Alex couldn’t help smiling faintly. Mia certainly deserved it. If she hadn’t sensed the danger and warned him, none of them would have escaped the explosion in time.
"Good job," he said.
After everyone regained their composure, the group started moving again. Alex handed the Crappy Crab Shield to Tina since her recently leveled up body could now carry it without much difficulty.
As they walked, Alex trained his spells while keeping watch over their surroundings. The explosion had been loud enough to attract monsters from a considerable distance, so he remained prepared to fight at any moment.
His focus alternated between Battle Instinct and Mana Cable.
Battle Instinct was progressing steadily, and he was beginning to realize that altering how the spell enhanced different parts of his brain was probably the foundation of an Advanced Battle Instinct Spell.
Mana Cable was proving just as valuable. Besides being a practical spell, it constantly challenged his mana control, and Alex suspected repeatedly using it might even improve his Mind stat over time.
The concentration it demanded felt almost identical to compressing mana normally. Once completed, however, Mana Cable compressed mana more efficiently while requiring less concentration to maintain.
Its biggest weakness was the time needed to create it, something Alex had realized while resisting the explosion earlier.
The spell demanded delicate control from beginning to end, making it unsuitable for sudden situations unless it had already been prepared.
Three tiny mana threads floated above his palm as he walked. They repeatedly twisted together into a thin cable before separating again, only to repeat the process moments later.
A low growl suddenly echoed through the alley, and Mia immediately arched her back with a threatening hiss. Alex dismissed the Mana Cable, summoned his sword from his inventory, and pushed Battle Instinct to its limit.
His focus sharpened. The worries about the monster that launched the spear disappeared from his mind. His world became muted once again, leaving only the threats before him.
Four monsters rushed toward them from deeper inside the alley. At first glance, they resembled hyenas, but their bodies were larger and far more muscular.
Dark gray fur covered them, while thick bony plates protected parts of their shoulders and backs, and their oversized jaws were lined with jagged teeth.
The alley wasn’t wide enough for all four to charge together. Only two could run side by side, forcing the others to follow behind. Alex carefully watched their muscles and movements, quickly judging that although they weren’t much of a threat to him, even one could wipe out everyone else in the group.
"I’ll deal with three of them. The last one is yours. You all need to learn how to fight," Alex said without taking his eyes off the monsters. He also needed them to level up for his Tutorial Quest.
Without waiting for a reply, he walked forward. Alex deliberately chose not to use Mana Bullets. After witnessing the spear earlier, he realized he needed spells for all types of situations he might encounter. Or an enemy that countered him could kill him.
For now, he had a good enough long-range combat ability, but his close range was not keeping up.
He needed spells like the Mana Sword Spell.
He tried shaping mana into a sword while advancing. As expected, the amount of mana required was too high, and maintaining such a large structure demanded more concentration than he could spare during combat.
The first hyena reached him, and Alex twisted his body to slip past its bite. At the same time, he activated Mana Sense, releasing mana from his entire body to create a detection field around himself.
Instead of forcing a sword into existence, he reduced the size and created a dagger. It was easier to create, and thanks to practicing Mana Bullet, he already understood how to compress mana into a hardened surface more efficiently, and he applied the same principle here.
A flickering mana dagger formed in his hand. Alex immediately stored his sword back in his inventory since he had only summoned it out of habit.
The second hyena lunged straight for his face. Alex leaned backward just enough to avoid its jaws while slashing at its neck. The mana dagger cut through part of its thick fur, but the unstable blade shattered immediately afterward.
Without hesitating, Alex grabbed the monster by the fur with his free hand. Twisting his waist, he threw it toward the two hyenas behind it. The third hyena jumped aside in time, but the fourth hyena was struck head-on and knocked backward.
Meanwhile, the first hyena had already turned around and lunged toward Alex’s heel. Mana Sense detected it before it struck, allowing him to lift his leg out of reach.
Instead of stomping its skull, Alex retreated another step while creating a second mana dagger. This time, he focused on keeping the weapon stable and rigid.
During his first attempt, he devoted too much attention to sharpening the edge by vibrating the mana, causing the rest of the dagger to lose stability.
Before the first hyena could react, Alex stepped forward and swung at its neck again.
The mana dagger bit much deeper this time, sinking nearly halfway through before stopping. It was an improvement, but it lacked enough sharpness to sever the neck completely.
While reinforcing the dagger’s structure, he unconsciously ended up neglecting the blade itself. Forming a weapon outside his body was proving to be far more difficult than using Body Reinforcement since his mana had nothing physical to anchor itself to.
Even so, the wound was fatal, and the first hyena collapsed to the ground.
The third hyena rushed past him instead of attacking. Alex released the mana dagger stuck into the first hyena’s neck, and immediately turned around.
Letting the mana dagger go instead of reusing it was wasteful, but compared to his large mana pool, the cost wasn’t significant, and recreating the weapon over and over would help him become faster and more familiar with the process.
However, there wasn’t enough time to form another dagger. The monster was already heading toward his friends, and at roughly Level 4, it could slaughter everyone easily.
Instead, Alex compressed mana into something much smaller.
A kitchen knife.
The compact shape formed quickly. He compressed the mana, hardened its structure, sharpened the edge, and threw it with the full strength granted by Advanced Body Reinforcement.
..
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