Yarra’s Adventure Notes

Chapter 29 - 29 21 Mana Conversion Array_1

?29: Chapter 21: Mana Conversion Array_1 29: Chapter 21: Mana Conversion Array_1 The battle was proving to be exceptionally difficult.

The bizarre combat, where they could only defend and couldn’t hurt the attackers, left the ladies struggling.

By the time Vivian was rousing from her fourth meditation, an hour had already passed.

The battlefield showed no signs of change; Catherine and Lina formed one team, and the uninjured nine adult Fire Elements split into two groups, in three rotations up front.

Those who needed rest rotated back with the injured Fire Elements.

Rachel, the gunner, had triggered the crystal gun non-stop for the past the hour, her face was pale and her hands gripping the gun were trembling uncontrollably.

She finally collapsed on the ground due to excessive energy exhaustion.

However, Pannis who participated in the combat for the first time was only roaming behind the front-line people, occasionally kicking back any juvenile Fire Elements that slipped past back into the Lava Lake.

Both Catherine and Lina had been somewhat injured and were now resting near the wall.

Catherine’s Falcon Shield was covered in charred marks, emitting steaming heat, there were also over a dozen burn marks on her chainmail, and even her long hair had a patch burned off by the high temperature.

She was currently pouring water on her shield to cool it down.

Lina’s condition was slightly better than Catherine’s, having only three cracks in her leather armor, which was obviously due to Catherine always shielding her in dangerous situations.

However, there was a large burn mark on Lina’s left hand, and she wasn’t healing herself, only throwing aside an emptied Vitality Recovery Potion and silently leaning against the wall to restore mana with the aid of her potions.

Gritting her teeth, Vivian stood up with the aid of her magic staff, ready to enter the battle once again, to keep the juvenile Elements under control and relieve pressure off of her companions.

But just as she took a few steps forward, she was stopped by Pannis who had retreated.

“Vivian,” Under constant protests, Pannis finally reluctantly dropped the words ‘Miss’ or ‘Lady’ that made people feel distant from his parlance: “Don’t rush to help now.

Dylan and the others just rotated in.

They can hold for a while.

Come here for a bit, I have something to ask you.”

Vivian glanced at Pannis with slight wonder but didn’t say anything, just nodded and sat down next to Catherine and Lina.

“Why are you back?” Catherine looked up from the Falcon Shield, her expression seemed to be very happy despite the difficult battle: “This is your first time in combat right, Pannis, how does it feel to help your partners?”

“As I said, I’m merely an employer, not a partner.” Pannis didn’t prolong the conversation on this issue and asked Vivian: “How much mana do you have left?”

“Over sixty percent.” Vivian sensed for a moment and answered: “Approximately sixty-five percent.”

“You have drunk four bottles of Meditation Potion.” Pannis calculated, “By now, your muscles should be so sore from the transformation of meditation that you can’t stand, and your mind should also be unable to endure the stimulation of meditation.”

“No problem, I have special reasons that allow me to ignore physical fatigue.” Vivian stated indifferently: “And my mental strength is stronger than that of ordinary mages.

My limit is six bottles, but after the sixth bottle, although I can still move, it is difficult for me to cast spells as normal.”

“So what do you plan to do?” Pannis asked further.

“As before.” Catherine answered for Vivian: “She will drink the fifth bottle when her mana drops to thirty percent.

With the help of the Meditation Potion, she will recover twenty percent of her mana and another ten percent in three minutes with the assistance of the Vitality Recovery Potion, bringing her mana back over half again, which she will then use up entirely.

After that, she will switch to the Deep Sleep Potion, and sleep for half an hour to recover another fifty percent.”

“What if the battle still hasn’t ended by then?” Pannis pursued incessantly.

“Then we can only rely on the natural recovery of mana, as by then the limit for taking the Vitality Recovery Potion would have been reached.” Catherine and Vivian exchanged smiles, seemingly recalling some amusing incident: “We have had two crises before that required her to push herself this hard.

She would always respond in this way, but the price was that she had to lie in bed for seven days afterwards.”

“Here, there are neither beds nor seven days of safe time.”

“Of course, I’ve considered that.” Catherine said: “If such a situation does occur, then I’ll carry Vivian on my back, and we can retreat out of the cave for recuperation.

We can continue after Vivian is fully recovered.”

“Back and forth, plus rest time, it might delay us for about ten days.

Maybe because of these ten days, you won’t be able to complete the task within the deadline.

That’s a high reward task that comes once in several years.” Pannis softly coaxed: “For a group of unrelated people, or rather not even humans but Elements, you’re going to give up a reward of a hundred thousand gold coins.

Don’t you regret it?”

“Ha ha.” Lina suddenly opened her eyes: “Catherine will not regret it at all, Vivian and I don’t care about any task rewards, so there’s nothing for us to regret.”

“Yes, I won’t regret it.” Catherine answered with a smile, in her voice was unwavering determination: “Judging by the lasting time of the mental magic, this kind of thing is unlikely to happen, even if it does happen, even if we really fail the mission because of this, I will never regret it.

If I can’t lend a hand to those who are suffering, how am I worthy of the name of Lady Nellie?

And how can I call myself a knight?”

“Humph.” Pannis deeply sighed, his face mirroring a series of different emotions.

It was only after some silence that he made up his mind: “Vivian, when I saw you drawing the Detection Array last night, you should also have some research on the Arrays, right?”

“Of course.” Vivian answered modestly: “Expert level Array engraver.”

