Episode 31.19-20

Arios rushed out, Lecan followed.

They're not running at full speed. They wouldn't be able to execute sword skills otherwise.

Lecan had his sword rest on his shoulder.

This stance brings out the maximum amount of power.

The enemy's magic landed on Lecan and Arios, dyeing the world white.

(Hitting us both at the same time, pretty good.)

Arios slashed at the neck of one of the magic beasts, which dodged the attack.

The beast didn't overlook the momentary opening created by Arios's miss, it let out a barrage of stabbing attack, slicing off Arios's right chest.

Lecan's attack sunk into his target's left shoulder, but the beast managed to twist itself the moment Lecan's attack landed, avoiding lethal damage.

The magic beast swung down its sword, unleashing a blow with a chill-inducing highly destructive force toward Lecan head-on. Lecan narrowly dodged to the left as he bent his left arm in the attack direction in an attempt to soften the blow.

The enemy's slash cut deeply into his left arm and shoulder.

Lecan unleashed Puncture. His sword pierced deep into the enemy's throat. Then he fiercely swung his sword to the left and right. The beast's head flew in the air.

While falling down, Lecan took a Large Red Potion from <Storage> and drank it down. Then he cast <Recovery> on himself.

"<Recovery>."

Arios had killed his enemy as well despite suffering a grievous wound, he also took a Large Red Potion and drew near Lecan.

"<Recovery>."

Lecan cast <Recovery> on Arios as well.

They fetched the content of two treasure chests and took a step in the stairway before going back outside.

"Arios."

"Yes."

"We're taking a 40 day break from tomorrow."

"I understand."

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

The day after, Lecan and Arios dropped by a store that specializes in leather armor. Their light armor would be mended in five days. Lecan's overcoat repaired itself over time. <Self Repair> really comes in handy.

"I will be off for a bit during this break. Please don't worry about serving my dinner until the tenth of month four."

Arios went off somewhere after saying that to Lecan and Nark.

Lecan drank at the food court every single day during the first seven days.

Then he spent three more days sleeping.

He went in the dungeon on the 11th day, and did some testing on <Barrier> in a vacant room on floor 90.

Magical <Barrier> is an extremely handy and flexible magic, as expected of magic taught by Shira.

First of all, the barrier is maintained even during high speed movement. Shooting magic outward from within the <Barrier> doesn't make it disappear. The user can control how far apart the <Barrier> is from them, they can even stick to the rock wall with it's still on. The magic remains active.

On the other hand, physical <Barrier> is an awfully difficult magic to handle.

First of all, the barrier disappears if you try to run with it on. If you try swinging sword outward from within the barrier, it will disappear when the sword touches the inner barrier part even though there's no recoil.

Lecan practiced walking slowly while maintaining physical <Barrier>.

It only went well in the beginning, if he made even the slightest movement or lost focus even a bit, the barrier immediately vanished.

He spent that day and the day after practicing walking with the magic active.

Lecan discovered another fact on the 24th.

He's unable to move if he bumps physical <Barrier> onto the dungeon wall. This was a huge problem. If this trait is persistent in all state, blocking an attack powerful enough to send Lecan flying into the wall with this barrier means getting sent flying along with the barrier, rendering it meaningless.

Lecan went to floor 20s and tried to experiment on a magic beast infested room, but he couldn't stand how slow they were, so he left and warped away toward a room on floor 40 instead. But this time around, he couldn't put up <Barrier> in time and got hit by a concentrated assault. Of course he swiftly took care all five beasts afterward, but he realized that this couldn't go on and went to a vacant room on floor 99 to practice on <Barrier>.

It would be best if he could enter a room with <Barrier> already active, but now that he found out that's impossible, he practiced kneading mana in the passage and cast <Barrier> as he got inside a room. This proved unexpectedly difficult, it took him four days just to get the casting speed to an acceptable level.

The day after he went to floor 40 once again, into a magic beast room. He succeeded putting up a <Barrier> before he got hit. First test a success.

Then he started slowly walking inside the room.

Three <Black Body> assaulted him.

One of the two <Red Body> shot magic.

The magic got blocked by <Necklace of Intuador>.

He blocked physical attacks with <Barrier>.

After some more tests, he found out some of the barrier's property.

First of all, you experience no recoil when the barrier took an attack while you're not moving. But some recoils come up when the barrier is attacked while you're moving slowly. However, the barrier returned to its initial state after wavering for a moment, after which it remained static. Apparently that's just how the mechanism works.

Floor 40's magic beasts' offensive power isn't enough to verify everything, but it still netted Lecan some good guesses.

Next up, he's gotta find a way to attack while the physical barrier is still active.

It's not easy. But he's progressing slowly but surely.

The booze that night tasted so good.