Bending her knees, Hikari launched herself into the night sky.
The jagged rocky formation offers ample spots for her to anchor her foot.
It was a dreamy scenery from the air.
The full moon illuminates the fog and the grey rocky surface.
The freezing wind brushed against her face as she glided through the air.
Her salamander and wyvern skin offers her insulation from the cold.
Thud. She lands.
She had reached the opening to the mana vein.
A humongous bottomless hole boring into the mountain.
Hikari sat in a meditating pose
She focused.
Pulse.
Pulse.
She maps out in her head a rough layout of the surrounding area.
The hole was deep.
She peered down into it.
At the very bottom, a brilliant blue glow obscured by a light fog at the bottom.
She scanned the surrounding walls of the hole to plot a way down.
The numerous protrusions offered plenty of landing spots.
There were plenty of leftover rope and picks from other climbers.
Hikari couldn't use any of it.
But they mark out where it's probably safe to step.
She holds a pickaxe in her hand.
Rey had it improvised for her.
Its head was made of a salvaged steam tank drill.
The steel reinforced handle was good enough to hold her weight.
She tested it by hanging from it by the cliff side.
"Here goes."
She steps off the ledge onto the first protrusion.
The stone held.
It was barely large enough for her boot.
She breathes a sign of relief.
She leaves a flame mark.
A small amount of RazenHeir flame that would persist.
The trail of flames would light her way back out to the surface.
The next one.
Drop.
She tries to stick to the cliff side.
Leaning against it shifts some of the weight away from the rocky protrusion.
Thud.
The rock below her creaked.
She feels it cracking.
With a quick swing, she anchors her pickaxe into the wall.
She shifts her weight onto the pickaxe.
With that anchor, she quickly steps onto other rocks.
Fortunately, these ones would hold her weight.
She pulls out her pickaxe and leaves behind a flame mark.
It's safe to step here.
Down and down she goes.
One step at a time.
The further down she went, the brighter the light and the stronger the mana presence got.
She slipped, regaining her balance only by sticking her pickaxe into the wall.
Moist stone wet from the underground water.
She was now close.
The moist stone was making it hard to stand.
She looks down.
She could already see the bottom.
A lush garden shrouded in snowy fog.
It was easier just to drop from here.
She leaves behind a flame mark.
Hikari lands.
It was soft.
Just like the ground around the RazenHeir estate.
A lush garden, teal grass and fern.
It was freezing cold.
The ground just below the grass was covered in a layer of snow.
Her salamander armour releases its heat to keep her warm.
She looks back up.
The flame mark was within jumping height.
On to looting the mana vein.
She plucked a fruit from one of the bushes.
It was star shaped, hard as a pear.
She could sense its mana as she held it in her hand.
HIkari opened her harvest sack and tossed it in.
It looked like it could sell well if it turned out not to be tasty.
Too risky to eat something that she does not know right away.
She might have to scale back up the cliff side with a stomach upset.
Her boot hit something hard.
She pushes away the snow.
Mana crystals.
She pries them from the snow.
They were each the size of her hand.
The stronger the glow, the higher the grade.
"Nice"
She stops.
She needs to survey the area a bit more first and not get carried away with looting.
The source that illuminates the entire cavern.
A crystal formation the width of a tavern.
Is reflection shimmering on the frozen walls.
The mana from that vein could easily exceed the tax revenue of an entire territory.
A shame that the RazenHeir house would not get to claim it.
She will absorb as much as she needs while she's here.
But first, she needs to scout the area for any dangers.
The strong mana presence was messing with her mana sense.
Pulse.
She could still map out the ground through the snow.
Pulse.
At least the ground below her is solid.
No chance of her falling into a deep pothole.
She drew her sword and began slicing away at the vegetation.
She kicks the snow.
By accident, a dead body flies out.
She draws her sword.
It was dead silent. She slowly turned, maintaining her stance.
Her eyes peeled for the slight movement.
She slices away at the vegetation.
A telekinetic blast clears away the snow.
More dead bodies, buried under the vegetation preserved by the ice.
She knelt down to examine the bodies.
All the while keeping her sword in hand and her ears sharp.
A deep hole right through the chest.
The creature uses puncturing attacks.
It punches cleanly through its victim's armour.
Another body severed in two.
Clean into two.
No signs of messy sinew of the blade getting stuck.
There were more than a dozen bodies.
A full party wipe.
It was certainly not the work of a wyvern.
She spotted a wyvern corpse.
Its wings punctured, stab wounds all over its body.
A high level assassin? A clash between two raiding parties?
Ke…. ke… ke… A clicking sound.
It was difficult to determine the source as it echoed through the underground.
Hikari was on guard.
Ke… ke… ke… keke… keke…
The clicking grew faster and faster.
And then it slowed down.
A cluster of spike vines quietly slithered out of the ground behind Hikari.
A long drill formed on its end and aimed for her.
Stab! A flying dagger hit the creature from above.
The creature shrieked in agony.
"There you are."
Swoosh. Hikari turns around and swings, but it whiffed.
She caught a glimpse of the creature as it retreated.
Ke… ke… ke… keke… keke…
The clicking sound echoed throughout the cavern.
Hikari switched to a relaxed stance, her swords on either side.
They could parry from any angle.
The creature skitters past her left, briefly revealing itself before blending back into its surroundings.
On her right.
A cross her field of view.
Hikari did not respond to its taunts.
Kekeke… ke… ke… keke… ke… ke…
The maddening clicking sound continued.
Fast then slow, then faster again.
And then it stopped abruptly.
In an instant, Hikari ignited her main hang sword and swung.
A deafening clank echoed through the cavern.
The creature was thrown back by the parry.
It blended back into its surroundings.
However, its sword was still burning.
Several flying daggers hurled towards it.
The creature dodged.
The daggers chased it.
Clank! It parries the flaming daggers.
But the RazenHeir flame sticks to its sword.
Hikari threw her offhand sword in a spinning boomerang.
Clank! The creature parries.
The slippering creature bends its body in ways impossible for a human and dodges the follow up barrage of daggers.
It tosses away both swords that were burning with RazenHeir flame.
It blends back into the surroundings.
"Clever"
The flaming daggers returned to Hikari, hovering around her forming a protective barrier.
A hail of tiny spines rained down on Hikari.
Hikari blocks.
The chattering of spines against her sword.
Telekinetic blast.
Hikari pushes the spines stuck in her wyvern skin.
The creature continues spraying volley after volley of spines from different angles.
Hikari defends.
The light attacks could not pierce her armour.
The attacks stopped.
Ke…ke…ke…ke….
The maddening click.
"Does it see by sound?"
Hikari holds both of her swords in her hands.
She smashes them against each other.
Clank!
Clank!
The cavern rings!
KeKeKeKe…
The clicking was rushed.
Its tempo was no longer controlled.
"You don't like that do you?"
Clank!
Clank!
The creature shrieked in agony.
Clank!
Clank!
The clicking stopped.
The creature appears.
Hikari sees the glint at the tip of its drill.
Hikari swung her sword.
The flames materialize around her.
The blinding flare of RazenHeir flame.
The
A dark pulsating crystal.
Hikari picks it up, it stings her hand as she holds it.
"Wonder if it sells."
The mana forces its way into her body.
It fell dormant.
Nothing but a piece of rock now.
She shrugs and throws it into the ice.
With the cavern clear, she made her way to the mana vein.
Up close, the mana presence was so strong that it pierced her skin.
"Been a while since I leveled up."
—----- Hikari —-----
[Mana : 753 -> 807]