The next stretch was quieter. No monsters, no traps, just empty rooms and collapsed ceilings. Mira still checked the walls and floors out of habit, but the tension from earlier had faded. They were working, not fighting. That's right. This was just a job... that involved a lot of killing.
Ashara's mana sense had been buzzing since they entered the residential district, and it was getting louder. There was mana in the walls, and it wasn't from the monsters. It was faint, residual, like heat lingering in stone long after the fire's gone out. Whoever built this place had woven mana into the architecture itself.
[That's not normal. Buildings don't just have mana baked into them. Do they?]
She ran her fingers along the wall as they walked. She could feel thin threads of it running through the stone in patterns she couldn't quite follow. It was actually kind of pretty, if she unfocused her eyes. Like veins.
"You're petting the wall," Mira said.
"It's got mana in it."
