Chapter 161

What was clearly a Crackler Queen didn’t respond well to the blazing hot fireball that was shot its way the moment it fully emerged.Powerful back legs bent, tensing until the last second as the blue fire was about to hit, before they released all at once.

The massive insect easily cleared the fireball and continued its ascent. Up and up it went until it reached a hundred feet in the air, where its insectile wings unfurled.

“Skreeeee!”

The sound that erupted was less a war cry and more of an attack. Nick’s ears were protected thanks to , but even he stumbled back as he felt the wave travel through the air.

Rhea cried out and dropped to the ground, clutching at her head. Elia, on the other hand, had much more sensitive hearing and was thus hit harder.

She screamed in pain, collapsing and rolling on the grass as the sound overwhelmed her.

The Queen took that moment to dive bomb toward her, extending mandibles that were akin to scimitars. Nick didn’t doubt they would cut through bone and flesh without pause.

Fortunately, he remained unscathed, and what should have been a remarkably effective crowd control skill failed to hold everyone down long enough for the Queen to sink her fangs into them.

A formed and shot forward with barely a thought, striking the massive cricket midway through its descent and blowing it backward. Nick felt air rush through the new hole in its front legs and was prepared to cast as many times as necessary to ensure it stayed down permanently.

“NO!” Elia shouted hoarsely, standing up despite her shaking legs. Her fluffy ears were flat against her head, and her tail twitched erratically. Despite all that, Nick could sense the air around her heat up even more. White-hot fire licked at her, and her eyes were focused on the cricket, almost glowing with the amount of mana she was generating.

Shrugging, Nick decided to let her take charge. He wouldn’t allow anything to happen if she became overwhelmed, and now that he had an idea of what to expect, he wasn’t particularly concerned.

The Queen was likely in the low thirties, strong enough to pose a mortal threat to even D-rank adventurers. When combined with the swarm, she was probably considered a C-rank threat.

A second tail materialized beside Elia’s physical one, becoming increasingly real as the temperature rose. Her nails lengthened, and her hair appeared to lighten a few shades.

More importantly, fire swirled around her legs, and when she leaped, she effortlessly crossed the distance and descended upon the Queen with an outstretched claw wreathed in flames.

Of course, a single hole in a non-lethal area wasn’t enough to take down the monster. It regained its balance remarkably quickly, and when it noticed Elia almost flying in its direction, it released another powerful screech, this time more concentrated.

Nick was worried for a moment that Elia wouldn’t be able to withstand the sensory assault, but the wave rippled over her and didn’t slow her down. Instead, she fell upon the Queen like an avenging angel, screaming in fury as fire exploded from her form.

“Gods, she’s been holding back on us,” Rhea muttered as she picked herself up, woozily stumbling. Nick was there to steady her before she could fall back down, and she murmured a thanks but didn’t take her eyes off the fight.

“We’ve all grown,” Nick answered, though he felt that was an understatement. Elia had always been talented with her innate abilities, but what she was showing now was leaps and bounds beyond what he had seen last.

He had known about the second tail, of course, and she had told him it came with a power increase, but hearing it and seeing it were two different things.

The ground shook as the Queen released a pulse into it, breaking up chunks of soil and forcing Elia to pull back for a moment, revealing a scorched and mangled cricket. Its antennas were gone, burned to a stub, and its left pincer had been torn off.

“She’s certainly aggressive,” he chuckled. Not that he could cast stones, given how brutal his battles often were, but at least he didn’t physically tear his enemies apart.

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Despite needing to create some distance, Elia didn’t let up on her assault and instead redoubled her efforts to burn the insect to a cinder, slamming her hands together and screaming, “.”

Blue light momentarily overshadowed the sun, giving the grassland an eerie, unnatural appearance. Shadows warped and twisted, forming images of foxes and humanoids with vulpine features for brief moments before smoothing out once more. Where Elia’s fire had burned hot before, Nick could sense no change in the air temperature around him, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t burning.

The Crackler Queen’s exoskeleton was quite resistant, having managed to withstand most of Elia’s attempts so far. It had fallen to , but the disparity of power was to blame there, and even then, while the spell had carved through it, the exoskeleton hadn’t shattered around the hole.

The beam of ghostly blue fire that Elia summoned didn’t char the exoskeleton nor damage it; it incinerated it.

