Chapter 605 - Treasure Trove

Jason was not sure whether it would be better to enter the depths of the cave or to leave as soon as possible.
Both decisions could bring doom to him, and each had their own advantages and disadvantages.
As such, he could only look at the six tunnels, while using his Emperor Eyes to roughly gauge where they would lead to.
In the end, Jason decided to let fate take its course and that he would simply enter the tunnels that had the weakest and fewest beasts of whom he could see the mana fluctuations.
This could be a mistake but avoiding death and ensuring his survival was the highest priority for Jason.
It was obvious, and because of that, it didn't really matter whether he remained inside the cave or made his way to the surface as long as he was alive.
Thus he slowly inched his way towards the narrow tunnel where he could perceive the weakest mana fluctuations and time seemed to drag for eternity.
Once he thought that he was in a relatively secure location, Jason started to absorb mana from the surrounding once again.
His mind was fully focused on his surroundings and the passive mana absorption which he used to slowly liquefy drops of mana.
Doing so while walking around was arduous and took him more time than necessary, but Jason didn't really have much to do except observing the surroundings and slowly walking through the long tunnel, to begin with.
Jason was not sure where the tunnel was leading him because there were times he seemed to be walking upstairs, only to walk downstairs once again.
The number of beasts around him was low as well as their strength, but the surrounding mana was still extremely dense.
It was only a little bit less compared to before, which caused Jason to wonder whether Wisse had exaggerated with his statement about world bridges and their task to drain energy from the overflowing planetary core.
However, there was a huge difference between Argos and Manyr's situation, size, amount of mana, and even more importantly, the number and capacities of world bridges that should be much higher
Hence, sustaining a single permanent world bridge with the limit at the 2nd Prismar stage should be nothing for Manyr.
As such, Jason realised that he had overestimated the severity of mana released by the now disappeared world bridge.
With that thought in mind, Jason could only sigh.
In the end, it wouldn't have changed much either because there had still been a few beasts that were attracted to the increasing mana.
Thus, there hadn't been a real possibility for him to cultivate in the small cavern hall, to begin with.
Because of that, Jason realised that the beasts below the surface were probably more sensitive to changes underground.
Furthermore, the beasts underground were a lot faster than he had initially expected which made him believe that it may be better to look for the surface.
While doing so, he could cultivate once in a while because Jason had the premonition that it would take a while to find a way out of the maze-like cave.
'As long as I'm alive, not heavily injured, pursued, it should be fine..I guess?'
Jason's attempts to lift his mood worked only partially, but that was only for a short time as he remembered that the entire area he should be in was nothing but barren lands.
Sighing deeply, Jason continued to walk through the stupidious long tunnel, awaiting the next cavern hall or signs of something that could cheer him up.
It could be anything ranging from rare ores, signs of him coming closer to the surface, or a place where he could cultivate, to make use of the extremely dense amount of pure mana.
Despite that, he was unfortunate enough to be forced to walk through the tunnel for the time required to liquefy three highly compressed drops of mana.
During that time, Jason had begun to ignore the dangers of the beasts all around him as they didn't seem to mind him cultivating and left him on his own.
He was only absorbing a small amount of mana in the surroundings passively, and only his Celestia aura seemed to be of tiny interest.
As such, Jason had retracted his Celestia aura while his stigma was still fully unleashed.
The outline of some beings with strong energy fluctuations he had seen were mostly that of extremely large beasts and the majority of them were in fact centipedes, earthworms, and huge insects, Jason wanted to avoid at all costs.
Even if not all beasts were extremely strong in comparison to the amount of mana and other energies that swept through the area, their cultivation base was at the first threshold of the Prismar stage, or higher!
Jason had only seen a few beasts at the Lique stage and the majority of them had been inside the poisonous underground lake.
As such, he was definitely at the bottom of the food pyramid, even if he were to reveal his entire combat prowess.
That thought was disturbing, but at the same time, it caused an unknown excitement to ignite within him.
Right now, he was too weak and got ignored by those that had better things to do than killing an insignificant fry.
Only if Jason was stronger, would others start minding if he were to enter their territory.
The moment he had liquefied the third drop of mana, Jason saw a bright light ahead of him.
However, instead of being astonished, he had already been aware of this.
His Emperor Eyes had allowed Jason to see the bright glow of the mana currents radiating from all kinds of unmoving objects.
It was truly a blessing that his Emperor Eyes allowed him to see through the mana enriched soil, otherwise, he would have many issues.
The mana current was what he was seeing through his bare eyes right now, and he was only able to avoid being dazzled owing to the faint layer of mana he had covered his eyes with.
Entering the third cavern hall, Jason took a look around which was only possible because everything was lit up.
A bright light shone through the entire hall, turning the staff in his hand useless.
It was different than he had expected but incomparable to the first cavern hall in which he had emerged, let alone the second one with the smelly sea.
Everything radiated elemental transmuted mana, and Jason was extremely familiar with the majority of objects that caused the phenomenon of multicolored mana streams that were all around the room.
These mana streams were attracted by the suctioning force he released, but instead of absorbing the elemental transmuted streams of mana around him, Jason decided to block out everything.
Artemis could devour everything, while Solaris could burn through the transmutation, forcefully neutralizing the transmuted mana.
But that was not what he wanted right now because his eyes were glued to the ores and crystals he could see all around him.
"High grade elemental crystals? Oh, and ores releasing elemental mana currents too?"
Jason was not sure about the ores' names but that did not really matter because he knew that they were extremely valuable.
At least, that was what his Emperor Eyes told him owing to the specific hue around items that allowed him to determine their quality.
During the last few years, he had neglected this ability of his eyes because it had been less important.
But seeing the bright hues around the elemental crystals and ores, Jason's eyes couldn't help but gleam brightly.
The hue around the ores wasn't usually that interesting in comparison to the hue determining the potential of beasts.
However, right now, this was different, because the ores were at least at the low Prismar grade without a higher quality.
This was something Jason could determine because there were certain ores without a hue, and even they were exceptional.
'Did I just find a treasure trove?'
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