.

"Matty! Look how much you've changed! I can't wait to see how you improved since the last time we met. You've been training with Teddy, right?"

"Yeah, well, I can't see it as training, it's more like torture for me. The guy doesn't give me any breaks, makes me feel like he's just bullying a blind boy."

"Seems more like he is just looking out for you. I promise you're going to be thinking otherwise when you realize how much these days of hardship would benefit you on the battlefield."

"I don't know, maybe I should just stay as a scout like Charles asked. It's not like we need more fighters around here."

"I told you Matty, you got more than what it takes to be a ranker so don't let yourself down like that.

"Yes, yes, I know. Let's talk later, we have work to do. It's moving away from the city and is heading towards the mainland instead. Should we still intercept it?"

"Leaving a dangerous thing like that out there? No. I will hold it down so tell me the direction. I'll go by myself."

"It's moving towards the north east, about 400 meters away from her. Its speed i-"

Before he could finish, Matty heard a zoom sound off which would have been more emphasized by the streak of blue that Zel left behind as he headed towards the north east. Matty didn't care though because he only left hurriedly due to the lack of breaks that Teddy made to his schedule. He knew that it was important, but he couldn't feel that it was so tiring. But since Zel asked, he would follow his regiment. His mind wandered to Zel's aura which moved so fast that his mind was only registering it as a line. He was used to it by now as the only thing on left his mind was when would he be able to do that himself.

It was a few seconds later that the aura signatures of both the creature and Zel seemed to collide as a line of Zel's aura passed through the gigantic aura of the abdicate. The aura visbly reduced while Zel's aura seemed to stabilize into one solid aura. But just then ten more auras appeared, five were familiar while five were unknown.

'Shit!'

Matty took out his phone and dialed the headquarters' emergency line but stopped when he sensed more auras are heading to his area. He focused his mana to his lower body, focusing on his feet while leaving some of the in his legs. The moment he felt there was enough, he jumped to the sky and ran on the air. This was his training from Zel had earned him, the ability to run on air so fast that he could rival Zel's speed. Half his speed. Maybe less... But this was still something those fools who were following him couldn't keep up so while he was running, he finally reached the headquarters and the phone's small LED on the top right of the screen started to blink while a buzz that triggered three times was sent out from it.

"Matty's 'Call for Help' signal has been triggered. Inform all members to activate tier 3 defenses."

As the walls were sucking up a lot of mana to keep its defenses at a standard minimum, they have been limiting their output. Tier 3 defenses was when the walls would be given unlimited supply to fill their reserves. This made it impossible for enemies to break through them with sheer force, as even Zel had a hard time breaking through them when it was at this mode. At the same time, the non-combatant members have all arrived at the basement of the inner walls while those who were stood at the top of the walls.

"Over there! A fleet of ships and wing of fighter jets in the North Sea!"

Emilia and the others looked towards the direction that was pointed at by Tina, whose skills focused on long-range vision and marksmanship. Though her skills were still that of a novice, it couldn't be helped since she was not very talented in them. If it weren't for the follower system, she might not even be able to shoot accurately at all.

The ships had the symbol of Pangea on its sides while the fighter jets were closely associated with the X-Force. The two seemed to be teaming up to eradicate Pantheon with how much of their troops were sent.

"King and Quake are there! Do we send reinforcements?"

"Don't worry about them, focus on defending the Oculus!"

While Karl had been anxious because he was the one who had known that both were in that area, Emilia knew better than to split their forces while they were under attack. Of course, this was bolstered by the fact that she believed in Zel.

"Good thing the inner walls have been completed, the timing's just right too..."

"Yeah and with King out there, those idiots don't stand a chance!"

The members were not as tense as you might think, after all, with the powerhouse 'King' at their side, no one was afraid of annihilation. Their new defense system also made them feel at ease. It's not like there are many people like 'King' who could bypass the 100-meter-high walls with ease. They would be able to take care of those people anyway, as all of them were trained by King.

"Stay put and be ready for a fight! If those bastards from Pangea and those idiots from X-Force think they put a lot of effort in this ambush, then they are in for a surprise!"

"Yeah!"

Emilia had taken up the post of team leader while Zel was gone. Her knowledge of the Oculus and being the first and best student of Zel also made her the second strongest after him. With her words and actions, she held down any signs of tension and prepared for Zel's return. The flashes of light at the north showed that he was fighting, but if their experiences were to be trusted, it would be over in less than a minute.

'They came faster than I thought…'

Emilia had heard about the fight between them and the other organizations from Zel. The worst-case scenario would be all four fighting them, but since there was only two then it would be much easier. The Pangea would be led by Leno whose skill set makes him a walking tank while the X-Force's elite would probably be with them. They would deal with Zel while the others attacked the city. The jets would break the walls and the others would handle the rest.

But Emilia only smiled at their plans. Those jets will be forced to land when they realize that she prepared a surprise in the air, though most of them won't land in one piece. As for Leno and the other idiots that wanted to handle Zel? She wished them good luck.

"Don't take too much time Zel..."