Magic Circle
After some rest, we walked the new path slowly. Unlike the cave-like shape of the previous paths, this one seemed a lot more detailed and strong. The path was lit up with magical lamps, which gave it a gloomy style.
It took us no time to reach the end of the path. The room that we entered was big and circular. There were many lights all over the room. The ground had some glowing rocks and patterns, and in the middle of the room was a platform with many circular lines.
"Action, that is—" said Brass.
"I know." I cut off Brass's sentence, since I knew what I was looking at.
I walked towards the platform and looked at the lines with a lot of focus. The lines had a lot of details and unknown symbols surrounding them. Just by standing close to those lines, I could feel a familiar sensation.
Magic Circle was one of the ways of using mana in [Doomed Fantasy]. Just like being able to wield a sword by using the knowledge of Swordsmanship, Mana Circles were the knowledge of wielding the power of Mana and Skills.
"This is complicated. Do you know anything?"
He was right. The rarity factor in the game could be applied to Magic Circles too. Although I didn't have any Mana-detecting Skill type, I could easily say that the circle was at least Epic-rank.
"I can crack it. I need half an hour."
"Okay, you work on that and we wai—!"
Suddenly, an unknown figure appeared from the shadows in a corner. The unknown man was smiling confidently. He was tall and had purple hair and pink eyes. His clothing was unlike the mages that we fought before.
"Well, well, well ~ I wasn't expecting any uninvited guests. I guess those low-lives couldn't handle some kids with an old man," said the unknown man.
I quickly stood up and looked at that man's eyes. I didn't know who he was, but I could say one thing. He was a Necromancer.
"Who are you?" said Mark, calmly.
"Call me Ben. I'm but a simple subject of my great lord. I'm here to do the command of destruction," said Ben.
The calmness in Ben's voice was annoying to me. He seemed to be relaxed as if he knew he could kill us any moment he wanted.
"Why does your Lord want to destroy this place?" I said, even though I could blow my lies to Brass about the Nobles of Night.
"Why shouldn't he? We demand nothing but chaos in the world."
Of course, I was expecting him to say that. Demonic Bloodline was an organization filled with absolute insanity, to the point that him saying we just wanted to destroy was somehow a reasonable answer.
"Now then, should we begin our play? I wanted to visit Aloraz before its destruction. Watching people in terror is a hobby of mine," he said as if it was a normal hobby.
[ Ben Dyaz Used "Skeleton Summon" Skill ]
[ Ben Dyaz Used "Deadly Gift" Skill ]
[ Ben Dyaz Used "Durable Summon" Skill ]
After I saw the message, I quickly alerted others to notice. By reading the skill names, I found that he was a high-level necromancer. The overwhelming aura of summoned skeleton undeads could be felt from afar. That was not good.
"Hey Action. Can you crack the circle sooner?" said Brass in a panicked tone.
"Buy me some time," I said.
[ Brass Entwine Used "Skeleton Summon" Skill ]
[ Brass Entwine Used "Dark Domain" Skill ]
I quickly crouched and began my inspection of the circles. I didn't have any way of knowing the exact translation of the circle, due to not having any Mana Detection Skill, but I gained some intel after the insane rate of [Resets] and I knew a way to disable the circle.
The circle was using a large amount of Dark Mana from a faraway location, channeling it north, and ejecting it into the dead corpses. The newly summoned undeads then follow the circle in the south and destroy anything along the way.
I took out one of my Vandal Essences that I created not too long ago and was ready to spill it on the circle and disable it, but where? The circle was an Epic-rank circle with a boundless amount of Dark Mana as a source, which meant a wrong move could evaporate anything around here.
"Cling— H-hey! Action, we need you to do your job faster," said Mark while fighting a skeleton.
I looked up and saw the exhausted look on their faces. Mark and the twins were fighting the strengthened skeletons, while Brass was fighting Ben.
"Hmph, you think you could destroy that circle, kid? Even I, one of the Supervisors, couldn't fathom the vast knowledge of the one who created that circle. You can try everything you want."
He was right; the circle was built in a gruesome way. The creator had to be a high-level [Mana Mage]. But thankfully, I wasn't worried. In my past life as a streamer, I began to study the stuff inside this world like crazy. My viewers often used some weird name such as PageFlipperPlayer or something like that, because of that.
"You know what? I think I found a way to turn this thing off," I said proudly.
I found the exact place that I needed the Vandal Essence to be able to turn the circle off, but as I was about to pour the potion, the ground began to shake violently.
Tremble, Crack—! Cracks began to form on the ground, and between those cracks, something rose that made me happy.
"Lava? Why is there lava coming out of the ground?" said Kevin.
"I guess my explosion did something to this mountain," I said, smiling.
The ground began to fall apart and started to float around above the lava. I was still standing on the Magic Circle platform, while Marks and the twins were standing on a platform alone, and Brass and Ben were separated by the lava. The summoned skeletons fell in the lava helplessly.
I didn't care about the situation. I bent down and began retracing what I did to disable the circle before it fell in the lava. I found what I was looking for and then poured the Vandal Essence.
The Vandal Essence didn't decay the platform and just ate away from the Circle, which was a good thing.
[ Magic Circle "Undead Summoning Codex 11-A2" has been Deactivated ]
Ben noticed the circle's deactivation and responded, "How did you turn off the circle?"
"Well, it wasn't that hard. What were you again? A "Supervisor"? If I were your Leader, I would fire you on the spot," I muttered in a taunting manner.
Ben's face cracked due to the anger he was facing. I, too, cracked a smile on my face, due to the fun.
'I need to find a way out of here,' I thought.