Chapter 73: C73 – Misdirection / Wait

Not long after they defeated the first elemental, Dirk and Ava found a second. It was here that Dirk stepped out and tested his magic. 

After having completed his advancement to Tier 3, Dirk's earth magic was, if used in the right way, his most powerful weapon. His mana pool was massive compared to before, his regeneration was much swifter, and he was most proficient with the magic. Compared to that, his fire magic was incredibly lacking despite having recently learned a new spell. 

This was because he had only formed the single earthen mana heart. His next steps were to form mana hearts for the dark and fire elements. But that would take time, so for now, he much preferred to use earth magic. 

Stepping up to the elemental, Dirk was quickly attacked with two jet streams of water. However, he didn't dodge as he raised his hand. A magic circle appeared on his palm. This was casting by his own power, not utilizing the AI. Thus, it took around a second before the spell was completed. 

After it was though, two rock arrows appeared above his head. Only, these rock arrows were different. 

Normally, Dirk's rock arrows appeared as gray stone. Now though, they had a bit of a metallic sheen with metal chunks comprising the body. They were heavier, stronger, and sharper. 

This was a consequence of Dirk's intake of metal mana during his advancement. The metal mana his mother supplied was incredibly thick, so when it was absorbed, it spilled into the other half of his mana pool where his basic earth mana was. Thus, all of his magic that used the earth mana from his mana pool automatically took on metallic attributes. 

Only, Dirk had yet to actually test the effects. Bringing his hand down, the two rock arrows above his head went flying. The two streams of water also crashed into him, but Dirk's body was able to resist the impact. It only served to get him wet. 

The two metallic arrows flew faster than ever before, silently slicing through the air as they targetted the elemental's core. The elemental wasn't able to react before the two arrows pierced into its water body and punched through without resistance. 

Before long, the two arrows met the core. With a small impact, the core was directly split open. Both arrows passed straight through it, and the elemental's water body immediately lost its form, spilling across the floor. 

Ava was surprised as the arrows planted themselves in the ground behind the now-dead elemental. Dirk was also surprised. As he threw the arrows, he noticed how he could put much more power behind them than before. This was a result of his soul having grown during his advancement. This combined with his metallic mana made for an especially sharp and deadly strike, one that could take out the elemental in one hit. 

"Oh yea, you're definitely going to be the most effective one in this dungeon."

Ava snickered as she looked at Dirk. While she could fight the elementals with her stronger power, she was forced to be very direct and brutish about it since the enemies were composed of water. But with Dirk's rigid and piercing earth magic, he could easily get through their attacks and defenses just like he demonstrated. It took much less effort than on her part. 

Hearing her though, Dirk only smirked. 

"What, you think you're going to get out of fighting? You take the next one. We'll switch off after every enemy."

"Huh? That's so not fair!"

"I don't care. This is a water dungeon, and you're a water mage. Besides, I can't keep getting wet like this."

"Aww, scared of a little water? Take this."

Suddenly raising her hand, Ava conjured a ball of water and launched it at Dirk. To this attack, he quickly dodged, but when the ball hit the ground, it exploded, showering him with more water. He frowned as his armor dripped, the leather sopping wet. 

"Hahaha! See? It's not that... wait, what are you doing?"

"Come on, give me a hug."

"Wait no! Ahh!"

Ava screamed as Dirk suddenly ran over to her. She tried to escape, but he quickly grabbed her arm, pulling her into his cold and wet embrace.

"No! You're cold!"

"See? It's not that bad. Just a little water. I'm sure that as a water mage, this doesn't bother you at all."

"Hey, I'm sorry! I'll dry you off!"

As Dirk hugged her tighter, Ava apologized through the smothering and activated her mana. The mana washed over Dirk, seeping into his clothes and bringing the water out with it. Dirk was surprised as his armor became perfectly dry. 

"You could do that?"

"It works just like how you can take control of dirt or whatever. Now stop squeezing!"

"Hehe, okay."

Dirk chuckled as he released Ava. She backed away, straightening her armor and removing any water from her own body. 

Dirk glanced at her before looking around.

"Alright, now you get to fight the next two elementals."

"Huh?! No! We already agreed on switching off!"

"That was before you splashed me."

"Aww. I'm sorry, okay? You want a kiss to make you feel better?"

Taking a step, Ava moved her body close to Dirk's with a small smile, brushing up against him. Seeing her go in for the kill, Dirk's eyes widened before he skillfully stepped out of the way. 

"Nope, that's alright."

"Hey! Come on, gimme a kiss!"

"Come catch me then."

As Ava suddenly dove toward him, Dirk smirked before shifting his stance. He sidestepped her before leaping behind a tree, taking a step out of view. 

When Ava turned around to chase him, she found that he was mysteriously gone. She spun around, carefully looking through the trees around her. Then, she found his figure, looking at her with a small smile. 

"Hey! How do you do that?"

"Misdirection. Let's see how well you can follow me."

"Challenge accepted. My senses are fantastic even among my race. I can easily sense your... aura."

