Chapter 224: I Killed It

"Going to rescue Alex with you, obviously," Joseph said with a tired chuckle.

Yulia frowned when she looked at him and replied, "But your mana is completely exhausted."

"I know, but unfortunately, that isn’t going to change the fact that we need to go," Joseph replied.

Emma nodded while trying to steady herself. "Joseph is right. Besides, this is the Land of Origin, not some vacation, and we knew things like this could happen and have prepared ourselves."

She tried to smile, but her exhaustion made it difficult to do so.

Petra, on the other hand, raised her little fist and shouted in an uncharacteristically determined voice, "Yes! Let’s go save Big Brother!"

Yulia looked at everyone for a few seconds, and for some reason, warmth spread through her chest as she smiled. Before she could say anything, however, a gigantic explosion erupted in the distance.

The night suddenly brightened as though daylight had returned. The explosion was weaker than the previous one, but it was much closer, and Joseph immediately realized that something had gone terribly wrong.

"Shit! Everyone brace yourselves!" Joseph shouted. The shockwave arrived first, followed by the heat and then the waves, lifting the raft and everyone standing on it before throwing them against the hill.

The raft shattered from the impact, and only Joseph’s Kinetic Mana prevented the group from suffering fatal injuries. Yulia quickly rolled across the ground and forced herself to stand, immediately looking toward the water because she needed to know what had caused the explosion.

Groans came from the others as they slowly tried to recover. Petra attempted to raise herself and activate her Faith, but her legs gave out beneath her, and she fell to her knees with blood dripping from several wounds across her body.

Yulia’s expression changed when she saw her condition. Petra was too exhausted to heal anyone, and the situation was even worse because a Priest’s Faith was not well suited for healing themselves, meaning Petra would need to recover and heal herself slowly before she could help the others again.

Then a faint light appeared beneath the water. Everyone became tense because they had seen something similar before, a strange fish-like monster that had been much stronger than Voltserpent.

Joseph forced himself upright, while Sarah, Yulia, and Frank also prepared themselves to fight.

Emma tried to get into a fighting position as well, but her arms trembled from exhaustion, and she eventually fell back onto the ground. Nobody knew whether they had enough strength left to fight another powerful monster, but they had no choice except to prepare themselves.

Then the water parted. A human figure walked out of the flooded forest, soaked and covered in blood, while dragging something enormous behind him.

The monster’s corpse scraped across the submerged ground as the figure continued toward them. His wet clothes clung to his body, burnt and torn in several places, while his wet hair stuck to his forehead. His chest rose and fell from exhaustion, but his eyes were exceptionally clear, with no despair or fatigue in them; instead, they seemed almost excited, as though he were hoping to find even more monsters waiting for him.

He looked around at the group before turning his attention back toward them. It was Alex, and somehow, he had returned from what everyone had assumed would be certain death.

"Alex!" Sarah and Yulia immediately ran toward him. They reached him quickly, but Alex simply looked at them before handing over the giant fish-like monster he had been dragging behind him.

"Can you store this in your inventory? Mine is already too heavy, but the monster looks too tasty to throw away," he said.

"Yes," Sarah replied as she quickly stored the corpse inside her inventory.

Yulia grabbed Alex’s hand and immediately began pulling him toward higher ground. "Come on, we’ll have Petra heal—"

She stopped when she looked at Petra, realizing that the little girl was barely able to stand and was in no condition to heal anyone.

Petra still tried to force herself upright, but Alex noticed what she was doing and gently patted her head. "It’s fine. I’m already healed."

Petra looked at him for a moment before finally relaxing, although she still looked worried.

"Good job returning safely," Joseph said as he walked over and patted Alex on the shoulder with a relieved smile. The others also looked relieved to see him alive, and even Emma, who was sitting on the ground and struggling to catch her breath, looked considerably less tense.

"What happened to that tentacle monster? How did you escape it?" Emma asked while breathing heavily. Everyone else was curious as well because they had all been wondering about the same thing.

That monster had clearly been a mid-rank species and was probably around Level 15. One of its tentacles had already been enough to put the entire group in danger, and they had no idea how many more tentacles the creature possessed, so nobody understood how Alex could have survived after going back alone.

"I killed it," Alex answered.

For several seconds, everyone simply stared at him. Emma looked at him as though she had misheard, while Joseph’s relieved smile slowly disappeared.

"You killed it?" Sarah finally asked.

Alex nodded. "Yes. It was a Mid rank species, but I managed to deal with it."

Emma’s expression became even more baffled, despite her exhaustion. "You went back there alone, fought a monster that was strong enough to nearly destroy us, and you’re telling us that you just killed it?"

Alex nodded again, apparently seeing nothing strange about her question.

Joseph rubbed his face before looking at Alex. "I think we’re going to need a much longer explanation later."

Alex nodded again, as if he was confused by their shock, but before anyone could continue questioning him, he looked toward the flooded forest.

"We should leave this place first. There are probably more monsters around, and we’ve already made enough noise to attract them," Alex said.

Nobody disagreed because, after everything they had just survived, staying there simply to discuss what happened would have been foolish.

The group began moving, although their condition made it clear that they would not be traveling quickly. Alex noticed Petra struggling to remain standing, so he crouched down and picked her up without saying anything.

Petra looked at him with tired eyes. "Are you really okay?"

..

Author’s Note: If you’re enjoying the novel, consider leaving a vote. It helps the novel a lot. Thank you!