Tunnels

Leus left his house and headed to the slums.

'I wonder how things are going for Scar and the rest'

He wasn't really worried, because if there was an emergency someone would come to the Library to call him.

'Since no one came, it means that things are going fine.'

'I wonder, did the Crimson Guards just give up?'

Soon, he'd get his answer.

After a bit of time, he entered one of the alleyways connecting the city to the slums.

He exited it and walked in the Base's direction, but something caught his attention

'Huh?'

'What is that?'

He walked towards it and looked down

'It looks like a long line of blood'

Naturally, it wasn't blood, it was just the color of blood, Crimson.

A long Crimson Line on the ground

'Like it's splitting the area, or marking it?'

Leus didn't understand why there was a Crimson Line on the ground, the only thing that came to his mind was

'Maybe the Crimson Guards are marking my area? But why?'

Leus walked past the line and moved forward.

After a bit of walking, he began seeing familiar faces

'Our patrols'

All of the guys recognized him as well

"Boss"

"Hey Boss"

He waved his hand or nodded in greeting to those calling him, and kept walking forward until he reached the Base.

Only two guys were standing at the gate this time, the gate was open and the inside seemed empty.

'Is Scar not training today?'

It was around noon, usually, Scar trained until evening.

He approached one of the guys who immediately recognized him

"Boss!"

"Hey, is Scar not inside?"

"No, he's with the others in the Safe House"

Leus nodded

"Thank you, I'll go then"

The Safe House was a couple hundred meters away.

Leus turned around and was about to go when the guy stopped him

"Boss"

Leus turned back to him

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you go from here, it's faster"

"From here?"

The guy pointed behind him

"We have a tunnel connecting the Base to the Safe House, it'll take you directly to the basement."

Leus tilted his head

"Really? From here to the Safe House? Interesting... "

He walked inside to where the guy was pointing and there were some pieces of wood hiding the entrance to the tunnel.

Leus pushed the wood away and walked down

"Do you need one of us to come with you, Boss?"

Leus just shook his head

"No need, continue with what you're doing"

"Alright Boss, when you reach the door, knock three knocks then pause, then another four knocks."

Leus chuckled

"Is that a secret code?"

The guy nodded and walked back to the gate.

Leus walked down and entered the tunnel

'It's not wide'

Barely two people could walk side by side in it

'But it has illuminating stones and it's tall enough'

Leus didn't need to crouch to be able to walk, overall

'It's not bad at all, it's well built honestly'

Leus was slightly impressed

'Surely they spent a lot of money on bringing someone to build this, but what's it even for'

On the way, there were entrances right and left, however, they led to nowhere

'It's incomplete'

' ... How many tunnels is Scar planning to build'

After about 7 minutes or so of walking, Leus was able to see a wooden door in front of him.

'It has a handle, I assume it can be opened from here, but since the guy asked me to knock I'll knock, maybe it's locked from the other side'

Leus did as the guy told him

Tuck tuck tuck - - - Tuck tuck tuck tuck

He heard some sounds coming from behind the door then it was opened

The guy who opened the door was sweating profusely but didn't look tired

"Oh? Boss! Welcome"

"Hello"

'It's funny, I know all their faces but not their names'

"Is Scar here?"

The guy who opened the door nodded

"Go up then go to the hall, you'll find them behind the curtains"

"Thank you"

Leus entered the Basement and noticed two things

'There are way too many guys here'

And

'They are working on another tunnel'

Some guys were carrying wood and stones, others were digging, and some were taking out the dust.

So Leus asked

"Are you guys digging a tunnel?"

"Yes Boss, you should leave, otherwise, you'll ruin your clothes, the place is full of dust"

Leus was wearing the t-shirt Amethyst gave him, so he wanted to quickly exit, but before that

"Good job all of you, do you guys have a bucket?"

"Bucket?"

The guy pointed at one of the closed doors, the one beside the Torture Chamber

"Here there are many water buckets."

Leus nodded and entered the room.

The room was filled with buckets, wood, and stones.

It was quite a big room

'Looks like a storage'

The guy came behind Leus

"These are water buckets on the right side, on the left there's the Holy Water you created Boss, we put some of it in the water and drink a mix of both, it restores our energy"

"Really now?"

'They dilute the Potions? Interesting ... That's why despite sweating so much he doesn't look tired at all'

Leus filled the empty water buckets and added ice cubes

'Small quality improvements should make them feel better'

He then filled all the empty and half-full Potion buckets as well.

The guy was watching him with wide-open eyes filled with reverence and admiration

"You're amazing, Boss, so amazing"

His tone was full of respect

"Ah, don't mention it, you guys are doing all the hard work, that's the least I can do. By the way, what is the tunnel even for?"

The guy just scratched the back of his neck

"Honestly, I don't know. Boss Bones brought an engineer, and that engineer is giving us orders, and we are just following the orders and getting paid."

Leus found it funny

'Simpletons'

He replied with a smile

"It's alright, I'll ask Scar about it. You can go back to work, I'll go up"

Then he quickly left the basement and went up.