"This place is amazing! Mana is flowing to me on its own!" Gerald exclaimed. But this was not even the densest place yet! There was still some way to go!
He floated above a hill and circled around it, confirming his speculation. Five lines intersected inside this hill, creating an immensely dense Mana environment.
It was at that exact point, where Mana was at its densest, that Gerald noticed a small crack in the ground that led to the underground. Small was a relative term, of course. The crack was a few meters wide and it allowed the sunlight to shine through to a pristine underground lake below.
After soundlessly floating inside, Gerald could feel his Mana recover at an astonishing rate, it was even faster than drinking a Greater Mana Potion!
"Holy shit! This place is phenomenal! I should bring the girls here to train magic next time!" Just as he was thinking about what he should do with the place, he noticed a person sitting on a rock at the edge of the lake.
Blurring his body, he moved into the shadows of the underground cave and flew closer. It was a girl. From what he could see, she was around his age and had lightly tanned skin with, long brown hair with strands of blonde mixed in between.
She was also naked.
Observing her from afar, Gerald couldn't see her face clearly, but what he could see already hinted at a beautiful complexion. The only regretful thing was that her upper part of the body was unfortunately now well endowed, and Gerald could only shake his head in regret.
He landed on the rocks and observed her from the side, Magic Eyes active. The girl was sitting in a lotus position on a white fur rug, with her eyes closed and hands resting on her knees.
Gerald lifted one eyebrow in confusion as he observed Mana do some strange things inside her body. It was all happening extremely slow, so, after observing for at least an hour he could finally understand what she was doing.
Mana inside her gathered from her entire body and flowed to her chest, where it was then compressed for a little bit, before expanding and returning back to where it came from. Then it was gathered again and compressed again, each cycle lasting at least ten minutes.
Gradually the Mana density increased until it stopped at about the size of a fist. It was all gathered to the right side of her heart, in the exact middle of her chest. Then, taking a deep breath and showing some signs of struggle, the girl's face contorted with a deep frown and the Mana sphere was compressed further into a single point, before it...disappeared.
'Huh? Where'd it go?' Gerald thought inwardly, confused to no end.
"Phew!" The girl breathed a loud sigh of relief and opened her eyes, before wiping the sweat off her face. She took a waterskin and drank a few gulps before putting it back down and standing up.
'Seriously, what a shame! A beautiful face, but the body has…no substance…' Gerald mused regretfully.
Splash!
The girl jumped into the lake and swam to the middle, under the rays of the sun. She then floated there, her Mana replenishing at an astonishing rate. She was at the point of the highest concentration, after all.
Sometime later, after recovering completely, she swam back and a water wave lifted her back up on her rock. After wiping off, she sat back down in a meditative position and closed her eyes once more.
Gerald observed her for a long time, watching the Mana inside her expand and contract multiple times, until an hour later when it was once again squeezed so tight it disappeared. The girl then jumped back in the water to recover and came back out to repeat the process again.
"Hmm," Gerald released a frustrated noise as he was unable to figure out what she was doing even after observing her for so long. That was a mistake.
"Who's there!?" The girl suddenly opened her eyes and shouted, the Mana inside her going out of control, making her grimace in pain.
After taking a breath to stabilize her mind, she jumped up and scanned the cavern with squinted eyes. Then suddenly, her hand moved and she murmured something, shooting a water torrent at the place where Gerald was hiding.
'Oh, she found me!' Gerald waved his hand and a Stone Wall rose in front of him, protecting him from the sudden attack. When he looked at the girl again, she already scrambled to put on her clothes. It was a simple blue dress, with white patterns, making it look like a sunny sky with clouds.
"Who are you?! How did you get in here?! How did you get past the guards?!" she shouted at him.
Gerald simply shook his head and said, "What are you shouting for? What guards? I just followed the increased Mana until I found this lake…"
The girl frowned at his words, "What bullshit is this? Spying on me like some perverted pig! I should have you executed for this transgression!"
"Pervert? Who's the one sitting on a rock naked, in the middle of nowhere?! Besides, you are not even my type! You are too...flat!" Gerald angrily shouted back.
Gasp!
The girl's face turned a shade of red and her lips parted, showing her clenched teeth. With a frown on her face, she roared, "You bastard!" Her lips moved as she quietly chanted and her eyes spewed out flames of hate. 'Flat? I'll show you who's flat! I'll flatten you into a pancake!'
The water around the rock rose and lifted in the air, before forming long and sharp frozen icicles.
"Ice magic?! Not again!" Gerald groaned, "I fucking hate ice, how dare you use it against me!" He stuck his palms forward and before the Ice mage could even finish her spell, he already blasted flames dozens of meters long, toward her.
"Ah!" Seeing the flames mercilessly rush near, the girl had no choice but to abandon her spell and jump into the lake.
"Hah! What are you going to do now? Your flames can't touch me here!" she taunted him from the safety of the lake.
"Oh, I guess you are right… Hehe," Gerald replied and gave a light chuckle. Then his lips formed a smile and he said, "Like a fish in a barrel, huh?"
Although she couldn't quite see his blurred face, the words alone made the girl shudder. She felt like she was being watched by a dangerous predator.
Ka-cha, ka-cha, ka-cha…
Stones started cracking and they formed hundreds of Stone Spikes floating in the air. The girl's face went pale at the sight.
"Damn it! I refuse to believe you can control them all at once!" She formed a water barrier around herself and then froze it in a spherical shield.
Meanwhile, Gerald just waved his fingers and the Stone Spikes shot forward one by one and collided with her Ice Shield.
Bam, bam, bam, ka-cha!
The ice shield started cracking in multiple places, and the girl inside tried desperately to fix it. Luckily for her, Mana was not an issue in the lake and she had as much water as she needed as well. However, after a few minutes of this game, her mind started to get tired.
Indeed it was only a game for Gerald. If he wanted, he could annihilate her in seconds, but he was too curious about her unusual actions to do so.
What surprised him, however, was that she seemed capable of withstanding the strain of a hundred spells before showing any sort of exhaustion. She appeared to be human, so he couldn't quite understand how such a young lady could be so tenacious.
When he saw that she was almost at her limit, he pretended he was exhausted too and stopped attacking. The girl was skeptical at first, but when she saw Gerald sit down and pant as if he was exhausted, she released her shield and swam to the shore.
"You!" She shouted at him, "How dare you barge in the Spirit Pond and attack me! Do you even know who I am?!" She pulled a sword out of her pouch at her hip and conjured another Ice Lance in her other hand.
Gerald shook his head, pretending to be at the end of his rope, huffing. "Who are you?! How can you use magic for so long?!"
"Hah! I'm Aster Northendark, daughter of the King's general, Razor Northendark! This Spirit Pond is our family's property!" she proudly announced while not letting him out of her sight.
"I don't know how you got past the guards, and although it seems you have some sort of magical artifact that makes you semi-transparent, it's useless before me! Now that you have exhausted your magic I'll have you arrested and questioned!" Aster said with a smirk.
"Oh, and of course, we can't forget that you spied on me naked! You bastard! I'll have you whipped until you are half-dead!"