Chapter 579 Jumping down
[Eon's POV: ]
A vine with more than one kind of ore was a very rare occurrence geologically as well as seen from the perspective of magic, alchemy, and science.
The special ores in this world were formed by the condensation of unique energies and their properties due to the passage of time or high pressure, or even sometimes without any kind of outer forces.
'And to find many different kinds of ores in a single place first meant it was an unnatural occurrence that should not happen naturally.'
There certainly is a reason behind a phenomenon like this, and, we were going towards that very reason right now.
"Master, aren't they…"
Miss Moon was worried as she looked around her, looking at the creatures that were hiding in the dark or under the ground because of Queen Fio's intimidating presence.
And, her worries were certainly understandable.
"Yes. They are the so-called 'creatures of the deep'. Some people think they don't exist anymore but the experts do know of their presence and the speculations of the schoolers that believe some of them reside in the deeper part of this island are certainly true."
There were creatures resembling fishes, octopuses, and even deep sea creatures. However, the ones present here specifically had a unique feature common to them.
They didn't have gills or needed water to breathe.
'But instead of that, they had a unique crystal on their foreheads through which they absorbed excess energy from the ores and maintained the equilibrium of the total energy and the earth's composition.'
They were a unique part of this special ecosystem and this entire underground place was able to survive thanks to their presence.
"Aren't they special… master?"
"Of cou-"
"Of course, they are specia~! And cute too~."
Rein was excited as she shouted that and from how weird these creatures that were neither creatures of land nor sea looked, it was given that she was going to like them. And of course, I also knew what the words that would follow her excited shouts were going to be.
"Let's take them!"
It had almost become her catchphrase now.
Every time she saw a unique creature, she would say let's take them… like ma'am? Yes, we can have some of them but where would we keep so many creatures and keep them in good condition?
She has said this word many times just today, but thinking back, it was also true how we were seeing so many interesting creatures all at once.
The flamingoes, that Pink nightingale, the bees and ants, and now these weird little things that even though had the size of only a small catfish, were (Orange) to (Green) ranking creatures.
The MP they possessed was absurdly high and the skills they had were genuinely not even enough to harm the normal adventurers.
They had the strength of numbers but even they were practically weak creatures with a lot of Mana… a kind of creation that the researchers would definitely go crazy over if they know of their existence.
'Which, they aren't going to know. Hopefully, ever.'
This was a special mine that would need years to empty out even with my high-efficiency equipment and helpers.
And, this was a mixed ore vine, which meant we had to be careful while mining each and every single one of the ores, or else, if a reaction occurs between two ores, in the worst-case scenario, it could even lead to a very dangerous situation.
'This entire place had been untouched since probably the moment the crypt was closed out and these unique maze-like tunnels were created as the very basic protection measure.'
Thanks to the multiple kinds of energy ores in these caves, the energy interference here is quite severe. So, using even the basic magic is nearly impossible here, let alone artifacts that are practically powered by some similar kind of ore present in this cavern.
It would be practically impossible to navigate through these hundreds of tunnels, especially without someone like Queen Fio to fend off these thousands of weird creatures.
Right. Weird creatures…
"No. We can't take them away from here. They could neither survive any place other than these caves nor have enough intelligence to follow any kind of order from anyone.
The reason they are so afraid of Queen Fio is exactly because of her presence, which has a very high volume of a certain energy that they are not familiar with at all because of which, they couldn't even move when she is here.
They cannot live outside, and they cannot live in the presence of a being like her, which also included you and my darling, so we can't 'take' them.
But this would be right in the backyard of our house so you can always come down here to observe them, right?
Isn't that better than killing them ourselves?"
They must be the creatures belonging to the waters of that time, creatures that were trapped in this place when they closed it, and then, they somehow survived here long enough, went through many evolutions, and became what we see today.
Yes, they looked unsightly but, they were creatures brimming with magic power… and there were many ways one can use them to their great advantage.
"Alright… but we will take that cute nightingale at least. I want to look at her pretty face every morning~!"
Normal people, probably even those who had experience dealing with creatures like them, might not want to see a bird like that every morning, but since it was her, well… I didn't mind it.
"I will try my best."
"Yeiiiii~!"
"Yeeeee~! We will have a birdie and little bird babies~!"
Even Zoe was excited about this. But they had to keep their voices down if we didn't want to trigger some noise-sensitive ore and get crushed under this cave.
"Alright you two, keep it down."
It was pretty much impossible to navigate through these caves but, I had my Solnova (: Scan) and a navigation expert crystal butterfly to aid us.
We were almost there too, so, they should focus on the important task before us.
"Celes."
[{ Yes master~! This way~. }]
This place was a paradise for Celes, someone that liked tasting different kinds of lights. But she was still focused on her work since she knew they could come here anytime they wanted now.
There were around ten or so different routes we could take from the place we were standing on and Celes was checking which route led to the wide open place with a deep hole in the ground that I explained to her.
These caves were all strange and were divided into the main and sub caves that might lead to the destination or not.
Some of the main caves and even fewer sub caves ended up in that specific area so it at least wasn't the intersection of all the caves making this vine.
Many caves had dead ends, many were worse and were so delicate that one would either die by getting crushed under the rocks or would die even miserably by the strange magical reactions from the ores of that place.
We had to be careful with which path we took so Celes was using her clones to confirm the safety of each path and, she had already found the place so we walked quickly.
And…
"Damn, I didn't think it would be like this."
{ "It is an astonishing sight to my eyes also. To think there existed such a place just under the land we were all born." }
"Pretttyyyyyy~."
"Good work Celes."
[{ Hehe, thanks~! }]
Standing before a vast opera area, we looked around us at the brightly illuminated walls all around us that were covered with strange crystal-like flowers that glowed with their individual colors, which looked breathtakingly gorgeous, and just below their light, was a dark abyss, pitch black with no light what so ever, glaring back at us as we looked at it.
This open area was a strange place with stranger objects and even I couldn't quite tell what these flowers which were not flowers at all, were made of for them to have such a diverse and attractive glow.
But, we weren't here for them.
"So everyone? Should we go to the Crypt of Afterglow?"
I looked at them all with a sweet smile, excited to see the place that was once used to be the center of attention of all of the island natives, as well as the people keeping a close eye on this island that was a kind of threat to all of their kinds too.
"Hmmm?"
"What? Where is it?"
{ "I am ready. Shall I lead the way?" }
"Ummmm… I will go with big brother."
Reina and Miss Moon didn't understand it yet. Actually, they both knew it already but didn't want to admit it.
'And still, both had their own reasons to think that way.'
Miss Moon was naturally hastiest to just jump down into such a strange place.
It could very well be an entrance to some dungeon that they might not be arable to escape from in their lifetime.
But Rein on the other hand… was so excited that she didn't want to believe we really were going to jump into an endless-looking unknown hole.
It was something on her bucket list and, this was the chance she would be able to cross that off.
"It would be better if you lead the way, Queen Fio. We will follow closely."
{ "Alright." }
-Oooooooooong!
Queen Fio summoned a bright green light, covered her own body as well as ours with it, and… flew down without any kind of hesitation.
"Alright then! I will go first~!"
And then, Rein jumped.
"Ummm…"
"It's alright. Just go…"
I nodded at Miss Moon and she nodded back and also jumped.
"Alright, Zoe. Let's go."
"Yes~."
And so, we also jumped down into this endless looking abyss-like hole which, at its end, was nothing even close to some abyss, but instead resembled a…
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