The next few minutes were somewhat chaotic.
Sam used his sword and footwork technique to dance between the shrieking monsters as they launched themselves at the duo with reckless abandon and jaws dripping the sinister yellow liquid, ready to tear them apart. Using his wind magic, one swing of his sword released at least one Wind Blade, which, because of the relatively low level of the monster, always hit exactly where he wanted. This killed the monsters with one spell. Not that it mattered, as the number of monsters seemed to be endless and they were hungry.
He, of course, recognized them as Deep Ghouls, monsters from the deep, tainted by black magic and insanity, always hungering for flesh. Granted, they would be discovered sometime later, far away from Ironwood by a guild that was delving into a dungeon that had its entrance in the depth of another mine.
’Apparently, we discovered a new species!’ he thought wryly as he calmly bisected another pair of ghouls trying to rip his throat out. ’Can’t wait to tell people about it…’
Then his eyes spanned to the area where his new knight friend was doing things he was trying very hard to ignore.
Apparently, her behavior from the memories wasn’t due to some kind of trauma. She was actually batshit insane.
She was holding her ground in the middle of a small area she had made after jumping there and shattering every last rock that had probably been there since time immemorial. She was slashing wildly at the monsters with her greatsword while laughing crazily.
The light that enveloped her sword after her mana was finally unlocked slowly enveloped her and now she looked like some kind of bonfire. Sam had a suspicion that the more she killed the bigger the aura would become. It was rather useful too because it ate away at the flesh of anything that came too close to her, namely the ghouls.
“Die! Die! Die!” she yelled as each yell was punctuated by a mighty slash that basically pulverized the monsters. Then she continued to laugh as the aura continued to grow.
Sam closed his eyes for just a moment, then opened them and with a conscious decision turned away from her and focused on the monsters. ‘There is a limit to how many there are…’
And indeed, after the ground around him began to fill with the bisected corpses of the Deep Ghouls and the apparently wrongly named KittenKnight was jumping around in the pulverized remains of the same monsters, the rush began to slow down. Eventually, it slowed to a trickle, and Sam had the honor of beheading the last ghoul that decided to try their luck.
With a quick application of his mana, he cleansed Moonlight and then with a small burst also pushed the stray blood and viscera that landed on his armor away. He turned towards his companion who was still looking around and breathing heavily.
“KittenKnight… I can’t sense any of them,” he said as calmly as possible, ready to be attacked by the berserker.
To his relief, she swung the greatsword in an arc ending with its tip driven into the ground. Then she turned toward Sam and spoke up.
“Uhm… you can call me… uhm Katie… I think,” she said slowly.
Sam stared at her for a long moment, then opened his mouth to say something, but he had no idea what, so he simply closed it. For another moment, he stared at her, then nodded.
“Alright, Katie.” The knight nodded, and Sam was almost physically hit by the shyness radiating from the girl. “Let’s look for drops, then continue deeper!”
“Alright!” His new friend cheered enthusiastically, then swung her sword over her shoulder and began to poke around in the destruction left behind by her rampage.
Sam watched for a second, then shook his head and headed for the location from where he could sense a little mana.
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In the end, they only found materials and a few ores that were unearthed, thanks to Katie’s rampage.
And when the loot was collected, they met in the middle of the cavern.
Katie looked at him and spoke up hesitantly.
“Uhm, Solar, where do we go now?”
“Now? Deeper,” Sam answered simply. Katie stiffened and let out a little eep.
“With more monsters like those?”
“Pretty sure they are going to get stronger, meaner, and more than likely bigger,” he replied honestly, curious about her reply.
For a moment she stood still, then Sam noticed that Katie was actually vibrating.
“Sooo cool…” she whispered.
Sam coughed a little, then turned toward where he could feel the greater concentration of mana and spoke up.
“I’m going to ignore that super hard. We are going that way!” And with that, he strode forward, ignoring the girl’s squeak.
They soon found themselves walking around columns of stone that held up the ceiling of the giant cavern, while occasionally attacked by lone ghouls.
And as they approached the increased mana concentration, so did the shadows increase around them, taking the form of the shape of all sorts of flora. They walked by trees made of shadows, bushes glowing with inner dark light, with spots of venomous yellow lights acting as flowers. Or eyes.
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It was somewhat confusing as the shapes never stayed in one place or in one shape, constantly changing. This caused the yellow lights to blink out of existence every few seconds, only to reappear in a different spot. It was almost like the shadows were blinking at Sam and Katie.
Reaching the concentration, they found a small pond of shadows surrounded by the same ever-changing shadows bubbling up from the ground. To Sam’s senses it was like a geyser of vicious mana, shooting up from the ground, not unlike a freshly opened oil source. Probably just as harmful to the environment as oil.
They stood at a respectful distance while taking a good look at it.
“Uhm, this is what you wanted?” Katie asked while gripping her greatsword with giddy anticipation.
“Something like that…” Sam replied while he was trying to find a way to contain the shadows without the corrupting influence.
‘I wasn’t looking exactly for this, but a Shadow Mana Fountain would be an excellent catalyst…’
It was a pity he couldn’t find anything with a spirit nature, but even this was a long shot based on rumors that the other Sam heard, as well as the research he did around the city.
“Okay!” came the chipper answer from the knight. ‘She is probably expecting a fight…’ he thought. ‘Not that it's wrong… Where is the monster guarding it?’
He cast his Mana Sense wide, looking at everything in detail, trying to find the monster that would protect something like this, but he could only sense the shadows that were still changing shape rather fast. ‘Probably blends in with all the shadow around us…’
Not wanting to voice his suspicions, he began directing his knight companion.
