Chapter 17: Cave  

As the nights progressed instead of the usual cold winds the atmosphere was hot, further adding to the difficulty of the climb. Not to mention that Kyle's whole body was aching like crazy.

After making so much effort and finding nothing Kyle was a little disappointed. As he was going to give up and return, he saw a small white flower present at the opposite end.

Seeing the flower Kyle paused for a moment and rubbed his eyes. He shouted with excitement before running toward the glowing flower which was visible even in the dark.

"It's the Red snow flower!"

The Red snow flower was emitting cold energy in the middle of such a hot place. Kyle excitedly approached the flower and immediately picked it up, he wanted to search for more but when he turned around, he saw he was standing in front of a cave.

The cave was carefully hidden under rocks, that's why he hadn't noticed it before. Kyle looked at the cave, which was completely dark but at the far end of the cave a couple of white glowing flowers could be seen. He knew he was already almost at the top of the mountain which meant the cave in front of him might very well be home to some high-rank monsters.

He had no plans to enter the cave, but then he saw the small white flower in his hands.

"According to the book I read in the library one flower is enough to awaken a bloodline but in some cases, more than one is needed."

He wanted to go inside but thinking about the possibility of a monster suddenly pouncing at him he was hesitant.

It's not because he was scared, it's because he knew he was not some kind of genius who would emerge victorious even after fighting someone higher rank than himself. Nor was he some kind of protagonist inside a story who will fight a life and death battle only to win in the end. That's why risking his life was out of the question.

'Instead of going inside and taking the risk, I should eat this flower first. If it works then good. If not then I can go inside quietly to grab the other flowers.'

Kyle threw the flower inside his mouth before sitting cross-legged. According to the information he read, after he ate the flower he would feel extreme pain inside his body.

Kyle waited for something to happen inside his body as described in the book. But no matter how much he waited he didn't feel pain nor any change within his body.

After waiting for almost half an hour, he took a deep breath and nervously looked at his stats from the corner of his eyes.

______________________________

Stats:

Name: Kyle

Bloodline: Celestial (Locked)

Rank: -F

Strength: G

Mana: F

Agility: G

Talent: B Rank (suppressed)

Luck: A

Skills:

*Fireball (F)-Rank:

User can use mana to create a small fireball. The more mana used the bigger the size of the fireball. *Ice Dragon inherited skill; Ice Domain (S)-Rank:

User can call upon a Domain in a specific area, locking and freezing the area.

Inside the Domain;

All stats will increase by a sub-rank,

Water-type and ice-type attacks would be ineffective against the user,

Enemies will have all their stats reduced by a sub-rank.

To use this skill at least (-C)-Rank mana is required.

______________________________

But as he feared nothing changed, all his stats were the same as before. His clothes drenched in sweat were making him uncomfortable but he stood up and squinted his eyes to look inside the cave.

"What am I doing? I can't see anyone inside maybe it's just an empty cave."

Honestly, he wished it to be just an empty cave, if there was a monster inside instead of eating the flowers why did he just leave them for display?

After looking around for some more time, Kyle decided to enter the cave. He took out some mana stones to brighten his path and slowly approached the glowing flower present at the other end of the cave.

From the outside, it looked like some ordinary cave but when Kyle entered he saw it was very deep and was designed with a lot of multi-colored stones.

Other than the glowing red snow flower present at the opposite end there were a lot of precious herbs scattered around at the ground. Kyle was tempted to pick them up but he decided against it, after seeing some blood stains present on some broken rocks.

The condition of the cave indicated that a battle took place here not long ago.

His heart was beating so fast that he was able to hear it clearly, but rather than getting scared, he was somewhat excited. While approaching the flowers Kyle made sure to make a minimum noise.

But as Kyle approached the flowers, he heard an almost inaudible voice coming from his left side, he was sure that voice didn't belong to his fast-beating heart.

After gathering all his courage he barely turned his head to see where the voice was coming from.

"A.. Phoe..nix....?"