"Huff… Hufff.."

I was lying on the ground, trying to regain my bearings.

"Wa..kanda nonsenze izzz …..thzz?"

'What kind of nonsense is this?'

Around me were 5 corpses of Lycans with holes punctured through them.

It had been a few hours since I started walking but the number of Lycans I encountered was no less than 12.

Defeating them wasn't the problem. With me now being able to construct 4 weapons at once, I was able to make quick work of them.

The problem was my ether reserves. I had already depleted half of my ether reserve. At this rate, I was going to die of ether exhaustion before anything else.

"I shouldn't …. havve choszen..it"

I was seriously wondering if choosing ether manual was a correct choice.

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These monsters were instinctively coming to me because of my ether core.

The only silver lining was the fact that only monsters and beasts had such instincts. The demon will only realize I have something different when I attack it.

Leaning on the wall, I wondered how much more I needed to wait.

By, now the main cast must have gathered together. From here they will march to the central room along with a large number of cadets that Cadmus and Lilith had gathered.

"Leon would be at his lowest, huh?"

I felt a little melancholic and guilty. He had always been there for me in my toughest times but here I was, with no intention of helping him even though I had said otherwise.

Still, feeling a little bitter I shook my head. Leon's greatest strength wasn't his stigma or physique but his perseverance.

No matter how badly Leon falls, he will always stand back up.

"GRAAA!"

"Shit!"

I immediately sprang to my feet.

The maze was already filled with the demon minions. I have been sneaking past them till now but I wasn't sure how much longer I can continue this.

In a few minutes, I reached yet another crossroad, making me curse my luck stat which was working in full bloom.

Almost every path I had chosen till now had a Lycan or was a dead end. Resulting in me advancing at a snail's place.

"GRAAA!"

"….The other path it is."

Avoiding the path from where the roar came I chose the left path.

"I didn't think the number of minions would be this many."

I had already seen 3 minions till now, one of which was a cadet.

I felt a sense of apprehension as I realized the pace at which the cadets and monsters were being corrupted was faster than I had expected.

"Huuu.."

Learning from the previous encounters, I carefully peeked from the corner and saw…

...A 8 feet tall Lycan with wings and an eerie smile stretching on its face.

Withholding my breadth I quietly backed away.

***

[Congratulations, you have killed a Lvl.9 Grey Lycan. You have gained 50 exp.]

[You have leveled up]

"Something is wrong."

Leon slashed his katana in the air, wiping its blood.

Looking at the Lycan he killed a frown appeared on his face. For the past hours, he had been gradually closing toward the central room and during that time he noticed one thing…

"They are running from something."

All the Lycans he found were running away from the central room. And Leon could feel it too, the dirty, murky air getting thicker as he walked ahead.

"Status"

======

Name: Leon Barns

Rank: Meta

Level: 7

Exp: 30/1050

Remaining SP – 00

Physique: ???

Stigma: Full-Frame[Locked]

-->Stats:

Strength – 10

Agility – 13

Stamina – 09

Constitution – 15

Mana – 19

Intelligence – 17

Luck – 99

--> Arts:

[Genesis Style-Variant]

Genesis sword art was created by Grandmaster Miyamoto Yui to reach the One True Sword. Genesis Style-Variant is modified from the original version and created solely for the user 'Leon Barns'. Containing a total of 7 forms, it is believed that the peak of the sword art can bend reality itself to the user's wish.

Mastery - Proficient

-->Skills:

[Clear Mind [Common]]

Gives the user small resistance against mental debuff magic.

[Hunter Eye[Rare]]

User can find the weak points of the enemies. The larger the gap between the user and the enemy, the more mana will be consumed.

Cooldown – 30 minutes

=========

Leon dumped his extra stat points into constitution without thinking much.

Leon's combat power couldn't be judged by his stats.

He didn't know if it was because of his physique or his locked Stigma but Leon had great senses. His senses were the reason he could fight against Aura users as a Mana user, even though his body wasn't tempered by Aura.

And his senses were telling him something.

"There is something sinister ahead."

Leon tightened his grip and took a step.

"…Light Bomb"

A great flare appeared at the end of the tunnel. Recognizing the trembling voice, Leon dashed to its source.

"Anna!"

Turning around the corner, Leon saw a bipedal creature.

At the first glance, it looked similar to a Lycan, but on closer look, Leon noticed that it had batlike wings on its back and an eerie smile was painted on its face.

Anna had been barely protecting the three cadets behind her. Thinking that help had arrived, she swiftly turned her head.

But the moment she recognized Leon, her expression became crestfallen. Gritting her teeth, she shouted at Leon.

"Leon, run away! This isn't a normal monster!"

Anna's stigma [Memorization] also allowed her to remember everything she saw, heard, or felt at least once. She knew about every single monster that had been recorded up till this date.

Yet she didn't know anything about the monster they were facing. Worried that Leon will also get swept in this, she wanted him to escape.

Leon didn't answer her and stared at the monster.

"D-emon"

His voice quivered when he spoke those words.

Leon could no longer hear anything. For him, only the demon existed. Feeling the sinister energy radiating from the demon, Leon's past flashed before his eyes.

***

? "D-emon"

Leon stood motionless, petrified even after Anna's warning. But she could no longer pay attention to him.

As a mage, she shined when attacking from the back lines. She wasn't someone who could engage in direct combat. More so, when her attacks were doing almost zero damage.

Slowly, Anna was being overwhelmed.

The monster swung its claws in wide arcs. Every swipe of it was leaving a trail on the pavement.

She was safe because of the defense artifact she had on her, but even that was reaching its limit.

The cracks on the shield slowly enlarged when….

"Yahallo! Here is your especially large bullet filled with exploding love!"

BANG-! BOOM-!

A deafening crack of thunder reverberated and the head of the monster burst.

Ignoring the raining blood, Anna felt relief wash over her, as she saw the monster's lifeless body fall, and similarly plopped to the ground.

"Are you okay~"

Raising her head, she saw Lilith skipping towards her and Cadmus shortly behind her.

Seeing Cadmus' weary expression, Anna's brows knit. With his capability, Cadmus shouldn't have had difficulty in the maze unless….

"The maze is filled with them."

Cadmus gave them a gist of the situation and what they needed to do.

"What about others? You didn't find anyone?"

"….Almost everyone refused to help."

"What?! Why?!"

"At first we did gather everyone, but then…."

***

In front of me was a cadet, now minion, growling against a Lycan.

The Lycan, which was stronger, started writhing at the minion's slightest touch. Black patches appeared on the area of contact, which increased in size, seemingly alive.

*GULP*

Crouching, I slowly ran away from the scene.

Every moment in this maze felt suffocating to me.

I didn't know if it was because of the ether or something different, but whenever I saw those minions, I felt my stomach lurch and gurgle.

Those black tendrils felt sickening.

Holding back nausea, I continued for another fifteen minutes in peace.

"Ahhhh! Leave me! Leave me!"

Suddenly, I heard a shout from the end of the tunnel.

Feeling a sense of foreboding, I snapped my head in the direction of a familiar shout.

A cadet was running in my direction.

….with a minion behind him.

"You there! Help me! Please help me!"

Without waiting for a moment, I turned on my heels and sprinted away. I had no plans of helping somebody with my own life on the line.

"Stop! Help me!"

Unlike what I expected, the cadet was quickly catching up.

As the distance between us closed, I finally channeled ether into my legs. This was the basic strengthening method for aura users I practiced in the past month.

Trying to calm my palpitating heart, I ran faster than ever before.

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