Maxwell walked, feeling the world slowly get more and more devoid of mana. As he reached the cave, he could sense that all the mana around the cave was rushing into it like a flood.

  He observed the trio near the cave while slowly approaching them.

  Soldier – Lvl 22

  Archer – Lvl 23

  Priest – Lvl 20

  A priest? So, are there actual gods in this world? Maxwell thought. He supposed it was unsurprising, as the system was quite open about this until now. Still, building your entire class around someone else felt wrong. Maxwell didn’t think these gods were actually holy or anything. If anything, they were probably very powerful creatures.

  He walked slowly towards the group like he was taking a stroll. He didn’t know why the soul attribute gave him this much protection against this, but it was really welcome.

  First to discover him was, unsurprisingly, the archer. This was a man in his thirties with a dirty beard and a skinny body. He wore leather armor, and Maxwell could see that it was riddled with holes and all sorts of marks. There was a feeling of alertness in his disposition, and despite his looks, a glint of cunningness shone in his eyes.

  “We have an unexpected visitor.” The man spoke, and his voice was smooth for someone looking so rough. He pulled his bow back as he trained it on Maxwell.

  “Who are you?” He asked in a careful tone. Maxwell could see that the man was exhausted from standing where he was for who knows how long.

  “Just a merchant passing by,” Maxwell answered as he continued to walk towards them. “You guys are exhausted, so please don’t start a fight.” He added.

  “How are you so unbothered by... this?” the man said, pointing towards the air with his head.

  “I’m honestly unsure, are you here for a mission like the others?” Maxwell asked surprised by the civility of the man.

  “Who did you meet?” the man asked, his eyes narrowing. Maxwell gazed at the other two. The priest's eyes were closed as he was praying silently with uninterrupted focus.

  The soldier on the other hand looked relatively unbothered by the atmosphere. She was looking at Mawell with wariness, and something else?...

  “I’ve met Audra and two youngsters. They were having difficulties progressing.”

  The woman spoke for the first time upon hearing this. “I told them to go back! Stubborn little shits.” She said in an annoyed tone.

  “Don’t be like that, Ellie, there is hardly any danger left in the forest.” The archer tried to calm down the woman. He seemed a bit relaxed after discovering that Maxwell was not an aggressive party.

  The woman, though, was far from calm, but she chose to turn her attention back to Maxwell. Maxwell could feel an observation from the woman as she scrutinized him with weird eyes. Maxwell suddenly felt like he was a gem appraised by a jeweler.

  “A level 21 mage at your age? Come a couple of years later, and we will have some fun, kid.” The woman said, licking her lips. Maxwell didn’t really expect to hear something like that, so he just sent the woman a weird look.

  He ignored the woman’s blunt way of flirting for now. He definitely didn’t want to consider such things with a body like he had now. However, the said body seemed to be reaching adulthood at an accelerated rate.

  “Oh, hard to get, I like it.” The woman named Ellie seemed not to care about that, though. The archer sighed, looking at her. “Stop, Ellie. Just, Stop.” He said in an exhausted voice.

  He withdrew his bow but still held it ready for any danger. He threw a gaze back at the cave for a second before turning back to Maxwell.

  “I’m Erne. May I have your name, Merchant?” He asked. His voice suggested that he definitely didn’t believe he was a merchant, but he seemed to accept the lie as usual.

  “I got used to using Merchant as a name, you might as well use that,” Maxwell answered before approaching the cave a bit more. “What exactly are you guys trying to achieve here?” he asked.

  Erne looked a bit conflicted about whether he should answer the question for a moment, but for a change, this man seemed to be friendly by nature despite his looks.

  “I probably shouldn’t say anything, but the mission is fucked anyway. The big shots in the city wanted us to get a dog for them from the forest. Apparently, it’s very precious or something, but I doubt they realized what they were sending us against.” The man threw a nervous glance towards the cave once more.

  “What’s in there?” Maxwell was curious about the whole ordeal from the start, but it seemed that this was really caused by some animal after all.

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  “We are not sure. There is certainly something inside, though.” The man turned his back on him to demonstrate something. He nocked an arrow before shooting it towards the cave.

  Maxwell watched the arrow flying as he pulled additional power from his other mind to follow it better. The arrow flew, and Maxwell’s eyes widened, seeing something very familiar.

  When the arrow approached the 50-meter mark, it started to lose mana rapidly before Maxwell’s senses. Maxwell could see that Erne’s attack contained some mana from the skill he used, but this was not all which was being sucked out. The arrow itself, the wood, the arrowhead, and everything composing the attack started to lose their fundamental mana.

  Isn’t this my magic carving? Maxwell asked himself, confused by the event. This at least hinted at why the soul attribute protected him against the pressure in the air.

