A few days later,
Sirius rest on a pile of rocks, a carved out map of the cavern where the base of the Calamities are could be seen on the ground near him. Looking at the stream of water rushing somehwere further east, Sirius mindlessly look at the cooked fish on his hand.
He doesn't know how long it's been since he last fell down to this deep cave. Thinking about it, the tents that were near the enormous crater that were left behind by members of the House Storm, presumably. They must have escaped from something, maybe the Skull Wolf or they died. Or they escape even further down here, tracking same path he's going right now.
He hope for the latter, since with that, he can meet up with them and get escorted out of this deep cave. Well not maybe escorted but at least there will be a few humans accompanying him and not just the rocks and Calamities waiting to pounce on him and eat him alive.
Sirius shudders at the thought before lifting the wooden stick to his mouth and start eating the fish. He doesn't know why there are fish in a cave system deep down here but he's not going to complain.
Looking at the splint of his left hand, he could feel himself getting better. A good thing about being Blessed even when you're a Seed, is that for minor injuries like fractures — if it's not completely broken — the speed at which a Blessed body could heal itself is faster. But still, he knows that if he push himself too hard, the fracture would simply crack even more. Resulting in a deeper damage, because of the fact that his arm is not completely healed.
Moving his left hand up and down and clenching his fist. He smile in satisfaction.
While waiting for his hand to recover enough, he had not simply stay idle and wait for food to be delivered to him or sleep like a baby. He explored the surrounding ravine and the inside of the cavern. At least on the outer part, he's not confident of going inside the turfs of the Calamities.
One thing he's sure about is that there are scouts or Calamities guarding the entrance. Each member of their respective group sometimes gets ambushed or ambush the other whenever they're near one's entrance.
He already made up a plan on how to sweep all of them. Though he's not sure if it will work, and whether or not it's viable but it's worth the try.
The question is how to bait them all into going to the spot he wants them to go to. But for now he's going for the first stage of the plan. Fully commited.
"I'll figure things out on the way..."
Sirius said before slowly standing up and looking towards the entrance of the cavern where death awaits.
His sharp eyes narrows as he confidently walk towards it, despite the loud thumping of his heart.
Summoning [Red Horn], he sneakily walk towards the dark cavern. Stepping on the shallow puddle of water, he walk towards the right side of the cavern. Looking towards the dark stairs that leads to the salamanders' turf, Sirius chucks a few rocks down the stairs.
Absorbing plentiful of mana from the atmosphere, he release a short burst of it as it explodes from his body.
The thumping of his heart beats loudly in his ears, two faint lights could be seen coming deep beneath the stairs. Hiss escapes from the darkness as the lights grow brighter and brighter.
Sirius narrows his eyes as two balls of flame shoots towards him. Taking a step back, he narrowly avoids the flames before skipping back a few steps.
Suddenly, two salamanders coated in fire jumps out from the stairs. Its size as huge as a young human teenager before puberty hits. It both hiss at Sirius as they crawl towards him.
[Calamity]: [Fiery Salamander]
[Class]: [Seed]
Sirius skips back on his feet as the Salamanders follow suit. Rushing towards him as they spit out fireballs towards him. Sirius dodges the fireballs that are coming at the speed of a baseball pitch.
Taking a short glance to the back, he could see the fireballs crashing against one of the large pillars near the side of the salamanders' turf.
Sirius smiles in satisfaction before dodging another fireball. Brandishing his red sword, he waits for the Salamanders to shoot another fireball. Seeing the orange glow on its belly, Sirius runs towards the salamanders.
The salamanders adamantly spit out fireballs towards him. Already expecting it, Sirius clumsily rolls forward before slamming his right foot to the ground and grabbing the hilt of his sword with both of his hand as he twists his torso along with the momentum of the swing.
Carrying forward the force of his bodyweight with the slash, his red sword meets one of salamanders' neck. Feeling the sharp steel biting onto the flesh, Sirius grit his teeth and continue the momentum.
A whistle of the air followed with a splash could be heard as the salamander's head falls onto the shallow water.
But Sirius doesn't stop there. Still using the momentum of the swing after beheading the salamander, Sirius twists his body on his pivot and take a step with his left leg towards the other salamander. His sword raised above the side of his head as Sirius brought down his whole bodyweight.
His sword cleave the air, slicing deep into the salamander's head before it could try to shoot out another fireball.
Sirius' red sword dug deep into the middle part of the salamander's head. He takes out his sword and beheads the neck of the salamander, to confirm the kill.
For whatever reason, the Status window doesn't show any confirmation for the kills. That was why a lot of people fell victim to a Calamity's last stand, since they didn't know whether or not it died.
Looking at the corpses of Calamities, Sirius quickly carry them out of the cavern back to the camp he made outside. Near the current of water.
Slicing at its chest area, Sirius push his hand deep into the flesh and takes out a black coloured orb.
Sirius brings the orb close to his chest, the orb that was black coloured slowly starts turning pure white before slowly disintegrating after a few minutes.
The process of purifying the Calamity's soul isn't instant, it takes time to turn the black soul into a pure soul for Blessed beings to consume.
The particles goes towards Sirius' chest as Sirius grits his teeth and let out a short hiss.
He could feel his soul burning and what feels like mud being lit on fire as it free his soul.
Sirius lets out a sigh, he could feel his body getting lighter, but the feeling only last for a second before slipping away.
Looking at the other corpse, Sirius does the same to it and receive another black orb and repeat the process.
Satisfied, Sirius doesn't throw away the corpse and instead start on butchering it to later use it to feed himself.
