Chapter 168: The Next Step (2)

Luke felt the entire castle trembling as if it was responding to his mana. He also felt like he was obtaining control over the structure, but not that much control. Either he was lacking mana or the structure was supposed to obey completely only the previous owner.

"Let me check something…" Rina said and then walked on Luke's arms and then touched the crystal. "I can feel it… the spirit of hundreds of goblins in here… the goblin lord used their mana to control this structure."

"Even if they had a lot of mana… it was bound to run out, right?" Luke asked.

"No… they aren't dead inside this crystal. They still live," Rina said. "So, they still could recover mana and give to the Goblin Lord to control this structure and to make copies of them."

That was another weird thought… However, it made sense. Luke didn't know yet if mana had limits, but if it could make creatures give birth to others in a matter of days, then the limits weren't that many. As far as he knew, he was also dealing with alien technology, so he couldn't use the common sense of Earth.

"A goblin can use their mana freely… but anyone else will have to put a lot of mana in there to control it," Rina explained.

That made sense… considering the size of the structure. In any case, Luke kept sending his mana for half an hour until the crystal made him feel like he could move the structure toward the ocean without destroying New York. It was a pity… but that would need too much mana to be used. Half an hour's worth of his mana would only make the structure fly for a few kilometers.

Rachel and the others frowned when the castle began to move, they had no idea how, but they knew that Luke had done something. The speed of the structure for its size wasn't half bad, so it quickly reached the ocean, and then Luke made it land… despite its size, that could float.

"If I only had the mana to use this…" Luke said.

"You can leave it here and return later use it," Shalia said.

"Until that happens, many people will have the chance to control it… it is like flying on a massive weapon that can decimate thousands of monsters," Luke said. "No one will leave this alone."

That also was something that made sense. Even if Luke puts some guards in there, someone with the means and the power to control the structure could defeat any guard that Luke might put it in. In any case, when the job was done, Luke attacked the crystal.

You completed the quest.

You have learned Water Manipulation.

You obtained 50.000 experience points.

You obtained 50.000 gold coins.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

You obtained 10 status points.

Luke didn't get that, but then he realized that when the crystal shattered, he also ended up killing the souls of the goblins inside. In any case, the structure began to tremble and then quickly fell apart. Before any ice debris could fall on him, Luke left on Artiuno's back.

"It seems things are finally done here…. truly, thank you for helping us," Rachel said as soon as Luke returned.

"While it was a pain, I received proper compensation from this job, so I don't need your thanks," Luke said.

"Well, I still feel grateful," Rachel said. "In any case, I thought that defeating that enemy was impossible and many others shared that with me, but now we learned that we can pretty much do anything as long as we try hard."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Luke said. "We won because we had outside help. Without Rina and Shalia, I wouldn't have been able to put up a good fight."

The difference in strength between level one hundred and three hundred was massive. Even though one could estimate that the difference in strength was like ten or fifteen times more, it wasn't the same as facing fifteen opponents that had the same strength as him. Besides, Luke didn't defeat alone, so even though he liked to fool around, he couldn't get carried away.

"Anyway, are we heading in a straight line to Florida?" Rachel asked. "We will need to Find some vehicles to save time. It is a pity that everything in New York is frozen solid."

"You seem pretty calm… considering that your little brother is working with a weird creature, and their help puts such strain on his body," Luke said.

"Well, I am a nurse, and until now, I didn't notice anything weird while he used those powers, so it is fine," Rachel explained.

"Is that so…" Luke said. "In any case, we can find some vehicles once we leave this frozen region behind. However, my father received some SOS requests from Chicago and St Louis as well, so we will check those places before heading home. Hopefully, they didn't keep troublesome information hidden from us."

"Well, sorry about that…" Rachel forced a nervous smile.

Rachel couldn't take that as a joke, and Luke was also being serious about it. He truly hoped that he wouldn't find such troublesome situations ahead of him. In any case, Luke got Water Manipulation, so he had something new to keep his mind occupied. There wasn't a fixed cost to the skill, the mana used was determined by several factors like the speed size of the water he controls. In any case, Luke wondered if he could learn spells by using that skill… it would truly be convenient.

Regardless, the group that looked pretty excited after leaving New York soon realized the severity of the situation after crossing other cities. Skeletons, monsters, difficult weather… the same way happening everywhere, and the number of survivors was even fewer than them in those places.. While they were depressed, night came, and then Luke waited patiently for the time the shop would open.