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“Blocked off here!” Carmen yelled.

“Here too,” Jake noted as he quickly surveyed their surroundings. “Fucker managed to direct the force to collapse the entrances first.”

He also sent out a string of mana as he tracked the mana of the fragment dropped by the Prima. It was currently falling to the ground along with the broken pieces of the pillar, making it easy enough to snatch it along with the Orb dropped by the Earth Elemental Prima.

“Plans?” Carmen asked while smashing an elemental to pieces as she looked up at the rapidly cracking ceiling, clearly knowing it was only a question of when, not if, the entire mountain would come down. “I have an escape talisman, but it only works for me.”

Jake looked up too as he held down and destroyed another annoying elemental. “We break out of here.”

“How?” Carmen asked with exasperation. “While I don’t see myself dying, it will take a long-ass time to dig myself out of this fucking place, and if these elementals survive and keep attacking, it could get dangerous.”

Sylphie agreed as she kept killing elementals, clearly waiting for Jake to decide what they were going to do.

Jake held out his hand as a transparent flame appeared. “Trying to trap an alchemist under a rock without any will of its own is pretty dumb; that’s all I’m gonna say.”

He manipulated the flame as it revolved around him and shot it off towards a nearby wall. It simply seemed to remove a part of the wall, confirming his theory. Jake had taken lessons in using his Alchemical Flame, and he still vividly remembered the one about Soulflames and properly merging your flame and your will. Jake was far from that stage, as the dragon back then would have just snapped and made the entire mountain disappear, but he could at least manipulate his flame well enough to dig them out.

Above, a large section of the cavern ceiling cracked, and a massive boulder fell down, causing a chain reaction as everything began collapsing at once. “To me!” Jake yelled, and the two complied, disengaging from the elementals still causing them trouble.

In an act of irony, the elementals were crushed by boulders falling down on them, making them lose their forms and become unable to assemble themselves again. Jake spread out his hands as he manipulated his Alchemical Flame and formed a barrier of transparent fire around them. A rock fell down on top of the barrier and was consumed as it made contact with the fire, draining Jake’s mana in kind.

“Let’s go!” Jake said as he walked to the wall and began walking into it, creating a new tunnel with his flame. The stones weren’t that tough, and he had managed to burn through the incredibly durable stone back in Yalsten to steal the doors back then, and this mountain couldn’t even hold a candle to the mountain towers back in the hidden vampire realm.

Even within the newly-formed tunnel, the cracks kept spreading, and it kept collapsing upon them.

“Can you keep this up?” Carmen asked as she cradled Sylphie close to her chest and walked close to Jake, who had been forced to make the bubble of Alchemical Flame smaller to reduce mana expenditure. They were practically huddled together as Jake and Carmen slowly moved forward.

“That fucking Prima did something… or maybe the pillar was just holding this entire mountain up,” Jake muttered, annoyed. “Depending on how deep we are, I may run out of mana.”

“Got it. Say if you need any help,” Carmen said, nearly hugging him from behind as they moved forward. They soon began going at a bit of an upwards angle as Jake closed his eyes and focused on not only his magic but also his mana sense and intuition. He went for where the earth mana became thinner, meaning what was closer to the outside.

Jake’s flame didn’t give off any light unless he used it to heat up an object and set it on fire. However, what he was doing currently didn’t really utilize any heat as he infused his flame with destructive arcane mana. The malleable flame accepted it without complaint or resistance.

In complete darkness, they walked. Jake could still see due to his high Perception and his sphere, but it was clear that Carmen had a hard time. Sylphie managed by not having to move at all, just relaxing in Carmen’s arms.

Forty minutes passed as Jake took out a potion with the new special enchantment of his necklace, allowing him to consume it right away. The way it worked was a bit… off. Jake literally had a bottle placed in his stomach as far as he could tell, but the bottle disappeared instantly as it was consumed, allowing the mana potion to rejuvenate Jake.

This forty-minute figure became critical. It was the time it took Jake to consume the full amount a potion could restore, meaning he was constantly losing mana. As the hours passed, Jake’s mana pool slowly dwindled, and they began to discuss alternate strategies.

“We could punch and blow ourselves out?” Carmen proposed.