He had been repeating this cycle of baiting himself by absorbing Mana and releasing it near the area of the salamanders. Afterwards, he hunt them for Souls and thinning their forces, also some meat. Since there aren't a lot of fishes down here.
Thanks to his passive ability, [Supernova's Crown], he could absorb mana before even reaching Evoker class.
Problem is, the act of absorbing mana and releasing it is an autonomous cycle that he couldn't control. This cursed thing had been giving him trouble for the early days when Posts weren't a thing and everyone was trying to survive and escape the clutches of Calamities.
Well at first at least, now at every moment after three years, he still pull and release mana automatically. But the speed of pulling and releasing the mana is maintained to make it seem as if the mana of the atmosphere is still the same. As if there's no fluctuation in the mana flow.
Anyways, back to his plan, it was easy. First, bait the salamanders to the three pillars in the area. Slowly wear down the pillars until it's about to crumble, and then bait all of them out of their turfs. After baiting them about, absorb a huge amount of mana in the atmosphere and explode it out. Simultaneously destroying the pillars and let the ceiling fall on them.
How he's going to escape? Well he didn't think that far. He did think of going down the hole in the middle but it's unknown whether it's safe down there or not.
But, upon thinking about it. He is quite curious about the hole on the center of the cavern. Where does it lead to? Should he go even further down there? The only reason he is still here is because here, he can try and breakthrough to the Evoker class by absorbing the souls of the Calamities. Second, the Skull Wolf from before, it might have come from the same group of spiders here.
Upon the last few days of spying the movements of the spider here, he could see that the spider's side has a few Skull Wolf.
Why was the Skull Wolf from before way out of their turf? Fallen Calamities aren't dumb, they have some form of awareness, unlike Seeds. Also, why was it near the tents where House Storm were camping?
"Kh. It's no use thinking about all those when there are no clues."
Sirius mutters to himself. Shaking his head, he stands up and silently walk back to the cavern. Intend on spying over the Calamities.
As if answering the question that was on his mind, a Skull Wolf could be seen crawling out from its turf and crawl towards the hole on the center of the cavern.
Sirius' eyes widen as he quickly sneak towards the rocks silently, watching as it disappears from the view. Waiting for a few seconds, Sirius decides to move over to the hole.
Peeking over from the edge, Sirius couldn't see anything due to how dark it is. He furrows his brow and walk back, a bit disappointed.
'I'll just wait and see what happens when it resurface.'
Sirius thought as he walk back over to the rocks. Turning back, he sat and wait. To see if the Calamity is going to resurface or not, and whether it will be fine or not.
Depending on the state of the Calamity, Sirius would try and check out what's in the dark hole.
Of course he's not planning going blind in the dark, he's going to bring a few torches.
A few minutes pass by, and finally the Skull Wolf resurface. Upon seeing it unscathe, it must have mean that nothing dangerous is down there.
'I definitely need to check things out down the hole.'
Looking at the hole and back at the departing Skull Wolf, Sirius blinks a few times and look at the hole. His brows furrowing as he fight the urge to answer what is it down there and stay here first to finish the job.
'I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen? Anyways there's no guarantee that I could survive actually fighting against the three groups of Calamity. Especially when there are a few Fallen?'
As if calling him, Sirius takes a gulp as he walks over silently to the hole. It looks so tempting, he wants to dive in there and explore what could possibly be in there.
'... No no, I'll just do so after ascending to Evoker class. I'm just a quarter away from ascending, and there are a lot of Seed Calamities here. It's basically free food! I just have to avoid the Fallen Calamities.'
After contemplating and thinking not to throw away his life so easily, Sirius chuckles and turns around.
Staring at him from the distance, from where the snakes turfs are. Sirius locks eyes with a grotesque creature.
Hundreds of sharp thin bony legs protrude from its sides, segmented black hard shells that cover its main body like an armor fully cover its long body that spans around 3 meters long. The thickness of its body is around the width of an adult human male. A simple hug from it would look like it would crush someone to death. Tongue slips out of its mouth as it hiss at him.
[Calamity]: [Boavus of Boidae]
'... That has to be a Fallen.'
Sirius thought while absorbing mana that is on the atmosphere at a rapid pace. Since its his first time meeting the Calamity, the Status window has yet to register the class of the Calamity.
Sirius' body feels like it's burning, a pang on his soul sears him. Gritting his teeth, his body feels heavy as he look at the snake that is slithering towards him.
Sirius summons [Red Horn], getting into a stance. Sirius watch as the snake draws nearer and nearer, the snake leans up and towers over Sirius as it slams its body downward with a screech.
Sirius dodges the snake with a sidestep, he let out a short roar as he slash his sword up against the gap between the shells. Unfortunately, despite twisting his torso that follows the momentum of the sword, it only leaves a minor bleed on the gap.
A loud hiss erupts from the snake as it quickly slither towards Sirius. Its head turning in a u-turn as it opens its mouth towards him. Sirius quickly skips to the side a step before trying to stab another gap. Unfortunately, it clangs against the shell instead.
In retaliation, the snake whip its head to the side. Sirius watch as the snake's head flies towards him with great speed. Sirius roars as he summersault to the right and bring his sword up to where he first injured the gap. Simultaneously, he explode the mana that he had been gathering outwards.
The impact of the sword slash and the burst of mana that is raging inside his body collides with the snake. A deep gash is left on the gap where the sword strike hits. While the body of the snake and Sirius gets launched all the way to a wall and formation of rocks as a loud boom echoes.
The raging mana that Sirius had been supressing and not letting escape fills the atmosphere. Gust of wind cuts through the air as the surroundings shook as though a small earthquake just happened.
Sirius loses consciousness.