The Regressed SSS-Rank Water Mage Wants To Live a Calm Life-Chapter 29: The Anomaly Lore [1]

Maxwell nodded, a faint smile on his lips. He was satisfied.

With a subtle gesture from Maxwell, Frilo moved around the corpses of the fallen beasts and absorbed their crimson cores one by one, sending them straight into Maxwell’s pocket dimension, while Maxwell himself let out a soft grunt as he lowered himself and sat on the dried red ground, raising his head toward the sky.

The young mage’s spirit was still vigilant, and his intent scanned the entire environment around himself and Vin, ensuring no monsters interrupted the middle-aged man’s fight.

Shing–!

At the not so far distance, away from the sitting Maxwell and the cores absorbing Frilo, Vin fought non-stop, the sound of his sword splitting scales and cleaving beasts echoed through the air. The man’s force never dulled, and his breath was steady and rhythmic, movements still fluid even as more Slimanders appeared from every corner of the red valley.

Seeing the occurrence of more Slimanders, Maxwell nodded, unsurprised.

"It seems they’re a bit coordinated," Max whispered. "The ones sent to guard the barrier, kill trespassers, and find ways to bypass the barrier are the ones attacking. And there are still more inside the red valley," Maxwell held his chin. "I suspect there must be a leader. The one responsible for this terrific division of labor."

Maxwell stood up.

"We’ll have to find it. After all, our job here is to wipe them all out of the surface of Red Valley."

Maxwell outstretched a hand, opening his palm.

Frilo, still absorbing the cores of the beasts that Vin slaughtered, paused immediately.

In the next moment, the grandmaster rank spirit morphed into its thread form, rapidly snaking its way toward Max’s open palm.

Maxwell clenched his palm, and Frilo disappeared. Blue light shone around his body, brightening his eyes. He’d gained the mana of a 7th-circle in an instant.

"Well," Maxwell stretched his arms. "Guess I’ll have to sully my hands."

As Vin restlessly slaughtered more Slimanders in the distance, more and more popped out, as though they were appearing from nowhere.

Maxwell chuckled. The mercenary was butchering A-rank beasts like they were naught but disabled chickens. The beasts didn’t even get to use their special abilities.

The young 7th-circle water mage took a step closer to Vin.

"Hmm," Max hummed, still walking as mana radiated from his body. "What if we clear the entire valley and rid it of every single monster?"

Maxwell halted, blinking. Where the hell did that thought even come from?

He grinned. It didn’t matter.

He’d go through with it.

Raising two hands to the sky, Maxwell stirred his soul-link with Maxwell, and immediately, water mana circulated through his pathways with speed greater than great, and in the next instant, beams of brilliant blue light shot from Maxwell’s open palms, hurling toward the sky.

As the rays of water mana reached the sky, they melted the air in the atmosphere, mutating and changing it to water.

The skies rumbled, and clouds darkened overhead instantly.

Rain began to fall.

This was a minor authority of the god of water, reduced to its most insignificant, mana-fueled form. The authority of water conversion. In its divine state, Maxwell could change the molecular structure of any and every element, mutating it into the water element.

Vin, deeply engaged in battle, suddenly paused. Even the numerous Slimanders that surrounded him paused, and all necks, whether man or beast, moved, gazes fixed skyward.

Pit–Pat–!

It was raining.

It never rained in the red valley.

Vin, wide-eyed, turned to Maxwell. What was this strange phenomenon? No, even 7th-circle mages shouldn’t be able to command nature to do the unnatural.

This was on a whole other level.

Vin, distracted by Max’s elated smile and the beating rain, failed to notice the attack of five Slimanders that leaped ferociously, their claws wrapped in corrupted mana, bodies emitting impossible heat.

Right in front of Vin, Maxwell, hand still raised, twisted his fingers a little, and the rain that’d soaked Vin’s clothes and wet his hair seemed to vanish.

The man looked absolutely stunned.

And when Vin turned his neck, glancing behind him, he saw that the rain still fell, only this time, it perfectly avoided him, as if the raindrops had been programmed to miss him. No droplets touched his skin. While the Slimanders—

Vin’s hands trembled, and he dropped his sword to the ground.

—The waterdrops from the rain had morphed into solid, sharp crystallized forms, piercing the scales of the crocodile-like creatures with speed and strength, effectively killing them all.

In fact, all Vin saw was a ground filled with dead bodies and dark blood being washed away by the streaming raindrops, which cascaded through the cracked, dried red ground.

Maxwell stepped forward, toward Vin.

"That’s enough fighting," Max said. "The rain’s fallen everywhere in the red valley, killing every single beast, including the Slimanders and their leader. So now all we have to do is to search for–"

"Their corpses and their leader’s corpse and farm the cores." Vin looked up to Maxwell’s face, his expression betrayed shock and disbelief. The same man had killed a wyvern with one shot, commanded a high-level spirit, healed his pathways previously thought impossible, made rain fall, and– "Are you an anomaly, Maxwell?"

Maxwell’s eyes widened, and the skin of his face slackened. Then his eyes narrowed, and he chuckled, almost laughing out loud as he raised a hand.

"No, I’m no–" Maxwell froze. ’Come to think about it. Am I not? A god in a mortal’s body, doing things previously thought impossible.’ He held his chin. "Maybe I am."

The disbelief on Vin’s face melted instantly, and his body slumped as he sat on the wet ground, nodding.

"Makes sense. The first anomaly, Krian the great, was some kind of mage that didn’t control the four elements, water, fire, Earth and air. He controlled light. They say he ascended past the fabled 10th-circle and became the god that the western continent, Hubolt, serves."

Maxwell nodded.

’That’s what the world thinks, but... It’s not entirely true. Although Hubolt is just a minor deity so I don’t care about him.’

"And the second anomaly, Charles Liam Flameworth..."

Maxwell froze at that name, and his face hardened.

"...The first mage with the ability to control every single element. He was a force to be reckoned with during his youth. They say he even learned how to control the light element just like Krian did. Rumors also said he learned elementless magic from the Elves in Elyrus. Do you know him, Max?"

Maxwell’s eyes twitched.