"What should we do now?" Richard asked as he looked at the sleeping people plopped all over the room.

The imposed time limit by the poison had heavily limited their options now. After all, the illusion would not last forever, not unless they went back to maintain it.

And they could do that, but doing it repeatedly was dangerous, as repeating the event could lead to exposure by the enemy.

Going to the delegation of the Australian federation was its own kind of poison, with two individuals here being of high value. To admit that they (a force of the empire) had kidnapped an important individual of the Federation, it could easily blow up into a problem.

It was a bad situation, easily seen by the ugly expressions of everyone around.

Richard turned to ask Frodo. "Do they know for sure it's the Thorston's who are behind the mine?"

Frodo frowned. "They may as well at this point. Proof or no proof."

"But it's not official proof. Maybe if we drop him off before he wakes up, they can help him, and if we listen in, we can find out what marquis Thorston is planning." Richard argued, only to be ruthlessly cut down by Olivia.

"But that's the crux of the problem. The second any of the prisoners wake up, they'll quickly expose the situation. And that's assuming they can find a way to wake the prisoners up sooner. If they can't wake them up, who knows how they'll react. It could go poorly."

Richard couldn't deny it. Although they knew the poison wouldn't kill the prisoners, that was because of sister Alexandria. But the envoy had no such person. Not to their knowledge.

What if they thought the sleep was permanent? The solution could escalate drastically.

Richard and the others were left at a dead end, unsure what to do.

"You know, why don't we just buy the solution?" Panda suddenly asked, but Olivia quickly dashed that thought.

"Where would we find the kind of antidote to cure a poison that even a god level being can't deal with?" she pointed out only for the squirrel to smirk back at her.

"Silly child. First of all, the big snake over there doesn't specialize in poison despite being a large snake. She specializes in magic. The poison is not nearly as difficult to remove as you suggest."

Olivia stubbornly argued. "And where would you find a shop that removes such a sleep potion? Even if my aunt is lacking in that area of expertise, it isn't by that much. We're in a city of blacksmithing and minors in beast taming. Sleep antidote is not something easily available in such a city, not at that level."

To this the squirrel rolled his eyes. "Hello, we have a shop." He paused. "Oh wait, you weren't here for that part." He then turned to look at Richard, tapping his shoulder.

"Ahem. System shop?"

Hearing this, Richard ,Alexandria and his familiars all showed an expression of realization.

Richard found himself a bit embarrassed as he recalled the all powerful shop which had nearly anything he could want for.

And indeed, checking the stuff in the shop, he found:

[Sleep antidote]

[Potion created specifically to cure all sleep conditions]

[Cost: 50000]

'All?' Richard asked unsurely and the system responded.

[All, including your current situation]

Hearing this, Richard's expression brightened, only to darken as he looked at the price.

"What's wrong?" sister Alexandria asked as she saw his hesitation, and he explained the situation at hand.

He currently had 70000 points, which was already a lot, mostly accumulated by killing small creatures. And that was a lot. But it was far from enough, only being enough to buy one potion.

It could only be used by one person, the system confirmed as much.

[Using it for more than 1 person will dilute the effect, and in this case, to the point where the potion will no longer work on any of the prisoners.]

Hearing this, Alexandria smiled. "Thankfully, we only need to wake one of them up.They can explain the rest from there." Richard nodded in realization.

Richard turned to Panda and thanked him for the reminder. The squirrel shrugged. "Don't thank me, thank the voice It reminded me about the shop."

A strange look appeared on RIchard's face, and Olivia echoed the sentiment as she frowned. "From what I recall, screecher squirrels don't have any corresponding abilities for voices. Maybe you have six-eared macaque blood." she joked, only for Panda to wince in pain as he scolded her.

"Don't say that again, the voices hate that."

Richard checked the squirrels abilities and saw no such skill corresponding to that, causing him to worry.

Panda, seeing his concern, assured him. "Don't worry, the voices calmed down again. Just... don't connect me to that damn big eared bastard."

RIchard could only leave it at that, seeing that Panda didn't seem too bothered. He also had other matters at hand as well.

Richard bought the potion, feeling a sense of regret as he bought the potion.

