Highway to hell...

"Wow?" No matter how many times Aiden had seen the phenomenon, it had never failed to amaze him.

And he wasn't the only one. All of them had the same feeling. And it all started when one of the slaves asked a question.

"If the crystals are broken, won't the grey cloud escape?"

Thinking about this, Kaiser couldn't help but frown. Without a cart, it would be almost impossible to carry a large crystal out of a man. Even if he could do so, it would be impossible for the slaves to do so.

Breaking the crystal was the only way out. So Kaiser picked up a hammer and hit the crystal hard. And it was obvious that it would shatter.

However, to their surprise, no matter how small the shards of the crystal are, there was a certain amount of grey cloud inside them.

Copying Kaiser, the others were trying to do the same thing, and the result was similar. Depending on the size of the crystal, all of them contain a grey cloud inside it.

Aiden did the same thing in the excitement. And the outcome was as expected. But when he tried to touch the broken part, it happened again.

However, Aiden felt it perfectly this time. It looked like a cloud, but as it entered his body, Aiden felt that a large lump of hot coal was going through his mana channel.

It was slow, and it was burning inside out as it progressed. Unable to bear the pain, Aiden rolled across the ground like a headless chicken. His scream resonated in the cavern.

Even if he had been struggling to calm down, he had lost consciousness a long time ago. Fearing that Aiden might touch another crystal, Kaiser was holding him down. Although he had the strength of a bear, it was still difficult for Kaiser.

"Ahhhh ..." Aiden's scream resounded in the cave. The moment the lump of hot mana reached his heart, or more precisely his mana core, the pain forced him to wake up.

His nose wasn't enough, like a fish on the land he was taking big gulps of air with his mouth. No matter how much he struggled, he was unable to subdue the pain. And he's lost consciousness again.

Next time, Aiden woke up with a rhythmic hammer and chisel beat.

[Due to the forceful expansion of mana channels, the mana capacity of the host is increased by 4]

[The current mana capacity: 13]

[Congratulations to the host for becoming 2nd-grade mage again.]

If it were any other time, Aiden would jump up and down in happiness, but it wasn't the time.

His head was throbbing like crazy. His chest muscles were too tired to pump air to his lungs, and on top of that his whole body was burning. Right now, all he could do was look at the bright white mana crystal on the roof.

"Didn't I tell you not to touch the mana crystal?" Kaiser cast a giant shadow as he spoke. Aiden was trying to smile at him, but it was too painful.

"Last time it was a couple of seconds, this time it was a couple of hours. Who knew next time you might be unconscious for a couple of days." Aiden could see Kaiser smiling, but he couldn't respond.

"Drink it, maybe it will help." As he spoke, he poured the liquid into his mouth. Even when he tried to swallow it, tears came out of his eyes in pain.

[Cell regeneration increased by 34%.]

[Blood flow increased by 67%]

…

The string of notifications appeared on his mind as the warm energy flowed through his body. After a few moments, his breathing returned to normal, and he was able to move around again.

"Have you been absorbing the mana?" Bearing the residual pain, Aiden sat back up slowly. Hearing Kaiser's question, he looked at the transparent crystal he was still holding. It was just an empty shell, though.

"What type of mana is it?" Kaiser was curious, "Is it your type of mana?"

"No. My mana is the wind, at most I might be able to absorb water."

"But these are neither wind nor water." Aiden's answer confused him even more. "These don't look like wind or water mana stones."

Aiden was only able to shake his head. But he has a slight idea of what kind of mana it is. The feeling he had from the mana was somewhat similar to the feeling he had from the devil.

'I'm not sure, but it could be mana of death.' Aiden wasn't too sure of that, so he chose not to talk about it. He said, "I don't know that. It'll be better if I don't touch them again.

He touched his chest as he spoke. After waking up, he had the feeling that something was constricting his heart. Something was putting it under pressure. Even if he touched it from above the skin, he had no idea what was going on inside him.

"You're not supposed to." Kaiser helped Aiden stand up.

"Thank you." Aiden was about to say it, but something else had attracted him before he could do it. Without realizing that, he walked towards the exit.

Aiden couldn't help but frowned as he stared into the depths of darkness. And it was giving off a strange vibe. Aiden had not seen any crystal or mana beast within the path, yet he did not understand what was pulling him inside.

The cave has one entrance and one exit. The entrance from where they came in and no one knew where this dark exit led to.

"Kaiser, can you show me the marker, please? "Aiden 's sudden request came as a surprise to him, but he still showed it. But when Aiden opened it, Kaiser was astounded.

"How?" Kaiser mumbled in disbelief. When he came to this cavern and saw all these high-grade mana crystals, he thought the marker was pointing to this place.

Now that Aiden had opened it, however, he found that the red line of silk inside the marker was aiming far deeper into the dark path. It was the same for Aiden, too.

[?? Mana crystal

Grade: S

Element: ??]

No matter which direction he turned his head, it was the same thing. All of the crystals are 'S-grade'. He thought this place was his destination, yet...

When he woke up again, it was like the dark path was pulling him in. It wasn't a force that drew him, it was a feeling or a voice in his mind that told him to go there.

"What's in there?" the two voices resonated. It was like Aiden and Kaiser thought the same thing, but none of them knew the answer.

"Have you collected all the mana crystals? "As Aiden had counted, they would need about 900 kg of mana crystals.

"Don't worry about the amount. Here is more than enough."

"I don't think you will take just the amount you have been told."

Kaiser smiled, "If we can we are planning to take around 200 kg more."

"Can you manage a little more for me?" Aiden said with an apologetic smile.

"That won't be a problem." Kaiser turned towards the dark path, "What about this? Are you willing?"

"It would be a lie to say that I'm not interested, but it might be dangerous." Aiden wasn't sure what to do. At the same time, he was curious but scared.

"We're going to take some rest for now. It will take almost two days to extract enough..." Kaiser could not finish his sentence before he was forced to turn to the dark path.

His hair was all in fear, and his back was wet with sweat. Aiden was a lot better than him.

"Drop your job and fall back." Aiden cried, startling everyone. In confusion, they turned to Aiden. Even if they saw his prowess, they could not ignore the order of their master.

"What the hell are you doing? Run for the entrance." And there was chaos as Kaiser shouted out. Even if they did not know the reason, they did not dare to ignore the order. They ran to the path from which they had come. Both Kaiser and Aiden withdrew from the mouth.

"What are we going to do? Fighting or running away?" Kaiser asked, but Aiden did not reply. He stared at the darkness as the earth began to shake. The red borderline appeared around it as soon as the body appeared in the darkness.

'Am I hallucinating?' His confusion has been short-lived. And the beast appeared in the cave.

It was a dog, or at least it looked like one. But it was too big to be called a dog. Even if one could ignore a nearly 3-metre-high body, Aiden couldn't help but stare at the three heads of the beast.

To his astonishment, each head had only one eye, and the middle head had an emerald-coloured eye. 'Is this an evolved version of the dogs or something?' Although he had expected an answer from the ESS, someone else answered him.

"It's a Cerberus," Kaiser said in a shaky voice.