"Should we keep going north?" Kron asked.

"Wait! Look!" Cyrus pointed at the dried up lake, walking towards its center. "There's a hole here!"

"Let me see!" Adriana stood up. She walked towards the right side of Cyrus. "There is something shining in there! Is it some kind of gem?"

"A gem? Let me also look!" Kron then ran towards the two, excited to see what was inside. Suddenly, he felt something was amiss as he looked at the surrounding land. "This is weird. Why would there be a dried up lake in-- Something's wrong!"

The ground suddenly started to shake then a second later, the cracks in the dry ground got larger and the whole ground fractured. The trio was not able to react and they started falling. They had dropped inside a cylindrical pit. Fortunately, they were not hurt. There was some kind of magic below that cushioned their fall. Looking up, there was some sort of barrier that was erected from where they had came from. It was one of the traps set by the school. Even if they would be able to climb up, they still need to find a way to destroy the barrier. Otherwise, they needed to wait until it expires.

"Shit! I can't believe we had fallen in a trap!" Cyrus was brushing off the dust and soil particles from his clothes.

Adriana grabbed the crystal protruding from the ground. "This is the thing that was shining? An energy-drained quartz? This is worthless!" She threw it away.

"So it was just colorless crystal?" Kron shook his head, feeling disappointed. He then looked up and saw that they are about 15 to 16 meters below the ground. "Isn't this too deep? How are we going to get out? Can we destroy that?"

Cyrus stood up. "I could probably try shooting it." He brought out his guns and shot the barrier. The barrier vibrated a little but nothing else happened. "It doesn't look indestructible but it would probably take a long time."

"Stop it Cyrus. You will just end up wasting your energy," Adriana stood up. "And even if we destroy it, can anyone of you climb or jump that high?"

"We can't stay here for long. We don't know when that barrier would disappear!" Kron said, activating his magic circuit to check the time.

"That's right! We only have an hour left until our class ends!" Cyrus added. He started groping the rocky walls. "Maybe we could make a hole here! Adriana isn't your family earth attuned?"

"We kinda are but its only for sand or small soil particles," Adriana then scratched her head. "and I haven't trained that yet. I focused on our shadow trait. What about you? Can't you invoke some drills or cannons?"

"No! I can't! I can only summon guns! And even if I can summon cannons, do you want to bury us here!" Cyrus replied.

"What about you Kron? Any other skills you could use?" Adriana asked.

"Let me think.." Kron started to ponder on what to do. He could probably easily turn the walls to plastic or paper but that would reveal that he was not actually attuned to metal and he was not sure if they would keep quiet about his ability. Turning it to steel would just make the walls even harder. But then, he just made a bronze alloy carpet in the previous fight. What is stopping him from transforming it into some sort of soft metal? "I think I can do something!"

Kron extended his arm towards one area of the ground around them. He did it by habit since he actually does not need to touch it to activate his ability. Suddenly, a rectangular area was transformed into gold. It was like a golden door. Kron thought of gold as it is one of the more famous metals and what some people doesn't know is that pure gold is a soft metal.

"What is that? Is that gold?" Cyrus asked, observing the shining metal.

"It looks like one. I haven't seen that much gold!" Adriana's eyes then opened wide, looking at Kron. "We could make a lot of jewelries with this!"

Kron gave a quizzical look, finding Adriana's reaction funny. "Yeah. If you want to have a jewelry made of dirt when I'm away."

"Uh Yeah! I forgot its just temporary!" Adriana made a short giggle. She then brought out her dagger and tried to scrape away the gold. "It is really pretty soft. I guess this is better than rocks and gravel."

Kron kept transforming the ground in front of him to gold. Adriana clawed through the golden ground and Cyrus lighted up the path as he was attuned with the light element. They were having a good progress but it was still too slow. Almost half an hour passed and they have only ascended approximately 5 meters. Additionally, they felt that the tunnel that they are making could suddenly collapse above them.

