"How far down do you think it goes?"
To this question, they could only peer down into the dark gloom before them and guess wildly. They'd traipsed down the crumbling stone staircase this long and yet there seemed to be no end in sight. In the end, Roman would conclude that they had journeyed through some sort of illusion array or warped space, not unlike that of the outer school herb fields.
Reversing nearly a whole day, the team had bravely traversed upwards into the infinite space above onto a smaller island, whose orbit happened to cross above that of their original place. On arriving, they found themselves amongst ruins only half covered by jungle overgrowth, the rest had survived only partially in tact, due to the uniqueness of material once used in the building of walls or dwellings. This material had also been used, though somewhat scattered likely due to the monotony of colour, as floor tiles. Roman had been particularly interested in the stone, thus while Leon gathered nearby herbs and the others hunted for their next meal, Roman began using his knife to carefully pry up the tiles.
Part of a herd of needle-spine pigs were caught and killed and the three small swines set to barbecue, their spines plucked and saved in the interdimensional bag. While not as valuable as the Peng-kun teeth, they were still of value to weapon and armour smiths, just that their abundance lowered the cost of them a fair bit.
Leon took a breath to settle the squeamishness that always rose in his heart when dealing with the messy insides of fresh kill, then cleaned and chopped up the liver, heart and kidneys, which he added to his pot with a bit of pork fat to fry and seal before adding water and the bones of a pig to help make a stock with his usual seasoning. Later, he would add a bit of the blue mushrooms as well as some wild vegetables that he discovered while gathering herbs and this stew would become their breakfast the following day.
There were other parts of the pigs that could be eaten, indeed in the village of his birth they would never turn their noses up at eating pig's head or intestines, but call it a leftover echo from his previous life as a fairly spoiled westerner, he couldn't bring himself to eat those parts anymore. As the others didn't know how to deal with those parts to make them edible, they were simply tossed off of the edge of the isle for fate to deal with.
They ate by firelight, the night having cast its shadow over the sky above and below. Roman had to be dragged from his looting of those small tiles, which he was now doing by the weakening glow of a mage globe. Caelus wasn't in the mood to recharge it using his abundant spiritual energy, it seemed, so Roman was forced to exercise patience and wait until first sunlight. Just that Roman proved himself a sleepy bunny and both suns had risen by the time he did.
The meaty stew was already filling the ruins with its rich aroma, causing many a mouth to water and the flavour of the tender roast pork became long forgotten. Roman washed his face and hands before recalling the matter of the tiles and wolfed down a lone cup of stew before rushing back over to where he had been plundering. It was then he noticed something odd.
The tiles had once been quite generous of thickness and cemented upon a floor of fine grit and sand to ensure that the ground was barren and would not have stubborn weeds manage to break through. Naturally, life and nature had worn the tiles a little thinner and none were completely flat. Not to mention the barren ground could only suffer the encroachment of green life in the end. There was one jade coloured tile that had cracked and within that tiny gap hid something which glinted brightly in the sun's rays. This had been mostly surrounded by tiles made of the material Roman had expressed interest in and one or two of those Roman had removed the previous night. As the glint caught his eye, Roman moved to observe this place in greater detail only to find that the underneath of the looted tiles was not dirt.
Roman worked around the surrounding tiles, finding the places where the tiles had been on dirt ground and where they had not and the latter formed a long rectangle, which Roman prised then upward with relative ease. Despite its strength and heavy appearance, the ground covering was actually light enough to not cause the scholar undue strain. Turned out, it was made with a hollow metal that was enchanted to remain rust impervious and a thin sheath of stone had been fixed upon it. This was not part of a tiled floor at all but a trap door! And that which it had been hiding was a long tunnel extending downwards, but not towards the edge of the isle, towards its heart. From the stale air and cobwebs thick with dust, it could be seen that this place was long untouched by mortal hands.
Everyone contained a portion of excitement, nervousness and anticipation, but likely none more than Pike. He'd participated in this challenge several times and traipsed across territories in the wake of predecessors many times. Just to find that hidden cave's treasures that hadn't been plundered for a long time if ever had moved him, even if he couldn't participate personally. But this tunnel leading to somewhere that likely no other student, likely no other explorer of the shattered isles had ever touched, was beyond expectation. Sure he and Bowyer and many others had joked about it, but reality proved that they'd had capable seniors, capable alumni. They could only forage deeper into forests, mine further into mountains, push to challenge even more ferocious beasts that had escaped for want of rarer things.
