Chapter 445

Nick’s eyes narrowed as he observed the attacker looming over them. It was a twisting mass of thorny vines tightly wrapped around a bright, glowing green core.This was a Vine Devil, but much larger than what its species normally reached. It was likely a remnant of the group that had once led the charge against Floria months ago.

Given its size, it was a creature that belonged much deeper in the Green Ocean, far from the usual hunting routes, yet here it was, currently tearing apart a local team, not even half a day from the walls.

"Rhea, Elia, get the wounded," Nick ordered. “Gaelen and I will take care of it.”

Gaelen didn't hesitate to leap over the edge of the ravine, dropping toward the rocky floor with predatory grace.

As he descended, he drew his blade, and the air around him instantly chilled. The cursed steel hissed as it slid out of the leather scabbard, leaving behind a faint black mist that seemed to absorb the surrounding light.

He landed directly between the failing mage and the monster, his boots cracking against the stone.

The Vine Devil screeched at the newcomer and sent four thick, trunk-like vines crashing down toward him.

But Gaelen moved with a speed that defied human limits. His physical stats were already quite high, and they were only boosted by the dark ether of his weapon, which turned him into a blur.

He didn't bother to block the heavy creepers, walking easily through the gaps in their assault. The cursed blade flashed, cutting through the thick wood with contemptuous ease and severing the appendages before they could reach him.

A root burst from the ground a moment later, blocking his path, but he easily backflipped out of its reach.

"Move!" he barked at the locals, stepping forward again to keep the monster's attention fully on him.

Elia and Rhea slid down the embankment right behind him. The foxgirl rushed to the bleeding spearman, the silver bells tied to her hair chiming, and a wave of soft, golden fire washed over the wounded locals, sealing their deepest cuts and easing their terror without burning their skin.

Rhea arrived a moment later, uncorking a glass flask and tossing it at a cluster of roots trying to flank them. The glass shattered, coating the ground in a fast-acting alchemical resin that hardened instantly, pinning the remaining vines to the stone, before she turned to help with the wounded.

Nick dropped into the ravine last, his boots touching down softly as he examined the thrashing Vine Devil. It was strong, incredibly resilient, and brimming with mana, the kind of enemy only his father could have taken care of among the mortals of Floria.

Things weren’t as dire now, especially with two people tending to the injured. He could probably end the encounter with a burst of his more powerful spells, but he actively suppressed those instincts. He had just unlocked , and fighting a high-level wood-attribute monster was the perfect crucible to refine the crude spell, at least until he found a fire-aligned one to absorb.

The Vine Devil proved it wasn’t just a mindless creature, and even as it continued its attack on Gaelen, it whipped a dozen thorny tendrils toward him.

Nick held his ground, allowing the creepers to surge toward him. He reached deep into his soul, igniting fire within his mana, and wielding his sheer willpower. He channeled his passion, the unwavering determination to advance and defend his territory, using it as the conceptual spark to elevate the spell beyond a simple cantrip.

The heat flared in his chest, traveling down his arm. This time, instead of compressing the fire into a single point as he had against the mud elementals, he forced the matrix open and swept his empty hand forward.

A rolling wave of deep crimson flame erupted from his palm.

The wall of heat slammed into the incoming tendrils, greedily consuming them. The thorny vines caught fire instantly, stripping moisture from the wood and turning the appendages into crumbling ash before they could reach him.

Clicking his tongue, Nick let the magic unravel before it could reach the monster, knowing it wouldn’t do much more than annoy it, and Gaelen was doing a better job keeping it in place.

The spell was a bit too expensive for his tastes, especially since Xander had opened his eyes to how much mana he’d been wasting. He felt his mana reserves dip considerably for how weak that was, and was once again reminded that lacking a natural affinity made fire magic highly inefficient for him.

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But the flexibility was exactly what he needed to practice, and despite still being in an emergency, things were under control as long as he could finish it with his other magics.

The monster shrieked again as Gaelen cut three vines simultaneously, recoiling from the cursed energy. It stopped its sweeping attacks and shaped its remaining vines into tightly woven wooden spears, launching them at the humans with the speed of fired ballistas.

Nick shifted his stance and reignited a fire in his coils, drawing the residual heat around him back into a tight cluster.

He shaped the crimson flame into a series of bullets, spinning the fire tightly with a thread of wind magic to keep their shape.

Once he was satisfied with their power, he flicked his fingers forward, firing them in rapid succession.

The projectiles rapidly closed the distance, hitting the wooden spears mid-flight, creating clean holes in the dense wood and exploding inside. The hot expansion shattered the projectiles into burning fragments that scattered down across the rocks.

“Now!" Gaelen yelled over the roar of the flames, and Nick saw that he had carved a path straight through the monster's defenses, leaving trails of necrotic decay on the remaining bark with his cursed blade that prevented quick regeneration.

