Chapter 351 Volume V - Chapter 69: Deep into the Cave
It didn't take me long to dig a hole with my spear where all three of us could hide. It was easy to break rocks and widen cracks... especially when I didn't have to be careful.
In about... six minutes, I managed to make a very convenient place, and we only had to use one of the rocks inside the cave to block the entrance. Once we had done that, we were completely cut off from the outside.
It was also not too far from the outside. But not too close to it either. If we crawled out, we could easily go deeper without anything outside noticing us.
"Good, we can hide here."
That was Lucia's reaction to the hole I had made. Sue, as usual, was... silent.
The two of them entered the hole, made room for themselves, and got into comfortable positions. I entered behind them, then placed the rock just in front of the entrance so that it largely, if not completely, blocked the entrance.
So... we were ready, we were going to rest until nightfall, which was about an hour's sleep. Then I would close the entrance to the cave completely and, once we decided it was safe to go outside, we would start moving deeper into the cave.
That was the plan. And it worked without a hitch.
*******
In the last minute before nightfall, all three of us were very nervous. I had completely blocked the entrance, not a single ray of light was coming in. We were just waiting in the pitch darkness. Then... the floor began to tremble slightly.
The mana around us woke up as night descended on the dungeon once more. We continued to wait, not moving a muscle.
So... the ground trembled once more. This time, however, it was not something natural due to the fall of night. Rather... it was coming from deep inside the cave.
Lucia and Sue held their breath at the same time, and I joined them. Closing my eyes, I focused on the flow of mana outside, then... I felt something that was enough to overwhelm all my senses.
The ground trembled once more, as if... a gigantic creature was walking. And it was, and it wasn't just huge. There was so much mana concentrated in its body, around it... that it seemed like it could easily overpower me.
The creature advanced slowly, moving outward, shaking the cave with each step. It was attracting all the awakened mana around it, almost... sucking it.
I couldn't even swallow, I couldn't make a sound. I just waited, as if time had frozen.
But... this gigantic one was not the only creature that passed by.
After it passed, another one came out, and then another... and another. Each one was strong, really strong. They were all at least B- grade, and that reminded me again what kind of dungeon we were in.
We hadn't encountered overpowered creatures so far, we had wolves guarding us on the plain, and apart from that, we had had pretty good luck.
But this was a B grade dungeon, a dungeon that at least a few B grade people had to clear as a team. In contrast to that, I was a C, Lucia was a D, and Sue was... a normal person.
It was a miracle we even made it this far, really. And now... as if to rub it in our faces, different creatures were coming out of the cave where we were hiding.
I wonder... what will happen if I meet one of these creatures?
This question popped into my mind for a moment. What if I have to fight a grade B creature... or more than one?
My eyes shifted to Lucia and Sue.
Sue had her head buried between her knees, which she was pulling toward her, as if... scared and waiting for it all to be over. I couldn't see her expression, but I didn't need to.
Lucia was... Lucia. She was calm as always, her eyes fixed on the floor. She was thoughtful, but I couldn't understand what she was thinking.
I let out a deep but silent sigh.
No, we'll get out of here.
I pushed the bad thoughts out of my mind, refocused, and tried to perceive how many creatures were passing or 'not passing' in front of us.
And so... time continued to pass.
About half an hour after nightfall, finally, not a creature was passing by. The cave had been quiet for a long time.
Lucia looked at me and I looked at her. We both nodded at the same time. Lucia reached toward Sue, nudged her. I... pushed the rock blocking the entrance to the hole we were hiding in as quietly as I could.
There was a faint glow coming in from outside the cave, probably the glow of the river rising into the sky. It allowed me to see more or less in front of me.
I looked around, no creatures were visible. The cave was completely deserted, silent.
I pushed the rock a little more, I went further out, but... there were still no creatures.
Sue had raised her head and was looking toward Lucia and me.
Without opening my mouth, I gestured with my hand for them to come out while looking steadily toward the entrance of the cave.
No creatures were visible outside, but that didn't mean that there wasn't something there. The creatures that left the cave at night would not necessarily return during the day, they might return early to continue resting after completing their work. That's why I was on my guard.
But... that didn't happen. Lucia and Sue quickly came out of the cave, keeping silent, until finally all three of us were outside.
We looked at each other again, this time everything happened much faster. Lucia lit a tiny flame in her right hand that would be our light source and moved to my left. I moved to the right side to make room for Sue while she settled in the center. Then, without waiting, we moved deeper into the cave. We couldn't afford to waste time. The night was only four hours long and we had already spent half an hour.
I used my mana constantly as we moved forward, never stopping to check our surroundings for possible dangers. I also made sure to examine the cave itself.
The cave was... really deep. Instead of shrinking, showing signs as if we were approaching the end, it was doing the opposite. The path we were on was widening as if what we had seen so far was nothing.
Which was a good sign. If the dreams I was having were not nonsense... we were on the right path, on our way out of this dungeon.
It wasn't long after we had started moving forward... Lucia suddenly paused. Sue and I stopped as quickly as she did, both of our eyes darting around. But we couldn't see anything.
"Lucia, what happened?"
I asked in a whisper, and Lucia pointed ahead with the sword in her left hand. I narrowed my eyes and looked where she was pointing.
There was... something there. Not a living thing, no... but something else that belonged to a living thing.
"Is this... where one of the creatures sleeps?"
It looked like it, because the floor was slightly sunken and there were hundreds of hairs on it... as if something extremely hairy, weighing tons, had curled up and slept here.
"Probably so."
For a while, we just stared at where the creature slept. Finally, I let out a deep sigh.
"Let's move on."
We found a few more such spots during our progress, spots where the creatures spent the day sleeping... But each one was empty, with only traces of what had gone before.
Occasionally, traces of a battle could be seen on the cave walls, traces of dried blood. The creatures were apparently fighting a lot among themselves, but we had not yet come across a corpse. Until... twenty minutes later.
Before us was a skeleton almost two meters tall. It must have been dead a really long time, because it didn't even have any rotten bits of flesh. There was only... a pool of blood underneath that, though already dried up, covered a large area. Whatever had killed this creature... had not hesitated to eat it.
Nevertheless, we kept moving forward. It started to get warmer inside the cave than usual, but it wasn't a change worth paying attention to. It was just... an indicator to remind us how far we had come.
So, we had been walking for almost forty minutes when...
~crack!
A sound echoed through the cave. A sound that didn't belong to us.
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