Chương 76: Chapter 77: Adventure Times (III)

Whatever magic had pulled Ember through the wall and dropped him in the chamber left him feeling queasy. A knot of uneasiness grew in his stomach with every second, and what his senses were picking up from his surroundings only made it worse. The temperature in the chamber was on the cooler side. It wasn't quite freezing, but close. The space stretched a couple of hundred metres in every direction, enclosed by rough walls with little to no runes engraved on them.

The most striking and unnerving were the streams of current running along them. Purple, jet-black, dark pink, every shade of antithetical current swept past the walls and moved deeper into the region. Something about them unnerved Ember so much that he made sure to keep as much distance from them as possible. Stranger still, the wall he'd come through was nowhere to be found. It was as if he'd been teleported from the other side and spawned randomly out here.

Hopefully Dawn will figure it out soon, he thought, sitting down. The best idea would be to sit tight and wait for her to turn up. But then he noticed the frightening currents running overhead, their light illuminating the surroundings, and decided it might be wiser to rest somewhere else. They looked like lightning mixed with something else—something magical, something most definitely deadly. As far as he knew, lightning always sought to be grounded. Here, it travelled freely, without any medium.

Magic was the only explanation that made sense. Normally, when Ember came across something like this, he'd want to tinker around and figure out its intricacies. Here, however, he kept his distance. He couldn't quite put his finger on why, but he had an intuitive sense that messing with these currents in any way would be a very bad idea. He decided to find somewhere safer. But before he left, he made sure to leave a message.

Bringing out his new Tier 6 sabre, he etched a few words for Dawn, in case she teleported here. He also carved an arrow mark wherever he went. There was only one straight pathway from there, the currents running overhead the whole way. Even where it diverged into separate archways, the currents split along with it, some following each direction. At least they thinned out a bit in intensity. Ember chose the direction with the lowest intensity of current, and the constant alarm buzzing in his head eased a little.

That relief proved premature, as soon as the path narrowed after about half a mile. Assuming the other branches were likely similar, he pressed on. He had to hunch as he made his way carefully. Even with all his carefulness, he still felt an uncanny prickle on his skin whenever he rounded a corner where some of their power dispersed into the air. It gave him goosebumps, and despite the dread gripping his chest, he couldn't deny the currents were as fascinating as they were deadly.

Then, finally, Ember spotted one or two fist-sized gems embedded in the wall. They were dark sapphire, cut too large to be anything common, but more significantly, the currents seemed to bounce away whenever they drew close to the gemstone. That could only mean one thing.

"It's something valuable," he muttered. Well, even if it isn't, I can still use it to repel these currents. With his decision made, Ember unsheathed his blade and carefully began prying at the black granite, careful that his sword avoided damaging the gem. It looked to be something tough, but you never know with magic. He had to work at an angle, unable to bring his full strength to bear.

Though the granite wall was not as tough as the grand entrance had been, he still had to channel a good deal of mana into his blade to prick at its surface. After carefully prying around the gemstone for minutes, he finally managed to work it loose. If there was a rune formation holding it in place, his prying likely broke it, and the gemstone dropped free. It rolled across the ground and came to rest between his legs.

Ember was just beginning to relax, a smile of relief curling his lips, when the currents that were being repelled from the wall before his tinkering surged towards his sword. He tried to jolt away. But even with Blitz Steps improving so much, he was still slower than the freaking lightning. Immediately, an electrifying sensation coursed through his arm and shot straight toward his mana centre. He jerked away, his form vaulting backwards in a spree, but the damage was already done.

A thick blanket of darkness covered his sight as he collapsed onto the hard floor. Ember found himself thoroughly incapable of defending against whatever struck him. Thankfully, his consciousness returned within a few seconds. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Light-headed, he groaned and sat upright. More than the pain, what left him at unrest was the upheaval surging within his mana system. Even he found his will was inadequate to fight it.

Thankfully, whatever residual force the currents had left in him dwindled as time passed. Still, it took considerable effort and a dozen cycles of his mana circulation to finally bring the chaos from running loose. The gemstone lay beside him, and he instinctively reached to pick it up, only for his wits to return as he hesitated at the very last moment. He got up and nudged it with his boot instead, to see if there'd be any reaction.

