Chapter 433 Wide open spaces (1/2)
The expanse before me is truly deserving of that name. It's impossibly vast. How the heck can such a s.p.a.ce exist underground? Is this planet even stable? I start to become nervous about the ground beneath my feet. All of this is possible with mana, be cool Anthony. Magic planet is magically stable despite being hollow like a piece of Swiss cheese.
My eyes aren't able to penetrate the dense Shadow mana before me, visibility is only twenty metres at best. But to my mana sense, I can trace the veins that line the walls as they rise, and rise, and rise above my head, and fall the same way below my feet. The s.p.a.ce in between just feels… empty.
[Well. We found our first expanse guys. Let's head on down and see what we can see. Surely there's more to it than this.]
With Crinis riding on my back and Tiny climbing beside me we begin to make our way down the wall. It's steep and my increased size doesn't make life easy. I really need to continue to level up my grip skill if I want to be able to climb like this. I firm my resolve. It's time to go back to climbing on the ceiling, or at least the wall, as much as I can. The skill seems to level up faster now that I'm heavier, so I'll hopefully see some progress pretty quick.
Down we climb. The stone and rock is ice cold beneath my claws, much like the air around us. Insects don't like the cold much, ants are known to hibernate in winter, entire colonies going dormant and hanging out in their nests, waiting for warm weather to return. I have to admit that I feel a sluggishness that creeps into my limbs. But my Will is strong and I fight it off. It's going to take more than cold to slow this ant down.
Holy shadow mackerel! What is this I can sense? Out in the open s.p.a.ce, above my head I can sense a gigantic lifeform twisting through the air. No wait, not twisting. It's swimming? Seriously? The monsters' mana is dense and powerful, a strong core is definitely found in the heart of this beast. Not that I'm super tempted to fight it or anything, I can't even see it! It turns back on itself like an enormous snake, or elongated whale before it speeds away, vanis.h.i.+ng at the edge of my perception.
If I had lungs I'd let out a tense breath. Yikes! That is one heck of a monster! Well, there must be more stuff here, since there's no way a creature could evolve to that kind of size without feeding on something. A heap of something! Hopefully we can avoid whatever the heck it was until we learn a little more.
[Crinis, did you get a good look at that creature?]
[Yes, Master. It looked strong.]
Tiny immediately turns his head towards us before snapping it up to the air. He peers into the dark but quickly becomes frustrated, his ears twitch as his irritation builds.
[You can't fight it anyway you moron! It basically flies, you can't reach it!]
He growls, his ears drooping in disappointment.
[I'm going to 'forget' to heal you one of these days,] I threaten him.
A wide grin splits his face and he flexes his arms impressively at me, disregarding my anger. I can't help but chuckle at his antics. It's hard to stay mad at him.
[The monster was very large, and strong. But that isn't all, I sensed strong magic in it.]
[What is shadow? Or poison?]