Chapter 135

The group continued the march through the storm and had eventually left the forest. They were finally at the base of the mountain. "I'll lead the way from here," Jasmine said. Jasmine was the only one who had been to the cave before. In fact, she was the one who had told Gary about the cave in the first place. Ray still had his suspicions about Jasmine. How was she even able to obtain information about the cave? The only reason why Ray decided not to confront her about it was because he was now too interested in the Divine Being. Especially after he had that second dream, he knew he needed to find out what it was. The group continued to march on through the mountain. Eventually the storm started to settle down a little as they got further up. It was a strange sight as it looked like the whole city was affected by the storm but for some reason, the mountain had remained untouched. The further up they went, the less rain and wind there was. Eventually, they had reached the snowy area of the mountain. They had kept up a good pace. If a normal human being with no use of Ki was to climb up these mountains, it would have taken them days to get up this far. As they were walking up the mountain, they could see several mounds of snow around them. It looked as if the snow had covered several large boulders. Kyle wasn't getting a good feeling when he looking at the mounds of snow. He felt like something was off. Then suddenly he felt like he spotted something. "Hey did anyone see that?" "See what?" Dan replied. "That pile of snow. I could have sworn I saw it move just now." "Can you not be childish and play jokes on us like that?" Martha said frowning, "You know it's rumoured this place has strong magical beasts." Just as Martha had finished speaking, several mounds of snow around them started to move. Kyle gulped as he saw the giant ice golem come out from underneath the snow. The golem had no head but a single eyepiece in the centre of its chest. It was mostly human-shaped apart from its square chest. Ray had spotted these a while ago of course but he had already faced this type of magical beast before. The system no longer allowed him to gain crystals nor to absorb its mana and ice attribute. It seemed like the system had put a limit on his mana steal and mana eater skill when it came to magical beasts. The group quickly whipped into action, while Ray did as little as possible. Ray thought it was best for the group to get stronger. He wouldn't always be there to protect them after all. Slyvia took command, using everyone abilities to their max. She even accounted for Kyle's new chain weapon and Jasmine being with us, giving them clear instruction on how and when to attack. The main weakness of the ice golems was the fact that they were slow. Slyvia, Martha and Dan were in charge of aggroing the creatures. They would attack the creatures and gets their attention, while Ray, Jasmine, Monk, Gary and Kyle would then stealthily take out the creatures from behind.

Everyone had grown much stronger and even though they were intermediate beasts, they were quickly dealt with. After everyone had finished carving out the crystals, the group continued to move forward with Jasmine in front. Again after the battle with the ice golems, Ray only grew more suspicious. Although the group easily dealt with the ice golems, how was Jasmine able to come here on her own? Jasmine was clearly hiding something. As they walked further up, the group encountered another group of intermediate magical beasts. This time they were rabid bunnies. These creatures had the features of rabbits but stood eight feet tall with the body of a grizzly bear. Before the others could even react, Ray had run out in front to take on as many as he could. He dealt with each beast with a single punch. Ray had managed to defeat a total of 10 rabid bunnies while the rest of the group had dealt with four. The group was no longer surprised at Ray's strength after the tournament. The only thing that they were surprised about was how quickly Ray seemed to be growing stronger. After the fight with the rabid bunnies, Ray managed to luckily obtain 8 crystals through the system and stored the other 2 in his endless void when the others weren't looking. Instead of keeping the eight crystals in Ray's system though, this time he decided to absorb them all straight away as he walked at the back of the group. After what had happened last time, Ray didn't want to take any chances. If they met another creature in these caves or those tunnels like the minotaur last time, then Ray needed to be as strong as possible. After absorbing all of the eight crystals, Ray's points had reached a total of 79. His whole body felt lighter and he felt re-energized. He was now only a few more points away from his next evolution. "The cave, it's just up ahead here," Jasmine said The group had passed many caves on the way over but Jasmine continued walking upwards until finally, they had reached their destination. "Is this really a cave?" Monk asked looking at the entrance. The cave walls looked unnatural and the entrance was bigger than all the ones they had passed. This one stood 10 meters tall and had smooth edges as if it had been carved into the side of the mountain. It almost looked like a tunnel; the cave was clearly man-made. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go," Gary said as he took the lead. The cave was dark and there was no light source but this was expected. This time each of the group had made sure they bought their own light stone crystals and even more for back up just in case. The cave felt like it continued on straight rather than going down or up. After walking for a few minutes, they had reached a round steel door that covered the entire 10-meter tall cave. There wasn't a single gap for anyone to squeeze through. "This was the door I was talking about," Jasmine said. "Well Ray, it looks like it's time for you to do your thing," Gary said.