This time there is a lot more information that comes back with my mana. The mountains are not made of just one type of stone so there is a lot more information. Not only are there different types of stone to sort out, but there are things living in the ground.

Unfortunately, I cannot set my mana to only look at the stone, I get information on everything. The only thing that saves me is I only get information from below the ground. If I got information on everything living on the mountains as well, I would probably go insane.

What I should have done was to just scan a single mountain at a time instead of scanning all of them. However, it does save me some time since once I sort through the information I have a target. There is a mountain not far away that has a very strong stone at its heart.

I am not sure what type of stone it is, but from what I can see it is even stronger than granite. I won't know more about it until I extract it and can take a closer look at it. Now that I have a target, I take off again, and fly towards the specific mountain.

Lin says "Hey, what's that?"

Turning my head to look where Lin is pointing, I spot a small village on a hilltop. The village has a couple of dozen buildings and is surrounded by a log wall. The hill the village is built on is swarming with thousands of humanoid figures.

Banking, I head over for a better look, as I get closer I can hear the sound of fighting. The humanoids scaling the hill are attacking the village, while the humans try to defend. As I fly closer I recognize the humanoids that are attacking, they are goblins and orcs.

Now, if it was humans fighting other humans I would stay out of it, but goblins are a different story. The humans are just barely holding them back, that's with the men, women, and even the children helping. However, with how outnumbered they are, it is only a matter of time before the village falls.

I reach the hill and start circling above it while I decide what I want to do. Once I make up my mind, I start circling lower as I take several deep breaths. Then I aim my head down and release my breath weapon as I fly another circle around the hill.

Lin, not to be left out, starts throwing spells down as soon as she sees me attack. My breath leaves a ten foot wide scar around the hill as I circle it, killing everything it touches. Even the goblins and orcs that are within five feet or so burst into flames and die.

The goblins and orcs below the blast that survive stop in terror causing them to bunch up. This makes them even easier targets for Lin's spells, those above the blast line the villagers deal with. Since I can't use my breath weapon again for a while, I join Lin in throwing spells.

Lin is throwing a wide variety of spells, but I stick to fire and lightning spells. Lin is a higher level than me and has better spell knowledge, but my spells are more destructive. That is due to the bonus I get to all fire and lightning spells from my new racial bonus.

I continue circling the hill as we throw spells to spread the destruction out. Once the humans finish off the monsters at the top of the hill they get a short break. Surprisingly, the goblins and orcs don't turn to run away, after a minute they continue advancing.

They seem to be really determined to destroy this human village, which is a little odd. They are dying by the hundreds to advance through the spells we are throwing. However, those that make it through are scattered and the humans handle them easily.

As long as we can keep them from getting to the walls in huge groups the humans should win. Now, it is just a matter of whether they run out of numbers or we run out of mana first. I am not too worried about Lin running out of mana, but mine won't last too long.

Lin says "Keep at it, I am going to cast a big spell!"

"Do you want me to enhance it?"

Lin yells "NO!!!"

"Why not?"

Lin says "I want to save the village, not destroy it too! The spells you enhance always go out of control."

Even as Lin is telling me off, I can sense her gathering her mana and starting her spell. To avoid distracting her I stop talking and focus on killing as many orcs and goblins as I can. I get the feeling that once her spell is finished there won't be anything left for me to kill.

Thanks to everything that Lin has taught me, my spells have gotten more efficient. Despite throwing spells as fast as I can, I still have about half my mana left when Lin finishes her big spell. When her spell goes off, everything on the ground outside the village freezes solid.

The entire hill and every goblin and orc on it turns into an ice sculpture. The spell even spreads beyond the base of the hill to get those that hadn't started climbing the hill yet. With a flash, everything is white and nothing is moving, she didn't miss any of them.

3,191 Rank 1 Goblins defeated! 31,910 Exp gained!

2,643 Rank 2 Goblins defeated! 52,860 Exp gained!

577 Rank 3 Goblins defeated! 17,310 Exp gained!

1,183 Rank 4 Orcs defeated! 47,320 Exp gained!

886 Rank 5 Orcs defeated! 44.300 Exp gained!

*DING*

Congratulations! You have leveled up! You are now level 18!

Level 18: HP +1,000, DP +1,000, Wisdom +100!

Holy Word level 8!

Holy Light level 8!

Bless Weapon level 7!

Repel Undead level 6!

Holy Armor level 6!

Cleanse level 6!

Holy Shock level 5!

Mass Bless level 4!

Resurrect level 3!

Transport Barge level 2!

Lin says "Huh? Ash, why are you glowing?"

"I'm glowing? I guess because I just leveled up?"

Lin says "You glow when you level up?!"

"Apparently. No one has mentioned it before, but I can't think of any other reason I would be glowing."

Lin says "Well, whatever the reason, congratulations on leveling up."

"Thank you."

Lin says "So, should we go down and talk to the villagers?"

"No, I don't see a point."

Lin says "Aren't you curious why the orcs and goblins were attacking?"

"I wasn't until you mentioned it! Alright, we will go, but you get to do the talking. I will pretend to be your mount to save the explanations."

Before Lin can argue, I dive down and land in front of the gate of the village. I fold my wings and stand there looking impressive as Lin climbs down from my back. The villagers come running out of the gate and drop to their knees in front of her.