"I think I found something that I am good at." Alex said with a smile from ear to ear.
After relating the domain knowledge he had about computer science to runes and mana manipulation, Alex was able to successfully break the chain. Something impossible for a warrior to do.
"How! How did you do it? What you have accomplished is something incomprehensible. It takes an apprentice mage years to gather enough knowledge to decipher the simplest rune formation. But not only did you decipher it, but you did it within hours after coming to contact with new knowledge." Ethan said.
After taking a moment to think, as if he realised something, Ethan asked Alex once again.
"You are not a warrior, right? You are a mage hiding in the central continent, right? You were trying to test me by asking the question about runes and magic. right?" He expected an affirmation from Alex. His eyes eagerly scanned Alex waiting for him to reply.
It was the only reasonable conclusion he could form after realising what Alex had accomplished.
In the history of magic, there was never a person who learned mana vision and how to decipher a rune formation within an hour. If he was not a mage? What was he? A genius capable of triumphing over Merlin, the forefather of magic.
Ethan was having a hard time coming to terms with the current reality. He felt like his whole world was collapsing.
"There is a little girl who calls me a hidden master. If you want, you could call me the same." The unexpected reply from Alex made Taka and Laya nod.
This forced Ethan to look at Alex in a new light. He was awed by Alex.
But it didn't bother Alex, he was used to it by now. After all, It is the truth that he was different from the people in this world. He was a soul from another world. There was no harm in people seeing him differently.
Putting some pressure on his injured thigh, Alex limped toward the nearest person. He broke the chain that was binding Taka and went towards the next person.
Even though he was hurt, Alex felt like he should hurry. He didn't know when someone might show up. He didn't have a moment to rest.
"Kalina? Look at me." Although Alex escaping rekindled her hope to escape. Her will was still shaky. It prompted Alex to snap her out of contemplation by calling out her name.
"Are you going to let your sister die here?
"You look as if you had given up on surviving. Don't let your thoughts wander. Don't let your doubts cloud your judgement. You have people that need your protection. So, stop being a crybaby. What we need is that slightly obnoxious but good-natured Kalina, not the one that is wallowing in her miseries. Besides that, you have much to pay back to the first elder. Just like me and the people here." Alex tried to motivate Kalina while breaking the chains that surrounded her.
And his words worked magic inside Kalina. Her eyes began to look firm with resolve. The doubts that once plagued her were mostly gone. And the new will survive was birthed.
'It's true that people become stronger when they have something to protect.' Alex thought.
Within moments, everyone was free of the energy-dispersing chains. They huddled together outside the door plotting the next course of action.
"I am unable to perform teleport and other space-related skills. As Ethan has said, there seems to be a rune formation that's preventing that."
"I am in the same predicament," Taka confirmed.
"Ethan, how long did you say the rune formation might have taken to set up?" Alex asked to confirm some of his doubts.
"About a decade or more."
"Does that mean the formation is large and complex?"
"Complex is an understatement. At the minimum, it is the work of tens of space elemental mage masters. A master mage is similar in rank to a tier 4 warrior. Besides that, the rarity of space elemental mages makes it a daunting task to build a rune formation like this. So, a decade is an optimistic timeframe." Ethan elaborated.
"That could mean only one thing. The prison was not built to contain us. It is built to contain the innumerable enemies the evil organisation has in this world. There might be other people similar to us trapped inside this prison."
His words were reasonable and the group quickly identified its implications. If there are other prisoners inside, it would be better to release them and create chaos. In that chaos, they would be able to escape unscathed.
Without any more delay, Alex broke open the prison door. The broken metal door made a heavy sound when it fell onto the floor.
The sound attracted the prison guards around them. Black-robed people began appearing one after another around Alex and his group.
"Sir Taka, take Kalina and Laya with you to release the prisoners. We will hold them back."
"But you are weak without your tricks. You would die if you fight head-on with them. Remember, you can't teleport inside the prison." Taka said worried about Alex.
"Sir Taka. Now is not the time for you to be brutally honest. I will be fine. These pests won't able to touch me, much less kill me."
Looking at the oncoming attacks, Alex activated the last straw he had. Full body enhancement with smoke-screen.
Swish, Like a flood, energy from Alex materialised as thick white plumes of smoke and began to fill the corridor of the prison. Within seconds, Alex used up half the energy inside his body.
But it was enough to fill the entire passage from which the prisoners were coming. With this, Alex had completed his preparation.
However, Ethan who watched from the side was gobsmacked by what Alex did.
'How is this possible? A torrent of pure mana is being released from his body like a river. And yet, he perfectly controlled it to move in a single direction covering the vision of oncoming enemies. This shouldn't be humanely possible without the help rune, without being a mage.'
By now, Ethan was used to Alex doing the unimaginable. But the moment his body made contact with the mana, a thought popped into his mind.
'Should I just kill myself? Why did I learn magic for years? After all that, he is also a full elemental awakened. Should I teach him how to be a mage? That might be better than competing with him.' A sense of loss assaulted Ethan. He wanted to cry, but couldn't.
It was better to bear through it and keep the last bit of dignity he had as a genius Master Mage. Ethan thought.
Alex who was inside the smoke screen was having a blast. The enemies couldn't see him, but he could sense them. Every living thing became a beacon inside the smoke screen for him to hunt.
One by one, he dodged the incoming enemies while twisting their necks. He was killing the evil mages as if they are nothing. Even the mages who used magic to reinforce their bodies were weak before a peak tier 3 warrior like Alex. In a physical battle, there was no way for the mages to win.
And the narrow corridor didn't make it any easy for the mages.
Within seconds, even without the involvement of Ethan, Alex created complete pandemonium among the enemies.
—
Kalina, Laya and Taka, as instructed by Alex went around smashing open the door to the prison cells. There, they could see people from all over the world imprisoned in tiny little cells.
Even warriors from well know tribes were imprisoned inside the prison. Taka was shocked to see familiar faces of people that went missing from his tribe.
This made him reevaluate the extent of harm the evil organisation has done to the people of the central continent. He decided to warn his tribe and pursue the blood debt.
After releasing all the people they could, Taka stood to a side. Some prisoners followed him and Kalina while the others chose to find a way out for themself.
Although he didn't know if the prisoners were entirely good people, it didn't matter right now. It was better to release them from the clutches of the evil organisation than let them rot away inside the prison.
"I am Taka from the void fish tribe. Those who want to follow us, come quickly. We are leaving right now." Taka said while running towards the direction Alex was in. Kalina and Laya soon followed suit.
—--
"Where is he?" Taka inquired after not seeing Alex with Ethan.
"He said something about discovering the room that holds the spatial skill blocking rune formation. He went to destroy it after finding the exit to the prison. He said to not worry and exit the prison."
"What about the enemies?"
"He disposed of them without my help after releasing a massive amount of pure mana into the air. Is that normal? Does he do it normally?
"Ah forget it, don't answer that… Let me show you the way out first."
"No, we are going to help Meru. You guide the prisoners out. I am going to find Meru and return. I cannot let him face unknown dangers alone."
"Me too." Kalina and Laya chimed in.
"It seems like he accurately predicted this happening. So, he said this.
Count to ten and try using a space skill."
Without wasting a second, Taka used the space-bind skill.
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