Chapter 148: Rotating nodes?!

Because of overlapping arrays and Blake's lack of skill, they couldn't directly disable the arrays in charge of the traps and alerting the owner of the facility, so they had to take down all the arrays piece by piece.

[3 more to go, take a rest, and when you are ready we continue.] The system gave him a break after seeing him sweat.

The next was the trap and alarm arrays which were quite tricky. The alarm array had 19 nodes while the traps had 26 nodes making it a total of 42 nodes, but the tricky part was that both of them were interlinked.

Disabling the traps would trigger the alarms informing the owner of their presence which most likely meant death and vice versa.

Also if Blake wasn't careful enough to not trigger the traps, the nodes would shoot high-powered beams of energy that would turn him into a human sieve meaning every option apart from success led to death.

The highest Blake had attempted so far was 30 nodes, 42 was just on another level and there was also the pressure that came from knowing one slip up could lead to their deaths.

"I think I need more time to rest..." Blake said as he began doubting if he was up to the task.

"Is everything okay?" Seeing Blake's sour expression made them ask, causing him to explain the situation to them.

"Everything in this damn place is protected by at least an array and considering the amount of time I spend on an array and the breaks to replenish my energy it means we will be staying here for a while." Blake broke the bad news to them causing both Castiel and Brian to let out a sigh of helplessness.

"So it isn't a question of when are we getting out of here, but are we getting out of here?" Castiel said in a depressed tone that made the corridor turn silent as the trio fell into deep thoughts.

"We can't die just like that, we still have dreams to achieve and our loved ones back home who are probably mourning us. I don't know about you guys but I don't want to die all because of a silly D rank mission. I mean, I was born for greatness and it will be a thing of shame to die like this." After a few minutes of thinking, Blake's feeling of helplessness to fate was changed to determination.

Blake's sudden outburst shocked them, but without even waiting for their thoughts, Blake went back to the door to face what was his present nightmare.

"Let's do this…" Blake took in a deep breath before he connected to the system's mana vision.

He quickly conjured 25 mana needless without much stress and then went ahead to conjure 5 causing him to grit his teeth as he endured the mental strain.

"Ahhh" Blake screamed in agonizing pain as he conjured 7 more mana needles.

Not only was the pain of conjuring new mana needles tearing at his mind but he still had to maintain the previous ones, causing the pain to only rise.

Thud!

Blake dropped on his knees as his veins pooped out and his eyes reddened with tears rolling down his cheeks. He felt like lava was continuously being poured on his head as it was being stretched apart by hot steel chains.

His entire body was drenched in sweat and had lost its strength. It was only his sheer willpower and the memories of his mom's smile that stopped him from fainting due to the extreme mental pain.

[Don't give up. You are almost there, all you need to do now is short it down.] The system's voice brought back Blake's fading consciousness.

Zzzzg! Zzzzg! 

Lightning arcs began emanating from Blake's body and after charging for a while they all gathered at his right arm placed on the door and made their way into the array.

Boom!

The lightning arcs made their way into the nodes through the mana needles, disrupting the array's mana flow hence forcing it to shut down.

Thud!

The moment the system alerted Blake about the success, he lost consciousness and dropped to the ground unconscious.

"…." Castiel and Brian were stunned by what just happened. A moment ago Blake was giving a speech and before they could even reply his hand was on the door and before they knew what was happening he was already screaming before falling unconscious.

"Yup, he is definitely insane…" Brian said in an astonished tone but got a glare from Castiel causing them to go check on Blake.

…

After more than 3 hours after he passed out, Blake finally woke up with an aching head and a grumbling stomach.

"How are you feel?" Castiel and Brian stopped cultivating the moment they noticed Blake had regained consciousness.

"Like shit..." Blake said as he held his aching head.

[You need to eat and have some rest. With your current strength you won't even be able to conjure a mana needle.] The system advised Blake on his condition and without arguing Blake did as asked.

After he had eaten enough, Blake went back to sleep without bothering about the final array.

It was after an 8-hour nap that Blake regained his strength and finally had the chance to look at the obstacle ahead.

'The fuck is going on?' Blake was flabbergasted when the system connected him to its mana vision. The lights representing the nodes were rotating and they were 30 in number making it harder for Blake to have a clear target at them.

[The increase in the difficulty of the array means there is something of value at the other side.] The system said.

'I guess if I was the owner of this place and the level of arrays were to remain the same for everything single thing, I wouldn't have bothered to set up arrays in the first place.' Blake thought.

[Luckily the array isn't that high level and since we have deactivated the alert array, you can have as many tries as you want as long as you don't completely go off course.] The system said causing a smile to appear on Blake's face.