Quest.
[Ace POV],
Everyone else on the team recovered after the incident, while Mia kept telling me she was still hungry even though she had just eaten.
But, since I could still be considered rich with the amount of food reserves I still have in my storage ring, I responded to Mia by handing her a food can, which she was currently eating in Anna's arms.
As I moved forward, I turned my head sideways to look at the others; aside from Emma, who was calm, Anna and Chris appeared to be deep in thought as they walked motionlessly.
When I saw this, I assumed it was because they were still recovering from the previous event.
Its understandable as I think that show of power could invoke a lot of thought in most people.
As for why Emma is not behaving like the other two, its only her that knows.
As I thought of these things, we had already walked for a certain distance before Anna called my name as she bought me out of my thoughts.
"What happened?" I inquired as she did not respond but instead pointed to a location in front of me.
Seeing this, I said nothing else and turned my focus to the direction Anna was pointing.
I took a curious look at where Anna was pointing and noticed that the spot she was pointing to was a rather big hill surrounded by fallen trees that had fallen on each other haphazardly without a pattern.
I didn't notice anything amiss at first and was going to ask Anna what was wrong when I came to a standstill and inspected the hill more seriously, noticing that beyond the trees appeared to be something in between the trees.
Seeing this, I made my way to the hill, making every effort to make as little noise as possible.
When I eventually got closer to the place Anna had mentioned before, I noticed some things I hadn't noticed previously because I was so far away.
For one thing, I saw that the trees that I had assumed were haphazardly arranged around the hill had a pattern.
It was better to call it a flaw because, while the trees appeared to be placed randomly, more trees gathered at a specific location, and if it wasn't already obvious that the trees had not fallen and were placed randomly around the rocky hill as a result, there was a specific area where the trees were densely packed together and even had leaves to cover them.
At this time, it was evident that something was here, and whoever planted these trees was attempting to conceal it.
But this brought up another issue: anyone who could move the massive trees and set them in multiple locations in the first place was clearly not an average person.
It was even questioned whether this was done by a person rather than a monster.
Though it appeared that this was too complicated for a monster to think of, it was likely that only a monster could manufacture this type of flaw.
As I considered this, I shook my head and began to reconsider.
For one thing, if it hadn't been for Anna pointing to this position in the first place, I would have passed it, implying that this site was well disguised in the first place, so I can't rule out the possibility that it was done by a human.
And now that I think about it, Anna's eyesight must be pretty good to detect this area despite all the steps that had taken here.
Perhaps the contract and feedback she receives from the shadow crow provide some secret enhancement that we don't know about or that Anna didn't tell me about.
That's her problem.
The main issue now is deciding what to do next.
Is it that we will leave or examine what is covered there?
This was a problem that needed to be handled carefully because not everyone would ignore us like the two rank 1 individuals we encountered previously.
If we encounter people like the ones Anna encountered, and if they are as strong as the two rank one humans we just met, we should not dig our own graves.
Well, it's primarily because of my curiosity that I'm still standing here and thinking about this, even though my rational side tells me not to be curious.
Since I awoke from the transparent crystal, a lot has transpired, as I've felt the hidden emotions in me erupt many times, but they were all brief.
But this particular trait of mine was going to get me murdered if I didn't learn to control my curiosity.
As I was thinking about these things, Emma, who hadn't spoken anything since, called out my name, jolting me out of my reverie.
When I noticed her waving from where she was indicating for me to come, I shifted my attention to her.
When I saw this, I went in her direction and when I got close enough, I spoke.
"What is it?" I inquired as Emma turned to face me and spoke.
"Something is in there, and it's emitting mana," Emma stated, pointing to the area that was covered.
Seeing this, I had the thought that we might have discovered a natural treasure similar to the awakening tree in my storage ring.
Emma talked again as I was thinking about this.
"I'm not sure why, but the mana here gives me gloomy vibes," Emma muttered, twitching her lips in disgust.
'Gloomy?' I wondered as I turned to look at the leaf-covered area.
'Was I mistaken and this was not done by anyone?' I wondered as I began to reconsider my initial assumptions.
When I saw a stone close to me, I picked it up and looked at the covered area before deciding to throw the stone towards the covered area.
As I was thinking about this, I threw the stone after I was certain it would land where I wanted it to, which it did as something happened when the stone came into contact with the area the leaves were covering as they 'opened' and 'parted' as an open spase appeared in the middle among the leaves.
When I saw this, I turned to face Emma, who had also turned to face me.
We both nodded as we slowly made our way to the location that appeared to be a 'door' now as I told Anna to stay outside with Chris and be on the lookout and to contact me if anything happened here, which she gladly accepted.
We had to hop from one location to another due to the large trees scattered everywhere, but with our physique, it wasn't too challenging.
When Emma and I got close to the 'door,' we noticed a staircase leading downwards.
"Stairs in the middle of a forest? Stairs don't lead to good things again", she said.
When I saw the stairs, I started to believe that perhaps I'd been incorrect and this wasn't constructed by a person or a monster, but we have to enter first to confirm it.
As I reflected on this, I coated my right palm in blue flames as I made my way down the dark stairs, Emma close behind.
Something I observed as we went down the stairs was Emma's expression of disgust, which deepened the further we went down the stairs.
When I asked her what was wrong, she claimed she didn't know, but she was repulsed by the Mana in the air.
I couldn't feel or sense what she was sensing in the Mana in the air since the only thing I noticed was that it became colder as we descended the steps farther.
That in and of itself was strange, so I heightened my guard as we continued down the steps.
This carried on for a bit until I noticed a dull light ahead of me and realized there were no stairs ahead of that dark light.
When I and Emma saw this, we slowed our charge and continued moving.
When our feet finally touched the earth as we exited the steps, a panel emerged in front of me.
[Instant Hidden Dungeon: Cemetery Assault],
[Type: Quest],
[....
.....
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