The next morning Jayde woke up bright and early, even though she was inside a cave system, the glowstones embedded into the walls dimly lit up the chamber she was in. Standing Jayde stretched like a lazy cat, working the kinks out of her body, before finding a discreet place to relieve her full bladder.

Remove a small wooden pail filled with water from her spatial ring, Jayde wet a cloth and wiped herself clean, after her morning ablutions, she ate a hasty breakfast, then packing and cleaning up her small camp, she set off to find the treasure the old man had written about in his journal.

After exiting the small room, Jayde entered another passageway, the passageway was narrower than the previous one, the ceiling was lower just a couple of inches above Jayde's head, if she had been any taller, she would have had to crawl her way through.

Thankfully Jayde wasn't claustrophobic, or else she would have been in a real dilemma now. The passage started to descend, it pathway winding like a snake, cutting deep into the earth.

The passageway went on for miles, Jayde found that as she descended the temperature around her rose. The heat was unbearable, Jayde's skin was flushed, her mouth was parched, she had already polished off four of the lily pods, Jayde had to use the lily pod water to replenish her Qi as she was quickly using her Qi to keep her fire shield up to protect her from the intense heat and alleviate her thirst.

Squinting her eyes Jayde could faintly make out a reddish glow in front of her, feeling more motivated now that she could see an end to the dark tunnel that she had been walking in for the past five or six hours, Jayde sped up, eager to get out on this dark, narrow tunnel.

In a short time, Jayde arrived at a small doorway, pausing to take out her sword, she entered a vast cavern, as soon as Jayde entered the cavern she was blasted by an intense wave of heat. The heat was so fierce that Jayde that had not activated her fire shield to protect herself, she would have been severely burnt upon entering the cavern. Although Jayde's fire shield was activated, she still received some minor burns from the intense heat.

The vast cavern was created eons ago, it had to be over sixty to seventy meters squared. The stone ceiling was more than ten meters above Jayde head. Due to some tectonic incident a long time ago massive stalagmites, stalactites, and pillars had been created.

Inside the cavern, there was a large lava lake, the bubbling lava lit up the cavern giving the whole area a bright red glow. Upon seeing the lava lake, Jayde realized why the cavern was so hot.

With her sword in one hand, Jayde carefully explored the whole cavern. The lithomatic décor of massive stalagmites, stalactites, and pillars had divided the cavern into chambers. The crystals of the calcium carbonate embedded into the rock reflected the light from the lava pool, making the lithomatic décor glitter.

Jayde was disappointed, after a couple of hours of exploration she had found no sign of any treasure, nor any spirit guardian beast. The only entrance into the cavern was the one she had used to enter. The valuable item that Jayde had discovered were firestones embedded into the wall. Firestones were used by fire mages to enhance their fire abilities, but the firestones were so deeply rooted into the stone walls, it would quite some time for Jayde to dig them out, and Jayde was burning through her Qi at an alarming rate due to having her keep up her fire shield.

After putting away her sword, Jayde studied at the firestones embedded in the cavern walls and was busy calculating whether it was worth using her remaining lily pods to replenish her Qi to dig out the fire stones when Isha interrupted her mental calculations.

"Jayde," he yelled out excitedly. "I am sensing a fire spirit near you, it is still very young, only five or six thousand years old."

"..."

Five or six thousand years old is young? Then what does that make her, Jayde pondered in amazement.

"Er...umm, okay," Jayde replied, confused why Isha was so excited.

Hearing Jayde unenthusiastic reply, Isha realized that Jayde didn't understand the ramifications of her incredible discovery.

"Jayde with the fire spirit being so young, it means that you can integrate it, once you incorporate it into yourself, not only will your fire magic increase exponentially, but your fire will be much purer than average, giving you a significant advantage over other fire mages. In essence, you will be able to battle against a stronger opponent. You have no idea just how lucky you are, have you any idea just how many fire mages would kill for such a find," he explained to her, his mental voice trembling with excitement.

"Newly formed fire spirits may only occur once every hundred thousand years after a fire spirit reaches maturity they are impossible to absorb, even getting near one could cost an emperor class mage their life," he explained further.

With Isha lengthy explanation, Jayde finally understood why Isha was so excited, Jayde immediately asked how to go about absorbing this fire spirit. Having run across such an incredible lucky win-fall, Jayde was excited to get started. Thanking the old man in her heart, he really was a lucky star she mused to herself.

✽✽✽

© 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.