Chapter 163: A Mana Pool?

While the sun started to go down outside, Magna slowly rose to his feet in the cave.

He stretched his arms, feeling quite tired from sitting all day, and called toward the cave entrance. "Matrim, are you done?"

There was quite a bit of distance between them now, since Matrim was only 10 steps into the cave while Magna had already taken his 19th step and was ready for his 20th.

He was just hungry, so before going any further, he wanted to return to the hut to eat something before coming back here.

"You’re going back?" Matrim looked at him, trying to see through the darkness. "I’ll stay here a while longer."

He normally didn’t eat much and wasn’t feeling that hungry. Also, getting down into the cave had already been difficult, so climbing back up would be difficult too. He wanted to stay here for as long as he could.

"Okay." Magna started walking toward the exit, feeling his body slowly losing weight with every step, growing lighter and more relaxed.

When he reached the entrance and looked at the darkening sky, he already felt like he had been reborn.

Even his mind seemed to be working much faster, his thoughts flowing without any problems again, his awareness of his surroundings feeling even sharper.

He grabbed the rope hanging down and said before starting to climb. "I’ll bring some food for you."

He was quite good at climbing. His strong arms could easily pull his body upward without much difficulty. He climbed all the way back up to the slope.

Before heading back, he looked around for a while to see if anyone else from the settlement was nearby, making sure none of the other boys had noticed them.

The slope was quite far to the side, in a place no one would come by randomly, but it wasn’t exactly impossible to find for someone who was looking for it.

After making sure no one was around, he started walking toward the settlement and returned not long after.

The campfire was still burning right in the middle, warming and lighting up the area. A few boys were also around, some sparring while others rested in their huts, seemingly looking for every possible way to stay awake during the night.

He also specifically checked the hut where the Drakon boy was staying, but he wasn’t inside this time.

After that, he returned to his hut and checked the pot containing the food left over from the morning.

"Nice, it’ll be enough."

There was much less food than he normally ate left inside, but since it had more nutrients than any other food, he didn’t need to eat several bowls anyway.

Lighting the fireplace with fire he took from the campfire, he put the pot on it, warmed it up a little, and started eating while filling his mana reserve again.

Since it was almost at zero, he was feeling quite cold throughout his body, but the effect wasn’t as strong as before, not nearly as bad as when he had felt so cold and tired that he couldn’t even get out of bed.

While eating, that chilling feeling slowly started to disappear, replaced by a warm energy.

Though his mana reserve had increased again after his last mutation, this time he wasn’t gaining much noticeable mana. His main purpose was only to fill his stomach and get rid of his slight fatigue and the chilling effect, so he didn’t really care.

The mana he gained from his daily mana regeneration had also dropped quite a bit. Normally, he gained around 5%, but now he was only getting around 2%.

So, without counting the mana he gained from food, he could only trigger his next mutation again after around 50 days of doing nothing.

After filling his stomach, he filled a bowl with some food for Matrim before leaving the hut again, carefully trying not to be seen by the other boys.

He left the settlement quietly and secretly started making his way toward the cave.

But suddenly, the sound of bushes moving nearby reached his ears, and he stopped.

It sounded more like an animal moving through the bushes, but still being cautious to keep himself hidden, Magna immediately ducked behind a thick tree and slightly peeked out to look in the direction of the sound.

The place he was looking at was another thick tree, its base covered in dense bushes.

They trembled for a while, like something was moving among them, and then a black figure slowly started to emerge.

Seeing the completely black training uniform the figure was wearing, Magna immediately realized it was one of the boys.

’Is he that Drakon guy?’ he thought, able to pinpoint it quite accurately, since he was the only one missing from the settlement when Magna had checked.

Just curious about where he had been coming from, Magna kept hiding and watching.

After the boy came out of the bushes, he looked around, seemingly checking if anyone had seen him. Then he turned around and adjusted the bushes, covering the entrance.

After that, he quickly started walking away.

Magna was too curious about what the boy was hiding. Once he was sure the boy had left, he started walking toward the bushes.

Putting the bowl full of stew to the side and hiding it under some nearby plants, he separated the bushes with his hands and saw a narrow passage there.

’Another entrance into the mountain?’

It wasn’t too surprising to find another entrance like the cave, since he was sure there were probably more around.

Still wanting to see if this one was anything more special than their spot, he decided to enter and check.

The entrance was very tight, not for anyone with a fear of narrow spaces or being buried alive, for sure. Thankfully, Magna wasn’t one of them.

He fit his body through it just fine and moved forward like a worm until he reached a wider opening.

’Where is this place?’

Surprisingly, the place wasn’t that dark despite not receiving any moonlight from anywhere.

The reason was the small streams of magma flowing around, lighting up the entire place with a red neon glow.

It was also quite hot, already making Magna start to sweat.

Not feeling like the heat was something he couldn’t endure, he started walking through another opening he saw, a corridor that clearly led downward, deeper into the mountain.

After walking for a while through the hot, dark corridor, he came to another opening, this one much wider than the previous one.

The place wasn’t that dark either. This time, even though there was no magma flowing around, there were strange red colored gems on the walls, their brightness making them look like they were burning and lighting up the area.

At the very center of the place was a large pool filled with bubbling, boiling water. The sound of the boiling water spread throughout the entire cave.

Being extremely hot and boiling wasn’t its only special feature.

In Magna’s eyes, the entire pool was glowing golden, making the water look less like a pool and more like something made completely of pure mana.