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The Cavern

Asher, Owen, Noah, and the rest of the team had arrived at the end of the tunnel that led to a cavern. Just when they were ten metres away, Asher signalled for them to stop.

The walls of the tunnel had a special feature that could limit the mental scouting techniques of even Asher, however, he could till see up to fifteen metres away. By focusing on a straight line, he could see up to twenty-five metres away. This had mostly to do with Asher's special mental techniques otherwise, the distance would have been more limited.

This distance might seem but one should know that the normal eye vision of the human eye, that is the maximum distance the eye can see 'normally'[1] or clearly, was merely six metres away in one direction. Even for third-stage Guardians, the average was a bit less than ten metres in the direction the eyes were facing whereas mental vision could enable one to take in the 'sight' around them all at once.

As this was a tunnel, there was no need to utilize the discoidal or 360° vision. But even still, the linear mode was enough and superior to regular vision as it enabled Asher to see farther distances even from this position, and clearly at that.

"What's wrong?" Owen asked.

"Something's off." Asher replied.

"Don't make any noise. Reduce the sound of your footsteps as much as possible. If you can't, cover the soles of your shoes with a clothing to muffle the sounds. Minimize the sound of your breathing to the best you can. Use the technique I thought you to hold in your mana and reduce leakage. I don't know what's up ahead, but my guts tell me it can wipe us out in an instant."

Originally, the team was curious as to why Asher had given so many instructions, despite all the precautions they had carried out along the way. However, after hearing the last sentence, any and all questions were kept aside as they scurried to do as he had said.

While Asher didn't tell them much, he did inform them about the typical behaviours and abilities of shadow-beasts and they found this to be true in their battles. The only remaining feature he had mentioned that they had yet to confirm was the existence of a pack leader, commonly known as the Zeta. Now though, the current preparations Asher made them take seemed to imply that they had approached its lair.

As for the technique Asher mentioned, it was something he taught them along the way to help improve their stealth. It was a skill from his past life but could easily be used in this life.

Until the Heroic stage (or the Dantian Opening/Formation stage), mages would constantly leak mana from their body in small proportions. Although it was little, to start with, those under this stage had little mana to begin with so any loss, while not detrimental most times, could affect one in a long heated battle.

In numerical representation, you could say they lose about 0.01% mana each hour which would mean one hundred hours (a bit above fours days, 4.16~ days) were required to lose one 1% mana. Ten thousand hours (a bit above four hundred and sixteen days, 416.66~ days) or a year and fifteen days, was then required to lose all mana in the body. Of course, by utilizing breathing techniques and training methods, one could easily recover back that mana, and recovering the mana is far easier than progressing. Hence, it's much easier to recover all lost mana for a peak rank second-stage Guardian mage than for an early rank second-stage Guardian mage to accumulate the required mana and reach that rank.

This loss was normally ignored, since long heated battles weren't common to begin with, and the loss could be regarded as negligible. But it could affect one when being hunted down, especially by professional trackers who knew how to exploit this feature to track down mages below the Heroic stage.

Monsters were known to be more sensitive to mana at times, and while this sensitivity wasn't always on par with professional trackers, it was somewhat close and even the same for stronger monsters. So one can imagine the value of the technique Asher had taught them, but to him, it was merely a simple trick.

Using the technique as well as carrying out the other precautionary measures the team managed to get seven metres closer to the exit. At this range, Asher could scan twenty-two metres into the cave in a linear path. However, the cavern was wide and large so merely scanning in a linear path wouldn't give him much information about the cave.

This resulted in Asher spreading his senses right after reaching the tunnel's exit. Although this would lead to his senses being suppressed further, it did help Asher to gain a better idea of how the cavern looked like.

'I see.' Asher's eyes glistened.

Through his mental vision, Asher could 'see' that there was another tunnel that led to this cavern. He believed that there could be more, but due to the suppression and limitation of his ability, Asher couldn't confirm his suspicions.

'I wonder what kind of ruins were this.' Asher couldn't help but think.

The murals along the way weren't anything spectacular or noteworthy to talk about; looking more like the sketches of seven-year olds than something an adult could draw. Asher could even point out a lot of similarities with those art works to that of the prehistoric man[2]. However, the existence of these shadow beasts as well as the formation of these tunnels seemed to imply otherwise.