As Ava spoke her eyes followed Dirk's figure. However, when he walked behind another tree, he disappeared again. She went quiet for a second before dashing over. 

Looking around where he used to be at, she found no hint that he was there. She spun around, a more serious light in her eyes. 

"...You can hide your body, but not your mind."

She mumbled. As she had inherited from her father, Ava had the mystical ability to sense the state of minds, and by extension, minds themselves. This was why she could pick Dirk out in a crowd. She could sense his unique mind and aura. This was also why she was confident being able to follow him. 

But now, she found no hint of him. Not even looking at the foliage revealed any sort of trail. He had vanished into thin air. 

Of course, Ava knew that he hadn't actually vanished. There was only so far he could go in a certain amount of time, and he was heading for the next haven anyway. That gave her a direction. What was shocking though was how silently he moved. He was a ghost. 

"Starting now, I'm going to be jogging to the haven. I hope you can keep up."

"Hey!"

Suddenly, Ava heard Dirk's voice. She whipped around to see him standing only 30 feet from her next to a tree. This caused her to feel a small wave of goosebumps. He had so easily snuck up to her. 

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Dirk smiled before taking another step. Seeing him about to vanish again, Ava broke out into a sprint, running right toward him. Before she could get to him though, he walked behind a tree. Only a second later, Ava ran around that same tree, but he was gone. She looked all around, her ears picking up on any sound they possibly could and eyes keeping out for any hint of aura. 

Luckily, a second wasn't enough to go far. After looking all around, she barely caught a glimpse of something moving behind a tall bush. Ava ran over, crashing straight through the bush and spinning her head around. 

Ava's eyes glanced at every tree and plant. She even looked up in the trees, making sure he wasn't climbing around like a monkey. But like last time, she couldn't even find a trace of his movement. 

But she did see something else. Perhaps it was because she became more focused, but Ava could see a remnant wisp in the mana around a particular tree. Seeing this odd disturbance, she immediately ran over. 

Meanwhile, Dirk was already moving from the tree that Ava was running to. But as he heard her run in his direction, he was surprised. She had found him so quickly. 

'Interesting. I left no trace, but she still found where I went. Is it my aura? Or maybe the mana around me? There's more I have to account for. Well, this will be good practice.'

Thinking that, Dirk kicked his movement up a notch. He moved from trees to bushes and behind large rocks. His steps were silent, his body nimble, and his movements accurate. He barely left behind footsteps. 

He moved forward at a quick pace for half an hour. Despite this, Ava was able to keep up shockingly well. It was only a few times that Dirk had to give her hints when he lost her. All other times, she was able to keep hot on his trail. It was in these instances that Dirk tried out different things in an attempt to mask the invisible trail he left. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to come up with much. 

Dirk knew that moving through anything would disturb mana, and he knew that it was this that likely gave his position away. But not disturbing mana was easier said than done. It wasn't simply withholding the mana inside oneself. It was like trying to run forward without disturbing the air. By normal means, it was impossible. One had to adopt certain techniques in order to mask their effect on the surroundings. 

Dirk had achieved mastery in doing so physically, but now he had to do it magically. And doing so magically was much harder. Still, Dirk began to practice, keeping his senses locked on the mana around him and his effects on it. 

Like this, the two made their way deeper into the dungeon. From the entrance to the king's hall on the right was 40 miles of forest, and there was a haven between these two areas as well as a haven next to the king's hall. Normally it would take several hours while walking to cross 20 miles, but at the pace they were going, they would only arrive in 2. 

Because of this, Dirk decided they could head straight for the king's hall. Of course, he didn't plan on just running there. Along the way, any elementals he came across were taken care of. Sometimes he would kill them himself and other times he would stop and wait for Ava, letting her take care of it before running off again. With that they gained experience, preparing for the battle with the king. 

In fact, Dirk was a bit expectant to fight the king. Not just because of the reward, but because he could only fight elementals with his magic. He couldn't reach their cores with his weapons, so magic was the only way. This wasn't a bad thing, and he wanted to stress his magical power. He needed to learn to rely on magic more because it was an essential part of his combat ability. 

However, he knew the king wouldn't be an easy fight. So he was especially experimental with the elementals. He tried using his rock arrows as well as his improved fireballs. Unsurprisingly though, the fireballs were quite a bit less efficient than the rock arrows since they went against water, their direct counter. On the contrary, his arrows were exceptionally effective, cracking open the cores every time. The only thing that annoyed Dirk was the occasional splash of water that got him wet. 

This continued for a few hours. During these hours, Dirk and Ava ran nonstop to the furthest haven, their only times of rest being their fights with elementals. As they got deeper, the elementals got stronger and also more plentiful. They eventually rose to Tier 3 and would appear in groups of four. This was still tolerable though, so the two weren't delayed by much. After a while, they finally found the haven. 

In around 4 hours, they had crossed 40 miles. Despite this, neither of them were tired. Dirk was at the peak of Rank 3, and Ava wasn't far behind. For them, running without using anima was easy, especially with their prior training. The only thing that limited them was the difficult terrain of the forest. 

