“Wow…”

The words didn’t come from Leonidas, but rather from Lady Eve. When he looked down to see what had caused her to say such a thing, he too was shocked.

Down below what must have been another 20 meters was an underwater lake. It reflected the clearest blues that Leonidas had ever seen outside of his own Mana.

The waters were so crystal clear that it would have been difficult to tell exactly where it started if not for the wild waves the rock they had dropped had caused.

What was odd was that there shouldn’t have been any natural light sources this deep underground, and yet everything was so bright. It only made the water beneath them all the more magical because it seemed that this light actually came from it.

Surrounding this underwater lake were several pathways and entrances, but nothing was more intriguing than what lay at its center.

Leonidas and Lady Eve were currently hanging near the outskirts of the lake. If they had been just a bit off, rather than two and a half meters of stone to drill through, even 20 meters wouldn’t have been enough.

The lake itself was dotted with platforms and odd energy seemed to swirl like fish the closer you got to the lake’s center.

At the center itself, there was an ancient and elaborate altar.

It was covered in complex runes and was at least 30 meters in diameter alone. It was clear that this stone platform served a special purpose of sorts, Leonidas just wasn’t sure what it was.

‘Those runes…’

Leonidas’ brow furrowed. He had seen them in the tome the spirit had left behind for him, but he had never gotten a chance to study them.

Even after six months, he had hardly made a dent in the tome. The only reason he recognized those runes at all was that they were similar to what was on the cover.

‘A hideout of the Fallen Apostles likely wouldn’t be chosen to be in a random location. Could it be that this thing is the reason why they chose to build here?’

The fatigue in Leonidas’ arm was beginning to get to him. They had to get down from here.

The bad news was that the waters below were far too shallow for this kind of fall.

The good news was that they were near the edge.

Leonidas coated his second set of claws in Mana Blade and began to slowly monkey bar his way to the edge.

In just a few minutes, he had made it to a wall and began to crawl down.

About three meters from the ground, he released, falling down with Lady Eve with a slight grunt.

He took deep, heaving breaths. His Mana Pool hardly had a dent in it, but it seemed that his body’s strength still wasn’t where he wanted it to be.

He was still far from unsealing his second heart.

‘I need to memorize those symbols. But first…’

Leonidas’ breath became rhythmic and slow-paced, its cadence beginning to restrain his heartbeat.

While Leonidas had only dipped his toes into the knowledge of the tome, he had still learned a great many things in these few months.

The most obvious was related to Magic Circles, namely Blood Magic.

All blood carried with it a force of energy, an energy the tome called Vital Mana. However, it could have just as easily been called Vital Breath or Vital Spirit. There was nothing particularly Mana-like about it, the name only represented an idea.

It was this Vital Mana that carried the hidden talents that Leonidas awakened. Whether it was War Cry or Berserk, both originated here. This form of power seemed to be the only one normal people could access without the Blessing of a God.

It was also because of this that the spirit insisted Leonidas become a Warlock, it was the only path where power and strength outside the bounds of a God could be explored.

At least, that was what it seemed like.

The truth was that these talents given to Leonidas by Vital Mana had roots in Blessings as well. Some God in his Ancestral heritage had bestowed a powerful Bloodline to someone related to him, and it was thus passed down through the generations.

Unsurprisingly, the Blessing Units needed for the weakest Level 1 Bloodline was 1000 Blessing Units. And, even then, such Bloodlines couldn’t be passed down through the generations.

Simply put, for Leonidas to be able to awaken Berserk, which was considered a Level 3 Bloodline Talent, and War Cry, which was considered to be a Mutable Bloodline Talent, someone in his ancestry was very powerful.

Of course, this wasn’t anything to brag about. Berserk was a talent the majority of Half-Beasts could awaken, and there were quite a number of Leonidas’ species from what he had learned.

War Cry was far rarer, as were Leonidas’ four hearts, but they could only be considered lucky draws.

Whoever this powerful individual in his ancestry was, they were so far removed from him that they could hardly be considered to be related. Leonidas only benefited from a strand of their strength.

Still, it was thanks to this strength that Leonidas’ Blood Magic was halfway decent.

Leonidas’ current bloodline, by his estimation, was considered to be on the border of Level 4, but not quite there.

With this, he could draw up to Level 3 Blood Magic Circuits with his blood as a catalyst.

It made sense, then, that Leonidas had spent most of his time studying Blood Magic. However, in the small time he spared toward other things, he had managed to learn this breathing technique.

The spirit didn’t give this a real name and only called it Missionary Breathing Technique. With it, Leonidas could kill three birds with a single stone, all of which relied on Vital Mana.

For one, it made it easier to calm his Berserk state. This is what helped him to rein in control of his more bestial nature.

Second, it helped him to flood his limbs with oxygen and speed up his recovery.

And, third, it gave a slight boost to his Mana Pool replenishment, not that he needed it right now.

Lady Eve watched Leonidas breathe slowly without a word.

The kind of risk they had just taken was one that still left her heart beating wildly. But, there was no doubt that Leonidas had saved her not once, but twice.

Granted, he was the one who placed her in a position to be saved in the first place. But, just looking at this place, he didn’t have to put in so much effort.

There was clearly something special about this place, and it most definitely wasn’t a coincidence that it was located right beneath where the Sacrificial Shrine had been.

Though she didn’t know where it was now, there were definitely some benefits to be gained here. If Leonidas had wanted, he could have come alone and let her “escape”.