Asher refused to believe that the prehistoric man was capable of digging such tunnels and making them this smooth. One should know that starting from the entrance of the cave where the entire incident had begun, the path had been leading downwards in an unnoticeable manner that it was very difficult to notice right away. It was only when they arrived at the junction with the three tunnels where the downward trend became obvious, looking like a slope but more stable.

The first path, from the cave till the junction, was thirty metres long, while the second path was over three hundred metres long. It was ludicrous to think that the prehistoric man could dig a tunnel this large and smoothly with only his hands and sticks. If that wasn't enough, one shouldn't forget about the magical barrier that was at the cave's entrance as well as the traps that were in the first path. Unless the prehistoric man had knowledge about mana and its usage, making such an architectural complexity like this was impossible.

However, could the prehistoric man have known about mana and magic? Asher believed it to be an absurd idea.

'Cultivation and magic is complex as it is, even for current generations. I doubt the ancients could have pulled it off. But then again, which kind of civilization could wield mana like this and still be so terrible at murals?' Asher frowned.

Reaching the exit of this tunnel made him begin to ponder on certain questions he had previously ignored or set aside. Now there was the possibility of finding the answer on the other side, Asher couldn't help but bring them back up.

The team proceeded slowly until they reached the end of the tunnel, right at the entrance of the cavern when Asher signalled them to stop. From this distance, he could 'see' fifteen metres with a wide view and twenty-five metres in a linear view.

Asher was able to confirm that there were indeed other entrances to this cavern as he spotted another tunnel in the opposite direction of the first one. Although there were just two, he was still confident that there could be more.

Now standing at the entrance, Asher glanced up ahead to get a view of the place. His optical senses might not be as clear as his mental senses but it had a longer range and that was what he needed right now.

Unlike the tunnel, the cavern had some form of lighting; a large night pearl that was embedded in the centre of the ceiling. The night pearl gave off a dim light which could barely suffice to reach the floor, but to second-stage Guardian mages, it was far better than total darkness.

From this distance, Asher could see the cavern in its true form. It was roughly about one hundred metres in diameter, and at the centre of the cavern, exactly one hundred metres away was a small stone altar about two metres tall and three metres wide, shaped like a circle. At the centre of the altar was a dessicated pale hand with only the wrist up present. It was kept 'upright' with the palm open wide and facing the ceiling.

Even though it was obviously lacking vitality, the hand gave off a domineering and unyielding feeling even with a glance from one hundred metres out. Asher couldn't help but wonder whose hand it belonged too.

Asher made a hand seal with his two hands before forming a circle with his left index and thumb fingers, and then placing the 'circle' before his left eye.

'Life Perception.' Asher muttered within his head.

Right away, the vision through his left eye switched into a grey world. Everything was grey with some 1-2 metres tall green objects around. The altar was now a mass of black and grey clouds while the hand was now a black shade in the same shape as a hand with a few tiny green spots. However, in this new perspective, Asher could see that there was something else atop the hand's palm. He couldn't say exactly what it was but it was a small white silhouette.

'Life Perception' was a spell Asher had made by combining his knowledge of both worlds to take advantage of his affinity towards wood-type mana. It allowed him to see the world in its truest essence. By exercising this spell, Asher would be able to see the true nature of most forms. The colour grey represented inanimate objects with no life force or a plain essence. Green signified living creatures while any other colour usually pointed out to the object being strongly connected to an element to the point of having its true essence related to it.

Asher suspected the green objects were most likely shadow beasts hidden within the cavern whereas the mass of black clouds that was the altar implied that it was strongly related to the darkness element; a conclusion Asher found understandable.

As for the hand, it was black with green dots which, albeit silly and absurd, showed that the hand still had a bit of life force. If someone had told him this, Asher would have found it unbelievable, after all, the hand was both cut off and dried up, so logically, it was impossible for it to still have some vitality within.

However, this was only the second mystifying fact Asher found confusing. As for the first one, it was the white dot atop the palm's hand; something Asher couldn't even see with his regular vision.

'How could that be here?!'