Chapter 15: Chapter 14: Night Ouen And Depth Cutter

The morning after. Alum headed to the guild. He was unsure if he would be able to find party members or a proper job on the board. After all, his personality was a bit difficult regarding strangers. While he had no issue communicating with them. Trusting one is an entirely different story. He couldn’t go on a quest alone either because he had promised Ame to not be reckless, and going alone is the definition of that. And since he didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself, he had a long coat and a hood. He knew that people knew him as the Saint’s boyfriend and didn’t want them to judge him based on that.

Entering the guild, he was greeted by the sight of lively adventurers chatting in the lounge, some even having a meal and some celebrating after completing a quest. No one was really suspicious of him or anything. Many people dressed like him, after all. He learned that when he came here last time in casual clothes and stuck out like a sore thumb. He walked toward the job board to see if anything caught his interest. Some collector quests, escort quests, and beast hunting were the common ones. He felt like he could do these alone, but being overconfident is reckless. 

He went to the reception to see if there was a party scouting for members. But to his surprise, the receptionist recognized him. “Oooh, if it isn’t Mr. Boyfriend~” Hearing her say that made Alum step back a little. He said, “please do your job…” to the receptionist. She giggled, “anyways, what are you looking for, Mr. boyfriend?” Alum was slightly annoyed and put his adventurer card on the table. 

 

Name: Alum Miller 

Rank: D 

Class: Attack Mage & Blade Disciple

Magic: Water specialist

 

“I’d like to find a party if possible.” She looked at it and went, “ohh~ I see!” and told him to wait. After waiting a while, he was introduced to a party of two women and men. The receptionist introduced them, “This is Jan, Turen, Nuli, and Jua. Oh, I never introduced myself, did I? My name is Milu. And this Is Alum.” After the receptionist left them alone at a table, they looked at Alum suspiciously. “There aren’t many people here. Can you remove the hood?” The warrior man asked. He seemed to be the party's leader; of course, one would be suspicious of someone who hides. “My bad,” Alum said and removed his hood. “You are Mr. Turen, right? Nice to meet you.” 

The four of them froze after Alum had removed his hood. “Oh wow, honey, look, it’s a pretty boy, a pretty boy!” said one of the girls. “I know, right?” Mr. Turen replied. Jua and Jan sighed. “Please excuse them…” Jua said. Jan later followed, “that’s right, you can ignore the dumb couple over there.” 

Looking at them, Alum could tell they were close friends, and he chuckled. “Still, it’s a surprise to meet the Saint’s boyfriend like this,” Jan commented. Hearing this, the others went wild with questions and teased Alum quite a bit. 

After the stiff atmosphere was gone, he learned that they were a C-ranked party and the highest rank among them was Turen, who was a B-rank, and the rest were C-ranks. Turen specialized in being a vanguard and was the party's tank. Jan was a scout, Jua was an archer, and Nuli was a support mage. They made a balanced party, but they sometimes needed a fill member for more offense on some quests. That’s where Alum comes in. It was perfect since he was an attack-focused mage with the added bonus of being able to defend himself. And the quest they needed him for was a slaying quest. There has been a report of giant lizards near a village, and their job was to exterminate them and collect their scale and meat. 

These creatures were fast, fierce, and hard to kill because they kept regenerating and had durable scales. Alone it’s a D-rank monster, but the quest was a C-ranked quest. In the quest description, it was estimated to be around 10 of them. The guards at the village can’t leave to exterminate them and request the guild's help. 

“I see. That’s why you need my help?” Alum asked them, and they nodded. “Attack mages are valuable in quests like these because they have wide area coverage,” Jua said. “Then shall we head out now?” Turen said. Surprised by this, Alum asked.” Now?” And Turen responded with a nod. “Well, originally, we were planning to leave, but Milu had stopped us, saying it would be good to bring you along since she thought you would be of help.” Alum still wasn’t sure and gave it some thought. “We’re already done with the preparations. Ahh, don't worry, we prepared extra, and it’s enough for you too. A carriage is actually waiting for us at the gate. Or do you need something more?” Turen asked. Alum shook his head. “No, it’s just… do you have any paper? I need to write a letter….” The four look at each other grinningly. “Sure,” Turen said. 

