Infinite Mana in the Mage Academy

"Looking for a mage. If you come we're departing straight away!"

A man was promoting his party while shouting his lungs off.

"Can I join? I am a C-rank mage." I said.

"Ah, can you show your spell? And, can we know your mana limit?"

He asked politely.

"Sure."

I nodded and looked at the bare ground just a little ahead.

I walked there and the party consisted of two guys and one girl followed me. The one promoting was a spear man as he had many spear weapon skills. The leader was a tough-looking guy, he was a tank.

The girl was an archer as I saw her carrying a bow and arrows.

Raising my hands, I cast Ice-Storm, since this is my only C-rank attack skill. The storm left my hand and froze the ground. We could now skate on it.

The spear guy looked a little surprised and the leader raised his brows. The girl didn't care much.

"How many times can you cast it?" The leader asked.

'More than millions of times...' Or so I wanted to say, but clearing my throat, I replied. "I have rings that provide me buff so that I could cast it 5 times in a row with these buff. I could cast two E-rank skills and one D-rank skill along with it.

I could see their faces twitching, demonstrating my power was enough. I could guarantee myself joining it.

"You are in."

With that said, he marched forward and along with other party members who didn't show that much interest in chatting, I followed.

While walking toward the dungeon, we all introduced ourselves.0

"I am Allen. A C-rank mage, I will be happy to work with you all. Please treat me well."

"I am Ben, A B-rank tanker. A pleasure to work with you."

"I am Rehan, A C-rank spearman. Happy to work with you."

"I am Rina, A B-rank archer. Nice to work with you."

After that, Ben, the leader explained his strategy.

I the mage will be with Rina behind the team. Ben will be in the front and Rehan will fight to side him. Our job is to provide support.

Of course, a plan is necessary, if there is no plan there won't be that much cooperation and coordination. And that will be dangerous. Safety is safety, it is very important.

"Let's go."

Ben entered the inside and we followed behind.

The feeling of the dungeon interior was vastly different from the ones I usually frequented.

The previous dungeon I visited looked like a room with virtual images of other places, while this dungeon looked like an open ground with no projections.

The area looked vast and as far as the eye went, I found varieties of plants and trees along with flowers. Sweet smell of flowers, the grassy smell of grass, and the fierce wind blowing on my face, were all real. Compared to the previous room which looked fake, this dungeon looked like the real world.

While I looked around Ben started to speak.

"We will advance at the center of this dungeon. There are many monsters in the center, and a little further from the center is the boss area."

He explained while walking.

After some minutes of walking, we met with several fierce monsters. With a huge size, the crawling of these monsters was annoying. Countless legs, a long, segmented body, and a small mouth. Its antenna in the head vibrated as it crawled towards us.

The huge centipede's speed was much fast than one could expect. In just a matter of minutes, it crossed 100m distance. Behind the monster centipede, tens of other centipede followed.

"Get ready."

I was already ready. Ben charged at the centipede with his huge shield. The archer, Rina put the arrow on her bow and fired at the centipede from behind.

Rehan ran beside Ben with his long spear.

The shield, spear, and bow were all ready. Only I  the mage didn't do anything.

The arrow hit the centipede's body, but with its tough skin, only some scratches were left. The centipede moved its huge head and raised its body. Its huge spiky legs looked sharp as heck. As it moved its legs at the shield, a loud metal colliding sound echoed.

Ben was pushed two steps further, but he held against the centipede. Another arrow hit the centipede, which only made it angry.

Rehan jumped and threw his spear at the centipede. The spear pierced the body armor and stabbed the centipede.

A shrill voice echoed from the centipede. Rina fired her arrow at the centipede, however this time, her arrows were glowing brightly. This time, it easily penetrated the centipede's armor and stabbed it.

Blood gushed out from the centipede and Ben jumped. With a huge force, he hit the shield at the centipede's head. As the shield collided with the centipede, the centipede fell to the ground with its headshell shattered and black-like meat was revealed.

While the centipede squirmed on the ground, other centipedes joined the battle.

This time, I reacted.

I cast a rune of curse. A glowing ball that had mysterious engraving floating beside him appeared and zoomed toward the group of centipedes.

As I cast repeatedly, not too much, the group of centipedes glowed darkly. Their movement was slow and they looked like they were lagging.

The leader was quite surprised but continued blocking. The force of this attack was weak and the sound of metal colliding decreased.

Like that, our first teamwork surprisingly went well.

Our battle continued, well I could have finished this dungeon in like 10 minutes, but with the team, it took more than an hour just to reach the center.

Not to mention, our battle was too slow.

Dealing with ten centipedes took 10 to 20 minutes, but somehow we survived without any injuries.

Our battle naturally had many stops and breaks as we need to recover our mana and stamina. Well, I just pretended and sat in a meditative position.

More than an hour has passed by. We have reached the boss's place. Technically, our speed was faster than any other team that have explored this dungeon. My teammates were kind of happy and I could see a smile on Ben's face.

The boss's area was totally different. The grassy terrain had changed into a sandy one. Like in a desert, we were covered with sand. I could still see the line separating the forest and the desert.

The sandy area can't be called desert technically as it wasn't as hot as it would be in a real desert. As we were advancing, the ground shook suddenly.

The sand trembled and caved in. A deep pit formed.

The moment the pit formed, all the people including me took a fighting stance.

The sandy pit grew wider and wider and the sand ahead of our feet started to crumble. We jumped back and rushed behind.

The pit stopped advancing.

I gawked at the bottom of the pit and saw the sand boiling.

Technically, it wasn't boiling. I spotted something pretty big wiggling down.

Phushu-!!

The sand within the pit exploded upward. The falling sand emitted the roar of a waterfall. It wasn't beautiful and looked pretty creepy.

As the sand stopped falling down, a giant centipede ten times bigger than the previous one appeared. In front of it, we may look like a mouse.

The centipede dug inside the sand and moved toward us from under the sand.

"Be careful!"

Ben warned.

We jumped as we felt the sand beneath us shaking. We scattered in different directions and from the area we were previously on, the bug centipede emerged.

It had its mouth opened like it was going to shallow us if we didn't move.

Rina without wasting a breath attacked the centipede with her arrows. The glowing couldn't scratch the centipede as its defense was top-notch. It was a peak C-rank monster. Its strength may be close to B-rank.

Its hard shell looked like it was made up of the strongest metal, but I know it isn't that strong compared to the scales of a dragon that could even endure the atom bomb without taking a single scratch.

The centipede roared and attacked Rina with its huge mouth and legs. The sharp legs looked extremely dangerous.

But fortunately, Ben appeared ahead of her like a hero and blocked the centipede's attack, but he was pushed twenty steps further.

The centipede roared furiously. But, I immediately cast ice storm and a rune of curse.

The black light bound the centipede and its movement and strength decreased. But it was nothing to joy as even with its strength decreased, it was still ten times stronger than the previous centipedes.

Not to mention, my ice storm barely froze it. But, there was still some damage. But not much.

"Oh shit."

Rehan widen his eyes and Rina moved toward us. Ben took a stance with a grim expression that hid his terror.

The centipede's mouth was glowing and spat out a red laser. The red laser was extremely dangerous. It zoomed toward Ben, but Ben threw his shield and jumped sideways.

The laser pierced the shield and created a huge hole in it. As the laser passed above the sand, the sand beneath it burnt black like charcoal. Just from this, I am sure it is a heck dangerous!

<To Be Continued>