The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

PoV: Yaci

The three walk out of the portal to a room that has a direct connection to the king's room.

"Where is he?"

While Yaci asks the question to the person who stood guard, both Lovelace and Ingela focus on their mana sense, expanding it.

"I can 'see' him! He's just outside the window. Whoa, his mana really is so ugly!"

"Yeah, and already fleeing. Let's go!"

Lovelace knows the layout of these rooms, and Ingela has participated in the drills, so they already know the way to get to the outside and do the chase.

It goes through the king's bedroom, but he also knows the drill and the plan. That's why, when Lovelace opens the door that leads to the bedchamber, runs to the open window, and leaps through it, the king knows exactly what's going on.

The only thing that catches him off guard is that Aurea is not with Lovelace, and there's a beastkin with her instead.

In a split second, the three have already jumped out through the window and are running behind the vampire.

:::

"Ugh, that guy is so fast..."

In the Barren Wilds, you don't need to chase after your game, but the game comes to try to eat you. Chasing after something or someone is a completely new experience for Yaci.

"And he doesn't seem to be going to the temple but to the slums. We'll go faster if we run on the roofs."

"Leave it to me!"

Ingela quickly casts an aria that makes the three of them much lighter, allowing them to jump to the top of the buildings without any effort.

"Whoa... this is incredible! So this is a real big city..."

"Focus, Yaci!"

"Yes!"

"We're starting to close in on him, so let's keep pushing forward!"

Yaci uses her spear and her tail to balance herself as she runs over the roofs with large strides, the strengthening aria enhancing her body's natural prowess.

The strengthening aria cast by someone with the base stats of Lovelace is enough to make one systemless person become a lot more powerful than the average adventurer or soldier.

The only problem is that the more people you add, the more diluted the effects are.

But when you have only Yaci and Ingela to enhance, they become at least as powerful, in raw body stats, as the top-tier adventurers.

"He's there!"

Ingela points to a shack in the slums from her vantage point on the rooftop.

"Yes, he just entered that shack. I doubt that it's his actual nest, but we'll see."

The three of them rush to the shack, reaching it in a matter of minutes, and break the door in.

"He came inside and didn't come out, but his mana body disappeared... how...?"

"It's the effect of a mana barrier, Ingela. There's one right below us, which means that there's a path underground here."

"What do you mean...? Oh! I see. Now that you mention it, the mana feels funny below."

"Yes, normally you would feel the earth's mana, at least. When there is a barrier, you receive just white noise."

"Got it! This is already a pretty nice learning experience."

"Ingela, Lovelace! I found it!"

Yaci shouts as she finds a hatch and pulls it up, revealing a vertical shaft leading straight downwards.

"At least it has a ladder. It means that he doesn't just jump all the way up."

"Can you see the bottom?"

"No... Lovelace, can you?"

"Let me see... Yes. It's a fall that won't hurt you, with the strengthening and the gravity arias having an effect on your bodies."

To add weight to her words, Lovelace simply jumps inside.

The other two wait for the sound of his landing, then Yaci jumps. Ingela is the last one to descend.

:::

"What the hell?"

"Eerily appropriate, Ingela."

They are in a hall whose walls have been painted, depicting a hellish landscape.

"There are some words here... but I don't know that script."

Ingela points to some carvings at the top of the paintings, and Lovelace comes near, then freezes.

"It's... Demonic."

"Demonic? Is that actually a real thing?"

"Yes... Now that I'm seeing this, I remember that when we arrived at this city, years ago, Aurea and I heard demonic chanting with our deep hearing but weren't able to pinpoint the location. And with everything that happened afterwards, we simply forgot about it."

"And you never heard anything after that?"

"What is that deep hearing?"

Yaci and Ingela ask their questions at the same time, but Lovelace just raises a hand.

There are four doors, each likely at a cardinal direction. Lovelace points at one of them.

"He went that way. We can't let him disappear again."

"Right. Let's go!"

The three start running again, resuming the chase and leaving the unanswered questions behind. There is no time for them.

After some time running, they reach another chamber.

"Ugh!"

"Whaaat?!"

There is a girl lying on an altar at the center of the chamber, with a beautifully crafted knife stuck in her chest. The handle of the knife has a small skull, and as soon as the three enter the chamber, the eyes of the skull start shining with a red light.

"I don't like this..."

Lovelace doesn't hesitate and runs to the girl, cutting her head off as soon as the body begins to stir.

"This is the ritual for turning the person into a high-ranking undead. The woman was already dead, and probably for a long time, but her decomposition had been stopped by the power in that knife."

"That's awful..."

"I never imagined that magic like this existed. They never mentioned it in the Academy."

"There's no time. Every time we stop to talk, the vampire gets more distant. Let's. Go."

The three go back to running, but Ingela and Yaci aren't done with their chatting.

"How did someone carve this whole complex below the capital of the kingdom?"

"And how big is this actually?"

"Yeah, this looks and feels like a dungeon. Though I don't see any treasure chests or other dungeon stuff."

"Have you gone to dungeons, Ingela?"

"Yeah, twice. It's thrilling."

"This is not a real dungeon, but it's probably as big and dangerous as one. This vampire probably has some powerful earth magic, and if that's the case, he probably carved all this during the years he stayed in the city."

"He originally came from a dungeon, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did. And now he disappeared again. We probably have another barrier in front of us."

The three arrive at another chamber. It's like the main building of a church, but macabre and twisted.

The altar has signs of usage in blood sacrifices, and there's even some dry gore in a corner of the floor.

"The barrier is right before the altar."

"You're getting good at this, Ingela."

"Hehe. Thanks."

Yaci points to a door that's in a side wall by the altar.

"That's the only door here, except for the one we've just come in."

"And there's where we go."

As soon as they cross the barrier, they immediately sense other presences. Even Yaci senses them.

Three young men materialize around them.

"You girls are certainly meddlesome."

"Yeah, Master was right to tell us to take care when dealing with you."

"But you are as gorgeous as you are meddlesome, I give you that. This will be so fun..."