A day later, Alum was sitting in a carriage with the other three members of Night Ouen, which was their party name. Jan would scout the area ahead of the carriage and report back, while the others would save energy in case of a battle. During this time, he also learned that Jua and Jan were childhood sweethearts, and Nuli and Turen were a married couple. And initially, they were separate parties, but after a quest together, they got along very well and formed this current party. The carriage driver controlling the ground drakes would occasionally join the conversation. Alum had a pretty great time. But that didn’t last. 

Jan had come back and reported that there was a goblin hoard that had attacked a carriage in front of them. It was about 3 kilometers(1.86 miles) away. “How does the situation look?” asked Turen. “They do a good job defending the carriage, but there are simply too many goblins,” Jan replied. “We can’t simply reach them in time at the phase we’re going.” Said Jua. “And we can’t leave this carriage either…” Nuli followed. “... Then how about I go, and Jan show me the way?” Alum suggested. They looked at each other. They had never seen Alum fight, but they trusted the guild's evaluation and told him to be careful and that they would join once they got closer. Alum nodded, and Jan then led the way. “Will he be okay?” asked Nuli, to which Turen laughed. “It will be fine. In the worst case, we have Jan run away with him.” 

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Leading the way, Jan was surprised Alum could keep up. He was moving really fast, and they soon arrived. “Up ahead, there are around 50 goblins, don’t underestimate them just because they are E-ranked. They are agile and intelligent.” Jan warned Alum. “Understood,” Alum gave a short reply. 

Arriving on the battlefield, he could see and feel the stench of blood. He saw the guards that were escorting the carriage struggle while holding back the hoard. The goblins were attacking from all angles and surrounded the carriage. But that wasn’t it. The goblins kept coming out of the forest, and from the looks of it, the guards seemed exhausted from repelling the attacks. “Maybe we should just wait for the others,” Jan suggested. Alum agreed that running in to save them like this was just plain reckless, but he couldn’t just watch. “I have a plan,” Alum suggested. Jan looked at him, “oh? Do tell.” Alum then explained that he would disrupt the movements of the goblins, and Jan would try to assassinate the one leading the goblin hoard. From the looks of it, their attacks were decently coordinated, and they had to have a leader. Jan nodded, “then, let’s try that out, shall we?” 

Executing their plan, Alum got closer to the carriage and used the simple spell [Water Wall] around the carriage. The knights guarding the carriage seemed panicked at this but somehow understood what Alum wanted and pushed the goblins out to the other side of the water wall. The ones attempting to cross the barrier from the other side were met with resistance from the water and were forced out. And soon, there was no goblin inside the barrier. The goblins realizing that Alum was the cause of this, rushed his way. But this did not face him one bit. As he proceeds to freeze [Water Wall] with [Freeze]. The guards realized they were safe for now, collapsed, and cheered. 

Goblins rushing toward him ran faster than he thought. He casts another spell [Water Plain], this time a mid-class spell covering a huge area. However, he wasn’t planning on freezing them since it would be in vain. The field of water was very shallow, barely 1cm(0.4 inches). Instead, electrocuting them and stunning them was ideal. In all honesty, he could finish them all with destruction magic. Still, he is pretty sure his barrier magic can’t withstand that, and he and others would suffer severe injuries. And that would also drain too much of his mana. So he settled with using low to mid-class spells. Besides, his job wasn‘t massacring the goblins but saving people from them. 

After, he used [Static Chain] that would bounce electricity between goblins with the help of [Water Plain], either killing them or leaving them stunned. The goblins from the forest had already surrounded the ice walls he created and were chipping it away bit by bit. But Alum would not allow that and restored the ice walls and surrounded them with ice spikes, and when the goblins got in contact with the ice spikes, they would slowly freeze, making them back away. But suddenly, Alum could hear a roar coming from the forest. The goblins started to get disoriented and attacked the barrier again, but they seemed out of control this time. As Alum got closer, they changed their target to him, they attacked him one by one, and Alum thought this was a perfect chance to test his new blade. He called it Depth Cutter. 

