Ding! [Cultivate the Spring Water.]

I blinked out of my thoughts and focused on the glowing teal screen. Cultivate? Now? I glanced at the magic spring. Oh, so that's what it wanted. Cultivating the water essence was easy, but could I actually absorb the magic, too?

Another System screen popped up next to the first. Ding! [Magic spots are occasionally found in the wilds in places with unnatural formations. The magic can be stored in an item or integrated in a person with the correct understanding.]

I see. I bet a million dollars this magic spring was the reason the System gave me the task to begin with; to come collect the free magic. I couldn't help but look around. Unnatural formation, huh? Earthquakes were natural, but the ones that ripped apart the world three decades ago weren't. The Gates that flooded the world with monsters and nearly drove earth’s natural population to extinction caused them. So, yes, everything about this cave, the waterfall, and the cliff that supported both were ‘unnatural.’

I sat down cross-legged and folded my fingers into the correct cultivating position. It still felt unnatural, but not as bad as the first time I cultivated.

Levi slithered over and stared at my fingers. Then he climbed on my knee and pushed my hands with his nose. He remembered me doing this before and understood that it had something with the water that I controlled. He wanted to know more about it.

I stared down at him. "I wish you can cultivate, too, Levi," I muttered. "Then you could carry your own water inside you, instead of carrying around an open water bottle on my hip. Or sticking to a water source all the time." Granted, a water source was beneficial for me too, but it wasn't realistic. We lived in the mountains, not a swamp.

A jolt of excitement sprung from Levi to me, his eyes were so bright, they seemed to glow with excitement and yearning.

"You want to cultivate?" I asked slowly.

He nodded and pushed my hand with his little nose, wondering how.

I frowned. "I don't actually know if you can..."

The words barely left my mouth before a System screen popped up. Ding! [Familiars D rank and higher can cultivate. Do you wish to unlock cultivating for your familiar? Y/N?]

Hand on, that was an option earlier? Why didn't the System let me know earlier? Stingy thing."Ah, yes!" I smashed the button so fast, my finger ached.

Ding! [Cultivation for Host's familiar is unlocked.]

A diagram popped up, showing a faceless sitting Hunter with a small snake laying across her knees. The finger hold was a little different, but most everything else was the same. Notes and arrows pointed out areas of interest and explained things.

I stared at the image, carefully studying it. "Do you see this, Levi?" I picked him up and showed him the picture, reading the notes to him. "Can you do this?"

He slipped out of my hand and curled on my knee, then double checked his position to the one on the screen.

I practiced the finger hold a few times, making sure it was one hundred percent right, then I closed my eyes.

My vision went black, while my essence activated and felt around. A hazy image formed in my mind, dark enclosed stone walls and the tiny golden specks that glittered there — stone element. And in the middle, the magic spring water blazed like a blue ribbon, snaking down the cave. The magic above it sparked like a firework, the bright flowers popping open and disappearing in seconds. It was prettier than the physical world.

I wish I could show it to Micah. Uncle Maveric talked about the beauty of magic all my life, but I never understood the majesty until recently. Now that I did, I wanted to share it with Micah and Dad. It pained me that I couldn't. Dad was a human, he'd never see magic, and Micah was too young. Maybe someday he'd see it, if he was a mage or high ranked melee Hunter. But it was possible he'd never see it either. Then again, Uncle had to wait almost forty years before he had a family member that could see what he could — me. That must have been so hard, especially since he loved sharing his likes with loved ones.

The spring’s magic essence responded to my aura and gravitated to me. Without further ado, I directed the essence into my body, just below my navel. The magic funneled in the almost dry well inside me. Instinctively, I knew it should be overflowing with water, but right now, there was barely enough to cover the bottom. Cultivating was the only thing that seemed to fill the empty void inside up, and once it was full, I'd be that much stronger.

Just like maneuvering the magic water felt different, cultivating it also felt different. It was like normal water essence on steroids. It felt more powerful, sending shivers up and down my spine.

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Most of the water essence went to me, but a third branched off and sank into Levi. I could feel his enjoyment as he felt heady power cultivating gave, just like how I felt when I first did it.

The cave was completely quiet, aside from the rushing water at the entrance, as we continued to absorb the magic. Slowly, the white magic lessened, until there was a thin trickle left. Should I stop? No, the System would tell me to stop if I needed to, right? Selfishly, I wanted all the magic. It felt too good to pass up. It wasn't until it was all gone that I finally stopped cultivating and opened my eyes.

A completely black cave greeted me. The magic spring was gone, leaving a small dent in the stone flooring where it used to be.

I blinked, even though it was useless — although my night vision was getting better, I couldn't see in the dark. "Ah, System?" I whispered, my voice echoing uncomfortably in the dark. "Will the magic spring come back?" Did I ruin it with my greed?

