'This isn't it... Right?' Michael looked downward with a cracking smile.
Initially, he had expected to arrive before so grand mountain, filled to the brim with dragons.
Instead, there was a fire spanning the entire forest and a half-destroyed mountain in sight.
These were no ordinary flas—they were made of mana, similar to the kind the drakes used, but much stronger.
And they had one distinct property that made them seem off: the color black.
The flas surged upward and all around, exuding extre destructiveness.
But it also ant that this fire had started not too long ago—otherwise, it would have spread much further.
Checking the map, Michael couldn't spot any dots or anything else for that matter.
Instead, he opted to be even more certain by using Eyes of the Great Sage.
Only then was he able to tell that sothing was off—all of the black fire was concentrated in one particular spot.
Michael decided to go down and check it out, spreading out his own mana and using much more than expected just to dispel the black flas.
Until finally, he found the source—it was just a simple mushroom.
'Is this a joke?' he questioned himself, trying once again to look around.
But no, this was actually it. The mushroom was the source.
Pick it up perhaps, the system suggested, and he decided to follow along.
After all, what's the worst that could happen?
Reaching down, he grabbed hold of the mushroom and pulled, but he quickly noticed it was difficult to extract.
Michael frowned and resorted to using much more of his strength, even infusing mana into his hands.
And yet, it was impossible to pull out.
Therefore, he resorted to the next best thing—simply cutting it off with a sword.
Summoning a sword of light, he aid it toward the mushroom and swiftly cut.
Surprisingly, it felt as though he was cutting through tal, but nonetheless, it finally worked.
The mont it did, the ground shook beneath him, imdiately extinguishing all the flas around.
But that wasn't all. A large amount of mana began exuding from the mushroom in his hands, and before long, he started falling into a pit which magically appear below him.
Michael attempted to use his wings, but it felt as though gravity was strongly against him. Even with the mana he infused into his wings, boosting them to their maximum potential, it still didn't work.
Therefore, he opted for the next best thing—creating tens, maybe even hundreds, of swords of light and using each one to stab into the walls that were growing farther and farther away from him.
Yet as he did so, there was only a tiny bit of friction, causing each of his swords to slide off the walls, making it extrely difficult to anchor himself.
He kept trying for a few monts but soon realized it was pointless. Resigned, he gave in to his fate of falling to wherever he was headed.
'Got any ideas?' Michael questioned the system.
Just wait for a little bit. Doesn't look like you'll die. Probably.
'Probably? Yeah, that's not very assuring,' he muttered, trying out so other ideas to catch himself mid-air, but all proved futile.
That was until he began seeing light at the bottom, positioning himself in a way that would absorb the impact and spare his legs.
The montum at which he was falling would injure even soone like him.
But just as he prepared to face-plant and break his legs, gravity reversed for only a mont, acting as so sort of trampoline that began gliding him downward.
Soon, a golden room appeared before him, along with a single broken-down door at least twice his height.
There were also so strange symbols etched into the walls, so of which he thought he recognized, but upon further look, it was nothing alike to what he had knowledge.
Which prompted the question, 'Can you translate?'
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But he was simply ignored, so he helplessly turned to the side.
He noticed a few piles of gold bars scattered across the ground but chose to ignore them for a mont.
That was—after pocketing a few gold coins into the bag he carried. They looked a bit more expensive than the gold coins he'd gotten from the escort mission.
Say, system, any way for you to pocket so in that little temporal dinsion of yours? Michael haggled sarcastically, not expecting much.
However, he heard a sigh, and with it, at least half of the gold in the room suddenly disappeared.
Happy?
'Yup,' he affird with a small chuckle, heading toward the door in front of him.
Michael swiftly went through the door, only to appear in complete and utter darkness, which he quickly illuminated using his light skills.
But even then, all he saw was a narrow hallway with so kind of holes in the walls that seed to lead nowhere.
Yet, at the sa ti, they exuded mana—as if mirroring his own.
Michael remained extrely wary of what awaited him, if anything at all.
So far, it looked like so sort of tomb, though there were neither coffins nor anything of the sort—it was truly abandoned.
However, he soon ca upon a certain hole in the wall that was much wider than the others. Upon looking into it, he saw sothing he hadn't expected.
A golden eyeball stared directly at him, but as Michael blinked, it suddenly disappeared. The sa went for the mana signature—it had completely vanished.
Instead of asking the system for help, he decided to investigate on his own, using the Eyes of the Great Sage skill. Imdiately, he spotted so sort of trail.
It led him forward, the holes in the walls pulsating with strange mana that seed to gloss completely past him.
Yet he knew that whatever awaited at the end was either what he was looking for or sothing he'd rather not see.
There's only one way to find out, no? the system remarked, and he rely nodded.
'Yup.'
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