Chapter 214 The ‘Fingers’ Meet

"...Tsk"

The person at the head of the table turned towards the third seat on the right side of the table and spoke to the person seated there.

"Speed up your plans concerning the undead in Cheverton."

To their words, the one who was spoken to, the Eighth Finger, replied.

"This would make them weaker than we originally planned."

"Do it anyway, and watch the situation closely.

I want to see if all these are just a series of coincidences. Something I highly doubt."

The eighth finger nodded as he arose from his seat, a dark mist emanating from his body as he spoke.

"Even if they'd be weaker, I'd make up for it with numbers. In the end, they should be enough to wipe out the northern part of the Great Western Empire."

◇ ◇ ◇

Mansion of the Damned, 9th Basement Floor

City State of Magic, Kasteblum

January 23rd

Year 1052

Two days after successfully clearing the thirtieth floor of the Mansion of the damned, Evan's group began their journey back to the surface.

They had challenged another boss room after defeating Ocsuat, with the intention to acquire the materials for the quest that Evan had almost forgotten he accepted.

He also planned to see if he could mimic the skill Ice Age skill, however, to his surprise, the second boss they challenged did not have the skill.

The moment Evan concluded that it did not have any particularly appealing skills to him, he and Pride worked together and made short work of the boss monster.

Sadly, the duo only gained one level from defeating it as the level difference between them wasn't so much anymore.

Even so, it did not change the fact that their strength had improved substantially after coming to the dungeon.

Evan was sure that the moment they went back to the guild, all their adventurer ranks would be instantly upgraded.

The group continued butchering all the monsters on their way back, speed-running through the dungeon as they raced back to the top.

And after killing all the monsters on floors thirty to ten, Evan and Pride gained two more levels, with Eliza gaining three more as the battle priestess took it upon herself to kill even the weakest monsters they found, her goal being to catch up to the levels of Evan and Pride and close the 10+ level gap.

"Don't overwork yourself, Liz, there's still a lot more stuff you can use to level up. Like the thousands of undead, we're about to go wreck.

We can even enter the 'Tower of Avarice' in Osto too."

"And your levels would keep going higher and sooner or later I'd be left in the dust.

I don't like that."

Eliza replied to Evan's words as she disabled her active skill and withdrew the magic power back into her body while staring at her staff.

"I should have listened to dad and learnt attack magic."

The battle priestess lamented her lack of offensive magic capabilities while ignoring the strange gaze that Evan was giving her.

'You do realize that some attack mages on your level may not stand a chance against you, right?'

Of course, he didn't voice out his thoughts and only patted the blonde teenager's hair, causing him to nearly have his head bashed in by her staff.

"Hey Liz, we really need to talk about your domestic violent tendencies."

"I wouldn't have them if you didn't st-!"

[...!]

[Huh?!]

Eliza's speech was suddenly cut short when she suddenly turned around and stared at the stairs from the tenth floor that they had just climbed.

Kayla manifested her physical body and glared down the stairs while Amy's expression turned strange as she looked in the same direction.

Naturally, Pride and Evan noticed this strange reaction from all three of them and asked what was wrong.

"I-" [Mas-] [The-]

The three ended up speaking at the same time, only to also stop simultaneously to let the other person speak first.

In the end, Kayla took the mantle and spoke first.

[Master. There's lightning coming.]

"Huh?"

[A big source of lightning is coming in our direction. It's quite deep but it's moving fast and closing the distance.]

As the great spirit of lightning, Kayla could obviously sense lightning of all types and colours, and even tell if a person possessed lightning magic or a lightning-related skill just by being near them.

Even if one was using a concealment skill to cover this fact, it was impossible to escape her senses. She could also tell when someone was casting a lightning magic spell within a certain range around her, even if they were hiding all traces of their magic power.

And now, she had sensed that someone or something that had enormous amounts of lightning energy was quickly closing in on their general direction.

She explained further saying that they were most likely on a lower floor, however, whenever they reached a point right under the group, the 'source of the lightning' would turn around and go up a higher floor, getting closer in the process.

She had noticed it earlier and ignored it, however, after the source of the lightning had done that three times, she could not ignore it anymore.

"What the? Is someone following us?"

That was Evan's first reaction, however, he decided to hold on and listen to Eliza and Amy first.

"I don't think this is as important as someone following us but my skill just felt weird, like it IS in a state of half activation.

Furthermore, it felt as if someone close to me was getting closer to us.

It's quite an indescribable feeling so I don't know how to explain it. Like a long-lost sibling suddenly finding you once more?

Putting it into words is kinda hard.

The battle priestess scratched her hair as she unsuccessfully tried to explain what she was feeling.

"I felt the same way when I first saw Amy but it's stronger now for some reason."

p The moment those words left her lips, Evan's expression changed as he grabbed her shoulders and asked.

"Which skill of yours is acting strange?"

"Huh? Didn't I say? It's my Breath of Life. Why?"

Evan turned towards the fire spirit and Amy nodded to him and spoke.

[Same thing.]