258 Inside the Tunnels (2)

In some part of the tunnels–

An injured rabbitkin girl was using her body to drag away an unconscious batkin young man.

The rabbitkin girl's injuries were grave, with blood flowing from her arms and a dangerous-looking gash in her chest. However, she did her best to ignore them. She just gritted her teeth, endured the pain, and continued dragging her friend through the dark tunnels.

Finally, after almost five minutes like that, the rabbitkin girl lost her last bit of strength.

Stumbling, she fell on the ground with the batkin young man.

"Ugh..." Rana groaned in pain. At the same time, the batkin young man opened his eyes groggily.

"… Rana… you are alright…"

"Rhone! You are awake! How are you!?"

"… Calm down, Rana." Rhone said weakly. "I'm alright… Right, what happened to Atai?"

As soon as Rhone mentioned Atai, Rana gritted her teeth in rage.

"That bastard! I swear I'm going to kill him!"

"Rana…" Rhone's expression was a complicated mix of anger and disappointment.

He did not want to believe that Atai betrayed them.

In fact, when Rhone heard Bloed say that Atai was suspicious, he thought he was bullshitting and refused to believe it.

However, he could not deny it anymore.

Not when Atai had just tried to kill them.

In fact, if not that Rhone acted quickly, using his soundwaves to collapse a part of the tunnels and block Atai, then perhaps he and Rana would have been dead already.

But even although they survived, they suffered grave injuries.

"… What should we do now?" Rana asked with a despondent look.

Rhone furrowed his brows before speaking up.

"We should find the captain. Currently, we are completely out of battle strength. If we meet Atai or any other enemy like this, we will unable to survive."

"… I wonder if the captain is alright." Rana's expression was worried.

"He surely is." Rhone nodded confidently, perhaps to convince himself. "Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be alright if we meet him."

"… I hope so."

…

Bloed, Liu Ying, and Aya started exploring the tunnel.

Bloed did not know where the tunnel led to, but he realized the oxygen here was abundant. In other words, there was wind circulating inside it.

Following that line of thought, he decided to use the flow of wind to find the exit.

It was not so easy to feel the wind, though. Mainly because it was so weak it was almost unnoticeable. Even so, Bloed managed to do it after focusing his senses and choose a direction to advance.

The tunnel was completely dark, so Bloed used a lantern-like object to lit it up. Even so, he could barely see what was in front of him.

Fortunately, Bloed's eyes allowed him to see pretty well in the darkness. On the other hand, Aya was a catkin, so her eyes were also pretty good.

Only Liu Ying seemed to have trouble with the dark environment.

There was nothing Bloed could do about that, though.

While the group was walking, Bloed suddenly realized something.

With a surprised expression, he looked towards the walls of the tunnel.

"Bloed?" Liu Ying and Aya looked at Bloed confused.

Bloed said nothing. Instead, he used his saber to cut a portion of the wall.

He then showed it to the girls.

"That is…"

"… Mana ores."

Both Liu Ying and Aya were surprised.

Yes, what Bloed was holding on his hands was a crystal-like piece of rock emanating a faint glow.

A piece of mana ore.

Moreover, it was not the only piece. In the nearby walls, Bloed could see many other pieces like this sticking out.

And each piece was of rather high quality.

"Are we inside the deposit of mana ores?" Liu Ying asked curiously.

Bloed nodded. "It looks like that. This tunnel was most likely created naturally and must have existed for thousands of years. These mana ores then slowly started to form due to the mana trapped here."

Mana ores were literally mana crystallized. Thus, it could be used for training or as a source of energy among other things.

That was the reason it was so valuable. In this world, it was more valuable than gold.

But here, you could pick up pieces of mana ore as though they were common stones.

"… I guess I now understand why the Sun Kingdom and the Beastmen are so interested in this piece of land." Bloed could not help but mutter to himself. With such an abundant deposit of mana ores, any country would be greedy.

As the group continued walking, the number of mana ores they saw increased. It went from a few occasional pieces scattered in the walls and grounds to giant house-sized crystals glowing beautifully.

Such a sight made even the usually expressionless Aya flabbergasted.

But no matter how much the group walked, they did not find any trace of an exit.

It made Bloed wonder how long this tunnel was.

But then, Aya's cat ears suddenly twitched.

Aya stopped abruptly. With a wary expression, she pulled Bloed's shirt.

"… I hear voices."

"Voices?" Bloed was startled.

"Mm." Aya nodded. "… Also, I think the ground is shaking… It's almost unnoticeable, but I can feel it."

Bloed furrowed his brows.

"Do you think there is someone fighting ahead?"

Aya hesitated slightly before she nodded.

"… Perhaps."

Bloed's expression turned serious.

This was problematic…

"What should we do, Bloed?" Liu Ying asked with a frown.

Bloed did not reply immediately. Instead, he fell deep in thought and tried to decide what to do.

In fact, they did not have many options.

After all, the exit was most likely in that direction.

Of course, he could try to find another route, but he had not seen any crossroads until now.

In other words, this was probably the only route towards the exit.

However, Bloed did not need to think for long.

Because a girl's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"The ones hiding in the tunnel. Come out."

The trio's eyes opened wide.

For some reason, they felt as though that voice was transmitted directly into their minds.

Moreover, Bloed recognized that voice.

"… Perhaps she is not talking about us?" Liu Ying asked in hesitation.

However, the next words they heard shattered her hopes.

"I'm talking about you. The three of you, come out now. I don't want to have to chase after you."

Liu Ying and Aya looked at Bloed to ask him what to do.

Bloed hesitated slightly, but in the end, he nodded.

They did not have many options after all.

At the same time, Bloed took a deep breath.

Then, his eyes flashed with ice-cold light.

The current him was fully ready to activate his trump card.

[Overdrive].

If the people in front of them had hostile intentions, he planned to use his trump card and kill them without hesitation.

The group walked for around one hundred meters before they found the owner of the voice.

A beautiful girl, as beautiful as a fairy, was looking at them with a stern expression.

Five people were standing behind the girl. They were glaring at Bloed's group with wary looks, ready to attack them at any time.

As Bloed expected, the girl was Elwha Aerin, the Princess of the Boerner Forest.

They had met the elven team.