Chương 79: Chapter 80: The Sea of Bitterness

Dawn spent over three hours recovering the mural painting, cutting it out herself from the stone wall. Ember asked if he could help, but she persuaded him not to, telling him that more hands might spoil the artwork. The task needed some precise work, she had said. She'd call him when she needed something broken. Even still, it shouldn't have taken three full hours, not after Ember had seen her masterful work in various other instances.

But when it came to that mural, she moved at a snail's pace, painstakingly careful with every move she made, lest she damage the image. She also laid some preservation runescript on it while she was at it. After finishing carving out the stone painting of the Executioner and the Lady of Light, she gazed at the image one last time. That was who the other figure was, according to her. Then, the two-metre-tall and four-metre-wide stone section disappeared into her inventory as if it had never existed there.

Ember didn't ask how much space she had left in her inventory. He'd assumed it wasn't much when she said he wouldn't be taking any waste from the goblins. But that certainly wasn't the case, as evidenced by the massive slab she just stowed away.

"Well, where to now?" he asked. She spared him a smile.

"Now that I have handled the heavy stuff, let's explore a little more. Then we'll find a way out. One of my constructs is already working on finding an exit." There were a couple more empty chambers near the laboratory. They were mostly empty, containing only hearths and crafting stations. If there had been anything valuable, it had already been stripped long ago. There was a meeting room and another that seemed to be for loading materials. Unfortunately, both lay bare, steeped in dust.

There seemed to be nothing left other than the hearths, built into the walls. But Dawn didn't fancy those, and he lacked the equipment to carry them. Ember found a few scraps of metal as they finally turned towards the path that led to the exit. They were nothing as good as his Manathema or the nail daggers, but would fetch a good few coins according to Dawn. As they moved, Ember was almost sure that they were returning through the path they had come from.

Although there was some spatial manipulation at work here, the region wasn't really that spacious. After covering only a couple more miles, they found themselves at the grand gate which would lead them out of the catacomb. There was just one small problem.

"Ah, looks like it'll be more difficult to leave than I imagined," Dawn said, observing the abyssal currents running all over the place.

"I guess that explains why nobody has known of its existence for so long." The gate was a wall, similar to the one they'd entered. Standing over twenty-five feet, it was layered with various shapes and decorations of runes. The addition that gave them pause was the abyssal currents running around its stone surface, making it much more difficult for Dawn to work her magic within them.

"Tell me we won't be locked here forever," Ember said, turning towards Dawn.

"We won't be locked here for long," Dawn said, and began bringing out supplies from her inventory.

"But we will be here for some hours or days." She handed them to him one by one. There were containers for oil, butter, spices, and jerky, dried vegetables and fruits in neat little packages.

"Don't worry, there are more where they came from," she said.

"Adding the fasting potions, I have enough supplies for half a year easily." Noticing that her voice wasn't reassuring him, she quickly added, "But I definitely wouldn't take as long to open the gate. A week or two at worst." Ember trusted her confidence. So he took all the supplies and began preparing for their lunch, or dinner. He wasn't sure. After spending the last few days in the subterranean region, his circadian rhythm was completely busted to know what hour it was.

Dawn was very particular about what she ate. Although she had no problem drinking fasting potions, if she were to have a meal, she liked it well cooked and delicious. For the little cooking they'd done in the last few days, she was the one to do most of the work. Despite Ember insisting that he had some cooking skills he'd learned from his mother, she hadn't let him take over. Of course, most of her cooking was limited to making hot chocolate or beverages.

But he was still glad to see her placing more faith in his abilities. With his new Attunement, Ember had no trouble making the fire himself while Dawn went to work on the gate. With all the herbs and spices, it wasn't difficult to make some good roasted jerky. Since he had someone to impress, he decided to add a soup to the menu while he was at it.

"I'll need three more of those mirror stones," Dawn said, approaching him. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Ember handed them to her, fishing them out of his bag without questioning.

"Are you planning on isolating these abyssal currents from the doors to work on their mechanics?" She nodded.

"It's actually quite brilliant, you know. Somehow, the mage had ensured the abyssal currents won't destabilise or destroy the rune formation in the gate, despite there being so much of it concentrating on the gate. I need to tinker around a bit more to see exactly what I require to open it." He nodded. Although the entrance and this exit appeared to be exactly the same, the mechanics of how they work seemed completely dissimilar. Then there was the added difficulty of working with abyssal currents.

The next time she returned, Ember had already finished his cooking and was preparing to serve.

"How's your luck?" he asked.

"I've figured it out," she said nonchalantly.

"Rejoice, my little protégé, we won't be staying here for a day."

"Truly?" She beamed.

"It's easier to find a workaround than I anticipated." She paused, wondering if she should explain.

"I didn't know if it was the creator's original intention, but I can open the gate by running some abyssal currents through a specific wire cantrip in the gate."