Where once there had been a battered but still fighting-fit monster, only a hunk of carbon that had once constituted its lower body remained as the attack faded away.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have participated in the defeat of

+ 1.621 Exp

Nick whistled. He was fairly certain that Elia was not above level thirty and was likely around level twenty-five. Defeating the Crackler Queen so decisively was quite an achievement. Considering it was part of her Trial, he suspected she was about to earn a substantial amount of Exp. Probably enough for at least a couple of levels, if not more.

Nick missed gaining new levels after defeating every monster. He enjoyed being strong, of course, but there was an addictive thrill to leveling up that required him to work harder each time to get.

“Wooohoo! That’s right, fugly bug! That’s what happens!” Rhea shouted, stumbling toward Elia. Shaking his head, Nick joined her and helped her sit down without falling face-first into the charred earth.

“That was a very good showing,” he said more sedately, though his grin made it clear he was impressed.

Elia’s more vulpine features receded slowly, and when she turned to them, her eyes glowed slightly; however, after a few blinks, that too faded. She smiled, scratching her head, “Hehe, that was pretty cool, huh?”

“It was,” Nick reassured her, looking at what remained of the cricket queen. Unfortunately, he could salvage nothing from it.

Not that he would have much to take from it, but that sound attack had been quite interesting.

It would prove to be a useful crowd control option that was non-lethal, unlike , which he sorely lacked.

In the wilds, killing monsters required comparatively little finesse. Overwhelming power was often the best answer. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case when one left that cutthroat world.

“I just hope we won’t get attacked again before we find the temple. We aren’t too far, are we?” Rhea finally asked, and Nick almost groaned. She had to go and jinx that, didn’t she?

The last stretch of grassland before the Messenger temple was devoid of any recognizable landmarks. They had long since left the river behind, and the blades of grass stretched endlessly in every direction.

Nick had to levitate himself into the air every half hour to get a better look at their surroundings, as even couldn’t help much.

Though within his range, he knew everything that happened, from how many times Rhea tapped against the vials she had prepared for the next fight to how many times the voles popped out to check their passage and ensure they weren’t about to be hunted down.

Those, Nick was quite sure, were either entirely non-magical or had so little mana that they might as well be.

They had been attacked three more times since the Crackler Queen, and although none of those had been very difficult fights, they had been forced to handle a small herd of thunderhooves by putting them to sleep using one of Rhea’s concoctions. Nick had ensured they couldn’t escape the bubble of air he’d crafted around them, letting them walk around without trouble.

There was no Alpha among them, so the Exp would have been negligible for him, and the girls wanted to conserve their strength in case something truly dangerous attacked.

Fortunately, there were no more surprises for the moment, because upon taking to the air for the fifth time, Nick finally spotted what looked like crumbling ruins in the distance. “I see it!” he shouted, and when he came down, he had to endure Rhea’s shouts of “finally!” and Elia’s squeak of surprise.

“Alright, now that we’re close, is there something we should know? You told us you have to undergo the trial on your own, but can you tell us anything about what that might look like? I don’t want to interfere, but it would be good to know what I should expect, so that I know if everything is going as it should, or if I have to jump in.” Nick had been quite patient with Elia, as she was clearly still processing being forced to take this trial because of her mother’s betrayal.

He hadn’t mentioned Wulla seeking him out and asking for his protection. It wouldn’t change what happened, and it might confuse her even more.

Elia sighed, “There isn’t much that was written down, to be honest. The most I could get was that there would be a spirit that would guide me through several chambers and that as long as I could fulfill its request each time, I would complete the ritual. But we don’t even know if this temple will still have enough power to maintain its guardian!”

That was certainly a concern, but even though they were still far enough that Nick couldn’t sense the temple yet, something in the air told him they wouldn’t find it empty. He didn’t know what that meant, but he had learned to trust his instincts.

“Well, whatever it is, we’ll help you! You will lead, and we won’t interfere, but if the rules say you can take companions, we will come in with you.” Rhea interrupted, and Nick nodded, as that made sense.

Elia seemed hesitant, but eventually, she shrugged. “The spirit will probably stop us if you can’t come with.”

With that, they closed the last stretch of the way until the grass, which had gradually increased in height and was becoming increasingly hard to see through, abruptly stopped.

They walked into a well-defined clearing that would normally indicate someone was actively cutting down the grass. However, a quick glance revealed that the tall grass simply ceased to grow after a certain point, and in its place, soft moss had taken hold.

The ruins of what had once been a large building stood before them. Half-broken columns leaned against one another, and rubble was still scattered all over the clearing from when it had been destroyed.

Despite this, Nick had no doubt that the temple was still functioning, as he had just received a familiar notification.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION

has blocked the effects of a