Leon thought for a while before shifting his attention to a skill of his that had been collecting dust for a while. His <Spell Weaver> skill had been leveling up very slowly ever since he had gotten it. The main reason for that was because he had never used it to its full potential.
As the name suggested, the Spell Weaver was meant to ‘weave’ spells. This meant that its true purpose was to create spells from scratch. That said, to be able to make spells from scratch, a mage needed to be able to understand and pick apart mana when necessary. That was why Leon currently thought about using this skill to peer into the mana that made the wall so stupidly durable at this time.
Under the influence of the skill, a network of strange, silk-like webs that were intertwined with each other became exposed to Leon. At the back of his mind, he instantly knew that this was how he could perceive mana under the influence of the skill. For some reason, he felt that this was just something rather basic, and when he leveled up the skill, the way he saw the world would change drastically.
With his new vision, he turned to face the wall, instantly spotting the complex array of webs that were woven into one part of the wall. The moment he set his eyes on the woven webs of green mana, a cold feeling wrapped around his skull.
‘What nonsense is this?!’ He complained in his mind. It looked as if he was staring at sand, and he was expected to count the sand. Gritting his teeth, he continued to examine the webs of earth element mana. Slowly, with the understanding he gained from using the skill, he began to see a pattern to how the mana was woven.
He reached out with his own mana and began to untangle the intricate web. Little by little, the wall began to unravel. Minutes ticked by in silence as everyone watched Leon work. Those with high sensitivity to mana could feel the changes, as each loose string in the wall set off a small wave of fluctuations in the mana surrounding them, but they could not closely monitor Leon’s work.
Before long, a physical wave of mana blasted Leon back by several feet. The wall pulsed with green mana for five seconds before crumbling down and revealing the hidden entrance!
“Finally.” Leon sighed and released the skill. Keeping it active was draining on his mental strength, and he could not let himself get winded before the confrontation with the Orc. “Let’s go.”
The group gathered themselves and cautiously entered the cave. The luminous worms all over the ceiling of the cave lit up the place well enough that they did not need to use fire magic to provide light for navigation.
“What’s this?” At the back of the group, Harry suddenly spotted a small, broken head sized totem that was made in the image of an Orc. William stopped and turned to examine the wooden contraption before suddenly exclaiming.
“It’s a totem! This must be why the wall was so difficult to damage. The totem was reinforcing it! This means that the Orc is a Shaman, and he probably knows that we have entered the cave. We need to be careful!” Thanks to his hobby of reading bestiaries and related books, he could quickly connect the dots and figure out what sort of Orc it was that had sealed off the entrance to the cave.
Now that they knew what they would be facing, the group felt much more assured. Leon held his chin in thought for a moment before summoning Nero and having him take up the front. Together with Malaki, their shields covered the front where an attack would most likely come from. Kaladin was also summoned and made to stand in the middle with Bella and Helen. As dedicated long range combat mages, they were the most vulnerable of the group, and so they were kept in the middle where it would be much harder to take them out.
William and his brother brought up the back, while Adrian walked beside Leon.
Leon thought it was quite funny how everyone got to stand beside their opponent from before. Nero and Malaki, Kaladin and Bella, and him and Adrian. Bella showed obvious signs of nervousness at Kaladin’s proximity, but she managed to hold her own. As for the men, they handled it better, with Malaki being the best. He remained stoic and focused on his duty as they traveled deeper into the cave.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
After ten minutes of walking, the group finally emerged from the narrow tunnel and into a massive cavern that was so large that they would spend a couple of minutes running before they reached the other end.
“Wow…” Bella whispered as she looked around. The place was brightly lit by the massive, building sized crystals that were fixed into the cavern’s ceiling.
“Are those… Mana crystals…?” Helen held her breath. She could feel the powerful mana radiating off of the crystals, but she needed someone else to tell her she was right.
“They are.” A deep voice boomed through the cavern, setting everyone on high alert. Before they could react, chains of dark green mana extended from the ground and wrapped around their bodies, pinning them in place.
Then after that, the space around them began to shimmer, and the image of the massive, glowing cavern shattered into pieces, revealing a much more modest sized cavern that still had a large number of mana crystals embedded into the ceiling and walls. There were glowing plants, and a pool of glowing water in the far end of the cavern.
A few meters in front of them, the air bent strangely, and the Orc shaman and his slaves appeared. The Orc grinned widely, revealing his large, sharp teeth in a grin that mocked Leon’s group.
“Foolish of you to fall into my trap when you knew I was here, Necromancer.” The green skinned, three meter tall Orc laughed as he turned to face Leon.