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The first step inside the cave echoed like a whisper in a place that had long forgotten the sound of human voices.
The air, cold and thick with humidity and mana, weighed heavily in the lungs. Walls veined with luminous light pulsed as if they were breathing, and drops of water fell from an invisible ceiling, marking time with an irregular, sickly rhythm.
The groups had split up right at the entrance, according to the plan. Arlen had distributed small communication crystals — translucent fragments engraved with voice runes. Each member was to keep one attached to their body, and in case of emergency, they only had to channel a bit of mana to reactivate the link between groups.
In theory, it was a safe plan.
In practice... the silence soon became too heavy.
"[This is... scary.]" wrote Merlin, her speech bubble trembling slightly.
"It's just a cave," Victor replied, though he didn't quite believe his own words.
The bluish light of his mana crystal cast long, uneven shadows across the rocks. The ground was uneven, covered by a thin layer of dry roots. In certain spots, other roots — thick, alive — pulsed with a reddish tone, as if Eldoria's blood flowed beneath them.
Ahead, Jane examined the magical map left by Arlen. The lines shifted color, twisting as if the cave itself moved beneath their feet.
"Damn it…" she muttered. "The paths are changing."
"Like... alive?" Burst asked, a nervous grin on his face.
"Not alive," Jane replied flatly. "It seems there's something here with spatial manipulation abilities. The corrupted spirit rooted in the tree doesn't want us reaching its core."
Victor stayed silent. There was something wrong with the air. A smell — sweet and rotten at the same time, like wilted flowers soaked in blood.
He looked up. Crystals hung from the ceiling — some clear as ice, others darkened by black veins that seemed to bleed mana.
"[Look at that... mana crystals.]" wrote Merlin, curious. "[They're worth a lot, right?]"
"Don't touch them," warned Jane. "You could get corrupted too, Merlin."
"This is crazy," Burst scoffed.
Victor, however, noticed something else. Some of the adventurers who had entered with them were scraping the walls with enchanted blades, filling leather pouches with glittering fragments.
It was only natural. Everyone had their own interests, after all.
Discreetly, he absorbed one of the crystals using his ability. A faint smile curved his lips.
Without activating [Application], his unique skill functioned like a living pouch — an organic inventory where he could store whatever he wished.
'Sorry, friends,' he thought, amused. 'But I'm the one profiting here.'
And for an instant, he swore the cave breathed back.
The roots trembled. The dripping stopped.
"Wait…" Victor murmured. "Did you guys hear that?"
Darkness replied with silence. When he looked around, he was alone. Burst, Jane, and Merlin were gone.
He sighed.
Activating the communication crystal, he tried contacting Jane first — she had the map. After a burst of static, her voice came through, distorted but audible.
"Hello?"
"Jane, it's me. We've been teleported, it seems. Can you tell where you are?"
"Well... the map keeps changing. I wasn't expecting a space manipulator down here. This complicates things."
"Can you explain?"
"It appears to be a compact space manipulator. Within its domain, it can alter everything at will. And judging by what we've seen, that corrupted spirit's domain must cover the entire underground of Eldoria — the tree's roots are everywhere."
Victor understood, but doubt lingered.
Had the spirit separated them on purpose... or was it just bad luck?
He couldn't tell.
"Got it. Try to contact Burst and Merlin. I'll move ahead and see if I find anyone."
"Understood. Be careful."
The connection hissed — then died.
Victor stood there, surrounded by a living silence — and the unsettling feeling that the cave was watching him.
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Victor moved forward.
The air felt heavier here, as if the cave was breathing through its cracks, exhaling damp, hot breaths.
The sound of his wet boots echoed for far too long before fading away. It was the only sound left.
'Alone again, huh...'
He thought, with a faint, crooked smile. It wasn't fear he felt — it was that nagging sense of being watched by something unseen.
The mana of the place pulsed in subtle waves, enough to make his body tingle. He reached out and touched the wall — it was alive, slowly throbbing under his palm.
Bright veins ran through the rock, as if blood and energy shared a single underground nervous system.
Victor pulled another crystal fragment from the wall and absorbed it effortlessly.
It was almost automatic now. The crystal dissolved into blue particles that vanished beneath his skin, leaving a faint metallic taste on his tongue.
'Pure mana... but lightly corrupted.'
'I can still handle it.'
As he walked, his gaze scanned the surroundings as if trying to solve a puzzle.
He knew places like this were natural traps for the careless — the dense mana could distort one's senses, making time feel slower, distance longer, and echoes irregular.
At one point, he thought he heard someone whisper behind him. But when he turned… nothing.
The walls began to change. The roots grew thicker, covered in a viscous substance that dripped onto the ground. The smell intensified — a mix of metal and decay.
Then he saw it.
Ahead, something rose from the shadows — no sound, no clear movement, just presence.
Something was there, distorted and shapeless, as if stitched together from creatures that were never meant to exist side by side.
Its body was translucent, made of black and blue mana, shifting like liquid smoke. From within it, eyes emerged — dozens, maybe hundreds — opening and closing with no pattern, no reason.
Its limbs resembled human arms stretched into grotesque claws, dragging along the ground and leaving trails of burning energy.
Victor stopped.
For a moment, the air vanished.
The dripping halted.
The creature looked at him — or perhaps all its mouths did — and a voiceless murmur rippled through the space between them, vibrating inside his chest.
He stepped back, feeling the spiritual pressure rise.
'A corrupted spirit...'
That was it — a soul that had lost its form and purpose, warped by negative mana and the hatred soaked into Eldoria's roots.
Victor took a deep breath and rested a hand on his sword's hilt.
Ordinary metal wouldn't harm a spirit — but what he carried wasn't just steel.
With a firm gesture, he channeled mana into the blade. Energy traced along the metal in glowing lines, emitting a faint hum. Using his ability, he coated the sword in ice — just like when he fought Jane.
The spirit moved.
Too fast for normal sight. Shadows twisted, space bending around its form — and suddenly it was in front of Victor, its contorted arms lunging to engulf him.
Victor dodged sideways, his body spinning — the slash came instinctively, clean and precise.
The blade cut through the spirit, and the reaction was immediate — a soundless scream, a flash of blue and black light spreading through the air like a wave before freezing entirely into a statue of white ice.
When the ice shattered, the creature was gone.
Victor stayed still for a few seconds before relaxing. The echo of battle still vibrated inside him.
He looked down at the white blade, cracked slightly by the extreme cold.
'So it's true,' he thought.
'The density of mana determines the impact of the effect.'
When one being's spiritual energy is denser than another's, it wounds it deeply.
Monsters naturally possess more mana than humans or other races. Using his natural mana together with what he'd learned from Jane and Burst, his own mana was denser than any spirit down here.
Victor deactivated his ability and sheathed the blade, then began walking again.
Each step echoed deeper, farther — as if he were descending into the very heart of Eldoria.
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