Bending her knees, Hikari launched herself into the night sky.
The jagged rock formation offered plenty of spots to anchor her feet.
A dreamy scenery appeared before her as she glided through the air.
The full moon illuminated 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 bored into the mountain.
Hikari sat in a meditating pose.
She focused.
Pulse.
Pulse.
She mapped the area around her in her head.
The hole was deep.
She peered down into it.
At the very bottom, a brilliant blue glow was obscured by a light fog.
She scanned the hole's walls to plan her descent.
The numerous protrusions offered plenty of landing spots.
Leftover rope and picks from other climbers lay scattered around.
None of them could hold her weight.
But they mark out where it's probably safe to step.
She holds a pickaxe.
Rey had it improvised for her.
Its head was made from a salvaged steam-tank drill.
The steel-reinforced handle was strong enough to hold her weight.
She tested it by hanging from the cliffside.
"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 sigh of relief.
She leaves a flame mark.
The trail of flames would light her way back out to the surface.
Drop.
The next protrusion was shaky.
She leans against the wall, shifting some of her weight off it.
A flame mark. Drop.
The rock below her creaks.
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 the next rock.
Fortunately, they hold her weight.
She pulls out her pickaxe and leaves a flame mark where it was safe to step.
Down and down she goes.
One step at a time.
The deeper she went, the brighter the light and the stronger the mana presence grew.
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 slippery stone made it hard to stand.
She looked down and saw the vein's bottom.
A lush garden shrouded in snowy fog.
It was easier to drop from here.
She left a flame mark behind and leaped.
Hikari lands.
It was soft.
Just like the ground around the RazenHeir estate.
A lush garden, teal grass and fern.
It was cold. Freezing cold.
The ground just below the grass was covered in a layer of snow.
Her salamander armor released heat to keep her warm.
She looked back up.
The flame mark was within jumping height.
On to looting the mana vein.
She plucked a fruit from a bush.
It was star-shaped and as 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 she doesn't know right away.
She might have to scale back up the cliffside with a stomachache.
Her boot hit something hard.
She pushes away the snow.
Mana crystals.
She pries them from the snow.
Each was 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 before getting 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 in that vein could easily exceed an entire territory's tax revenue.
A shame the RazenHeir house won't 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 kicked 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 slightest 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 to examine the bodies.
All the while, she kept 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 armor.
Another body cleanly severed in two.
No messy sinew or a 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 were punctured, with stab wounds all over its body.
A high-level assassin? A clash between two raiding parties?
Ke…. ke… ke… A clicking sound.
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 turned around and swung, 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 shifted into a relaxed stance, her swords at her sides.
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 parry threw the creature back.
It blended back into its surroundings.
However, its sword was still burning.
Several flying daggers were 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 slippery 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 return to Hikari, hovering around her and forming a protective barrier.
A hail of tiny spines rained down on Hikari.
Hikari blocks.
Spines chatter 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 cannot pierce her armor.
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.
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.
"Wonder if it sells."
The mana forces its way into her body.
It fell dormant.
Nothing but a piece of rock now.
She shrugged and threw 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 : 807]