CHAPTER 200: EMERGENCY AT THE BOARDER

Adrian was surprised, and frankly, impressed. In a world where most mages were considered blessed to have an affinity for a single element, possessing five was a sign of terrifying potential.

Nyra saw the look on his face and continued, a proud, confident smile playing on her lips. "Well, I am adept with Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning. So, you can transfer all of them to me when you’re ready."

Without a word, Adrian walked closer to her and gently placed his palm on her forehead. The sudden action made Nyra’s head rush with a flurry of thoughts.

She could feel the unexpected coolness of his hand against her skin, a stark contrast to the sudden heat rising in her own cheeks.

’So close... He’s not going to... No, don’t be silly, Nyra, he’s just...’

Her chaotic thoughts were interrupted when she felt a warm sensation bloom from the point of his touch, spreading through her mind.

It wasn’t an attack or an intrusion, but a gentle, overwhelming flood as new knowledge entered and settled into her memory.

"It worked!" she gasped after Adrian withdrew his hand. "I have everything in my head! Thank you, Adrian!"

"You still have to wait until you become a Transcendent Mage before you can think about practicing them."

Nyra nodded obediently, "Aye, aye, Captain. I’ll do just that." Her playful smile returned. "Now, since we’re done with the Archives, shall we continue our tour around the Kingdom?"

Before Adrian could respond, she had taken his hand again, her grip confident as she began to lead him out of the library’s grand hall.

Her energy was infectious, and Adrian found himself simply allowing her to pull him along. As they exited, the two Elven guards at the entrance straightened up, about to ask if their tour was concluded.

But before they could speak, a different figure burst through the road. An Elven woman, her robes disheveled and her face pale with panic, stumbled to a halt before them. She was breathing heavily.

"Your... Your Majesty... Princess Nyra..." she stammered, trying to catch her breath. "The High Elves... the forest..."

Nyra’s playful demeanor vanished instantly, replaced by her usual authority as princess. She held the panicked Elf by the shoulders, her grip firm and steady.

"Linnael, calm yourself," she commanded. "Breathe in, then take it slowly. Tell me what has happened. What about the High Elves? What is wrong with the forest?"

The Elf finally calmed down enough to speak, though her words tumbled out in a frantic rush.

"Fierce creatures, Your Highness... things of nightmare, were discovered deep within the Forest. They have already killed some of our people. The ones that managed to survive reported it to the High Elves. Lord Loryn and the others went to investigate themselves some time ago, and we haven’t heard from them since."

She paused, her eyes welling with tears as she delivered the final blow. "One of the creatures... it reached the outer lands. It crossed the Barrier through the fissures hole. It’s... it’s killing our people!"

The moment Adrian heard the Elf finish her story, he didn’t spare a single word. This was a direct threat, an attack on his new allies, and it was happening now.

With a single, silent thought, shimmering plates of black and blue energy began to materialize around his body, clicking and locking into place. In under a second, he was fully encased in his Power Suit.

He immediately launched himself into the air, flying towards the city entrance at blinding speed.

The flight took mere seconds. As he approached the edge of the Elven capital, he could already see the chaos.

Screams echoed up from a residential district near the forest’s edge. Flashes of magic erupted, only to be swallowed by an unnatural, creeping darkness.

Adrian landed in the center of a wide, ornate plaza, the impact cracking the elegant stonework. The scene was one of carnage.

Several Elven guards lay dead or wounded, their graceful bodies broken. The surviving warriors were forming a desperate defensive line, their spells flickering weakly against the hulking monstrosity that stood before them.

It was a hulking beast of pure, animated darkness that stood a staggering seven meters tall. Its form was a shifting, unstable mass of shadow and writhing tendrils.

It had four long, gangly limbs that ended in razor-sharp claws, and its head was a featureless void of deeper blackness, save for two points of light that were not eyes, but holes that seemed to drink the very light and hope from the plaza. It was unlike anything Adrian had ever seen before.

He didn’t give a moment’s notice. His Mana Gun materialized in his hand and he channeled the full power of the 7-Star magic crystal currently loaded, taking aim at the creature’s center mass and releasing the blast.

~BOOOM!~

A beam of incandescent energy tore through the air, striking the creature squarely in the torso. A gaping holewas instantly vaporized from its shadowy form.

