The entrance to the den turned out to be annoyingly long. Zoe felt as if she had been walking for at least a couple of minutes and she was still no closer to the source of the gently wafting, animalistic life mana.

It didn’t help that the passages were extremely uneven and twisted. The ground was anything but level—in fact, it was a bit of a stretch to even call any part of the tunnels ‘ground.’ The sides rapidly narrowed and widened at random, varying between relatively wide chambers and tight crevasses which Zoe was hard-pressed to squeeze through.

She was glad for the bioluminescence of the fungi, slimes, and lichens which coated all of the exposed surfaces. Navigating in the dark would have been even more frustrating even if it would be nice for the whole place to be a bit less—slimy.

In any case, such was the nature of the area that it took Zoe not one, but two loops to realize she had ended up going in a circle. Huffing in irritation, she set off once again.

Two minutes later, she was back in the same spot for the fourth time. Okay, this is really getting frustrating. How does this keep happening? It was at once clear that there was another section that she needed to get to, and she was also pretty sure that she hadn’t found any additional passageways that she hadn’t already crossed through. This doesn’t make sense.

Leaning against the cave wall, Zoe pondered it for a moment before setting off yet again. This time, she went slowly, paying extra attention to every single bit of stone she passed. Maybe there’s a slim, dark crack somewhere that I missed. Relying on {Predator’s Eyes}, as well, she scanned every speck of the caverns.

A quarter of an hour later, Zoe sunk down to her knees in temporary defeat. I combed over EVERYTHING. She knew it—there wasn’t a single spot she had missed either with her mundane eyes or with the ability. And yet, she was sure that the den of sloths was nearby, with Millie captive as well.

That means there’s something else I missed. It couldn’t be just a subtly hidden passageway though. Zoe knew she had been far too thorough for that, and searching the same way again would only waste time and lead to more frustration.

Maybe this is the wrong entrance?

Zoe didn’t think so—while her stolen memories pretty much failed her when presented with the current conundrum, she was pretty sure that she found the correct entrance. But just in case, she backtracked back out to the ravine. It didn’t take her long to find her way, seeing as how she had perfectly mapped out the cavern by this point.

The ravine was just as she had left it. The clouding mists obscured all of her senses in all directions—it was hard to even tell where the sun was in the sky. While the strangely thick, foggy mana had been equally present inside, it was more apparent here given the greater open distances.

Zoe spent just a few minutes traveling each direction through the ravine, studying both sides of the sheer rock walls for any clues. When that didn’t pan out either, she returned to the main entrance. Maybe I should climb up? After all, the sloths were natural climbers, and while completely vertical, the sides of the ravine weren’t exactly smooth.

And if it’s not on the side of the cliffs, maybe there’s some kind of hole up at the top.

The ascent wasn’t very difficult at first. The problem arose when after about a minute, Zoe realized she wasn’t any closer to the top. Well that’s weird. Looking back down, she was definitely high up. She should have been about halfway by now.

Suspicious, Zoe continued to climb. Another minute passed, and she still hadn’t made visible progress—at least in one direction. The ground was now twice as far away. Okay, so that’s REALLY weird.

Now more intrigued than aggravated, Zoe slunk back down and stepped back into the caverns. I could excuse a secret entrance somewhere outside, but that? Nah, that was some weird magic shit. Was it a kind of spacial manipulation like the astral knight had used? Or an illusion? Or something else?

Zoe shrugged. The specifics didn’t really matter yet. She was mainly happy that she had made progress. There’s definitely something sketchy going on to conceal the area. And wait—I already knew that, didn’t I? The mists were already interfering with my abilities.

Zoe wanted to smack herself on the head. It was so obvious now that she actually thought about it. Really, I should have investigated this mana way sooner.

Proceeding to the deepest section of the cavern she had so far been able to reach, Zoe glanced around, centered herself, and activated her new {Arcane Manipulation}.

The ability responded to her call easily. In fact, it felt identical to her prior {Mana Manipulation}—with the key difference that there was distinctly more to it as well. It was as if she were using regular, level twenty {Mana Manipulation} but could now also feel a whole other dimension to the ability at the same time. I’ll have to investigate that.

