I keep walking in my camouflage. Once in a while I see strange creatures along my path. Two-headed snake, a horse with peacock tail or even just a shade floating leisurely around. All this are actually quite fascinating.

At one point I encounter a bear with ridiculously big ears. Even though I was passing by it almost twenty meters away, it still managed to notice me somehow. I suspect by noise.

And as soon as it notices me it charges at me. Since my camouflage seems to be useless, I cancel it and conjure up a two spear from my mana protruding from ground, aiming at bear’s head. But the bear manages to notice my spears and stop.

After stopping it starts to circle around me carefully. Understanding that it is pointless to wait for it to skewer itself on my spears, I pick both of them and focus on the bear.

Just after I picked up my spears, bear starts charging at me again. Since I dual-wield my spears, I hang one of them from my back and engage the bear.

As soon as it enters my range I thrust my spear aim its right shoulder but it dodges to its left and swipes at me with its right paw. I jump backward and dodge its swipe. After dodging, for some inexplicable reason I lunged forward and punch its snout with my left arm.

And for some reason I manage to crush its nose. As its nose bleeds, the bear tries to bite me in its anger. I put my left arm in front of me and bear bites my left wrist. And it hurts just like my old arm. Still I clench my teeth and pump mana into my left arm and makes it branch out inside its mouth and my branches spear out from inside the bear’s mouth.

The bear dies without a single noise. It seems killing my opponent from inside out is becoming my style. This is lame. I need something cooler. I will kill my next opponent using my fire breath for sure.

After disposing the bear, I keep walking deeper into the cave. And maybe because of the crystals atmosphere in here is saturated with mana instead of pure energy and purity of the mana in the atmosphere is really high in here. That ‘s making it easier for me to replenish my mana after using it.

I can feel my control over mana increasing more I use it. And more my control increases, more amazing things I can do with my mana. Like making it take a shape other than simple weapons.

For example, I can shape it like lifeform and make it perform simple actions. But I can only see it when I create them out of elemental mana. If I make them out of normal mana I can’t see the, only feel the.

“If only I could see normal mana.”

“Just infuse your mana into your eyes.”

“Wait, what? You mean I can see normal mana if I infuse my eyes with mana?”

“That is exactly what I’m saying.”

Okay, let’s try it then.

I will a little bit of mana into my eyes and cover them with it.

“It’s not working!”

“I said infuse it, not cover it you idiot.”

“Then how do I do that. Teach me if you’re so good.”

“You’re useless. Now listen carefully. Will your mana to go inside your eyeballs and just let the mana infuse your retinas.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s it.”

Okay. So, I close my eyes and will a little bit of mana into my eyes and just let it be as the toothpick said. And open my eyes.

“It’s not working!”

“Be patient you idiot. Give the mana to infuse with your retinas first.”

“Then how long will that take?”

“Give or take two hours.”

Good, that’s not so long. After that I start walking again. I think I’ve been walking for almost three hours after escaping the giant bats. How big is this cave anyway? I walked almost fifteen kilometers now and I still can’t see the end.

Only upside is these mana crystals are not so easy to get bored of. Illuminating everything around them with azure light. These crystals are actually quite beautiful.

Just as I’ve been walking for about hour I start seeing something. Something like a very thing fog. And as time passes the fog starts to thicken. I think I’m starting to see mana as the tree was saying. This is getting hard for me to see my way.

“Hey, I’m starting to see a fog around me. Is that supposed to happen?”

“Yes, you’re seeing mana in its initial form.”

“This is useless, I can’t see anything around me!”

“If you don’t want to see it like this just get the mana inside your eyeballs out. And you’re seeing like this only because this cave’s special environment. On the outside there isn’t that many places with mana saturated atmosphere.”

As I follow the tree’s suggestion, I stop seeing thick fog around me anymore. After confirming that I try doing it again and I start seeing thick fog again.

“So, I only need to infuse my retinas once?”

“Yes, after being infused with mana your retinas can see mana around you.”

That’s convenient. So, this means I can only experiment with my normal mana after getting out of here. For now, let’s use my elemental mana.

After converting my mana into elemental one, I close my eyes then I first visualize a small sparrow as vivid as I can. It’s small brown wings, little beak and it’s brown feathers then finally it’s little talons. After confirming my image, I will my mana according to my visualization.

As I feel my mana exiting my body, I open my eyes and behold. A little brown sparrow on my palm. I think because I visualized it as vivid as I can it came out exactly like I imagined. And it seems my elemental mana focused on earth element to make it brown, because I can actually smell soil from the little guy.

But no matter how lifelike this little guy seems it’s just standing on my palm not doing anything like a clay doll. So, I try willing it to move according to my will. At first it takes a quite a bit of concentration but after few tries it get’s easier.

And after almost hundred attempts, I finally manage to make it hover over me. This is awesome. I used fifth of my mana reserve to make this little guy. So, this means if I simply focus on the form and not care about the color I can make a anything as big as almost myself. And that opens a whole lot of possibilities.

“Now that you managed to make your little toy float will you start walking again?”

“Alright, alright. Chill dude. Okay, I will start walking again. Sheesh.”

After walking for one more hour and encountering few more exotic creatures I finally come before a wall and see a cave mouth made out of mana crystals. And this cave seems to be made entirely out of mana crystals. This is quite fascinating.

“Is this what you wanted me to see?”

“Yes, go in and you might find something interesting in there.”

“Okay.”

So, let’s start my adventure in the cave inside a cave.