Tim and the team made great progress, they dug through what could be considered two to three hundred kilos of dirt, sand, and gravel. It was a great amount, and it was all the more impressive when one considered how tiny they were in this bodily form, aqus goblins were pretty small, three-foot tall mostly, so yes it was impressive.
It was Tim who did most of the work, yes, but his friends still had to help him shovel the dirt away. They carried everything in their hands, just to clear the path for the floating daggers, because the daggers themselves couldn't carry anything whatsoever, they were just used to stab through the ground. The team were all doing their part, their work, most of which featured hard, and futile physical labor, but in the end it was worth their while.
The progress they made was decent, the team dug over two feet deep by now, and they dug around the tower thoroughly, which was all the more impressive. Now if they dug just a little bit deeper, then they may finally break into the tower, and if they managed to do so today, then it would be especially amazing for them, it would be noteworthy! Without Tim's help they would've wasted a lot more time here, so yes, putting in a shift's worth of labor only, was really impressive for this situation, it was certainly better than spending several weeks here!
Three hours later, they found something that they'd have preferred not to find. They dug deep enough to find a huge crack, a crack in the tower's walls to be exact, and although this provided an entrance for them, it also hinted that the tower might have imploded a long time ago. An imploded, and ruined tower would not do them any good!
“Ah, darn.” Arvena sighed.
Just after she complained, the team started getting nervous, because it could mean that all the work that they had put in so far, may have been for nothing! They were concerned.
“No luck? Do you think that we can remove our mana-brackets here, Arvena?” Ortana asked, as being the weakest in terms of mana quality, she was especially eager to progress in any way or form. She was nervous.
“This hole complicates things, but we still might be able to get some work done… don't you smell the mana? It's very refreshing, eye-opening even!” Arvena added.
“I can't smell anything,” Ortana admitted, “You’re probably more sensitive to mana.”
Ortana did not attempt to taunt the other, but her wordplay said otherwise. Everyone here was suspicious of Arvena, and rightfully so, but she chose to ignore their non-trusting eyes either way. She didn’t care, and her lack of care perhaps spoke of her power?
Nevertheless, they had no choice but to follow her. Seconds later, she ducked, and squeezed between the crack on the wall, she did so almost effortlessly even though she was one of the bigger goblins here. The team followed her, and they didn't let the darkness within the tower intimidate them either, they pushed forward.
Once they squeezed within the crack, all of them panicked without discrimination, because the water sucked them downwards all of a sudden! It wasn't a violent kind of suction, no, but they could not counter the water's mass even if they wanted to, meaning, they couldn't swim upwards. This complicated things, because their only exit was at the top!
The team did not understand what was going on, and things became all the more confusing once this great amount of light pierced through their eyes! They were getting sucked in towards a huge area, it was a great cavern of sorts, perhaps a hundred meters wide, and over thirty meters tall. It was hard to believe that the tiny tower above their head, sheltered this huge place, it was unthinkable, so they were baffled overall!
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“Guess this place is safe as long as the cavern's walls don't cave in,” Skendus added.
The team managed to relax just a little bit afterwards, as they weren’t in any noticeable danger so far, so it was at times like this where they could take a moment to observe their surroundings better. They were curious, and as they looked at everything closer, they developed this mad notion that most of this cavern may not be filled with water at all!
They got this idea, because the light that surrounded them was too bright to be underwater. Light was well-spread throughout the cavern, and it was so luminous, that they could see various shapes of some structures within the cavern, they could even spot the shadows of those structures! The latter detail sealed the deal.
Arvena was the most curious, so she decided to swim forward, as much as she could, in order to put something to the test. She exerted a lot of energy swimming forward, up until something very interesting happened. She found a barrier to this water that surrounded them, that is, she could stick her hand through this barrier, and wave through dry air on the other side!
This was fascinating, so she then stuck her head through the water barrier, and confirmed her theory afterwards, which made her shreek in joy. Most of the cavern truly was dry, it was well-kept, and it hadn't succumbed to the passing of time at all! Her and the team were breathing through water now, yes, but the water around them was more like a transportation tube, a tube which dragged anyone from above, towards the bottom of the cavern!
The science behind this didn't make any sense, physics wouldn't be able to make sense of it, because there wasn’t enough water leaking from above to create this smooth, and slow downward suction, but nevertheless, she didn’t care to make sense of the water that entrapped them. She assumed that it was held up by mana, magic, so there was no point questioning the salt water's physical laws beyond that point.
Arvena pulled her head out of the water barrier afterwards, and said. “We're so lucky! Most of this place is dry, and the water is pushing us towards the bottom, which isn't as bad as it sounds. We'll step on dry grounds soon, and this place looks pretty holy as well, so we should be able to remove the brackets off of our mana quality very soon!”
“That's probably the best news you've ever given us,” Tim joked, though he too was as excited as ever.
“They’re good news indeed,” Skendus added, “But I’m absolutely sure that there are people living here, I can hear them, I can hear their thoughts. There are a bunch of children, at least fifty of them, and since I can't hear their parents at all, we can assume that their parents ascended through the god's punishment realm already. They're immune to my powers, very much immune if I can't even sense their presence. I'm assuming that they can resist fireballs as well, so let's try and avoid fighting them, guys, please?”
Skendus felt obligated to protect his friends, as best as he could, but for all he knew they could be floating down to a death trap right now! He wasn’t the strongest guy in the world, so he certainly couldn't protect anyone if they were to face very powerful enemies. The four of them would die together right then and there, so he felt obligated to prevent that!
“Those other aqus goblins didn't kill us, so… maybe these guys are cool as well?” Tim added, he was optimistic, though indefinitely delusional to a certain degree.
Anyway, moments later they all reached the bottom of ‘the tube’ and the water pushed them out on the dry grounds. Their transition from water to dry grounds was smooth enough, the team was unscathed. Well, the light across the area blinded them a little bit, but that was hardly a problem after a minute or two.
Then, Arvena explained. “We don't need to shapeshift just yet, aqus goblins can breathe air for up to three hours. Our gills are sucking the moisture off of the air, so let's take our time, we'll explore this place a little bit.”