Chapter 35

Explosion

The explosion immediately blew through every one of Janus’ reinforced mana panes, only stopping after it blew Tara completely off her feet. Janus and Rowan only felt a rumble.

[Your party has defeated a dangerous enemy: Heartstone Guardian] x7

[You have gained 2 levels]

[Your Bravery skill has gained 1 level]

[Your Spell Weaving skill has gained 3 levels]

Tara was climbing to her feet as Janus went over the notifications.

All seven of them? Stars! I know Rowan was chipping them down, but still!

“What was that! Stars be damned, Janus. You told us you could make an explosion. I just didn’t expect… whatever that was.” said Rowan.

Janus hardly had time to explain himself as the ground shifted once more. He couldn’t even count the amount of [Heartstone Guardians] crawling out of the earth. The churning rocks under his feet interfered with his footing, and he fell to the ground. Moments later, he could feel one of the creatures swiping at him with its claws.

He could hear one of the surveyors from the digging team shout, but couldn’t make out exactly what they said through the rush of blood in his head. He tried to create a minor explosion of mana to push the monster off of him, but only managed slammed himself into the ground even harder.

There was more than one monster swiping at him, crushing every pane of reinforced mana he had a chance to put up. Finally, sharp claws dug into his side, scraping along his chest.

Janus reacted immediately, attempting to use [Lesser Healing] to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, this meant less of his focus was spent on defending himself with mana barriers, and he was struck again, this time on his head.

There was no way to tell exactly what was happening in the cavern as blood got in his eyes. His mana was crawling dangerously close to zero, and he could feel his health falling rapidly with each strike from the [Heartstone Guardians].

In an act of desperation, he slowly slid his hand into his robes pocket. Thankfully, the [Focus] was still there and hadn’t been ripped free by the monsters. He defended himself with his other arm and shoved the enchanted item into his mouth.

Almost as soon as it touched his tongue, the [Focus] began to dissolve. He could feel his mana restore to a little over its halfway point. With his new mana stores, Janus created several mana barriers directly on top of himself. On the other side of the barriers, he compressed as much mana as he could.

It wasn’t nearly as destructive as the pressurized mana explosions from his mana pearls, but it was still the largest explosion he had ever created without compressing the mana into a hardened shell.

Janus’ ears were still ringing as he quickly wiped the blood out of his eyes and crawled backwards.

There must have been more than a dozen [Heartstone Guardians] in the cavern. Janus could see the glow of Tara’s weapon as she tried to push back against several of the monsters. Rowan was slumped against the cavern wall, a [Heartstone Guardian] digging into his chest with its claws.

He only had time to launch a ball of reinforced mana at the creature attacking Rowan before his earlier foes recovered from his mana explosion and leapt on top of him again. Once more, he found his mana crawling towards zero, as they forced him to protect himself with mana barriers.

Now, however, the more concerning resource was his health. Despair began to set in as his health fell lower and lower.

The last thing Janus attempted to do was cover himself in the thickest mana shell he could, as close to his skin as possible. The attempt drew his mana well into the negatives, and the mana exhaustion hit him hard.

He could feel his consciousness slipping away when a strange keening sound suddenly rang out through the cavern.

[Your party has defeated an enemy: Heartstone Guardian] x4

What’s going on? Did the other do something?

Janus could feel a whoosh of air above him and a sudden thud as everything seemed to become still.

[Your party has defeated an enemy: Heartstone Guardian] x5

[You have gained a level]

[Your Lesser Healing skill has gained a level]

He could hear voices now.

“Beltas, crack the gem thing. Carl, with me. Let’s get rid of these monsters.”

Suddenly, the pressure above Janus vanished as he heard the sound of metal on metal.

[Your party has defeated an enemy: Heartstone Guardian] x2

The mana exhaustion was becoming too much and Janus had to release his mana shell. The moment the spell cut off, everything went black.

-

“It’s a quick mana infusion, Carl. He should be fine. I even topped off his health.” A low, rough voice stated.

Janus blinked his eyes open to find a man leaning over him. The man’s eyes were a cacophony of colors swirling in his irises. His eyes were so captivating that Janus could do nothing but stare.

“You done over there? This redhead needs healing. Badly.” Someone replied. Carl, maybe?

The healer turned to the other voice. “Yeah. This one looks good.”

Only then did Janus come back to his senses. The cavern was barely recognizable. Entire chunks were missing from the walls, and the ground was torn up into rubble. Tara was off to the side and Janus had never seen her so angry before. Were her eyes literally glowing?

Rowan was on the ground, his chest covered in blood. The healer who had just left Janus’ side was now standing over the [Trickster]. A prismatic beam poured out from the man’s down-turned palm and he directed it at Rowan’s chest.

“Ah, fuck me sideways,” Rowan breathed out.

The healer was accompanied by two others. One wore a black cloak, his face hidden in the shadow of the hood. He held two wicked looking sabers, one in each hand. The other towered over the others. Janus had never seen someone so big in his life. Not to mention the mountain of a man was completely unarmored, only wearing what looked to be soft leather pants.

“Alright what was the next quest step?” asked the massive man.

“We need to take the [Heartstone] a hundred meters from this location,” the healer replied.

“Let’s move before the Bear Guard gets here,” said the robed man, who Janus identified from his voice as Carl.

He felt that the name didn’t really fit the aesthetic the guy was going for and the strange thought caused Janus to let out a weak laugh.

The three men looked towards him before Carl nodded to the others and shoved a glowing red object in his cloak. A burst of shadow covered the trio, and they were gone when it dissipated.

[Your party has completed a quest: Find the Heartstone]

[You have gained a level]

[Your Spell Weaving skill has gained a level]

[Your Lesser Healing skill has gained a level]

“Stars, damn it! We had it!” shouted Tara.

“Can it, Tara. We were dead if those guys didn’t show up,” said Rowan.

“Eagle Station pricks! They’ll be lording this over us for months!” Tara continued.

Janus simply leaned against the cavern wall. The adrenaline left his body, leaving his limbs feeling like jelly.

“Let’s get out of here. You guys can argue when we’re back in the station,” the foreman called out. “I never should have suggested we do this shit, anyway. I’ll be lucky if I still have a job when we get back.”

-

The trip back was uneventful. They had only made it out around five miles from the station before they had triggered the quest. Janus wondered how the Eagle Station delvers had made it so far, so quickly. If they knew about the quest, did the System inform anyone on the surface about it?

Scenes of the [Beast Lord] flashed through his mind.

Best to not think about it.

Stepping back into the station finally allowed Janus to loosen up a bit, the tension leaving his body.

He looked on as Rowan spoke with the Foreman about their pay. The man couldn’t promise anything extra, but he would put in a good word for their party at his company. The digging crew departed, leaving only Janus and his companions outside the tunnel.

“Is every job going to be like this?” asked Janus, giving Tara a look.

“Hey! It’s not my fault. Everyone agreed to do the quest,” she huffed.

“Look, I’m not blamin’ anyone, aye? Just maybe we should take it a bit slower. If those guys didn’t show up, not only would we be dead, but the people we were hired to protect would be dead,” said Rowan. “I can accept a fuck up killing us, but we need to be more careful if other people are involved.”

“Personally, I’d prefer that we not fuck up at all if it means we’ll die,” replied Janus.

Tara walked away from the tunnel entrance. “Just imagine the payday if we got the [Heartstone]. Not to mention the prestige! We’d be the talk of the station.”

Janus couldn’t really fault her. If they had succeeded, it would have been a big deal, he was sure.

“I mean, we got a lot out of this. I haven’t gained four levels that rapidly in a while.” Rowan said while following after Tara.