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They had found a cozy and secluded sitting area with armchairs and a small ornate round wooden table, where they now sat. A waitress had taken their order a short time later, which consisted of two teas and some roasted nuts, and had returned a few minutes later with a tray and the things they had ordered.

Avan listened to Elisa rave about enchantment techniques that could be combined to greatly enhance the effects of each single enchantment as she elegantly sipped her tea.

"And you can, when properly connected and arranged in the correct pattern, even couple a simple sharpness enchantment with a barrier!" she said. "Then when you set the appropriate patterns with friend and foe, the barrier not only deflects enemy bolts and lets allied projectiles through, no, it even cuts through any enemy that comes in contact with it!" She explained enthusiastically, hands waving. "As long as you put enough mana into the enchantments, of course. Or coupled a large enough power source."

Avan followed her words without effort, after all he loved discussions and philosophizing far too much, but he was pleasantly surprised at how enthusiastic and joyful Elisa was about the whole subject. She was on fire for her theories, even though she hadn't had a chance to learn the activities herself.

"Do you think it's possible to maintain a barrier for hundreds or even thousands of years, and even design it to hide anything trapped inside and prevent accidental entry?" He interrupted her with a smile before she could jump to the next topic, as she had been doing all along. "So to get back to the subject of the temple ruins that Yue brought up. You know? It's strange, isn't it, if the guy actually saw the ruin, how he could have stumbled across it at all if no one discovered it before for thousands of years. And especially how it could be that the barrier could confidently protect and hide such a large facility with buildings for such a long time." he enticed her with another mystery, hoping to tease more information out of the passionate researcher. He really liked her and the knowledge she exuded was enormous. He couldn't reveal anything about himself to her yet, but maybe in time, when he knew her better and could assess her more accurately.

Elisa leaned back in her chair with her tea in her hand and poked thoughtfully at the tip of her nose, on which her glasses were perched.

Avan threw said snacks into his mouth and chewed on the aromatic nuts, which reminded him of no known species from his native world. The taste was vaguely reminiscent of cinnamon stars, which he had always loved to buy and eat, especially at Christmas time.

Elisa leaned forward again and put her tea down on the small table. Her white blouse clung to her form for a moment, but showed nothing in detail and left room for imagination, while her long brown hair, hanging out of a ponytail, hung over her right shoulder.

"So, IF this is really true, and we have to assume it in theory, then there would be only a few options of energy sources for such a long-lasting barrier. There would be mana-storing crystals, which can store mana more or less well, depending on the quality and type. Depending on the size of these stones, a larger capacity can be achieved, but this would only be sufficient for a few hundred years at most. The other possibility would be that here a true grandmaster had managed to create such a complex structure, in which he had not only achieved the highest mana efficiency, but also combined several such large crystals. Which is theoretically possible, but so far I know of no one who could have done that. And let's not forget that these mana crystals would then be a good five meters high and about three meters wide. And several of them? Ouch. Not to mention the cost of such expensive mana storage." She explained with a faraway look, as if she were quoting from her memory or books she had read.

"The only other option I know of is to... But that would not be possible... would it? Is it? I don't know..." She suddenly mumbled more to herself and stared at her hands placed on the table.

Avan leaned over to her tensely. "Elisa? What would be the other possibility? Spit it out already, you're putting me on tenterhooks." He laughed and playfully nudged her shoulder to snap her out of her thoughts.

She blinked a few times and turned her head around to stare into his eyes, which were only a few centimeters away from hers. "Eeeeh, Yes! So... ehm, there would be the possibility..." She mumbled under her breath, while she hastily leaned back with her upper body.

She exhaled deeply once and covered her red face with both hands. "There is still the possibility that the temple ruins are part of a... dungeon. Because that would be the only possibility, Avan." She muttered between her hands, and then tried to regain her composure by looking slightly to the side and resting her hands on the armrests of the chair.

"Only in some dungeons, which are thousands of years old, did explorers and adventurers come into contact with enchantments and runes that had not changed over the course of history and were as active and strong as they were at the beginning. But to this day, no one knows how this can be possible. Or generally where a dungeon gets all the mana to feed the flora and fauna, the monsters, and also all the magic inside. There was once a god who was said to have created the dungeons to act as active mana filters. Perhaps... is there some truth to this? Nonetheless, the question remains as to how said traveling merchant could simply stumble into this protected area. If even the elves nearby and other more powerful creatures over the hundreds or even thousands of years could not easily discover the temple ruins, then surely not an insignificant merchant." She continued, meanwhile again with the typical enthusiastic glint in her eyes and the situation from just now totally pushed into the background.

"Maybe, just maybe, and with a BIG but, this person could have possessed some sort of magical key. Maybe an artifact that he had found somewhere or bought up to sell again somewhere else. But we just don't know. And apparently we can't ask this person about it anymore.... What annoys me very much, because once again a mystery remains unsolved! Argh, I hate that." She complained with an angry look towards the ceiling, as if some unknown deity of chance was cursing her for it.

Avan only chuckled at the roller coaster of emotions that Elisa was displaying here on a continuous basis.

