Nothing noteworthy entered his view.
The more he walked, the more apparent that became.
Kevin looked around across the fractured interior with a quiet, almost indifferent scrutiny. Pillars rose and fell in uneven intervals with the broken remains scattered like discarded bones across the cathedral floor.
There was no form of movement, sound or presence.
Nothing at all.
Just what were they expecting to find in this place? He wondered.
It wasn't like some hidden dungeon in all those fantasy novels he read about. Certainly, this was a ruined cathedral with nothing in it. Or perhaps nothing was supposed to be inside. And even if there was something hidden around these parts, he seriously doubted that it would be something pleasant.
'Don't jinx it!'
Shaking that thought away, Kevin slowed his pace and paid closer attention to not what he could see but what he could feel and sense. The leyline flow was as strange as the Forgotten Lands but the ground itself made each step feel just slightly off balance. Not enough to trip him, but enough to force constant adjustment.
Like walking on something that wasn't entirely solid. Kevin stopped briefly, pressing his foot down a little harder.
A dull, hollow sensation answered him.
"…So it's not just my imagination."
His voice barely rose above a murmur, quickly dissolving into the empty space around him.
He lifted his foot again and continued moving.
Fragments of what might have once been seating arrangements, or perhaps something else entirely, lay scattered near the edges of the hall. Their shapes were warped, seemingly melted in places, yet not by heat.
Crouching down, he ran his fingers along one of the fragments.
Smooth.
There were no signs of wear, no erosion, no dust.
It was as if time had simply stopped interacting with it altogether. Considering what he heard from his Summon, this was rather plausible.
'Creepy. Give me chills.'
Suppressing a shudder, to hide his anxiety and nervousness, Kevin decided to stand up and move on.
Lingering wouldn't change anything.
He brushed his hand lightly against his pants as he rose, though there had been no dust to begin with.
Kevin exhaled quietly and resumed walking.
But there was something off about this ruined cathedral.
For instance, the space between each pillar felt inconsistent. One moment, he would take five steps and cover what felt like a few meters. The next, ten steps would barely bring him any closer to his intended direction.
What was it called again?
There was a name for a phenomenon like this but he had ended up forgetting the supposed name.
Mirror effect, perhaps.
No... that wasn't it! Kevin frowned in displeasure and clicked his tongue. He adjusted his pace unconsciously, relying less on sight and more on instinct. If the environment was distorting perception, then trying to measure distance visually was pointless.
Instead, he focused on irregular currents of mystic energy.
Kevin's brows furrowed slightly as he followed one such current, his steps gradually aligning with its subtle pull. It was barely noticeable, in fact, but compared to everything else, it was the closest thing to consistency he had.
"…Might as well follow this."
He didn't expect much.
Still, it was better than wandering aimlessly.
Continuing his wandering, following the flow of the Leylines, the young Hunter turned his head this way and that, searching for anything out of place.
Being mana-sensitive had its perks, undoubtedly, but a dedicated sensory ability wouldn't hurt. Speaking of which… was it possible to possess more than one ability?
Kevin briefly considered it.
Souls could be described as the blueprint of a person or something akin to it. Some would call it the Ego.
Many individuals from both his old world and this one had been fascinated by the subject, yet none had reached a definitive conclusion regarding its true nature. After all, the soul was steeped in countless mysteries. One Buddhist perspective even described it as a ninth-dimensional form that originated from, and ultimately returned to, a higher plane beyond the Eightfold Path.
Whether that was true or not, Kevin had no way of confirming.
Still, the idea lingered.
If the soul truly functioned as a blueprint, then abilities might simply be expressions of that structure. Manifestations of what already existed within.
'…Then having more than one wouldn't be impossible.'
The thought came naturally.
No blueprint was ever truly simple and this logic explained why they were called Innate powers. In other words, they were unique to the person.
It was a disappointing yet logical and simple conclusion.
Perhaps he was becoming too greedy.
Kevin's gaze shifted forward as the architecture ahead grew denser.
Pillars stood closer together now, casting overlapping silhouettes that didn't quite align with the light. Some leaned at unnatural angles, yet refused to collapse. Others appeared intact at first glance, only to reveal hollow interiors upon closer inspection.
It was like walking through something that had been broken… and then poorly put back together.
He stepped over a collapsed section of flooring, landing on a slightly raised surface that felt more stable than the rest.
"...?"
Then Kevin suddenly paused.
The faint flow he had been following… had grown stronger. Not by much but enough to stand out.
'So there's something.'
Interest flickered.
He adjusted his stance and continued forward, this time with more intent. Each step brought a clearer pattern into view, leading somewhere deeper within the cathedral.
The ground gradually dipped, forming a shallow decline.
The pillars thinned out with the space opening and at the center of it all, something faintly glimmered.
Kevin came to a stop at the edge of the depression.
His eyes fixed on the center.
"…Well."
A quiet breath escaped him.
"Guess I found something after all."
Floating just above the ground was a core. Small and roughly the size of a human skull.
Different colors of light bled from within it, casting faint ripples into the surrounding space.
It didn't look natural.
It didn't feel natural.
And yet—
It didn't feel hostile either.
"…What are you supposed to be?"
Growing intrigued, he decided to get close and personal just enough to get a better look.
The moment his foot crossed into the depression, the air changed.
It wasn't immediate, nor was it forceful.
The faint currents of mystic energy that had guided him here began to converge, no longer fragmented or erratic. They flowed toward the core as if drawn by an unseen gravity.
The light within it flared briefly, colors bleeding into one another before settling again into a dim, shifting glow.
Kevin stopped and observed it further.
The distortion around the core grew clearer now that he was closer. The space around it seemed to have been distorted to a sublte degreed. it was difficult to tell where it truly began or ended, as if it existed slightly out of phase with everything else like it wasn't fully here.
Tilting his head slightly, he murmered:
"…Could this be some kind of Shadow Core?"