As Silas began to gather Ley, he finally realized how different the mana here was compared to outside.
He could immediately feel the Ley gathering unlike on Wottman creek, where it took him around half an hour.
Despite that, gathering enough Ley was taking much longer than before rising to stage 1.
"Dang... Seems like every stage is harder to get than the last one. Well, it makes sense though." Silas said
After around 2 hours of gathering Ley, he finally gathered enough to make mana and rise to stage 2. "Alright, i have to connect the ley before it disappears." And so, Silas began trying to connect the Ley nergy in a circle before it faded.
This time however, connecting the Ley was not only harder, but also painful due to the fact underground Ley was much more pure, so it also cleansed Silas's impurities from within before connecting. "Ghkkk... W-Why is it so painful"
Despite the pain, Silas did not give up. He kept trying to connect the Ley and after a lot of trial and error, he made the 2nd circle of mana, advancing him to the 2nd stage.
"Phew... Finally man, I feel so much stronger now... I wanna test my magic right now!" He said as he jumped up from his knees full of energy. After looking around for a while, he found a spot in the sub-cave that looked like a good target
"Lets see... I'll do another fire arrow like my first time, but this time i'll use all my newfound mana on it."
Silas imagined a mana circle and thought of a basic fire arrow, like last time. AS he released it, it lit up the entire Ley tunnel and not only blew through the target, it also blew a crater into the wall behind it.
"Woah... Thats so much stronger..." Silas said as he fell to his knees, exhausted from using all his mana on that one attack "This spot seems fairly... Safe... I'll rest here for today."
And so, Silas fell asleep on the spot.
After a long nap, he woke up. He yawned as he spoke.
"Ah... I should get out as fast as possible, not sure how much i can trust this little Ley tunnel for... And it seems all the Ley here was exhausted in increasing my stage... Well, there wasnt much Ley here anyways, so thats that" Silas said as he got up and stretched
He lifted his hand toward's the hole high up in the tunnel and used nature magic to make a ladder from vines and branches.
When he finishes, he climbed up and ended up in the spot where the orc was, though, it had already left. He lelft the ladder in place in case something happened and started walking towards the exit of the cave.
As he was closing in, the orc appeared in front of the exit and lunged at Silas. He however, dodged thanks to his enhanced senses, resulting in the orc getting stuck in the cave's wall.
"Those Luminurk were weak to light magic, perhaps this orc is too?" Silas said as he raised his hand.
He imagined a barrage of bullets made from light and released them. Although at first they didnt do much, after breaking through the orc's armour, they started to severaly damage him.
Silas stopped after a while, exhausted from the usage of magic, and walked up to the half-dead orc.
"Its alive but... barely." Said Silas, looking down at the orc, which was still stuck in the wall
He started imagining a spike made from stone rising through the orc's body and after focusing deeply, a spike formed below the orc which rised quickly and stabbed through the orc's body clean
Silas fell to his knees again, exhausted. "Im using... Way too much mana on this..."
After he rested for a while, Silas, now recovered, used a makeshift knife to slice the orc's ears off to show as proof so he could get some extra money perhaps.
Finally, after a long day, he stepped out into the sun "Phew... Finally outside, i thought i'd die there..." He said
"I should go to the guild and rent a room to rest... Im exhausted" He said, going back to the village with only two thoughts in his mind, a shower and some sleep.