But for now, Zoe didn’t try to do anything special. She just blasted her immediate surroundings with a simple wave of raw arcane force. Ironically, the sheer uncommon density of the misty mana made it even easier to move. There was so much of it that moving most of it didn’t require much precision. Even if it left plenty of untouched scraps behind, they were pitifully thin in comparison.

More importantly, of course, was the fact that the relative vacuum of mana revealed a dim, almost pitch black tunnel leading off straight ahead. Zoe narrowed her eyes. Now that’s strange. Clearly, whatever kind of mana this was could completely conceal features even at close range—it wasn’t limited to just dulling her senses.

But why this tunnel in particular? How could that possibly be a natural phenomenon?

Also, Zoe was pretty sure she had rested her hand against that ‘wall’ once before. Stepping forward closer while passively keeping the mana from seeping back in, Zoe stretched out the tip of her claw towards the opening.

The tip clinked against open air. An invisible barrier. Licking her fangs, Zoe raked her claw downward, dragging it over invisible bumps in the barrier that perfectly imitated the texture of wet, jagged stone. Okay, that’s DEFINITELY not natural.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

There was just no way this wasn’t designed by something intelligent. But—it couldn’t have been the sloths. Zoe knew them too well by now—not only were they incapable of actual magic, they were also just stupid. Except for the big one. Actually, the giant sloth had seemed almost as intelligent as a human. Wild.

But still, even though it was both intelligent and possessed magic, Zoe doubted it was responsible. Nothing in either my own memories of fighting it or in its memories that I stole indicates that it could create anything like this.

Also, wouldn’t the barrier have collapsed once it died if that were the case? Zoe didn’t actually know all that much about how magic worked yet, but she felt like that would probably be the case. So it was something else—and since it still exists, they’re probably alive and fairly close by.

It wasn’t exactly a reassuring conclusion.

But anyway—if the sloths aren’t responsible for it, then how do they get through it? It felt completely solid to Zoe. For a moment, she prepared herself to try to destroy it with {Arcane Manipulation}. She hesitated. That might alert whoever made it. Maybe. Also, that’s not how the sloths would get through.

While it would be nice to play around with her new ability, now wasn’t the time. Thinking for a moment, Zoe finally tried the simple, obvious thing. She pushed.

The barrier rippled and softened beneath the tips of her claws. As it shifted in consistency, she was finally able to see it—if barely—by the way it warped the small amount of light passing through it. Dragging her claws around, Zoe noted how it felt kind of like a cross between a thick syrup and gelatin. Like gelatin that can flow and then immediately seal back up.

I wonder if it can harden back into the stone texture with something inside it. A disturbing thought, and one which Zoe quickly discarded. Shrugging, she stepped all the way through it. The sensation was quite bizarre, but didn’t last long. Reopening her eyes, Zoe realized that it was almost completely dark.

Looking back, there was no sign of the rest of the cavern. Can’t say I’m a fan of that.

Fortunately, there was a small amount of light coming from some point far ahead. As Zoe made her way towards it, she realized that this area was far smoother. In fact, the ground was completely straight and level. Dragging her claws against the walls, she realized that they were smooth and even—it was a perfectly cut rectangular hallway. Yeah, again, definitely not natural.

It reminded her quite a bit of the architecture of the cultist lair where she had first showed up.

Narrowing her eyes, Zoe cautiously approached the source of the light. It turned out to be nothing spectacular. It was just a crumbled section of the right side of the wall which opened up into a comparatively large, far more natural looking cavern.

On the other side of the gap, the hallway continued on into darkness.

Peering around the edge, Zoe took in the space ahead of her. It was wide, slightly less tall, and roughly circular. A deep, shimmering pool of very clear-looking water gently lapped in the center, taking up most of the floor area. Mushrooms and moss were everywhere, much like the ravine back outside. Zoe immediately disliked it. It took her a good few seconds to figure out why.

There were no sloths.

The giant sloth’s memories flared to life. This was most certainly the den—while the visions contained no indication of the passageway Zoe was currently in, the cavern was firmly familiar. Also, she was sure there had been animal-like life mana in here—so where were they now?

The surface of the water rippled slightly. Zoe stared at it. A flicker of movement between some gaps in a large pile of rocks all the way on the far side caught her peripheral vision, and her eyes flicked up.