The surviving Elves cried out in relief, believing the battle was over. But Adrian was shocked to see the monstrosity barely stagger.

It dropped the mangled body of an Elf it had been holding and slowly turned its void-like gaze towards him. The damage dealt to its torso was already healing, the dark tendrils writhing and stitching the hole closed at a visible, terrifyingly rapid rate.

It opened a mouth that wasn’t there a second ago and let out a guttural, alien roar that scraped at the sanity of all who heard it.

"UGIAR YSIRO!"

The words meant nothing, but the raw, murderous intent behind them was universal. A notification instantly flashed in Adrian’s vision.

[Unknown Language Detected. Would you like to download Language Pack for 100,000 TP?]

[Yes] [No]

In a split second, Adrian read the notification and selected [Yes]. There was no time to ponder the exorbitant cost; information was a weapon, and right now, he needed every weapon he could get.

Just then, the creature rushed towards him at a moderate but heavy speed, its four limbs clawing at the stone, tearing deep gouges in the plaza.

It repeated the same phrase, but this time, Adrian understood the simple, brutal message behind the roar.

{STRONG MUST DIE!}

It kept chanting the phrase like a mantra as it approached, its four limbs raised to tear and crush him. Adrian didn’t panic as it closed in.

Even without [Omnisense] active, its movements felt clumsy and slow to his enhanced perceptions. He immediately launched himself higher into the sky with a burst from his suit’s thrusters, easily evading its ferocious charge. From above, he descended and sent a direct, mana-enhanced kick to its head.

~BOOOM!~

The head got smashed into a spray of dark tendrils and shadow-stuff, but to Adrian’s utter surprise, it began to coalesce and heal once again, the void-eyes reforming in seconds.

’What the hell is this thing?’

~CRASH!~

The creature retaliated with an attack of its own, sending one of its enormous hands swatting down at Adrian like a human attempting to squash a bug.

Adrian easily sidestepped from its path, allowing the massive appendage to land freely on the ground with a deafening thud after confirming there were no Elves in its area of attack. The stone of the plaza shattered, sending dust and debris flying everywhere.

Adrian decided to test a theory. He flew in a wide arc, peppering the creature with smaller, rapid-fire blasts from his Mana Gun.

Each shot blew a hole in its shadowy flesh, and each time, the hole sealed itself within seconds. He tried attacking by himself, punching one of its arms off. The destroyed limb dissolved into black dust, while a new one began to grow from the stump almost instantly.

’There’s no way this thing can regenerate forever.’

Adrian believed that all regeneration must require an energy source. He drifted back, putting several hundred meters between himself and the monstrosity, his mind racing as he re-evaluated the situation.

’I can’t just keep attacking mindlessly. I’ll only waste energy and time. Since it can keep healing itself, there has to be a source.’

He imagined a core. A part of its body supplying the necrotic energy to the rest of the frame, just like a magic crystal powers a device.

With that hypothesis in mind, Adrian’s eyes glowed a bright blue. [Omnisense]!

The world shifted. He no longer saw a simple creature of shadow. He saw a complex network of flowing energy.

The entire body was a maelstrom of chaotic, dark mana, but it was all flowing from a single, intensely bright point. His theory was correct.

There was a core, a pulsing sphere of concentrated necromantic power, but it wasn’t in the creature’s chest or head as he would have expected. It was hidden deep within its left lower leg.

The creature roared again, {STRONG MUST DIE!}, and began another clumsy charge.

This time, Adrian met it head-on. He activated Phantom Steps, his armored form flickering into a dozen after-images, disorienting the simple-minded beast. It swiped at one illusion, then another, its attacks hitting nothing but air.

In that moment of confusion, the real Adrian appeared directly in front of its targeted leg. He didn’t bother with a grand attack. He raised the Mana Gun, poured a small but incredibly dense amount of his own mana into it for a single, armor-piercing shot, and fired.

~PSSHH!~

The shot was silent, a thin needle of pure blue energy that punched through the shadowy flesh and struck the core dead-on.

Just immediately, the creature dissolved into a cloud of black dust.

[Congratulations! You have killed a magical creature!]

[Magical Crystal harvested successful!]