Ah, the Underdark. More than a week had gone by since the Shadow Queen was slain and I was still roaming the darkness deep underground in a place closest to Hell on Earth.
The hot environment full of monsters and evil beings lurking in the shadows was right up my alley, so I guess my vacation in Hell was actually quite pleasant. There were no major expeditions since the last one as the new cavern was still getting secured and a proper working shift established.
The workers moved deeper into the tunnels and began excavating the precious Netherealm Jade. They worked in shifts because many of them were still in the Golden Core Realm, and by being in proximity of the precious green crystals they would get sick quickly, rapidly losing their effectiveness. Such a thing was not so for those in the Spirit Realm as they had stronger energy and natural resistance to radiation, but it was still advisable to avoid breathing in too much of the poisonous dust that lingered around the area.
The team and I were mostly free to do whatever, being only occasionally called upon to establish order or secure a new branch when creatures stumbled too close to the excavation site or a workers’ camp.
We just received reinforcements, so General Red had about a hundred warriors under his wing, though apart from the elite five, the rest of them were only so-so. Passable as meat shields, but nobody expected them to live to old age. Heck, one guy went to piss to the edge of darkness and got snatched by a massive bat-like creature. What a crazy excuse to get out of work. He was barely just a few hours on the job and already got himself killed, the lazy bastard.
All jokes aside, his needless death served as a warning to the others to stick to the rules and never go anywhere alone. This was the Underdark, and place crawling with monsters around every corner, not some magical fairyland.
Well, other than that little scare, the time down in the caves was mostly boring. We had to make do with what we had, entertaining ourselves as best we knew how.
The team and I often exchanged pointers, debating various Cultivation techniques, Martial Arts, as well as Mystic Arts. I spent a few days helping Sunire and Astrid better understand my skills, but by the end of it, they were the ones teaching me, having a much deeper understanding of the topic of fire and healing respectively.
Magnus joined us and eventually, Torin did as well so we were having a debate club while waiting for something to happen. Our tank guy was still feeling down from the recent fight, so I proposed to share my Ironclad Jade Fortress technique with him.
It was not anything special, just a way to harness the strength of the body and resist getting moved around. Not something a Spirit Realm Cultivator would require, but it was good to learn as a passive. He graciously accepted the gift and somberly declared he would do his best to master it.
While he did that, General Red joined Magnus and I in a mock battle. The man was a fucking hurricane with his twin blades, the speed of which didn’t leave a single gap in his guard. In a straight-up melee, I couldn’t even touch him, since we considered getting hit as losing a point.
In reality, whenever his blade would strike my scales or skin, sparks would fly, which made him fight even harder. I think he was getting frustrated by the fact he was unable to damage me for real, though he never admitted it.
Magnus was just the opposite. While his fighting style was just as wild, he liked to trade hits with the opponent. That meant that he allowed himself to get hit if it gave him the opportunity to deliver a mortal strike. I was actually having to expend considerably more effort to fight against him, but that’s because I didn’t want to accidentally kill him! The man was crazy!
He would bait me by leaving himself wide open and then go for my weak points like a rabid animal. I would see Astrid flinch whenever he did that, the healing magic dancing on the tips of her fingers just in case. I could only imagine how bad things got in a real fight if she was already so on edge during practice.
While individually they were already quite dangerous, together Red and Magnus were a crazy combination. Impenetrable defense from spinning blades combined with a relentless attacker left no room for error. I could easily imagine why these guys were considered the elite. They were extremely talented! And though I didn’t fight the other three, I imagined there would be similar results.
A swordsman, a tank, a berserker, a fire magic DPS, and a healer in heavy armor. I could almost see them as a part of an adventuring party or something, haha. With their early middle Spirit Realm Cultivation, they could easily occupy the seat of an Elder in many Sects. And to think they were simple mercenaries under the Verdant Ironwood Willow Clan. Crazy.
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Suddenly General Red signaled us to stop the fight and stepped to the side. After he came back, his expression carried a relaxed smile.
“New orders, folks! Looks like General Orange needs our help!”
***
To get any misunderstandings out of the way, in the Clan, there were multiple managers. Each of them had a team of foremen under them, and each foreman watched over a multitude of generals and masters.
While generals took care of their warriors, masters were in charge of workers and miners.
At first, I thought there was only one of each, but then I learned there were countless others. General Red and General Orange were just two among ten or so who worked under Foreman Brown. The names were always the same so there was no mistaking who was doing what and where.
If you were a common foot soldier and your designation was Red-Red-Red, that meant you were working under General Red, who was working under Foreman Red, whose boss was Manager Red. It was a very simple system.