Alum slashed through the goblins one after the other. He was impressed with how easy it was to cut through flesh and bones with it, with no resistance at all. And since Alum was cautious, he infused the blade with magic to ensure it was more durable. While fighting, Alum made eye contact with the guards. They seemed to have recovered and were ready to join the fight. (I see, they must’ve had someone capable of using recovery spells with them.) Alum then created a gap in the ice. And the guards were rushing out to help him. Alum and a guard were fighting with their back to each other. The guard then asked if Alum could use any healing spells since he was a water mage. 

The guard then asked Alum to heal the severely injured beside the carriage. Alum nodded, and he still had a lot of mana left, which is precisely why he was so stingy with his mana use. Recovery spells use a lot of mana, even low-level ones. Entering the barrier, he found more injured guards, some more severe than others. He saw priests healing the injured. Alum started to help the severely injured, keeping them alive and helping the rest later. No one was dying anymore, and Alum could go out and join the fight. He had around 50% mana left. But Alum was curious about what was inside the carriage. From the looks of it, it certainly was people inside. 

He asked, but no one seemed to want to reply, and they asked him to forget about it. He got suspicious and opened the carriage, only to see heads of adults, children, men, and women filling the seemingly colossal carriage. The stench was unbearable, and the sight even more so. It seemed like they were cut done with blades. The heads looked fresh, and blood was still dripping from them. Alum had read in a book that when a monster eats a human brain, it becomes more intelligent. That is why the goblins were attacking the carriage. They knew that it contained brains. Alum then remembers some of the reports about cultists. They would kill entire villages and use people's heads to create an abomination. (... Luna and her squad should have eradicated them all, so why is this happening!?) 

While Alum was frozen due to shock, one of the priests tried to stab Alum, but he snapped out of it and summoned Depth Cutter to effortlessly cut through the cultist's blade. They surrounded him to not let him escape, but that was of little use as he sliced off their heads at a frighteningly fast speed. He had infused his sword with lightning magic and maxed his physical enhancement. Alum then ran through the gap and closed it trapping them inside. The guards, or rather cultists outside, were confused. But they couldn't stop defending the carriage. 

Alum ran as fast as he could from the battlefield and saw his party members running toward him. They had just arrived. “Huh? Why are you running this way,” they asked. But then realized that Alum’s eyes were lifeless. They stood there watching him, waiting for him to tell them. Jan, who now came out of the forest, ran towards them, questioning why they were stationary. Alum turned to face Jan, who had arrived. He saw Alum’s eyes and seemed to understand why they were all standing still. “Now that we're all here. Let me explain,” Alum said. Hearing Alum’s explanation, they had horrified looks on their faces. Jan quickly wrote a letter and attached it to a bird sending it away to the capital. “Let’s go kill them all,” Turen angrily yelled. The others agreed. But Alum, who just stood there, quietly opened his mouth. What came out was so cold they could feel a shiver down their spines. “Don’t bother, and let me do it. It's more efficient that way.” 

The others looked at him with sad faces. But then realized that he was emitting a tremendous amount of mana. Fog appeared on the battlefield, and they could barely see in. Alum had tears in his eyes and the Night Ouen party looked at him with pity. (Ame… I miss you so much already.) Alum normally chanted the spell's name in his mind, but this time he yelled. He was angry, sad, and frustrated. “Ignite [Static Mist Blast]!” The mist would glow blue briefly, only to blow up in a big explosion. Nuli had cast a strong barrier around them and felt her mana drain quickly. The amount of damage to the barrier was absurd. The rest just watched the spell in awe, unsure what to think as Alum collapsed due to mana exhaustion. 

 

An: 

Thank you for reading! 

A double chapter!? I apparently have had an enormous energy spike recently, so I decided to work on this while it's here. 

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