"Won't we get buried here?" Cyrus asked. He then looked at Adriana. "Can't you at least find more stable ground?"

"I told you that that's not our specialty but I guess it doesn't hurt to try." Adriana then moved in front. She then closed her eyes and stopped moving. A little later, sand started to appear around her. The sand then entered the dents in the ground above, in front and on the side. "North East! The ground is more compact but don't blame me if I got it wrong and we got buried."

"Then let's hurry! I don't want to spend the night here!" Cyrus said.

"Easy for you to say! You are doing the least work!" Adriana wiped her forehead. "Its really hot here and I'm starting to get thirsty with this. This is really tiring you know." She stabbed her dagger at the golden wall leaving it there. Adriana has a point. Even if pure gold is soft, digging through it, with a size that a human is capable of entering by herself, was still very hard.

"Here!" Cyrus opened his backpack and threw some sort of water tumbler to Adriana. He then sat down. "Fine. Let's rest for a few minutes."

"Stable? Water? An underwater tunnel! Yeah! I could do this!" Kron smirked, a sudden idea came to his mind. "Step back! I'll try something!" He shouted.

Kron was planning to transform the ground into two parts. The outer cylinder would be made from a hard metal. And the remaining ground? They will be turned to liquid metal to hollow out the cylindrical tunnel. He just needed to choose what kind of metal from Earth he could use. The outer cylinder was easy. He could just use steel. As for the rest, he needs some kind of a metal that is safe. He doesn't know if they could be poisoned by mercury or be affected by the radioactivity from francium since they are not normal humans but it would still be better to be cautious. He then chose gallium. The result of his plan was a success. Every time he stepped forward, the ground in front would turn into a new segment of the tunnel.

Kron started to laugh as he was happy that he was listening at school. "It worked! The temperature here underground is hot enough to melt it!"

"What's this liquid?" Adriana asked, raising her arms above her hips to avoid touching the metallic liquid. The ground turned gallium started to flood the tunnel but it only reached above their knees and it flowed down from where they came.

"It's gallium! Some rare metallic liquid from where I came! Don't worry its not toxic!" Kron said, touching the liquid and showing it to the two. "See? Just don't drink it of course."

"You could transform solid earth to liquid metal? That's the first time I have seen that! I did not know before of any metal attuned who could do that!" Cyrus was in awe as he also tried to touch liquid.

"Well, how many awakened who are attuned to metal do you know? 2? 3? It just makes sense if someone has a different way to apply their ability." It was Adriana who replied. For her, its not something to be surprised even though she was also amazed of the utility given by Kron's ability. "Also, it is technically solid metal that just easily melts."

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Kron sighed of relief. He forgot that his supposed ability is to cover objects with metallic coating and not transforming it into a metal. Luckily, Cyrus seemed to accept Adriana's explanation but he was not sure if other people would accept that. Those who are fire attuned can't probably turn wood to fire. Well, unless they burn it. Ultimate though, their previous problems have now become trivial. Adriana scans the ground in front of them with her sands and shadows. Kron transforms the ground in the chosen direction. Cyrus then heats up the gallium with his light energy so that it melts faster. In just a few minutes, they already ascended another 5 meters. Suddenly, Adriana stopped.

"There is an open area east of here. A meter or 2 below. Its probably a cave. Should we go proceed there?" Adriana asked, looking back at the two.

"You want us to go down again? We are almost on the surface!" Cyrus frowned.

Kron rubbed his forehead. Thinking of possible benefits of going to the cave. "Well, if it was a cave then there could be an exit there and we don't need to dig our way out anymore." .

"It's up to you! You are the one doing the digging!" Cyrus shrugged.

Since Kron was now doing most of the work, he was expending lots of energy. Luckily, Adriana's hunch was correct. There was some sort of Cavern hidden underground. It was initially dark but they suddenly saw blinking lights in the dark.