“Potentially,” Jake said. “But if we do that, we need to spread out. The shockwaves you send out would end up causing issues for Sylphie and me and will surely cause cave-ins. This is also assuming the new tunnel or path you make is in any way stable. At least now the ceiling is collapsing at a slow and steady rate.”

It was collapsing a bit, making Jake constantly have to consume soil falling from above, but as they kept moving forward, it wasn’t as bad. However, if he began making big moves, it could make everything above collapse and put intense pressure on them. No, the only good way would be to more or less slowly muscle themselves upwards, practically trying to “swim” through the stone, which would take ages.

“Why are none of you a space mage…” Carmen muttered, and Jake couldn’t help but smile a bit himself. If Neil was there, he would have just teleported them all out or created a spatial bubble and then put down a formation to get them out.

“Ree!” Sylphie complained, incredibly offended, getting a quick apology from Carmen, who made it clear she was complaining about Jake.

“I do agree we need to speed this up,” Jake said unbothered. He had actually hoped to improve his efficiency and thus speed, but he didn’t get any worthwhile progress using Alchemical Flame, and a skill upgrade was definitely out of the question. He would just have to keep going and hope they got out in time, but it was looking grim.

Taking a break would mean the tunnel collapsing down on them and slowly drowning them in soil and stone, so that was out of the question. Jake could stabilize the surroundings with mana, but what was the point of what if the entire purpose of the break was to regenerate mana?

“Ree?” Sylphie suddenly asked.

“Say that again?” Jake asked.

Ree! Ree!” Sylphie repeated. Jake nodded along at her suggestion as his eyes flashed.

“That… could work… definitely…” Jake muttered, deep in thought.

“I feel left in the dark here,” Carmen sighed. “In more ways than one… I can’t see shit.”

“Carmen, are you up for doing something incredibly risky but also potentially cool as fuck?” Jake asked as he shared the idea with her. The woman at first had a look of utter disbelief with her mouth wide open before it just turned into a huge grin.

“That sounds so fucking dumb. Of course, I am up for it, and if it fails, well, I guess we will manage.”

Jake snickered too. “Sylphie. Fire it up!”

The lizard stalked the small rodent that was hiding within its burrow. Both were merely early-tier E-grades, but on this desolate mountain, no other predators existed. The lizard was only the size of a house cat, with the rodent being nothing more than an overgrown hamster. Both were able to utterly slaughter a human pre-system, but in this new world, they were weak, and they knew it.

Sneaking forward, the lizard used its sleek form to enter the burrow. It had barely gotten halfway down as suddenly everything began shaking. The burrow collapsed from the tremors, and the lizard rushed out in panic.

It looked around with fright as its instincts told it to run. Without hesitation, it stormed down the mountain as a huge explosion sounded out behind it, and a tornado of earth, wind, and transparent flames erupted from the mountain. It sent the lizard tumbling and rolling down the mountainside as it just tried to escape with its life intact from the three monsters that had appeared. One of them even yelled something with great vigor, making the lizard even more scared.

It definitely wasn’t going to go rodent-hunting on this mountain again, that was for sure.

Why hadn’t they done this from the beginning? Well, the reason was partly that they hadn’t thought about it and that Sylphie had been low on mana when they began their escape. The biggest reason was the lack of thought, though. Also, it was kind of stupid and risky, but it wasn’t like that had ever stopped him before.

As for what they had done?

“This is the drill that will pierce the heavens!” Jake yelled the moment they erupted from the mountain, getting an eye roll from Carmen, who flew up alongside him.

“Ree!” Sylphie screeched as she got free from Carmen’s grip and took to the air, flexing her wings.

“Seriously?” Carmen asked the moment they were down on the ground again.

“Are you saying the Sylphie-Jake Wind-powered Mountainpiercing Drill isn’t a great technique?” Jake asked, faking offense.

“Ree?” Sylphie screeched sadly as she landed on top of Jake’s head.

“No, I…” Carmen said as she looked at Sylphie, who was giving her sad puppy-hawk-eyes. Carmen finally gritted her teeth as she made a strained smile. “It was a great idea…”

“Ree!” Sylphie happily flapped her wings at her own genius. Jake had to admit she was a smart little hawk. She had actually been observing Jake’s flames and had managed to analyze them. She noticed that his flames didn’t work against types of mana with intent or, more Sylphie-accurately, “person mana.”