He ducked under a wild swing, stepped inside the Devil's guard, and drove his blade into the creature's chest. Twisting the blade, he peeled the wood apart to expose the pulsing green core hidden deep within.

Nick didn't waste the opening. He channeled a powerful burst of mana into his hand, combining his passionate intent into a sphere of fire.

The magic came together faster this time, requiring less preparation, and he wondered if it was because he was improving or because the base spell he was using was a , and this was simply a more natural expression.

With a grunt, he launched the orb directly into the exposed cavity.

The moment the flame touched the core, it erupted violently. The enclosed space intensified the heat, transforming the center of the Vine Devil into a blazing furnace. The creature stiffened, its entire body glowing from within, until the core finally cracked.

The monster fell into a heap of smoldering, blackened ash, and Nick took a moment to breathe.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION!

You have participated in the defeat of

+145,000 Exp

Your spell has leveled up to !

+25,000 Exp

Nick exhaled, letting the remaining heat dissipate from his surroundings, grateful for his decent physical stats that allowed him to withstand the uncontrollable flames without severe burns.

More importantly, the notifications validated his theory. Practical, high-stress use was the quickest way to improve the spell's matrix.

Humming, he turned his attention away from the ash pile and walked over to the adventurers.

The mage was slumped against the limestone wall, his hands trembling as he clutched his staff, an empty vial he received from Rhea at his side. The rogue and the spearman sat on the ground, breathing heavily as Elia finished healing the last of their torn muscles. They looked exhausted, completely drained of stamina and mana, but they were still alive.

"Gods... thank you," the mage coughed, looking up at Nick and Gaelen with wide, grateful eyes. "We thought we were dead. I didn't have enough mana left for another shield.”

“I would reprimand you for picking a fight you couldn’t win, but this shouldn't have been possible in the first place," Rhea noted, walking over to the smoldering remains to inspect the ash for any salvageable materials. She frowned, kicking a charred piece of bark. "A Vine Devil this strong shouldn't be this far east. They are supposed to nest near the crystal forest, since their roots need a higher density of ambient mana than this sector provides.”

"It was chased out," the spearman spat, leaning his head back against the rock. His face was pale from blood loss, but his voice was thick with anger. "We were tracking a pack of dire wolves when those silver-armored fools came tearing through our sector.”

Nick exchanged a sharp look with Gaelen. "The team from the Capital?”

"Yes," the rogue replied, wrapping a fresh bandage over his forearm. "They were using some kind of repelling artifact to carve a path straight through the forest, ripping up the bushes and driving every beast in the area into a total frenzy. They stirred up the entire sector and just kept heading west, leaving us to deal with the fallout.”

Gaelen sneered, wiping an oily residue off his blade before sheathing it with a sharp click. "Arrogant idiots. They are treating the Green Ocean like one of their managed dungeons, uncaring of the consequences.”

Nick didn't comment, even though he shared many of the same feelings. He broadened his senses, pushing his awareness as far west as his abilities would permit.

Ignoring the chaotic background noise of the woods, he searched for the unnatural disturbance the locals had described and almost instantly found the wake.

It was a bruised tear in the forest's natural mana, something that clearly did not belong, so much so that he was surprised he hadn’t noticed it earlier, though he supposed that they’d been pretty far, and he’d been more preoccupied with the Vine Devil. The ether around the path was violently stirred, rippling with the panic of displaced monsters, and the trail cut a straight line through the woods.

It was heading directly for the crystal forest.

“Those idiots are really pushing it," he said with annoyance.

It wasn’t so much that the crystal forest belonged to his family as it wasn’t yet ready for harvest and wouldn’t be for many years, but given Ogden’s warning about something making a lair within, he suspected the troubles would only increase once they arrived.

Rhea said as much out loud, earning a disgusted grunt from her brother.

"If they agitate whatever claimed that territory with a repelling artifact, it won't kill just them," Elia said with pursed lips. "It will trigger a stampede, especially if they try to retreat with the same method. Every monster in the deep woods will run eastward to escape the predator's wrath.”

"They will run right into the new logging camps, and Floria after that,” the mage realized in horror.

Nick wasn’t too worried about the town, since Xander, Marthas, and Arthur were there, and even one of them could handle a monster wave on their own.

But hundreds of workers were in the logging camps, cutting timber near the expanded borders, and the town guard was stretched too thin to quickly set up a defensive line to protect them from a wave of monsters.

If the forest were to erupt, the eastern edge of Floria would be washed away in blood.

"We need to intercept them," Nick finally decided.

That settled, he turned to the three adventurers.

"Can you walk?” "Yes, my Lord," the spearman answered, surprisingly recognizing him and pushing himself up from the ground. "The Miko's magic sealed the worst of it.”

"Get back to town as quickly as you can," Nick ordered. "Find Darien and tell him to ring the warning bells and pull the loggers back behind the wall. A stampede is a real possibility. We’ll track down those cretins.”