Matsumi jumped at the top of the stairs, putting his hand over his eyes for cover as he looked around.
"How's this one?"
The two had ended up in an extremely dark area, a complete opposite from what they had been doing before. She looked around, barely able to see the ground underneath her.
"..Must be another projection of my psyche."
"It's your psyche again? How do you know?" "I can't see anything!"
"I can feel it. My mana exists throughout this world. You probably don't because you can't sense mana necessarily unless it has a specific emotion attached."
"You just haven't taught me that yet!"
He gave a stupid laugh.
Leonard walked beside Barghest, letting his eyes adjust. He was still blinded the same way as the other two, but he was used to lower light environments so he could see just a tad bit more but it wouldn't prove too useful right now. He let his mana sense do a quick little look before stopping.
"Time to figure out what the trial of this floor is."
"But man, it's like my eyes are closed! Follow me!"
Matsumi blindly stepped forward into the darkness.
"I don't sense any alternate energies throughout the floor. This one may be some kind of puzzle..or trial..."
"That's what he said just now! A trial is like a test right?"
"Yes, I did refer to it as a trial, trials are usual a test of something, knowledge, power, speed, it's time to figure out what this floor could have in store for us."
Barg searched around but she had ended up finding nothing. She flipped her hair a bit and relaxed moving it out of her face.
"God knows what we're about to see.."
In his recklessness, Matsumi tripped on something.
"Woah!"
Leonard tugged at his necklace and held it up, he flipped the bullet tip open to reveal a lighter head before striking it, letting the flame flicker to life.
"Wow what a great team we have.."
She angrily shook her head and grabbed Matsumi by the back of his collar picking him up.
"It was never said that he was the smartest."
"Hey, thanks! We can see a little better now."
"Keep searching around…the start of the test has to be somewhere."
"I'm already on that!"
Matsumi escaped from Barghest's grasp and continued being the first in line of their small group.
"Hey, how do you sense stuff?"
"Sensing energy in any capacity is the first thing you do. If you can feel your mana..you can feel others by proxy because everyone's energy is inherently different. Even siblings have completely different abilities and mana flow…some hold different emotions as well."
"That's it? I think I've done that before!"
"No the hell you haven't. I already know because if you could you would've done it by now."
"Helloooo? Is there anyone else here?"
Not hearing Barghest comment, he screamed into the unknown in front of them.
Noises had come from the darkness ahead. Ones that resembled some of a beast. Barghest called out to Matsumi once more.
"Hey! You need to stay close to me!"
"I think there's something there!"
Matsumi tried to recklessly get a better look at it.
"Is it some magic thing?"
Barghest started to search around for Matsumi, trying to locate him by his mana signature.
"Come on you idiot. Stop playing around this is serious."
Her hand flashed out and grabbed hold of Matsumi's shoulder, tugging him back towards herself, luckily enough not being separated from her despite his careless nature so far.
"Matsumi."
"I have to see what it is!" *In his curiosity, he ignored Barghest's hand and warning again. Dashing into the darkness, going even more out of view. Although, Barghest could start to tell that his mana was starting to get faster.
"M-Matsumi! Please!"
Barghest's chased after him but in the darkness there was no possible way she could find him, especially because mana sources were starting to form everywhere.
"Woah! L-Look out!"
As Barghest got closer, it slowly became easier to see him. Only that now his legs were flailing around while he held on tight to the back of the beast from before.
Barghest quickly sent a blast of mana as it pierced the beast, it's body falling to the ground with Matsumi on top of it. Barghest sighed and looked back at him.
"Can you listen to me?!"
He sat on top of the beast.
"Wow, you really got it good!"
He poked the top of its head before looking back at Barghest.
"You wanna tell me something?"
"Look. We are not climbing another floor until you agree to listen to me and not to run off anywhere. This is only the 2nd floor. If we reach the higher floors you won't be able to handle it, and you'll be injured."
"I'm listening! You said we needed to find the trial, so I went to find it!."
"No! You are not listening. You need to…Tch!"
Barghest mana was leaking out of anger. She formed a pair of handcuffs and trapped matsumi by his wrist, ultimately cuffing him to her by her mana.
"What the?! Hey, what's the big idea?!"
"This is for your safety and for Vermelha's future. You can not be running around in these floors I don't care if the next trial is roller skating."
"You darn-!"
He said as he tried to break through the magic handcuffs. Giving up quite quickly.
"No use…but now what?"
"You will have to move with me to the next floors."
"Fine…"
Matsumi grumbled to himself as he was now forced to stay in close proximity to her.
"Good…Now let's go.."
"I'll still lead the way though!"
He stepped in front of her, walking in a straight line now.
Barghest yanked on the chain pulling him back. Even for her size she was incredibly strong.
"I'll lead the way now. You are not the captain."
"Who made you the captain?!"
"I did! I have more experience, I am stronger, I am older and I am smarter. That automatically makes me the boss and captain in this situation."
"Usually people don't brag about being old! You- old oldy! Old!"
"Everyone becomes old. You'll be an old man one day too. By then the planet may be in shambles.."
He imagined himself too old to even move around.
"That really might be the end of it all. You have to give me your magic to be old but not feel old, Barg!"
"What? You want to inherit my magic? Absolutely not! I would never…besides I can't anyways. Part of my mana is gone forever..and the other parts are sealed."
"Aw, come on! What would I need to do to not get old like you?!"
"…There are many ways to become immortal…but you may regret that for the rest of the universes lifespan."
"Really?"
He seemed a little bummed about that. But didn't think much about it.
"You can lead the way now!"
"No passage to the other side has appeared…which means this trial isn't done…Ugh."
Barghest let out a huge sigh and continued to traverse the dungeon, trying to find the finishing key to the next floor.
"Nothing yet? Maybe it's another magic monster! The last one was pretty cool."
"If I hadn't stepped on it probably would've killed you. Not so cool of an ending huh?"
"But you did help out! So, we don't have to worry about that."
"...I'm only trying to keep us both out of danger...your stupidity causes me every single time."
"I trust you though!"
"If I were God himself I would trust me right now.."
Barghest stomped through the darkness, using her own aura to light the area up around them..at least enough so that Matsumi and her could see. She dragged him with her, tugging on the magic chain to make sure Matsumi wasn't falling behind and they moved at the same speed.
"Why didn't you do that before? That's awesome! You're like a lamp!"
"This is just a natural part of my mana. It isn't anything special…"
Barghest stayed on guard.
"Be careful where you step.."
"Why? I don't see anything weird."
"Mana exists always in the atmosphere…Something is pushing towards us.."
"What is it? Maybe I can sense it too!"
Matsumi closed his eyes and concentrated on feeling, his own mana and others around him, similar to how she described it before.