Everyone from Group 4 seems to be fine; there are some wounds, but nothing terrible. Unsurprisingly, they were able to deal with a few enemies even though most of them were at higher levels than our group.

I would be surprised if it didn't end up the way it did. They totally decimated poor Blackrock and a few members of Serpent's Eye that were nearby.

“Lily, would you mind? I might need a bit of healing,” I say, leaning against the wall and sliding to the ground.

Immediately, a petite black-haired girl stops healing Hadwin's hands and comes rushing to me.

Wow, Lily, that's harsh.

She sits down next to me and puts her hand on my shoulder, and soon I can feel her warm mana flowing inside my body. I'm also keeping plenty of thermal energy flowing through me to have my passive skill activated, and with Lily's healing, I'm quickly getting better.

While sitting there, I check on my Mana Reservoir, and there's still around thirty percent of its total size left. Not bad. I mean, I could use my mana more efficiently, but it was worth it.

I look up, just in time to see Biscuit throwing Elydor's body far away into the tunnel.

Such a good boy.

For a few minutes, no one says anything, just continuing to calm down and letting me rest a bit while I keep the Living Tree's particles from reaching us. I'm getting quite good at it, am I not?

My mood is also much better now, and even though some of the remaining people inside the tunnel seem to have grim faces, I'm not worried at all. Obviously, I already know what I will do. If I didn't, I would've endured the past few weeks for nothing and ended up disappointed in myself.

Tess and Haddy, being as reliable as they are, are already looting the corpses of Serpent's Eye. Some of the items survived the fight, some of them of really high rarity, and then there's also a chest and a few items they got from Champion's house.

I notice a few greedy glances from Storm Brigade, but no one does anything, so group 4 collects a pretty sizable pile of items, mana stones, and some other valuables. Temporarily, they take some items to use, and the rest they put on a pile closer to the barrier, packed and ready to be moved.

“I suppose you do have a plan?” Obelia moves closer, accompanied by one of her aides. Neither of them is using mana.

Seeing her act so respectfully feels weird, but not in a bad way. Obelia is smart, smarter than Elydor, and even though she didn't help, she didn't underestimate me. It makes me wonder what she would think knowing that my level is lower than even that of the aide next to her.

Actually, should I tell her? It would be fun to watch.

“Yes I have a plan, I will need the biggest mana stone you have for that,” I say shamelessly even though there are plenty of mana stones we got from looting Serpent's Eye.

Obelia hands me two of them. The ones that are even worth more than the ones worth a few hundred thousand dollars.

“Two more, and that weird mana stone you guys got from the champion's house,” I ask.

Even though her aide seems about to complain, Obelia just does so. She reaches into her inner pocket and gives me three mana stones, and even that nice, spheric mana stone I saw them get from the manor— an item densely covered in mana circuits that I identify as epic grade.

She doesn't even hesitate, and her eyes are calm and decisive as she does so. She is simply paying me to help get her out as well. I bet I could get even more if I asked, but I think it's better to create a good relationship with her.

I really like her decisiveness and her logical thinking.

“It will take a while, maybe an hour or two, and then we can go on,” I tell her.

With a nod, she goes back to her guild.

“Lily, go and heal poor Haddy. I need to focus now and work on something,” I tell her.

“Are you saying that I'm distracting to you?” she says with a small, cheeky smile. Like everyone else, she's a bit down, tired, and somewhat depressed after two weeks in dark tunnels, yet she tries to joke with me.

Before I can pinch her nose, she stands up and joins the rest of the group.

You have escaped this time, silly girl.

Finally, I put away the stones I got from Obelia and keep only one that I hold in my left hand, which is pale white up to my shoulder. The one that Lily restored on the second floor.

My mana enters the stone, and I consolidate my [Focus] and start working.

The process is similar to creating a construct inside my body, yet a bit easier, meaning that a mistake won't hurt me, and a big mistake won't kill me. At worst, it will destroy the stone.

Unsurprisingly, the stone Obelia gave me is better than even the ones from before, and I'm sure with my current experiences, I won't be able to use it to its fullest potential, so a lot of the stone will be wasted. But is that even a problem? It's just some money, and if using an expensive mana stone helps me improve my chance of success even a tiny bit, it's more than worth it.

The structure I'm creating inside it with [Mana Infusion] and [Resonance] is extremely delicate, and it mostly hovers inside, not etched yet, waiting to be finished before I permanently put it inside the stone.

