"So, he's with us just because of a deal with you?"
Feeling surprised by the revelation, the lady named Lyria blurted out before the young bard could even finish speaking, their other companions now looking at the young bard as they wanted to hear more about this mysterious cloaked figure they thought of as nothing at all previously.
Even the one who seems to hold the highest status among this group, Riona, has her ears perked as she feels immensely curious about the young man who just left them, never expecting that he possesses the strength of that level.
"Well, yes, that's the gist of it. He previously saved me from an encounter with a wild beast, and I'm heading back to the capital as well, so I took my chance to bring him with me in exchange for information about something he wants…"
As he told them such words, the bard, Gustav, still couldn't believe that the cloaked young man would easily overwhelm a decently sized bandit group seemingly without effort on his part at all, this making him all the more curious about this young man's identity.
It wasn't only him whose curiosity was piqued, though, as apparent from the expression on his companions' faces, each of them wondering just what sort of power was standing behind that person for him to reach that level of strength.
Meanwhile, the subject of their curiosity is moving with unprecedented speed, leaping from tree to tree in an attempt to reach a certain place, a hint of seriousness displayed on his sharp eyes as he gets closer and closer to his destination.
'Let's see if what that guy said is true…'
Leaping from another tree branch down to the group, this cloaked young man thought to himself as he finally arrived right where he wanted to go, in front of him, a small cavern that seemed to be well-lit even inside, prompting his hope to be true as he took the first step towards the illuminated enclosure.
While it might pale in comparison to spirit energy in terms of the improvement it brings to the body, mana is just as mystical of a force of nature as spirit energy is, a testament to that being the fact that within this cavern, with mana concentration filling it to the brim, normal rocks turns into minerals far faster than normal, and these minerals then turn into magic ores, one of its most prominent feature being the cool, azure glow it gives off due to the sheer amount of mana it had absorbed over a long period of time.
Not to mention the rocks, from this mana-enriched environment, it is even possible for botanical life to thrive even without natural sunlight, relying solely on magic ores' light along with the mana in the surroundings in order to survive.
For spirit energy, through eventual accumulation, even these smallest of plants and rocks can eventually gain their own sentience and turn into cultivators as well, an aspect that mana lacks. What it lacks in granting spirituality, however, it compensates for with just how much it improves the effects of any ore, plants, or any natural resources compared to spirit energy.
And this mentioned effect is the reason as to why the cloaked young man decided to head for this place, his goal already lying in front of him.
Staring down below, right towards a short fall about five meters deep, the cloaked young man's face is revealed by the light shining from the depth of this fall; the light, despite the liquid source, remains in all stillness as if no one has ever been in this place before.
Confirming his speculations with a smile on his face, the young man took his cloak off, revealing his figure that would shock anyone who once knew him, whether they wanted it or not.
Standing at over a hundred and eighty-five centimeters tall, at just eighteen, at the age where each and every one of his peers attempts to enter the academy, the young man may very well be one of the tallest ones among men of his age, and it wasn't his height alone that might make his peers feel dwarfed in comparison.
Taking his tops off, a physique unmatched is revealed, the light coming from the depth of the fall in front of him revealing the contours of every defined, streamline muscles, the broad back, the powerful limbs, and the chiseled body showing just how much bodily potential his bloodline holds.
"Time to enjoy some bath…"
Looking down, the young man immediately plunged into the waters, a smile on his face now well illuminated by the glow as well, revealing his features in all their glory.
Sharp eyes almost like a sword drawn prepared to pierce through everything to see the truth, combined with the same sharp eyebrows in shape of a sword, further made intimidating by the pure, blood-like crimson he has for pupil, an inherent trait of their bloodline, along with the thick, luscious locks of ashen gray hair falling all the way down his powerful upper back.
Lying right between those sharp eyes is the same nose that the young man's father has, a straight, tall one that complements his sharp facial features, an individual who is worth everyone's envy, if one were to say.
If people know what sort of strength this body holds, though, they will become even more jealous of it than his flawless charm, and said strength is growing more and more even now.
The reason for that lies in the water, or rather, the liquid within the fall that this young man plunges himself into, the extreme weight and oddity of the liquid defying all common sense of physics.
For one, the moment that he plunged his body within the liquid, this ashen gray-haired young man, Argus, felt such massive resistance to the point that his own body thought that he was trapped within a solid matter, rather than a liquid.
This was the point of contradiction, as usually for such liquids, one won't even be able to plunge so easily, like within water, as in such density that he is experiencing, it will act like a solid rather than anything else.
Cultivators are so used to the unconventional and the illogical however that even with these logic defying things happening in front of him, Argus maintained his calm as he just stood, or rather, float right in the middle of this immensely dense liquid, neither resisting nor allowing himself to be completely pulled into its now moving current, only allowing himself to act like it's a tugging dance between him and nature around himself.
And such a method has proven itself effective, as whatever it is that he is trying to do, Argus is now capable of moving, if ever-so-slightly, within the confines of the near-solid pool of liquid, his movement getting better and better as time goes on, as if his body is already figuring out how to deal with the extreme nature of this place.
As all of this happens, the air dances around swirling within his vicinity, an exact same phenomenon to when he is cultivating, and yet now, the swirling wind grows far larger than it ever had before, signifying that right now, he is improving not by the continuous, gradual margin he is used to, but rather, in an exponential leaps and bounds.