“Look for Shadow Mana Crystals. They form around strong mana sources.”
“Yes, sir!” came the crisp reply from the girl, and the next second she was running around the area, like a demented bunny with rabies, smashing apart every rock bigger than a boar, as well the columns, with maniacal laughter. Though, occasionally she stopped and picked up the Shadow Mana Crystal she unearthed.
Sam’s search was more methodical. He used his mana sense to go after spots where the shadow mana was denser than its surroundings. It took a few seconds to narrow it down to a spot, but inevitably he always found a Mana Crystal. And curiously, as he pocketed each crystal, a few shadow bushes, or trees, vanished.
The knight’s rampage simply erased great swaths of the shadow jungle around them. It took Sam a moment to put it together, but then he smiled.
Directing his Mana Sense first toward the spot of shadow mana concentration, then around them, looking for the monster. After all, their hiding spots were constantly shrinking.
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In the end, it took several minutes to pick up enough Shadow Mana Crystal to cause the monster to emerge from its hiding place.
It appeared with a shriek that caused the entire cavern to echo with it, near Katie just as she smashed through a giant boulder. The monster instantly smashed down, only to retrieve its hand with a wounded shriek as the berserker knight was already enveloped by a small amount of aura and she had the presence to aim her greatsword towards it when it emerged.
This gave Katie a moment to laugh out loud and launch herself at the elephant-sized ghoul wreathed in shadows. It was the same pale white as its smaller brethren, only it was covered by small spikes of bones around its joints. Sam’s eyes narrowed in concentration as he watched Katie’s first strike.
He almost laughed out loud as the greatsword went through the appendage of the monster as if it was air. Because for a moment he saw it transform into shadow and that meant it had access to the same skill he did. Which meant, it had the same weaknesses.
“Use magic on the sword! That can hurt it!” he yelled out but the only response he received was an angry yell as the female knight swung her sword around, this time wreathed in jagged, cheerful yellow shine.
The monster didn’t even hesitate to use the same skill, only to recoil in pain as the greatsword bit into its flesh. Its roar was matched by Katie’s roar of victory.
The next few seconds devolved into a slugfest between the giant ghoul and the berserker.
Thanks to the aura enveloping her, the monster couldn’t really hurt her, yet she didn’t have a strong enough attack to finish it off before it regenerated thanks to the continuous stream of mana coming from the Mana Fountain.
“Keep it occupied for a little, please!”
“Hell yeah!” came the enthusiastic answer and the aura of mana around the knight seemingly doubled.
Ignoring the clash between monster and berserker, Sam turned his attention towards the Mana Fountain. He knew, thanks to his future knowledge that naturally occurring Mana Fountains usually had an anchor. If that anchor was destroyed then the fountain would also disperse. Keeping these Mana Fountains properly anchored was the key to keeping Mana Crystal mines profitable. Otherwise, any random monster that had a mana nature that aligned with the Fountain would simply connect to it and wreak havoc.
Sam took a deep breath, then retrieved an enchanted glass jar from his inventory, one of many he prepared to contain any exotic material he may come across. And the core of the Mana Fountain would be something he could store in it. At least for a while. Hopefully, the container would last long enough for him to set up the ritual for Lucky’s evolution.
He focused his attention on the Mana Fountain and shaped his mana like a drill and began to burrow into the mana phenomenon.
Tendrils of mana slowly worked their way into the loose mana construct, while his berserker friend was having fun with the monster (based on the sounds, he was starting to feel sorry for the giant ghoul).
Sam slowly and methodically felt out the core of the Fountain and began the process of enveloping it with his own mana, slowly turning it into shadow-natured mana, until the core of the mana phenomenon was almost fully enveloped by a globe of mana, letting out a thin tendril connecting it to the ghoul.
“On three, strongest attack Kitten!”
“RAAARGH!”
He closed his eyes, his attention solely on his mana and the Mana Fountain while he was holding the jar in his hand ready to contain it.
“One..”
The mana coming from Katie exploded and he strengthened the mana around the core.
“Two…”
The monster let out a desperate roar as the berserker began to attack with even more fervor.
“Three!”
Instantly, he cut off the connection between the monster and the core of the Mana Fountain. Almost immediately the mana coming from the core began to strain against his own mana, but he simply moved the core into the jar and slammed the lid shut.
The runes on the glass jar lit up immediately, shining with ethereal light, signaling that the containment was working. Though, Sam could feel the tension in the enchantment so he knew he didn’t have much time to use it before it exploded in a best-case scenario.
And while he was making sure that the core of the Mana Fountain was contained, Katie simply fell on the ghoul, who now that its source of regeneration was cut off, fell to her blade relatively quickly.
He simply dismissed the notification that he received more experience points and placed the jar into his inventory then looked around.
The remaining shadow-natured mana was quick to disperse now that the constant supply of fresh mana was gone. And with it, went the creepy and disturbing forest of ever-changing shadows.
His knight friend walked back to him with a pep in her step. She slammed the visor of her helmet up and gave Sam a grin.
“That was amazing! I love this game!”
Sam took in the warm, brown eyes, small and adorable nose, and thin lips.
“Indeed, you were excellent in that fight,” he praised her.
She instantly brought her hand to the back of her neck and began to laugh nervously.
“You think so? Most people think I’m crazy…” she finished with a morose look on her too-adorable face.
“I mean, you are crazy…”
“Oh…”
“But who isn’t?” Sam said with a small smile. Katie instantly perked up, giving Sam a hopeful look. Now that he had seen her fight, he knew with a bit of training she would be a perfect addition to his dungeon delving group. “Want to join my group?”