“How about the magic-powered floating airship?

Are you familiar with the Crystal Energy Floating Array on the airship?”

“Hmm, I’m fairly familiar with it, is there something you’re curious about?” Vivian did not understand Pannis’s intention at all: “Those are two arrays: one transforms the crystal energy that escapes every moment after the activation of the crystal into mana, and the other maintains the Floating Spell using the transformed mana.

I see, are you suggesting using the transformation array to replenish my own mana?

How could that be possible?

Are you implying that I should engrave the array onto my body?”

“Of course, there’s no need to harm yourself.” Pannis, having decided to help Vivian, revealed without any reservation, “You’re an expert, you should know that engraving an Array is only making a mold, and it’s useless just to engrave it.

The real Array is depicted bit by bit with mana condensed into threads that follow the engraved lines.”

“Hmm, so, it is feasible to directly draw with mana threads on the surface of the body.” Vivian was completely oblivious to the other sounds now, a brand new world was opening its doors to her, “However, the skin is not a good carrier for the Array, it can’t suppress the dissipation of mana threads, so each absorption calls for a new engraving.

Moreover, the Array also needs to be redesigned.

Let me think, let me think…”

“Hey, be extremely careful once you succeed, the mana transformed by the Array is violent and can impact your mana channels, even the mana core in your spirit.

Oh, I see you’re not listening anymore.” Pannis shrugged helplessly, stood up again.

“Thank you.” Catherine looked into Pannis’s eyes, expressing her gratitude word by word, “Thank you for teaching Vivian this secretive knowledge.”

“What secretive knowledge, many people know it, I just heard it from a friend.” Pannis answered, looking at the cave’s dome, “Who knows if it can be utilized, having her as a test subject isn’t bad either.”

“Haha.” Catherine also chuckled lightly at Lina’s laughter, “Anyway, thank you very much, we can still rely on each other as partners.”

“Hey, Pannis, are you here to help or to chat?” Dylan’s voice interrupted Pannis’s awkward moment, for the first time, Pannis found Dylan’s voice rather cute, “If you don’t come to replace me, get ready to help me collect the Elemental Cores.”

“Lina, let’s move.” Catherine, reinvigorated called Lina to the front lines, replacing Dylan and three other Fire Elements whose colors had some dimmed.

Although temporarily without Vivian’s help, the two girls who had now rested performed extraordinarily well, pressing back the initially wild young Elements.

“Divine Spell, Mind Soothe.” While hammering away a young Element, Lina kept her dignified poise amidst an intense battle.

She touched another Fire Element lightly with the sharp end of her hammer.

As she chanted loudly, a stream of white light bathed the young Element from top to bottom.

“Cheep cheep.” The girl heard a young Element make a sound like a mouse for the first time.

After it had cheeped twice, it looked around curiously and made another happy sounding cheep.

It plunged at Lina, having blended into the rest of the frenzied young Elements.

“Why does it come over again even after waking up?” Lina was nearly thrown off the Element’s sudden pounce due to a moment of hesitation.

Luckily, a leg sprung out from behind her and kicked the awakened Element back into the lava pool.

Ignoring the young cub’s remorseful tumble in the lava, and pretending not to see Pannis’s rude kick, Dylan clapped his hands enthusiastically from the back and yelled, “This one is good, this one can wake the kids up, use it again.”

“Don’t think about it.” Lina replied while wielding her weapon, “Even with full mana, I can only use Mind Soothe twenty times, one at a time.

Once I’ve used up all my mana, I’ll have to lay on the back like Vivian.”

“What a pity.” Dylan pouted disappointedly, estimating the time, “I guess we have to persist for another hour, everyone keep up the good work.”

“Ahh.” Lina got scratched on the waist by a frenzied Element when she was slightly distracted.

She retreated a few steps, reeking of singed flesh.

“Be careful.” Catherine moved half a step sideways to take over Lina’s position, shouldering the attack pressure from all the young Elements.

“Tactic, Stand Your Ground.” Catherine withdrew her sword and pulled out a Falcon Shield from the five-fold space backpack.

The clash of metal and rock made a crisp sound as the two shields touched the ground lightly.

Along with the clash, dim aggression spread across the surface of the shields, presenting an insurmountable wall to the oncoming elements.

The young Elements clawed and beat the shields instinctively.

Yet Catherine maintained her ground not an inch backward, deflecting each attack from getting through with the support of her aggression, despite being under immense pressure.

“Catherine, I’m back.” Upon hearing Lina’s call after she finished healing, Catherine thrust the two shields forward, retrieved one of them during the brief gap, and quickly unsheathed her sword.

She waved a circular arc around her with the broadside of the sword, repelling the encroaching Elements once again, making space for Lina.

“Pannis, how much longer before Vivian is ready?” Catherine was already feeling quite strained after a long battle, “It’s been half an hour again, isn’t she ready yet?”

Even though more Fire Elements were breaking into their defensive line compared to the beginning, Pannis was still relaxedly kicking away one Element after another behind the two girls.

Upon hearing Catherine’s anxious question, he answered nonchalantly, “Who knows how much longer she needs, it depends on her understanding ability and her grasp of the Array knowledge.

I have known people who could never grasp this technique in a lifetime.”

“Definitely not from a genius mage like me.

Element, Gale.

Element, Lightning Net.

Element, Earth Cage.

Element, Land Strike.

Element, Tornado.” The confident chanting of the girl echoed in the cave.

The incessant flashes of elemental light in the cave announced the triumphant return of Vivian.