They found themselves in the middle of the next floor.
The surroundings hadn't changed much except for the large number of hanging stalagmites on the ceiling and the increased darkness that had come from the lack of sunlight in this floor.
The woman beside him stepped forward, her armor clanking against the cave floor as she faced the dark shadows at the end of the room.
"I see you." She declared into the air as if talking more to herself than with someone else.
David activated Vision almost immediately.
The entire room around him changed. Wherever he looked, there were wraiths. On the walls. On the ceiling. Even on the floors.
And right in the dark area of the room...there rested something humungous. Something that looked like a human from this distance.
David himself would have assumed it as a human hadn't it been for the pale bluish glow that was emanating from it's chest region.
The armoured lady suddenly spoke, "It's a Tier 3 wraith...I shall take care of it. But if you want to escape, you need to deal with the rest. Oh, just so you know they are all Tier 2 wraiths. Not the Tier 1 ones you have defeated on the first floor."
She looked away, her voice softening into a murmur. "And that too someone who just awakened his mana veins...interesting."
But David had heard it all. He wondered how the hell did a random woman know that much about him already.
But he had no time to wonder as with a screeching sound, the woman took out her sword.
She was about to charge at what she called the Tier 3 wraith but hesitated. Then coming to a decision, she turned towards David and took out a simple looking stone.
He accepted it as he felt the smooth surface of the stone. It was flawless and felt fragile to his touch.
"I shall hold all the wraiths for a while. If you don't get prepared by then, I am leaving you here. Good luck." The woman made a strange declaration as she suddenly dashed towards the Tier 3 wraith.
Flames appeared on her sword as they produced sizzling sounds. At that moment, her speed increased as she narrowly dodged the tentacles that had come out of the humanoid shaped wraith.
A second later, the tentacles smashed against the rocky floor sending shudders along the way.
The woman jumped, her body shooting like a spring released from it's full recoil. She twisted in the air as she rotated her sword in a semi circular arc and a torrent of flames burst out.
Sensing danger, the humanoid wraith transformed into shadows as it navigated easily on the rocky floor. However, the wraiths slithering on the cave walls nearby weren't so lucky as the hot fire struck them before they could escape.
Through David's Vision activated eyes, he watched in amazement as the fire burned through the shadowy mass of their body and pierced the bluish heart without any resistance. He also noticed the unusual shimmering effect in the fire as if something else had been mixed with it.
In an instant, several Tier 2 wraiths died as they were burned to oblivion. Just like that.
The young woman landed on the ground as she once again dashed towards the dark mass of shadows, which was basically the Tier 3 wraith. Along the way, her flaming sword released puffs of fire as they held the other wraiths at bay and prevented them from joining the fight.
Meanwhile David found himself in a dilemma. He stared at the smooth, glass like surface of the stone she had handed him.
What was he to do with it?
For a moment, he thought to break it. Maybe it shall work...or maybe not. 'Why else would the stone be so fragile?' He wondered. He was certain that just dropping the stone on the ground or pressing too hard would break it into pieces.
Eventually he raised it to his forehead and kept it there. Seconds passed. But all he saw or heard was the raging battle between the woman and the Tier 3 wraith.
'Eh...is that even a battle?' He thought for all he saw was the Tier 3 wraith exchanging one or two blows before it started running around.
Strange how the woman looked like she could simply kill all of them and yet, she gave him that warning.
But David understood why she said so. He poured more mana into his Vision activated eyes. Instantly the surroundings changed in their colours. As he looked at the woman, he felt like he was seeing her under the effect of infrared lights.
Her pristine armour was nowhere to be seen and a dark red colour painted her figure. It was her mana.
David was flabbergasted at the vast concentration of mana in her body. Comparing his own mana reserves to hers felt the same as comparing a cup of water to a small water body like lakes. However, he could see the steadying decrement in her mana reserves the more she used her abilities.
He lessened the flow of mana and looked back at the stone as an idea formed in his mind. 'What if passing mana in the stone is the solution? Afterall, this doesn't seem like a random stone.'
He closed his eyes as he concentrated on the uniormly distributed mana inside him. Guiding a little of it, he trickled them onto the stone from his fingertips.
But nothing happened...
Not wanting to give up...or more specifically, he didn't actually want to be left out in this cave. So, he started increasing the amount of mana that came out of his fingertips.
As a result, even he didn't when he started increasing the pressure of his palms as well. And in no time, the stone cracked.
David jerked his eyes open as the splitting sound echoed in the air like a breaking glass pane. Even then he hadn't stopped the flow of mana.
The stone split open as deep cracks started appearing on the glass like surface. His mana started flowing insise these cracks as the stone started glowing in multiple colours.
Then the pale sky colour present among the myriad of colours started spreading as it dominated and devoured the other remaining colours on the stone.
With a whoosing sound, pale sky coloured smoke rose from the cracks. The next moment David was forced to close his eyes as with a brght light, all of the contents inside the stone was sucked by his hands.
He felt a sudden coldness inside him as whatever it was spreading under his skin.
David once again increased his Vision to its maximum potential and looked down at himself.
'What the hell?' His mana now looked like it has increased by a lot from before. Also he noticed a slight transparent shade in the red coloured mana particles.
At that moment, a mechanical voice echoed in his ears and a string of notifications appeared in front of his eyes.
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A/N: How's the story looking at this point? A comment would be appreciable.