Timothy wasn’t going to buy a mana quality upgrade anytime soon. He couldn’t afford it, first of all, but that wasn’t the main reason behind his decision. He didn’t feel like spending them due to various reasons, so he’d rather accumulate any and all system points for now, and spend them later on, perhaps on more sensible purchases.
Since the quality of Tim’s mana was at level two now, he felt like his normal self again, he felt confident! He was powerful enough to do plenty of damage, independently, and that was the second, more important reason behind his prior decision. He didn’t feel the need to upgrade the quality of his mana again so quickly, he wasn’t in a rush.
Despite the main reason why they’ve entered this micro-universe to begin with, which was to improve the quality of the individual mana they bore, he wasn’t in a rush. Level two was plenty for a crafty rascal such as himself.
“I went through thick and thin with this rustic ass mana, and most important of all, I survived too! I’ll be fine.” He thought.
Furthermore, Tim’s mana pool could fit fifteen-hundred points of mana now. That capacity wasn’t the greatest, it definitely wasn’t what he was used to, but it was good enough for now. He didn’t worry about this matter, because he bore a smaller mana pool voluntarily, it was entirely under his personal control.
Tim chose to remain small in bodily size, and that decision kept his mana pool small-ish. He did so for the sake of avoiding unnecessary attention from any and all monsters here, so it was a good decision overall!
Besides, smaller pools were also easier to fill, which meant that he could harass the gods for another mana quality upgrade. He’d be able to do so sooner, rather than later! This was better and cheaper than harassing the system herself for an upgrade, he had it all thought out.
Anyway, these muncher-eels ended up giving the group a few more mana points. Skendus and Arvena couldn’t get much mana out of this cluster of eels, because the quality the two of them demanded was greater! With that said, Tim and Ortana ended up absorbing a lot of free-roaming mana, they got lucky.
They got five-hundred points each, and this was great because their pool had initially gone to zero, after the mana quality upgrade! They needed any and all mana points.
Arvena and Skendus weren’t as lucky overall. They couldn’t manage to make any upgrades whatsoever, because as mentioned, they couldn’t harvest much mana. The latter was really problematic, because their mana pools were significantly larger in comparison, especially Arvena’s, her pool was within the tens of thousands!
The two of them had to wait for an upgrade, for an unknown amount of time, however, they were still happy that their weaker friends managed to become a bit stronger. They weren’t sour.
Even if they felt sour, a belly full of meat may console them, the eel carcasses were perfectly edible! Arvena couldn’t eat much meat, because she was a tiny damselfish, but her guests sure had an appetite! Skendus was huge, so even if he didn’t have a big appetite, he still ended up eating half of an entire eel just to feel full. He was noticeably happier now!
Anyway, about twenty minutes later, after they reaped all benefits out of those eels, the team of four were on the move again. This body of water surely had a lot more to offer, and it was up to them to explore what its contents were!
They were on the move now, and as they swam, Tim then couldn’t help but ask a question. Something was bothering him, he was curious about the eels that they had left behind.
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He asked, “Hey… so not to be ungrateful, but is everything here huge, like those eels? Do your people come down here often, to kill bastards like those big eels and stuff, because I have a feeling that you don’t.”
“Oh, we don’t. This place has become over-populated, and I was tasked with, eh… reducing the population here as soon as possible, so I figured that we shouldn’t let all that mana go to waste.” She answered.
“So we weren’t supposed to be down here today?” He asked, bluntly.
“No, we typically don’t bring visitors here.” She admitted, “However, since you folks helped me clear those green, psidium mana pools back at your universe, I figured that you three deserved a reward. This place is ancient, my friends, so not only will you get a lot of free mana, but you’ll also understand the very concept of mana, and a bit of its history too. Trust me on that.”
“Well, I trust you,” Ortana added to the conversation, she took over for a moment. “You and your people traveled universes to protect all-things-mana, so I’m guessing you had some very good reasons to protect it, Areesa dear, other than playing as heroes.”
Other than absolutely butchering her name, Ortana served a good point. One way or the other, this little trip was bound to be beneficial, even if it was scary or annoying at some point of time. Therefore, the team was eager!
The caged ‘demon’ lit their way too, as the bulbs above its head provided mostly dependable light, though not at the deepest spots of the vicinity, no. The latter was a bit problematic, because the team ended up swimming even deeper, as they found these short tunnels that led to an even bigger, cavern-like opening!
Though they could not see the bottom of this water-filled cavern, there were still a couple of huge things that grabbed their attention. The walls were weirdly shaped, they noticed this part right away!
The walls were weirdly shaped, in a sense that it seemed as if someone had tried to build a castle here before. A great portion of the cavern walls were carved in a way where they mimicked these huge, medieval brick walls, the kind that was used to protect cities! It was a beautiful sight, but that wasn’t all, no.
As of now, the team was on top of the cavern, and about thirty meters below, they also spotted a few towers of some sort. There were tower-like structures carved out of the cavern walls, and it was apparent that they were really tall too, as they stretched out all the way to the bottom of this place!
Someone, or some goblins in the past had really tried to make this place look nice, and had also tried their best to protect it, it was apparent. Now these structures in their entirety were especially impressive, when one considered that the walls of the cavern were made of dark, volcanic glass! Obsidian, in other words!
There was no doubt about it, this place used to be filled with lava, perhaps far before the ancient goblins had settled in here. Water or air might have been what cleared this place out of lava, and everything impressive had happened after that part.
“This place didn’t have any water when our ancestors settled,” Arvena added.
This was an important piece of the puzzle. Her goblin ancestors built this place in the absence of water, which was reasonable, but it was still very impressive, because obsidian was very brittle, it didn’t take much force to crack it!
With that said, it had taken intense, yet soft craftsmanship to build this place, without crushing the obsidian that is. It was even more impressive how the obsidian structures had held on for thousands of years, they were still intact! The water pressure may have helped in some way, but otherwise the team was clueless regarding the immense structural durability here!
They could only observe the carvings in awe, as they were not allowed to touch anything. Fifty more meters below, when the surroundings started getting dark, they swam into something even more interesting!
The team found an entrance, but it was nothing like the average cave or tunnel entrance, because this one was very beautifully carved. The entrance and its tunnel was carved in the shape of a five-sided pentagon, and its details were accurate to the very last millimeter!
Now this tunnel was made out of hard stone, rather than brittle obsidian, but it was really impressive nonetheless. The ancient degranus goblins were amazing architects, no doubt about it, they were great!
A moment later, Arvena introduced this place to her guests. “Welcome to the ancient library of Rempegana, kids! Of course, it’s named after our timeless god, Rempegan Lus. We can learn a lot about mana today, as very important knowledge has been preserved here for over thousands of years!”