Mana Crystal
[You have slain Ghosty Spectre Lv. 16]
[143 System Points Obtained]
[You have slain Ghosty Spectre Lv. 16]
[147 System Points Obtained]
[You have leveled up]
[You have 3 bonus stat points]
Seeing that the battle was won, Roland remembered his objective. Rolling towards the inside of the cave, he found a small tunnel that led deeper into the mountain. It was time to complete the quest. Making his way into the tunnel, he traveled for a while, before coming to a large cavern inside the cave.
In the center, was suspended and large, blue crystal. A pillar of rock that extended from a pool below the crystal and another that came from the roof were pointing the the crystal, but they didn't see to connect in any way, so it was a mystery how the crystal was held in the air. A part of the roof was open, revealing the red sky. The sun was starting to set, painting the sky a bright red.
The pool of water below shimmered and sparkled, illuminated by the light from the sun. Heading over to it, Roland could see that the mana in the water was abundant, but it paled in comparison to the crystal. To his spirit sense, it was as bright as the sun that appeared in the sky.
"Ding!"
[Quest Complete]
'About time.' He thought. Opening the quest, he collected the reward.
[50 System Points obtained]
[Thunder Beam Added to your Skill List]
[Issuing Third Quest]
The second Roland heard the word thunder Beam, his heart skipped a beat. This was amazing! He could already envision himself, shooting a giant beam made of lightning at his enemies. He had to find a time to test that.
Saving the thought for later, he opened the next part of the quest.
[Chained Quest: Hidden Mana Source]
[Part Three]
[Requirements for completion:]
[Store the mana crystal in the Spacial Storage]
[Rewards:]
[30 SP]
[System Upgrade]
'Already!?!' Was what thought when he saw this. The system had already upgraded once, and he thought it would be a lot longer until it did so again.
This quest was a bit too easy. Flying in the air, he went towards the crystal. When he floated close enough, he could feel a strange, magnetic force attracting him towards it. Propelled by the force, Roland lightly bumped into the crystal.
"Tink!"
The collision made a strange sound, that echoed in the cave. Immediately, Roland attempted to store the crystal in the storage.
[ERROR]
[Not Enough Space]
Then he remembered. He had stored that carcass in his storage earlier, just to test if time really didn't pass inside. He took it out, checking the results. The corpse came out, looking exactly like when he had put it in. He could still see the blood, which still hadn't dried yet.
He kept it to one side of the cave, then stored the crystal.
[Quest Complete]
The quest was done in a matter of seconds.
Just when he was going to claim the rewards, he remembered something important. Since the system would take a while to upgrade, it would be best if he bought a language related skill now. He opened the shop, looking for what he needed.
[Basic Language Understanding] [250 SP]
[Allows you to learn a language from text and/or speech]
This time, he didn't hesitate. The faster he developed, the better. He needed to know more about this world, and those humans were his best bet right now.
[Purchasing Basic Language Understanding for 250 SP]
[Confirm?]
[Yes] [No]
'Yes.'
[Basic Language Understanding Added to your Skill List]
Now that he was done, he went ahead and claimed the quest rewards.
[Collecting Reward]
[20 SP Obtained]
[System Updating]
[Approximate Update time: 5 days]
The system would take five days to update this time. Just as he was going to leave, could hear footsteps coming from the tunnel connected to the cavern.
'Crap!' The three people outside had stopped celebrating and were now heading towards him!
Not wanting to reveal his identity, he froze. The strange magnetic force was still holding him in the air, where the crystal used to be. He wasn't sure what they would do if they found a moving rock that could do magic, but he doubted it would be good. Now, he could see them entering the cavern. The one in the green coat was leaning against the orange haired one. They looked haggard, all of them were walking, albeit unsteadily, from exhaustion. When they saw him, he could see their eyes light up slightly, and they started talking. Strangely, he could understand small snippets of their conversation.
"#### crystal?" one of them asked, "What's ####"
Another one replied, saying something about mana. Slowly, Roland could understand more and more of their language. They continued talking. He could hear them, talking about how someone must have gotten here before they had and stole the mana crystal using some kind of artifact to get by the two creatures outside.
'Close enough.' He thought, since he was the one that stole the crystal in the first place.
It was then that they noticed the corpse in the corner. They became uneasy, but they calmed down after assuming it was food for the creatures. After listening to their conversation, Roland finally leaned their names. The one in the green coat was Aaron, the one with the orange hair was Autumn, and the person that used the two blue swords was Faloan.
They sat down in the opposite corner from the corpse, and Aaron took a piece of bread from a pouch on his waist. Roland could tell they didn't have much food left, from how empty the pouch was and the looks on their faces.
After eating, they curled up on the ground to rest. They conversed in low tones that Roland could scarcely hear.
"Why did they leave that rock in the center?" Autumn asked.
Faloan answered in a low tone,"Without the mana crystal, the cave would collapse, and that would alert the creatures outside, so the person that came here before us must have placed that rock there to prevent that from happening."
"How does the rock prevent the cave from collapsing?" asked Aaron, "Doesn't it constantly require mana to do so?"
Faloan replied to the question,"Can't you tell the rock has mana in it? It isn't as abundant as the mana in a mana crystal, but it can still keep the cave in a stable condition."
They continued talking until eventually, their voices died down and they started snoring. The two moons, one smaller than the other, floated over the horizon, appearing in the night sky.
However, Roland didn't move. He knew what they said was likely true, and he could feel his mana being sapped away. The good news was, his mana was replenishing just as quickly as it was being taken away. If he ran out of mana, the cave would collapse, based on the words of Faloan.
The night passed uneventfully, and the blizzard calmed down a bit. By morning, the only traces left of it were the small dunes of snow at the entrance to the cave.
Yawning, Autumn rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He nudged the other two awake.
"Huh?"
"Did something happen?"
Autumn rolled his eyes.
"It's snowing outside!"
"Wait what!" Aaron was suddenly wide awake.
"You mean to the say the blizzard is gone?" asked Faloan. When Autumn replied with a nod, they all ran outside. When they got the the cave's entrance, they stopped.
Indeed, the blizzard that was there had disappeared.
'That was over faster than I expected,' thought Faloan. He had thought they would be trapped in the cave for a few more days at least. Before they left though, Faloan had to bring something with him.
He motioned for Autumn and Aaron to go outside and wait for him. They gave him quizzical looks, but stood in the snow to wait.
Faloan ducked into the cave, and the other two waited nervously outside. A moment later, the cave started rumbling, cracks appearing on part of the mountain side, before it collapsed. Through the dust in the air, Faloan appeared, clutching a rock with blue veins in his hand. It was Roland, and Faloan was taking him with them.
"Why did you bring that along?" Autumn asked.
"Why do you think?" Faloan said, "This rock definitely has some form of value, given the amount of mana inside."
The other two seemed to believe his explanation, and they looked out at the snowy mountaintop. Now, they had to find a way home.