Chapter 522 [522] The caves.
As Alan descended the hole, he was cursing his luck.
How could it be that out of nearly 30 people, he had the worst luck and got the shortest straw? It was completely unfair! How could his luck be that bad?
He questioned again and again, but thinking about it, he realized it was foolish.
His luck had always been bad, It was Elijah who had the greatest luck.
'Being the Universe's chosen sure is nice...'
He sighed inwardly, and increased the speed of his descent, he looked down but could only see an endless abyss. He wondered how deep this hole went. Based on the experiment with the rock, he should have reached the end by now, but strangely enough, he didn't.
'Is this perhaps another illusion?'
The planet was strange, even in the north when they were heading towards the mountain peaks, they were trapped in an illusion as well. Now, whether the illusion was the result of the world or something else, that was a mystery.
Nevertheless, Alan continued his speed, having unfurled his wings just in case. The hole was getting wider and wider, and thus this gave him the space to do so.
However, when he saw what seemed to be the floor with his enhanced vision, his gut was telling him to stop. It was like a burning feeling in his heart and his muscles stopped reflexively, he stopped descending and started to float.
Trusting his body, he floated downwards, this time at a considerably slow speed. He was shocked to see the 'ground' he had seen far away was at his feet.
Alan stepped on the floor, which was damp. And almost slipped. He was in a large cave with a small pond in the middle, the cave also had 3 tunnels leading to god knows where.
With his communication artifact, he called the group above and informed them it was OK to descend, but to take it slow. If Alan didn't slow down, his face might have been slammed against the rock, which wouldn't be a sight he wanted to see. It wouldn't kill him, but it would be excruciatingly painful.
After waiting about an hour, the rest of the group had descended and took samples from the pond. There was algae and moss growing inside the cave. They took some of that too.
"It's edible."
Strange, almost all the plant life he had found here except for the trees and their strange leaves seemed to be edible. It was a good thing, so he didn't complain. But it was still odd. The group decided to go into the tunnel in the far-right first.
They had common sense and knew splitting up in this environment was a bad call, they were prepared to take more time than deal with any problems with fewer men.
They had explored the tunnel for a day, since they were all hunters and skilled awakened, they could stay up for four days without being affected. It took an entire day for them to come back to the pond as well.
Unaware of the length of the other two caves, they still set up camp and the necessary defences and fell asleep, with groups of hunters taking guard. They headed into the one in the middle the next day.
This one was much longer than the previous one, the temperature increased as they went in, and soon it was as hot as a sauna. After two days of travelling with almost nothing to be seen, they found the end of the cave. They had collected a bunch of minerals on the way here, so they weren't disappointed. They had also encountered carvings of beasts as well.
However, as they were heading back, A member of the team approached the wall and knocked on it.
"I knew it..."
It produced a hollow sound, and the member was ecstatic to have made a discovery.
"Guild master, the part of the wall here is hollow."
He called out to Richard and said. Richard approached the man and also knocked on the wall.
"It is..."
It looked like the ordinary walls of the cave, however it was surprisingly hollow.
They wanted to break it, but were afraid of the cave collapsing on them.
Alan used his |Dragon Eyes| to confirm, and scanned the cave. He saw that the cave and the wall...weren't actually connected.
The cave continued on like normal, but the wall appeared to be disconnected from the stone everywhere else. It was made by something, to block anyone who came here.
It was crafted so exquisitely that one wouldn't have even known about it. Dragon eyes pierced through it and found that the cave descended downwards. And the 'wall' wasn't made of stone at all.
"It's alright to break it."
Alan said, as he deactivated dragon eyes, the pain having become insufferable.
Richard nodded and broke it, it broke quite easily and shattered like glass.
"Don't use that skill if it hurts you so much, you are bleeding from your eyes!"
Sabrina said from behind, looking at his bloodied eyes. There was a hint of worry in her eyes Alan missed seeing.
"It's nothing."
He said, as his eyes healed with the help of his bloodline in an instant. He looked ahead towards the group.
Furthermore, he wondered why they had come to a sudden stop, and when he approached them he knew why. In front of them was a staircase. The stairs this time, however, weren't as big as those in the temple. They were large for humans, but not that much. They could descend these stairs easily.
After setting a magic sensor on top, they proceeded downwards. The sensor was in place so they wouldn't be caught off guard if something came from up top. The stairs went quite deep, and the air became more humid, there seemed to be another scent mixed in it as well, But even Alan's sharp nose couldn't pinpoint what it was.
The temperature increased, and it was boiling hot now. Sabrina was unable to bear it and asked Alan to cover her in a shield of ice mana, The others asked this as well after seeing her do it.
They could see a light at the bottom, it was a bright red light, which just screamed that something sinister was lying beneath.
They raised their weapons and had their spells ready. They carefully treaded the path until they found the stairs ended, and the light was coming from a crack. It was like a window to hell, slightly open.
Alan wanted to use his skill to investigate, but Sabrina stopped him. Sighing, he went in with the rest. They squeezed in with the crack and had grimaces on their faces as they saw what was beyond their expectations.
A red, blood-like sea. But it was not water. It was lava.
A Red Sea that stretched for as long as they could see, the space was so big they could barely see the ceiling. The hot waves assaulted their faces and caused them to grimace and sweat. The Red Sea of lava popped bubbles and seemed to form waves, which threatened to consume them. The fire mana in this place was absolutely bonkers.
The fire mage in the group had almost fainted from the influx of mana. They escorted him back inside. But, that was not the thing that surprised them the most.
He looked ahead and then saw something moving within the sea. But whatever it was within the sea, so he couldn't see what it was accurately. It was most likely a creature, but he didn't focus on it solely.
On the ceiling, where numerous stalactites lay, they could see bats the size of cars, with velvet fur and ferocious teeth looking at them, numbering in the thousands. They paid no attention to the monsters within the lava and focused only on the bats.
They were silent, not having made the first move.
"Everyone...slowly go back in turns."
Logan ordered them, and the weakest of them went first. They squeezed through the crack, making sure they made no sound. If those bats attacked them, they would be thrown off this cliff and into the lava below.
The team slowly went back inside, but of course, nothing would go well for them. The part of the cliff beneath Alan started to collapse. It was so sudden it seemed to be caused by something, but Alan couldn't pay any attention to that and tried to grab something before he fell completely.
Richard hurriedly grabbed his hand, and pulled him up. Logan yelled to the others after he noticed the bats start to move towards them.
"Fuck! Everyone, get inside NOW!"
His skill told him they were of B-rank, and the group couldn't defeat this number in this small space. Heck, they would struggle even in conditions that favoured them.
Kazikato, in order to buy time, unleashed a dragon breath at the bats, but it managed to kill none of them. Only slow them down.
Alan did the same, They flailed their breath in various directions, buying as much time for the group as they possibly could.
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