Cal slowed when he approached Silverpine. He didn’t know where the sinkhole was, so he used [Mana Sense] to find his way. The mana tendrils weren’t meticulous with the information gathering this time, more focused on finding the massive mana reserves only Masters could possess.
It didn’t take more than a minute when he found several reserves of a similar size to his left. He made quick work of the distance when he sensed the Masters converging to one location. There were five staring at him with curiosity.
“Masters,” Cal greeted after he came to a standstill. “I received news that a friend of my mine entered the sinkhole. Is there an easy way to pull her out?”
“The only way is to destabilize the area by entering, but we cannot interfere,” the Master at the front replied. “The only way to speed up her release is to assist her.”
“I recommend carrying a mana restoration potion with you. Even we don’t know what you might face in there,” another Master recommended.
Cal nodded and patted his storage pouch. The preparations he made to kill Kaelor had been over-the-top, but those purchases would now come in handy. He had potions for mana and health in his storage pouch, but he also had his Rare-ranked Rake. He wouldn’t leave it behind on the farm, risking its discovery, so he hoped the rumor about metal deterioration in the sinkhole was false.
Even if it wasn’t, he preferred the rake’s destruction to its discovery.
“I have everything I need. Which way did Tavia go? Maybe I can retrace her steps.”
The Masters pointed Cal in the right direction, and he didn’t waste more time talking. He was a little disappointed that the Masters hadn’t given him advice on how to handle the sinkhole, but it made sense why they hadn’t.
Elder Corvin revealed it was impossible for someone too strong to enter, so whatever the Masters knew, it was all secondhand and came from the mouths of the alchemists that survived the sinkhole.
Vivi and Amara had already gathered all the rumors from that source.
He stood before the massive wound in the land a few seconds later. Calling this a sinkhole is the equivalent to calling the ocean a lake.
Cal frowned when he felt a gust of wind on his back. He kept his feet planted, but the wind only grew stronger. The sinkhole would pull him in if he didn’t back away.
Tavia’s strength is her magic, not her physical capabilities. This might be how the sinkhole trapped her.
He looked down at the barren interior closest to the surface, then at the void in the deepest parts. It looked like the sunlight couldn’t reach that deep, though there were pulses of light that should help with visibility. Unfortunately, he could see any signs of Tavia.
“Did something force her to venture deeper?” Cal wondered out loud. The wind grew stronger, and he allowed it to move him. He expected to have to jump over the edge, but the gust of wind halted the moment he took a step forward. He looked back and saw a strange, transparent barrier blocking him from leaving.
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Cal shook his head and unleashed his mana tendrils, covering as much as he could to get an idea of what he could expect. The sinkhole was around a mile wide, but its depth was far greater than its width. [Mana Sense] still covered most of the area where sunlight could illuminate the sinkhole’s interior, but the information he received suggested it was a dead land.
He couldn’t understand how so many alchemists could have died here. Are they that weak?
Cal eyed a rocky platform below and hopped off the edge, landing softly, and faced a changed landscape. He tensed at the sudden change in how the air felt. There was… something trying to encompass his body, and it set off alarms in his mind. The rumors about the corrosive air seemed to be true.
The only positive seemed to be how weak the attempt was. He had zero issue in preventing damage because of the size of his mana reserves. However, he was wary about how he would fare if the corrosive air strengthened significantly.
Cal observed the drastically different surroundings, noting how the descent into the sinkhole was nowhere as steep as it was when he looked from the surface. He wasn’t sure if there was spatial magic in play, or if it was illusion magic.
Cal used [Mana Sense] again out of caution as he looked around. He still received information that this was a dead land, which was expected since this place looked worse than the Northern Wastes, but he caught sight of a pattern hundreds of feet below. The decreased incline made it beyond simple to jump down safely, and he chuckled at the arrow made of shattered rocks.
Tavia must have known I would come after her. I’m on the right track.
He looked at the void where the arrow pointed. He had thought it was pitch black from the lack of sunlight when he saw it from above, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. There was still around a thousand feet before he reached the void, but there was a clear line of delineation where the dead land stopped and the void began.
Maybe this place will get more interesting in there. Cal didn’t desire challenges, but he had been looking forward to finding the rare materials that were mentioned to exist in the sinkhole.
He made steady progress on the descent. He could have gone much faster, but he carefully cataloged what he sensed through his mana tendrils while keeping track of the corrosive air. Satisfied that neither had changed, he dealt with his last concern.
Cal pulled his war hammer from his storage pouch. He shifted most of his focus onto the weapon as he got closer to the void. It only saw any use once, and that was to take Kaelor’s life. Since then, he hadn’t bothered to do anything with it since he couldn’t add it to his equipment list.
He let out a sigh of relief when the war hammer didn’t crumble in his hands. I knew all the rumors couldn’t be true.
Cal reached the void and studied the boundary with curiosity. [Mana Sense] was functional and his mana tendrils could pass through the boundary, but the feedback he received was identical to the dead lands. Spatial magic must be at play here.
He recalled how the alchemists rushed to purchase weapons in Silverpine. It wasn’t as if they’d developed an unusual desire to arm themselves, only to fight lifeless rocks in the dead lands. More likely, this void marked the true entrance to the sinkhole.
Cal’s gaze flicked toward the intermittent pulses of light. They seemed to brighten the surrounding darkness, but in reality, they only transformed the pitch-black void into a lighter variant. It was still a void. If he had to depend on his vision, he’d be moving blind.
He chuckled to himself. He had spells that could address the problem, but they might not even be necessary if the environment changed once he entered—just as it had when he’d jumped into the sinkhole.
Cal tightened his grip on the war hammer and stepped past the boundary.