Millie peaked her head out. Zoe expected her to cry out as they made eye contact, but the girl remained deathly silent. Zoe narrowed her eyes and remained mostly concealed within the artificial corridor. All her instincts were screaming at her about danger.

A sloth chittered from above and to the right. Zoe flicked her eyes to it. It was also staying far to the side of the cavern, clinging desperately to a high-up stalactite. Hmm… Millie desperately signaled for Zoe to be quiet with her hands. That confirms it. There’s something really dangerous here, only Zoe and at least one sloth survived, and they’re hiding. Unfortunately, that put Zoe in a bit of a dilemma.

A flash of brilliant golden light illuminated the passageway before her, interrupted only by Zoe’s own dark shadow. Whipping her head around, her eyes widened as she saw pulsing, radiant light shimmering through the invisible barrier. While she couldn’t see any actual shapes through the other side, she didn’t need to.

The flaming tip of a radiant golden spear pierced through the barrier, shattering it. Fuck!

Zoe didn’t wait around to even analyze the paladin. In fact, she didn’t even get so much as a glance at the figure before she dove into the cavern. Hide with Millie and prepare to run. There was technically still the slim chance that the paladin hadn’t actually seen her, but Zoe really wouldn’t count on it. Hide here, wait for the right moment, and then flee back out to the ravine and don’t look back.

Sure, she may have defeated one paladin, but that didn’t mean she wanted to repeat the encounter. Even if I win, killing a second one can’t have good long-term consequences.

Fighting would be the last resort.

Sprinting forward, Zoe jumped and activated {Kinetic Dash} midair to clear the central pool of water. A loud splash erupted from below just as she neared the other side, spraying Zoe with droplets of water. Operating on pure reflex, Zoe twisted and whipped her tail around with a {Corrupted Strike} while simultaneously activating {Corrupted Spirit shield}.

Whatever it was that she hit was colossal, and the impact send Zoe flying even faster towards the far side. It was still a good thing she reacted the way she did, though, because it prevented what turned out to be a colossal tentacle from properly grabbing her, effectively just smacking her instead.

{Corrupted Strike has leveled up! Corrupted Strike is now level 5.}

{Instinct has leveled up! Instinct is now level 5.}

Tumbling to the ground in an imperfect roll right beside Millie, Zoe whipped herself back up into a low crouch.

More tentacles were erupting from the water. The very smallest was still as thick as a typical human arm, and the widest was as thick around as a barrel. Not good!

At the same time, a radiant figure strode into view in the center of the crumbled—and only—entrance. Surveying the scene quickly, the paladin quickly stepped back and batted away one of the smaller tentacles with her shining spear. The appendage erupted into brilliant flames where it was struck, the dark, rubbery flesh beginning to glow and rapidly flake away into ash. But it was only one small patch of one small tentacle, and the flames showed absolutely no sign of spreading.

Really, it only seemed to enrage the monster, as even more limbs erupted from the now violently swirling pool.

But instead of retreating, the Paladin confidently strode fully into the cavern and tossed back her long, raven-dark hair. It didn’t take her even a second to lock eyes with Zoe.

{Paladin of Lux (Purity of Grace) - 128}

Well that’s REALLY not good! Zoe quickly appraised the kraken-like monster while she was at it, in order to get a full picture of the now-disastrous situation.

{??? - ???}

Somehow, that’s even worse.

Millie and Zoe shared a glance. Zoe sighed. So let’s see, a paladin who probably hates me and has the single highest level of any being I’ve yet seen. And also a giant eldritch monster that is probably even higher.

Not actually the worst I’ve faced.

It was close though. Maybe if it eats me I can pull the original paladin-killing trick again. Not that Zoe would plan on that. It was just something to think about.

Rising to her full, imposing stature, Zoe climbed up to the top of the pile of rocks as the paladin continued forward, repeatedly batting away small strikes and lazily dodging larger ones. At least, until the barrel-like arm whack her in the chest and sent her sprawling into one of the far walls.

She was up in an instant, though, and she readied her spear once more.

She and Zoe shared a glance. Then they both looked at the kraken. Then back to each other. Zoe shrugged.

And then they both darted forward.