The mana roots kept growing, the more they fed on the mana pool that the team provided. Their mana pools were eventually emptied, which was arming, but they still kept at it because they weren't in any direct danger right now.

  The team kept p every bit of mana that they geed themselves, and at this point the roots had grown so big that even Gustav and the dragons who were above the water, were getting every drop of their mana sucked in by the roots! The dragons didn't have many points to spare to begin with, but they lost theirs as well.

  Each root was as thick as a tree now, as most of them were four feet wide, while their ending tips were six inches wide! They were gigantid one could say that it was difficult to find roots like this under natural circumstances, no. The only other root that Tim and Ortana had seen, for example, was tiny in parisoeen of these thick boys were bound to make their mana quality godly!

  “Just a few more mihe roots should be overloaded soon…” Arvena mumbled.

  At this point she was getting unfortable, because the roots would steal her mana points the moment she geed them. There was no esg this deep pit of mana mung that they walked in to, but she expected this, and knew for sure that this wouldn't kill her, or her friends. She was calm.

  Arvena uood mana roots well, because she had explored the o long enough to have a few enters with them. Furthermore, she read a bunch of books whily raised her uanding!

  Mana roots had three phases; Sprouting, dev, and hardening!

  The roots were past the sprouting part here, they were in the dev phase instead, and it was at this phase where the roots were the least dangerous to tamper with. They were sidered too soft, so they couldn’t actually harm a mage.

  The roots just kept dev every point of mana that they sensed, and ohey've had enough, the hardening phase would start. This was what amplified the roots, over a period of decades, or even millenia.

  The more they id dormant, the tougher the roots would bee, and therefore more useful. A tough root was strong enough to kill an unsuspeg mage, because that a hardened root could expel could even help one asd by a whole realm, rather than a couple of levels. Unless a mage had a virtually endless pool to fill, it was less than advisable to approach those old, hardened roots, because they expelled mana even if one didn't poke them!

  In this case however, since Arvena and the team caught the roots just moments before they were about to harden, they could safely harvest its properties, at the very moment that the roots started hardening! This in turn, would give them back the mana they lost, more than tenfold, because the root was still sidered premature. In other words, these patches of roots were harmless.

  It was a sound pn, but she hadn't bothered to expin her pn to anyone, so the rest of the team were a bit worried. Gustav from above the sea water, had half a mind to jump ier and try to save his friends as he was beyond worried, however, with his current deing mana pool, he would bee fish food very shortly, because he wouldn't be able to protect himself all that muot to mention that he couldn't swim, it was just a bad pn for him to jump ier, regardless of the text. Everyone was armed, after all, but they could only hold on.

  Timothy had plenty of thoughts running through his head, as usual, so he kept talking to himself. “These roots are starting to look like a cage, damn, I guess this is as close as I’m going to get to being locked in prison.”

  Furthermore, he thought. “Let’s hope that Arvena knows what she's doing, because I sure as hell don't know what's going on. Screw the roots, I still don't uand why we're in the fug dinosaur period here! The gods may be pying tricks on us again, I wouldn't be surprised if they were!”

  Paranoia was a trait of those who were cautious, and such caution might keep him alive for a long time, especially since he was cautious only when he aranoid. Otherwise he was like a live tornado, and didn't value his life more than that of a cricket's, and this was a bit paradoxical, but it served a point. He was really hoping that the portal he had mao open, wasn't just another joke from the gods, or worse, a joke from some kind of demon! That would be worse.

  Anyway, the team could only withstand the unfortable situation they were in right now. They did so for about ten more minutes, until finally, the roots stopped gnawing oeam’s pools of mana!

  The relief they felt ohey saw their mana points slowly going up, was otherworldly! Furthermore, they were happy that Arvena was by their side here, because she had likely done most of the work here, with her mana quality being a few levels better in parison. She fed the roots. She had long escaped the God's Punishment Realm of mana, so it was her who fattehe roots to be up to five feet wide!

  “Heh, if we hadn't run into these roots, it would've taken them hundreds of years to start hardening. Those bastarding fish above us don't have a si of mana to their hey don’t have anything to give.” She muttered, after their little battle with the roots was over.

  Arvena erplexed by how mana roots could sprout here, where mana ractically ent, it was beyond fusing. The books she read didn't mention anything so paradoxal, so she didn't know what to think.

  At this point, however, she didn't care as much, and just guided the team towards the step. She yelled out for their attention, just in case the deep-sea water pressure was muffling her words.

  “Shoot the root arms!” She yelled, “Shoot them o a time, just to be safe. Use fireballs if you , but a knife will do as well, you just cut a hole in the roots with a knife! We'll start asding soon!”

  The team did as they were told. They could guess what was about to happe, and by all means, it should not be dangerous.

  Tim summoned a tiny, bde-like bit of fire on his palm, and mao cut one of the thick roots with it. He cut it four inches deep, which apparently was enough to create a fountain of sorts as a result. He was drinking straight from this fountain of mana, he was close to it, so his pool suddenly accepted a huge amount of mana in a single sed! Ortana was in the same patch of roots as him, so whe up a root branch as well, the maarted receiving was groundbreaking!

  [+412 mana points]

  [+955 mana points]

  [+789 mana points]

  [+2,000 mana points]

  Timothy was taking in vast amounts of mana every sed, and he couldn’t be happier about it! sidering that he lost every drop of mana to the roots just a moment ago, he felt very happy to be rewarded now!

  Less than a mier, Timothy's mana pool was filled to the brim, which meant that he had to try and upgrade his mana quality, regardless of how painful it may be to do so! Before he could cast the spoken-word spell, however, something amazing happened!

  The system suddenly announced, [gratutions! Your mana quality asded to level eight! You now bear Bubonia!]