It was still dark and damp in the complex cavern system when he woke up, body stiff from the tough bed of the cave. The air reeked of rot, which could be what that Void Magus meant when he asked Valens to cleanse the Necromancer’s rot.“There has to be a source, then,” he muttered as he lifted the Blockage spell, and managed a Lifesurge across his body to wash the tiredness off by letting it dissolve into a wave of lifemana. That was the beauty of a Lifesurge. A scalpel that could seep under the skin without tearing it when needed and a wave of healing mana to flush the damaged area when it was dissolved.He felt his bones click with pleasure as he started off the sloping path.A cold wind across the stretch welcomed him. Valens pulled his fingers up, waiting at the ready for a Fireball in case one of those creatures came barreling down, keeping one eye on the Resonance for his sound vision to catch any minute movements ahead.It was another perk of being one with the Resonance, but it wasn’t what the other Magi often thought it to be. The sound vision was more like a hastily sketched circular painting with Valens as the center point, its diameter approximately ten feet. Good for getting a feeling of the patients, but ultimately a far worse option for intricate wounds than Lifeward’s perfect precision.But here, Valens used it to spread his perception, which allowed him to catch any unwanted guests before they actually showed themselves. Useful indeed as with it he didn’t have to go around the cave with a Fireball burning in his hand. That saved him from a bunch of skeletons, no doubt.An hour into his stroll, he began to suspect as he’d not yet seen any skeletons out for his life. If this was to be a trial, then perhaps he’d cleared the first part and now he was moving toward the second, likely more dangerous, step. He perked up, eyes narrowing down, back stiff as a stone.When he turned another corner, the moss coating (...)