章 384: Underneath the Surface

We ran for a long time, before making a break. Crow insisted that we rest properly, because we might not have the privilege to do that later. After a good rest, we resumed our journey. A few hours passed, until I saw some trees over the horizon. Crow suddenly stopped, and said "Those are Mordars. At least, a lot of them are. This is the outer kind of defensive circle. We should be able to make it through them no problem. Make sure to use those abilities of yours, otherwise we will be found out".

I replied, "Relax, I have some confidence in my Art of Stealth". He nodded, and disappeared into a cloud of smoke. He was very hard to detect, even for me. Simple Mordars wouldn't be able to find him. 'Not bad at all. This ability is on par with mine. Although, I didn't master the Art of Stealth yet' I thought, and disappeared too. We soon arrived at the small forest of dead trees. It was already hard to detect us, and if I had access to shade or shadows? Only people with very, very keen senses could locate me.

Because the dead trees possessed shadows, I was certain no Mordar would be able to find me in a 100 years. Crow had no issues either, not only his smoke form was hard to spot, one would assume it was simply wind passing by. We passed through the small forest safely and stealthy, then headed further in.

At some point, I saw a camp of some sort. Crow stopped at that point, and motioned for me to stop as well. "We can go a bit further, but not much. You can no doubt make out the building next to the mine, right?". I nodded, and asked "Is that where Eterians stay?". He nodded, then continued "One of them is always outside, at least from what I saw. I saw three different Eterians altogether, but there could be more of them. As for their skills? I have no idea, and I would prefer for this to stay that way". He gave me a glance, after he said the last part.

I replied, "I'm here to find out the possible danger, not to engage a whole camp in a fight". He replied "I know, but just keep some of your crazy ideas at bay here. We will try to get as close as we can, maybe you will make something out. Follow me, I will try to get us past some of their traps". I nodded, and both of us disappeared. We had to use our stealth at this stage. Crow was in the lead, slowly advancing while taking a specific route.

I had no clue how his eyes could see through the illusion, but it was something we had to rely on here. 'I'm not sure if illusions can be just left on the ground, like Formations. Crow has been here before, he knows much more than I do' I thought, and moved closely behind him.

After a while, he suddenly stopped while I did the same. The smoke morphed a bit, and pointed to the mine. 'I think he means we can't go any further. Alright, let's have a look then' I thought and took out my mask. My eyesight was good, but I could make it better. With my mask in place, I activated the Formation. The first thing I noticed, surprised me. It was the lack of Elemental Orbs. There were some Earth and Air Element Orbs flying around, but the amount was abysmal.

'That's weird. Even in more barren parts of the Endrosian Empire, the Elemental Orbs were ever present. Is it because of that barrier thing?' I asked myself. I shook my head, and dispersed those thoughts. I focused on the mine, and watched for a while. Rat like creatures were digging the ground, and taking something outside. But the more I looked, the more convinced I became. 'It's not Yellow Dust. It's not Ore either…' I thought. I decided to look a bit longer. They didn't pack the dug up earth anywhere, they simply moved it out of the way. 'They dug out so much earth, a few hills were produced. What are they digging for?' I thought.

It was still great, I haven't noticed any Yellow Dust. Their purpose though, was illogical to me. Why would someone spend so many resources on digging, when all they received was soil. I then felt a slight rumble coming from beneath us. 'No, it wasn't beneath us, it was much further away' I thought, and finally realised what they were trying to do.

I motioned to Crow, and we left that place. After we passed through the small forest of dead trees, we stopped and I explained my findings. "They didn't find Yellow Dust, or Ore. They are digging a tunnel". He asked confused "A tunnel?". I said "Yes. To be precise… A tunnel which if I'm correct, will go under Sedon… Who knows, they might be doing the same thing next to the other cities". Crow looked at me for a while, and asked "But that's stupid. Couldn't they just use those Destroyers?". I thought about it, and certainly it would make sense. There was one condition, under which it wouldn't make sense to use Destroyers.

I said "If they want to keep the city intact, they can't use Destroyers. Why haven't they attacked again? Their plan is to probably have the city taken over, not completely destroyed. Imagine what would happen, if a horde of enemies suddenly appeared inside the city. That battle would be over quickly, and with very little losses as well… At least on our enemy side". Crow nodded, then said "It would make sense, but I still think this is ridiculous. They amount of time they have to sacrifice, in order to dig such a tunnel is beyond my rationing".

I replied "It seems Eterians have time. I told you, this might not be the only tunnel they are digging. Voltars could be facing the same thing. Although I doubt they would attempt that at Obsidian Mountains. One wrong move, and lava would welcome them". Crow asked "Are we supposed to wait for them to dig it then? We can try and persuade the Royal Army to attack their camp. We need to destroy them, before they get to us".

I smiled, and replied "Don't so anxious. If they are digging a tunnel, all we have to do is to collapse it. No wonder they are so secretive about it, if the tunnel collapses, loads will die". Crow asked "And how do you intend to do that exactly? It's not like we can go inside, and collapse it. They must be digging quite deep underground too, otherwise we would hear them". That was the problem. I said "I could use my Yellow Dust, but that would be wasteful. We might need it later, for much more severe situation".

We thought about it a bit more, and there was only one solution. I said "We need something heavy, very heavy. We need to slam the ground above the tunnel with it". Crow laughed, and asked "Even if you get your hands on something so heavy, how do you propose to slam the ground with it? Pick it up, and throw it?".

I shook my head, then replied "They are able to build those Destroyers, so why can't we?". He replied "No amount of those things will do us good. We would only alert them, this would be bad for us". He was right, building those Destroyers wouldn't help us much. Crow continued "It seems you just have to use that Yellow Dust. It has the required destructive power, to potentially collapse the tunnel underneath".

I was against that though. 'If I use my Yellow Dust reserve, that will be it. No more destructive power on our side' I thought. I then came up with something, and said "There might be a way. We need Formation Masters. If they can set up a Formation on the ground, we could potentially destroy the tunnel underneath". Crow replied "The idea is not bad at all, but there is one problem". I asked about the problem, and Crow elaborated "Where will you get a couple of Formation Masters? It's not like they grow on trees. I know you are familiar with one Formation Master, but I don't believe one is enough to create a Formation that you spoke of".

I nodded, and asked "What about you guys? You don't have any Formation Masters?". He replied, "We have a few people who know a thing or two about Formations, but nowhere near what we require. Golems have a few people who know Formations too, but they will not participate. Voltars have a few people, as well as Lizards. Lizards would probably help, if we made a good case. Voltars though… I don't know about that… maybe they would send one or two people". He then continued, "But none of them would be Masters. That friend of yours might be a Master, but one Master and a few amateurs, or advanced people at best, will not do in my opinion".

He had a point, we needed a few Masters, to create such a powerful Formation. I said "I need to go back to Olrad either way. If Alicia is there, I will ask if she can think of something. We should check our enemy's progress first. We need to know where they are with that tunnel. This will give some estimates of how much time we have left". Crow nodded, then replied "That is a good idea".