Mana Water and Lurls

Both of them were puzzled by this development, and Ed turned to William to ask, "Was this ever recorded in any of the exploration reports?"

William shook his head as he noted, "Not to my knowledge, the older ones mentioned nothing, and the latest land survey conducted four months ago didn't mention a tunnel into the ground near this area. This has to be pretty recent, as it's not exactly hidden that well."

After much more discussion, William reached for something out of his bag and took out a small stone before he channeled his mana into the stone that started to glow a navy blue on the giant runes inscribed.

Once again, he began to speak in Lamit language, which resembled an alien language to Raz, who found it similar to the human-made languages they included back in movies on Earth. However, it sounded much more fluid and pleasing to the ear, with a hint of regalness and grandeur, like it was meant to be used for important and great things.

A voice seemed to respond back in the same language through the stone with a slightly startled and confused tone before saying one last thing, but before the voice could finish, the stone broke apart into fine dust particles that slowly dispersed into nothing.

William sighed as he faltered, "It seems that the Apollyon wants us to continue, but to just explore and try to identify any survivors or materials as Lurls should be no problem for us."

"That old geezer always works us to the bone even though we are no longer his students. I don't know why I even expect things from him anymore. Here, I'll hold onto Raz and let you lead then, William," Ed sighed.

Before they went in, William took a large sphere the size of a basketball out of his bag and handed it to Ed as he explained, "Just in case something goes wrong, you should utilize this as it contains almost a month's worth of my mana injected into it."

Ed nodded as he brandished his broad sword with one hand and snuggly held Raz with his other hand.

The pair continued to walk into the hastily made tunnel that seemed to have been dug out recently, as there were still traces of tunneling left all around, along with piles of sand and dirt.

Trying to get his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the tunnel, Raz blinked a few times while also breathing in the humid and damp air. The tunnel was quite small, which made Ed almost hit the ceiling as they continued downward.

After a few minutes, the tunnel stopped sloping downward and seemed to suddenly jut to the left unexpectedly. Before Raz could say anything, his nose picked up on a peculiarly sweet scent that seemed to calm his mind and stimulate his body like nothing had before.

It seemed as if Raz wasn't the only one affected as William frowned and then seemed to be in deep thought as he murmured, "Ed, is this…mana water?"

"It seems so," Ed sniffed the air as he suggested, "Do you think this is why the Lurls have invaded past their territory?"

"It appears so. Let us be careful here. It wouldn't be the first time Lurls mutated due to something like this." William warned as he whispered something in Lamit before a gray mist spread, and he disappeared.

Ed wasn't the slightest fazed, but Raz, on the other hand, was agape as his father had literally disappeared into thin air in front of him. Although there were similar things in the cultivation world, it was still a skill most commonly found in cultivation experts, and to his understanding, while his father was talented, he was still in the lower to middle parts of the food chain in the Iron Wolf Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Ed also cast magic, but the color emitted from his sword was white, and instead of disappearing, each step he took in his heavy armor didn't even make the slightest squeak or sound.

While carrying Raz, Ed continued onward until he paused as the small tunnel turned into a large cavern that was filled with stalactites and a giant baby blue-colored lake in the center of the entire palace.

Before Raz could make any noise, an armored hand covered his mouth Ed's eyes went wide as he stared at a large number of figures surrounding the lake.

Trying to take a peek, Raz was thankful that he didn't make a noise as he stared at the crowd in front of him.

Seemingly drinking from the lake was a group of fifteen or so creatures that all had rusted or chipped weapons and scimitars all around them. The creatures were all quite short, as they were all barely over a meter tall with mucus-coated bodies and sharp fangs that looked like they could easily carve a chunk of flesh.

All of them had fingered and webbed feet like a frog with gangly and lean bodies that were all colored bright green except for three of them. Two were a darker shade of green and stood taller than the rest at just below an average male's height of 170cm in the Iron Moon Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the final one, which seemed to be the one closest to the lake, had dull gray skin and held a stick that looked like a walking staff.

They were only visible due to a red crystal that gave off a light akin to a lantern which made the creatures even more horrifying to look at.

Although he had no prior knowledge of what a Lurl was, Raz had no doubt that these deformed-looking fish creatures were a textbook Lurl if he knew what they actually looked like.

Unsure of what to do, Ed pulled back closer to the tunnel entrance to take cover as he awaited any signal from William, who had surely gone further into the cavern to search for any of the stolen goods or researchers.

A few minutes passed before small clanging of metal echoed in the cavern, which instantly grabbed the previously lounging Lurls in a state of alertness as they promptly grabbed their scimitars.

The gray Lurl started to croak out an incomprehensible amount of sounds before the other Lurls seemed to understand as they split their group in half, with one group heading towards the back part of the cavern and the other closer towards the entrance where Ed and Raz had hidden themselves behind a large rock.

Doing his best not to curse under his breath, Ed quietly backed up slightly further into the shadow of the boulder as he didn't move a muscle.

Soon the sounds of wet, slimy plops continued to get closer to the pair as the constant croaks got even louder as soon even their shadows were visible.

A gut-wrenching stench assaulted Raz, who didn't even make a face as his willpower and concentration couldn't be broken by the nauseating, dead fish odor that the Lurls seemed to radiate. Although the pair were in a precarious situation, Ed took note of the lack of reaction and, in his mind and developed a higher expectation of Raz.

As the group of five or so, Lurls seemed to be on the opposite side of the rock just before they spotted the pair.

An explosion shook the cavern as the Lurls turned around and started to shriek before running toward the explosion.

"Shit," Ed muttered under his breath as he took out the large sphere, and suddenly his once dull greatsword started to glow an icy blue as frost started to appear on the edge of the greatsword.