Richard had completely forgotten about the points he had accumulated, but now that he had to spend the points, he felt the pain of burning money.

Alas, what a new sensation! Richard had to admit the sensation was interesting just as it was painful.

Looking at the potion that was pulled out, RIchard was mildly suspicious. The potion was a completely clear liquid encased in a glass jar.

It basically looked like a jar of water.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Sister Alexandria however, gasped in surprise.

"Is that authority?" she said amazedly as she grabbed the bottle and studied it carefully.

"Oh my lord it is just pure condensed authority." she said in pure surprise, and even Frodo looked astonished.

"Is it that amazing?" RIchard asked curiously, and Frodo responded carefully. "Not quite, it's more surprising." he said, also leaning in closer to inspect it.

sister Alexandria stopped inspecting the bottle and handed it back to Richards. "God's rely n authority to exert their power, so you'll often see authority used by healers and warriors on the battlefield to channel the power of their Gods. It's just more surprising that it would be used in this form. It's usually intangible."

[Indeed. Tangible authority is rare, and one of the reasons why the lazarus stone is quite rare]

Richard nodded in understanding. "Well, if it works I guess." he said, as he bent down, looking at the group of prisoners, and thinking of who to choose. Probably Que. Given his importance, he's probably the one who'd the envoy would be most willing to talk to.

"Just out of curiosity, what kind of person is Que?" he asked, as it was equally important to verify what kind of person he is. And if he was reasonable.

Frodo thought about it for a moment. "He was rather reasonable right?" he said, turning to Olivia.

"The intel we paid for did say he was a reasonable and friendly man though there is no guarantee as to how he'll react once he gets up."

This was good enough for Richard. There wasn't many other reasonable choices at this point.

Propping the man's head up, Richard pried the man's mouth open and pouring the liquid in.

This also reminded him that they'd have to find a way to feed these comatose people somehow.

A problem to deal with in a few moments.

Thankfully the liquified authority went down his throat easily and with ease.

The result was seen nearly immediately as the man began to struggle.

Soon he began to wake, his eyes flickering.

HIs reaction was not that of relief or happiness, nor worry.

It was terror, pure fear.

The man began speaking, but it was pure gibberish, as he attempted to use his mouth, a mouth that hadn't spoken in ages.

Richard attempted to calm the man down, explaining softly. "Calm down. We just rescued you from the mine alongside your friends. You're probably finding it hard to speak right now. " Richard turned to sister Alexandria. "Do you have any way to cure this sister Alexandria?"

She nodded, and waived her hand, causing the man to sputter for a second.

"checking-1-2-3" He said after calming down, checking that his voice was still working. He had a soft spoken voice, yet firm voice as he focused on his priorities.

Que was quite calm, and though he observed us calmly, there was no wariness. Turning to look at his friends, there was a trace of sadness.

It didn't take much to figure that the source of his sadness lay in his friends that weren't here.

"The others haven't woken up?" he asked, and Olivia explained with a helpless expression. "We didn't have enough potions to solve this. It's a a harmless potion in theory, but clearly meant to starve you out."

"Because of the death mark."

"The death mark yes. Unfortunately we couldn't save your other friends." she added, and Que's expression did not change, having already noticed their absence.

Although he looked sad, he forced out a smile. "That is not your fault, but the fault of my captors."

"May their souls rest in Elysium." Frodo prayed and Que nodded solemnly. "I hope so as well."

Que pulled out a pair of glasses, wiping them with a cloth before putting them on, giving himself a scholarly look, even in his poor condition.

"I'm surprised yo haven't talked about revenge yet." a squirrel blurted out, saying the unspoken part that n one else had spoken.

Hearing this, the writer tensed before returning to a more calm form.

"I do not deny that revenge is on the mind,but I am not ignorant to the politics at hand and how my accusations could affect the relations between our two governments." he said calmly, showing his understanding of the situation.

"There are more important matters at hand, even more important than revenge."

Hearing this, the wyrm's eyes narrowed. "You were trying to scream about something earlier. I assume you were talking about that? "

The man nodded gravely as he cursed out his kidnappers. "Those fools! I was trying to warn them. They are mining where they should not. If they keep this up, they'll bring chaos to the Romana empire."

