[Nightmare]

"I explicitly told the kid that he could still pass if he backed down." Tyrene explained to the group.

—

"In these hills, you'll find a Markov.

It's a large wyvern.

Your goal is to kill it.

If you win, I'll reward you with a day off with your girlfriends when they arrive.

After properly assessing the beast, you'll pass if you back down and give a report.

In other words, all you'll receive is a day off if you risk your life.

Use the signal flare spell to indicate you are done with your test.

You have 24 hours to locate and kill it or send the flare." Tyrene explained.

"I will carefully assess the situation and determine my chances of victory." Helix nodded.

"We'll see about that, brat." She chuckled.

While she was smiling, her eyes weren't smiling.

—

"The only thing he had to gain was a day off with you ladies." Tyrene explained.

Charlotte's eyes lit up with excitement and sparkled in the campfire light.

Marie's chest tightened, and Riley smiled with pure bliss written on her face.

Tyrene and Tilo sent the young women a wry smile in response.

"Anyway… the brat told me he'd assess his chances of victory.

I should have known then that I should have clarified the test's purpose, but he was already running off."

—

[Query: known Markov dens in the northeast syrioforest area]

"Perfect. This map is ten years old, but wyverns live for hundreds of years." Helix muttered.

Tyrene watched him from a mountain top with a narrowed gaze.

"Just how powerful is that damn library of his…." She muttered.

"He's walking straight toward that thing already…."

After a moment of contemplation, she gave up thinking about it.

"At least I'll get my answer sooner than later." She chuckled.

Helix roamed around the forest cautiously.

He ran into low-level beasts every once in a while and dispatched them with relative ease.

After an hour of walking, he reached the mountain he was looking for.

"Okay… this should be it." He sighed.

"I guess I'll learn just how bad Tyrene wants me to run away today." Helix chuckled to himself as he slowly scaled the pass.

After searching for twenty minutes, he finally found his mark.

"Bingo…." He whispered.

A large dragon-looking creature was in the center of a large, shallow cave.

It had dark red scales over its body, making it look like an impenetrable fortress.

He read the information above it.

[Name: Marcov — Level: ???]

"I dream of a day that I don't see those deathflag marks in front of a monster every time I enter this damn forest." Helix sighed.

Helix moved to a safe location and touched the blood-red sun tattoo on his neck.

—

[Query: Markov]

[Species: Wyvern]

[Threat Level: Advanced to Master]

[General Characteristics:

~1-3 metric tons.

Extremely durable scales that are resistant to heat and explosions.

Has large wings that can fly at high speeds for fifty miles at a stretch.

A nocturnal creature that is extremely aggressive if awoken.

Sharp claws 1-2 feet long

…]

[Description: A small dragon-like winged creature that hunts at night.

It shoots flames out of its mouth as a primary fighting attack.

It kills its enemies by biting them with its jaws.

It grabs larger enemies in its jaws and lifts them in the air before dropping them to their death.

Feeds on any animal it can eat while flying.

…

Indigenous to the following regions…]

[Known Weaknesses:

Losing a wing forces the beast to run to attack.

Heavily reliant upon its strong eyesight.

…

Fear the following beasts…

Weak to the following elements…

….]

[Known strategies for fighting them…]

[Research]

[New query]

—

"Hmmm. Even if I try blowing off both its legs and wings, it doesn't look like I put a dent into that thing…." Helix noted while looking at the scales.

"Hmmm. Let's look at those scales."

—

[Query: Markov scales strength]

[Results:]

[Defensive Properties of Markov Scales]

…

—

"What!?" Helix exclaimed under his breath.

His heart started racing after his outburst.

He hoped the Markov didn't hear him.

After confirming his safety, he reread the statement.

[Markov scales are fire-resistant enough to withstand low-level heat elemental calamity spells.]

Helix's eyes couldn't become wider.

After rereading the statement multiple times, he developed a mischievous smile.

"I suppose that this will be the most dangerous part…." Helix chuckled.

Taking a deep breath, he activated the Circle of Silence.

"Master will kill me if he finds out that I'm doing this…." He chuckled.

He couldn't hear himself—nor could he hear anything.

Helix slowly snuck into the wyvern den.

It was a very large area, and he only needed to make it to a corner at the farthest edge of the den.

He threw the Circle of Silence and an Invisibility Wall Circle in front of his desired location.

It was a bone pit.

He quickly ran to the area and hid behind the temporary invisibility wall.

Jars, a knife, and rags started falling out of thin air.

Helix quickly scrapped multiple bones for as much slime as possible and put it into the jars.

Once he got five different samples, he quickly picked up the Circle of Silence and ran for his life.

He continued down the mountain with light steps and reached a safe location with good visibility and lighting.

"Haaaaaaaaah. I should… huuuuuh… have… huuuuuh… just turned this down…." Helix exclaimed with a beating heart.

"It's too late to back down now…."

Helix sat down and pulled out multiple blank battle discs.

Then he pulled out one that he definitely shouldn't have possessed.

—

"After locating the Markov, he determined there was no way of him harming it with a conventional attack." Tyrene sighed.

Charlotte's eyes were filled with thrill and excitement.

Marie was grinning from ear to ear.

Riley was biting her thumbnail with anticipation.

Tilo was cringing.

He instinctively knew that the next sentence would somehow have to do with him.

"Since he couldn't harm it by taking advantage of its weakness, he researched its strengths." Tyrene continued.

The group sent her quizzical glances.

"In particular, the strength of its scales…." Tyrene prefaced ominously.

"Its scales?" Tilo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. Markov scales can withstand low-end heat elemental calamity spells.

Luckily, Helix hasn't learned how to create or modify any of those spells." Tyrene commented casually while sending Tilo a murderous glance.

"That's a shame…." Charlotte commented with a let-down expression.

Tyrene moved her gaze to Charlotte.

"What's wrong? Why are you…. No way!" Charlotte cried with excitement in her eyes.

Tilo was sweating buckets.

"But, once again, neither of us can fault the damn kid." Tyrene sighed in defeat.

—

[Eruption].

Helix chuckled when he saw the Level 5 magic spell that almost got him killed once.

"Second time's a charm." He chuckled in self-deprecation.

He wasn't just drawing out calamity spells for no reason.

Helix was practicing the modification of calamity spells into less destructive spells.

Tilo helped him create and test a version of [Eruption] at 5% power.

In the process, he drew a few with varying power.

The one he was staring at was 25% power.

He looked at it with a conflicted expression.

"I only have 10% after this. Five percent is not much different than an intermediate blast spell, and 10% probably won't be enough…." Helix sighed.

"Well… looks like I'm going to be busy with barrier spells as well."

Helix set to work on modified Charge Barrier spells.

—

"Helix had a modified an [Eruption] spell that limited the power to 1/4th of its original power." Tyrene sighed.

Tilo also sighed after the revelation.

"Can… someone explain what's going on here?" Marie asked.

"Yeah! What's [Eruption]?" Charlotte asked.

"I'd like to know too…." Riley commented quietly.

Tyrene gave Riley a pitiful gaze that said [not you too]...

Tilo bit the bullet after chuckling bitterly.

"Eruption is a magic circle that sets off a blast that levels an area 250 meters in diameter." He sighed.

—

[A/N: I'm slowing Nightmare to devote time to Nerve Network, an unreasonably violent, action-heavy rollercoaster. I'll update Nightmare daily because it's drowning in goodness from now on, but the release will be slower.

Warning: [Don't the synopsis] if you're worried about spoilers. [Nightmare] is a prequel to Nerve Network. I can't deny that, even if I wanted to. This has been intertwined with NN from the first chapter. Sorry.]