After Alice disappeared into the fire, Kagali speedily briefed us on the topography of the Sacred Mountain and the monsters we were likely to encounter there. According to Kagali, we’d find many fire attribute monsters.
After getting all the information we needed, we set out. The air grew hotter and hotter as we approached the mountain, but I kept us cool with my magic. I expected that very few animals could survive the scorching heat around here, though.
“This is strange,” I said.
“It sure is,” Tida agreed. “We’ve run into some animals, but no monsters yet.”
If there were a lot of spirits around, it meant that mana was abundant. Monsters usually gathered in such places, just like they did in dungeons.
“Is this area always devoid of monsters?” I asked Kagali.
“No. As far as I know, this is the territory of the flame lizards,” she replied. “My master has always told me not to come here because it’s very dangerous.”
“Flame lizards are Rank C monsters, aren’t they?” Tida asked.
“If you’re talking about just one flame lizard, then yes,” I said. “But unlike most reptilian monsters, they usually hunt in packs. A group of ten flame lizards would be considered Rank B, while a pack of twenty of them would be Rank A.”
“From what I’ve heard, there should be more than fifty in this area,” Kagali said.
I surveyed our surroundings with my mana, but I couldn’t find a single monster.
“It really doesn’t seem like there’s anything here, though,” Tida said, having reached the same conclusion as me. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
“I’m pretty sure,” I said.
“How do you know?”
I crouched beside a boulder that had a conspicuous indent in it and picked up a minuscule red stone that had a jewellike luster. It was no bigger than my pinky nail.
“This is a piece of a blazing crystal,” I said, raising it to eye level and examining it. It looked like the original crystal had been shattered by a powerful force. “It’s essentially crystallized fire mana. Flame lizards love to feed on blazing crystals, so this shard likely dropped here after one of them ate the rest of it. Plus, look at the crack in the boulder next to me. It seems like it was left by the tail of a flame lizard.”
I scanned the scene and noticed that other nearby rocks had been scored in a similar manner. Flame lizards usually left these fissures to mark their territory.
“So you’re telling me the flame lizards were here, but they left?” Tida asked.
“I don’t know. On their own, flame lizards are cowardly creatures, but they can be quite belligerent in large numbers.”
“They like to pick fights, huh? Do you think they attacked Mr. Gaien because he entered their territory, and he killed them all instead?”
“I doubt it,” Kagali answered. “My master is strong, but he couldn’t defeat fifty flame lizards on his own.”
“The area doesn’t show any signs of fighting either,” I said.
“This is all very odd,” Tida concluded.
We were all on guard as we kept walking toward the foot of the Sacred Mountain, shocked by the peculiar absence of monsters where there should have been an abundance. We soon found the entrance to a cave that led into the bowels of the mountain.
“This is it,” Kagali said.
“That’s a big cave,” I replied.
“Have you ever been inside, Miss Kagali?” Tida asked.
“No. I’ve come as far as the entrance with my master a few times, but he’s never allowed me to enter. All I know is that it forks into several paths.”
“All right. First of all, let’s all check that our equipment is in working order one last time before we enter,” I said.
We sat down on a rocky outcrop next to the entrance and double-checked our gear. According to Kagali, lots of monsters lived inside the cave, including goblins. We’d likely have to fight them. Before entering, we also restored our strength with some food and water.
“It’s time to venture in,” I said.
It was dark inside, and we relied on the light of lanterns to advance.
“I don’t sense the presence of many monsters,” Tida said.
“Me neither,” I replied. I did perceive the mana of some monsters here and there, but they were all small and weak, and they seemed to be hiding from us.
“There’s the first fork,” Kagali said.
The cave split into two paths, both around the same size.
“What do we do?” Misha asked. “Should we pick one direction at random and search that way first?”
“Wait a minute,” Kagali said. She spent a few moments staring at each path intently. “We’re going left.”
“Why?”
“I can see mana on the right. Each individual dot is faint, but there are a lot of them. It’s probably a goblin nest.”
“All right, left it is, then,” I said.
To ensure we wouldn’t get lost, I unsheathed my blade and carved a mark on the wall. We trudged onward, relying on Kagali’s eyes to find our way each time the cave split into several paths, though we sometimes hit dead ends and had to retrace our steps. By this point, we’d already been walking for several hours, but not a single monster had attacked us.
Eventually, we reached a path that sloped downward. As we followed it, the temperature grew even more sweltering, so I intensified my cooling magic. This path was narrower than the rest, and very long. It was also somewhat steep. I couldn’t measure anything precisely, but I guessed that we’d descended at least a dozen meters.
When we finally reached the end, we found ourselves in an expansive cavern. A river of lava ran down the edge of the cavern, and the glow it gave off allowed us to see without relying on the lanterns. At the very center of the cavern was a Spiritanic altar, but that wasn’t what immediately caught my eye. Rather, it was the hulking snake made of fire lying down behind the altar.
I glanced at Kagali and saw that she was staring at the snake in astonishment.
“Wow! So big! Is that Salamander?” Tida questioned.
“Y-Yes,” Kagali replied. “That’s exactly how my master described him.”
“Hey, look. There are people under Salamander, aren’t there?” Tida asked, pointing at the snake.
She was right.