Chapter 233: Instant Level Up [GOLDEN TICKET BONUS]

Even its range probably would not be particularly impressive, and the cutting wave might only travel a few meters before losing its power. If he needed to attack something from a distance, he could simply use Mana Bullets or Fire Bullets instead.

That left Advanced Mana Blade Spell and Mana Shuriken Spell. The decision was difficult, but Alex eventually chose the latter because it would teach him something completely new.

[Mana Shuriken Spell learned.]

[Mana Shuriken Spell, D Rank, Level 1]

[Now you just need to hide your face, and you can pose as ninjas. Don’t want to be a ninja? Hehe, I know you had fantasies about that when you were a child.]

[Effect: Allows you to create and shoot spinning star-shaped Mana constructs.]

Alex closed his eyes and focused on the knowledge entering his mind. He really liked this aspect of his Talent because it allowed him to understand completely new concepts almost instantly, saving him a great deal of time that would otherwise be spent experimenting from the beginning.

When he opened his eyes, he formed a small star-shaped mana construct above his palm. This time, he did not make it hollow, instead using solid mana and elastic mana to create the spinning motion.

The elastic mana was pulled taut before being released, causing the Mana Shuriken to spin at an extremely high speed. It produced a low whirring sound as it rotated, and Alex suspected that its cutting power was already comparable to his Mana Blade, if not higher. However, it had an obvious weakness. He could make it spin once, but he could not maintain the rotation continuously, so the shuriken quickly began losing its spinning speed. There was another problem because the elastic mana used to spin the construct could not simply be reused to shoot it forward. Alex needed to somehow create both movements at the same time, which was much harder than simply launching a mana construct.

He dismissed the first shuriken and created another one before trying again. The first few attempts failed because the spinning motion interfered with the force pushing the construct forward, but after several attempts, Alex finally managed to coordinate the two movements.

The spinning shuriken shot forward at blinding speed. It crossed the short distance almost instantly and cleaved through the Level 8 badger’s corpse as smoothly as if it were cutting through butter.

[Mana Shuriken Spell has leveled up. Level 1 → Level 2.]

Alex was pleased when he saw the notification. Thanks to his experience with mana constructs and elastic mana, he had been able to understand the spell quickly, so it seemed that it would level up much faster than a completely unfamiliar spell.

More importantly, the cutting power was excellent. Even his Mana Blade could not cut through the badger’s corpse quite as smoothly, although the Mana Shuriken had one major limitation. Its range was short. If Alex launched it over a long distance, the shuriken would gradually lose its spinning speed before reaching the target, causing its cutting power to decrease considerably.

’So it’s good for close and mid-range combat. That’s enough. For long-range attacks, I already have Mana Railgun and Fire Bullets.’

Alex dismissed the spell and looked toward the others. Petra had finished healing Frank, and everyone appeared to be ready to continue moving, so there was no reason to remain in the same place any longer.

"Let’s move," Alex said.

Everyone nodded, and the group continued deeper into the dungeon. They moved cautiously as they approached the next turn, with Alex constantly using his Mana Sense to check the area ahead.

When they finally turned the corner, they discovered the corpse of another monster lying on the ground. It looked somewhat like a goat, but it was larger than any normal goat, with a thick body covered in coarse brown fur and a pair of short, curved horns on its head.

Its abdomen had been completely torn open, and several deep claw marks covered its body. Most of its flesh had already been eaten, while pieces of its organs were scattered across the ground, making it obvious that something had recently been feeding on it.

"Seems like the badgers were eating this. That’s probably why they were gathered together," Alex said.

Emma looked at the corpse for a moment before turning toward Alex. "But why was a high-level badger here? Shouldn’t the stronger ones be deeper inside the dungeon? Especially since it’s night, they should be sleeping instead of wandering through the tunnels."

"It must be because of the water level. The rising water probably forced monsters from the flooded areas into this dungeon, and that could have woken the badgers up. If those monsters kept entering their territory, the badgers would have been forced to fight them," Alex replied after thinking about it.

"That makes sense," Emma muttered.

Alex looked ahead before continuing. "Be prepared. If our guess is correct, the badgers should be alert because they are expecting more creatures to enter their territory, though they might also be somewhat exhausted from fighting other monsters."

The group continued moving after that. The air became more dry as they went deeper, while the glowing mushrooms growing along the walls gave off a bright blue light that illuminated the tunnel.

They walked in tense silence for several minutes before the tunnel suddenly branched into three different paths. One tunnel continued straight ahead, another went upward, and the third descended deeper into the dungeon.

Everyone stopped when Alex raised his hand. He looked at each tunnel.

Normally, choosing one tunnel would already be dangerous, but the situation was worse because the badgers were likely alert. If they entered one tunnel, monsters from another passage could potentially circle around them and attack from behind, turning the tunnels into a natural pincer formation.

The monsters here were all Mid-rank Species, so an ambush was something they could not afford to underestimate. If several groups attacked them from different directions, the battle could easily turn into a complete team wipe.

..

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