Archaeologists in a Magic Cultivation World

Confinement 3 That was not good!

William came to with more questions than anything. He spent the last few hours going over the Device Manager to find out what all happened. A total of three different plugins had connected to him somehow.

One was the Foul Mana Beast acidic saliva secretions that the Virus Protection determined something unusual about it. It contained human blood mixed inside it. Not from just eating the Discipline Student, but because of something else.

Two, the various Striped Hyena-like Mana Beasts affected him enough to connect with him. Even altering his actions to the normal degree. Suppressing a sense of self-preservation and leaning more towards that of the Pack comes first.

Third, he only learned from listening really closely and looking around while recovering another Mana Beast was involved. A subtle push and prod towards him maybe while fighting to influence the fight.

"Tch!" William scooped the blood up despite the burning sensation it caused and his almost useless arm. "Can't take the risk... I need to recover first." 

The Striped Hyena remains were put into the bowl, and his blood in the mix. Stopping, he searched through the rubble for the remains of the Discipline Student to use as well. 

With the fighting and debris landing on the remains, it was barely recoverable. Searching through the belongings, nothing of worth was found. Even the Manual, the guy, had was useless to him. 

The Discipline Student was a Fourth Year, and by a quick check over, the Body was relatively strong. Just not a match for the Foul Mana Beast. By the looks of what was visible, the student put up a fight before getting snatched up.

"Hmm." William didn't like the looks of this, but he was no Investigator, so best to make a note of the situation and leave it be for now. 'I cannot believe I have to do this just to make it out of this place.'

Using the Body and hopefully getting enough out of it to recover his arm was the best outcome. His back had already healed enough to allow movement and stay out of the intense zone.

Making the Body Blood Elixer once more, the purity of the concoction looked higher. Even the smell caused him to grow hungry in anticipation. 

Knowledge System: 97% Purity of Ashbone Elixer finished. Safe for consumption in current condition.

No hesitation this time when gulping it all down. Without doing the Body Cleanse still, the backlash would occur at a higher Tier. Prepared for it, William continued to Cultivate as best he could. 

Black seepage left from the wounds and flowed towards the area the Foul Mana Beast traveled before. At the speed it traveled, William was alerted the creature may have been closer than he thought.

The Rat watched from safety. A somewhat disgruntled look on its face. William had consumed all the elixer in the bowl this time. Leaving none of it for consumption to allow it to recover more.

*Squeak!* With a simple command, the Rat called the Striped Hyena back over. It still needed a way out and looked annoyed towards the floor that still did not open up. As well as William for not providing a better way out yet.

"Ahh!" William gripped his arm in pain as it recovered further. The bone he placed in his mouth to stifle screams cracked in half. "Tch!" The bones underneath were reinforced, and new muscle growth picked up.

"Arrooo!" The Mana Beasts had come back with the noise William had made, or so he thought anyway. "Hii hi!" The Striped Hyenas were more than before, thats for sure.

"Just.. in .. time..." William's regrown arm throbbed in anticipation. He did not manifest a weapon as he picked up pieces of the collapsed wall and got ready to fight the predator. "I didn't want to die alone anyway!"

Knowledge System: Antivirus programming has detected the Rootkit Virus. Subroutines forcibly closed. The hard drive was corrupted. 

'Well, thats the worst time to finish the Virus Scan. Or something had to happen just now.' William looked in every direction and focused on his hearing to listen better. 'Then again, I haven't fully recovered and defintely need some treatment. Like real treatment.'

The Striped Hyenas moved to the side and looked at the darkness. The Ghoul beast stalked out with its head held high. Its snout healed more than before, but the eyes still scarred up. Its head moves side to side with the chains following with.

'The Striped Hyenas haven't attacked me yet, so I can focus a little more on the main threat.' Circling everything he had, Blood Swords formed in a darker color than before. Mental Swords came out jagged but moved perfectly. 'Each strike has to hit with the intent to kill.' 

*Woom! Woom!* Swords composed of Soul Mana filled in the remaining for the attack. After this encounter, William would either be dead or victorious. 

'36 Strikes!' He kicked off the ground in a dash towards the neck of the Foul Mana Beast. Chains came at him different than before. But he slipped past them with the help of Soul Swords pushing against to help. '12 Strikes to the Body!'

12 Blood Swords attacked along the neck and cut the back as the target moved. William landed right in front delivering a knee strike to the snout. He stabbed into the throat grabbing for all he was worth.

"Fool..." The same voice as before came out. "..you Vermin must leave my home!" The voice sounded almost pleading but it was not like William had the option to just leave at any time.

*Squeak! Squeak!* The Rat gave another order. 

Knowledge System: Malware Blocked.

William's eyes flashed as he heard the distinct sound of the Rat and felt a force try to change him a little. Channeling the rage he felt at possible getting controlled again, the Mental Swords grew thicker.

"Go!" The 12 Mental Swords spun in a drill at the various chains tied to the Foul Mana Beasts. The Striped Hyenas latched onto the flesh near the connecting points and ripped the flesh apart. 'Dammit!'