Caelus recharged all of their mage globes and after putting out the fire and cleaning up after breakfast, they began the long descent down into the tunnel. At first the steps were steep, there were cracks in places, other steps had begun to crumble becoming shallow, everyone needed to be vigilant. Then the steps became more shallow and the descent gentle and likely it was this time that they stepped into the time-space array lengthening their journey. After taking a rest, they pressed on for a while, only to be stopped once more by the eagle eyed Roman.
"This crack... it looks just like one we passed not so long ago."
Pike frowned, Caelus expressed some doubts, but it was decided that Velana and her tri-coloured fox double back with Troy. Troy placed down his mage globe in a certain location as well as one dagger. It cast a dark shadow in the shape of the weapon but much enlarged upon the stone walls. They waited for all of ten minutes and the shadow suddenly expanded, spilling out Troy, the beast-tamer and her beast.
"We only walked back a while and came to the steeper staircase," Troy informed them, causing others to mutter curses beneath their breath.
"Calm down," Pike advised them. "Clearly, if that is the case, then we are not trapped in the array, so we can take our time to figure out how to circumvent it, get past it. In fact, look at this in a more positive light; this array is clearly hiding or protecting something that the creator deemed valuable. More so, the array must have lasted a ridiculous amount of time already, perhaps since prior to the realm breaking. That reveals the strength of the caster, plus the amount of effort he or she must have used to ensure that the array remained." In this day and age, arrays relied on mage-crystals to ensure longevity, but that was not always the case. The original methods had long since been lost to time.
Brightening considerably, they all turned to their Scholar for guidance.
They chose to return to the surface, suffering rumbling stomachs after so long in the depths of the ruins. This meal was another barbecue, this time of bird meat. The intention was there to boil the bones and remnant meat for a breakfast soup, only it happened that the fowl were more feathers than flesh and the bones were delicate and hollow, not wise for stewing in water overlong. So Leon picked wild vegetables and found roots. It was not as tasty, but it was enough to soak their dry rations in and fill their stomachs.
They took shelter for the night in the shallower slope of the tunnel, staying out of the wind and any potential rain that might fall, before breaking their fast and continuing on with their trials.
As was the case yesterday, the tunnel seemed to continue on endlessly into the dim darkness beyond the light of their mage globes and the steps shallow beneath their feet, but never stopping in descent. They inched their way forward, Roman scanning over the walls for each and any clue on how to escape the array holding their progress at bay. It was monotonous, tedious and they had lapsed into silence sometime ago, having nothing more to say.
Leon couldn't help but try to muffle an overwhelming yawn, but it still escaped from his lips, his eyes fluttering shut as it did so. Caelus side glanced at him briefly with an inward sneer.
"Anything, Roman?" Pike asked, pausing as he did so. The gangly youth, who just sighed and shook his head, thinking of how to respond.
"The walls look... are all natural," he mentioned. "Just carved out of the rock underground. I can't find any hidden switches, no places to push, or exits that allude the eye. Nothing."
They couldn't help but scratch their heads in frustration. Whoever created the array did so cleverly, for there was no obvious exit to breach. To pace slowly from the marker they placed until finding that same marker appear before them once more thanks to the array's loop had taken them about a shichen, thanks in part to Roman's meticulous examinations. And yet, they might as well consider themselves right back at the beginning.
"Wait, where's Leon?" Velana asked suddenly. They all glanced around.
Caelus frowned. "He was just here a moment ago," he informed them, not adding that he was yawning with no discretion, like a broad mouthed fish.
"Velana," Pike turned to her and she nodded, understanding what he wanted without need for instruction and she and the tri-coloured fox rushed back up the tunnel steps quickly.
"Leon's not the sort to rush off on his own," Troy voiced an opinion, which Pike agreed with and Roman couldn't help but add conjecture.
"You don't think... he managed to slip through the array?"
Caelus sneered once more, this time visibly. "How is that possible? I was right next to him. I would have noticed if he did something to break through the array!"
Velana returned as swiftly as she had left. "He is not on the surface," she advised them, shortly. Volune had not found his scent either or at least, nothing fresher than what was left mingling amongst the rest of the team's during the last time they ventured above ground.
"Probably wandered ahead," Caelus believed. The youth had his eyes shut a bit when he was yawning after all. Probably hadn't noticed them stop.
Pike thought about this for a moment, the frown still marring his forehead, but in the end he nodded. Leon was sensible, he would double back when he realised that they hadn't kept up with him. "Velana, would you mind?"
