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Once the battle was finally over, and after collecting the materials left behind, especially the big corpses of the bosses, the bugs, and also the dimensional crystal fragments, we gathered back in the surface.

Using holy light magic and life magic, we purified the ground out of any miasma we could find, and then we decided to relax for a bit… There was a lot to take in. 

"Phew, I need a break… Those guys showed up out of nowhere." Aquarina complained, after having stolen the show with her amazing performance in battle. "And I'm quite hungry too…"

"I can prepare something tasty." I smiled.

"Yaaay!" Aquarina's mood quickly raised as I dropped those very simple words.

"Well done, everyone. Although that attack came out of nowhere, as usual, you were able to fight back tremendously well, you make me quite proud." My father said.

"It was thanks to everybody's efforts that we were able to finish things quickly, and without any casualties." Shade smiled. 

"Of course there wouldn't be casualties! As if we would ever let any of them die on our watch." Uncle Arafunn sighed.

"Though, they were watching over us somehow. They knew what was happening… Do they have some sort of magic that they can use to do that?" Wondered Celeste.

"Most likely the bugs themselves." I sighed. "This place's plagued with bugs, flies, bees, beetles, everywhere. Probably they had one or a couple of ones they had tamed… Maybe using their magic, they can somehow watch what we're doing through them, which is really annoying."

"That's… really complicated." My father sighed. "I guess we can't really fight it until we finally reach them.

"It is possible they're keeping close tabs with us for that very reason though." Shade said. "Hmmm… Hey Arafunn, mind if you share some of your magic with mine? I think a certain spell could work if we create it together."

"Oh? I'm all hears." Arafunn smiled.

The two combined their magic as I started cooking some food using the ton of fish we had stored, and also rabbit we hunted just now. While making grilled salted fish and rabbit stew, a powerful barrier of magic suddenly covered our surroundings.

FLAAAAASH!

It felt like it was made of just air, but it also contained a slight taint of darkness within, but it was almost unrecognizable from normal air, yet it permeated all around us.

Suddenly, all the flies flying around the food disappeared, as if they were blown away in an instant. There were… no bugs at all now.

"W-What did you do?" Asked Allan in shock.

"It is called Anti-Bug Veil, it's a simple repellent magic that keeps bug really far away. Like… a kilometer away from us." Shade smiled.

"Honestly it was really easy to create and costs almost no Mana to maintain indefinitely." Laughed Arafunn. "I guess when we work together like the old times, we can make miracles… Not bad."

"That makes me feel much more safer, honestly." Aquarina celebrated it. "Hmm, that smells nice!"

She quickly sneaked behind me and started looking at what was being cooked.

"It's nothing special, just rabbit stew and grilled salted fish." I said. "Oh, dad, after eating, should we get going right away?"

"Hmmm… How far is Lara?" He asked.

"I think she's not that far away… Probably three more days of traveling, or two if we hurry." I said.

"S-She's that close?!" Luck reacted as I expected.

"Yep." I smiled. "We're getting much closer. And thanks to her being in their hideout, through these eyes, I can actually see and hear a bit of her surroundings. With that, I've created some sort of mental map about the entire place. It is… some sort of underground dungeon, or ruins."

"Is there more people?" Wondered Aquarina.

"I think there might be more people in a similar situation to Lara…" I sighed. "But the good thing is that their hideout is far away from any village or something, so there's no risk of people getting caught in the battle… Though, the entire place is similar to an ant nest, with the entrance really well guarded. There's also sentinels surrounding the place, watching over everywhere. It's not going to be easy to get there sneakily."

"If we take too long…" Zack said. "While entering that place, they might take Lara away in the meantime. Or even kill her…"

"E-Eh?!" Luck panicked.

"Of course, we won't let that happen." My father nodded. "However, Zack's not wrong."

"We'll have to sneak into the hideout. Using the door in the front is most definitely not something we can afford to do…" Shade said.

"Dad's right…" Aquarina agreed. "How about we get there underground?"

"Hmmm… It does sounds interesting." Arafunn nodded.

"We'll figure it out while having a nice meal." I nodded, as I noticed that the fish was already done. "Let's have some fish first, to clear our minds and have something tasty. Ah, there's some herbal tea over here."

While I happily served everyone's meal, I checked the System Notifications. 

Ding!

[You and your Party have defeated [Demonic Giant Swarm Insect Monster (Tier 7)] x87]

[You and your Party have defeated [Demonic Centipede Monster: Centiphedius (Tier 8)] x1]

[You and your Party have defeated [Demonic Centipede Monster: Centophedius (Tier 8)] x1]

[You earned 12.700.000 EXP!]

[The [Royal Elven Lineage: Lv1] [Advanced Fire Magic: Petit Meteor: Lv1] [Hero Seed: Lv1] [Divine Protection: Lv1] and [Reaper: Lv2] Skills have Leveled Up!]

[Naturia] [Ignatius] [Beelzebub] [Curse] [Furoh] [Glutton] [Sapphire] and [Scarlet] Levels have increased from Level 36 to Level 43!]

[Nephilim] Level has increased from Level 18 to Level 20!]

[Violet] Level has increased from Level 28 to Level 35!]

[Brownie] Level has increased from Level 23 to Level 31!]

[Aquarina] gained 13 Levels, she has reached Level 30/30!]

[Luck] gained 10 Levels, he has reached Level 10/30!]

[Aquarina] has reached Max Level. She can now Rank Up with your permission.]

[After Ranking Up, [Aquarina] will acquire stronger Class and Subclass, new Skills, and higher Stats, alongside unlocking a new and higher-level cap, and having her total level reset to 0, giving even more room for growth.]

Oh?! Aquarina hit max level!

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