[Mana Manipulation] also works, and then I get an idea and activate even [Mana Domain]. Not a big sphere-like field around me; I make it much smaller and just use it around the mana stone.

[Mana Domain - lvl 6 > Mana Domain - lvl 7]

A skill that leveled up during the fight levels up again as only [Focus] keeps me concentrated on the difficult task.

My skills work together in harmony, and my creation becomes more and more intricate and detailed, and it's getting harder to keep it from breaking apart.

The construct I'm creating right now is only for single use and is inspired by all the testing Elydor, Obelia, and everyone else did in attempt to break the barrier. The biggest part of it and inspiration is my skill, [Resonance].

I could try to use [Resonance] only, but just from watching others' attempts, I know how impossible something like that is. No matter how good the skill is, its level is not high enough to compete with the three-question mark monster's barrier. The amount of mana that flows through it, its density, and most likely levels of its skills are just that monstrous.

[Mana Infusion - lvl 29 > Mana Infusion - lvl 30]

As I finally decide to inscribe the construct inside the mana stone, my skill breaks through the bottleneck. At the same time, I quickly make a few changes, noticing the mistakes I didn't feel while preparing for inscribing.

When I'm finally done, I sigh with relief and release my skills, and some tension escapes my body.

Mana Pulse Stone (rare) - A single-use stone designed to channel a surge of mana to attempt to disrupt the Living Tree's barrier. Once activated, it crumbles to dust.

I expected it to be of higher rarity, but even this should be enough as it's just a single-use item that will help me channel my skill and mana.

After letting others know, I stand up and move towards the barrier. As before, it's amazingly strong, and just knowing that it covers an entire sizable city gives me goosebumps.

I also remember Hydra, a three-question mark monster Lissandra so easily tore apart on the second floor. Was it as strong as the Living Tree? Weaker? Maybe even stronger. How strong is an Absolute to be able to do something like that? As always, titles such as Champion and Absolute fill me with curiosity. But anyway, I will know when I get to that point.

With everyone around and prepared to run the moment I create a hole in the barrier, I hold the Mana Pulse Stone in my hand and push it against the barrier. Then, I charge as much of my mana as I can, and, activating [Resonance], I send it through the stone where it gets changed, and modified to the frequency I need.

The only thing I do is [Focus] to create as strong a burst of mana as I can without having my body torn apart, relying on the Mana stone to do the hard work instead of my body enduring.

The stone crumbles and the barrier only wobbles slightly, an amazing result compared to two big guilds being unable to do even that over two weeks, yet the barrier is still here.

Well, this is awkward.

I reach out with an open palm towards Obelia. Without hesitating, she places another mana stone in the palm of my hand, and I get back to inscribing.

It takes a few more days and two more tries to finally succeed.

When the tear finally appears in the barrier, everyone rushes out, and then we continue to run without looking back.

We run until we get out of the tunnels through a hidden passageway.

Yet no one celebrates. As quickly as we can, we get to the array we used to arrive there, and Obelia and a few of her members start putting mana stones into the circle and operating it with their weird item.

The entire time, the remainder of us face the old capital, staring at the Living Tree. Even now, the city is entirely covered in a spherical barrier that seems to glow.

It takes a few more minutes, and the barrier starts to expand. Slowly, but surely, it grows bigger and bigger, covering more and more of the area around the city.

That prompts the members of Storm Brigade to move faster, their movements urgent and exchanging short shouts while Obelia, with a calm demeanor, leads them.

When the circle finally activates, the barrier isn't even that far off, and I welcome the feeling of falling as we get transferred away.

We don't find ourselves back on the circle near Virelia we used for transport; instead, it's a circle somewhere on the plains, and far in the distance, I can see mountains, anthills, the territory of good ol' bus-sized ants.

"We didn't have time to pick the exact location," Obelia says to us, "But we should be able to get to Virelia fairly soon, so I think that much is fine."

"Sounds good," I tell her, and finally, there is more relief that I feel.

Looking at the items Group 4 carries, I can't wait to examine them all.

"Weird, they never leave their territory," I hear someone say and feel goosebumps on my back.

Oh no.

Tess also looks towards where Obelia is looking and activates her [Farsight].

"They aren't that far away from the anthills," Tess says to Obelia.

The guild master of Storm Brigade looks at Tess and nods, "They are not. But even this is weird. I don't think I ever heard of any ant leaving their territory."

It's fine.

"Miss, I think we should leave and maybe inform other guilds. They will want to set up some watches to observe their movements. Just in case," the voice of Obelia's guild member is worried.

It's totally fine.