Healing System

They walked off to the sidelines, and since Arthur was the one leading them, they literally didn't step onto a single trap.

Funnily enough, every time they were near a trap, Arthur sniffed the air and found the right way out.

"Mate, are you sure you're not some type of chimera fish?" Michael asked, trudging through the solid ground. "I swear... you're like a combination between a dog and a fis—"

"For the love of fucking god!" Arthur slammed his foot down, shattering the ground below them. "Would you please shut up! I'm not a fish or a dog! I'm a Klaxian!"

"Someone's a cranky fish..." Michael grumbled and pointed to the side. "There are a bunch of monsters there, but it seems like they haven't noticed us yet. I wonder, are they even trying to fight back?"

"Who knows," Arthur scoffed. "They probably just don't notice you since you're too weak."

"And yet I can beat your ass," Michael remarked with a shrug. "On a side note though, do you feel anything? Like a stronger monster than the rest?"

"I don't," Arthur replied flatly. "The only thing I feel is the fact that their mana is split between a dozen of those monsters, and... hmm..."

"What?" Michael asked, raising his brow. "Did you find something?"

"You could say that." Arthur nodded, pointing upward. "See that?"

Michael tilted his head and traced Arthur's finger. The moment he did, a massive spaceship came into view.

It had a black exterior and a circular, disk-like appearance. Safe to say, it looked menacing.

However, Michael didn't mind it much and continued staring.

A few moments later, he saw a pair of monsters drop down from that ship and onto the ground. They were identical to the ones that were already present; however, they had certain unique characteristics.

Those characteristics were none other than the lack of horns. In fact, they looked like simple cows now.

But their power seemed slightly greater. Not a large margin, but enough to turn the tides of battle.

"I reckon that's where the monsters are coming from... and I still have no idea what it is," Arthur remarked with a sigh. "I think we need to go up there."

"We? I can't fly," Michael added. "Unless you're planning to carry me all the way to the top?"

Arthur shook his head with a grin and, without answering, blasted off into the sky. He had a pair of giant wings made of water on his back, which caused the air to crackle every time they flapped.

Nonetheless, Michael was left on the ground, and Arthur flew toward the spaceship.

What a bitch... Michael sighed, attempting to summon his own wings. However, it was to no avail. The mana was simply too dense here, and any attempts just made his wings burn up.

Since it was a giant waste of mana, Michael simply stopped his attempts and looked forward, then behind.

There was one big problem now, and that was the fact that he was in the middle of an armed warzone with dozens of traps. Better yet, every time he tried to stretch out his mana in order to find where the traps were, he felt some interference.

Therefore, that was off the table, and going back didn't really work because his footprints disappeared.

After all, since mana was so dense, the gravity was also different. The land simply absorbed his footprint, and that was likely the reason why these traps worked so well.

But still... I should be able to do this somehow, Michael thought and leaned down, his hand touching the ground as he tried to spot anything off about the terrain. However, even after several minutes, he didn't find any pattern which would indicate if something was a trap or not.

Or so he thought. However, the moment he took a step, he halted midway. The soil felt soft, and if he went through with this step, he would either fall into a massive pit and be impaled by spikes, or a mine would detonate, blasting his body to bits.

Either way, it was a no-win situation.

Therefore, Michael lifted his foot and summoned a shovel of light before digging into the ground. Immediately, he heard a dull clang, and after he fully dug out what he had just hit, he saw a massive mine which had a wire connected to it.

That wire, of course, led back to the city. However, once he noticed that, Michael froze. That just meant this mine was remote-detonated, and if anyone were to press a button, then he'd be killed.

And... since he already made contact with the mine, that meant that any second now, someone would react.

Michael didn't waste even a single second as he pulled his arm back and tossed the mine as high into the air as he could. Then, in the very next moment, a loud explosion resounded.

—BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

It was like a miniature nuke had detonated; however, since he had plenty of protective layers surrounding his body, he wasn't drastically affected.

Or so he expected, but his hands soon began burning, then his clothes.

Noticing that shit was not exactly going to plan, Michael swiftly dashed away, ignoring the fact that there could be dozens of traps on the ground. Perhaps because of luck, he managed to avoid every single one of the traps, and eventually, he arrived in front of weird alien monsters.

Fuck... I meant to go the opposite way. Michael grumbled as he prepared himself. The burns had stabilized, but due to the atmosphere, they were healing slowly. Also, whenever he tried to heal himself, his body seemingly rejected it.

Since that was a situation he couldn't exactly control, then that meant he just had to heal by killing the monsters here. Therefore, Michael attempted to summon a dozen golden light swords into the sky and bring them down on the monsters.

Sadly, that didn't exactly go according to plan, since the moment his swords went higher than five meters above him, they dissipated.

Long-range is out of the window, Michael noted and proceeded to simply run in and deliver a fierce punch to a monster's abdomen.

To his surprise, it felt like he had hit a rock—a very sturdy rock.

He tried again, yet he was met with the same result, so he attempted to summon a sword and try again.

But just like last time, the moment his mana came into contact with the monster, it was dissipated.

Noticing a weird pattern, Michael decided to try something different.

Instead of using mana outwardly, he enhanced himself.

After all, this was how he had done it initially. It was how he even began learning mana in the first place.

And of course, the effects felt much greater. His body felt sturdier and faster—even his reaction time was greatly increased.

He just wished there was some kind of status screen to show his progress.

But since that was a bit of a far stretch, Michael put those thoughts aside and brought his fist back, then swiftly struck the monster's abdomen.

To his surprise, the monster's body crumbled like stone; however, that stone soon merged into a weird black slime and traveled up its body again, acting as though nothing had happened.

Michael furrowed his brows since he didn't see a surefire solution out of this.

However, he remembered one attack he had done in the past.

The Flashbang of Light.

He clapped his hands, and the moment he did, a shining light burst out into the sky.

It was a bit different than the last time he had done it; however, it seemed to have a similar effect, and that was to blind everyone who looked at it.

Michael felt a little strange at how effective it was though, since even if he wasn't directly staring at it, his skin was burning, and that shouldn't have been the case since he stopped the burns the mine had caused.

However, as he glanced toward the monsters beside him, he froze.

All of them stood rooted on the spot, some not even reacting, while others took a step forward and fell face-first onto the ground.

The same applied to every single monster who saw the light. They were disoriented, and their minds were seemingly scrambled.

Yet the light seemed to only get brighter. And once it reached its highest point, he saw the monsters slowly begin to disintegrate.

Did I do it? Michael thought with a grin.

Yet in the very next moment, a head fell beside him.

It looked like a demon's head; however, its features were slightly different than the average demon's.

Its skin was pure green, and while the horns were similar, they seemed more jagged than Michael had ever seen before.

Soon, another head flew past him, flying straight toward his Flashbang of Light.

His skill was canceled, and as he turned to the one responsible, he saw Arthur slowly walking toward him.

But there was one strange thing about him.

Why is his face green?