The cavern ahead of me was large enough that I could almost forget that I was underground. It reminded me of the story, Journey to the Center of the Earth.

  The ceiling, which was probably hundreds of yards above me, had jewels embedded in it that looked like stars.

  The temperature was actually surprisingly chilly, and not an ounce of lava was visible.

  The walls and floor were lined by a smooth, dark blue glassy texture.

  My Identify skill revealed that everything—the walls, ceiling, and floor—was all the same substance.

  Xither Crystal (F-rank).

   Samantha provided.

  I had made enough of a din fighting my way here that I didn’t have a hope surprising whoever the Region Lord was. I had half expected to see it staring down the tunnel, watching me.

  Of course, Samantha made sure I had Mana Sensing running as well, which is what gave me my first sense that I was about to walk into an ambush. I was still inside the tunnel approaching the massive cavern, and with Mana Sensing, I could see a massive outline of mana clinging to the wall directly above the entrance into the cavern.

  At Samantha’s suggestion, I briefly switched some of my floating points to Perception.

  Listening and studying the cavern carefully, I could finally hear slow, suppressed breathing.

  The breaths were far too slow and long to indicate a human—whatever this creature was, it had a massive lung capacity.

   Samantha said.

  I inhaled deeply, taking in the various scents around me.

  I could smell the blood that had crusted on my equipment. I could smell my own sweat, and a gust of fresher air that leaked through the cavern ahead of me.

  Buried in that whiff of air was another scent. A hint of a creature—

   Samantha said.

  Just tell me what to do, I said, resigned to relying on Samantha’s advice. I had no confidence in taking out this wyvern by myself, judging from how I had struggled against the District Lords. And this time, I didn’t have any allies that Samantha could endanger.

  Once my Perception boost died down, I put my floating points into Agility and ran through the tunnel.

  The moment I was out of the tunnel, I spun around, in time to see a black, winged creature the size of a semi-truck fly towards me, claws stretched out.

  Instead of dodging, I stared down the wyvern, and cast Cursed Lightning.

  The black lightning flew from my fingertips, and I felt an incredible burst of power rise within me.

  It was the first time I had cast a proper spell, and it was an incredibly powerful feeling.

  Unfortunately, despite the name, the lightning didn’t travel as fast as I hoped—this was also what had allowed Samantha and me to dodge the Ghoul’s lightning attacks, as well.

  I was targeting the wyvern’s underbelly, but the wyvern shrieked, flapped its massive wings, and barreled away.

  The Cursed Lightning missed the upper underbelly, where I anticipated its heart and core to be, and sunk into the upper tail of the wyvern, just passed the creature’s hind legs.

  The wyvern released a loud shriek and flew away.

  I didn’t even have to dodge the wyvern’s attack.

  As the wyvern flew away, I noticed that its long tail drooped uselessly behind it.

   Samantha said.

  Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to use Cursed Lightning for 24 hours. Otherwise, I had a feeling I could end this battle quickly.

  The wyvern flew all the way up to the ceiling, hundreds of yards above me. It probably figured I couldn’t see it. Maybe it was thinking it could try a surprise attack, soon.

  What exactly did the lightning do? I hadn’t expected the wyvern to flee so promptly. If it stayed up there, then I didn’t stand a chance in hell killing it.

  

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  Judging from the wyvern’s shriek as it fled, and the distance that it put between us, Cursed Lightning was probably a bit more than “rather painful.”

  Well, what do we do now?

  

  I followed the combat shadow towards the middle of the cavern. To my surprise, there was relatively normal-looking moss growing out of the Xither Crystals.

  The padded ground was a nice alternative, after walking for hours on stone and uneven gems.

  As I walked, I even saw a few flowers growing out of the mossy ground. I crossed a small, bubbling creek, that held tiny silver fish that swam away the moment they saw me. I could almost feel like I was back in a normal part of Earth.

  As far as I could tell, there was nothing dangerous or unnatural, except for the wyvern and the Xither Crystals that coated every surface.

  I continued walking cautiously towards the center of the cavern.

  Using Mana Sensing, I could tell that the ambient mana around me was higher than any place I had been before. And the densest mana was directly ahead of me.