The woman nodded again, agreeing to wait at the point where the steps became steep, where the reach of the array did not seem to extend. If Leon reversed his steps, he would likely end up back at this point. Once the others had breached the array, they would come back for them.
The beast-tamer and beast pair left the team to continue searching onward, this time Roman took particular note of the steps.
Caelus stretched his body, his feet aching slightly as he'd reduced the amount of spirit he'd poured into his steps. To enter the mage school, one had to have three of four attributes and all four if one wanted to enter the inner school. It was unfair, but things were just this way. Caelus was enrolled in the outer school; he only had three of the four attributes. He lacked the root specification, meaning that he did not only have a singular, primary root. He just happened to have a 'waste' root.
Saying it was a 'waste' root was the prejudice of ages past. Apart from holding him back from achieving a higher potential, he didn't actually mind it too much. It was known as a 'cloud' root and thought to derive from 'air'. Basically, it made him light-footed, shifting his body mass that it was not in anyway a burden. He could climb like the most agile cat or run swiftly like a deer. In these two categories, he would seldom lose out to Martial Artists, despite being a 'squishy' mage.
All this time, he'd also been using to ease the burden upon his feet, but it was draining to do this for long periods of time. This venture had seen him need pop blisters more than once. Fortunately, he'd packed a salve in anticipation of that. But now his feet were aching again and he couldn't help look at them, nor could he help wincing when he stepped on a new, painful formation on his heel. He quickly lifted his foot, standing instead on his toes, but in doing so he lost his balance for a moment. He facing a long tumbled, he covered his face with his arms as he wailed in panic.
"C-Caelus? Are you ok-k-k... alright?"
The mage lifted his round face from the shelter of his arms, his fall already broken, when the sudden realisation came; he'd fallen onto a flat surface. His face reddened, embarrassed to have lost his balance for his team mates to witness and he quickly leapt to his feet, hissing at the discomfort that brought in itself.
His eyes scanned over his teammates... teammate...? "Leon? Where did you come from? You vanished before..."
"Ah, I'm n-not sure," Leon admitted sheepishly. "I only c-c-closed by eyes for a few sec-conds and then I w-was here, alone."
Here still seemed to be part of the tunnel, but this time it was tiled floor to ceiling and there were recesses with mage globes, but not were shedding light. Those that were seemed very dim, their glow not extending far from their shells. Caelus looked back and could see the steps of the previous corridor shallowly rising upwards. It seemed that Roman's suggestion had been true; Leon somehow surpassed the confines of the array!
"What... why did you not head back?" Caelus was a bit embarrassed, thinking how quickly he'd previously dismissed this possibility before.
"I thought Roman h-had d-done something," Leon replied, "t-to b-break the array. So I w-waited for everyone."
Caelus shook his head, a slight smile curving his lips. A dimple formed in one of his full cheeks. "No, wasn't Roman." He glanced up at the ceiling for a moment, thinking about how it was possible that Leon and then himself broke through the array. "You yawned, I tripped, what does either have in common?"
"C-closed eyes?" Leon pointed out, tentatively, earning himself a sharp look from the mage. He wasn't nervous beneath the scrutiny, knowing it was just how Caelus was, but he did feel uncomfortable and shuffled between feet. "I sh-shut m-my eyes, yours were c-covered."
"We didn't look ahead to where we were going," Caelus added in realisation. He grinned, his eyes vanishing into slits and that dimple deepening. He slapped Leon heartily on the shoulder. "Good man! Now we just need to figure out how to tell the others."
They discussed it for a bit, they didn't know whether the rule to break through the array would change once they left it, but they had to take the chance or leave the others behind. It was decided that Caelus would head back; his feet would have the advantage of swiftness after all. He would rush and meet with Velana and the Fox, they would send the Fox to grab the others so they could all meet up and try this small method of breaking through the array. If Caelus did not return with the team in a shichen, consider the 'rule' a lost cause and head on alone. Better that one of them find the treasure than it continue to be out of reach.
"Just if you do, be careful," Caelus warned him. "There are often more than one trap set in places such as these." Leon nodded earnestly, but remained worried. He really wasn't brave enough to set out on his own. He really wished that Jin Li was beside him more than ever in that moment.
As if I have not enough works on my plate, I decided to join a competition on Webnovel; the Kingdom Building, Male Lead, Writer’s Practice competition! But it’s not a bl, sorry! Instead, it’s just a bit of nonsense in which I express my stupid sense of humour. Check it out if you have the time! It’s called Restoring a Kingdom from Scratch. Thank you!
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT