Chapter 116: Scratching the Surface
Coop continued his meticulous descent into the Coral Forest. Every flash of light that reflected off a wet surface drew his attention as he investigated each hint for another small treasure. He hoped to collect enough to start getting arrays on his residents’ equipment, but so far the jewels seemed to be far too rare. Of course, he was still only at the very beginning of the well; the good stuff would surely be deeper.
The steady clamor of the streaming waterfalls cascading down from the entrance slowly diminished as he explored further away. Eventually, the consistent sounds were replaced by intermittent thin streams of dripping seawater tapping away against the corals. Droplets still percolated down from the porous coral rock ceiling, splashing across the coral platforms, where they pooled into shallow puddles of crystal clear liquid, or continued over the edges and into the depths. The orchestra of droplets created the ambience of trekking through an alien forest after a heavy rain saturated the canopy.
While the entrance mostly sank directly into the bedrock, the cavernous hollow held a slightly northward and mostly westward angle. The momentum of the original meteor seed seemed to have directed the formation, presumably by sending the core sinking through the sediments as it chased the much larger meteor mountain that had landed even further away.
Coop primarily traversed the coral platforms laterally. His only vertical movement came when he dropped to the next platform. For every bit of depth, he went at least three times as far across. While more difficult challenges surely awaited him if he went deeper, along with greater rewards, he wanted to continue fighting the first stage monsters before he progressed any further. It made sense to him that he should complete Stage 1 before moving onto Stage 2.
There were two things he wanted to accomplish before he left. One was to scout the mana well, keeping an eye out for treasures and assessing its potential for power leveling his companions. The other was to determine how efficient the mana well would be for grinding experience for himself.
The factions, as narrow as their perspectives were, had been accurate in calling the settlement events rewarding. They had also espoused the virtue of fighting inside mana wells, so he had high hopes. He gave credit where credit was due and believed the factions weren’t totally blind to opportunities for their Chosen during the assimilation, even if a lot of their other advice had been disappointingly inept.
As much as his progress took him along the platforms, he could still see that the cavern went much further down. He was only scratching the surface. The fact that he had only found a single creature would have been disappointing, but he tempered his lofty expectations by reminding himself that the Coral Forest was a vast chasm filled to the brim with overgrown corals, and most likely, an assortment of awaiting monsters should he venture further.
A simple peek over the edges of any coral platform revealed how truly expansive the mana well had already become. If the core was still sinking, the Coral Forest would keep expanding. Monster density would be the primary factor that determined how much time Coop would spend in the environment and he strongly suspected he would have to go down before he was satisfied, but he’d try to be thorough on the way.
While his plan was to return to the surface before nightfall, there wasn’t any particular reason he needed to rush back other than preserving his routine. Time was holding back most of the major developments that he would have to participate in. Everything else could be handled by the residents of Ghost Reef. Coop felt comfortable sticking around inside the mana well until he could give his own comprehensive report to Shane’s party.
It took him a few minutes and a few coral platforms before he found the next One That Hunts. This specimen was slightly different from the last, having a different, much brighter coloration. Fire engine red bled across its carapace, fading to black as the color stretched toward the edges of its armor and down the sides all the way to the tip of its tail. Otherwise it was the same shrimp-fish-raptor hybrid creature as the last. Coop inspected its aura to make sure he wasn’t in for a surprise and prepared to start another fight.
[One That Hunts (Elite Level 102)]
[(Agility)]