54 Unexpected Traps
The boys watched the girls hugging Wyba until they noticed that some of the other kids were starting to recuperate from the space-time passageway effects.
"Serka, Nurvey, we should go now. The others will be recovered soon."
They didn't want to be along with the cannon-fodder.
That was because they considered the cannon-fodder as ignorant kids who would activate traps around the realm while walking like fools. Their elite group had a better way of moving and only used the others to decrease the chances of meeting traps in the long term.
Going with them was useless and would only increase the danger.
Of course, that strategy of letting the commoners walking around the realm always ended with some of them obtaining benefits due to being lucky, but most of them just die due to the traps.
After hearing Kermu's voice, the two girls stopped fooling around.
Then, the five of them left the area. However, Nurvey refused to let go of Wyba.
"Safe."
Yale didn't understand what Nurvey wanted to mean until Serka translated it to him.
"She means that Wyba is safer with her. Don't be fooled by Nurvey's appearance. She has the best surviving skills of the group. Wyba will be safer if she stays in her arms."
As Wyba seemed happy to be hugged by Nurvey, Yale didn't mind about that.
If Wyba was safer by being with Nurvey, Yale didn't mind let Wyba with her until they exit the Special Realm.
Nurvey was, after all, from the imperial family. There was no way they sent her to such a dangerous place if she didn't have excellent survival skills.
As they started to walk, they told Yale about the use of the cannon-fodder.
Yale became more relaxed after hearing that the so-called cannon-fodder would be merely walking around. If they were forced to act as meat shields, their chances of survival would be even less.
He was worried about George and Aizu, both of them were strong in the Nacesai Academy, but in the Imperial City, their prowess was average at most. Yale had thought of helping them, but he never expected that they would be separated after entering in the Special Realm.
He couldn't do anything to help them, so he decided to avoid thinking about that matter and merely wished good luck for them.
The Special Realm seemed a collage of different areas joined without care. It looked completely unnatural. Yale thought that the creator of the Special Realm didn't put a lot of effort into the Special Realm's appearance.
The area where their group was seemed to be formed by human-made corridors.
There were a few traps in those ways, but the nobles came prepared with trap detecting artifacts that allowed them to walk safely.
The corridor was narrow, so they needed to walk in a line. Although the path was wide enough to fit three of them, they would be without space to move in case of danger.
Nurvey was walking at the front of the group.
Her trap detecting artifact was the best of all the artifacts the group had.
Moreover, as she was the one with the best measures in front of danger, her being at the front was the best decision.
Yale was in the second position just behind Nurvey. In the middle was Serka, who, as the healer, had the most secure location, and behind her was Kermu.
Hyrk was at the rear; the traps could be triggered from any direction, so the front and back were the most dangerous positions, and Hyrk's defense was outstanding, although it was still behind Nurvey's.
As they were walking, Yale saw a huge pit in front of them, with the passage turning left just before it.
That pit seemed an easy trap to discover which only those too careless would fall because it could be seen from far away.
However, to Yale's surprise, Nurvey advanced toward if like if the path continued ahead.
"Stop!"
Yale shouted as he grabbed her by the shoulder just before she stepped into the pit.
She stared at Yale displeased.
"Why were you about to jump into that pit in front of you? Can't you see it?"
Yale was paying attention to Nurvey because she was carrying Wyba. Although the others said that she was reliable, he was still cautious.
The other group members looked to Yale with strange expressions as they heard his words.
"Yale, there isn't any pit there. In front of us, there is a passage like before."
Yale was shocked by Serka's words. He could see clearly the pit in front of them.
"Let's try this."
Kermu said it while extracting one stone from a spatial artifact and tossing it to the front.
When the stone reached the floor, it continued to fall, disappearing from everyone's eyesight.
After seeing the stone disappearing behind the floor, the nobles confirmed that Yale was telling the truth. There wasn't any path in front of them, only a deadly trap.
They also didn't hear the sound of the stone reaching the floor so they could guess that falling was equal to death.
Nurvey would be dead if Yale weren't in the group or if he didn't react so quickly.
"Thank you."
After seeing that Yale had only grabbed her to save her life, Nurvey used all her strength to thank him. That was something very unusual in her.
"How did you see that trap? Our artifacts didn't detect anything."
"Trap? It can be considered a trap, but it doesn't have any covering, you told me that your artifact served to detect hidden traps, but there is nothing hidden to detect. What I don't understand is why you didn't see it before."
"Yale, we still don't see the pit you are talking about, although we confirmed that is there."
"Could it be an illusion?"
"Why do you think that?"
Serka didn't understand why Yale thought that an illusion was the reason of all.
"I have immunity to any type of illusions, if there is an illusion covering the pit, it can't have any effect on me, while it can affect you. Thus, I thought that it could be the reason."
Yale didn't want to hide the truth because the safety of the group was first.
"Are you serious? Do you really have immunity to illusions?"
Serka had difficulty to believe that Yale had that immunity, which was far too strange.
"Of course, I have it. I know it can be difficult to believe, but I am telling the truth."
"Yale's words have a point. Our artifacts can't detect illusions. Using permanent illusions is a strange skill even for experts, only those who were extremely skilled in them will be able to cast an illusion that remains for years. Our clans didn't give us any item to detect illusions, so I think that all the other realms opened the past didn't have any illusion like this one or no one would have survived to them."
Kermu analyzed the situation coolly. He was the smartest of the group and didn't let his prejudices block his way of thought.
"Then, what can we do? We will be dead if we get tricked by more illusions."
Hyrk who hadn't spoken until that moment was starting to get nervous, he had a very strong body, but if he fell in such deep pit, he would be dead before he noticed it.
"Calm yourself, in a normal situation that can be a deadly obstacle for us. However, letting Yale join us has been our greatest luck. Finding someone able to ignore illusions is extremely difficult."
Hearing those words, Hyrk remembered that Yale had detected the pit and also had just told them about his immunity. He wasn't used to relying on the skills of others, so he was only thinking about his own capacities.
He was thankful that, in the end, he accepted that Yale joined the group. If he had refused, Nurvey would be dead due to his arrogance.
Although he had said that it was better to die than mix with commoners, that was only his arrogance because he didn't think that with their preparations, they could really die in the Special Realm. He had underestimated it too much.
"Yale, since you can see through the illusions. Is there some way to advance? Or is this a dead way?"
Serka was happy to have helped Yale before, in the end, letting him join was a wise decision.
"The way continues turning left."
"I can only see the wall there."
Kermu laughed as he said that.
Yale showed the way, and all of them continued their journey.
For the other four, walking across a wall was a weird experience, although that was only an illusion.
The group slowed down and told Yale to notify any strange thing he noticed. Even before turning left or right, they asked him if there was really a path there.
"If the other groups notice the illusions, will they leave the realm out of fear?"
As they were walking, Yale asked it because he was conscious that to the other groups, those illusions would be calamities, and he had friends among those other groups.
"Impossible, in at least a month, there is no way to go out. That is a measure to avoid the cannon-fodder running away in fear. In exchange, it is also impossible for the nobles to exit before a month has passed. If they are fearful of the illusions, at most, they can try to remain without moving for one month, but that is also dangerous. If they can't obtain anything from the realm, robbing others isn't a strange thing. That is one of the things I despise the most about the commoners."
Hyrk was the one who replied Yale, and his words were true. A lot of commoners relied on robbing after seeing that they couldn't obtain anything in the realm. The nobles usually refused to do such low things because they still had their pride.