  The closer I got to the center of the cavern, the more plant life there was around me.

  With each step, it seemed the moss grew thicker, the flowers grew more abundantly, and I could even see sprouting saplings of various kinds of trees around me.

   Samantha said.

  Ahead of me, dead center in the cavern, was a dome of what looked like extremely thick blackberry brambles, woven into a thick net that completely blocked my sight inside. The dome was about 50 yards in diameter, raised about 20 yards up as well.

  The dome turned out to be a living plant: Belian Brambles (E-rank).

   Samantha explained.

  Don’t get ahead of yourself, I shot back. How do we get the wyvern to come down?

  

  From one perspective, the interwoven brambles looked easy to climb. It looked sturdy, and I could see plenty of handholds and footholds available.

  But that wasn’t counting the incredibly sharp blade-like thorns that protruded from every inch of the brambles. There was no pattern to the length of the thorns—some were a half inch, some looked like six-inch-long needles.

  Can’t I just cut through it?

  

  Once I took off the boots and gloves, I equipped two rings that each offered a personal shield, opting not to activate them right away. The shields were only F-rank items, so they were unlikely to last for long against the thorns, let alone the wyvern.

  And then I started climbing.

  Despite my raised Physical Defense, every step drew pricks of blood. I was able to avoid putting too much weight on my hands, but my feet definitely suffered the worst of it.

  I grit my teeth and continued climbing.

  A gust of wind was the only warning I had. Following the combat shadow, I spun and started to draw my sword and knife, adding another thirty points to Physical Defense.

  The wyvern barreled into me, full force, leading with its now-useless tail.

  It felt like I had been hit by a truck.

  My whole body was pressed against the brambles, drawing blood all over my body, and as I fell, the dome collapsed underneath me due to the wyvern’s full-force blow, pressing me further and further through brambles that shredded my robes and skin, until I reached the ground.

  My head was dizzy with pain, and my chest had the weight of the full wyvern on me, pressing against me.

  Without my elevated Physical Defense, I would be dead twice over. First from crushed ribs, and second from the thorns that would have pierced through me.

  Through my blurred vision, I saw a claw descending towards my head.

  Lying flat on my back, pinned by the wyvern, I had no way to dodge. Fortunately, my right arm was free.

  I raised my Vampiric Blade, placing the rest of my Mana Pool into Strength, and deflected the claw as it sliced towards me, forcing the claw to cut through some of the brambles that were underneath me.

  Then I put the rest of my Mana Pool into Strength, and stabbed my sword deep into the wyvern’s underbelly, activating the sword’s skill.

  The wyvern was pressing against me, and it didn’t have time or room to dodge. My sword sunk in until my hilt reached the wyvern’s belly. As it did, thanks to my sword’s skill, for every 10 HP that the wyvern lost, I gained 1 mana to my mana pool.

  From the 10 Mana I gained, I could tell that that single attack had done some serious damage.

  The wyvern reared away, trying to disentangle itself.

  I almost felt bad for it.

  If you see someone cast cursed lightning, it seems like they probably have a high Mana Pool and Mana Regeneration. Due to a simple scarcity of Stat Points, it was unlikely that I would have incredible Physical Defense—enough to survive a ten-yard fall on top of hundreds of blades. It was even more unlikely I would have enough Strength to steal 100 HP in a single blow.

  The wyvern had fallen into this collapsed dome too. As it extended its wings, the various thorns and brambles around it sliced its wings as well, refusing to allow the wyvern to lift itself up.

  Another claw swiped at my chest, and this time I swung my blade at the wyvern’s knee, slicing through the joint and letting the dismembered claw fall on top of me.

  The wyvern roared in pain.

  It whipped its head towards me.

  With the deadweight of its tail on my torso, only my arms could move, and the head was the size of a twin-sized bed.

  The wyvern opened its mouth, and I saw jagged rows of teeth descend towards my body.

  As it did, I tossed three Igneal Explosives down its throat.

  Just as its teeth were about to close over my body, the three Igneal Ingots exploded—inside the wyvern’s open mouth, and also over my chest.

  The blinding, burning pain only lasted a split second.

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