Chapter 127: Into the night

Chapter 127: Into the night

First, I make sure Lily gets some water and food; she seems really thin. Well, all of us have lost some weight. The interesting thing is that if we went through this back on Earth, most of us would be done by now. It shows that even without the usage of skills and just by having mana and increased stats, our bodies started to change.

At what point do we stop being able to call ourselves humans? I do not know, but to be honest, I don't care that much.

I am me, and I'll stay me. If I decide to change, it will be my decision, and I do not care much about what others will call me.

Another thing is Biscuit. I like him, I really do. The doggo might be silly, but he is surprisingly smart and gentle with all of us. Maybe not everything is lost when animal archmages take over. Biscuit might protect us, remembering the bits of food we gave him back on the first floor.

Still, does he really have to use eight massive mana arms to move, using them instead of his legs that hang in the air? He looks like a massive spider with the body of a pottymouthed telepathic corgi.

It creeps me out, so I use [Disruption] to cancel this abomination. I don't put much effort into it and only send a wave of disruptive mana towards him.

The corgi resists.

"..."

What?

The heck?!

He glances at me with a cheeky look in his eyes. He is laughing at me, is he not? He is totally making fun of me!

I send another wave of disruptive mana towards him, and finally, the eight arms made of mana disappear, and the corgi plops down on his short legs and woofs at me.

I succeeded, but I know it's only the beginning of the end. The corgi has already started to learn how to fight against [Disruption].

What have I done?

After booping Biscuit's snout like five times – I gotta enjoy it while I'm stronger – I join Isabella and Sophie. I just nod at Sophie, but the little girl gives me a small, short hug and then sits down, smiling at me.

"You were totally right! Doggo's snout is amazing to boop!" Her face glows as she says so.

"I told you! Also, you should try to gently pull his whiskers; he then woofs softly. But only do it two times; after that, he becomes super annoyed." I tell her.

Isabella giggles. "I'll do that!"

Out of all of us, little Isabella lost the least weight, and I lost the most, even though I probably finished off the most monsters. Hmm, is there any correlation?

"Who are you?" Sophie asks with a weird look on her face.

So rude, but anyway, I wanted something.

"Do you still want to go out?" Tess asks. "Lily will be angry."

"It's fine. It's easier to beg for forgiveness than to get permission." And what is she? My mom? I'm not scared of her.

But seriously, I hope she won't refuse to heal me.

"I'll go with you," Tess adds simply, and one look at her tells me enough that she did think it through and knows how dangerous it might be.

Well, who am I to refuse? Tess is her own person, and she should be able to hold her own out there. I already saw it multiple times.

"Sounds good," I answer, and this time, it's her who nods.

Now then, back to experimenting. I still should have around one hour left.

It's dark, and we can barely see anything. The wind continues to pummel against our bodies and to be honest, it's stronger than I expected it to be, to the point that it surprises me that it doesn't destroy some of the buildings.

I already have my [Perception] running as a replacement for my sight, but what about Tess? Is she even able to see with her [Farsight]?

When I turn to her, I notice that she is looking straight at me, and when I wave my hand, she waves it as well, perfectly copying my movement. It's telling enough.

Okay, her skill might be better than I thought, allowing her a bit more than just seeing far. Lightning also keeps crackling around her body every once in a while.

The mana I feel from it is sharp and strong.

Time to go. My heart beats, and with a push against the ground, I propel myself high onto the roof, sending a wave of mana into our surroundings, and then turning to Tess, who also shakes her head.

Nothing so far, so we move in the direction we decided on before, not too far from the hideout so we can get back for some help if needed.

After around five minutes of running, we stop, and I start sending waves of mana into our surroundings as some sort of lighthouse, and we wait.

Once in a while, I absorb some kinetic energy from the wind and throw it against the houses around us. It doesn't take much time for me to destroy a few of them. Doing so, I also realize that this kinetic energy from the wind is a bit harder to use than the energy from my Kinetic Heart.

Interesting. More testing needed!

When Tess finally spots some monster, I stop with that and instead switch to [Armament]. The armor that appears around me is not as translucent as before, and instead, it's a darker shade of blue that is still somewhat see-through, but much stronger.

The armor is a weird combination of medieval-age-like armor and modern armor that special ops or soldiers tend to use. It's also not too bulky and without useless parts.

In the end, a helmet appears around my head, a helmet with a smooth front without any holes for the eyes or nose.

With my new skill, I make them all as strong as possible and even infuse my body with mana before strengthening it with Symbiotic Transference.

Then I sense the monsters I can't see yet, jump onto the roof.