Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Chapter 172 Traces

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  Five minutes later, everyone knew what Nuvian had in mind, and they nodded. They wanted to join since they disliked seeing things happening around them, and they were unable to do anything to decrease the number of problems. It was natural.

  Before summoning those guys, Ethan asked Nuvian if it was a good idea to bring Hana and Kei, and he said that it would be fine. Their Innocence was almost completely confirmed by now, and it would be better if they solved the problem with their help.

"Hehe, another nonofficial mission. I really like to do things without the permission of others," Ian grinned. 

"You speak like a criminal through and through…" Emily furrowed her eyebrows. "Excuse me, mister king. How do you plan to head to that world without having its coordinates?" 

"Mister King?" Ian asked while trying to hold back his chuckles.

"Just Nuvian is fine," Nuvian said while waving his right hand. "While I don't have the coordinates of that world, I am quite good at analyzing mana. Besides, to make a teleportation spell work, there are a few tricks that you can use. As long as we have enough mana, we can basically copy the formula of a portal after analyzing it. That is something I learned from my wife."

"I wonder if she just was saying the sentences that she memorized from a book…" Ethan shrugged. 

"Hahaha, maybe it was," Nuvian laughed. "Anyway, we need to move right now."

  Teleportation magic consumed a lot of mana, but it looked like Nuvian had plenty of it in-store and on the scepter that he had used for teleportation. It was a golden scepter that had the shape of a tree and an eagle resting at the top of it.

  After he focused for a while, a blue portal that was a lot smaller than the one they saw on TV appeared in the middle of Ethan's room. Still, they could feel the quality of the mana coming from it. It was many levels above Ethan's… since he was a poor excuse of a mage.

"We need to jump in all at once since this is a temporary and nonstable portal," Nuvian declared after he opened his eyes. "We should land on a place that isn't guarded, but keep your guard up, and don't use too much mana unless you have to."

  Everyone nodded and then jumped in the portal. It had been a while since Ethan felt like he was going down a waterslide like that, but at least he didn't have to look for traces of mana to follow. The path was completely clear for him and the others to follow… still, they soon realized they made a mistake somewhere. Even before they could cross the portal, they felt the temperature dropping tremendously.

  After not so long, the group landed in a white forest. The place was completely overtaken by snow, which was why it was so cold… the wind was blowing strongly as well, and the area was dark. They landed when it was night, so it made sense that it was so cold.

"... It has been a while since we went to another world," Kei muttered while looking around.

  At that point, Ethan felt that it was an everyday occurrence, but maybe he was taking things the wrong way. It wasn't like he had permission the other times he did, at least official permission.

"I should have known that the weather in this world would be quite harsh; my apologies…." Nuvian said while he was trembling a little due to the cold. "It looks like my preparations weren't perfect."

  Winter's cloak (Common) (+0)

Durability: 10/10

Effects: Prevents a decrease in the user's body heat.

Requirements: noneI think you should take a look at

"Don't mind the small stuff," Ethan said while he bought some copies of the same item he used against the necromancer months ago. "Which direction should we head? We are against the clock."

"Right… give me a moment for this," Nuvian said and then closed his eyes to focus again.

  Since he was an Elf, Nuvian had some crazy sensorial skills… even without using any spell, he was able to feel mana around the area. It was a bit too much to expect that they were close to where the others landed, but he should be able to feel other traces.

"Almost one month must have passed since the first spell connecting both planets took place, and some others also were activated, so I can feel that the vestiges of those large-scale spells altered the mana on the environment a fair bit," Nuvian said with his eyes still closed. "We are five hundred kilometers away from the epicenter of those spells… that is all I can say for now."

"We need to investigate those spots and find traces of those groups, right?" Emily asked. "Five hundred kilometers is quite the long distance, and we can't use magic willy-nilly here."

  Emily was improving when it came to her physical abilities. Still, it was hard to imagine that Nuvian was actually good or had much stamina. So, their options were limited.

  Using magic was a bad idea, but Ethan still asked Emily to use her magic to craft something like an iron wagon. The terrain was also pretty bad for running, so they had to rely on a vehicle to cover large distances as fast as possible.

"This much should be fine; I don't sense large concentrations of people around, so the closest city just be pretty far away; you all can rest easy," Nuvian declared while Hana and Kei were looking around nervously.

  It didn't take long for Emily to finish the carriage, so Ethan told the others to hop in, and he began to pull it… he had leveled up a few times in the last few days, so he had some points that he used to increase his strength. Still, without using buffs, he could only make the iron wagon move at fifty kilometers per hour since the vehicle itself was heavy and had five people in it.

"If I use buffs nonstop alongside potions, I should be able to increase the movement speed… I can also control my mind a bit and use Berserker to help, but that will tire me out pretty fast," Ethan thought. "Using those options now seems like a bad choice, though."

  It was a bit too soon, and that would leave traces of their actions… things will get nasty if they are found before they learn anything in that world. Still, before Ethan could make up his mind, Kei decided to make his move. All of a sudden, his shadow began to act weirdly until it split and began to grow from the ground, creating copies of him.

"Wow, it is the legendary shadow clone technique…" Ian muttered in surprise. "As expected of someone born in Japan, I never saw anyone using that."

"I will give you a hand," Kei declared and made his copies move to the front of the vehicle to pull it out alongside Ethan. "They have low magic presences since they came from my shadow, so we won't be discovered. Still, strength isn't my forte."

  The original wasn't going to work; in fact, Kei closed his eyes to make it easy for him to control the copies. Ethan only nodded once he felt some weight being taken from his shoulders. With the help of three copies, Ethan doubled the movement speed, and he noticed that the copies were quite fast themselves… he couldn't understand the point of having copies when Kei himself was that fast. Regardless, they sped up and focused on that.

  The group had to cross three mountains in the next three hours, and during those times, the copies suddenly disappeared thanks to the cold. The wind was particularly bothersome in the mountains, and it looked like the copies had the max amount of damage that they could take. Fortunately, Kei soon summoned more copies. His ability was convenient enough not to damage him after they suffered enough damage to disappear.

"Your ability is quite interesting, but it doesn't make any sense," Ian said.

  Kei just shrugged since he didn't want to explain it. Regardless, after moving for four hours, Nuvian alerted everyone that they were getting closer to the area where he felt the usage of the teleport spell… he couldn't feel the presence of others. Still, they had to be careful, just in case. The chances of them monitoring the area with magic was low, though, since they were invading Earth.

  Still, the sun looked like it was going to rise sun… so they had to hurry up. Although Ethan avoided feeling much cold or slowing down thanks to his cloak, he was covered in snow, and now and then, he had to shrug his body like a dog to get rid of it… he had no intention of slowing down to do so.

"They headed north once they appeared here…" Nuvian suddenly declared.