TBATE - Lightseeker

As I collected myself and my emotions, I searched the cave for anything I would need before I left. I took the mask and 17 gold coins from Master's drawer and the ring - a 'dimension ring' as he called it - and placed it on my index finger. The ring was a simple, thin silver ring with a small yellow crystal embedded in the frame. According to the knowledge Master Lumen bestowed upon me, only one bearing the Blessing of the Sun could use the ring. Seeing as I'm now the last of the Lightseekers, albeit not a pureblood, that means me. I imbued mana into the ring and found four items. A yellow cloak burnt and the ends, a book, sword and a map. I drew the book from my dimension ring and inspected the cover. 'Mana Beast Encyclopedia.'

Useful. I'll read this later. Pulling the sword out of the ring, I held it in my hands. A Claymore, roughly 135cm in length with a straight golden-coloured T-shaped crossguard at the top of the hilt. The hilt itself was wrapped in a deep red leather reminiscent of dried blood. The long blade, which was far longer than my arm, was a perfect silver colour with a faint yellow sheen. it's stunning... a bit big for me right now though. With my new 'Asuran' body it shouldn't be too heavy, but I'd look like quite the fool waving around a sword that's not much shorter than I am considering I'm only give-or-take 1.55 meters tall. The map was a simple map of the Beast Glades with Master's cave circled in red ink.

I studied my Radiant Heart's rune one last time, noticing something odd about it before I took one last deep breath and looked around the cave - the Garden of Eden - as Master Lumen called it, before putting on my new cloak and venturing into the mouth of the cave.

As I neared the top of the steep cave entrance, the Sun's rays - the real Sun's rays - shone down upon me with its loving embrace, as if blessing me for my adventure. A small yellow butterfly landed on my nose. "Hahah. Have you come to see me off? I'm touched. Thank you." The butterfly flew off my nose and back into the cave. I guess I should go find a dungeon? Not much else I can do in the Beast Glades. Luckily for me, there's a C-class dungeon just a 15-20 walk from my current location. With the plethora of light and flame abilities I have currently, a C-class will likely be a walk in the park, but it serves a good purpose of getting me used to being in the face of hungry beasts and giving me practice with my abilities.

As I walked to the location, I played with a ball of fire, changing its form from a ball of fire to a spear, then an arrow and back to a ball. This is fun. Hehe. "Hah, I wonder if I'll see anyone. The Beast Glades is pretty dang huge, but I can't be the only one out here right?"

After another 10 or so minutes of playing with fire, I arrived at my destination. "I see the entrance!" I walked into the dungeon, and the immediate lack of light was apparent. This dungeon would be nothing like the Garden. Though I guess that is to be expected. I wonder what the classing for the Garden would be? There are no harmful beasts, but there is also Master Lumen, who is surely well beyond the confines of even SS-Class. Even referring to him in the same sentence as a beast feels wrong. Imbuing my eyes with the mana of the Sun, two bright rings could be seen in my iris'. The rings were both orange and yellow, but it was impossible to tell when yellow met orange and vice-versa. The two colours seamlessly blended together. My eyes immediately adjusted to the darkness as if the Sun itself was illuminating every corner of the dark dungeon entrance. After roughly 5 minutes of walking through the narrow tunnel, a group of grey wolves began their soundless charge toward me. I didn't hear them coming... They must be Sound Hounds. C-Class mana beasts. They are weak individually but can be a threat in large packs and can sneak up on you easily with their noise cancellation. "Seems to be a small pack." As they continued their charge at me, no more than 7 meters away, I brought both of my hands up diagonally above my head and slashed toward the charging hounds. One disc of light spiralled around each of my hands before releasing and flying toward the silent challengers. A second disc quickly formed around my wrist and spiralled up my hand before releasing, following the first two. The vanguards of the Hounds were sliced cleanly in half. The remaining 6 faltered slightly before running me down even faster letting out gutwrenching screams that hurt my head to listen to. "Ngh. Damn sound magic." I conjured an infernal white longsword with a circle crossguard and gripped it with both hands. The hounds and I both rushed each other, meeting halfway, and my sword cut two down before they could leap at me or send another head-aching scream my way. My brilliant flaming sword clashed with a hound's fang before slicing through its skull and burning the remainder of its body in a flash of white and red. I thrust my sword into the air as a spear of light formed above two of the final three. The spears fell straight through the beast's flesh, stabbing into the ground beneath them, pinning their lifeless bodies to the floor. One more. The last wolf lunged at me its maniacal eyes staring daggers at me as it entered my sword's range. Its paw swung at my shoulder in mid-air and I jumped to the side avoiding the attack. The wolf skidded across the stone floor and turned to look at me. I pointed my finger at it with my thumb to the ceiling, a tiny ball of light forming at my fingertip before firing and hitting the Sound Hound right between the eyes and coming out the other end of its body.

