" Pot.. what?" Lucy asked, " Potassium Nitrate, it's a chemical compound." He replied in an excited voice.
" I don't know what you're talking about but it sounds interesting, what does that potassium nitrate do?"
He smiled, " Gun powder, the god of dreams once visited a planet in another universe, that planet had so little mana barely anybody there even knew if it.
Infact mana and gods were only talked about in legends and fairytales there. The issue though, the humans there were curious.
Too curious, without mana they took an alternative path, not one of magic but science." Lucy grew excited while listening to him.
Viona on the other just listened without a change in expression, she couldn't understand any thing he was saying nor did she try.
They followed him into the cave, he lit up a fire and they saw the cave covered in green moss.
" What is that?" Lucy asked touching the moss without hesitation. Viona tried to stop her.
" It's fine." He told her, " It's just moss." They touched it with curiosity. " What is it?" Lucy asked.
Her curious mind couldn't allow her to not know. " It's a plant obviously." The moment he said that the two of them stared at him blankly.
" Plant?" Viona asked. " I've only heard legends of plants, they say our world was once covered by them, colourful in nature and beautiful.
It was said they provided food to all life." Her voice sounded sad and longing saying that. He sighed, now that he thought about it.
It was weird for them to have such large canines, humans usually lost or rather develop shorter canines over time due to their diet, at least in most planets.
" Can I eat it?" Lucy asked. " Yes." He answered without thinking and regretted it a step too late.
She had already eaten it. Then she curled, her stomach growled. She started choking and convulsing.
" What's happening?" Viona asked panicking. " Her stomach couldn't handle it, she ate too much at once, don't worry, we can easily fix it."
He shoved his finger into her throat causing her to throw up. " You need to eat it in small quantities for your stomachs to adjust to it."
They both nodded, then he started walking around the cave touching the ground and the walls.
He used his sword to peel white sand like substance off the ground and cave walls. " Is that potassium nitrate?" Lucy asked.
He nodded. " So now you can make that gunpowder thingy?" Viona asked. He shook his head.
" This is just one of the ingredients, I'm still going to need two more, Charcoal and sulphur."
They nodded as if they understood, after collecting the potassium nitrate they left the cave.
They went back to the settlement, he wanted to continue cultivating and reach rank 1 quickly.
The subterranean world ignited his hunger for exploring but they were dangerous. Without enough strength even he could meet his end there.
He sat in his golden circle and continued cultivating until nightfall, he was now 60 percent closer to rank 1.
He figured he would be done by nightfall. He took a break and listened to the clicks of clickers and growls of wraiths.
Ever since that night, there had not been another wraith that can enchant people, to begin with, as far as he knew, only rank 1 wraiths are like that.
Which was strange considering he didn't face a rank 1 wraith, it was as if it vanished when the entrance opened.
It was truly a strange encounter. He checked the pot and saw there was still a bit of meat there.
He was still surprised though, ' These people had an appetite.' he looked at them, they were smiling and talking.
Not one of them looked hungry or malnourished but the meat wouldn't last past tomorrow.
They would need to hunt, fortunately the subterranean world seemed to have it own lifeforms and they had barely touched it surface.
He bet the further he went the more creatures there will and the stronger they will be.
Meat of awakened creatures was much more nutritious than that of unawakened ones.
A single bite could fill a grown man's stomach and the meat takes too long to spoil.
However it does lose it nutritional value as the longer it stays the more mana it loses. After resting for a while he went back to cultivating.
In order to reach rank 1, one had to open a mana node. For mages that node was in their forehead.
For warriors it was in their naval, each path had four more nodes signifying the five levels of the first rank.
Once one opens either of the first nodes, the other nodes corresponding with the other path are closed forever.
Accept in the case of warlocks, however it wasn't without a cost, warlocks need twice as much mana as others for each break through.
Khaladrel absorbed enough mana to open the first node before daybreak. He condensed the mana in his naval until it formed a ball of gaseous mana.
He heard a crack and grinned, the first naval of the warrior path had been opened. Now he can choose to let the mana circulate through his body thus walking the warrior path.
However he didn't do that, instead he tried to sense the node of the mage path. He couldn't help but grin when he realised it wasn't closed meaning he can still open it. ' I knew it, I had the talent for the warlock path.'
He didn't waste a second and gathered another pool of mana, day came and went, the people prayed increasing his divine energy points.
By nightfall he had already regenerated all of the divine energy he had lost constructing that metal door to block off the spiders.
At the same time, he had gathered enough mana to open the mage node. Mana converged on his forehead forming a ball of blue mist.
Then a crack followed, he had also opened the mage node. Then he took a deep breath, it was time to awaken.
He allowed the mana to course through his veins. Each path has different mana pathways, each with five main pathways across the body.
For the warriors the pathways converged on their naval then continued circulating through the body.
For the mages, the convergence point was on their forehead. As mana circulated through his body he felt himself growing stronger.
He opened his eyes, the moment he looked at the humans their bodies shook.