Lady Eve wasn’t quite sure how she felt about this.

Leonidas opened his eyes, exhaling a breath. It took him about a minute, but his body had recovered.

“I’m going to go to the platform.”

Lady Eve met Leonidas’ eyes for a moment.

“Is this place related to…?”

“I believe so. In fact, I have a feeling it means much more than that as well.”

“What do you mean?”

Leonidas stood to his feet, his bones crackling and his sabers rattling.

“Have you ever wondered what Deacon Ezor wants?”

Lady Eve’s brows furrowed.

Leonidas continued, “I was just thinking about what a man so patient would want the smokescreen of his rage for.

“If what you’ve said is correct, this is an incredibly meticulous man. The more I think about what it would take to lead a tribe of Lower Ogres so deep into his life, the more impressed I become.”

“You think that he has a purpose outside of overturning Violet Waters and claiming our Sub-Shrine?”

“I might be overthinking things, but I have a feeling Deacon Ezor could wipe Violet Waters from the face of the map whenever he so chose.”

Lady Eve’s brows furrowed, but they soon relaxed, a feeling of understanding coming over her.

“In the past, I was ignorant of a lot of things. I just assumed Knights, Paladins and the rest of the nobles were very powerful. But, after stepping into this world, I’ve found that many of you are quite…

“Lacking.”

Leonidas shook his head and began to walk toward the waters. The Mana he could feel coming off of it was overwhelming.

He couldn’t help but be shocked. Mana shouldn’t be able to easily exist in such a high concentration on its own like this, at least not without a God’s Blessing.

“… Just think about it,” he continued, “you are a town of humans. Even a human Knight would have trouble dealing with a civilian Lower Ogre. The strength difference is enormous.

“Lower Ogres are still classified as having bloodlines between Level 1 and 4 as well, while humans only have common bloodlines that couldn’t even be classified as Level 1, so the difference after becoming Knights, Paladins and Apostles is even wider.

“Now match that with a leader that seems to be intelligent, and what chance does Violet Waters stand, exactly?”

Leonidas looked back toward Lady Eve.

“As I see it, there are only two possible explanations.

“The first is that there is an unknown deal struck between our two towns. And the second…

“… is that we’re being used.”

Leonidas turned back and jumped, landing on a stone platform before jumping again. He was careful not to touch the waters, unsure of what would happen when coming in contact with such a large concentration of Mana.

Lady Eve followed after him and soon, they had landed on the central platform.

Leonidas sucked in a cold breath, suddenly feeling that his Mana Pool was being tugged at from all directions.

One would think that this would be a terrible feeling, but it was more like a soothing massage.

‘The Mana around is being gathered here, it’s a similar effect to a Mana Expansion Potion, and it’s even more effective than a Mana Potion as well.’

Leonidas’ Mana Pool was deep, far deeper than a Level 1 Apostle’s should be. This was likely a result of what the spirit calculated to be his talent as a Mage.

And yet, despite this talent, he could still only cast about 20 full-power Mana Blades before he ran out of Mana, this was also about the equivalent of casting Scholar’s Eye for an entire day.

A Mana Expansion Potion could only be taken once per Level and depending on a few factors could increase one’s Mana Pool by anywhere from 10-20%.

However, Leonidas had never heard of a formation that could perpetually stretch one’s Mana Pool out like this.

The trade-off was that this process took much longer. While a potion was just a matter of a few minutes to hours, it would take days here for Leonidas to experience the same 20% increase.

Still, it was shocking nonetheless.

“So you think this is what Deacon Ezor wanted?”

“What I think is that Deacon Ezor spotted an oddity in Sandstorm Valley long before we did. But, not only was he cautious about it, but he also wasn’t sure what it was, on top of not being able to find it.

“When the Sacrificial Shrine finally weakened to the point its entrance was exposed to the world, Deacon Ezor was probably the first to know, but he still sent incompetent subordinates instead, subordinates that were easily dealt with by us.”

“So he’s using us to probe the dangers, knowing he can take back whatever we gain whenever he wants… All he needed was an excuse, an excuse like you killing one of his own.”

“It’s just speculation, but if he’s as intelligent as he seems from the outside, this probably isn’t far from the truth.

“The barriers and protections around the Sacrificial Shrine weren’t something Missionaries and Deacons could deal with, I don’t even think Priests could deal with it either.

“So, he chose to be patient and push us ahead?”

“It’s not just that, either. If Deacon Ezor had chosen to wipe out Violet Waters too early, he would have had to defend this land all alone and other variables might pop up from beyond Wolf Pond Forest.

“By keeping us in line, it not only lowers the guard of other Sub-Shrines who think he’s too weak to deal with even a bunch of normal humans, but in the case he ever needs us, we can easily be used.”

Lady Eve fell into silence.

The truth was that Leonidas had drawn these conclusions with little to no evidence. He simply made an assumption about Deacon Ezor’s disposition from information Lady Eve had given him, and then extrapolated.

But, why did it feel so close to the truth?

“… Alright, I’ve memorized it all. I don’t think we can stay here, we’ll run out of food. We’ll need to find an exit.”

“You recognize these patterns, don’t you?”

Leonidas turned to look at Lady Eve.

“I do.”

Lady Eve’s heartbeat quickened as Leonidas made his way back to shore. The weight of those two words meant a lot to her.

She gazed down at the complex inscriptions.

Knowledge was power, and Leonidas seemed to have a lot of it.