Using my newly acquired human (or werewolf?) compass, I found most of the berserk mana was escaping from a small cave at surface level, the entrance of which was quite near the lake. It was quite small, only a few metres tall and wide. He rock walls of the cave were strangely smooth, as if it had been slowly eroded. On top of that, the cave was very straight, making it look like a tunnel rather than a cave. As it would probably be dangerous inside and I had no reason to let Lyndis die, I told her to stay outside as i walked into the cave. In order to fit into the small space, I shrunk my dragon form. I didn't use mr dragonkin form as I had no idea how to fight in it, and I was much more coordinated in my dragon form.
A few minutes into the mountain, I could no longer hear sounds of the forest; a deafening silence pervaded the depths of the cave. I noticed that it was extremely straight, and the surroundings hadn't changed at all. It was also extremely dark, there were no light sources, and if I was a human I wouldn't be able to see in the heavy darkness. Eventually, I saw a small change in the light. There was a deep purple glow coming from deeper in the cave. I walked towards it slowly, readying myself for a surprise attack.
The purple light got brighter and brighter until I arrived at a massive cavern. The first thing I noticed was the abundance of primal mana, which is the mana that ley lines channel. It is actually dangerous to most life, so I was extremely surprised to see it above ground and in such densities. The walls of this strange place were hundreds of metres high, forming a circular area. The walls were still that strange smooth texture, but I put that to the back of my mind as I saw where the purple light was coming from.
In the centre of the cavern there were a multitude of massive carvings, one larger than the others. The largest one was the most complex and positioned in the centre, surrounded by others of varying complexity. The central carving was made of two circles inside each other. The small area between the circles was covered in runes, whereas the area within the circles was inscribed with a mesh of lines that looked like a 31-pointed star. They all glowed with an eerie purple glow, illuminating the surrounding objects. On top of the magic circle were dragon bones, enough to form an dragon that was only slightly smaller than me at full size. However, some of the bones were missing. As I looked around the area, I saw another strange thing, a few stone spikes were impaling what looked like the remains of a human skeleton to the wall. I calmed myself down, and tried to piece together what had happened here. 'How did a dragon of that size get inside here, and who was stupid enough to fight them?' I thought, scenarios running through my head. Eventually, I decrypted the magic circle, the purpose of which shocking me. Whoever had written it was crazy, powerful, and had no regard for the lives of others. The inscription channelled primal mana from the ley line intersection to the surface, before using it to cast a spell. 'This forest is ridiculously lucky' I thought. The primal mana here should've escaped from this room and killed all life nearby, but it hadn't for some reason. Not willing to push my luck any further, I rushed forward and quickly broke every magic circle, before completely erasing them from the floor. Luckily, once the unnatural force had been removed, the primal mana returned to its flow beneath the ground. Sighing in relief, I looked around once more,only to discover another thing lighting up the area. 'How many things are in here? This is ridiculous!' I thought as I approached the new item, my curiosity about this place rising. It was a 2 metre tall staff that looked like a gnarled root, in colour and form, holding a transparent, blue sphere. It looked like an average staff, but the fact that it was glowing and the strange aura emanating from it showed that it was definitely no ordinary object. 'Inspect'.
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Continent Shatterer
Grade SSS magic staff.
Highest grade magic staff created from only dragon materials, formed by harnessing the extreme power of primal mana.
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'...'
'Did I read that right?'