After spending a few hours repeating the same skill over and over again, Liam had somewhat managed to achieve the control that he wanted.
In fact, the rock that he had been practicing on now had huge holes in it. He had zapped the same spot enough times to directly drill a hole through.
However, that was not his aim.
His aim was to produce whispers of lightning, just a few sparks.
This initially proved more difficult than he had thought, but Liam found a way to practice. He first drained his mana completely and then tried the skill when he was simply running on fumes.
In this way, he forcefully, squeezed out only a few strands of mana, thus grasping the control of just using a little at a time.
He did this over and over until he had thoroughly comprehended the technique and he was finally able to replicate it even when he was stuffed full of mana.
"Hmm…" Liam frowned. He had solved this issue but now he was facing a huge problem.
He either had to try his new skill, directly aiming at the bigger group of gnomes or he had to wait for another seven hours for the smaller batch to rotate in.
The latter would be the saner and safer option, but it cost him time.
Thanks to everything being moved up the timeline, Liam no longer had the luxury to wait around idly for the perfect moment.
He was confident in his skill and he could feel that he had grasped another level of control. So he did not see any point in hesitating or seeking a more opportune moment.
"I can't just wait around."
Liam placed himself at a hidden spot and started neutralizing one gnome at a time.
Unlike before, his spell was not a strong showy bolt of lightning, rather a few invisible sparks flew forward, accurately tickling the red button on the mecha gnome.
Zing.
The gnome immediately started spinning around and entered a dazed state where its hard-wired system tried to reboot itself.
This time his attempt was a resounding success!
Liam however, did not dare to take it lightly.
He had gotten the skill down but this was only the beginning.
The gnome's dazed state lasted only for about 15 minutes, at least from what he knew.
This means that he only had about 15 minutes of time to render all the gnomes in the vicinity in a dazed state and then toss a bomb to clear out the entire pack.
Even if he became a second late, then all the gnomes would become alert again and would also be automatically aggroed onto him.
It had almost cost him his life just getting away from five gnomes!
He did not even want to think about the scenario where dozens of these things chased after him!
"I need to be patient," Liam murmured to himself and tried not to think about the consequences.
Clearing his mind completely, he focussed on the task at hand and started rapidly neutralizing the gnomes one at a time.
Zing.
He aimed for one gnome, attacked it, and then moved on to the next one, smoothly decommissioning the gnomes in a methodological fashion.
Zing. Zing. Zing. Zing.
One after the other, all the gnomes were spinning around helplessly.
If any other player saw this right now, they would be completely dumbfounded.
It was impossible to attain this level of speed and accuracy even with the system's help and cast spells continuously one after the other, all aimed perfectly.
Liam had practiced and achieved this technique so soon only because he had been training his mana manipulation and control ever since he logged into the game.
This combined with this naturally high perceptivity because of his mental strength made it possible for him to learn something so finicky so quickly.
If someone else tried the same thing, they would perhaps need several days or even weeks to come close to his level of control.
Zing. Zing. Zing.
Fickle sparks from his fingertip flew forward and touched only that small red space.
It took his full focus and put quite a bit of strain on his mind, irrespectively he kept it going, enduring the effect.
"Only a few more minutes." Liam let out a long breath and continued.
A couple more minutes passed.
Everything was progressing well, but the next second, a new problem cropped up.
The more Liam cleared the gnomes, the more walked out of the two caves.
The gnomes had a rhythmic work pattern. They walked in and they walked out, only certain numbers remaining outside.
However, those that were attacked by Liam sneakily were no longer returning back to the caves. They altogether stopped moving.
This in turn made the valley messy.
A crowd of gnomes began to slowly pool outside the cave, so much so that gnomes were now smashing against each other.
Liam paused his actions, frowning.
He still had some more minutes left before the 15 minute deadline but it looked like he couldn't afford to gather more gnomes.
If they by mistake get triggered and in turn aggroed all of his hard work so far would go waste and it would cost him his life, along with it his pure complete soul.
On the other hand, if he tossed over the bomb right now and ran, then he would have to face the elite gnomes along with some of these small mechas.
This would definitely make that already difficult task even worse.
"Fuck." Liam cursed the idiots who had boasted about clearing this area the last time around.
They would have surely party wiped many times before succeeding and yet they dared to call this easy and a loophole!
His entire body was sweating from top to bottom as he wondered what could be the ideal approach now.
He did not have a lot of time to make this decision and he had to think fast on his feet while continuing to take care of the remaining gnomes.
As Liam raised his hand to neutralize another gnome that was dangerously close to him… suddenly…
BANG!
"What the heck?" Liam froze.
He did not have the time to see where that sound came from or what that explosion was, he instantly activated his [Stealth] skill and started running away.
Thanks to the frightening situation he was in last time, his body acted on instinct and made the decision for him.
He was already running before he even began to think about what just happened.
Even if he could obtain a single second headstart with those tireless bots, it could mean the difference between his life and death.
"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it." Liam cursed inwardly and pushed out his all of mana to his lower limbs and started running.
Behind him, he could hear the clear crisp ringing of a series of explosions, one after the other, all the mecha gnomes that he had painstakingly disarmed were exploding serially.
This was an outcome that Liam wanted.
However, along with this, there was also another blaring noise that rang loudly despite the explosion sounds.
In fact, this sound was even more audible than the explosion sounds.
"BEEP! INTRUDER ALERT!"
"BEEP! INTRUDER ALERT!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"BEEP! INTRUDER ALERT!"
…
…
…
The whole place went up in smoke and sirens blasted in the area!
If there was any other beast in the vicinity then it would have surely been attracted to this noise but even though this was a high-leveled zone no such thing happened.
This in itself was a testament to the might of these mecha gnomes.
Though they were small and insignificant, they had cleared this entire zone and they were the only beings in the area.
Liam was aware of this fact and hence was running wildly, as fast as he could, throwing all caution to the wind.
Not long after, a group of gnomes started chasing him, tooting their sirens as loud as they could.
Liam's heart sank. So many had exploded and he had even activated [Stealth] and yet he was caught!
Humanoid monsters and beasts might err but mechas never made a mistake!
However, he was also not ready to fold and die quietly. Though this situation meant a sure shot death, he was going to put as much fight as he could.
"My only chance of escape…" Liam panted and looked ahead at the distant mountains.
Strange and powerful creatures resided there, those that could kill him in the snap of a finger. But at this moment, they were the only ones who could rescue him.
If he wanted to have even the smallest chance of escaping, he needed to run into one of those terrifying beings.
And not just that, he also had to skillfully place the aggro of the mecha gnomes onto that terrifying beast and run once again.
Though theoretically, this seemed feasible… how could something like that practically work?
Liam wryly chuckled. "I am fucking going to die."
The sound of the sirens was slowly increasing and that meant that the gnomes were gaining speed on him.
He could not even know how many were running behind him at the moment.
If he took the second to turn around and check, that would already mean his death.
For now, he just needed to run as fast as he could without worrying about any other details.
Even if he knew those details and the exact number of gnomes behind him, what good could it possibly do?
Everything was already over.
Liam let out a long sigh. "It's fine. One death shouldn't matter a lot. Next time I will make sure that this doesn't happen."
However, right at this moment… a bird swooped down.