Ding! A teal screen appeared, illuminating the small cave. [Magic spots are unnatural to the world. Once removed, they will not reappear.]

I blinked in surprise. "Not natural. How are they not natural?" I mean, it was here, in the wilds. How more natural can you get? As soon as the thought came, I sobered. Wait, the Gates — which were definitely not natural to Earth — caused the earthquake that created this cliff. Did the Gates create the magic spots, too? Then what about the magic that Hunters used?

Instead of answering the question, the System popped up another screen. Ding! [+1 Magic].

I gasped. "Really?" Does that mean what I think it does? Excited, I opened my main menu and checked my stats. Sure enough, my magic stat increased one point. Was this because I cultivated magic? Oh my god, I needed to find more magic spots then. "Okay, this is a cool diversion. I'll accept it for now."

The System screen slowly faded away, reminding me of the darkness that encroached.

Quickly, I opened the menu and turned on the orb torch. I was getting so used to it, my fingers automatically flitted over the buttons until it popped on over my head. At first the bright light startled me, so I turned the degree down until it was barely more than a nightlight.

Levi wiggled around, rubbing the side of his head against my knee guard. I blinked, finally noticing that Levi hadn't moved yet. I poked him. "Are you okay?"

He blinked, as if jolted from his own thoughts and looked at me. Then he nodded and stretched his body, communicating that he felt weird. Powerful, but itchy. He climbed off my lap and rubbed against the ground, coiling and twisting.

"Do you want help?" I reached out to itch him, but he slapped my fingers away. "I'll take that as a no."

I sighed and leaned back, looking around the cave. As cramped as it felt, it was a lot safer than going out in the forest. Right now, the only way in or out was the entrance, so I wasn't going to get ambushed from behind. Strategically, it was an ideal situation. Then again, would a monster even notice I was in here? The waterfall should have washed away my scent, so in theory, a monster couldn't hunt me down from that. But what about the scent that slipped through the water drops now? Was there something that I could do about it?

I crawled over to the entrance and cast Water Manipulation. A large disk of water appeared. Carefully, I fit the plug around the entrance, completely sealing it off and dulling the waterfall's sound. Levi watched me, still rubbing his body against the stone.

I smiled at him. "This should deter monsters from smelling us. The cave is big enough, I don't think we'll have an oxygen problem before dawn. If we do, we can just open up the water lid," I motioned to the front of the cave, "let more air in, and shut it."

He nodded, understanding. Then he wondered how it was going to stay in place all night.

I paused. Oh, that was a problem. As soon as I fell asleep, the water would fall apart. I was brimming with energy from cultivating right now, but what about an hour from now? We'd had a very long day, and my body was worn out, even if my mind wasn't. Youth or not, I'd never stay up all night.

Levi slithered over and touched the plug with his nose. He glanced at me, indicating that he can do this too.

I frowned, thinking it over. "How about we take turns?" I suggested. "You need to sleep too, so you can sleep for a couple hours, then I'll wake you up, you take over the job, while I sleep for a couple hours." It wasn't a lot of shut eye, but it'll be enough to function tomorrow. Honestly, I doubted I'd get a good night's sleep until I got home. Hiding for your life just didn't work like that.

Levi agreed to my proposal and then curled up a foot away, rubbed against the rock for a minute, then quickly fell asleep.

I leaned against the icy wall, staring out at the water plug. Shadows shifted and morphed across the surface, created by the moonlight breaking through the water drops. I just hope the torch orb wasn't visible from the other side. That's the whole reason I put it at the lowest setting.

There wasn't much to do, so I opened the Monster Manual and started flipping through the local monsters. Well, the known ones. There were probably a lot the Hunter's Association didn't know were around because no one discovered the monsters yet.

Curious, I flipped to the smoke cat monster page and studied it. It really didn't like water, yet I tossed it in the stream. Could it even swim?

My concentration broke when an eerie feeling fell over me. I immediately turned off the torch orb and closed my screen. Levi jumped awake, whether from the feeling or from feeling my alarm, I didn't know. A second later, I left his cool body brush against me as he put himself between me and the water plug.

I silently shifted to a kneel as my bow appeared in my hand, an arrow half drawn and pointed at the opening.

The entrance to the little cave was fifteen feet in the air and hidden behind a waterfall. What monster could get that high? As soon as the thought crossed my mind, my overactive imagination filled in the blank, listing all the monsters I just researched that could, in fact, get me up here. All of them were large and higher ranked than my little D rank.

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what was on the other side. Nothing physical was touching my water shield, nor was anything disrupting the waterfall's flow. So, whatever was there — and I could feel that something was — it was silently hanging out on the other side of the water. Fifteen feet in the air.

*****