Chapter 277: Astral Stone [POWER STONE BONUS]

Alex exhaled lightly as he looked at the notification. Since he had released the mana from his Mana Heart and was allowing it to rampage through his body, the increase in mana inside his Mana Heart wasn’t causing him much trouble at the moment.

He then looked at the other item he had received from the Basilisk. Unlike the elemental stone he usually obtained from Mage-type monsters, this time the item was something completely different.

[Astral Stone (S Rank)]

[What kind of mage fights in close combat, you lunatic.]

[Effect: Can be used to craft items with prophetic and divination properties.]

Alex raised an eyebrow as he read the description. He had already suspected that the Stone Basilisk wasn’t using elemental magic, and the effect of the Astral Stone seemed to confirm his guess.

The magic was most likely something known as Prophetic or Divination Magic. Even the name of the stone seemed connected to that possibility, so Alex raised his head and looked toward the night sky.

There were countless stars visible above them in this world. Alex stared at them for several seconds before storing the Astral Stone in his Inventory.

’It seems like Prophetic or Divination Magic is a type of magic influenced by the stars. I wonder how exactly it works.’

He was quite excited by the possibility of learning a new type of magic. He didn’t have enough information to figure it out yet though, so he decided to investigate it later. For now, the group continued moving through the forest while following Mia.

After walking for a while, Emma slowly moved closer to Alex. "It’s good to see that your mood has improved, Alex. You must really like your cat."

Alex looked at her with a slightly confused expression.

Emma gave him a small smile before continuing, "You looked different ever since you returned from Earth. You seemed much more serious than before, and you didn’t really talk much about anything."

Alex fell silent after hearing that, because his mood had indeed been worse since returning from Earth, mainly because he was worried about his mother, although he hadn’t told anyone about her situation.

"If you ever want to talk to someone, I’m always here," Emma said after a short pause. She didn’t wait for a response before moving back toward her position in the formation, leaving Alex alone with his thoughts.

Alex watched her leave for a moment before looking ahead again. He was grateful that she hadn’t tried to pry into what had happened, because he had never been the type of person who liked talking about his problems.

He pushed those thoughts aside and continued walking with the group. Since he didn’t want to devolve into worrying about his mother, he tried to focus on the strange situation surrounding the Grim Apes instead.

’There was no Origin Energy gain even though we killed the leader of the Grim Apes. Does that mean this place wasn’t actually a dungeon? If so, why would a monster create or occupy a place that isn’t a dungeon? It’s already been pretty clear monsters like dungeons because of the Origin Energy present in them.’

Alex could think of two possibilities. The first was that the Grim Apes, including the High Rank one, belonged to another larger group and had simply been moving through this area when the Lightless Night arrived, forcing them to climb the mountain because of the rising water.

The second possibility was that there was something else they could obtain by staying at the top of the mountain. It might not have been Origin Energy, but whatever it was could still have been important enough for the Grim Apes to establish territory there.

Alex couldn’t find an answer with the information he currently had, so he pushed the matter to the back of his mind. Before leaving the area, he had also taken the Basilisk’s poison sac and one of its fangs, since the fang had been strong enough to pierce the Lightning Grim Ape’s skin and could probably be used to create a powerful poison.

Those materials were too valuable to leave behind. Alex stored them carefully before continuing with the others.

Eventually, the group reached the part of the forest where the scent of blood had become much stronger. Everyone immediately became more alert, but Alex was particularly cautious because he could already sense several Netherclaw Prowlers hiding nearby.

Mia suddenly stopped walking and looked toward Alex. She let out a quiet meow before turning toward another part of the forest, clearly telling him to follow her.

Alex didn’t immediately move. Instead, he looked around the area and began releasing thick pulses of mana spheres through the forest.

The pulses were infused with enough Will to burrow into the bodies of living creatures to a certain degree. If the creature was strong, its powerful Will would resist the pulses and prevent them from penetrating very far, while weaker creatures with weaker Will and less Origin Energy would allow the pulses to travel much deeper.

This allowed Alex to estimate the strength of the creatures hiding around them without needing to see them directly. The Netherclaw Prowlers quickly sensed the mana spreading through the forest and began revealing themselves one after another.

Several black figures emerged from between the trees and stared at the group while hissing. Their bodies were tense, and they clearly had no intention of allowing the group to approach their territory without a fight.

Mia immediately hissed back. A powerful pulse of energy suddenly erupted from her body, causing the nearby Netherclaw Prowlers to flinch and instinctively take several steps backward.

Matthew looked around at the creatures before glancing toward Mia. "It seems like your cat has already subdued the Netherclaw Prowlers in this area."

He sounded more amused than afraid, although he was clearly still paying attention to the creatures surrounding them. Alex looked at the Netherclaw Prowlers for another moment before answering.

"Yes. All the Netherclaw Prowlers that are still alive are below Level 10, so Mia must have killed the stronger ones that resisted her," Alex said, sounding slightly surprised himself. Since this hill had a Mid Rank species dungeon, any species living around this area should have included quite a few Mid Rank monsters.

The fact that Mia had apparently killed all of the stronger Netherclaw Prowlers was more surprising than Alex had initially realized. She was clearly quite strong.

..

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