Chapter 179 First Casualty

Unlike the antimagic spores in Cyrena’s body, which were filled to the brim with mana, the antimagic spores in the Red Goblin Mountains were like near-empty vessels.

There wasn’t much mana in them.

As a result, they had a greater effect on witches and aura users once they latched onto their bodies.

Vaan had given it some thought and concluded that it wasn’t difficult to treat people affected by the Curse of the Purple Umbala as long as it hasn’t evolved to the second stage like Lord Helia’s hands.

As long as a witch could pump enough mana into the antimagic spores and fill them up to the brim, the antimagic spores would stop affecting the flow of their mana and, in turn, stop affecting the activation of their magic spells.

At the same time, it was also possible to flush the antimagic spores out of the body through this method. Such was a solution to treating Cyrena.

However, it wasn’t a complete treatment solution as it would only flush out a portion of the antimagic spores in her body, not to mention a large amount of mana was required for the undertaking.

Ding!

<Antimagic spores have entered your body>

<Antimagic spores have been removed from your body>.

‘Kyuu!’ Topaz mentally sounded again.

The little earth spirit fairy seemed even more frustrated and annoyed, as if she had just cracked open a bunch of candy wrappers only to find a small fragment of the candies inside.

Vaan smiled slightly at her little tantrum.

Nevertheless, his smile quickly disappeared in the next moment. He was getting an ominous feeling from the cursed region.

‘It’s been a few years since Lady Aeliana turned into a Plant-type Abomination and disappeared into the depths of the Red Goblin Mountains,’ Vaan recalled.

Although Lady Solana had been researching a cure for her daughter, she hadn’t contacted her daughter once in those years—Or rather, she couldn’t.

The core region of the Red Goblin Mountains wasn’t a place just anyone could enter. That’s why Lady Solana had honed her swordsmanship and body.

However, the issue was that no one knew about the Plant-type Abomination’s situation or how strong it had become in those years.

‘To others, the antimagic spores are mana drainers. But to the Plant-type Abomination, the antimagic spores are its mana collectors,’ Vaan furrowed his brows.

Puchi!

Vaan suddenly stabbed a thick bush on the left with his White Unicorn Spear without looking as he passed it, causing a goblin’s cry to be heard.

He casually retracted his spear and continued onward as if he had done something trivial.

Ding!

<Your spear mastery proficiency has increased>

<Antimagic spores have entered your body>

<Antimagic spores have been removed from your body>

…

<You have caught the Plant-type Abomination’s attention>

<The Plant-type Abomination is watching you>

…

As Topaz continued to devour the antimagic spores that entered his body and consumed its mana for herself, the Plant-type Abomination became more aware of his existence until it finally started watching him.

However, Vaan couldn’t locate which direction the Plant-type Abomination was watching him from. It seemed to be coming from everything direction.

‘The antimagic spores are spiritually linked to the Plant-type Abomination,’ Vaan’s eyes flickered.

Nevertheless, despite losing its antimagic spores, the Plant-type Abomination simply watched Vaan. The system didn’t detect any anger or killing intent from it.

As such, not even an Elimination-type Witch Hunt was triggered.

Understanding that much, Vaan thought of two likely possibilities after ruling out the rest; either the loss of antimagic spores didn’t harm it in any way, or it was experiencing a much greater pain, and the loss of antimagic spores was inconsequential in comparison.

The ominous feeling became stronger.

‘There’s something wrong in this place,’ Vaan furrowed his brows with a deep look.

However, the incoming group of five Rank 1 Green Goblins ahead quickly attracted his attention. They weren’t resorting to ambushes.

“These goblins are becoming bold because I am alone,” Vaan muttered.

Unfortunately, the goblins had overestimated themselves. They tried to confront an opponent whose strength they failed to properly gauge.

One of the goblins fired an arrow with his bow, but Vaan easily dodged it by an inch with a slight body shift. Despite the arrow being laced with poison, he was unfazed by it.

The arrow from a Rank 1 Green Goblin with a crude bow was too slow to pose a threat. The arrow’s trajectory had been completely calculated.

Shortly after, Vaan hurled his Rank 2 White Unicorn Spear forward, impaling the goblin archer in a single strike and taking out the goblin group’s only ranger.

Right after, he lunged forward with the goblin knife he had previously acquired.

Although it was also a low-quality weapon that the goblin had most likely obtained from a bandit, it was good enough to do its job.

With his superior physical finesse, Vaan weaved through the remaining four goblins, slitting all their throats in a single wavy motion.

Blood spurted from their throats, and before their bodies dropped to the ground, he hacked off all their left ears and caught them with his ragged cloth bag.

Shortly after, he went to retrieve his white spear, which had impaled the goblin archer’s heart.

At that moment, the goblin archer had yet to draw its last breath.

Instead of pulling out the white spear, he gave it a slight twist, increased its cutting power with Heat Manipulation, and hacked upwards, slicing straight through its upper left chest to its left ear for collection.

The goblin archer’s fearful eyes dimmed shortly after, and Vaan proceeded indifferently.

There was no compassion for monsters in a kill or be killed zone.

Moments later, a human cry resounded roughly seventy yards from Vaan’s location after an Early Rank 2 Aura Master was struck in the knee by a goblin archer’s poisoned arrow.

“Fuck—!!! God damned goblin archers ahead! Watch yourselves, everyone!” the Early Rank 2 Aura Master yelled before he requested, “Guard me!”

The person quickly snapped the arrow, pulled the arrowhead out from the other end, and applied disinfectant to his wound.

“Dammit, Frewin! How can you be so careless?! You’re going to slow us down!” another Early Rank 2 Aura Master cussed.