Chapter 223: Nutritious Food [GOLDEN TICKET BONUS]

Alex glanced at the notification but did not open the evolution options. This place was too dangerous, and he had no idea when the damaged cavern might collapse or whether another monster would arrive after sensing the blood and disturbance.

He quickly moved toward the Kraken’s corpse and tried to store the entire body inside his inventory, but the attempt failed because the corpse was simply too heavy. After cutting off one of the tentacles that appeared relatively undamaged, Alex stored it inside his inventory before turning toward the surface.

’I’ll come back for the entire corpse in the morning. Considering its size and rank, I bet its meat is much more nutritious than normal monster meat,’ Alex thought as he began swimming upward.

He had already discovered that as Ascendants’ body became stronger, it required more nutritious food to sustain itself, so having a large supply of high-quality monster meat would be extremely useful.

Alex began swimming upward, using the faint light from the firesphere to guide himself through the dark water. His lungs were already beginning to ache, which made he continue without slowing down because he needed to reach the surface before his remaining air ran out.

The moment his head broke through the water, Alex took a mouthful of air, only to be immediately caught by the violent waves. His body was thrown sideways, and he barely managed to keep himself from being dragged away before anchoring several Mana Threads into the submerged ground beneath him.

Alex steadied himself and began infusing Fire Element Mana into the water around his body. The surrounding water slowly began glowing with a faint red-orange light as its temperature increased, and once enough mana had accumulated, Alex started rotating the water around himself.

The rotation gradually became stronger as Alex continued increasing its speed. Soon, the water began forming a whirlpool around him, pushing the surrounding waves away and creating an empty space where he could finally stand without being constantly thrown around.

The whirlpool eventually became strong enough that there was almost no water directly around Alex. His feet touched the land beneath him properly, land that had been completely submerged until now, and he finally understood just how much the water level had risen.

Alex cracked his neck and began walking, allowing the whirlpool to move with him. It surrounded his body and pushed back the waves that crashed into it from every direction, but this time Alex deliberately kept it weaker than the whirlpool he had created during his fight with the Kraken.

If he compressed too much Fire Element Mana into the water, there was always a chance that the entire structure would become unstable and explode. He also could not run while controlling it because the whirlpool simply could not move fast enough for that, and increasing its speed would require much more concentration and mana than Alex was willing to spend.

Still, it was plenty fast for now. Alex continued walking through the flooded forest, using Mana Sense to determine the direction he needed to travel while occasionally adjusting the whirlpool whenever a large wave struck him.

...

Yulia kicked downward with all the strength she could manage. The force of her attack traveled through the raft without damaging it before continuing beneath the surface, striking the sneaking Voltserpent and killing it before it could reach them.

Yulia was not happy about it, however. She looked toward Joseph and Emma, noticing that Joseph’s face was red from the concentration needed for spells while Emma had become so pale that she looked as though she could collapse at any moment.

Both of them continued fighting while taking the brunt of the attacks around them. Petra was not doing much better, as the little girl had been repeatedly healing everyone’s injuries since the battle began and was now showing obvious signs of exhaustion.

Her movements had become slower, and even her breathing was increasingly unsteady. Despite that, she continued forcing herself to use Faith whenever someone was injured because she knew that stopping would put the others in even greater danger.

Eventually, they reached high ground. The raft struck what appeared to be the middle of a hill that was now partially submerged beneath the floodwaters, and Joseph immediately looked toward the others.

"Go! Everyone get off the raft and start moving!" Joseph shouted over the roaring waves. Everyone quickly jumped onto the hill, but Yulia remained standing on the raft.

Her fists had been repeatedly clenching and relaxing as she struggled with the decision she had been trying to make for the past several minutes. Her mind had been filled with confusion, fear, and hesitation, but when everyone else finally stepped off the raft, something inside her seemed to settle.

For the first time, the answer felt obvious.

"I’m going to help Alex," Yulia said as she looked toward the direction of the explosion.

"What?" Joseph turned toward her with disbelief.

"He went back to fight even though he knew it would be more dangerous alone," she said. "He rescued both of us when there was almost no chance of saving us and a very high chance that he would die, so this time, I’m going to go help him."

Yulia knew there was a good chance she would die before even reaching Alex. The monsters were still everywhere, the floodwaters were becoming more dangerous by the minute, and the enormous explosion from earlier had been brutal enough that Alex might already be dead.

There was also a chance she would reach him only to face a dreadful monster and die together with him. None of that changed her decision, however, because they were a team.

Joseph sighed before jumping back onto the raft. Surprisingly, Emma followed him, and then Petra climbed aboard as well, while Sarah and Frank followed shortly afterward, with Frank having finally regained consciousness enough to stand and move on his own.

"What are you doing?" Yulia stared at them in surprise.

..

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