Chapter 159: Trying an Artifact

"What about going and asking some pointers from the old man?" Magna suggested.

Since they had figured out the real reason they fell asleep, the old man surely had to acknowledge their intelligence and give them a few insights as a reward, even if he didn’t do so directly.

Hearing him call Master "old man" again, Matrim wanted to reprimand him but just sighed and said, "I don’t think Master is that kind of person. I’ve heard many times that he’s just the kind of person who, if he finds you worthy, will train you. Otherwise, even if you beg him, nothing will change."

Magna knew that type quite well too, like those cultivation bigshots from novels.

He could only think of one thing they could do. "So we need to just increase our resilience toward mana then."

He had stat points that could be increased through training and pain, so he thought that if he increased his stamina further, there was a chance he could eventually make it high enough to endure the loss of consciousness when the mana became too dense.

But without proper equipment, it was just so hard to increase his stats.

If he decided to farm stamina through normal methods like sparring or something, it would take him months, maybe years, to make it high enough to endure such intense mana exposure.

While he thought hard about a method to increase it faster, an idea came to him. "I’m going to look around a bit." He rushed out of the hut.

Seeing his sudden rush, Matrim was taken aback, but he soon rushed after him, curious about what he was planning and not wanting to stay alone since it was boring.

—

"What is he doing?" Matrim muttered after following Magna for quite a while, unable to make sense of his actions.

Magna had been walking around for some time, checking between every rock he found, under loose soil, and around the base of every tree, like he was looking for something he had lost.

"Can you at least tell me what you’re looking for? Maybe I can help." He jumped from one rock to another, trying to keep up.

Magna simply ignored him, focused on what he was looking for. Either way, there was no way Matrim could help him find it.

As he walked, he reached the edge of the mountain, jumping across the rocks until he reached the very edge.

"Wow, this place is really high." Looking down from where he stood, he only now realized how high up the mountain they were.

It had been midnight when he arrived at the place, and he had been too tired to pay much attention to his surroundings. He hadn’t realized that Arthas had jumped directly to the top of such a high mountain.

If he had to compare its height to something, it was probably as high as a 100-story skyscraper.

Realizing the Shadow’s jumping power once again, he was shocked that Arthas had been able to reach the top of this mountain with a single jump.

He quickly pushed that shock to the back of his mind and continued looking down toward the rocky slopes.

Soon, he found what he was looking for as his eyes widened. "Matrim, come here."

The boy had also been looking around. He didn’t know what Magna was searching for, but he was trying to help. The moment he saw Magna calling him, he rushed over.

He was already dying of curiosity, so he immediately reached the edge of the rock and looked down at the place Magna was pointing toward.

There was a small opening that was difficult to see from their angle, but it was obviously some kind of cave entrance.

"Do you want to go there? Why?" he asked, unable to understand his reason.

To his eyes, it looked like nothing more than a naturally formed cave entrance between the rocks. But in Magna’s eyes, a strong golden glow was spilling out from it.

Magna simply smiled at him. "For training, of course."

Matrim looked at him with a slight frown, confused, but his confusion soon turned into elation.

"You’re really a genius." He even praised his idea directly, immediately understanding what Magna was trying to do.

They had already found out that there was a dense concentration of mana inside the mountain, and that the reason they suddenly lost consciousness at night was the rapidly increasing mana density.

The mana that rose at night was so dense and sudden that they couldn’t even endure it for 1 second before passing out.

But now that they had found a hidden cave leading deeper into the mountain, they could find a place with a lower mana density. They could use the place for training and slowly improve their resilience by exposing themselves to lower concentrations of mana.

"Hold your expectations. We still aren’t sure if it’ll work or not." Seeing the excitement on the boy’s face, Magna had to calm him down.

"Also, the place is so steep and far below us. We first need to find a safe way to get down."

The slope was extremely rocky but also very steep, making it difficult to climb down without proper climbing equipment and something to hold onto.

"Don’t worry about that." This time, Matrim came up with a solution as he took a small black string out of his pocket.

It didn’t look like anything special, just a piece of thread torn from his clothes. But the moment Matrim swung it once, it suddenly doubled in length and thickness.

"Is that an Artifact?" Magna instantly realized what the item was. This time, he was the one who got excited.

"Yeah. Want to try?" he answered with a small laugh, very pleased with the reaction he saw.

He gave the artifact to Magna and explained, "Just swing it forward. Every time you swing it, its length and durability will double."

After taking it, he did as Matrim said. The moment he whipped it forward, the string suddenly grew longer, its thickness increasing slightly as well.

He kept swinging it until it reached a length of several meters, long enough to reach the cave entrance below.

"This is just incredible." Looking at the object that had looked like a small piece of torn thread a moment ago and had now turned into a durable rope several meters long, he couldn’t help but marvel at the technology this world had.

Matrim, meanwhile, simply watched his excitement in silence. He couldn’t even bring himself to tell him that it was just some cheap item.