Both of them, still lost in thought, did not even notice when a commotion started in the guild hall. Groups of various beastmen and humans were gesticulating wildly and talking angrily while guild employees tried in vain to keep the peace. A certain panic and tense atmosphere was in the air.

It all started when a sweaty and frightened rabbit-kin boy ran into the hall and started babbling something unintelligible about monsters. Only when a fox-woman ranger knelt down in front of the upset and frightened boy and calmed him down a bit, the adventurers, who in the meantime had formed a cluster around the messenger, were able to understand more.

He talked hastily about attacking monsters that had suddenly appeared in the city and that he had been sent by the watch officer of the city guard to gather the adventurers' guild.

When Avan finally caught the commotion out of the corner of his eye, the first groups were already running out of the guild hall.

"Ehh, Elisa? I think we MIGHT have a problem here." He turned to the woman at his side, who had once again become tangled in some train of thought, and nudged her shoulder with his index finger. "Quite a powerful problem, actually, if you ask me."

The guildmaster's granddaughter looked at him a bit confused at his word jokes, then looked around the emptying guild entrance hall, and back at him with wide eyes as she noticed what was going on. "Oh shit, shit, shit! Avan, we have to tell my grandfather fast!" She said to him hurriedly as she got up and started running towards the stairs. "Help the others! We'll be right behind you!" She shouted over her left shoulder, almost tripping over her own steps.

Avan was already standing, smirking a bit at Elisa's mannerisms, but then quickly headed for the exit to help the other adventurers.

During the race, he started the summoning of the first [Akkalon's Sphere] and tried dual summoning for the first time.

With nearly eight hundred and thirty mana and almost four hundred mana regeneration per minute, I should have both spheres summoned in a few minutes.

While holding both palms up and feeling as if he were in the typical meditation posture, he crossed the threshold to the atrium and at first found nothing unusual in front of him.

He stood sideways to make room for the other stragglers and listened more closely. Suddenly he could hear shouting from the direction of the city center, which lay further to the east. He ran and looked with concentration in the corresponding direction, and recognized smoke rising in two directions on the horizon. Once from the direction of the south, in which the commander had gone with his people to the alleged shelter, and once from the vicinity of the city center, where the marketplace was located according to his knowledge.

With quick steps, he literally flew past the slower and lower-level guild members, when he abruptly noticed an eeriness in his hands. The spheres were forming MUCH faster than they should have based on his mana regeneration. He had calculated that both spheres would take over five minutes to fully materialize.

How?! ... He muttered to himself as he moved. He remembered the vague description of his dungeon class in which ambient mana was mentioned. Is it possible that I generate more mana around other creatures?!

He almost stumbled and had to wave his arms briefly to regain his balance as he took a quick look inside at his mana meridians. Where before there had been quite a good flow of mana through his skin to the core of his soul, now it was literally flooding before his mind's eye. He recognized the people around him as different strongly glowing and flickering blue flames, which flowed to him in streams of mana. Blue strands wafted and lurched towards him in masses only to be absorbed by him.

He blinked briefly. On closer inspection, tiny rivulets of translucent golden strands flowed back to these blue formations and the vitality of the people increased noticeably. How he knew this, Avan could not name, but he just felt it happening.

Shaking his head, he came back out of the half-trance and noticed himself running through one of the large main streets. Further ahead, he could already see the spells flying through the air at previously unknown opponents.

He decided to deal with the phenomena of his mana regeneration later and noticed how both spheres above his palms came to life. With a short mental push, they both floated up and hovered over his shoulders, ready to be unleashed on the opponents.

With a quick glance around to make sure no one was paying attention to him, he noticed some adventurers and other passersby who had stopped to gawk were staring at him and specifically at his yellow iridescent spheres.

He ignored the attention and pretended to dig something out of his pocket, only to retrieve four more small stones from his celestial storage.

With two small stones in each hand and his spheres hovering by him, he arrived slithering behind the first line of mages and ranged fighters hurling spells and projectiles at wolfhounds and other grotesque monsters.

[Wolfhound - 36]

[Chimera - 50]

He quickly identified the two enemy types and the range of enemy levels.

Interesting... He thought to himself silently as he looked at the chimera. The wolfhounds were indeed familiar to him from the dungeon, although these seemed like a weaker version. The chimeras, on the other hand, made a grotesque impression. It had a wolf's head, the body of a bear, long nasty-looking claws of an unknown creature, and a scorpion stinger for a tail.

Before he could have any further thoughts, one of the wolfhounds jumped over the front line of defense, which consisted of tanks with shields, and bit with all its might into the neck of one of the warriors behind them.

Two fireballs and an arrow, which sank into the monster's eye, flew to save the attacked person. However, for the human warrior, any help came too late.

Next to him, one of the mages cursed, who had just wanted to rush forward, presumably to help his comrade. Another adventurer, a cat woman, compassionately put a hand on his shoulder and nodded forward to continue the fight.

Avan caught a glimpse of all this when he saw a chimera, much too large, emerge from a side alley. A collective outcry went through the defenders as several people spotted the new danger and panicked to draw attention to it.

