Chapter 235: Eight

Alex watched the mana pulse carefully and became slightly catious. There was a possibility that the System would recognize what he had done as an advancement of his Mana Sense Spell and cause it to level up.

That was the last thing Alex wanted right now. His Mana Sense Spell was already at Level 9, and Alex had deliberately been making mistakes during his recent experiments to prevent it from reaching Level 10.

He already had an idea for something powerful that he wanted to create before allowing the spell to level up. If he could complete it successfully, he believed its evolution could give him an extremely powerful ability.

Unfortunately, developing that technique required time. He needed to sit down, experiment carefully, and test different methods repeatedly, which was impossible while they were inside a dangerous dungeon surrounded by Mid-rank Species.

Because of that, Alex had to find ways to improve his practical use of Mana Sense without actually leveling the spell. He did that by intentionally lowering the performance of the spell. He smiled bitterly at the thought because most Mages would probably do everything they could to level up their spells as quickly as possible, while he was deliberately trying to keep one of his spells from reaching its next level.

Still, he believed it was worth doing. If his idea worked, the evolution of Mana Sense at Level 10 could potentially be far more useful than anything he could gain from simply leveling it up immediately.

The Mana Pulse continued expanding through the tunnel until it finally reached the monsters inside.

The monsters seemed to be fighting something, but Alex could not tell exactly what it was through his mana pulse. He sent another pulse from the Mana Bullet he fired into the tunnel, and this time, he noticed the badgers had started moving toward them.

Alex frowned as he followed their movements through the mana pulse. That was strange because if the badgers had been fighting other monsters inside their territory, why would half of them suddenly leave them and come toward Alex’s group? If those monsters had not been killed yet, splitting their group should have been dangerous, so there was no obvious reason for them to abandon the fight.

Alex felt that something was wrong, but he could not put his finger on what exactly bothered him. Since the badgers were already approaching, he decided not to waste time trying to solve the mystery and instead focused on preparing for the battle.

"Monsters are coming. There are eight of them," Alex said.

The group immediately became tense. Eight Mid-rank Species were dangerous, especially considering what had happened during their previous battle, when Alex had killed three badgers while the others fought the remaining two and Frank had still ended up gravely injured.

This time, however, everyone had been completely healed, and they were in much better condition than before. They also knew more about how the badgers fought, which gave them considerably more confidence.

Frank moved to the front and raised his shield, while Alex and Sarah stood behind him. Emma and Petra stayed behind them, while Yulia and Joseph remained at the rear because Yulia could intercept any monsters that entered from behind, while Joseph could provide support from a safe position.

Alex waited. A few seconds later, the first group of three badgers appeared from the tunnel, and Alex immediately fired the five Mana Bullets he had prepared.

The projectiles whizzed through the air at blinding speed, and the badgers reacted almost instantly as they prepared to dodge them. Before they could move, however, a pulse of mana expanded from Emma, and her Taunt Skill reached the badgers.

Their eyes immediately turned toward Emma.

The distraction lasted only a moment, but that was enough. Alex had already aimed at their joints, so the Mana Bullets struck their legs and shoulders, digging deeply into their bodies and damaging their ability to move properly.

The badgers continued rushing forward because of their momentum even though their movements had become unstable. Joseph immediately fired a Kinetic Mana Bullet, while Sarah moved forward with her spear and attacked the injured monsters.

Alex was surprised by Sarah’s speed.

Her movement was extremely fast, and it made him realize once again how useful Aura was. Since Aura provided a multiplicative boost to physical stats, its effects became more significant as the user’s stats increased, while Warriors also received stronger Aura after ranking up.

Sarah’s Aura was clearly much stronger than before, allowing her to move with explosive speed that was already comparable to what Alex could achieve with his Level 8 Advanced Body Reinforcement Spell. Before he could think about it any further, five more badgers emerged from the tunnel, including two Warrior Badgers.

The difference between them and the ordinary badgers was obvious. The two Warriors immediately accelerated and moved ahead of the other three, with one rushing toward Frank while the other jumped toward Sarah, who was still attacking the injured monsters.

The first Warrior Badger slammed its claw into Frank’s shield, and the shield immediately glowed. However, something different happened this time, because instead of simply blocking the attack, the shield suddenly produced a powerful pulling force that dragged the Warrior Badger toward it.

The monster was unable to put its full strength into the attack because of the sudden pull, while the second Warrior Badger, which had been aiming for Sarah, was also dragged toward Frank. Both monsters ended up attacking the shield almost simultaneously.

The Origin Energy covering their claws immediately disrupted Frank’s Technique and canceled the defensive effect of his shield. The combined force of their attacks also sent Frank flying backward, causing him to crash heavily into the wall, but the brief moment he had bought was enough for Alex to act.

Alex raised his hand and fired a Mana Shuriken.

The first Warrior Badger reacted immediately and swung its claw toward the spinning projectile. However, the Mana Shuriken was still within Alex’s mana control range, allowing him to twist its trajectory and guide it around the monster’s swinging claw.

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