The Regressed SSS-Rank Water Mage Wants To Live a Calm Life-Chapter 28: Vin’s Force

The moment the two mercenaries crossed the Archmage Linoel’s barrier and stepped into the boundaries of the red valley, all previous signs of warmth and calmness immediately disappeared from their beings, replaced by a chilling coldness that contrasted with the pervasive heat that pricked their skins.

Maxwell glanced around with squinted eyes, struggling to scout ahead, at the far boundaries of the reddish terrain that his mortal eyes couldn’t capture.

This fact irked him, to say the least. Normally, he should’ve been able to view the entirety of the red valley from where he stood, without even having to strain his eyes, which were under constant attack from the harsh, scorching heat. He shrugged that useless thought off, though.

The source of this unusually harsh heat wasn’t even the sun; it was the corrupted mana in the atmosphere.

Maxwell grimaced, furrowing his brows.

Vin, standing next to Maxwell with his sword drawn, stepped forward, licking his lips as he rolled his shoulders.

"You can feel it too, can’t you?" The middle-aged man asked Maxwell, narrowing his eyes.

Maxwell nodded. And as he did, he shot a deadly glare at the countless tall red hills planted on the dried red ground in front of them.

Behind the majority of these red hills, corrupted mana signatures spiked. And these signatures didn’t feel like the corrupted mana currently oozing through the air. These felt refined and condensed, like they were trained to be integrated into a core.

After careful observation, Maxwell seemed to notice something:

’They’re... waiting for us,’ He fixed his gaze on one particular hill, and he focused his mind and intent, reading the depth and quality of the radiating corrupted mana. He blinked, ’That mana quality... A-rank beast.’

Maxwell smirked, raising a hand to attract Vin’s attention.

"Get ready to fight. They’re the things we came here for. They weren’t kidding when they said Slimanders possessed intelligence," Maxwell chuckled. "It seems unlike the Mirators, they’ve been waiting for us to step into the barrier before they attack."

Vin nodded, a mask of absolute focus clouding his facial expression. He tightly clenched the hilt of his sword with both palms, gritting his teeth as he raised the sword.

"Mana augmentation," Vin whispered.

Maxwell turned to look at the somewhat nervous man.

"Can you do it?" He asked, voice resolute. "You’ve never augmented your body or weapon with mana before, haven’t wielded force. It’ll be quite different from how you normally fight, and your attacks will be stronger considering you’re a 5th-core now."

Vin raised his brows, but they narrowed back instantly, and he scoffed.

"Right, of course, you know how many cores I have. Nothing’s a surprise to you," Vin shrugged. "As for the augmentation..."

Vin closed his eyes, and the five cores that revolved around his heart began to rotate, moving with untraceable speeds.

In the next instant, pure mana, in the form of silver energy, moved through Vin’s pathways, circulating his entire body.

And after a few seconds of circulation, Vin’s sword began to glow. A calm, pristine silver. This warm energy expanded to his entire body, wrapping around him like a slick cloak of light.

"...I got it covered," Vin completed.

This was ’Force.’ The physical manifestation of a core-bearer’s mana. Their aura. A means of augmentation.

As Maxwell gazed at Vin’s force, which wrapped around his blade and his entire body, causing his eyes to glow a bright silver hue, he only had one thought:

’Flawless.’

Maxwell raised five fingers.

"Steel your heart. They’ll attack in five..."

Four fingers now.

"Four..."

Three fingers now.

"Three..."

Vin’s grip on his sword tightened, jaws clenched. He crouched, planning to leap ferociously as soon as the monsters attacked.

"Two...

The moment Max uttered the word, he stretched his free hand, conjuring a ball of water that hovered on his palm.

Frilo made its way away from Vin’s hair, which it had perched on earlier, and it flew to Maxwell’s shoulder.

Maxwell smiled.

’Go get them.’

"One."

The water mage threw the ball of water, and it hurled through the air, past the claw markings on the ground that Maxwell had detected earlier. He judged it was probably something those sly Slimanders made to effectively kill people who passed through the barrier, slaughtering them as soon as they passed the markings.

Consequently, as the ball of water hurled past the markings, a large, scaly green creature leaped from behind one of the red hills. Its green scales, glistening under the sunlight, framed an aerodynamic body that resembled an unnaturally large and fast crocodile. Its long, slender tail waggled as it perfectly aimed a large, jagged claw at the water ball. The ball dissolved immediately.

Vin breathed in.

The ground beneath the mercenary’s heels cracked as he leaped. It felt more like a blast off as silver energy burned the ground he once stood on and trailed behind his figure in the air as he approached the Slimander.

In the next moment, with almost blurry speed, the 5th-core swordsman appeared in front of the crocodile-like monster that was still disoriented from the realization that its prey was a mere water ball.

In the air, Vin pivoted his waist, holding his sword in a perfect and unique position. A refined technique. Then, he released a controlled vertical swing at the midsection of the beast.

Blade edge met scales.

Shing–!

The blade sliced through the scales, cutting through the midsection of the beast. A clean cleave.

Dark blood spurted out as Vin landed on the ground with a crouch, the perfectly divided corpse of the Slimander falling behind him.

He breathed out, blinking in surprise.

Steadily, he sheathed his sword and raised his palms eye level, inspecting them as though they were foreign to him. A stranger’s hands. He clenched and unclenched his fists.

"I did that?" He asked, still awestruck. Then, he looked up at Maxwell. "I did that."

Maxwell nodded.

"But there’s still more incomi–"

Before Maxwell could complete his sentence, Vin felt the overwhelming presence, and he reached for his sheathed sword in a perfect, fluid motion, drawing it as he moved his waist in a practiced manner, swinging his sword in a perfect arc that swiftly cleaved three beasts that had leaped to attack him.

Dark blood spurted out of the corpses as they fell, and Vin remained vigilant, crouching with his eyes peeled open, ready to intercept the next enemy.

He had passed their markings, after all.

"Be sure not to harm their crimson cores!" Maxwell yelled from behind. And a faint sound echoed, accompanying Maxwell’s yell.

Vin chuckled. That was definitely Frilo.

The middle-aged mercenary nodded.

"I have been careful."