With a superior force, the Foul Mana Beast struck back. William and two of the Striped Hyenas were knocked to the side and forced through a wall easily. The other fought with more ferocity than before in response.

They took bigger risks and were hurt more than before with each strike. As William jumped back into the fray, he caught sight of two more Striped Hyenas arriving. These two are much bigger than the ones before.

"Hi Hi.." The Hyenas pinned the Foul Mana Beast down as the little ones ripped and tore into it. "So tough!" The Blood Swords in his hands were shattered by a whipping chain. The ruins structure was not a good medium with his low-level understanding of Glyphs to help with focusing.

William didn't look a gift horse in the mouth as he attacked in abandon. The 36 Strikes were still developing and didn't have any real decisive moves at its disposal within to execute.

"Die vermin!" The Foul Mana Beast pushed out a devasting force of Mana from within. The Striped Hyenas were to close and died in seconds from the chains moving like a blender as it turned and whipped them about. "All of..you.."

It seemed to lose a bit more intelligence after using all of that Mana just then. The two large Striped Hyenas survived and were only damaged somewhat. But the anger in their eyes was not something to miss.

*Swoosh!* William had shot forward with all of his swords to strike, but a chain whipped out smacking him in the chest and lifting him high into the air like a rag doll. Coupled with his speed and the difference in power he was half dead.

Several of the Manifested Swords vanished. Leaving only the two Blood Swords behind. The ones gripped in his hands at that. The bruises and damage to his chest was a good indicator at how close he was to death already.

"Ha.. ha.." Taking labored breaths, William fused the swords and activated a glyph he made as a last resort. "..this is gonna hurt.." The Striped Hyenas shook their heads as if breaking free of some type of fog. 'Where are they going at this time!?'

The two Mana Beast fled so fast he couldn't tell anything that was going on, really. If William could look around, he would have noticed a Rat entirely out of breath laying on its belly.

"It's time to.. die Vermin!" The Foul Mana Beast paid no attention to William as it moved towards the door once more. Not having learned from its previous lesson by the looks of it. "..revenge is mine!"

Large insane jaws opened to reveal a throat with human hands coming from within. Clawing at the rubble near the door to get to something. William held fast with his Glyph and made a run for it.

*Crack!* A piece of debris from up top fell down in front of William at the worse possible time. He was forced to jump back which put him in the range of one of the chains. The circulation of his Mana was to much for the Foul Mana Beast to pass up.

The chains cut off any escape routes one by one.

"Tasty morsel.." The Foul Mana Beast went directly for the source and latched on to it. Its mouth ws nothing like before. The hands clawed at William's arm peeling the flesh and drawing as much blood as possible. ".. delicious!"

"Humph!" William didn't want to do this really but it was better than nothing. "Detonate!" The glyphs on his arms and up to his chest lit up. His Mana flowed to one spot and discharged violently in a few seconds.

*Kaboom!* The explosion seperated the two with William already dead to the World from the damage and force. His arms looked no better than a scarecrow and would make any Doctor cringe in disbelief.

William spasmed and foamed at the mouth getting up. Despite everything, the Foul Mana Beast found a way to leave everlasting damage. His eyes turned a ghastly silver as the remaining traces of Soul Mana battled each other.

Cultivating it with the few techniques he had worthwhile only served to make sure he was not screwed over later. A bit of his focus was defintely on the Recipe on using the flesh to make Elixers. Hopefully, he could find something deep inside there to help him.

Going through the life of the old creature was not the best of things. In fact, he blacked out 1/4 way through it. The only thing he could tell was going, was that the "toe ring" was doing something down there. 

Knowledge System: Reboot... start-up in Safe Mode. Running full diagnostics.

"Ugh..." Confused, William didn't even try to lift his head up. A small set of feet walked around his leg. Peeking revealed it to be a rat. "..not even dead, and your trying to eat me eh?"

*Squeak!* The Rat crossed its hands in dismay. Looking very animated in the process. Seeing as William was unable to really move, the young mana beast carefully moved to the Corpse of the Foul Mana Beast digging inside.

With sharpened teeth and claws, it didn't take long before it dug something out. A large pyramid-like object with pulsing energy was retrieved. The remaining crystallized energy of the Mana Beast was inside.

"Hmm?" William was suprised when the Rat came over and placed it on his forehead. "Hey!" 

*Woosh!* The condensed pyramid energy was cultivated by the Rat through both of them. William's condition improved drastically, but so did the rodent. It started to recover from hair loss, and broken badly mended bones recovered.

"Groooo.." The little Mana Beast let out an almost moan of pleasure. 

William was grateful, but in so much pain, he wished he could blackout. Yet he could not as the Blood Mana throbbed in his Apertures. His wounds recovered, but he paid for it immediately. His muscles ached, and bits of his flesh was consumed to heal.

The Striped Hyenas looked confused at the human. They were moving in a way to attack him but also to protect him somewhat. It wasn't that long ago they were on different sides.

*Rumble!* The Dungeon shook a little more. It happened so fast that William, who was already in bad condition, couldn't tell what was going on. 

When everything ended, he was alone. Well not truly.