Greg had expected to find a massive crater as a result of the explosion that had greeted the abyssal creature as soon as it crossed over to this side. But while there seemed to indeed be a crater, what Greg hadn't expected was to find it filled almost to the brim with a black, tar-like, oily liquid. Greg looked at his own reflection in the mirror-black surface of the lake. Given how high up the mountain they were and the absence of trees around them, Greg could feel a cold breeze blowing. Yet somehow, there was zero disturbance on the surface of the lake which remained flat and smooth as a mirror. In fact, the only reason they even knew that the black substance was liquid, was because his teacher had tossed a pebble in and they'd watched as it sunk into the lake without producing so much as a ripple on the surface. Some curious part of Greg wanted to reach out and touch the liquid, just to see how it would feel. He, however, didn't need telling to know that it was probably a colossall

The first attack came at night. As it turns out, Olivia's guess had been right on the money. Whether it was some instinct that drew them or simple bad luck, most of the corrupted beasts had found their way to the town. The fight was bloody. There weren't the usual normal animals that these hunters were used to. Strange forms and abilities that had been enhanced by abyssal mana twice over left most of the townspeople at a serious disadvantage. The three families stepped up to hold the line against this never-before-seen threat to the town. However, even with them doing their best, it was almost certain that they too would have eventually been overwhelmed. The town never would have seen the light of morning if not for the emergence of an unexpected warrior... Roka! Wearing his face, Olivia had spent the night in one battle after another doing her best to keep the town from being overwhelmed. With the town being attacked from all sides, she couldn't stay in one position. She kept moving

A part of her wanted to blame Roka for not being here. He was, after all, her fellow student under the healer. He should have been here to help save the lives that she had been unable to. However, even she who was here, away from the fighting, had heard of his valiance in battle through the patients and the men who brought them in. They spoke among themselves, and to her on rare occasions, about the incredible warrior that had taken to the front line of battle to defend the warriors of the town whenever they were being overwhelmed by the unrelenting wave of monsters that kept coming at them without reprieve. If he had chosen not to fight and instead come over to play the role of healer, then chances are that ten times the number would have died. He had saved countless more lives out there than she had in here. Another target that she reflexively wanted to blame was her teacher. With her, however, it wasn't because she wasn't here. No, Shalia wanted to blame her for how easy she had

The first of the three families to show up at the gathering was the one that had failed the challenge to kill as many of the attacking monsters as possible, the Ember household. After securing his protection, the Town-head's wife had no problems telling him about the history of the three families and why they held the regard and esteem that they did. Greg had been surprised to learn that the town wasn't as bereft of magic as he'd initially thought. None of the three families had proper mages to them. That, however, didn't mean that they had lost all the knowledge related to their heritage. True, in the mage world, they didn't amount to much, but in the mundane world, they were a cut above the normal people. This family of mind mages, for example, had slain a lot more of the attacking monsters than the town's mundane warriors. To think of them as weak simply because they couldn't keep up with the other two families would be a grave mistake. Their affinity for mind magic meant that the

Alena sat on the edge of the pool in her cave, her right hand pressing a white pearl to the side of her head. It had been ten days since her return to the town. For those ten days, all she'd been doing was focusing on recovery from the fight with the abyssal creature that had crossed over through the convergence. The physical injuries that she'd suffered in the fight had been all too easy to deal with. What was far harder to be rid of was the remnant energies from the creature's foul mana. Had she still been equal to a seventh-tier mage, it would have been child's play to do this. In her compromised state, however, it was an arduous process that required her full attention for several hours at a time. She had just finished a five-hour-long session of trying to cleanse herself and was now taking the time to relax. To most others, this would have perhaps meant laying back in the hot pool and doing nothing else. To her, however, that would just be boring. Having something to stimulate h