Even after walking through the cavern hall one more time with his senses sharpened, Jason could only find one way out of the hall.
This was not exactly what he had been hoping for because the dangers in the tunnel or following cavern halls could be extremely high.
Simply put, he was not confident to fight strong beasts because it was evident that his cultivation stage was low.
'There is no way that I will encounter beasts below the Prismar stage in an area that is overflowing with mana…'
Right now his surroundings were void of beasts but that was bound to change quickly.
This was because the world bridge he had emerged from had disappeared.
Without the necessary knowledge about world bridges, Jason would have just started to cultivate, thinking that the cavern hall gave him the best opportunity to do exactly that.
Everyone would think so, but not Jason, who knew for a fact that the world bridge's disappearance would cause a chain reaction, and in fact, lead to the very thing he didn't want; attract beasts.
The world bridge's disappearance was important because naturally generated world bridges were, in fact, the planet's reaction to their planetary core overflowing with energy.
Wisse had explained it to him several times, which was also the reason for him to destroy only a few world bridges instead of all.
Argos might face a shortage of mana, but at the same time, its planetary core was overflowing with mana owing to the fact that adapting to the sudden mana awakening more than three centuries ago had been extremely difficult.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})As such, while the mana on Argos increased, the planetary core was adjusting to its own production speed of mana.
In the end, it was unlikely for the planetary core to be able to cope with the sheer amount of mana right off the bat.
It wouldn't happen even after thousands of years have passed either.
Thus, naturally generated world bridges were created by worlds, preventing the planetary core from getting damaged due to the overflowing mana.
At the same time, the naturally created world bridges and the mana that was required to maintain them made it possible for the planetary core to adjust to the generated mana that was consistently increasing until it reached its limit.
Artificially created world bridges were a different matter altogether, and they could bring forth chaos to the two planets that were forcefully connected.
This was exactly what had happened when his father had created a world bridge between the Elvyr race's origin planet and Argos, while forcefully holding it together, turning it into a permanent world bridge.
In the end, artificial world bridges were not important to Jason right now, and it was more of the fact that the surrounding mana had increased in density, purity, and quantity owing to the disappearance of the world bridge he had emerged from.
Jason knew that this would attract other beasts, and they were certainly much stronger than him.
It was not a given that they would attack him for sure, but taking the risk of being eaten alive was not something Jason wanted to do right now.
As such, while his sub-area was passively absorbing tremendous amounts of mana, Jason was inserting a large portion of the same into his Emperor Eyes, increasing the ability to see energy streams around him.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})This made it much easier for him to enter the only cavern tunnel he could find.
It led downwards, which was annoying, but considering that he was able to breathe inside the cave, there should be a way to the surface, somewhere.
Carefully walking through the wide tunnel, while holding the dark blue staff that glowed brightly, Jason had to ignore Petri and Solaris' plea to let them emerge from the soul world.
Only Artemis remained quiet because she didn't want to stay in places where she couldn't fly around whenever she wanted.
The Cave was too narrow, and the sky too far away for her.
Even with his Emperor Eyes, Jason was not sure how deep into the ground they were because the mana intertwined soul was something he couldn't see through completely.
Only extremely strong mana fluctuations could be sensed by Jason, which was, however, more than enough for now.
'I will have to adjust to the new mana flow a lot faster, otherwise, it could end in a disaster!'
Thus, while the sub-area in his mind was passively absorbing mana, Jason was doing the same actively, increasing the mana flow.
At the same time, he released the entire capabilities of his stigma and aura, increasing his mana mastery tremendously.
The Celestia race was simply more affine with mana and Jason made use of that as much as possible.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Releasing his aura and stigma could attract other beasts, but without being able to see anything through his Emperor Eyes gave him enough reassurance to think that it was fine to release everything.
Only when he perceived mana fluctuations of strong beasts did Jason retract everything at once while concealing his mana core.
Jason even canceled his sub-area's passive mana absorption, once he saw the terrific dense energy fluctuations of a beast moving forward in his direction.
What he perceived was already more than enough for him to tremble in fear, but instead of behaving like a coward, it would make much more sense to look for a way out of the tunnel.
The first few beasts that passed him in the following hours didn't use the wide tunnel Jason was in.
This was extremely beneficial, and it indicated that there were several more tunnels all around him.
It could also mean that there were beasts like moles or earthworms digging their way inside, but that did not matter right now.
What mattered was the obvious fact that he was still alive, and was about to reach the second cavern hall.
Normally, he would have extinguished the bright light, but Jason knew that his current position was several hundred feet deeper than he had been before.
As such, a bright light was likely to dazzle and scare other beasts, preventing them from approaching a being with extremely weak mana fluctuations.
On the other hand, it could also prove to be counterproductive and anger the beasts, making them lunge at him for encroaching their territory.
As such, Jason decided to dim down the light, so that he could still see the immediate surroundings.
After stepping into the second cavern hall, the first thing Jason noticed was a pungent scent that swept through the entire hall.
It was extremely foul and strong enough to make his eyes tear up.
Because of that, Jason summoned Solaris' flame that turned into his mask after being forcefully shaped into a suitable form.
Being able to breathe properly was already great and more than he could have hoped for in the second cavern hall that looked more like a dumpster than anything else.
There was a small underground lake right in front of him, but instead of being blue, or having a light touch of green, it was dark green, purplish, with small air bubbles all over the surface of the lake.
The moment the air bubbles burst open, hot steam was released, creating the pungent smell.
'At least, I now know what those weird energy ripples were…' He thought while trying to rid of his annoyance.
Scanning through the cavern hall with his Emperor Eyes, Jason perceived that there were several beasts inside the lake.
However, their strength was something he could barely face, but he need not worry for now because they seemed to be sound asleep!
After his Emperor Eyes had perceived everything, he took a detailed look at everything with his normal eyes.
This took him a few hours as the second cavern hall was much larger than the first one.
Nevertheless, Jason was quite glad because there were a total of six tunnels that led him to a different location, and at least one of them should lead towards the surface!
Despite this, he now had to figure out the fastest way to either reach the surface or to further distance himself from the cavern hall he had emerged in while searching for a place without any beasts to cultivate.
