Chapter 210 - Cave

Looking around, he tried to find similar areas like the one he previously saw nearby the mutated crystal horned pythons habitat because he wanted to avoid being too close with other high-ranked beasts.
Scanning everything with his mana eyes, he could perceive many mana fluctuations from unblemished beasts and even magical ranked beasts around him, which caused Jason to feel overwhelmed by the sensation of being extremely weak.
He hadn't felt this for quite some time because he became one of the strongest in his school, but now his whole existence was on the line.
A single mistake and everything was over.
Jason knew that and he decided to search for the best path back to the mutated crystal horned python′s habitat, because of two important facts.
First, the wind elemental python was dead, blown into smithereens, while the second reason was that not a single high-ranked beast should be there because the fire elemental crystal horned python was still searching for him, and he hadn't seen any other beasts in the surrounding.
He saw the crystal horned python slithering past the Wolf den without coming back and it would most likely take some time before it would give up its pursuit, which caused Jason to feel like a ray of hope emerged within him.
As long as he found a safe area to recuperate and increase his soul energy in order to store Artemis, everything would become much easier for him.
With the fortified soul conjunction, his survival rate would increase further and the ray of hope within Jason widened slightly.
While finding his way back to the crystal python habitat, he looked out for other hideouts that might be even safer than the one he presumed to find but there was nothing, which soured Jason′s mood slightly.
'At least it will be better than sleeping inside the forest without anyone on night duty, right?' He thought as he noticed the sun descending slowly.
Hastening up his steps, Jason′s mana eyes were working at full speed, trying to maintain a perfect observance, while giving his best to avoid any kinds of high-ranked beasts.
Half an hour later, he finally reached the large stone that protrudes out of the ground, with a smile emerging on his face, as he noticed that the ripen plant was still there without any signs of other beasts or even the fire elemental crystal horned python in his surrounding.
For a short moment, he felt his greed emerging from deep within him, as he looked at the almost ripen plant in front of him, which he immediately suppressed.
Even if he wanted to, it would be suicidal to take the ripen plant with him now, because the python would be able to detect his scent once he picked up the herb, which would additionally release spores, attaching to his clothes.
As such, Jason disregarded this opportunity, because he didn't want to provoke the crystal horned python needlessly, as he walked towards the uncountable number of colors he saw thanks to his mana eyes.
'They have to be ores, materials, or something like that, right?' He asked himself because these colors radiating around pointy-shaped things hadn't moved for the time he fled from the python pair, which was already some time ago.
As such it had to be inanimate objects, which enlightened him, causing his steps to hasten up even more.
The closer he came, the more colors he perceived, while the mana fluctuations around there seemed to be high and low at the same time.
However, this wasn't the main point, because almost all of these mana fluctuations contained elemental transmuted mana, which made him curious.
Even though his shoulder hurt like hell while walking, Jason increased his speed even further, while Artemis decided to fly a few meters above him due to the uncomfortable sensation she had to endure with Jason′s fast strides, as she was forced to remain squeezed on his shoulder.
But even Artemis was attracted to some of these mana fluctuations, causing her to subconsciously fly towards them, only for her to see something she hated the most.
When Jason squeezed himself through the last bush that obstructed his view, he saw a huge hillside with a large cavern entrance in front of him, which was Artemis' reason to look so frustrated.
As a flying beast, the thing she hated the most was having her freedom restricted.
She didn't mind staying within Jason's soul world for weeks, which was already boring, but when she was outside she wanted to soar through the sky.
Even the Wolf den was already too much for her and now Jason had to enter a cavern?
Artemis didn't like it, which she transmitted to Jason, who could only smile apologetically.
"Well.. either come with me or stay outside. You know I can′t order you, but please know that everything outside the cavern is extremely dangerous." He only said, trying to put on a disguise as if he didn't care about Artemis' choice while entering the cavern entrance with careful steps.
His mana eyes distracted him extremely, with colors ranging from black to dark-green and all kinds of mana fluctuations from thin to thick, low- to high-quality, and so on.
It was almost painful and if he wasn't proficient with enduring pain through his eyes, Jason would have already deactivated his mana eyes, which could end up devastating, once he missed something dangerous.
He was in a four-star rift and everything could kill him and he was aware of this fact.
A little bit pain was nothing if he wanted to survive here and he only noticed Artemis following him, as she intentionally landed on his right shoulder, which caused Jason to grit his teeth in pain in order to prevent crying out loudly.
After she was satisfied, she immediately changed towards his left shoulder, where she stayed as if nothing happened.
'She really became a diva?' Jason thought, suppressing the desire to lecture her because his full attention was required somewhere else.
Walking deeper into the cave, he noticed tunnels at the end of the entrance, leading in four different directions.
Two tunnels were extremely large with a height of more than ten meters while the remaining outer tunnels had a height of three meters at most.
This difference might be important for him to decide which path to choose because most high-ranked beasts were rather large.
But this didn't apply for all of them and the mutated crystal horned python was one example, while he already saw more than enough smaller magical ranked beasts within the valley.
As such it didn't really matter which tunnel he took.
All of them radiated dense mana, with hundreds of colored pointy-shaped things further down the tunnels.
The only advantageous fact Jason made overjoyed was that he couldn't see a single moving beast further below with his mana eyes, while he saw many rare colors through the soil, shocking him.
'Where the hell did I land?' He wondered, as his sight was obstructed due to the absence of a light source.
Holding out his left hand, Artemis immediately figured out what he wanted to do, causing her to screech out in anger, as a black flame appeared in it, lightening up the surrounding.
Clearly seeing his surroundings it was the first time for Jason to see something like this, as he saw one of the objects that radiated a color protruding out of the soil.
'Is that a crystal?'