"And how are you going to do that?" Ember asked, tilting his head.

"Is it by manipulating the repelling effect of those Manathemas?"

"Manathema?" Dawn cocked an eyebrow.

"Is that what you've been calling it?" He shrugged.

"It explains what they do, and sounds better than mirrorstones." Dawn didn't hide her smile as she sat down.

"You seem to have made a lot in these few minutes." Ember smiled.

"Do you have any other bowls or containers with you?"

"I have a set of plates and glasses."

"I guess they'll do. Give me a pair." While he served, Dawn prepared the water. She first conjured up a sprinkle of water with her magic and then mixed something from a small container.

"Minerals," she said.

"They're essential. Without them, pure water is pretty useless." He nodded, though he couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure about the quantity? As far as I know, while having no minerals is bad, too many may also cause problems."

"Don't worry. I've had a full primer on how to use all kinds of potions and supplies from a young age." That put him at ease.

"Honestly, I'm a little surprised that you know about it. Although there are so many holes in your knowledge of magic, you know some odd little things about almost everything."

"Information on magic isn't free," he said simply.

"Ha, that reminds me, I've got a couple of books on the fundamentals of Mana, Spells and Runes. I can give them to you if you want. They're a little advanced for you perhaps, but they'll be useful later." Although Ember wanted to agree with her offer immediately, he hesitated.

"You are such a worrywart. I've no need for them. I've probably memorised them word by word at this point. Besides, they're books of fundamentals and theory, nothing too valuable."

"Well, I'm not so sure about that."

"You need to widen your horizon a little, my dear Protégé." As they ate and made small talk, Dawn asked if there was anything he wanted pointers on. Ember was quite unsure at first. Looking at his skill set, there were only so many skills she could help him train in. The first on the list was, obviously, Mana Weaving. Although Ember seemed to have got the hang of the skill and even managed to advance it to +3, his mastery of it remained quite elementary.

At his current proficiency, he could weave six threads simultaneously, but dividing his will any further would destabilise everything.

"It's more of a problem with your will than your mental faculty," Dawn said.

"With split focus, it should be effortless to get to nine threads after a few days of training. That reminds me, have you thought about acquiring the Will Enforcement skill yet?" Ember shook his head.

"I'm still thinking of leaving the decision until after I go out of this dungeon."

"That's fair. Though getting that skill would've been a great help for any kind of mana work, spellcrafting or runes."

"You have it too, I presume?" Ember asked.

"A will-related skill is pretty standard for a mage, specifically for higher-tier magics. Not just spells, I must add." Ember sighed.

"You're almost making me regret not taking the skill yet."

"A few days of indecision wouldn't hurt that much," she said.

"And there's still room for improvement. You do any exercise related to Will? You've gained the skill prompt for Will Enforcement, so I thought your teachers had taught you a few of those." That gave him pause as he ruminated through all his mana training, trying to find anything related to what she was saying.

"I'm not sure," he said after a moment of thought.

"There was a mage who gave me a few tips in my early days. A little of it was related to Will, and how I should apply it while training mana." Ember explained to her what Lady Evelyn had taught him. It had been a game-changer during his younger years, but now that his requirements had grown with age, he found that exercise too limiting.

"That's not bad," Dawn acknowledged.

"At least you weren't led astray in this direction. You can continue regulating your Will through the same circulation method without mana. Try to give it a form, insubstantial as it may be."

"Circulate Will alone," Ember muttered.

"How do I do that?"

"Well, as you said before," Dawn said, "you make a pair of metaphorical hands and go from there. Your harmony with your mana is great, but while your Will is still substantial, it's more of an unpolished block of jade than something finer. The exercise is to teach you to easily apply your will.

"There are some advanced meditations related to Will. I'll teach you later, but first let's break this blasted door open." Despite her earlier confidence, it still took her three or four attempts to finally lay out the sapphires before blasting the formation open by manipulating the abyssal currents. The difficulty lay in how impossible it seemed to manipulate those nanathemas.

Ember watched it all with bated breath as she had to conjure up kinetic force of sufficient strength to keep those mana-hating sapphires aligned in a very particular way to channel the abyssal currents. The task was tough enough that Dawn had to shed a few drops of sweat despite the freezing temperature.

"Oh, wow!" she muttered, flopping down on her back once she was finished.

"I just got a level in Will Enforcement. That hadn't happened for a long time. Now that the adventure is coming to an end, I can say that this trip is well worth it with just the upgrade alone." The stone entrance was now well lit in the negative colours of those abyssal currents. Cogs and gears creaked and rolled, as finally a gap opened in the unmovable gate. And from there came a blast of frigid wind.

The squalling winds seemed to have the same properties as the abyssal currents, biting at his mana foundation like a lightning eel. Something tells me our adventure isn't ending yet. It wasn't the exit they'd thought it would be.