“How’s everyone doing?” Sophie asked. She created a barrier between the corpses and everyone else.

“Can’t complain,” Frank replied. Everyone else mentally replied in a similar fashion to Sophie’s question.

“Now’s the time to drink a potion if you need to. I’m applying the corpse dissolving liquid now.”

Zane didn’t need to use a potion to recover his energy. Lana and Zane were already meditating when Sophie called for a break. Zane hadn’t fully recovered, but his stamina and mana were both over eighty percent. Instead of continuing to meditate, Zane decided to watch Sophie spread the corpse dissolving liquid.

Corpse dissolving liquid was an item that did exactly what it was named for. It dissolved corpses. Originally, only the market sold the liquid in limited quantity. However, a few craftsmen figured out how to create the liquid and began selling it for a cheaper price in greater quantities. This earned them a lot of village points and ensured that everyone wouldn’t have to worry about numerous corpses on the battlefield.

Sophie took out a glass bottle filled with grey liquid and held it in the air with mana. Using her mana, Sophie opened the bottle and removed a portion of the corpse liquid. Zane watched as she used her mana to turn the liquid into a mist and guide the mist through her barrier toward the piles of corpses on the other side.

Hissing sound began to emanate from the corpses the moment the mist reached them. The flesh rapidly dissolved and turned into a foul-smelling black liquid. The bones became brittle and turned into dust. Sophie repeated her actions until most of the corpses in the field of sprouts and two passageways were destroyed. Destroying the corpses created a vacuum that allowed more mana creatures to charge forward and reduced the pressure that the walls were enduring.

While Sophie was destroying the corpses the mana creatures did not stop charging forward. They clawed, bit, head butted and threw their bodies at Sophie’s barrier. Zane and the others remained indifferent to their actions. Everyone had confidence in the barrier Sophie created and they knew that the mana creatures would kill themselves before they were able to get through her barrier.

As the mana creatures ran at the barrier, they stepped in the foul-smelling liquid created by corpses of the previous mana creatures. The liquid wasn’t lethal to living beings, but it was harmful to living beings that touched it. By running into Sophie’s barrier, the mana creatures received damage from the foul black liquid, and they received damage from Sophie’s barrier.

“Is everyone ready?” Sophie asked. After receiving a mental confirmation from everyone she dispersed the barrier.

Leaping to his feet, Zane drew, aimed, and released an arrow toward the mana creatures in the right passageway. Fighting against the mana creatures wasn’t stimulating for Zane and many of the people in his group would agree with him. However, Zane was still able to enjoy himself because he had his bow in his hand.

Draw. Aim. Release. These three simple actions filled Zane with pleasure. It didn’t matter if his arrows were aimed at a tree, a wall, mana creatures or a trained expert. Zane simply enjoyed using the bow.

When he pulled back an arrow on the string, Zane’s body was stimulated as his internal energy started to move. Zane’s mind became sharper as he aimed the arrow and channeled mana into it. Finally, when Zane released the arrow, the twang was beautiful music to his ears. Zane wouldn’t mind repeating this process for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, Zane didn’t have an infinite supply of stamina and mana. Eventually, he needed to sit down and recover while his teammates took over. Before Zane entered meditation to recover, he noticed the mana creatures in his passageway were acting unusually.

“Sophie, I see a few mana creatures attacking the walls.” Zane mentally stated. “I think this is the type of the unusual actions we should be reporting.”

Usually, the mana creatures would push each other around as they all struggled to reach the inn and attacked whatever got in their way. There were no complex thoughts or strategy that could be found in the mana creature’s actions. That’s why Zane didn’t hesitate to point out his observation of the mana creatures’ actions.

The attacks of the mana creatures dealt an insignificant amount of damage to the wall. The wall had a few scratches, and few pieces were chipped off. The wall wasn’t at risk of being destroyed in the short term, but it could be destroyed if the mana creatures were allowed to continue their attacks.

Fire, lightning, and other elemental spells were sent toward the mana creatures attacking the wall. Jason and the others had heard what Zane said and decided to take action. A few seconds after they attacked Sophie mentally spoke to the group.

“The message has been received.”

“What did they say?” Zane asked.

“Nothing much. They said they will ask other teams if they saw something similar and to tell them if we see the mana creatures continuing to attack the walls.”

It was clear to see that the leaders at the inn decided to take a wait and see approach to the situation. Zane was a little surprised by what Sophie said, but he didn’t allow his mind to dwell on it. Zane would focus on efficiently killing mana creatures and leave the rest to someone else.

After a few minutes passed, Sophie told everyone another group was coming to switch with them. Everyone acknowledged what she said and continued killing mana creatures. The next group would need time to set up defenses at one of the choke points Zane and the others passed.

Once the other team finished setting up their defenses, Sophie was told they could leave. Sophie created another barrier to stop the mana creatures and entered the underground tunnel system with everyone else. The hole was opened and closed using mana, and its location was inside the walls of the passageway.

The height of the tunnel was less than six meters, and the width was large enough for two people to walk together. The tunnel was left unlit except for a few glowing pieces of wood that gave directions. Travelling in silence, Zane and the others quickly made their way back to the inn.