"O come now, it can't be that bad." Panda said, yet Que clearly glared at the squirrel in this instance.

"Why do you think a scholar of the Federation has come here? Why do you think I'm warning you of a grave danger?"

Hearing this, most had already put the pieces together, as a dark implication hung over them.

"You mean!?..." Frodo asked worriedly and Que nodded.

"We came to mountain city because of the legend because of the increasing vitality of the city. Most people regarded it as a myth, but after investigating it, we confirmed that it was more than a myth. A mountain did disappear from this location. It collapsed, because something beneath it had disappeared."

Que paused before asking, as if he could not suppress his storyteller's instinct.

"Haven't you ever wondered why there was no hollow earth entrance in the Romana empire? When Asia had one when Africa had one, when the Americas had one and Australia, which has the largest, why amongst all of them the Romana empire, which occupies the last continent amongst all of them, is seemingly free of such an entrance?"

"Then... we're standing on it?!" Olivia said in astonishment. "We're standing on the final, undiscovered entrance to the Hollow Earth?"

Que nodded. "We've traveled worldwide, and found that besides the Australian tunnel to the Hollow Earth, al the other tunnels emerged at the same time, about 2100 years ago. And the mountain of Mountain city disappeared at that exact time."

"Paper please. And ink too." he requested and Panda hopped over to a nearby desk, grabbing a pen and ink before tossing back to the man.

Que began scribbling a simple diagram. A simple picture emerged, showing a mountain.

"Thanks to carbon dating, we found that part of the ground was aged differently from the rest of the dirt, with the bottom layer of the dirt having a similar age-"

"-what's carbon dating?" Richard asked curiously, and Que explained carefully. "We found a way to date the carbon in most things, allowing us to in turn, estimate the age of the stone, the layer itself, and thus the period of time the stone comes from. Using this, we can estimate the age of a layer and- you know what? We can talk about this later. You just need to know that the age of the bottom layer of dirt within a certain area corresponded to the top layer of dirt in the sorrounding areas."

He then added onto the picture, this time drawing a pit under the mountain. "We've theorized that there was already a thin tunnel underneath the mountain, linking to the hollow earth, and like the other thin holes, widened at the same time. Unlike the other holes however-"

He tapped the mountain.

"There was a huge mountain there. So instead of the hole opening up directly like it did in the other areas-"

This time, he drew another illustration, showing the mountain falling into the tunnel, blockading it.

"-the hole ended up being blocked by the mountain collapsing inwards. According to the dwarves, this mountain was huge, larger than most known on record, otherwise such a miraculous event could've never happened. This is likely also the other reason for the myth surrounding the disappearing mountain, as well as the reason why this place has become a good place for beast taming, the same reason why insects in Australia on average are larger than most other continents. The mountain blocking the hole has likely stopped the airflow between the surface and the hollow earth. Because of this, kaiju likely do not realize this exit exists, otherwise when the other tunnels became active, this one would've as well. "

Pause

"That would've continued being the case, were it not for their mining operations." He had a dark look on his face, conveying the seriousness of the situation. "What they're mining for isn't the minerals in the mountain, but the Hollow Earth energy. I don't know what they want it for, but in order to get it, they're drilling through the mountain, widening the hole. The vitality of this area is increasing- but so is the risk. Because the bigger the hole gets"

"-The more aware the kaiju will become of the hole." Richard said in realization, and Que nodded and urgently continued.

"There's a reason they tried to silence us. If this was allowed to reach anyone higher up in the empire, anyone involved would be silenced. This operation is a ticking time bomb

This blockade cannot stop them. It merely concealed the air of the outside mountain, which kaiju recognize and run to during stampedes.

It'll hold them for a while if you're lucky but if a class 5 and above kaiju find the hole then this mountain is toast. It'll be mountain city no longer. It'll be "Desolate pit""

----------------------------------------

Bmm Bmm Bmm

SssskkkkrrreeeeooonnKK!!!

Bmm Bmm Bmm

Between the sounds of the dead mining, a faint rumbling could be heard, a sound that if heard by others would make them tremble.

The roar of terror.

What Que had warned of had come.

A stampede was beginning, and the kaiju had arrived.