Chapter One-Hundred-and-Seventy
< < Optional Stage Objective > >
< Find the Treasure on Garden Isle >
Seen from above, Garden Isle looked like a wild jungle of trees and vines, but they were just able to glimpse a labyrinth below the canopy. Unfortunately, an approach from above was a treacherous prospect, since many of the vines were actively defending it against an approach from above. As such, Adam landed them on the old dock of the island. It was just a few metres of moss- and weed-covered stone in front of an untamed mess of hedges.
Like the quest they’d gotten from Jasper had said, it was one giant hedge maze, with, apparently, a treasure found at its end.
Something Adam hadn’t anticipated though, was that he could see the mana that permeated the plants, so while there were three entrances for them to pick between to enter the maze, he just went through the middle one, using his Mage Aspirant’s Cowl to reach out and absorb the mana, forcing the walls of the hedge maze to open for them.
“How are you doing that?” Kat asked him.
Adam pointed at his cowl. “It’s a Relic from Stage Six that lets me manipulate mana. I used it to interrupt the Patriarch’s illusion spell when we fought him.”
“I was wondering what happened there,” she admitted.
As Adam absorbed the magic of another plant wall, he felt the energy as it stored itself into his sigils. He wasn’t sure if there was a limit to how much he could shove into his spell catalysts, but he wasn’t eager to test it, since they were literally wrapped around his hands. An explosion from mana overload would absolutely end his loop prematurely.