Exiting the underground tunnel system required everyone to jump six meters. This was something everyone was capable of accomplishing with ease. Once their feet were on the ground, they were officially within the safety of the walls.

Compared to the fierce environment at the choke point, the environment within the walls was calm. Looking around Zane could see many relaxed bodies and bored faces. The adventurers assigned to the defending teams relaxed on the top of the walls and on the ground behind the walls. Some people meditated, others sparred, and some people engaged in idle conversation.

“You guys are back. How was it?”

Turning his head, Zane saw Armin waving at him. Armin was a fair skin man with dark eyes and hair. He wore brown leather armor and was sitting with six other adventurers. From the slightly drained look that Armin and the rest of his team wore, Zane could tell that they had recently returned from the battlefield.

Zane waved back and began walking toward Armin with Sophie and the others. Zane’s group interacted with Armin’s group a few times on and off the battlefield. They weren’t close friends, but everyone was familiar with each other.

“It was easy,” Britney replied. “A bunch of weak monsters walking up to get slaughtered.”

“I guess I should expect as much,” Armin said. “We’ve seen how well you guys work together.”

Everyone engaged in idle chatter after Zane’s group sat on the ground. After a few minutes Sophie brought up seeing mana creatures attacking the wall. Armin said his group experienced the same thing, but they only saw it happen a few times. This led to a discussion about their current defenses. Although it wasn’t likely the defenses would fail, there was still a small possibility they would. If the defenses didn’t fail during this attack, the defenses would probably fail during the next attack if there weren’t any improvements.

“I don’t think we have to worry,” Armin said. “I heard that Bruce guy has military experience and there are bunch of other people working with him. Instead of worrying about the defenses we should drink and relax”

Zane saw Armin take out a bottle containing a light blue liquid. It was mana juice. After killing hundreds of mana creatures drinking mana juice was a great idea. Zane reach for his bag to take out his own bottle of mana juice but Armin stopped him.

“Not so fast. First, all of you have to try the mana juice I made. I call it Vodka Juice.”

“Vodka?” Britney’s eyes lit up after she heard the word.

“Yup, made it myself.”

“How?” Brad asked. “You’re a warrior not a craftsman.”

“My first class is a berserker, and I picked the craftsman class as my second class. Fighting monsters with a sharp weapon is fun, but it’s not something I want to do forever. A few friends and I were wondering if our bodies were immune to beer while we were drinking mana juice. One of my friends said that we shouldn’t worry because someone would figure out a way to create a drink that could affect us. Suddenly I thought what if I was that someone. After a few days of research, study and some hard work, I was able to create Vodka Juice.”

Zane struggled to stay silent as he listened to Armin discuss the details of his class. He revealed his tier one class and told everyone what his second class would specialize in. Zane understood that the people from Brad’s world weren’t worried about sharing their classes and he wanted to respect their decision. However, Zane couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable.

Looking around, Zane saw Sophie and the others trying to hide their disapproval. Zane knew that they had been taught in school about the dangers of sharing their information. Teacher Isabelle had beat the lesson into Zane on more than one occasion. Dragging Zane from his thoughts was Armin holding out his bottle of Vodka Juice.

“You're up first,” Armin said with a grin on his face. “Have a mouthful.”

Nodding his head, Zane took the bottle, created a cup out of mana and poured himself some of Armin’s drink. When he finished pouring, Zane thought of another piece of advice that Teacher Isabelle gave him. Immediately Zane used Analyze.

Item Name: Vodka Juice

Item Type: Beverage

Tier: 0

Description: Water infused with a small amount of mana potion and has been slightly altered with an unknown substance.

Abilities: Clams the mind. Can remove or reduce negative mental effects.

The analyze skill gave Zane a deeper understanding of items compared to his identify talent. However, it couldn’t give him information he didn’t know. He knew how mana juice was made, but he didn’t know what Armin added to it. Frowning, Zane began remembering Teacher Isabelle’s teachings on the many ways people could try and poison him.

“Nervous?” Armin asked. “Don’t worry I was nervous the first I drank alcohol. How about all of us drink together. That should be fine right. Unless your one of those picky eaters.”

Watching everyone poor themselves a glass of Armin’s drink Zane’s mind began to slowly calm down. Brad and the others were familiar with the drink and looked excited to try it. Even if there was something wrong with the drink, Zane was at full health and at the first tier. In other words, he didn’t need to be afraid of a tier zero beverage.

“Bottoms up.”

Following the other Zane chugged down the Vodka Juice and began coughing a second later. Panic and fear exploded in his mind as he felt the burning sensation in his throat. He quickly looked at his stats and relaxed when he realized there was nothing wrong. Also, the burning sensation quickly disappeared.

“Hahaha,” Armin laughed as he slapped Zane on his back. “Taste great right?”

“Great,” Brittney said. “But it would be better if you make it stronger.”

After Zane calmed down, he began engraving the experience into his memory. Although he wasn’t poisoned, Teacher Isabelle was right about refusing unknown drinks. It would be better to be rude than suffer the consequences. Also, he should be cautious of all drinks that contained vodka.