Finding none, he tried casting his new spell, Sensate, pushing a sliver of mana toward the gleaming stone. To his dismay, just as it had repelled those blighted currents, his own mana bounced off its surface too, akin to how the same poles of a magnet pushed against one another.

"This is going to be more useful than I thought," he said, finally picking it up. He could probably sell it for a good sum, but he had no intention of doing so, not after discovering its remarkable characteristics. If it could repel all kinds of mana, or even spells and attacks born of mana, he could already imagine countless uses for it. In his opinion, it would be far too hasty to let one go, no matter the price offered. With the electrifying jolt still fresh in his mind, Ember held the gemstone aloft.

Its sapphire glow shone as he tentatively raised it toward the currents. At once, the purple and dark light shifted course to avoid the stone, much to his relief.

"Yeah, this is too good to sell," he muttered. But if I manage to find a few more lying here and there, maybe I can bear to part way with one or two. With his mind settled, Ember carried on, one hand holding the sapphire, the other gripping the hilt of his Tier 6 blade. He stopped only when he found another gem of its kind after rounding a corner. A huge grin split his face. Working as carefully as before, he pried open the gemstone without damaging it at all.

This time, when the gemstone dropped and the current surged toward him, he simply held up the sapphire in alarm to shield himself. There was no need to worry about the dispersing force striking him now that he had a stone to defend himself with. He stowed the new one away in his bag and carried on. After collecting a few more sapphire gems, Ember began to suspect they weren't embedded in the wall merely to repel the currents, but to direct their flow in a certain direction.

"Hopefully, stealing them won't cause some kind of short circuit." As he walked, a part of his mind was busy finding a name for the gemstones. He wasn't delusional enough to think he was the first person to come across it. They were cut into fine portions, so whoever had placed them clearly knew their purpose, even though he couldn't recall reading about anything like them in his clan's archive. Perhaps they'd simply become rare in this day and age. Thinking it over, he decided to call them Manathema.

Not a very scientific name, but it's pretty self-explanatory. Hell, it's not even a word, but he liked it. After covering a few more miles, Ember had collected five more of the gems and reached where the currents finally faltered. The narrow pathway opened into a wider expanse once again, larger than even where he was first spawned. There was nothing much to note either, other than a narrow stream running alongside it.

The liquid flowing through the stream was dark, almost tar-like, though it seemed lower in density. It barely seemed to move. Even as the colourful array of currents fell upon it, there was hardly a ripple. More notably, the currents seemed to ground themselves in the stream; barely any dispersed once they made contact with the dark water. Morbid curiosity drew him closer to its banks, even as a sense of dread gripped his heart.

Ember might only be Tier 6, but he had sharp instincts for his rank to know that what he was about to attempt was not sound. Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the dark water could be just as dangerous as the lightning currents. The discharge of the current had already jolted him still once, and he was still a little light-headed, his mana noticeably dampened. He could only imagine what the liquid might do to him. He didn't think the currents were simply concentrating here and turning into liquid.

They seemed too volatile to transform so easily. It might be some other substance entirely, something that could calm that unruly force and carry it along as its medium. Still burning with insatiable curiosity, Ember tried to cast his Sensate again, only to find he was out of mind mana. He clicked his tongue and glanced at his sword, but decided not to risk it. Instead, he gathered some stone splinters and pebbles and tossed them into the stream. Again, barely a ripple showed on the surface.

The pebbles were simply gone. Still unsatisfied, he looked around for something else he could use, and after a few minutes of thought, he pulled out a couple of empty vials from all the potions he had ingested. Someday, my curiosity and greed will be the death of me, he thought, taking a deep breath before edging along the bank of the stream. Hopefully it isn't today. He first tried guiding a thread of mana towards the stream in a telekinetic pull, meaning to draw some of the liquid into a vial.

But the moment his mana touched the surface, the jet-black substance devoured it, pulling more out of him. Ember cut the connection and tried again. To his dismay, none of his attempts bore any fruit. And he already lost a great deal of mana. This feels too reckless, he thought. Even with his gloved hand, his palm tensed as it inched towards the dark water.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a familiar voice said. Ember spun around to see Dawn, only to find an eight-legged little mechanical arachnid lying there.