Otherworld Adventure

It was already midday and Cecil and his temporary party were deep in the forest.

During the past couple of hours, the group was constantly fighting the monsters that were densely packed together in the forest.

They had already gone farther than Cecil had during his quick trek through the forest earlier in the morning.

During this time, they had met other parties that were similarly hunting.

There was an unwritten rule during the event that parties could help each other if it looked like a party needed or requested for help. But if not, then it was sensible to avoid each other to prevent problems like kill-stealing and such.

A simple greeting was enough and each party would be on their separate ways soon after.

Even though Cecil's party was a bunch of teenagers, not one party they came across underestimated or looked down on them.

Instead, the veteran's that were participating gave them words of encouragement or even cautioning them about any strong packs that they sensed in the forest.

Even though it was a competition everyone was acting amicable.

"This seriously doesn't feel like a contest or anything..." Cecil said.

Hearing Cecil mumbling to himself, Tyr asked, "What's that Ce?!"

"O-oh... I'm just thinking that the event doesn't feel like a contest."

"Why's that?!"

"Well... every party we come across has practically been helping us out."

Hearing what Cecil said, Miles raises his voice,

"That's because this isn't a game. Although the event is a contest, we're still putting our lives on the line trying to vie for first place."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." What Miles said made Cecil remember that this event wasn't like any contest or event back on Earth.

On Earth, every contest was just for sport and for fun. Here, even a simple contest like this could cost you your life.

"Anyways, every party is expected to watch each other out on the field. You should never leave your fellow adventurer in the rut if they're in trouble." Explained Miles.

"Enough chitchat! I sense another pack coming right for us... they're barbed apes!"

Sensing a pack of monsters heading towards them, Milly quickly alerts the party.

Cathy finished using her sensing spell and reported,

"...15 o-or so... t-there could be m-more around the a-area..."

"Let's finish this quickly!" With those words, Tyr rushed to the front. Seeing him, Miles followed behind quietly.

After fighting against the monsters in the forest for almost half a day, Cecil and Lucia were able to adapt themselves perfectly with the party, Scarlet Blaze's fighting style.

With Tyr and Miles as the vanguard, they had Cathy stay in the center of the group since she was the healer, while Lucia and Milly acted as the rearguard.

Cecil and Silver were at the sides of the group and acted as support for both the rearguard and vanguard.

Since Cecil and Silver had the most mobility, they acted as firefighters in case the group encountered another monster pack while still in combat.

They bought time or directly took care of any additional monsters that were attracted to their fight.

Readying her spell, Milly said to the fox girl beside her,

"Lucia! Let's take care of them quickly!"

"Alright... Enchant – Foxfire!"

Lucia quickly casted an enchant spell and buffed Miles and Tyr's weapons with foxfire.

The barbed apes were now in the party's visual range. They could see the apes charging towards them on the ground or swinging and jumping from tree to tree.

Tyr quickly thanked Lucia and recklessly rushed at the monsters.

"Thanks! Okay, here they come! Let's crush them! HAHAHA!"

Seeing as Tyr was already rushing towards the pack excitedly, Miles followed behind while tiredly saying,

"...don't get careless."

Right when Tyr and the pack were about to collide, Tyr jumped and sent a flying kick at the front most barbed ape.

"HIYAAAAHHHAHA!!!"

Before the fight began, Tyr had already strengthened himself with fire-type body enhancement spells. By borrowing the momentum from his running kick Tyr had sent the ape he kicked careening back to its friends.

The ape collided with the others behind him and halted the packs charge.

The apes on the trees pounced down towards Tyr, but Miles had already arrived next to him and slashed the 2 apes in front, while the others were taken care of by Silver, Lucia and Milly's magic spells.

Silver sent out a wind blade bisecting 2 apes that were pouncing at Tyr, while the other 5 apes were impaled by Lucia and Milly's flame lances.

While everyone else was busy with their fight at the front. Cathy kept a look around the area while also paying close attention to the fight, so at a moment's notice she'd be ready to cast a support or healing spell.

Cecil on the other hand was on top of a tree branch. He was looking around with his mana sight, checking whether there were any other monster packs around them.

After confirming that everything was fine, he was just about to jump down and join the fight only to see that it was already over.

"...Hey, how come I'm stuck with the boring jobs?" Cecil asked exasperatedly.

"Punishment... for not listening to me earlier~" Lucia said while collecting the barbed apes' ears.

"Come on already... if it's like that, then Silver should also be doing the same!" He countered.

"Hahaha~ no." Lucia deadpanned.

Seeing the two at it again, Milly laughed and said,

"You two really can't give it a rest huh~. Well Cecil, it's not that we don't want your help, but if you joined then it wouldn't be a 'hunt' anymore."

Hearing Milly, Cecil could only groan in displeasure. It wasn't his fault. Cecil's particular skillset just sort of changed their plans of hunting monsters.

If Cecil did join in, it would no longer be a hunt... but a slaughter instead.

A while back, when the group was fighting together, Tyr instinctively felt that Cecil was somewhat holding back.

At first, Miles was upset since they were hunting with their lives on the line and Cecil was holding back. He thought that it would be an issue if a problem arose because one of them wasn't taking the hunt seriously.

At the time, Lucia wanted to say something only to have 3 packs of monsters suddenly ambushing them on all sides.

Scarlet Blaze's response was to put up a solid defense and sending an SOS using magic, but Cecil, Lucia and Silver quickly stepped in and resolved the crisis easily.

Lucia's tactics didn't change. She kept firing her spells like a battery. Only this time the one setting up opportunities for her was Silver instead of Cecil.

In the fight, Cecil was using an original spell he created which was called 'Mana Burst'.

Mana Burst was a spell Cecil created so he could enhance his body with mana in short bursts. This way he could use the non-elemental body strengthening magic without destroying his mind or body.

The trick was to quickly infuse mana into parts of his body in short time frames, merely a second or less, which he would then release it out into the environment.

This kind of delicate mana manipulation was only made possible by his partial mana sight. Even then, Cecil had to be careful not to mistake his enhancement time. If he had perfect mana sight, then he was sure he would be able to use the Mana Burst spell for longer periods of time.

With Mana Burst, Cecil was also able to imitate a limited amount of magic spells from other elemental systems.

An example would be Cecil's version of the Ground Breaker spell.

In fact, the spell Cecil used wasn't the Ground Breaker spell at all. The Ground Breaker was a spell of the earth element system. Cecil was a non-elemental user so there was no way he could have used the spell at all.

What he used to match the spell 'Ground Breaker' all relied on only the strength of his body after using Mana Burst.

What Cecil did was he infused mana into his fist empowering it. Then he quickly punched the ground, the first impact would split the earth open around his first. After his fist was in the ground, Cecil would quickly channel the mana into the earth, he then manipulated the mana and made it explode, causing the ground to rupture.

The only reason Cecil shouted out the name of the spell was because 1. He thought it was cool and 2. To prevent anyone from knowing he was a non-elemental user.

Anyhow, by relying on his custom spell, Mana Burst. Cecil was able to dart around the battle at super high speeds by infusing mana into his legs and kicking off from the ground.

He also repeatedly used 'Ground Breaker', 'Rock Bullet', and 'Wind Sickle' and quickly dealt with the monsters that were attacking the group. The aftermath left Scarlet Blaze in a daze.

Lucia was upset because she couldn't 'practice' her magic. So she banned Cecil from fighting with them unless they were in a life or death crisis.

"... Are we going in any further?" Cecil asked.

"Let's quickly collect the materials and proofs then head further in." replied Milly.

The group was already about done collecting their spoils. After a quick clean up, they headed further into the forest.