The monsters

Moving along the path that the stupid plant pulled him on, he started to notice that the forest seemed to get thicker as he moved forward. He originally had his eyes closed during the time that he was using the breathing technique, so he didn't get to see the denser forest.

He started to think as he walked into this forest, 'how can the land be flat enough to allow this type of forest, and not just sparse trees… and didn't we already figure out that the ground around us is very shallow?'

He then heard in his mind Ava say, [Well, while you were so focused on getting down the mountain, you actually headed into the area where all the mountains meet, which actually protects you from the fog quite well, and the reason so many things can grow down here is due to materials that get blasted off the mountains when the lightning hits. That lightning is very powerful and is mana rich, so when it strikes the stone on the mountain, it turns it to sediment that then comes down the mountain to a meeting ground here.]

'Interesting', thought Lucras as he delved deeper into this denser forest. He wasn't going to run for now as this forest gave him a slight feeling of danger in his heart, but he definitely wanted to get back to his cave before night came. Moving into the forest, he decided that he wanted to figure out how to sense mana since it seemed like a useful ability. Looking into the forest, he tried to look for the feeling he felt when he used the breathing technique, but after a while of trying, he got nothing in return. While he was doing this, another small change was happening inside of the book, as it turned a darker blue, while what seemed like golden symbols seemed to appear oblong the back.

While trying this new idea of his, he heard a new voice in his mind completely different from Avas, while also being somewhat familiar. After a second, he figured out that it sounds like his new voice, as it spoke out, {{If you do want to try to see mana, you will need to try and move mana into your eyes, and make a high concentration of mana there, then you will be able to see mana. If you want to sense it without concentrating, then, best of luck to you, as it's just a soul thing that you will need to deal with before you get mana sense.}}

After a few seconds of shock that this new voice sounded like his, Lucras figured out that was the ghost he had around him. So many things had happened recently that he forgot that the ghost had been silently recovering. Happy that the ghost could now communicate with him better, Lucras decided to ask, 'How have you been in there? Oh, and what do you want me to call you since the ghost doesn't sound good?'

After a moment of silence, he got a response, {{It's a little dark in here, but I am fine, I guess, for being dead and all. You can also call me Lucas, since you took my old name, I'll be taking yours}}. After the ghost, or better yet, Lucas, told him that he would be taking that name, giggling followed his statement.

A little disturbed by the fact that the ghost picked his old name, Lucras decided to shake it off since he had assumed the identity of the ghost. Taking the advice of "Lucas", Lucras tried to move mana into his eye, and slowly he felt some warmth travel up his body. Eventually, after a full minute of standing still and willing the mana up to his eyeballs, he opened his eyes again.

If one looked at Lucras now, they would notice something different about his eyes. In the slightly darkened environment, he was currently in, his eyes seemed to glow a hue of crimson. If others saw this, they might unconsciously feel fear towards him even though he was just a small child.

But to Lucras, he saw everything in a new light, as he saw what seemed like small sand particles flowing all around him. The weird part was these sand particles seemed to pass through everything that they touched, and these sand particles seemed to be multi-colored too. There was a lot of brownish-green particles that seemed to come from the trees around him, while there was also some white coming from the sky above him and black from the shadows below.

After taking in the scene for a few minutes, Lucras found a weird patch of gold mana coming from a certain direction. Curious, he started to head in that direction, passing through trees as he traveled. Eventually, he reached a clearing of multi-colored flowers and saw what seemed like a glowing mass at the center of the field. The glowing mass seemed powerful as strange symbols revolved around it.

Getting closer to the glowing mass, Lucras noticed that there was a large section of flowers that seemed to be pushed and crushed under something, which was strange. After looking at the crushed flower, he heard a voice telling him, {{You are quite lucky, as that probably be where a powerful monster would have been. And it has definitely been a powerful monster since that spell seems to be outputting pure mana, which is extremely helpful to a powerful beast. I don't recommend staying here since, at any time, that powerful beast could come back and stomp you to death.}}

Deciding to take this warning seriously, Lucras decided to take one last look at his spell and quickly headed out in the direction he came in. This time he used his regular eyes since mana eyes seemed to strip out all the color from anything that wasn't mana.

Finding his dragged path again, Lucras continued for what seemed like an hour before he finally found his almost knocked-over tree. He felt relief at finally finding he was home after that adventure he had. As he felt more comfortable in this area, Lucras started to gather plants again as quickly as he could. This came after realizing that something had made all the monsters run away and they could be coming back soon.

Inspecting everything he could, Lucras found quite a few useful plants around his cave that he quickly grabbed, including more health vines. While he was out, he also grabbed some more rocks that looked shiny.

Taking all of his supplies back to his cave, Lucras started to set out the thing in his bag as it was starting to get crowded in there. Seeing night coming again, and his fire completely out again, Lucras headed out again to get some firewood.

Heading back into the woods, he felt a change around him. Like the air had become clearer, and lighter than it was before. Following that change, Lucras heard roars fill the air as what seemed like an earthquake rocked the mountains surrounding him. Fearing for what was to come, Lucras raced back to his own cave with whatever sticks he found on his way.

Sprinting as fast as he could, he felt the mountain beneath him become more and more violent. Looking up, he noticed that he could see through the trees that what seemed like dots trickled down the surrounding mountains. Looking around the other mountains, he noticed that there were more dots coming over the mountains.

Slowly he realized that those were the missing monsters that had mysteriously disappeared from the woods. He felt his body shake slightly as the aura of all the monsters returned. As he raced towards his cave, he found that he was actually closer to his cave. Deciding to drop the sticks, he had to get to his cave faster, after a minute, he finally reached his cave.

Quickly hiding his stuff away, he prepared for the worst, if a monster returned to this cave, he would need to fight to the death. Standing in silence, he waited, waiting for something besides all of the rumbling.

Waiting in his quickly darkening cave, he finally heard the monsters come close enough to be considered dangerous. There roars as the monsters fight with each other, and the roars become louder and louder.

Breathing soon became difficult as he felt the air become like honey. Sticky and viscous air seemed to permeate the air around him. As he soon felt an aura become stronger and stronger as it headed toward his location. Preparing himself, he tried to use his mana sight he saw darker red sand particles heading towards his cave. Waiting for what seemed like hours, he finally saw what was giving him this fear of his.

A shadow appeared before him and looked like a horse. A chilled mist seemed to roll in, that seemed to chill his blood. Finally, he could get a closer look, and what he saw was a red, crystal horse, lightly glowing in the remaining light of the day.