"Hey, is it just me, or is the temperature actually increasing?", Alec asked.

The trek back and around was uneventful, none of the centipedes actually noticed the duo rushing past them. However, the current hallway, they were moving down, near the stairways ascending the first floor, the sudden increase in the temperature caused the black cat to pick something up.

"I can see a little orange shade blended within the crimson blood mana.", Alec said, shifting on Jace's shoulder, as the glistening emerald eyes scrutinized the hallway.

"I can feel it too, must be fire mana." Jace said, moving forwards.

"It actually kind of feels nice after spending so much time inside the cold blood mana."

"Only if you forget the part where fire mana can't co-exist together with blood mana."

Jace came to a halt as he noticed something.

"What's that?", Jace asked, pointing ahead, towards the silhouette of a giant rock like structre, right before the entrance of a gloomy path to his left.

Alec's gaze deviated, now staring right where Jace pointed. The tiger orange fire mana, increasingly becoming more abundant, the more his sight moved towards the source.

"It's the source of fire mana. But something's wrong."

"What is it?", Jace asked.

"The source itself is made up of blood mana, almost feels like the mana conjured body of a dead centipede. Are there fire centipedes now?"

"I highly doubt it. Fire and blood affinities are not compatible with each other. So, I don't think that the source is alive."

"So, you just die, if you have incompatible affinities?"

"It's kind of impossible to naturally possess two incompatible affinities."

"Why?"

"Because they are ...incompatible?", Jace said, turning his face away from black cat.

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.", Alec said, before he noticed something from the corner of his eyes, down on the floor. "Are those?"

"Scorch marks.", Jace said, as his russet eyes inspected the obsidian floor.

The area of floor was scorched around a single longitudinal mark, dug inches inside the floor. Alec's gaze traced its way back, towards the assumed source of fire mana.

Jace knelt to do a closer inspection of the ashes scattered around the burnt area and his eyes widened.

"A spirit sword skill?", Jace said, quickly getting up.

"It's all the way up to there", Alec said, pointing forwards, following the sharp groove on the scorched obsidian surface, "... I don't think that right now is the ideal time to be asking what 'a spirit sword' is... But yeah, you can make it quick."

Jace, without even answering his question, scurried down the gloomy hallway, following the longitudinal striation, towards the silhouette of mana source.

Alec eyed the mana around him, the temperature increased even further, as Jace drew nigh onto the assumed source.

What awaited him was not much different than he had imagined. A scorched centipede, sharply cleaved in two halves, now laid before his eyes.

The smell of charred creature, now entered the black cat's nostrils. "Never knew roasted centipedes would smell like burnt cheese."

"It's size...", Jace said, as he gazed at the charred remains of the creature.

"Yep, easily wider than the blue boy...", Alec said, as he scrutinized the burnt structre, "I failed to detect any essence. Sounds like it was taken by the one who scorched this dude to death."

"Did the guild finally launch an expedition? But someone powerful enough to take on one of these things? Also having a high fire affinity? I don't remember someone like that in the guild.", Jace silently whispered, as he examined the scorched groove.

"... You mean, the Adventurers Guild, the one that you mentioned earlier?" Alec said, jumping down, as he now stood beside the thin groove, "what if they have recruited someone new?"

"The recruitment process doesn't work that way, kid." ,Jace said, getting up, " Whoever they are, they are not from the guild. Not someone caught up in the dungeon formation either. That leaves us to the Knights. But they have no reason to launch an expedition for a random dungeon, but it still doesn't remove them from the list of possibilities."

"Knights? I remember you have mentioned them before. Branch of an organisation that keeps the order and safety of people, within the empire. But doesn't that mean, the whole dungeon thing lies under the rule of Guild?"

"What makes you think that?"

"It only makes sense."

"Well, Knights only move if the safety of citizens is threatend, in any way. So, a random dungeon, in the middle of a forest, I highly doubt that the Knights had any reason to move. But..." Jace said, as he picked Alec up, "There was a uproar last year, that a super rookie had joined the knight's reconnaissance company, and guess what, she had a very high fire affinity for her age."

"Are you sure it's her? Sounds like a expatiated guess to me." Alec said, now shifting his small frame on Jace's shoulder.

"No, it's the sword technique. If you look carefully enough, you can see that the path the scorched groove follows, isn't actually a linear slash, but a slightly curved one. There is only one noble household in the City of Anthea, that treasures their curved sword aura techniques."

"There are still so many terms that I actually failed to comprehend, but I think I got the general idea of what you're trying to say. But isn't it good? If Knights are here, you can safely return to the city now." Alec asked, as Jace started moving towards the stairways.

"Indeed, it's actually good, for me. But for us, it's the worst situation."

"Well, yeah, I kind of guessed that leaving an untamed monster alone, won't be in the best interests of the citizens.", Alec sighed.

"Never expected that coming from you, when you literally spewed everthing in the front of a stranger, you first met."

"Well, yeah, I kind of did, because that stranger was literally on the verge of death, one chain down his throat and I would have reaped that sweet, sweet experience."

"That's just rude."

"Deal with it-"

Jace came to a halt, Alec paused, as they heard a gravelly male voice, echoing down the gloomy asile on the right side of the hallway.

"Any updates regarding the location of the survivor?"