In fact, because this terrain was unfamiliar for Ava, she had tripped a great many times. While she was able to catch herself most of the time, she had also eaten dirt several other times. 

Not long after Dirk found the haven, he spotted Ava walk out of the forest behind him. Seeing her, he couldn't help but chuckle a bit. Her armor and hair had mud in them, and she couldn't clean herself since she had to keep up with Dirk. She didn't look that happy.

"Hey! Clean me!"

"Clean you?"

"Yea, with your magic. Get this dirt out of my hair. Unless you want to help me in the bath?"

"N-no, that's alright."

With a small stutter, Dirk readily agreed and walked over, using his magic to get the dirt out of Ava's hair and off her armor. He was hesitant about how far they had gone already, and he would not go and start taking baths with her as well. 

With a wave of mana, Ava became mostly clean. A bit of water and she would be good as new. With a smile, she glued herself to Dirk's side, the two approaching the haven. 

Rather unfortunately though, the haven wasn't empty like Dirk expected it to be. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Dirk once again underestimated how popular this dungeon was. 

Inside the haven were many groups of people with tents pitched all around the area. While it wasn't full, there were still many groups. It was not a comforting sight to Dirk. He and Ava walked in, and sure enough, there was someone to approach them. 

"Hello you two. Mind if I ask what your business here is?"

A man approached, medium in stature and radiating earth mana. He was a mage with short hair and clean face. This made sense since the elementals were much harder to fight with just weapons. 

Because this man approached without a sense of hostility, Dirk wasn't immediately on guard. Still, being confronted at all for the second time in a day didn't make him happy. Ava spoke as his gaze bore into the man, obviously not very friendly. 

"We're here to fight the king. This is our mission from the Magic Academy."

"So you both are academy students huh? Alright. Normally I'd be happy to just let you go and fight, but we've got a few groups who also want to fight the king. Unfortunately I'm going to have to ask you to wait behind the others."

"...How long is the wait?"

Ava asked hesitantly. She and Dirk had made great time getting here. In a usual situation, they would wait until tomorrow, fight the king, and then be out of the dungeon by the end of the day. They could be on a wagon going home by the third day, making for a total trip time of around a week. This was an exceptional completion time. 

But now it turned out they would have to wait, and they wouldn't likely be able to get around this like they did the man who didn't want to let them by at the entrance. 

The mage rubbed his chin. 

"Upon a successful kill, the king takes a day to respawn. The group for today fought not long ago, and there were two other groups behind them. If today is day one, then you two will be able to fight on day four, so two days after today."

"..."

Ava was quiet hearing this. This would extend their stay by a few more days. She really didn't want to wait, but she also didn't want to be unreasonable and force her way in. This was a reasonable predicament that they couldn't get around. 

Dirk also didn't say anything. His thoughts were the same as Ava's. After thinking for a second, he could only resign himself. He spoke. 

"Fine. We'll wait. "

"Thank you. Go ahead and set up camp. There is food to buy if you need it. And in the meantime, feel free to go out and hunt. Unlike the shallow areas of the dungeon that are cleared out day by day, there are plentiful and stronger elementals out here, meaning more money to be made. Can't let your time go to waste, right?"

With those words, the mage walked off. Ava and Dirk were silent for a bit. 

"...Well, at least he's nice."

"Mm. Let's go find camp."

Dirk nodded at Ava's assessment before entering the haven. They could see several groups comprised of at least three people each, and each group was clustered together with obvious space separating them. Finding an open spot in the midst of these groups, Dirk and Ava pitched their single tent. They earned plenty of stares since it was just them, but they paid it no heed. 

With that, the two decided to rest for the day. After removing their armor, the two climbed into the tent. It was here that they did a bit of mana cultivation. 

As Dirk was now a Tier 3 mage, his next step was to create a mana heart for his other two attributes: fire and dark. Since he had been distracted ever since his advancement, he hadn't started forming either of these hearts. Now, he had some free time, so he figured he could begin the process. 

And with his previous experience and greater strength, Dirk knew he could form these hearts much faster. After taking a look at his technique, he found that the book wanted him to form one heart at a time. By doing this, he would go through the same process as when he advanced for each attribute, forming a proper mana pool for each one. In the end, he would have a mana pool for each element, effectively multiplying his total mana storage. It would also increase his strength since the soul would become stronger to accommodate the extra mana pools. 

However, according to the book, forming the rest of his mana pools would only bring him to the middle of Tier 3. After this came a strengthening process that would raise him to Tier 4. 

Until then, Dirk needed to first concentrate on his next heart. Thinking for a bit, Dirk decided that he would form his fire heart first. While he only knew the improved fireball spell, it was better than his dark magic where he knew nothing. He hadn't even started practicing things like Void Walking or Curse of Darkness. Plus, fire magic was extremely destructive. This would complement his earth magic that was more defensive. 

With that decision made, Dirk began practicing. However, it was also here that he turned his attention to one of his other specialties. 

 

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