So she asked why Jake didn’t just make a lot more fire, and then Sylphie would just make it rotate super fast like a tornado to burn away all the stone. As Sylphie’s mana was filled with intent, Jake’s flame wouldn’t work against it, and Sylphie had good enough mana control to not accidentally fight the flame. Then they could just travel upwards and ignore everything else until they would finally get out.

And worked it did! They were finally out, and it had taken like six or seven times longer to use the shortcut tunnel than if they had just moved over or around the mountain. It was totally worth it, though, as they had yet another Prima fragment, making Jake now able to form a key.

“Take a break?” Carmen asked.

“Yeah… I am spent,” Jake said. And he really was. The amount of mana he had pumped out during their escape was insane, and Jake was down to less than five percent when they finally made it out.

“Alright,” Carmen nodded. “Did you happen to grab the Orb from the elemental?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you need it, or can I have it?” Carmen asked a bit nervously. “I will compensate you for it if that is the-“

Jake took out the Orb and tossed it to her. The Orb was epic rarity, so it was a pretty good one, but not one Jake was desperate to keep. Heck, Jake had kept the Prima fragment, so this was only fair.

“Thanks,” Carmen nodded with a smile as she took out two candles and a small altar. She placed the Orb on the altar as she knelt before it. “I tribute this victory and bounty to Valhal.”

With those words, the Orb turned to golden dust and disappeared, and for a fraction of a moment, Jake felt some kind of divine presence that disappeared just as it came. Carmen got up and re-deposited everything back into her spatial storage as Jake looked at her with a questioning gaze.

“Part of my profession,” Carmen answered. “Dedicating battles and loot helps me in various ways, the most obvious of which is experience gained, but it also gives some other bonuses. It allows me to have “recognition” within the halls of Valhal, which empowers many of my skills. Honestly, it is more that I fuck myself over without any tributes.”

“Huh, you learn something new every day,” Jake shrugged. “When I meet up with my god, he is usually the one who brings tributes in the form of beer.”

“You and the Malefic One have a fucked up relationship, you know that, right?” Carmen asked with a deadpan face.

“Funny,” Jake chuckled. “I think we are the only ones who have one that isn’t fucked up.”

Carmen just shook her head. “Weren’t you supposed to be meditating so we could get moving again?”

“I was,” Jake smirked. “I guess it would be too much to ask you to carry me like Sylphie?”

“If you allowed me to first squish you down to be her size, sure,” Carmen shot back.

Jake just chuckled as he closed his eyes and entered meditation to regenerate. He still kept an eye out with his sphere, and he saw that after a brief rest, Carmen and Sylphie began playing around. It was a mix between play-sparring and actual sparring, but they didn’t use any skills or serious magic but were more just playing “block the bird peck.”

A few hours and potions later, Jake was in pretty good condition again, and with the two others also chugging down some potions, the three of them were ready to head out again.

They grouped up as Jake pulled out the tablet Arnold had given him. He brought up the map as they all studied it. “Okay, so if we go down this mountain this way and pass this small patch of forest, we only have that plain left, and we reach the Grand Mangrove River. After we pass the river, we only need to cross a few flood plains, and we are in the port city of Changhul.”

“Are we going for that orange zone?” Carmen asked.

“No P,” Jake pointed out. “AKA no Prima. I think it is better to aim for the Grand Mangrove River for Primas.”

“How many Primas do you think there are? Not just in that Mangrove place, but on Earth in general?” Carmen asked.

“Arnold says that based on his algorithm made from data on all the Primas he has surveyed so far and locational data of how far spaced out they are, there should be around eleven-hundred within human-occupied land on Earth. He did say it is a bit shaky due to many beings underground or high-up, but it shouldn’t be too far off. If these Primas exist all over the globe… well, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were in the tens of thousands at least. Knowing the system, the number of fragments and keys likely correspond somehow, so maybe thirty thousand? It has to be something that can be divided by three.”

Carmen nodded along. “So, there are quite a lot of Primas. Got it. Now let’s go kill some.”

“Already looking forward to it,” Jake smiled as they set out towards one of the few red danger zones identified by Arnold and a place Jake was certain he would find a good fight.

Maybe even a C-grade or two.