"Phew. All done." Rest in pieces, you damn mutts. I continued down the narrow path until I came across a clearing. The bleak, stone cave housed nothing but dried blood on the walls, so aged it was almost black, and numerous piles of bones. As I was about to reach the middle of the clearing, A large wolf fell from the ceiling mere meters in front of me. Another kind of wolf? I guess this is a wolf-themed dungeon. This shouldn't be the boss, I should still have ages to go before reaching the boss room. This wolf doesn't look like a C-class... And it's huge! It's easily 6 meters tall and it's still on four legs. Imagine how tall it would be standing on its hind legs! This thing is likely a weaker B-class mana beast. Dammit, now I wish I had read more of the book. 

The demonic wolf in front of me was standing on all four legs, with its head pointing my way and its glowing red eyes burning holes into my frame. Its ribcage seemed inverted in its body and was sticking out of its back, revealing its juicy intestines. Its skin looked as though it had been corroded as was falling off, with red and dark yellow puss falling to the ground. The hound from hell opened its immensely wide jaw and spewed hot magma on the floor of the cave. A magma-type beast. How annoying. Soon there will be nowhere safe for me to stand... Combining my Holy Flames and light, I created a large bow, about as tall as me, and pulled back the string. A flaming white arrow manifested in the string before I let it go and it soared with a whistle toward the wolf. The arrow lodged itself in the cheek before exploding in a flash of light and fire, burning the decaying monster. The beast let out a loud and pained scream before turning its attention back to me, flicking its paw from the ground up and launching small chunks off Earth toward me. I lept out of the way and climbed atop a large pile of bones firing off small light missiles to counter the shards of stone being sent my way. The wolf spat a blazing ball of magma straight at my front, while throwing stones to my left, leaving me no option but the roll off of the bones and closer to the ever-growing carpet of magma on the ground. It's strong, but being a B-class, it likely doesn't have any more hidden abilities. Magma carpeting, magma balls and earth shards should be all it has. I genuflected placing my palm on a clear part of the ground facing the magma demon and out came sharp vines of light from underneath it. The vines pierced the underbelly of the wolf and dug into its stomach, then branched off and out through the hole in its back. Three large tendrils of light stuck out from the beast, impaling it in place. I conjured a large sword many times my size and took a step forward, slashing down at the beast from afar, cleaving it in half. "For good measure."

The magma gradually faded as the magma-wielding hound took its final breaths. I stood near it and extended my arms diagonally from my body as if getting ready to give someone a hug. "Praise the Sun!" A circle of light formed above the body of the now-dead 10-meter-long Wolf and shot a brilliant beam of light down at it, purifying it and turning it to ash, leaving behind only its magma-charred core. 

I studied my figure and noticed small cuts from the earth shards I failed to dodge and healed them with the white Holy Flame. I looked further inward and noticed the flames surrounding my heart had dimmed. I should take a small rest and recuperate my mana. Purification and healing spells take up a lot of mana, even if they are only small. Leaning up against a rock, I pulled the Mana Beast Encyclopedia from my dimension ring and began to read.