Mana Intoxication

"Come in, come in here, my children..."

A soft calling voice echoed from before the ruin's barrier.

However, the group did not relax; instead, their vigilance sharpened instantly.

Alicia stood in front of Leon, her eyes fixed on the crack in the ruins, her hand gripping the new magic dagger Leon had given her.

The Blades of Hunger were not suitable for daily combat, so Leon had purchased a magic dagger for her from the Gaga Merchant Association in Stormveil City.

"Master Leon, that's the voice!"

Zachary's expression was grim.

"According to my son's description, this must be the voice that bewitched them!"

"Moreover, when I checked before, this crack was only the size of a fingernail, and the voice came from there."

"But now... the fissure in the barrier has widened!"

Leon nodded, looking at the fissure that had grown from the size of a fingernail to the width of a finger.

He glanced at his panel, confirming that no light was flickering, which meant The Will of the Gondor Empire had not been triggered.

Since the mental protection of The Will of the Gondor Empire hadn't activated, it meant the voice either lacked the ability to bewitch or something else was influencing Zachary's son.

Alternatively, the voice's bewitching power was so weak that it didn't even reach the threshold to trigger the protection.

Leon patted Alicia's shoulder, telling her to put her mind at ease.

Then, Leon gripped his priest's scepter and walked up to the barrier.

Although he was a priest and not a mage, the two transcendent professions shared common ground in certain areas, and Leon had taken basic magic courses within his family.

Facing the crack in the magic barrier, he had a few suspicions.

Leon reached out and touched the crack. Instantly, his fingertips felt waves of mana diffusing outward through the barrier.

"The mana concentration... is quite pure." Leon turned to Zachary. "You said before that after the crack appeared, crazed magical beasts attacked your manor?"

"Yes, Master Leon." Zachary recalled and nodded. "About half a month ago, a pack of crazed magical beasts charged the manor in groups."

"Fortunately, they weren't very powerful. The town guards and I were able to deal with them."

"Then that's it," Leon said.

"Those low-level magical beasts were likely attracted by the pure mana leaking from the ruins. To seize this mana, they attacked your manor in a frenzy."

"To a magical beast, pure mana is like the smell of a barbecue to someone who hasn't eaten for three days in the wilderness; they simply cannot control their desire to take it..."

Leaking?

Hearing those words, Zachary asked worriedly, "Master Leon, are you saying there is a vast amount of pure mana inside these ruins leaking through the crack?"

"Then... if the fissure continues to widen, won't even more mana leak out, attracting even more powerful magical beasts?"

"That won't happen," Leon said.

"This leaked mana has a great attraction for low-level magical beasts with little intelligence."

"But for Silver or Gold rank beasts that have developed significant intelligence, the attraction isn't as strong."

Hearing Leon say this, Zachary instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

He did not want Silver or even Gold rank magical beasts coming to his manor because of a mana leak...

Curious, Zachary asked, "Is it because these intelligent beasts can control their instincts?"

"Of course not," Leon shook his head.

"For magical beasts, mana is everything. Whether they have low or high intelligence, they all need to plunder mana to strengthen themselves."

"However, for these intelligent beasts, they've learned their lessons. They know your manor is territory within the Heron Empire."

"If they dared to trespass on Imperial land and kill indiscriminately, they'd be on the Adventurer's Association's bounty list within a day and hunted down by groups of adventurers within three."

Zachary: "..."

So, whether or not they attacked his manor depended on if these intelligent beasts were brave enough?!

"The threat of magical beasts isn't the priority. The urgent matter is to deal with this bewitching voice inside the ruins."

Leon listened closely. The calling voice was growing louder as if it were gradually approaching the barrier.

"Fall back."

Leon gave the order, making Zachary and the others retreat a distance.

"Come in, come in here, my children..." The voice continued to ring out incessantly.

"Don't worry, we're coming in to find you now."

With a thought, Leon's mental power surged into his priest's scepter like a tide, instantly forming a silver longbow.

With a wave of his scepter, one Hammer of Sacred Light after another appeared on the silver bow.

Under the manipulation of the Hand of Thunder, the hammers acted as arrowheads and were violently shot at the ruin's barrier.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of roars exploded within the underground passage.

Within half a minute, dozens of brilliant white Hammers of Sacred Light bombarded the barrier, then began to frantically strike it under the control of the Hand of Thunder.

Crack!

The barrier gradually shattered, rapidly tearing open in a web of fissures.

Pure mana poured through the cracks, sweeping past the bodies of those behind.

This pure mana first gave Zachary and the others a mental boost, as if they were soaking in a hot spring.

But immediately after, they felt lightheaded and dizzy, as if they were drunk on wine.

"This is Mana Intoxication!" The experienced Ratahn sensed something was wrong and immediately shouted:

"Quickly, wrap your bodies in transcendent power to resist the mana's intrusion!"

As soon as he spoke, he flared his Battle Qi to resist the leaking pure mana.

The others followed suit, using their own transcendent powers to protect themselves.

Leon stood before the barrier, not using any protective measures.

However, he wasn't affected in the slightest. He simply watched the pure mana seeping from the ruins with a calm expression.

Mana Intoxication occurred when a living being was placed in a high-concentration mana environment, and their body absorbed an excessive amount of mana, leading to discomfort.

It was just like getting dizzy from drinking too much alcohol.

However, Leon's life origin had already been enhanced. Mana of this concentration was not enough to cause him Mana Intoxication.

Boom!!

With the final strike, the magic barrier protecting the ruins shattered.

The tightly closed doors of the ruins swung open rapidly.

The moment the barrier broke, the previously surging pure mana suddenly stopped, as if a faucet had been tightened.

Not only did it stop gushing out, but it also began to rapidly suck in the surrounding mana from the outside.

"Just as I thought."

A look of realization appeared on Leon's face.

The purpose of that pure mana was to power the magic barrier.

Because the barrier was ancient, internal magic model nodes had likely been damaged, causing the pure mana meant for charging to leak out.

Now that the magic barrier was destroyed, the magic nodes responsible for "absorbing mana" were also broken, so they naturally stopped drawing in pure mana.

Without the need for charging nodes, that pure mana was naturally re-constrained and stopped leaking.

After recovering from their state of Mana Intoxication, the others listened to Leon's explanation with faces full of confusion and bewilderment.

"Never mind, forget I said anything."

Leon sighed and shook his head.

After all, he couldn't exactly start a lecture on the spot for "Advanced Mana Fundamentals III: Mana Purification, Constraint, and Magic Circle Charging," could he?