Maybe not exactly a lava floor, but it certainly was one of the main themes. I mean how would you explain massive lavafalls flowing from even bigger volcano placed in a middle of what looked like a cave that has flowing lava instead of walls and the ceiling. Actually, the most interesting part was that ceiling particularly.

It didn’t look like glass, the lava was just casually floating above our heads. I was extremely grateful for the lack of lava rain that could be caused by occasional dribbles from it, because that meant it was purely decorative and wasn’t going to cause a painful death for anyone trying to reach the next floor.

But there was a small issue that I had no idea how to solve, namely I didn’t know where the entrance to the next part was. The road just cut here, with no further leads. I mean we had a rather obvious landmark in the form of the volcano itself, but there was no visible entrance we could locate from our position. Well, it’s not like we have other choice than just search the whole thing.

But as soon as I made another step into the floor, I felt my face being scorched by the hot air, not only that, I’m sure it even melted a bit. My eyes somehow came unscathed, but that was probably because I retreated as soon as I sensed that something was wrong. If I wasn’t a spider, but human for example, or even worse, Felicia experienced it first, I’m afraid that the damage would be much worse.

I mean it should, so why was that cat casually walking there like the skin melting temperature was not a thing. When did she even leave my back, I’m sure she was there until a second ago. I was afraid of letting her exhaust herself since the [Bond] told me she wasn’t yet recovered, but now  her energy was even more radiant than ever.

And why do I feel slightly tired all of sudden? Not a sleepy level tired, more like “sprinted fifty meters” tired, nothing I couldn’t recover in a minute. I was slightly confused until it dawned at me. She must have used her [Energy manipulation] to sap some power from me and used that to refresh herself. That mischievous munchkin.

How it was possible she was withstanding the temperature however, was still a mystery. I still felt like she was sapping something from me, but it couldn’t be my stamina or even the pure energy since I wasn’t getting any more tired, nor did I lose any levels. I just felt like she was draining an endless pool or source.

Wait, it couldn’t be my mana could it? I mean the display of appraisal was slightly bugged on my  mana last time I checked, but surely it was impossible to be caused by it being infinite could it? Oh my god it totally could, does it mean I’m overpowered now? But I can’t use magic so how could I even use it? Some of my skills required mana to use, but none needed a huge amount, so in the end it was pretty useless.

I slumped my head when I realized that I got an useless cheat, but then I felt something chilly around me. It was Felicia using ice magic to form a barrier shielding me from heat, most likely she had an exact same one on herself. But wasn’t it exhausting? Sustaining a spell powerful enough to withstand a bone melting heat would require a horrendous amount of ma…

THAT LITTLE BRAT!

She effectively turned my cheat into her own! I realized that before, but the [Bond] skill basically let her use me as mobile battery for the level energy. It was just that she never used it since it would weaken me, but to think that it could be used so shrewdly. Maybe I should catch some monsters for her to kill instead of slaughtering them myself, so she could get more experience?

She could redistribute it from her level to increase her skill proficiency, so if I had her increase her magic to the maximum, we would become unbeatable! I would be the most powerful battery ever!

Yeah, not happening.

I’m not going to let myself be reduced to an object, simply to be drained of my endless mana. As soon as I’m able to manipulate it again I’m cutting Felicia off. This time I will let her use me, as we have no other way of conquering this part, but I’m not going to be happy about that. Come to think of it, what do I have to do to regain my magic?

I should first focus on being able to endure that strange pain I experience each time I try peeking at my mana flow. I have no idea why there are two of them now, but most likely the second one always existed, and maxing out my mana detection revealed it. It could also have appeared after I gained this infinite mana thing, which was after visiting the tree lady.  

Why do I feel like I shouldn’t be lost in thought right now? Of, it could be because Felicia is currently trying to peek inside a maw of a giant fiery wolf. Hmmm… Giant fiery wolf? I kind of froze in place when I realized what was happening, and somehow I got even more shocked when I saw that the wolf wasn’t even trying to bite her head off.

My brain nearly exploded after what happened next. Felicia crawled deeper into its maw, and after a couple of seconds of fiddling inside, she came out with a fang almost bigger than her head in her hands. It was visibly damaged, and probably was a cause of some intense tooth pain. Did she just treat a monster's teeth? When did she become a dentist?