The Greatest Sinner

The entrance to Stone Seeds was under the frozen lake. Of course, there were other entrances to these caves, but Evan didn't want to waste another day on a path when he could get into the caves right here and now.

Without using any spells, Evan shattered a meter-thick layer of ice with a single blow. He dove into the icy water but didn't swim straight to the underwater cave.

He had to cover his tracks. Evan was going to fight a large group of Tears of Light, and he wanted to take advantage of the element of surprise. The Light Mages were not supposed to know that someone else was interested in the Meteor Glass.

Evan took his hands out of the water and cast Ice Veil. He quickly recovered the destroyed portion of the ice and canceled the spell.

When Evan was a rookie mage, he couldn't create a meter of ice in a few touches. Such a thing was impossible to do with a spell of rank zero. But, now it was possible. The increased concentration of mana in Evan's Warp made any of his spells much stronger. What's more, the purified Warp also made spells slightly stronger.

But, that didn't mean that Ice Veil, a level zero spell, was equal to a level one spell in Evan's hands. Ice Veil became more useful but not as powerful.

After Evan covered his tracks, he swam to the entrance of the cave. There was no need to look for the entrance. Bright plants were growing around it, which as if an indicator showed that the entrance was exactly here.

After a while, Evan surfaced and found himself in one of the caves. He was completely soaked in the icy water. It wasn't the most pleasant feeling, considering he was in the kingdom's north, and there were snow and freezing blizzards everywhere.

"Damn, why haven't I learned any fire spells yet? I'm about to turn into an icicle." Evan muttered and headed deeper into the cave.

He didn't know where the Golems and the Stone Lilies were. He needed to explore the area and think of a plan of action.

<Dorlus said that these caves also possess other monsters, but I don't think they will pose the slightest danger to me.> Evan thought to himself as he entered one of the tunnels at another fork.

Unfortunately, he had no map of these caves, so he had to rely on his gut and luck.

The caves were huge. They were not small narrow tunnels where one person could hardly fit. They were home to giant creatures like Golems.

So each tunnel was at least fifteen meters high and sometimes even more wide.

This was a big plus for Evan, fighting in a confined space against many opponents was uncomfortable.

Whoooosh.

Suddenly a monster ran out from around the corner and pounced on Evan. This monster's body was covered in stone-like chitin. This monster had two crystal-like horns, which it tried to ram into Evan.

But, it failed. Evan reacted quickly and bounced to the side. He immediately used Mammon's Gaze.

[Cave Hunter

Race - Monster

Rank - 2, with one flame on the platform

Warp - White]

<Hmm, he's pretty strong. Moreover, his horns are comparable to 3-star weapons of the second rank. He would be perfect for warming up>. Evan thought and dashed towards the monster.

His spatial ring glowed, and Magma Blood appeared in his hands. The Cave Hunter was not afraid of Evan, he was just as determined to attack.

When they reached each other and clashed in the duel, the monster's severed horns fell instantly to the ground. They were sturdy but not strong enough to withstand the power of 5-star weapons.

Evan turned and swung the scythe, plunging it deep into the monster's flesh. The Cave Hunter roared in pain and fury, but there was nothing he could do.

Evan dodged another blow and cut off the monster's head with a sharp swing of the scythe. The scythe blade was sprinkled with blood, and Evan felt it gradually heat up. This heat could be compared to a smoldering bonfire.

"I need to kill a few more monsters, so I'll warm up quickly," Evan muttered and cut a blue crystal from the Cave Hunter's body.

Each Monster Core monster of the second rank was worth quite a bit. Of course, Evan didn't need money right now, but some unexpected situation could always happen. Moreover, money was never superfluous.

While Evan was looking for Golems and the Stone Lily, he killed a few more monsters. All of these monsters were different and unlike each other. There were stone monsters as well as fire monsters.

Evan's scythe had already heated up quite a bit, but it was not yet the maximum. It could fry an opponent's flesh with its attack, but Evan could not yet take advantage of the weapon's skill.

After about an hour of wandering through the cave system, Evan finally found what he had been looking for. Many Golems were in a single, vast room. This cave was as large as an entire field.

The tunnel from which Evan came was at the top, so he looked up at several sleeping Golems. They and the other monsters running nearby couldn't see Evan.

Evan used Mammon's Gaze and looked at the sleeping Golems.

[Meteorite Golems

Race - Monster

Rank - 2, with one flame on the platform.

Warp - White]

There were at least ten Meteor Golems in this cave. But, Evan was sure that it was only a tiny fraction of their total number. Many tunnels and passageways were leading into this cave, all the Meteorite Golems couldn't be in one place.

Around each Meteorite Golem was a multitude of stone vines growing from the beautiful flowers beside them. These were the Stone Lilies. They looked a lot like the usual ones, but they were mostly made of stone, and a faint blue light burned in the center of the bud.

It created quite a soothing atmosphere, and Evan himself even wanted to fall asleep right on the cold, stone floor.

<Sounds like these flowers have a tonic property, not bad. An ordinary person would probably be sleeping like a corpse by now. But judging from the fact that the Meteor Golems are still in anabiosis, I came a little early.. Well, I'll just have to wait a little longer, then.>