521 What are you doing?
The main reason the Malock desert was feared by all was the fear of the unknown. Surprisingly people were even more afraid of the mystical desert than the black zone of the south.
The reasons for this were both distance and the cloud of mystery hovering over the red zone of the desert.
The Malock desert was closer to the 3 empires than the Black Zone. So the great distance between the southern continent and the others made people forget and not take the dangers of the southern continent seriously.
Also, unlike the joint expedition of the 3 empires that visited the black zone and came back alive, there were only a handful of people that had managed to survive the red desert. Most of them were dead, and those alive were all fugitives, so there was no one to debunk the mystery.
‘Only high-level beasts won’t be enough to keep someone trapped in there forever, there has to be something else that makes it dangerous.’ Blake thought as he stared past the boundary of the red zone, but didn’t dare to find out.
The only difference between both sides was the red sand of the red zone, but apart from that everything seemed normal until one stepped in.
[Illusions and most likely ground shifting because walking in a straight line would be able to get one out of there.] The system said.
After a few more minutes of observing the red zone, Blake turned his attention back to the entrance of the ruin.
‘What do you think about this?’ Blake couldn’t help but ask the system because he had a very bad feeling about it.
.....
[Not going to lie, this doesn’t feel right. A ruin popped up this close to the red zone and causes the disappearance of close to a hundred people. All I can say is just be careful.] The system said.
“Begin the scan!” Blake gave the signal to the ash corps of his units.
The ash corps took out what looked like tablets and began scanning the ruin’s entrance and the area around it.
The scanning devices had the ability to detect traps, spatial fluctuations, the cursed energy of cursed artifacts, and so on. They already had suspicions that the case wasn’t normal, so they had come prepared for all possible scenarios.
After 30 mins of continuous scanning, Camilla, Michelle, and the 3 other Captains under him reported the same thing.
“Nothing was detected.”
‘Guess we have no other choice than to move in blindly.’ Blake shook his head and waited for Erik’s 5 units to get done with their scans before moving into the entrance.
The entrance to the ruin is an archway with a broken gate. The archway led down a flight of stone steps and into a large courtyard with crumbling walls, sand, and a lot of dust.
‘I wonder how this courtyard was back in its prime?’ Blake said to himself as he thought about the plants that were now part of the golden sand scattered all around the courtyard.
While keeping their eyes peeled the group of 10 special ops units soon arrived at the end of the courtyard which had 2 passages heading in opposite directions.
Blake soon signaled for them to stop so they could decide which route to follow, but Erik and the 5 units under him continued moving.
“What are you doing?” Blake asked with furrowed brows as Erik led his team toward the left passage.
“Splitting up.” Erik said with disdain written over his face.
“This place is too dangerous; we are meant to move together.” Blake said causing Erik to frown.
Even before he had discovered that Blake was also getting promoted to the Major rank, Erik had hated him. freewebnovel(.)com
He was a noble, and although he was not a member of the top 3 families, he hated commoners. To make matters worse, Blake wasn’t just any commoner but he had achieved a lot more than him at a very young age.
Right from the moment, they had arrived at Sandheaven, Blake had been the one asking important questions and giving out orders. This made him feel like Blake was trying to take charge of the mission, thus the glory once they ended up solving the case.
“You can’t tell me what to do.” Erik said as he continued moving down the left corridor.
‘Sometimes I wonder if some people were born with incomplete brains, because why will you split up in a place that has killed demigods?’ Blake shook his head and began thinking of his next course of action.
There was no way he was going to follow them, not because of his pride but because it would only lead to more issues.
He didn’t want a situation where he would be accused of sitting back and doing nothing, or his team doing all the work.
‘It is clear that he just wants to make things difficult for me, so it’s best to avoid him.’ Blake thought as he placed a spatial mark on the floor just in case his team faced danger and needed to retreat.
“All right guys, let’s keep moving. Remember not to let your guard down.” Blake instructed and led his team into the right passage.
The moment both groups left the courtyard, the wall at the end of the courtyard changed back to its original form: a large double door.
…
When they walked down the passage, they had immediately taken a left turn and began walking north of the entrance.
After more than 5 minutes of slowly advancing through the passage, Blake and his team had reached a T-junction.
‘Why can’t ruins be straightforward?’ Blake mentally sighed and instructed his team to go right.
The main reason for this decision was that they were moving farther away from the red zone. Also, it was best practice to explore all parts of the ruin before going deeper so as to prevent being surrounded from all sides.
As for getting lost, the system had been making a map of the areas they had explored right from the moment they stepped into the ruin.
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