Mysterious Cave - Vines

Another day had passed since he had tested his strength, he had finally acquired enough SP for his final shot at that mysterious cave, his {Status} currently sat at:

{User Killed 31x Crystal Lizard - 126SP Gained}

{User Killed 12x Metal Lizard - 17SP Gained}

{Status}

{Name:Osirus}

{Age:16}

{Race:Human}

{SP:211}

{Body Cultivation:Lv.6(21/60SP)}

{Mana Cultivation:Lv.5(0/50SP)}

{Active Skills: {Quick Slice Lv.6 (4/60 Proficiency) - Beginner}, {Guardian Golem Lv.2 (1/20 Proficiency) - Beginner}}

{Passive Skills: {Threat Detection Lv.5 (34% Proficiency) - Beginner}}

He started by pouring 180SP into {Mana Cultivation} instantly rising it to Lv.8, suddenly a massive influx of Mana flowed into his body, forcing his Mana Pathways open and painfully widening them as they had never had to deal with such a large amount of Mana uncontrollably flowing through them.

Gritting his teeth, Osirus powered through the pain for 5 minutes at which point the flowing Mana started to slow down and eventually come to a stop, "Hooh.", his Mana Pathways felt a bit sore but it wouldn't take long for them to heal as they weren't actually damaged, but strengthened and improved more than anything.

Normally they would naturally increase in size as your cultivation rank increased and thus how much Mana you could control, but since he increased by 3 levels in an instant, it was a bit too overkill.

With his new cultivation, his senses had improved drastically, he could hear birds tweeting from over a hundred metres away, he could see easily see ants crawling through the grass from more than 10 metres away even his sense of smell had improved drastically, he could smell to charred wood from the campfire to the earthy soil beneath his feet.

However that wasn't all, since {Guardian Golem} worked by using a percentage of his Mana, as his level increased, the amount of Mana in that percentage would increase, meaning more Mana would be used to create the Golems which in turn made them stronger.

He first unsummoned Ares before summoning him again, he would do the same for Atlas after his Mana had regenerated so that they would both be in their strengthened form.

From what he had seen, their strength was one level higher than his {Mana Cultivation} in {Body Cultivation} standards, while their defence was 2, this would mean their attack power was a frightening 9th Step Body Refiner while their defence was ever more shocking, being at the 10th Step.

However he still wasn't done with his upgrades, unfortunately he was a few SP short, thus he sent out the strengthened Ares and then Atlas after his Mana had recovered enough.

It wasn't long before the SP came trickling in, from what he had seen so far, nothing could come close to rivalling those Golems.

3 hours later.

After taking a short nap, he finally had enough SP so he recalled the Golems.

He now had a total of 64 SP, which was enough for his new Active Skill, {Fire Ball}.

{Fire Ball : Using Mana the User can create balls of fire, after a certain amount of Mana is used to create it, the more Mana added, the hotter the fire. Maximum area of control is 10 metres. Maximum amount - 1.

Cost : 60SP}

With everything done, he finalised the design and created the Skill, soon a new addition appeared on his Active Skills section:

{Active Skills: {Quick Slice Lv.6 (35/60 Proficiency) - Beginner}, {Guardian Golem Lv.2 (1/20 Proficiency) - Beginner}, {Fire Ball Lv.1 (0/10 Proficiency) - Beginner}}

Walking to a more open area facing a tree, he used the Skill, '{Fire Ball}', immediately Mana began flowing out from his Core, through his Mana Pathways and out his body before pooling in front of him, and unlike {Guardian Golem} which created the Golems out of pure Mana, the Mana instead began to pull in something from the surroundings and ignite itself, as more and more of this stuff was pulled in more Mana was ignited as fuel, making the temperature begin to rise as a small Fire Ball with a diameter of about 10cm was made.

As soon as it reached 10cm, he regained control of his Mana again which was continuously used to keep it in form, and could either fire it towards the tree or add even more Mana which would attract more of that stuff and then ignite itself to increase its heat or size.

Deciding to keep it as it was, he used his thought to fire the ball of flame forward, its top speed reaching about 50m/s before it collided with the true.

"Boom!"

With an explosion, the tree that had a diameter of about 30 cm, collapsed, a massive section of its trunk charred and burned with a large amount missing.

The fire ball that cost about 10% of his Mana was capable of blasting a hole twice its size, he was definitely pleased with the results.

But before he went to that cave, he first decided to level up {Fire Ball}, which wouldn't be that difficult as he only needed to create and fire 9 more.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"....

{Fire Ball Lv.2 (0/20 Proficiency) - Beginner}

{Fire Ball : Using Mana the User can create balls of fire, after a certain amount of Mana is used to create it, the more Mana added, the hotter the fire. Maximum area of control is 15 metres. Maximum amount - 2.}

It was time to head to that cave.

Standing in front of the cave that was covered in lightly gowling vines, he took a step forward, immediately his {Threat Detection} was triggered, however, unlike before, it was much weaker, and acted as more of a gentle reminder to be careful than a blaring siren warning of his impending death.

Walking into the cave's mouth, his {Threat Detection} stepped up a notch, similar to the Crystal Lizards threat level, however as he stepped into the cave entirely was when it truly set off.

A sharp tingling assaulted his brain as a glowing blue vine shot off the wall towards him like a serpent.

'{Quick Slice}'

In an instant he reacted, his Dark Sword flashing forward, instantly slicing the vine in half.

The part that was cut off immediately lost its blue glow, while the other half retreated back into the cave, its glow reducing greatly.

With the opponent now clear, Osirus felt much more reassured in his ability as he had created his new Skill on the basis that the blue vines were a reason for the danger, and since they were, a smile plastered his face as he spoke in his mind.

'{Fire Ball}'

A blazing ball of orange flame appeared in his hand, immediately reaching 10cm in size before continuing to increase in size.

Only after he had used 40% of his Mana and the fire ball had a diameter of 20cm, the surrounding air was hazy from the blistering heat that was being produced, luckily since he was the creator of the fire, he was able to stop any of the heat affecting him.

Looking at the blue vines that had already begun to retreat due to the intense heat, he stretched out his hand, sending the orange ball into the cave.

It flew for a few seconds, frying any vine on the way due to the cave being so small, eventually it hit a bend and collided into a wall.

"Boom!!"

A blast of hot air assaulted his face, almost knocking him off his feet as half of the blast was forced through the tunnel towards him, acting as a barrel that fired a shockwave that nearly knocked him off his feet.

As the dust began to settle, he made sure to remember to have one of the Golems stand in front of him next time.

Inside the cave was like a forest of fire, hundreds of vines were set alight as they writhed and wiggled, trying to put out the relentless flame without success.

After a few minutes, the vines stopped moving, instead of their beautiful blue glow, all that was left were charred black sticks.

Walking forward with Atlas and Boulder, the sense of danger had completely disappeared, continuing forward he eventually came to to the bend, following it around, a similar sight greeted him, hundreds of charred vines were laid on the floor, every step caused a crunching sound to reverberate in the quiet cave.

After walking for 5 minutes, the true power of fire had truly shown, its ability to spread, the area of the cave he was currently in was nowhere near the blast, yet just because fire could spread every vine for hundreds of metres had been burnt to a crisp.

However even fire had a limit as he finally reached a point where the vines had regained their vibrancy, a beautiful blue glow covered the cave walls, although not for long.

A smile was still spread across his face as Atlas and Ares both stood in front of him, acting as an impenetrable barrier.

A moment later, "Boom!!".