Opening the notification, Silent was over the moon.
*The system has acknowledged your intentions of attacking with holy energy and granted you a spell. Healing mastery level 0 -> 1. Spell learned; Holy Bolt. Congratulations, player Silent Light.*
He wanted to open his interface right now, to look at the spell's effect, but he was still mid-combat. Plus, the Hell Hounds were now out for his blood, since the Holy Grounds spell had ended.
Silent didn't get to see his damage number, since the shock of the notification drew his attention away. But he was going to find out now.
Raising his hand at the Hell Hound closest to him, he focused on his new spell.
The searing ray of holy energy left his hand once again, eliciting an enormous grin from the teenager as it slammed into the Hell Hound's chest.
*3,524*
'Yes! Now we're talking!'
The mana drain on this spell was higher than a normal healing spell, by at least triple. But Silent cared little about that if he could finally have the option to attack at range.
He also noticed the holy ray was slowing down the Hell Hounds every time it collided with them. He used this to his advantage and started kiting them.
They may be faster than him, but it wouldn't matter if they couldn't reach him, right?
The fight proceeded quickly from there on out, as Silent Light took the risk of exhausting himself as a trade-off for a victory of his own. Pure healing classes like him were reputable for lacking attack options, and he had been no exception.
Up to now.
He was glad the system recognized and accepted his intention, but it prompted a string of questions in his mind.
'Is the system adaptative? Why are Astaroth and Khalor constantly trying to go past its boundaries? Is there something they are hiding from the others?'
As he slew the Hell Hounds in rapid succession, Silent Light smiled and headed toward the pit he had been looking down into earlier. Reaching the ledge, he stared down at the portal.
He climbed his way down, being careful not to fall. The drop wasn't very high, at about twenty meters, but it would still hurt like a bitch.
When he reached the ground floor, he walked toward the portal, looking at it warily.
'I hope it doesn't spit out other enemies while I'm closing it.'
He sent a message to Astaroth, notifying him he started closing it and closed his interface.
Focusing on the glowing mass of demonic mana, Silent closed his eyes and concentrated on the circulation of his divine mana, repeating the process Khalor had taught him two weeks prior.
But as he manifested the first strands of energy, he received a message notification.
Seeing it was from Astaroth, he opened it.
*If you have a skill to protect yourself, now is the time to use it!*
The Priest frowned at the message, but he suddenly felt a surge of energy coming from outside the hill, and his eyes widened.
He rapidly let go of the strands of divine energy he was wielding and swirled his hands in front of him.
"Solaris' Sanctum!"
Just as he said his last word and a bubble of golden-red energy popped around him, a massive wave of energy engulfed the entire village cave, including the pit he was in. The blast was powerful, and regardless of his protective spell, he was blown away.
He blasted backward, colliding with the nearby cave wall, the bubble around him absorbing the impact. But that didn't mean he was unscathed.
Since his protective spell suddenly came to a stop, he lurched from the center of it and slammed into the inside of the bubble wall. His head knocked hard against it, and he lost consciousness.
When he came to, he was sprawled on the ground, covered in dust, his head slightly bleeding.
"Oww… What the hell caused that?"
From the outside of the hill, he could hear explosions, like someone was repeatedly blasting dynamite, and he could feel the ground shake with every blast.
'What's going on out there?'
But now wasn't the time for questioning. Turning his head, Silent Light saw the portal of red energy was bubbling and swelling.
'Shit!'
He didn't know what caused this to happen, or what the result would be, but he cared not to learn. Silent got up from his feet as fast as his aching body allowed him and walked over to the portal at a brisk pace.
He focused again, ignoring his head crying out in pain, and reached out into his divine energy again. Silent Light grabbed at the strands of energy, weaving them into a bubble of energy that he wrapped around the portal.
Just as the bubble was closing, he felt a spike in the demonic mana, as if the portal was finally reaching the breach point. But the cocoon of divine energy closed around it before anything could happen, and whatever was going to happen never came to pass.
The portal slowly stabilized before it shrunk into a tear and back into nothingness.
Feeling his body become heavy like lead, Silent Light slumped to the ground, letting himself lie on the cold stone floor.
Huffing and puffing for air, the teenager smiled at his little success.
"One down, two more to go. At least, let's hope it's just two."
From the outside of the cave, he suddenly heard a screech of pain, unlike anything he had ever heard, tearing at his eardrums. Silent smacked his hands on his ears, trying to mitigate the loudness of it, attempting to save his eardrums.
The scream lasted a dozen seconds before absolute silence reigned once more. He could no longer hear explosions, or feel the ground shaking.
This was Silent's cue, telling him the fighting outside had also ended. He sighed in relief.
'Astaroth truly is a monster. Those four enemies would have taken a full party of level fifty players, just to keep in check. And with the surge of energy from before, I can guess one of them might have become stronger mid-combat.'
Silent Light lay there in contemplation. Two such players were present in their guild, currently.
But from what Khalor and Astaroth strived for, they wanted much more people to reach that power level. It seemed like an exercise in futility.
'I wonder if more players can even reach that level of power.'
But the image of two women flashed in his mind, and he knew it wasn't as impossible as he first thought.
'Maybe with enough time, we can all become this strong… Maybe even me…'
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