"oh shit!"

dragged into the river, alex instinctively held his breath and frantically struggled to free himself from the kelp-like tendrils.

as an awakened, he had the capability to hold his breath underwater for more than 30 minutes. but that was only if he was not struggling or engaged in a fight while under.

alex was being pulled under and the more he struggled the more force he felt. he could even tell more tendrils had joined the frail.

''what the hell are these things?!''

because he could not see the depths of the river when he was outside, he couldn''t see the kelps and other water plants within.

lying in wait under the kelps were the kelpstriders—humanoid creatures with kelp-like tendrils covering their body. with these kelps, they blended seamlessly with underwater plants.

they use their tendrils to trap anything that comes close to the kelps, dragging them to the riverbeds where they feast on their prey.

dragged to a depth of 54 metres, alex could still not see what trapped him. the water bubbles from all the struggling and moving made it a challenge.

with no choice but to use his mana, he channelled it through his body, lighting up his suit. he wanted to produce a mana pulse that should be able to loosen the tendrils long enough for him to escape.

but his actions did more than just that. the kelpstriders were predators, yet they had a glaring weakness. while they were water creatures, they always stayed at the bottom and rarely came up to the surface.

they had a weakness to light—specifically bright light. it weakened their tendrils as they were highly sensitive to sunlight or powerful light-based magic, which caused their kelp to wither.

*screech!*

the bright light from his suit and the mana pulse he released gave alex a chance to free himself from the tendrils, and without waiting around, he swam as fast as he could to the surface.

*cough* *cough*

the bits of water he swallowed were coughed out as he took deep breaths to replenish his air supply.

a few moments later, he was good enough to lay on his back. of course, he was more than 15 meters away from the riverbank. it was best to be careful, after all.

"haa... that was dangerous."

his eyes shifted to look at the now calm river that continued to flow like nothing happened. he got back to his feet and then stretched his right towards the river.

*boosh*

his spear came rushing out of the river into his hand.

"now i have to choose which way to go."

his eyes looked across the river to the many paths that led deeper into the cavern, not sure which path to take.

they could all lead to trouble or to what he searched for. if only he had a way to tell which way to go.

"right. my sensors!"

he recalled the sensors built in to detect the areas with the magical resources he was searching for.

''it''s pointing more to the left...''

"hm?"

alex heard an indistinct explosion coming from an opening in the rocky walls of the cavern. the path leading to the opening was a slope that climbed to it, being about 15 meters above.

"is there a fight or something?"

he climbed to the small opening to take a look and what he saw left his mouth agape.

before his eyes was an expansive opening with a forest of trees everywhere! as far as he could tell, there was no end in sight!

above the large space was what looked like an inverted funnel, closing in at the very top. and through that small opening was a path leading straight to the surface—if one managed to climb up there of course.

and as wonderful as the place was, it was currently in jeopardy. running around everywhere were beasts of all kinds, trying their very best to escape the sea of void creatures that destroyed and devoured everything!

they were coming through that small opening alex knew was much larger up close. after all, the void creatures looked very small coming through it, and while there were larger ones, it was still large enough to allow for multiple entries.

their attacks were what produced the explosion alex was drawn to. fire, lightning, poison, piercing light rays and many rained down from above.

everywhere alex looked, something was either burning or disintegrating and then being drawn into the opened mouths of the void creatures.

it was pandemonium!

"what the hell is this?"

he had expected a lot of things, but not this level of chaos!

"i need to get out of here."

his decision was a smart one as even with his strength, there was no way of surviving this place. unfortunately for him, his presence was detected moments after his arrival.

void creatures devoured anything and everything, and to do so, they had a way of finding what they wanted to devour—mostly living things. they could detect what had mana and what didn''t.

alex suddenly heard a low growl coming from his left and he froze instantly, not daring to turn his head or even breathe.

because he had been so focused on the larger picture, he failed to detect the void creature that came close to where he was.

''i''m so dead...''

his eyes managed to look over to the creature, noticing it coming closer to his hiding spot. it floated slowly as its eyes glowed with a menacing light that looked to be guiding it towards alex.

it had a humanoid appearance with large clawed arms glistening in blood and its grey slimy skin writhed from time to time. it was unsettling, to say the least.

slowly, alex moved his hand towards his back and retrieved his staff, but he couldn''t transform it into its spear form without making a sound.

''play it cool... it might pass by. hopefully.''

*growl!*

abruptly, the void creature stopped and its maws opened as it gathered light energy and fired it in alex''s direction!

it happened so fast and while he reacted just as fast, he was too close.

*booooom!*