"Look at those! Its a crystalline cave!" Cyrus focused the light orb he created towards the crystals. "Look, there is many more here! There's yellow, orange, purple, green and... a bright red one." He saw a beautiful red colored one behind the others. He pointed at it as he looked back at Kron and Adriana.

"A green and purple crystal?" Kron squinted. "What does that have to do with the seed?" He thought.

"Cyrus! Watch out!" Adriana suddenly shouted as she threw her dagger towards Cyrus.

What the team didn't know was that the lights are caused by two distinct existence. One were the large embedded crystals on the ground which refracts the light that Cyrus was producing. The other were human sized spiders. The spiders had no eyes but instead have some sort of crystal shaped light bulbs on their back trying to blend with the energy quartz. They also have 10 sharp legs that could dig and bury their body on the ground.

"What?" Cyrus was surprised by the sudden shout and the thrown dagger. Still, he was able to react and tried to turn his body.

The spider was successfully hit by the dagger causing it to flinch but not before lacerating the skin of Cyrus in the stomach causing it to bleed. Cyrus then jumped back towards the two while holding his injury. The spider didn't immediately kept chase but hid back behind the crystals. It was carefully observing them.

"Are you alright?" Kron asked, looking alternately at Cyrus and the spider.

"Its nothing. It was just a scratch!" Cyrus said, rapidly breathing as he stared fiercely at the hiding spider.

"I thought they said that their should be no dangerous creatures here?" Adriana said. "Just rest there for a while, it doesn't look like it would attack."

"We could still go back and create another path but.." Kron paused, biting his lower lip.

"But what?" Adriana's forehead creased.

"No. Its nothing. It would be safer if we go back." Kron stared at Cyrus' injury.

"If you are worried about me. You don't need to." Cyrus' eyes shone with determination.

Kron nodded. "Those crystals might help us in our task. Do you have any information on those crystals?"

"Those are different types of energy quartz. It emits different forms of energy when exposed to light." Adriana answered.

"I think I get now. We have plants exposed to radiation to grow faster." Cyrus turned to Kron. "The problem is what crystal would be perfect for it?"

"It's those that emits purple and green lights!" Kron answered.

"How did you know?" Adriana asked.

Kron shook his head. "It's just a hunch."

"Fine! We'll trust you on this but first," Cyrus slowly turned his head towards the spider. "We need to beat that creature!"

The three started planning on how to beat it. First, they needed to study its behavior. Adriana volunteered to poke around with it since Cyrus was injured and Kron is not the best fighter in their team. She started to walk near it but it was ignoring her. It only attacked once she was very close and away from the light of Cyrus. Adriana tried to fight it for a while but she was at a disadvantage. The range of her shadow tendrils are decreased because they were in a dim cave. She was forces to retreat back and the spider also retreated back in the dark.

"Its sensitive with the light!" Kron said. He was carefully watching the spider. "It was probably angry at Cyrus due to his candlelight spell. You are overpowering the light from his back!"

"Then I'll distract it then Adriana can kill it!" Cyrus said as he casted another candle light. He started to command the floating lights to move closer to the spider.

The spider who was in hiding got up and attacked the floating light but it was not vulnerable to physical attacks so the candle light didn't get destroyed. Cyrus summoned another two lights and there were now 4 ball of lights surrounding the spider. It kept attacking the lights to no avail. It was Adriana's turn. With a brighter surrounding due to the additional lights, her shadow tendrils' reach got longer again. She lashed and struck the creature repeatedly. Suddenly, the spider aimed the tip of its abdomen towards Adriana and a web of light shot towards her.

Adriana defended herself with her tendrils. Both the tendrils and the web of light disappeared when they clashed. But then, the spider shot three more webs in succession. She was able to dodge the first one; was able to block the second one but the third one glued her to the wall. The final web that hit her was much thicker than its previous attacks. She is unable to pull it away with her tendrils. Luckily, the spider didn't immediately attack her after that. It can be noticed that the bulb in its back lost its luster after the its attacks. It was then trying to absorb the energy in the atmosphere. This included the energy from the candlelight spell, causing it to get dimmer.