And in such a system, my designated workplace was Red-Brown-Green. And our new task was to go and help Orange-Brown-Green.
The six of us jumped into one of the metal carts levitating just above the ground, together with about half the warriors. The rest of them had to remain behind in case more monsters showed themselves.
After rilling up, the cart lifted off the ground and accelerated rapidly, whizzing through the cavern and through multiple side tunnels, bringing us to another section of the Underdark where General Orange and his team worked. Apparently, they encountered some kind of disaster and needed immediate reinforcements.
It took us about half an hour of flying through the maze-like tunnels until we arrived at another grand underground gallery, with about a few dozen people there in bad shape, and two times that amount that appeared just fine. Some of them wore orange leather armor, so we knew we were at the right place, but there was no also sign of danger anywhere. Not even bodies.
A man came to meet us, dressed in orange attire, clearly the leader there.
“General Orange I presume?” General Red went to meet the guy halfway after jumping down from the cart. “Where’s the danger?”
They cupped their hands at each other and then went straight to business.
“There’s no danger, not anymore. The situation had sorted itself out.” General Orange quickly explained but then lifted his hand before General Red could object. “Please, let me explain…”
The man gestured for us to follow and so we did. “As you may or may not know, a few months ago the previous General Orange lost his life here in an earthquake.” We turned the bend and saw a lot of rubble everywhere, the side of the cavern there clearly having collapsed not long ago. But that part was mostly cleared, revealing a into the darkness.
“The earthquake was no accident, having come from as the result of an attempt at opening the door of an ancient… structure. We thought the place got completely buried and since Genera Orange’s Soul Lantern extinguished, we knew he was dead, and as such there was no hurry to uncover the place. Not to mention that the ceiling was still quite unstable with constant caveins…”
The man rubbed his neck and sighed. “Well, long story short, we finally managed to clear out the rubble and reinforce the walls, so it should be fine now. We also managed to find the ancient structure again, intact, however, there were no corpses to be found.”
We turned another bend in the corridor and came to an immediate stop. Before us stood a sprawling complex, with a mansion carved from solid stone standing imposingly in the middle. The place had to be a dwelling for giants because every structure there was huge, outclassing anything I had ever seen before, with the exception of maybe the ancient Greek and Roman temples.
“Yeah, well, that’s kind of the problem.” General Red pointed at the mansion. The front doors were wide open, a portal leading into the inky darkness. The entire place was dark, only partially eliminated by glowing moss and mushrooms.
“We wanted to explore, but as soon as we entered the mansion, we were attacked. There was this small, metallic object, nearly too fast for us to see, and it attacked with such precision, my warriors were dropping like flies.”
“Couldn’t you defend against it?” General Red questioned.
“Defend? Haha, no. It didn’t care for our barriers, going straight through them as if they weren’t even there, or shattering them upon contact. It showed no mercy, and by all accounts, we should be all dead. I triggered the beacon out of instinct while we escaped with it on our tail.”
He turned, saw out questioning gazes, and helplessly spread out his hands. “And then it just stopped. As soon as we left the mansion, it stopped. It bobbed side to side at the doorway a few times and then turned back, disappearing into the darkness. Haven’t seen it since.”
“Some kind of guardian…” Astrid said with a furrowed brow.
“I wonder what’s it guarding?” Sunfire added.
“Whatever it is, it ain't worth risking my life over. It stays put in there, and I don’t plan on poking it again.” General Orange said.
“So what’s the plan?” General Red asked.
“Beasts me.” The other guy shrugged. “We clearly can’t deal with this thing, so that’s that. I’ll send the word to the higher-ups and maybe they’ll send someone stronger to deal with it. Until then those precursor ruins can stay buried for all I care.”
Precursor ruins?
That was the first time I heard that expression. I lifted an eyebrow and glanced at the rest of my team, but they didn’t show any reactions, as if what he said was completely normal.
“Hey boss, what if we took it out since we are here already?” Magnus proposed. The man looked ready to fight at all times. I quite liked him.
“Don’t even think about it!” General Orange scolded him. “Something will definitely go wrong, I can already feel it. It’s going to leave the mansion and then we are all going to die. Not to mention, that thing is unstoppable! You would need an Elder to stop it, or an unbreakable shield to just stand a chance against it.”
Five pairs of eyes turned to me at once.
“An unbreakable shield, huh?” Astrid and Sunfire both said in unison, squinting mischievously at me. “Yeah, we might have something like that…”
I frowned at them both.