It took quite some convincing, but the ten-meter long Kelketuk finally agreed to accept some help. He was hurt throughout the recent battles, and was close to death, despite having the strength to stand on his own eight feet. Chewing through the rocky limbs of those Giant Mana Guardians, had been a physically taxing task, no matter how muscular the beast itself was. Some of his bones were cracked, and quite likely, he could bleed to death because of the wounds on his claws alone, if instant measures weren’t taken.Timothy felt sympathy towards the demonic basilisk, so at some point, he had even commanded it to accept help, which sounded cruel, but dying from blood loss was even more so. The Kelketuk couldn’t heal itself, as dark mana wasn’t commonly used to heal wounds, no. He wasn’t going to allow for a loyal companion to die on his watch!“Feeling better already?” He asked, and the Kelketuk simply nodded.The Kelketuk’s deeply dark mana pool was very unwelcoming of anything pure and

Five mages stood at the entrance of the ruins, and were preparing to attack Timothy, and whoever followed him. They seemingly recognized him as the leader, be it of the group or of the platoon, so they were aiming at him primarily, and wanted to wipe him off the mountainside!From the looks of it, these humans were stronger mages too! Timothy couldn't guess their exact arsenal, but they had to be at least an entire mana realm above him! They had the advantage of the hill as well, as they were at least seven meters higher in elevation.“What'r you looking at me for? Do you think that I’m gonna fight fair?” He grunted, and then waved his arm. One of the enemy mages’ heads then exploded just a second later, and their brains ended up splattering all over their comrades! It was graphic, but he wanted to show them who they were dealing with while the surviving mages were building up their attack.[Two Advanced Mages killed. 18,000 system points have been added to your sum as a reward.] The

The Dungeons of the Old were difficult to explore. Every room, every corridor within the ruins was dark since it didn't have a host to maintain it, and keep it well lit. This place was ruined, after all. The darkness within the ruins was a solid contributor to why it was difficult to explore it, but there were also other, far more concerning reasons. “We're gonna run out of mana really quick,” Tim sighed, citing the main reason why these ruins were difficult to deal with.“Well, you all are using fire as substitutes for torches, so we were wasting mana anyway.” Gustav pointed out, “Let's hope we don’t have to use our fancy magic at all.”Their wishes were always against what the universe had in store for them, because just moments later, they heard a loud screech within the ruins, which likely came out of some monster. It could not have been a human. Timothy assumed that it was a bird of some sorts, a big one, and he didn’t know how to feel about it, as it seemed quite unusual for bi

“Kelketuk, can you open this bastarding door for me?” He called out, “Just push it.”Timothy didn’t have any mana, so he couldn’t communicate with the demonic beast telepathically, so he had to use hand gestures instead. He flailed his arms around like a shocked, and angry Italian chef, and once the Kelketuk walked past the goblin slaves and got closer to its master, it seemingly understood what he wanted. The Kelketuk stood up on its hind legs, and used its two pairs of front legs to lean on the gate. This was a beast that weighed several tons, perhaps more than the gate itself, so it was the best servant for the job!It was a smart decision to have the Kelketuk push the gate, and this was apparent, the second one of the doors budged forward by a few inches. It inched inward, slowly, and the hinges that supported the doors released this loud, screeching sound throughout every second of the process!The hinges suddenly snapped, and so, the door that the Kelketuk had been pushing, fel

“That was not fun,” Tim said, as he stood up, and tried to regain his composure.“It's not supposed to be humorous,” Simon said, “Anyway, I did my part. I bestowed upon you the greatness that Pool Fragmentation promises, and from now on, you may cultivate your mana as best as you can, assuming you'll make it out of here alive.”“Was that a threat, Simon?” He asked, and he was serious, because he did not want to fight an Arch Magus right now, or the Arch Mages that stood behind him. “Is it?”“No, it is not a threat.” Simon shook his head in disagreement, “We're not the only ones living here. There have been several dark mages trying their luck, though, unlike you, they were dumb enough to attack us. That aside, there should also be seven monsters on the loose.”“Monsters? What kind?” Tim asked, as he remained quite tense. “Can you kill them for us, please? I don't have a drop of mana.”Simon sighed, visibly disappointed, and said, “The Ascended Maguses took your mana as an offering, co