A warrior with a double-sided battle axe suddenly roared and ran like a madman toward the supposed elite chimera, while a few archers and mages turned their fire on the new enemy.

Avan, somewhat overwhelmed with all these fighters and opponents, could only watch as the chimera raised one of its clawed paws and with a swift and brutal blow, nearly cut the warrior in two. The body flew across the square and crashed with a loud crunch into one of the abandoned stalls, which exploded into thousands of splinters of wood.

With a jerk, Avan sprinted forward, ignoring the startled cries of the fighting men and women as he took an inhumanly high and wide leap across the front row, dodging two wolfhounds. He dashed toward the chimera and briefly identified it to better assess the strength of his opponent.

[Chimera - 61*]

Awww, fuck! he cursed inwardly when he saw the level of his opponent. Avan barely had time to wonder about the star behind his opponent's level when the monster raised its clawed paw again to deliver the same blow it had just recently delivered.

He jumped over the low blow and stumbled when he came back up because he had misjudged his jumping power. He was still not used to the new stats he had distributed in the dungeon before, as had been seen in the fight with the street thieves the day before.

Avan was just able to perform a sideways roll before a second claw strike whizzed past him and tore his left shoulder down to the bone.

With a yelp he was thrown to the side and landed hard and with a roll in front of a house wall. The pain of the severed tendons and muscles and the rolling over of the wound almost robbed him of his consciousness.

Fortunately, already subconscious, the healing power of [Akkalon's Touch] flowed through his veins to the site of the injury and with a concise mental image in his mind, his mana set about slowly healing the injury.

Through clenched teeth, Avan stood up again and supported himself against the wall of the house with his healthy right half and his arm. Now enraged, he sent his two balls hovering above him to crush the eyes of the wolf's head. The charging monster nimbly dodged the first bullet, but moved directly into the flight path of the second projectile and with a loud smacking sound the right eye burst and together with it a part of the wolf's snout disappeared.

A terrifying roar and yowl rang out over the square and all fighting froze for a few milliseconds.

The roar of a mighty opponent puts you out of action for a short time!

You are stunned for 1 second.

Told him a status message, while he remained frozen in place, rooted to the spot.

Fortunately for Avan, he was able to command his two conjured spheres purely mentally and sent them off in that second to strike the chimera's forehead repeatedly with all their might.

His opponent roared angrily when the first bullet hit the wolf's forehead. At that moment, the scorpion's stinger hissed forward and caught one of the two attacking spheres, which made a ripping sound. A crack formed on the impact site of the sphere for the first time since Avan had used the ability repeatedly in battle.

He swallowed visibly and refocused on the fight after the stiffness wore off. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that many of his fellow fighters were still frozen and that one or two defenders had already been hit because of it.

Avan threw his two stones, which he had fortunately clutched in his right hand, and mentally launched them at the chimera's head. Still in flight, he hastily bent down with a sideways step and picked up the other two dropped stones with his right hand. His left shoulder twitched and itched and he could feel how the wound had already stopped bleeding and soon only a small scar would remain, which would also disappear after a few more days.

With satisfaction and a feeling of revenge in the back of his mind, he watched at that exact moment as one of the two stones struck the left eye of the chimera in perfect harmony. Only made possible by the sphere with the crack, which as if by instinct had hit the head of his opponent at exactly the right moment from the right with all its force. The head was thereby jerked to the left and the remaining eye was thus directly in the flight path of one of the stones.

The other stone bounced off the creature's muscular bear neck, leaving only a bloody welt.

Meanwhile, the monster roared and writhed in pain, flailing wildly and brutally. With one blow it blindly caught the already hit sphere, which then suddenly detonated in an unprecedented explosion of celestial energy and simply pulverized the claw and arm without leaving any residue.

The explosion was so loud that Avan, standing in the immediate vicinity, painfully covered his ears and sank to one knee in pain, while he felt blood running from his ears.

Now numb, he threw his last two stones into the air and ordered his last [Akkalon's Sphere] to bombard the back of the monster's head with the fullest force at the perfect moment, while the two stones flew through the air towards the empty eye sockets.

With a loud bang, the heavenly glowing ball crashed into the back of the wolf's head, just at the perfect moment before the two stones entered the eye sockets with a sickening sound and penetrated through the bone plates of the head to literally explode inside the brain.

The chimera shrieked loudly and wiggled in a final rebellion and death dance, then hit the ground with a thud that vibrated through the floor. Avan inhaled and exhaled heavily, while he could already hear his ears popping, and grimaced in pain. With his teeth clenched and his fists clenched, he leaned against the nearest wall and closed his eyes for two seconds.

His shoulder felt healthy and usable again, except for the itch, while his ears clicked and popped and he could slowly hear something muffled again.

Eyes open again, he glanced around and looked directly into the eyes of a worried looking Elisa, with Yue standing next to her, who gave him a no less worried expression.

In the background, the survivors cheered and at the front, with a waving silver-gray beard, stood the guild master with a twisted wooden staff in his hand. At his feet burned and crushed monster corpses.

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