"Its trying to recover its energy!" Kron shouted. "We need to stop it!"

"Help Adriana! I'll distract it!" Cyrus shouted. He brought out his guns and casted another 2 candle lights. One for him and the other one for Kron. He then shot a barrage of bullets of light on the spider. "Take this!"

The spider crossed its two legs, trying to block the bullets from hitting its body. Meanwhile, Kron ran towards Adriana. He tried to pull the web away but it was burning his hands. This means that Adriana was also trying to resist the light web with her darkness energy. But if she stay stuck with it, she will soon get sliced by it.

"I need to do something!" Kron thought. He extended his hand towards the back of the wall where Adriana is stuck. "Don't breath!"

Adriana could feel that her head and body is suddenly sinking on the wall behind her. Kron transformed the wall into gallium again and when it started to liquify, she was losing the solid support behind her but the web of light was different. It was a magical ability that just goes straight until something blocks it or its energy dissipates. It didn't just disappear and fall on the ground but it instead is trying to push further. Kron then pulled his hand back and grabbed the web again. He was only able to delay it for a bit before he can't take the pain anymore but it was enough for Adriana to escape sideways. The liquid metal has already flowed out. Just like an aquarium that got its glass broken. Five meters of the wall around her was now hollow that she could just jump left or right.

"Thank you!" Adriana said, as she laid on the ground, catching her breath.

Kron nodded then looked at Cyrus. "Cyrus still needs help! We need to kill that spider!"

"You are right. This is not time to rest!" Adriana stood up and charged towards the spider.

Once Adriana was away, Kron deactivated his ability. The flowing metallic liquid around transformed back into rocks and soil. He started picking up those soil and rocks.

"Cyrus! How big or how many lights can you make?" Kron shouted, looking at the ongoing battle between the three.

"I can make 1 big light or 5 little lights at most!" Cyrus shouted back, jumping left and right as he dodged the spider's legs. Adriana was also helping by restraining the other legs.

"Okay! Prepare that 1 big light! We will blind it!" Kron shouted again. He then turned to Adriana. "Adriana! Focus all your attacks on the bulb when its blinded and don't get blinded yourself!"

"But won't it.. Alright! Just tell me when!" Cyrus was in doubt. He only currently had 2 lights left. The rest of his lights were already absorbed by the spider. If he made a big light then it would use up a lot of his energy. Still, he chose to believe Kron as he already chose him as a teammate.

Adriana nodded. She already got saved by Kron. There was no need to doubt him. "Leave it to me!"

"At the count of 3!" Kron shouted.

3... Kron started running towards the spider with rocks and soil in his hand.

2... The two others noticed what he was doing. They thought that what he was doing was dangerous. He has no defense against the spider's legs or web of light.

1... He threw everything in his hands towards the spider. The spider has also noticed him and it raised its legs to strike at him.

"Now!" Kron shouted, kneeling down and touching the ground. He transformed the ground to silver. It was the same for the things he threw. They transformed to silver. He needed to get close because he modified his aura to be shaped like a hemisphere. It needed to encapsulate the spider and its immediate surroundings.

With Kron giving the signal, Cyrus casted the big candlelight spell. The light it generated reflected towards the silver particles in the air and the silver floor. Adriana in retrospect, closed her eyes to prevent getting blinded but she was attuned with the darkness element. Even with her eyes closed, she could still feel where the spider was. With the spider blinded by the bright light, it was not able to defend the next attack coming towards him. Adriana focused all her shadow tendrils towards the large bulb on its back. One tendril didn't cause much damage but another towards the same spot caused a crack. The next enlarged the crack. The fourth finally pierced it and the final tendril shattered it into pieces. The spider then lay dead in front of them.