31 Back to the Depths

Forty meters. Thirty, twenty, ten meters. Jacob could almost feel the fresh air coming from the exit when the dirt ran out of mana and fell, collapsing the tunnel.

'Ufff…' Jacob sighed with relief, wiping the sweat dripping from his scaled brow. 'It was a close call. The tunnel almost collapsed when I was inside.'

As a result of the mana dirt reverting to normal dirt and falling into the tunnel, the tunnel he had just exited completely crumbled.

A large pile of dirt had now concealed the signs that a tunnel had once existed in that location.

The white dragon found himself in a large cavern, surrounded by stone walls covered in small red veins that pulsated and grew brighter with each second.

The cavern's interiors were extremely hot, but Jacob ignored the sweat that was forming on his scales.

Based on how long the tunnel was and how many twists and turns it had, he assumed the cavern was deep within the Abyssal Forest.

He had no idea what the beasts who had kidnapped his sister Sonu were doing here. After all, even a young dragon like him found the heat uncomfortable.

Dragons were supposed to be good at withstanding heat. After all, they were able to breathe fire, even if Jacob did not appear to be able to do so at the time.

He blamed not being able to breathe fire to his current evolution's stage. When he was a baby dragon, he had no wings, but now as a young dragon he could fly.

Jacob knew it was only a matter of time before he grew into an adult dragon capable of flying through the skies and spewing fire from his maw.

'And now I am inside another cavern. Why does it always have to be a tunnel or a cavern? This is bringing back a lot of memories from the Abyss… and not particularly good ones.'

The white dragon stood in the spot, remembering the Old Dragon and their adventures in the Abyss. They had a lot to deal with there.

'Go to your right, and after a few minutes, you will find the entrance to a cave. Several mana signatures are coming from there.' A manly voice cut him off in his tracks.

Jacob was already used to the virile System assisting him by dropping hints, but he still resented the time the System made him fall into a ravine.

Nonetheless, he followed suit and walked for a whole thirty minutes, until the cavern ended and a small cave welcomed his sight.

The small cave was filled with stones that had many large veins and were colored by a mix of bright red and orange. It reminded him of lava.

When he was a human adventurer, one of the quests he completed was in an eruption volcano. It was one of his most dangerous quests.

His duty was to rescue the strayed people who were near the volcano before the eruption and became trapped between the lava flows.

Jacob nearly died several times, but he was able to save many people. Unfortunately, he was unable to save the lives of five people.

It was too late when he arrived. Two died after being fried alive in the lava, while the other three died from a lack of oxygen, as the air was filled with ashes and it suffocated them.

One of them died in his own hands, which was how he learned about the two dying in the lava.

They were a group of friends who were unlucky enough to be in the area when the eruption occurred.

Only after spending two entire weeks drinking nonstop in Find your Beer could Jacob return to work on new quests from the Adventurer's Guild.

However, he was reminded of their names every time he found himself in the depths of a cave or saw the bright fire in a fireplace.

Lucas, Daisy, Alexander, Milana, and Nathe.

Stepping into the cave, Jacob walked for a few minutes before coming to a halt. 'System, did you not say there was a mana trace coming from the cave? So, Where are the beasts?'

'Hmph. Keep walking brat, you simply lack my exceptional mana senses.'

The Macho System appeared to be angry, but Jacob did not give it further thoughts and continued walking. His patience was running thin, and he was not in the mood to be soft.

Sonu was somewhere in the cavern, and if he did not find her soon enough, then perhaps he might be too late and find her corpse.

Jacob could not bear the thought of having more innocent people's blood on his hands. Despite the fact that his hands have been transformed into claws since his rebirth.

Too many innocent people have died because he was either too late, as in the volcano or the bandit camp before his death, or too weak, as in the case of the Old Dragon.

These three beasts would not have dared to mess with him and take his sister if he had been powerful enough.

If he found his sister's body, Jacob vowed to exterminate the entire race of the beasts who kidnapped her.

He was too angry to care about the survival of some beasts's race. However, deep down, he knew he could not kill innocents, even if they were beasts.

After all, he was no longer a human, but a beast, specifically a dragon. Was there really a distinction between a man and a beast?

After an unknown amount of time, he found himself standing in the entrance of another cavern, this one smaller than the one he had previously seen.

The walls were made of a pale gray stone with red veins that pulsated with a bright reddish light, emitted by earth mana.

The floor of the cavern was covered in pools of churning lava, with patches of black stones in between. A trio of creatures stood in one of these black stones.

Jacob immediately recognized one of the creatures, which was lying on the ground, as a small white dragon. It was his sister, Sonu.