  Magic carving shouldn’t be possible without the soul attribute, as it’s a derivative of mana infusion. He came to a conclusion in a small time frame as he watched the arrow lose all the mana it had. After a point, the arrow's integrity couldn’t stand its velocity, and it dissolved in the air due to friction, turning into dust.

  “I see,” Maxwell said thoughtfully. He could see that the archer was not regenerating any mana. If he took a step forward, absorption would overtake his regeneration, making him lose his mana.

  He could see that was the case for the priest, but Maxwell was surprised to see that whatever the guy was doing by praying was working to protect him moderately. He was still regenerating mana despite losing some of it all the time.

  “I will check it out, I assume you guys can’t move any further?” he asked the group.

  “I still don’t understand how you are unaffected. Don’t you feel your strength leaving you?” Erne asked him in wonder. The guy seemed to respect his ability more than he envied it.

  “We will see soon,” Maxwell said before walking towards the cave. At this point, one of them finally noticed Blueberry standing on Maxwell’s satchel. The bird was still a bit cautious of people, so she hid when Maxwell approached the group.

  “What the hell?” Ellie screamed as she pointed at the bird. She was speechless. They couldn’t stand the pressure, but a little bird could?

  Maxwell looked at Erne helplessly and found the man gaping at him, finally losing his calmness. He sighed before moving towards the cave.

  With every single step, he could feel the weird feeling of pressure increase. When he was standing around ten meters from the cave, he was surprised to see that some of his regeneration was disappearing into the cave.

  So I’m only partially immune? This seemed to be the case, but he didn’t want to yield without trying to fix this. He focused on his mana stream inside his blood vessels. Unlike working on Blueberry, he could do this on himself much more accurately. He sent the steam a simple command, as it was proven that it worked.

  You are mine.

  He was startled to hear the last part echoing inside his mind, once more spoken by countless voices. Whatever this effect was, fighting it seemed impossible without the etherium soul. He felt his strength drain a bit as the trait activated once more today.

  Elementary Soul Manipulation Leveled Up Lvl-12→13

  Guide Mana Leveled Up Lvl-71→73

  Prima Sense Leveled Up Lvl-55→56

  Soul’s Voice Leveled Up Lvl-60→63

  Mana Infusion Leveled Up Lvl-55→56

  He still couldn’t understand what he did, but it seemed to have worked. The mana stopped flowing towards the cave as he once more had his full regeneration. If it hadn’t been for Maxwell being alert with his Prima Sense completely turned on, he might not have noticed that his regeneration was going down in the first place. His mana was full at the moment after all.

  He finally reached the mouth of the cave after a final couple of steps. He gazed back at the mercenary group once more. They were watching him with immense focus. Even the priest seemed to be awake as he was sacrificing his mana for this. He waved at them before finally entering the cave.

  Contrary to his expectations, this cave was not dark by any means. At least, the entrance was not. He could see the cave went on for quite a distance before curving right. He started walking once more, his steps echoing from the walls.

  The cave had a weird quality that took some time to identify. It was incredibly clean. No lifeform lived here due to mana drain. They couldn’t create any mold or something equally dirty.

  He could feel the feeling of heaviness increase as he traveled into the cave, but the draining never came back as his command settled inside his mana stream.

  After he took the right turn at the end of the cave, he was faced with a scene he didn’t expect at all.

  In front of him, there was an open space with a width of around 50 meters carved into the rock. The weird thing about this space was the fact that it was absolutely saturated with mana. It was to a degree that Maxwell turned down his prima sense to be able to see.

  The weird things didn’t end here. Apart from being absolutely saturated with mana, the room was covered with a foliage thicker than Maxwell had ever seen. The walls were green with immensely thick moss, and the ground was covered with grass that punctured through rock like regular soil. There were no trees, but he could see mushrooms the size of trees inside the cave.

  It was like all of the life taken from the forest was concentrated inside this cave. The weirdest element of the room, though, was something he expected to find.

  In the middle of the room, there was a yellow dog and a puppy with the same color of fur. They looked completely unassuming, and Maxwell could see the puppy playing with a nearby piece of plant. Maxwell observed both as he guessed that the mother had detected him already.

  Puppy – Lvl-3

  ??????????????????

  That’s not ominous at all... Maxwell thought as he saw the notification, watching his theory of this being caused by a phenomenon instead of a creature crumble.

  The dog slowly turned his head towards him, and Maxwell’s idea that the animal looked unassuming was shattered as its blue eyes locked onto his.

  Maxwell felt like he was falling towards the eyes, as a feeling of eternity consumed him. He found himself looking at those blue eyes for what felt like uncountable years as he felt his sense of self getting consumed by the endless time.

  He felt the universe around him, but it felt trivial. Just a tiny universe among others, doomed to disappear eventually like the others before it. The feeling of apathy was unexplainable.

  And, suddenly, the world returned as the illusion was instantly shattered by a simple voice that pierced through everything. It didn’t have any quality; it just existed.

  “So, you arrived at last.”